Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

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<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of June, we invited you to try one of our recommended class activities to teach about the change in season that occurred&nbsp;on June&nbsp;21. We then asked you to share some pictures with us to show off your students&rsquo;&nbsp;work.&nbsp;</p>

<p>These were the activities we challenged you to do with your students this&nbsp;month:</p>

<p><strong><strong>Activity 1: Vocabulary Builder for Young &amp; Beginner&nbsp;Learners</strong></strong></p>

<p><strong><strong>Activity&nbsp;2: Adverbs of Frequency for Intermediate&nbsp;Learners</strong></strong></p>

<p>To get a bit more background on these activities, make sure to check out the <a data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1" href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-changing-seasons-challenge" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">original&nbsp;blog&nbsp;post</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who contributed&nbsp;and submitted pictures to our Video Challenge. We hope these teacher and student submissions inspire you to try&nbsp;out these activities with your own&nbsp;class!</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>This student completed Activity 1 and did a great job identifying the vocabulary terms in the picture. Nicely&nbsp;done!</p>

<p><img alt="Summer picture with English beach-related words identifying beach-related objects." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2533/content_Summer-Lesson_Ellii.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Teacher feature 2</h3>

<p>Molly Stevens had a blast doing Activity 2 with her&nbsp;students in class! Her language learners came up with some great examples to use in their interactive classroom&nbsp;activity.</p>

<p>Take a look at what she had to say about this fun game that focused on practicing adverbs of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="300px" src="https://www.videoask.com/a3xiizd6q3uv0f6s83nwivyo7m8yhfwqfqn67fup" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p><img alt="Sticky notes with actions words on them like eat cookies, make new friends, and watch TikTok." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2534/content_Adverbs-of-frequency_Activity.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Teacher &amp; student feature 3</h3>

<p>Our final feature in this month&rsquo;s Student Showcase is from a proud Arizona English teacher and her students! This teacher&nbsp;submitted a response to us explaining how she took our proposed Activity 2 one step&nbsp;further. Check it&nbsp;out!</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/abj2shvkkxg1bfw687fm8p8z50rqhowkdncsmwv7" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>Here are two&nbsp;of the amazing posters her students&nbsp;made.</p>

<p><img alt="A summer-themed poster with palm trees, sunglasses, beach balls, and starfish. Includes examples of adverbs of frequency." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2535/content_Adverbs-of-frequency_Poster.jpg" /></p>

<p><img alt="A winter-themed poster with snowflakes and a deer. Includes examples of adverbs of frequecy." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2536/content_Winter_Poster.jpg" /></p>

<p>We hope you enjoyed seeing&nbsp;some of this month&#39;s&nbsp;incredible work created by English learners from around the world.&nbsp;Feeling inspired? Try one of these activities with&nbsp;your class to teach about the different&nbsp;seasons!</p>

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<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Did you do something creative in class to recognize the change in season this month? Tell us about it in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


Student Showcase: Changing Seasons Projects

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<p>The end of a term,&nbsp;course, or school year is a time for celebration and reflection. It&rsquo;s an opportunity for students to look back at the distance they&rsquo;ve traveled, review key language points, and have a bit of&nbsp;fun.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here are three&nbsp;of my favorite end-of-term activities your English learners are sure to&nbsp;love:</p>

<h2>1. Road map reflection</h2>

<p>This is a really common technique in the graphic facilitation world.</p>

<p>Simply draw a road map into the horizon (pathways and rivers also work well) on a whiteboard or&nbsp;flipchart. Give your learners sticky notes and ask them to write some ideas for how they felt at the beginning of the&nbsp;term.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You could give them prompts like:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>How confident were you with speaking/listening/reading/writing?</li>
	<li>How did you feel about your vocabulary/grammar/pronunciation?</li>
</ul>

<p>Students then stick the notes in the distance, on the horizon of the road&nbsp;map.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Once that&#39;s complete, give them another set of sticky notes and repeat the task for how they feel now. Students can then add their ideas to the front of the&nbsp;map.</p>

<p>You can then facilitate a class discussion on distance traveled, praise, and next&nbsp;steps.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This also works well as an individual task. You could ask students to complete the horizon at the beginning of term&nbsp;and then ask them to look back once the course is&nbsp;completed.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Road map drawing where the road is fading into the horizon line." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2494/content_Roadmap-Emily-Bryson-ELT-.jpg" /></p>

<h2>2. Random discussion topics</h2>

<p>At the end of a term, I often find that students want to use their language skills more naturally. They also want to&nbsp;review vocabulary they&#39;ve learned.&nbsp;</p>

<p>One way to do this is to have them ask and answer questions based on random&nbsp;topics.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets" target="_blank">Flashcard Set</a>&nbsp;feature is great for this. If you have time before class, you can create a set of flashcards which revises specific words they&rsquo;ve learned throughout the&nbsp;year.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Click through the set and have students ask and answer questions for each word. For example, if the flashcard shows &quot;beach ball&quot;&nbsp;you could ask them to talk about beach balls for one&nbsp;minute.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii Beach Ball flashcard" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2468/content_beach-ball-flashcard-Ellii.jpg" /></p>

<p>At lower levels, have one student make a question and another answer it. Encourage them to ask open questions (e.g., who, when, why, what, where) to get more interesting&nbsp;answers!</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<table class="horizontal">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;1:</th>
			<td>When do you play with <strong>beach balls</strong>?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;2:</th>
			<td>I play with <strong>beach balls</strong> when I&#39;m on holiday.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>If you&rsquo;re too busy to create a flashcard set, you could simply select a ready-made flashcard topic or browse the <strong>All&nbsp;</strong>category. Students can then select a word at random through a class vote or a volunteer closing their eyes and&nbsp;pointing.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="All Ellii flashcards" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2469/content_All-Flashcards-Ellii.jpg" /></p>

<h2>3. Pictionarades</h2>

<p>The last class of the term has to be fun! And what better way to add a bit of laughter than by drawing and acting out phrases or words at the same&nbsp;time?&nbsp;</p>

<p>I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re all aware of Pictionary and charades, but I&rsquo;d just like to summarize them quickly as a&nbsp;reminder.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Pictionary</strong> is a game of quick drawing. Give students a vocabulary item and ask them to draw it. You can do this in teams, with one student drawing while their teammates guess, or as a whole class, with one learner drawing and the rest of the class shouting out their&nbsp;ideas.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Charades</strong> is a similar idea. Participants are given a vocabulary point and they have to act it out while others guess. Much like Pictionary, it can be played in pairs, small groups, or as a whole&nbsp;class.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Why not combine the two and give students the option of whether to draw or&nbsp;act?&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Pictionary + Charades = Pictionarades</strong></p>

<p>This will...</p>

<ul>
	<li>allow students who prefer a bit of movement to get active</li>
	<li>allow students who&nbsp;lack confidence in drawing the option to use&nbsp;drama</li>
	<li>allow students who are shy with performing to&nbsp;draw</li>
	<li>provide an option to naturally choose the best way to communicate (e.g., some words or phrases may be easier to draw than to act or vice&nbsp;versa)</li>
	<li>allow students to draw and act at the same time, if&nbsp;necessary</li>
</ul>

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<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Have you tried any of these activities with your English learners? How did it go? If you have any of your own favorite end-of-term activities, share them with us&nbsp;in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
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3 Awesome End-of-Term Activities for English Learners

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<p>Did you know?&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</a> (affectionately referred to as GPWs by our publishing team) are used by more teachers than any other lesson section on our&nbsp;site.<br />
<br />
GPWs provide clear, thorough explanations of <strong>grammar&nbsp;targets</strong>. They also include a variety of writing tasks and group activities that give students confidence to put the structures into practice when they&#39;re producing the language on their&nbsp;own.</p>

<p>Our subscribers flock to this section no matter if they&#39;re teaching beginners or advanced learners, introducing or reviewing a grammar&nbsp;target.<br />
<br />
Here are a few warm-up and follow-up activities for&nbsp;exploiting the grammar lessons from&nbsp;our <strong>Grammar Practice Worksheets</strong> section to ensure that your students come away with a full understanding of the target at&nbsp;hand.</p>

<h1>Warm-up activities</h1>

<p>These activities take place before you hand out the GPW.</p>

<p>The first two&nbsp;grammar activities&nbsp;appeal to students who have an <strong>inductive </strong>learning style. In other words, these students respond best when grammar is presented in context or naturalistically. This type of presentation is called<strong> implicit</strong> instruction, and the focus is on&nbsp;meaning.</p>

<p>The third grammar activity is geared toward students who learn best through<strong> explicit&nbsp;</strong>instruction with a focus on&nbsp;form.</p>

<p>Let&#39;s get started!</p>

<h2>1. Present the target structure in context</h2>

<p>Students will often discover patterns and use their analytical skills to understand grammar rules when they&#39;re introduced to a target structure in&nbsp;context.</p>

<p>It&#39;s&nbsp;not necessary to point out the structure to students as they read or listen. The goal is for students to make connections between the patterns and the meaning of the text, often on a subconscious&nbsp;level.</p>

<p>Try it out:</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>For lower-level students</strong>, Ellii has two sections with readings that focus on a particular grammar structure and present it in context: <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;Stories (⁠⁠Beginner&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Intermediate⁠⁠)</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/129/lessons" target="_blank">True&nbsp;Grammar&nbsp;Stories (⁠⁠Beginner&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Low&nbsp;Intermediate⁠⁠)</a>. Since these lessons also include an audio recording of the readings, you may choose to present the material&nbsp;aurally.</li>
	<li><strong>For more advanced students</strong>, the authentic readings found in <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons" target="_blank">That&#39;s&nbsp;News&nbsp;to&nbsp;Me</a> may be more appropriate. For example, the following paragraph from the lesson&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4083" target="_blank">The&nbsp;Mysterious&nbsp;Cheese&nbsp;Theft</a> provides exposure to the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1601" target="_blank">passive&nbsp;voice</a>:</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;But milk doesn&#39;t turn into cheese on its own. It has to be prepared, acidified,&nbsp;curdled, cut, pressed, and drained in a lengthy process that takes almost a whole day, van Dorp said. Next, it gets shaped into its signature round figure and put into a salt bath for one to two days. A week is then spent&nbsp;coating&nbsp;and drying it. Finally, the wheel is placed on a shelf to mature for at least three months, after which it&#39;s ready to go into the belly of a happy&nbsp;customer.&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;&quot;Thieves strike in the Netherlands with heist of $22,000&mdash;in cheese.&quot; April 14, 2022. &copy; The Washington Post.</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>2.&nbsp;Ask a question that uses the target structure</h2>

<p>When you ask a question that uses the target structure, students become aware of the language they need to answer&nbsp;it.</p>

<p>If you&#39;re preparing your students for a grammar lesson on the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1595" target="_blank">past&nbsp;progressive</a>, you can ask, &ldquo;What were you doing at 10⁠⁠:⁠⁠00 last&nbsp;night?&rdquo;</p>

<p>Students may try to use the simple past tense in their answer but will recognize that their response does not match the&nbsp;question.</p>

<h2>3.&nbsp;See what students already know</h2>

<p>Most of our GPWs include a quiz at the end of the&nbsp;lesson.</p>

<p>Have students take the quiz before you begin the lesson. Their results can be used as a pacing&nbsp;guide.</p>

<p>If students do well on the quiz, you can approach the grammar lesson as a review. If they do poorly, you will need to spend extra time on the <strong>Notes </strong>section&nbsp;and going over the answers of each&nbsp;task.</p>

<p><strong><img alt="Image of highlighted notes section in Past Progressive Lesson " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2445/content_Ellii-teacher-note-grammar-quiz.jpg" /></strong></p>

<h1>Follow-up activities</h1>

<p>Recycle the warm-up activities&nbsp;by using these follow-up activities to check and reinforce students&#39; understanding of the target&nbsp;structure.</p>

<h2>1.&nbsp;Have students review the&nbsp;text you used to present the structure in&nbsp;context</h2>

<p>This time, have students circle all the instances where the structure is used. As an extra challenge, have them explain why it was&nbsp;used.</p>

<p>If you had students just listen to the text the first time, play the recording again and have students raise their hand each time they hear the grammar&nbsp;target.</p>

<h2>2. Ask the same question</h2>

<p>See if students can apply the target structure to their&nbsp;answer.</p>

<p>At this point, it&#39;s okay to correct students or to ask them to pause and answer the question again if they make mistakes using the grammar target.</p>

<h2>3. Have students retake the&nbsp;quiz</h2>

<p>Compare their scores to the quiz before they did the lesson and after. Seeing their scores improve will give students a real confidence&nbsp;boost!</p>

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<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What activities do you have your students do before and after they complete a Grammar Practice Worksheet?&nbsp;Please share your ideas in the comments&nbsp;below.</p>
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Maximize the Benefits of Grammar Practice Worksheets with Warm-Up & Follow-Up Activities

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<p>English language teaching is about equipping learners with skills and confidence to succeed. As teachers, we have the opportunity to support our learners to&nbsp;feel invincible when they leave the&nbsp;classroom.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;d like to share a quick and simple well-being activity I use with my learners called &quot;Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel.&quot;</p>

<p>It focuses on quieting their inner troll and giving their inner angel a louder voice.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The inner troll is the part of the brain that wants to protect you from embarrassment or failure. It exacerbates self-limiting beliefs by using negative language such&nbsp;as:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>You <b>can&rsquo;t</b> do that.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You&rsquo;<strong>re</strong> <b>not</b> good enough.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You&rsquo;<b>ll never</b> be able to do that.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>The inner angel is your inner troll&rsquo;s friendly and encouraging alter ego. It wants you to succeed in life and to try, even if something is difficult. It isn&rsquo;t worried about failure or embarrassment. It uses positive affirmations which give confidence such&nbsp;as:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>You <b>can</b> do it.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You <b>are</b> good enough.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You<b>&rsquo;ll </b>get better in time.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>Many people battle with their inner troll. Learning how to <strong>switch negative thoughts to positive affirmations</strong> can have a life-changing effect on&nbsp;success.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel: How it works</h2>

<p><img alt="Drawing of frowning inner troll with an empty thought bubble and smiling inner angel with an empty through bubble." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2444/content_content_Screen_Shot_2022-05-24_at_1.32.44_PM.jpg" /></p>

<p>Use the<strong> Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel&nbsp;</strong>activity to help your students&nbsp;develop a growth mindset through&nbsp;writing <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/affirmations-for-english-learners" target="_blank">positive affirmations</a> and learning how to silence their inner&nbsp;troll.</p>

<p>Here&#39;s how it works:</p>

<ol>
	<li>Draw an inner troll and an inner angel on the whiteboard. Add thought bubbles over each&nbsp;head.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Give students a piece of paper. Ask them to draw their<strong> inner&nbsp;troll </strong>and a speech bubble. Then ask them to write some of the things their inner troll tells them. Let your students know&nbsp;this is confidential and not to look at other students&rsquo; papers. Give them some examples (perhaps your own) if&nbsp;necessary.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Give students another piece of paper. Ask them to draw their <strong>inner&nbsp;angel.</strong> Then ask them to write some of the things their inner angel tells them. Again, ensure students know this is confidential. Give them examples if necessary.&nbsp;Some students may find this section difficult. Ask them to think about the nice things their friends and family say to them. It can help to think of their inner angel as a good friend.&nbsp;If the class knows each other well and has a good rapport, you could ask students to give each other compliments, and help each other with this part of the&nbsp;task.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>This is fun the part! Once students have completed their inner angel, ask them to pick up their inner troll once more. As dramatically as possible, ask students to tear the piece of paper with their inner troll into tiny little pieces, or scrunch it up&nbsp;and throw it in the&nbsp;bin.</li>
	<li>Ask them to look once more at their inner angel. Discuss ways they can try to focus on the positive affirmations. Suggest that students&nbsp;keep it close to them or display it somewhere they can see it, so they can easily remind themselves when their inner troll gets&nbsp;loud.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>

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<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Have you tried this well-being activity with your class? How did it go? If you have any other activity ideas that promote confidence and well-being in the classroom, we&#39;d love to hear them! Share your thoughts and ideas in the&nbsp;comments.</p>
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A Quick Activity to Boost Confidence & Well-Being: Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel

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<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>

<p>Since June 21 is officially the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, we&rsquo;re challenging English language teachers around the world to do one of these seasonal activities&nbsp;with their students in&nbsp;class.</p>
</div>

<h2>June&#39;s Student Showcase challenge: Changing seasons</h2>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/fspla9jmh" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>The beginning of a new season is always exciting, isn&rsquo;t it? There are so many fun seasonal activities that we can only do at a certain time of year. What are you looking forward to this&nbsp;June?</p>

<p>To answer this question, we&rsquo;ve come up with some activities that you can do in class with your students to celebrate the changing&nbsp;season.</p>

<p>Start by completing&nbsp;one of the activity challenges&nbsp;below. Then&nbsp;upload your students&rsquo; work through the video above or send it to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=June Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> with a brief description for a chance to be featured in our follow-up Student Showcase blog&nbsp;post!</p>

<p>We want to see how different teachers around the world are adapting the same activity to other class and community&nbsp;realities.</p>

<h2>Activity 1: Vocabulary builder for young &amp; beginner learners</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re teaching young learners, we have great vocabulary-building resource activities you can use in class for both <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2958" target="_blank">summer</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2957" target="_blank">winter</a>!</p>

<p>For&nbsp;this activity, get your students to color in the picture and label it with the related vocabulary&nbsp;words.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<p><strong>Summer Vocabulary:</strong> sand, crab, waves, sandcastle, sunglasses, sun, starfish, seagull, towel, beach ball<br />
<br />
<strong>Winter Vocabulary:</strong> scarf, snowflake, mitten, snowball, beanie, snowman, snowshoes, ice skates, sled, snowboard</p>
</div>

<h3>Summer Scene Coloring Picture</h3>

<p><img alt="Summer scene coloring activity page: Three people building sandcastles on a sandy beach by the ocean." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2442/content_Summer.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Winter Scene Coloring Picture&nbsp;</h3>

<h3><img alt="Winter scene coloring activity page: Girl throwing snowballs to boy on skates, child sledding, boy building snowman holding a snowboard, old man snowshoeing." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2443/content_Winter.jpg" /></h3>

<h2>Activity&nbsp;2: Adverbs of frequency for intermediate learners</h2>

<p>Take advantage of the theme of changing seasons to teach your intermediate students about <strong>adverbs of&nbsp;frequency</strong>.</p>

<p>Use our <a href="http://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2234" target="_&quot;blank&quot;">Adverbs of Frequency</a>&nbsp;lesson and then try this activity to learn more about how your students spend their time during the winter and&nbsp;summer&nbsp;seasons!</p>

<p>This activity can be done in class or online. Get started by&nbsp;following these three simple&nbsp;steps:</p>

<h3>Step 1</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Distribute five&nbsp;slips of paper to each student and have them write an action on each slip. Provide them with examples such as &ldquo;sleep under the stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;play ice hockey,&rdquo; &ldquo;plant flowers in the garden,&rdquo;&nbsp;etc.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Have your students write five&nbsp;actions on a piece of paper or in a private document on their computer or device. Provide them with&nbsp;examples such as &ldquo;sleep under the stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;play ice hockey,&rdquo; &ldquo;plant flowers in the garden,&rdquo;&nbsp;etc.</p>

<h3>Step 2</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Collect the slips of paper and mix them up. Divide your students into groups of four or five. Then divide up the slips and hand them out to the&nbsp;groups.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Divide your students into groups of four or five and send them into breakout rooms. If this isn&#39;t possible, you can always do this activity together as an entire&nbsp;class.</p>

<h3>Step 3</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Have your students take turns picking up a card and forming a question using &ldquo;how often&rdquo; and &ldquo;in the winter/summer.&rdquo; Each group member should then answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Have your students take turns using the actions they wrote down to&nbsp;form a question using &ldquo;how often&rdquo; and &ldquo;in the winter/summer.&rdquo; Each group member should then answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<h3>Example</h3>

<table class="horizontal">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;1:</th>
			<td>How often do you go swimming in the summer?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;2:</th>
			<td>I <strong>often</strong> go swimming in the summer at my cottage.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;3:</th>
			<td>I <strong>never</strong> go swimming in the summer because I don&rsquo;t know how to swim!</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;4:</th>
			<td>I <strong>usually</strong> go swimming in my backyard pool when the weather is nice.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>Check out this&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/adverbs-of-frequency" target="_blank">blog post</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;learn&nbsp;more about&nbsp;adverbs of frequency and how to teach them to your&nbsp;students.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5><strong>Submit your students&rsquo; work and&nbsp;get featured</strong></h5>

<p>Complete one of the activity challenges listed above, and then send over your students&rsquo; amazing projects to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=June Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> by&nbsp;<strong>June 28, 2022</strong>. Don&rsquo;t forget to give us a brief description of your students&rsquo;&nbsp;work!</p>

<p>We&rsquo;ll select a few submissions at random and feature them at the end of the month in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post. We can&rsquo;t wait to see what you come up&nbsp;with!</p>
</div>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/everyday-topics/weather" target="_blank">Weather &amp; Seasons</a></li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/weather-nature-environment/weather-seasons" target="_blank">Weather &amp; Seasons</a></li>
</ul>


Student Showcase: Changing Seasons Challenge

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of May, we recognized Mental Health Awareness month by challenging teachers like you to complete one of our positive mental health class activities with your students. We then asked you to share some pictures with us to show off your&nbsp;students&rsquo; work! Take a look at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-positive-mental-health-challenge" target="_blank">original post</a>&nbsp;that inspired these&nbsp;submissions.</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who&nbsp;answered&nbsp;our Video Challenge. We hope&nbsp;these teacher and student submissions inspire you to try new and creative activities with your&nbsp;class.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>This student completed Challenge 1 with their class and wrote out a&nbsp;list of&nbsp;positive affirmations using some of our recommended sentence structures. The final results are guaranteed to make you&nbsp;smile.</p>

<p>Here are just a few of the affirmations they came up&nbsp;with:</p>

<ul>
	<li>I am smart. I am brave. I am strong.</li>
	<li>I try my best. I work hard. I study a lot.</li>
	<li>I am proud of myself for learning English.</li>
</ul>

<p>Way to go, we love your positivity!</p>

<p><img alt="List of 8 positive affirmations written on paper." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2433/content_positive-affirmations.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Student feature 2</h3>

<p>The second student featured in this month&rsquo;s Student Showcase completed Challenge 2 with their class. They created a beautiful poster that explains their emotions&nbsp;and what they do when they feel sad, angry, anxious, or scared.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong>&nbsp;When I feel anxious...</p>

<p><strong>Student&#39;s reply:&nbsp;</strong>&quot;I go somewhere that I feel safe and take deep breaths. I hug my dog and let my body&nbsp;relax.&quot;</p>

<p><img alt="My emotions poster where students write down how they feel when they're sad, angry, anxious, or scared." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2434/content_my-emotions-poster.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Student Feature 3</h3>

<p>Our final student feature also created a poster but decided to use stickers as their inspiration instead. Some of the stickers include affirmations like &quot;Take care of yourself,&quot; &quot;Share kindness today!&quot; and &quot;Good things are&nbsp;coming.&quot;</p>

<p>After drawing a picture, they wrote out their affirmations under&nbsp;the stickers to practice their spelling and learn a few&nbsp;new phrases.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This is an excellent&nbsp;way to give your students the chance to get creative in class, explore their emotions, and spread some positive&nbsp;vibes!</p>

<p><img alt="Collage of positive affirmation stickers." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2435/content_affirmation-stickers.jpg" /></p>

<p><img alt="Written list of the same positive affirmations found on the stickers." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2436/content_affirmations.jpg" /></p>

<p>We hope you find these projects as inspiring as we do. Try these <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-positive-mental-health-challenge" target="_blank">creative mental health challenges</a>&nbsp;yourself next time you teach about emotions or positive mental&nbsp;health!</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What kind of activities, projects, or games did your class do for Mental Health Awareness month? Tell us about them&nbsp;in the&nbsp;comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


Student Showcase: Positive Mental Health Projects

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly <strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the world! Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we&rsquo;re challenging English language teachers around the world to try one of these positive self-awareness activities with their students in class.</p>
</div>

<h2>May&#39;s Student Showcase challenge: Positive mental health&nbsp;</h2>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/f0f28zx88" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>We want to support Mental Health Awareness month by promoting <strong>social-emotional learning (SEL)</strong> in the classroom. SEL is an important component of education, especially for newcomers who have the added stress of learning a language in a new school&nbsp;and community.</p>

<p>This month, we came up with&nbsp;two&nbsp;fun SEL activity challenges that you can do in your in-person or online class.</p>

<p>Start by completing&nbsp;one of the challenges below. Then&nbsp;upload your students&rsquo; work through the video above&nbsp;or send it to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=May Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a>&nbsp;with a brief description for a chance to be featured in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post! We want to see how different teachers around the world are adapting the same activity to other class and community realities.</p>

<h2>Challenge&nbsp;1: Positive affirmations for language learners</h2>

<p>Get your students to create a list of 20 affirmations.&nbsp;These should be personal, so make sure to give your students lots of time to reflect and come up with meaningful affirmations to help instill positive thinking and self-awareness.</p>

<p>You can use this activity to also practice relevant grammar and sentence structures that you&rsquo;ve been working on in class.</p>

<p>Easily adapt this activity to the level of your students by simplifying the structures or increasing the difficulty. You can do this last one by asking&nbsp;for more complex sentence structures or longer written responses.</p>

<p>Below are&nbsp;examples of grammatical structures your language learners can refer to when constructing their&nbsp;affirmations.</p>

<ul>
	<li>I am&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>positive adjective</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am <em>strong</em>.</strong></li>
	<li>I am a(n)&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>noun&nbsp;</em><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am a <em>survivor.</em></strong></li>
	<li>I&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>simple present verb</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I <em>work </em>hard.</strong></li>
	<li>I can/will&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>base verb</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I can <em>get </em>a job. I will <em>succeed</em>.</strong></li>
	<li>I am thankful&nbsp;for&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>noun</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am thankful for <em>my family</em>.</strong></li>
	<li>I am proud of myself for&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>ing verb</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am proud of myself for <em>participating </em>in class.</strong></li>
</ul>

<p>Check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/affirmations-for-english-learners" target="_blank">&quot;20 Affirmations for English Learners&quot;</a> blog post&nbsp;for more inspiration and instruction on this activity!</p>

<h2>Challenge 2: Create a poster</h2>

<p>Get your students to create an informative poster on positive Mental Health Awareness! We&rsquo;re looking for a poster that is solutions-focused.</p>

<p>This activity incorporates SEL and will help&nbsp;students of any age get in tune with their mental state. It will also guide them in recognizing their emotions and how to deal with them.</p>

<p>Ask your students to create a poster on what makes them feel sad, angry, stressed, or anxious. Include pictures and ask your students to think about what makes them feel better in those situations. How can they plan or prepare for these difficult situations by recognizing what helps them cope?</p>

<p><strong>Low-Level Example</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>When I feel sad, I can talk with my friends.</li>
	<li>When I feel nervous, I can count to 10.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Intermediate-Level Example</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>I feel angry and frustrated when I lose things. When I find them again, I feel happy. Therefore, I should be more organized with my things and keep my personal items in specific places so I&rsquo;m less likely to lose them.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>High-Level Example</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>Traveling to new places alone makes me feel scared and anxious, but having a map or access to Wi-Fi&nbsp;or an internet connection helps keep me feeling calm and in control of the situation. Knowing that, I can make sure to plan out my trip beforehand, print out maps or save them to my phone, and pay for an international chip or roaming charges so that I know I can always access Wi-Fi&nbsp;to make me feel safe and secure.</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h3>Submit your students&rsquo; work and&nbsp;get featured!</h3>

<p>Complete one of the activity challenges listed above, and then send over your students&rsquo; amazing projects to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=May Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> by <strong>May 24, 2022</strong>. Don&rsquo;t forget to give us a brief description of your students&rsquo; work!</p>

<p>We&rsquo;ll select a few submissions at random and feature them at the end of the month in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post. We can&rsquo;t wait to see what you come up with!</p>
</div>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects/social-emotional-learning/relationship-skills" target="_blank">Social-Emotional Learning</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/practicing-mindfulness-in-the-classroom" target="_blank">Practicing Mindfulness in the Classroom</a></li>
</ul>


Student Showcase: Positive Mental Health Challenge

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our <strong>Student Showcase</strong> <strong>series,</strong> which highlights teacher creativity&nbsp;and the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of April, we challenged teachers like you to share how you teach about Earth Day. We also asked you to show off some of the activities, projects, games, and pictures your students have created on this topic! Take a peek at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-earth-day" target="_blank">original post</a>&nbsp;that inspired these submissions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Many teachers around the world stepped up&nbsp;and answered our Video Challenge.&nbsp;Take a look at some of the ways teachers introduced this relevant theme into their class, and get inspired by some of the unique posters, artwork, and videos their students&nbsp;made.</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>In <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teacher-feature-poonam" target="_blank">Poonam Sharma&rsquo;s</a> class, the students had an energetic discussion on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;My students had a great discussion on how to save our planet for ourselves and the generations to come. One student actually pleaded with tears in her eyes saying, &#39;Please save our Mother (earth).&#39;&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Poonam Sharma</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Here&#39;s&nbsp;some of the artwork her students created for an Earth Day&nbsp;activity.</p>

<p><img alt="Hand holding an orange watering can with a recycling symbol on it and pouring water over a smiling planet earth" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2337/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_01.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Drawing by Jenny Guan</p>

<p><img alt="Four trees growing out of a smiling planet Earth. Each tree includes a message: save trees, save water, pollution out, plants in." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2338/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_02.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Drawing by Manchula Kumanan</p>

<h3>Student feature 2</h3>

<p>Julie De Costa challenged her students to create an Enviro News poster and to come up with some event ideas they could host for Earth Day.&nbsp;This work was designed by a LINC 5 class (preparing for CLB level 5) at Coll&egrave;ge Educacentre in Vancouver, Canada.</p>

<p>Take a look at Julie&#39;s video response explaining her class activity!</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/ayvuipfmg2y7iv1ggtrucoy4s1rdobqtjwgiuj46"></iframe></div>

<p>See below an Enviro News poster and three event ideas created by Julie&#39;s&nbsp;students.&nbsp;We love the game idea of wearing a blindfold and having to feel the items to guess if it&#39;s recyclable. How&nbsp;creative!</p>

<p><strong><img alt="Enviro News poster inviting people to an event about the importance of protecting the environment for future generations " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2350/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_03.jpg" /></strong></p>

<p><img alt="Zero Food Waste culinary event poster" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2351/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_04.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Teacher feature 3</h3>

<p>In her Video Challenge, Judy Lee explained how she contributes to helping the environment by changing her personal teaching&nbsp;habits.</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/as92iouuuclz7vwlpeyvowlk9ahk0lj94tjfauxx" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<h3>Student feature 4</h3>

<p>Finally, we received a wonderful video submission from an enthusiastic student named Iqra, who took the time to clean up the environment around her house. Iqra is from Afghanistan and currently living in Oshawa, Ontario. Way to go, Iqra! Let&rsquo;s continue making an effort to keep our neighborhoods&nbsp;litter-free.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/a2kkay0cnykc4oopac6imwssup886t6gvsjyo5f8"></iframe></div>

<p>We&#39;re very pleased to have received so many great Earth Day submissions of student work. Thank you to everyone who participated in Ellii&rsquo;s April Student Showcase, and congratulations to our featured teachers and&nbsp;students!</p>

<p>Another Student Showcase challenge will be coming your way at the beginning of May. Make sure to revisit our blog for next month&#39;s challenge and to follow us on social media so you don&#39;t miss out.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Did you do something interesting for Earth Day with your class? Tell us about it in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


Student Showcase: Earth Day Projects

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<p>Teachers often prepare&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/pre-reading-activities-to-boost-comprehension" target="_blank">pre-reading</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/9-post-reading-activities-to-help-students-reflect-on-a-text" target="_blank">post-reading</a> activities to help students develop their reading skills, but they don&rsquo;t always plan activities for students to do while they are actively&nbsp;reading a text.</p>

<p>Having students perform tasks as they read serves several purposes. It gives students the opportunity to confirm any predictions made during the pre-reading stage. It also helps students to read more carefully and focus on the content as they gather and organize information.</p>

<p>Here are 10 activities that will&nbsp;get your&nbsp;students to actively engage with a text and increase their understanding while reading.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>1. Skim for the main idea</h2>

<p>Before students get into the nitty-gritty of the text, have them skim the text for a general overview. Encourage them to look at headings, visuals, and bold words. These things will help students find the main topic&nbsp;or purpose of a reading quickly.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Teach your students the basics of how to skim a text with Ellii&#39;s lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/127/lessons/3179" target="_blank">Skimming &amp; Scanning</a>.</p>

<h2>2. Scan for specific information</h2>

<p>Prepare a few questions that ask for specific information such as names, dates, times, and numbers. This will give students an idea of the scope of a reading.</p>

<h2>3. Summarize or paraphrase</h2>

<p>Put students in pairs then&nbsp;have them read one paragraph at a time silently. When they finish, ask them to take turns summarizing or paraphrasing the paragraph they&#39;ve just read.</p>

<h2>4. Use context clues</h2>

<p>As students read, have them circle any unfamiliar words or expressions. Before they reach for their dictionaries or phones, have them take a closer look at the words preceding and following the unknown terms. Using context clues, see if they can figure out their&nbsp;meaning.</p>

<h2>5. Make predictions</h2>

<p>After students have read a paragraph or section, have them pause and say what they think is going to happen next.</p>

<h2>6. Annotate the text</h2>

<p>As students read, encourage them to note their reactions to the text in the margins.</p>

<p>They can place a question mark when they don&rsquo;t understand something, a star when something is important, and an exclamation mark when they are surprised.</p>

<h2>7. Consider other perspectives</h2>

<p>After students have read the text one time, ask them to read it again and pretend they are reading it from someone else&rsquo;s point of view.</p>

<h2>8. Participate in a jigsaw activity</h2>

<p>This collaborative technique works well for longer texts.</p>

<p>Assign each student to a &ldquo;jigsaw&rdquo; group then&nbsp;give each student a section of the text to read. When they have finished, have them get together with members from the other groups who&#39;ve been assigned the same section.</p>

<p>In these new groups, students discuss and become &ldquo;experts&rdquo; on their section. Students then return to their original &ldquo;jigsaw&rdquo; groups and teach their group members about their section.</p>

<h2>9. Put text in order</h2>

<p>Cut up the reading and have students put it in order. This activity requires students to think logically as they examine sequencing words and transitions.</p>

<h2>10.&nbsp;Create a Venn diagram</h2>

<p>Students are often asked to read articles that compare and contrast two or more topics. (For example, see Ellii&rsquo;s lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons/1962" target="_blank">J-Pop Vs. K-Pop</a>.)</p>

<p>As students use this graphic organizer to note&nbsp;the similarities and differences of two or more items, they will better understand the relationship between them.</p>

<h2>Improve their reading experience with Immersive Reader</h2>

<p>In addition to these activities, students can also optimize their reading experience by using <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-microsoft-immersive-reader-on-ellii" target="_blank">Microsoft&rsquo;s Immersive Reader</a>, which is now available on the Ellii platform.</p>

<p>The Immersive Reader promotes accessibility for learners of all ages and abilities. By implementing it in class, you can help improve student comprehension and focus.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What activities do you have your students do while they&#39;re reading?&nbsp;Please share your ideas in the comments below.</p>
</div>


10 Activities to Increase Understanding While Reading

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<div class="white-box">
<p>Are you proud of the amazing things your students have been doing in class recently? Well, we&rsquo;re curious and want to hear all about it! In our new monthly <strong>Student Showcase</strong> <strong>series</strong>, we&#39;re asking&nbsp;teachers like you to share the creative&nbsp;approaches you&#39;ve taken to&nbsp;teaching your students in class and to show off the incredible work your&nbsp;students have done.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Your students deserve to have their work front and center&nbsp;in our showcase, so stay tuned each month for a new challenge. Follow the <strong>Video Challenge instructions</strong> below for your chance to have your students&#39; work featured on our blog!</p>
</div>

<h2>April&#39;s Student Showcase:&nbsp;Earth Day</h2>

<p>On April 22, 1970, the very first grassroots demonstration to raise environmental awareness took place in the United States. Approximately 20 million Americans, including thousands of students, took to the streets in peaceful protest. Since this day, April 22 has been known as <strong>Earth Day</strong>.</p>

<p>All around the world, we celebrate and recognize the importance of Earth Day by discussing the many ways in which we can help preserve the environment and make the Earth a cleaner and healthier place for everyone.</p>

<h2>This Month&#39;s Video Challenge</h2>

<p>How do you teach your students about Earth Day? What topics do you focus on? What topics related to the environment are prominent in your community? We&#39;d love for you to show us some of the great activities, projects, games, and artwork your students have created on this topic!</p>

<p>Follow the Video Challenge instructions and submit a short video or text response about your lesson and students&#39; work related to Earth Day.&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Video Challenge Instructions</h3>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/fuccs5oss" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>You can also send additional pictures or material to us at <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com">hello@ellii.com</a>. If your submission is chosen, we&#39;ll feature your students&rsquo; work at the end of the month in our follow-up blog post.</p>

<h2>Lessons on Earth Day</h2>

<p>Not sure how to teach about Earth Day? If you&rsquo;re looking for inspiration, here are some&nbsp;lessons and activities for all ages and language levels related to&nbsp;Earth Day and the importance of taking care of our environment.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2682" target="_blank">Earth Day - Word Bank</a>&nbsp;(Lit &ndash; Pre Beg)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3662" target="_blank">Earth Day - Word Bank Readers</a>&nbsp;(Beg / CLB 2&ndash;3)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/2199" target="_blank">Earth Day - Holidays &amp; Events</a>&nbsp;(Low Int / CLB 3&ndash;5)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1877" target="_blank">Earth Day - Holidays &amp; Events</a>&nbsp;(High Int &ndash; Adv / CLB 8&ndash;10)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2142" target="_blank">Earth Day - Idioms Poster</a>&nbsp;(Lit &ndash; Adv / CLB 1&ndash;12)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/holidays-events/earth-day" target="_blank">Earth Day - Flashcard Set</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Related Lessons</h2>

<p>Looking for a lesson related to some of the world&#39;s biggest environmental concerns? From climate change to vanishing honeybees, we&#39;ve got lessons on many Earth Day-related themes.</p>

<p>Check out our top-rated lesson list below or browse through our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/global-issues/the-environment" target="_blank">Environment</a>&nbsp;collection for all lessons, digital tasks, flashcards, and activities on this topic.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/3235" target="_blank">Climate Change</a>&nbsp;(Low Int / CLB 3&ndash;4)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/3821" target="_blank">Climate Change and Mental Health</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; High Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/81/lessons/2401" target="_blank">The Great Barrier Reef</a>&nbsp;(Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/73/lessons/1297" target="_blank">The Kyoto Protocol</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; Adv / CLB 7&ndash;9)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/1280" target="_blank">Vanishing Honeybees</a>&nbsp;(High Int / CLB 6&ndash;8)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4024" target="_blank">UN Plastics Treaty</a>&nbsp;(High Int &ndash; Adv / CLB 6&ndash;12)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/3698" target="_blank">Amazon Destroys Unsold Items</a>&nbsp;(Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons/2614" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; High Int)</li>
</ul>


Student Showcase: Earth Day Challenge

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Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

<p>Would you like to be a student in your own class?&nbsp;If Jeyan Babajanova were my teacher, then my answer is a resounding &quot;yes!&quot;.</p>

<p>Babajanova presented at the <a href="https://www.tesol.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TESOL 2022 convention</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;&ldquo;Project-Based Teaching as a Solution to Low-Resource Contexts.&rdquo;</p>

<p>I attended countless inspirational presentations and keynotes during TESOL 2022, but hers stood out for me.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Project-based learning</strong> works on so many levels with students of all ages, and it&#39;s a teaching/learning method that teachers are passionate about.</p>

<p>This teaching method doesn&rsquo;t come without its challenges, but the benefits of a successful project make the effort worthwhile.</p>

<h2>Challenges of Project-Based Learning</h2>

<p>One of the challenges that Babajanova faced in her teaching context was low motivation<strong> </strong>from the students during the pandemic.</p>

<p>Globally, teachers&nbsp;and students alike faced the same dilemmas: <strong>how to effectively learn and engage in an online environment.</strong></p>

<p>One solution is to find something that drives and motivates students. Find something that intrinsically motivates them to take control of their own learning. The tools are secondary.</p>

<h2>Benefits of Project-Based Learning</h2>

<p>Project-based learning helps students to develop a broad range of skills.</p>

<p>Team-based projects require effective <strong>communication</strong>, <strong>collaboration</strong>, <strong>critical thinking</strong>, and <strong>creativity</strong> (a major theme at&nbsp;the TESOL 2022 conference).</p>

<p>Babajanova&nbsp;needed to be flexible as her online toolkit was limited. Many sites such as YouTube are blocked in Turkmenistan where she&#39;s located. The key was to work with the tools&nbsp;students already had (such as their smartphones) and to learn ways to leverage the tools they were familiar with in order to do things in a different way.</p>

<h2>How I Use Project-Based Learning in the Classroom</h2>

<p>Project-based learning has been a part of my teaching toolkit for many years now, especially since I started teaching specialized workplace courses for adult newcomers. The projects provide opportunities to use real-world communicative skills, and in the process, students learn some language skills that they need in order to be successful.</p>

<p>One project I remember fondly was my own version of the &ldquo;30 Day Challenge&rdquo; by Matt Cutts.</p>

<p>His original challenge was simple enough: Do something new for 30 days.</p>

<p>Cutts experimented with <strong>creative projects</strong>, such as taking a photo every day, with <strong>health-based projects </strong>such as&nbsp;cycling to work, cutting out sugar, and other activities.</p>

<p>My version was to create small support groups where students would share their challenges and then act as motivational coaches to their team. They met regularly, discussed the benefits and challenges, and offered advice to each other. It was as simple as that.</p>

<p>Students don&rsquo;t look back fondly on their language classes and wax poetic about grammar practice worksheets. They remember the connections they created and the excitement when they discovered something about themselves.</p>

<p><img alt="image of a poster board project" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2269/content_content_project-1.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Student Vision Board Project</p>

<p>One former student told me recently that this challenge had a deep impact on his life.</p>

<p>He challenged himself to find and join a local volleyball team. It was important to him because this was an activity he had enjoyed before coming to Canada. Volleyball connected him to a community and increased his physical activity. His language skills also picked up a great deal as a result.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>10 Tips for Successful Project-Based Learning</h2>

<p>Project-based learning is easier to implement&nbsp;than you might think. Here are 10 tips I learned from TESOL for successful project-based learning&mdash;online and in class.</p>

<ol>
	<li><strong>Involve the students.</strong>&nbsp;Find out what they are interested in learning.</li>
	<li><strong>Create a framework for learning.</strong> How will students demonstrate their learning? What will they do with it? Why is it important for them? What will they get out of it? What&rsquo;s the real-world goal?</li>
	<li><strong>Create a timeframe for tasks and rubrics.</strong> Students need to see what the expectations are for each step or part of the process.</li>
	<li><strong>Figure out what&#39;s in your students&rsquo; toolkits.</strong>&nbsp;What tech tools do they already have access to? What do they still need to learn in order to collaborate and communicate with their group?</li>
	<li><strong>Reporting methods need to be worked out. </strong>This includes receptive skills (e.g., What listening/reading will students need to do?) and productive skills (e.g., How will students demonstrate their learning?&nbsp;Through blogs? Video diaries? Flipgrid?)</li>
	<li><strong>Assign roles, and be clear! </strong>Especially if it&rsquo;s a group project. Consider accountability&mdash;to whom are the students accountable? To themselves, to each other?</li>
	<li><strong>Do it.</strong></li>
	<li><strong>Present findings.</strong> Do a virtual demonstration with another language class or if face-to-face, bring back the presentations in the hallway.&nbsp;If you can, encourage a&nbsp;Q&amp;A session. If virtual, this can be a podcast or a breakout room session.</li>
	<li><strong>Reflect on it.</strong></li>
	<li><strong>Archive it so you can&nbsp;share with future students.</strong></li>
</ol>

<p><img alt="image of a model built by students" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2268/content_content_Project-2.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Model of our school&#39;s courtyard - Student Renovation Project at TVDSB</p>

<p>This year, TESOL&nbsp;had more than&nbsp;300 presentations. The&nbsp;theme centered around developing student agency and empowering students to interact, engage and communicate.</p>

<p>Project-based learning encourages students to set meaningful goals, collaborate with each other, and then to reflect on their accomplishments.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share Your Thoughts</h5>

<p>What projects have you helped&nbsp;design for your students? Let us know in the comments section below.</p>
</div>


Takeaways from TESOL 2022: Project-Based Learning

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<p>Not only does reading provide students with access to&nbsp;information and hours of pleasure, but it also&nbsp;leads to greater language proficiency.&nbsp;</p>

<p>As English language learners develop their&nbsp;<strong>reading&nbsp;comprehension </strong>skills, they usually make strides&nbsp;in other areas, such as <strong>grammar accuracy</strong> and&nbsp;<strong>vocabulary</strong> <strong>building</strong>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Previously, we&nbsp;explored ways to enhance students&#39; reading comprehension through <a href="http://ellii.com/blog/pre-reading-activities-to-boost-comprehension" target="_blank">pre-reading activities</a>. In this post, our focus will be on <strong>post-reading activities, </strong>which&nbsp;are activities that are done after students finish reading a text.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here are nine post-reading activities&nbsp;that will engage your students and help them have a deeper understanding of what they&#39;ve read.</p>

<h2>1. Write a Summary</h2>

<p>If students can summarize a piece of writing, you can be sure they&#39;ve&nbsp;gotten the gist of what they&#39;ve just read. Refer to our lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2718" target="_blank">How to Write a Summary</a>&nbsp;if they need a refresher on giving a condensed overview of a text.</p>

<h2>2. Create a Quiz&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Give students the chance to step into the teacher&#39;s role. Have students come up with comprehension questions&mdash;short-answer or true/false&mdash;to test their classmate&#39;s understanding of the text.</p>

<h2>3. Play a Game</h2>

<p>Put students into groups of three or four. Have them put away the text. Give them five minutes to think of as many facts as they can about the reading. The team that comes up with the most facts wins.</p>

<h2>4. Do Further Research</h2>

<p>Ask students to do online research on the topic and report findings back to class.</p>

<h2>5. Retell the Information&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Have students sit in a circle. As they go around the circle, each student adds a sentence about the text, preferably in the order the information appeared in the&nbsp;reading.</p>

<h2>6. Make an Outline</h2>

<p>As students make an outline of the reading, the main ideas and details will become clear. If students need help writing an outline, try our lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/1827" target="_blank">How to Write an Outline</a>.</p>

<h2>7. Write Questions&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Have students write 3&ndash;5 questions&nbsp;they have about the topic that the reading didn&#39;t answer.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>8. Write a Story</h2>

<p>Encourage students to choose 8&ndash;10 new or interesting words. Challenge them to write a short story using those&nbsp;words.</p>

<h2>9. Identify Target Structures</h2>

<p>Tie in the reading with a grammar lesson. Have students go back through the lesson and&nbsp;identify target structures (e.g., <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1597" target="_blank">present perfect</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/modals" target="_blank">modal verbs</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2028" target="_blank">articles</a>, etc.).</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share Your Thoughts</h5>

<p>We&#39;d love to hear what post-reading activities you do with your students. Please share your ideas in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>
