Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

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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>

<div class="white-box">
<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>
</div>


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>

<div class="white-box">
<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>
</div>


A Quick Activity to Boost Confidence & Well-Being: Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel

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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>

<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>


9 Post-Reading Activities to Help Students Get the Most Out of a Text

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Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

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<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-flag-canada-day.html" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">National Flag of Canada Day</a> is celebrated every year on February&nbsp;15. It marks the first time the red-and-white flag featuring the iconic maple leaf was raised on Parliament Hill. The Maple Leaf flag that we know and recognize today was first raised 57 years ago on February&nbsp;15,&nbsp;1965.</p>

<p>In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson wanted a new flag to represent Canada. After a parliamentary committee narrowed it down to three possibilities, someone needed to take the three designs, sew them, and bring them to life. Joan O&#39;Malley was given this job.</p>

<p>Alison Donovan, Ellii&#39;s very own Publishing Assistant, is related to Joan. We were lucky to chat with Alison and ask her a few questions about this amazing story.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>MELISSA: How are you related to Joan O&#39;Malley?</strong></p>

<p>ALISON: Joan is my husband&rsquo;s aunt, and she&rsquo;s a very cool lady.</p>

<p><strong>MELISSA:</strong> <strong>Why was Joan asked to sew the Canadian flag?</strong></p>

<p>ALISON: Her father worked for the federal government and was part of the team that developed the prototypes for the flag. They needed someone to quickly sew the proposed designs on a Friday night, so he asked his daughter to do it.</p>

<p><strong>MELISSA: A few years ago, Joan was officially thanked for her work. What was it like when she was recognized for this 50 years later?</strong></p>

<p>ALISON: Everyone was very proud and excited to see Joan acknowledged for her part in making the Canadian flag. This is an important part of Canadian history and it&rsquo;s wonderful to see Joan recognized for her role. It&rsquo;s pretty amazing to know the woman who was involved in creating the Maple Leaf flag!</p>

<h2>Student Activity: Design Your Own Flag</h2>

<p>Feeling inspired? We want to see your flag designs!</p>

<p>Teachers, ask your students to design a flag that represents the class. They can draw, sketch, paint, or design it digitally. Then, ask them to describe the flag they designed. Students can write about it, discuss it with a partner, present it to the class, or record themselves talking about it.</p>

<p>Afterwards, send us a picture of the flags your students designed to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=Show Us Your Flag Designs!">hello@ellii.com</a>, so we can feature them on our blog! You can also send us your students&rsquo; descriptions of their designs, whether they recorded them or wrote about them.</p>

<p>It&#39;s time to get creative and have fun!&nbsp;We can&rsquo;t wait to see what your students come up with.</p>

<p><img alt="flags designed by teacher Annet's CLB class on Flag Day, 2023" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3050/content_Flags-CLB.jpeg" /></p>

<p>Thank you to Annet&#39;s CLB class from Bradford Learning Centre for taking this challenge and sharing these flags with Ellii (February 15, 2023).</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;My students described their flag as something that brings people together from different countries in unity and happiness. They look up to the class as a stress free zone!&quot;&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Read More About Joan O&#39;Malley</h2>

<p><a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/the-story-of-the-woman-who-sewed-canadas-first-flag" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Ottawa Citizen</a></p>

<p><a href="https://www.therecord.com/news/canada/2014/11/14/woman-who-sewed-first-maple-leaf-flag-thanked.html" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Record</a></p>

<p><a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/woman-recounts-night-she-sewed-canada-s-first-maple-leaf-flag-1.2398505" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">CTV News</a></p>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/2017">Canada Day</a>&nbsp;(Beg) &ndash; Holidays &amp; Events</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1882">Canada Day</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; High Int) &ndash; Holidays &amp; Events</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2434">Canada Day</a> &ndash; Word Bank</li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2992">Canada Day</a> &ndash; Young Learner Activities</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/111/lessons/2233">Canada Project</a> &ndash; Group Projects</li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2216">Map of Canada</a> &ndash; Visual Learning</li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/114/resources/2561%C2%A0">Canada</a> &ndash; Listening</li>
</ul>


Celebrating National Flag of Canada Day

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<p>Reading is an essential skill in second-language acquisition. As learners&nbsp;develop their <strong>reading</strong> skills, they not only build their <strong>vocabulary</strong>, but they also&nbsp;become familiar with&nbsp;common <strong>grammatical&nbsp;structures</strong> and phrasing in the target language. Learners can transfer this knowledge to the other three&nbsp;basic&nbsp;skills&mdash;listening, speaking, and writing&mdash;and see their overall fluency improve.</p>

<p>By providing <strong>pre-reading activities</strong>, teachers can help learners become successful readers. Pre-reading activities increase comprehension by activating students&#39; prior knowledge and generating interest in the topic.&nbsp;In our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons">Reading &amp; Discovery</a> category, most lessons begin with a set of <strong>Warm-Up Questions</strong> and a&nbsp;<strong>Vocabulary Preview</strong> task.</p>

<h1>I. Warm-Up Questions</h1>

<p>Warm-Up Questions&nbsp;allow&nbsp;students to connect&nbsp;their own life experiences to the reading before they even see the text. Students who stare at you blankly when you announce the day&#39;s lesson topic will soon realize&nbsp;that they do, in fact, know something about the subject matter and, more than likely, have opinions about it as well.</p>

<p>For example, if you tell a group of students who did not grow up in North America that you&#39;ll be reading about <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons/2853">Fred Rogers</a>, they may wonder what he has to do with their lives. However,&nbsp;once you begin asking&nbsp;the Warm-Up Questions, students will begin focusing on the broader topic&mdash;children&#39;s television&mdash;as they develop a schemata with which to approach the reading.</p>

<p>But what are the best ways to present Warm-Up Questions? We all know that students respond well to variety and that every student&nbsp;learns differently.</p>

<p>Presenting the questions in the same way each class won&#39;t work for every group of students. They&#39;ll get bored with the predictability of&nbsp;the process when we really want to pique their curiosity.</p>

<p>Here are some suggestions for using Warm-Up Questions with your students.</p>

<h2>Have a Whole-Class Discussion</h2>

<p>The easiest way to present Warm-Up Questions is to have a whole-class discussion. This works best when the students are at the same level.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Ask the whole class the first question and elicit responses before moving on to the second question.</li>
	<li>As students call out their answers,&nbsp;it&#39;s always a good idea to write notes on the board&nbsp;because it promotes further responses from other students and shows you&#39;re listening and engaged.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Have Group Discussions</h2>

<p>For variety&mdash;or If you have shyer students who are hesitant to speak in front of the entire class&mdash;divide the class into groups of three&nbsp;or four.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Have more advanced students take notes for the group.</li>
	<li>Circulate among the groups and make sure all students are participating.</li>
	<li>To extend the activity, come together as a whole class and have the groups share their ideas.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Have Pair Discussions</h2>

<p>Any time is a good time for pairwork, especially if you add a little fun. This activity, called <strong>Speed Chatting</strong>, will get your students talking!</p>

<ul>
	<li>Have students pair up and ask each other the Warm-Up Questions.</li>
	<li>Give them only 60 seconds to ask and answer the questions.</li>
	<li>When the time is up, have them work with a new partner.</li>
	<li>Repeat the process&nbsp;for three&nbsp;or four&nbsp;rotations.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2>Assign Questions the Day Before</h2>

<p>Introduce the Warm-Up Questions at the end of the class on the day before you do the reading. Ask students to answer the questions for homework.</p>

<h2>Use Illustrations</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re using the PDF version of a lesson, draw students&#39; attention to&nbsp;the illustration that goes with the lesson. In pairs, have them come up with their own set of Warm-Up Questions based on this illustration.</p>

<h1>II. Vocabulary Preview</h1>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons">Reading &amp; Discovery</a> lessons all include&nbsp;a Vocabulary Preview task. Usually, this is in the form of a matching activity.The purpose of this task&nbsp;is to introduce students to unfamiliar words before they encounter them in context.</p>

<p>Give the following ideas a try the next time you want to&nbsp;use&nbsp;the Vocabulary Preview task before assigning the reading.</p>

<h2>Model the Pronunciation</h2>

<p>It&#39;s always a good idea to model the pronunciation of new vocabulary&nbsp;words. You can do this as a separate activity in which you say the words and have the class repeat, or you can do this as part of another activity as you introduce each word.</p>

<h2>Try a Matching Exercise</h2>

<p>To get a sense of whether or not the vocabulary is familiar to students, have them try matching the words to the correct definitions on their own and then check answers as a whole class.&nbsp;This can help you determine how much time you need to spend on this task. Remember to have students try to match the words and definitions again after you&#39;ve done additional work.</p>

<h2>Explore the Vocabulary Further</h2>

<p>If other activities are needed to reinforce unfamaliar words, extend the activity by doing the following:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Give students a sentence that contains each word.</li>
	<li>Have students classify the words according to their part of speech.</li>
	<li>Point out any prefixes or suffixes.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Create a Word Wall</h2>

<p>Encourage students to be active vocabulary learners. You can do this&nbsp;by creating&nbsp;a word wall in the classroom. Have students vote on the three&nbsp;words from the task they would most like to remember and add them to the word wall.&nbsp;You can also have students keep an individual vocabulary journal.</p>

<h2>Work in Pairs</h2>

<p>Put students in pairs and assign one&nbsp;or two&nbsp;words to each pair.&nbsp;(You can allow them to use a dictionary for this activity.)</p>

<ul>
	<li>Have them come up with a definition (in their own words).</li>
	<li>Next, have them write&nbsp;an example sentence that contains each word.</li>
	<li>Then have them teach their word(s) to the class.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Ask Concept Questions</h2>

<p>Concept questions are questions that contain a target word. They are also usually Yes/No questions. Asking them allows students to&nbsp;hear the word in context and process the meaning. For example, <em>rodent</em>&nbsp;is a target word in our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1911">Groundhog Day</a> lesson. You can pose the following question: &quot;Is a rat a rodent?&quot;</p>

<h1>III. Other Pre-Reading Activities</h1>

<p>In&nbsp;addition to the Warm-Up Questions and Vocabulary Preview tasks, there many&nbsp;other activities that work well to prepare students to tackle a reading. Here are a few:</p>

<h2>Make a KWL Chart</h2>

<p>Instruct students to create a three-column&nbsp;KWL chart.</p>

<ul>
	<li>They should label the first column &quot;K&quot; and list all the things they already <strong>know</strong> about the topic.</li>
	<li>The second column, labeled W, should include things that students <strong>want</strong> to know about the topic.</li>
	<li>The third column, labeled L, will be filled out by students as a post-reading activity to jot down what they <strong>learned</strong> from the reading.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Guess the Topic</h2>

<p>Choose four&nbsp;or five&nbsp;familiar words that are related to the topic and see if students can guess what the reading is going to be about. For example, if you&#39;ll be&nbsp;doing a lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons/3169">Coffee</a>, you can use the words <em>drink, beans, brown,</em> and <em>caffeine</em>.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Brainstorm</h2>

<p>As a class, brainstorm all the vocabulary that comes to mind about the topic.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Use Audiovisual Tools</h2>

<p>Expose students to audiovisual supplements.&nbsp;This is a good way to introduce harder or lesser-known topics when Warm-Up Questions may themselves need a warm-up.</p>

<p>For example, in the Fred Rogers lesson, you might show a clip from his children&#39;s show that you find on YouTube. Or, for the lesson <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons/1962">J-Pop Vs. K-Pop</a>, you could bring in audio samples of both types of music.</p>

<h1>Share Your Thoughts</h1>

<p>What kind of pre-reading activities&nbsp;do you use with your learners? Do you have any tips to share with the teaching community?</p>

<p>If you teach 1:1, is there an activity that works particularly well with individuals? Please share your ideas in the Comments section below.</p>
