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

Teaching with Ellii

<p>At Ellii, we have a variety of lessons, resources, courses, and visuals that you can use in your classes to explore career pathways.</p>

<p>If your students are not quite ready for full workplace courses, our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/career-pathways" target="_blank">Career Pathways</a>&nbsp;lesson section offers simple lessons on a variety of jobs categorized by career cluster.</p>

<p>These exploratory digital lessons are intended for high-beginner to low-intermediate learners. At Ellii, we understand that digital literacy is an essential skill to explore with your students.</p>

<p>If you haven&#39;t tried assigning digital lessons with your adult learners, this is a great section to start with. The digital lessons in this section follow a simple, familiar template. We use straightforward instructions and a consistent lesson flow to help your students become comfortable with our most common digital task types: vocabulary, reading and listening, comprehension, and quiz. You can also use these lessons with higher-level students by incorporating extra communicative tasks&mdash;ideas we&#39;ll be sharing in this post.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Note</strong>: We are also in the process of adding an optional speaking task (with sentence frames) to each lesson for students who want to give this task type a try. Here is an example of a&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lesson/5018-working-as-a-nursing-assistant" target="_blank">lesson</a> that has this task. See the last task: Is this a career for you?</p>

<h2>What&#39;s new?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>In addition to adding dozens of new digital lessons to this section, we&#39;ve added <strong>one-page printable career summaries&nbsp;</strong>to each Career Pathways lesson. This handout gives students something physical to hold on to and take notes on as they work through the digital lesson. You can print these summaries out or present and annotate them on a whiteboard. By default, your students will receive the PDF in their assignment when you add it to a class (unless you uncheck the PDF box&mdash;see below). You can add a note if you want students to use or print the PDF. Please show your students exactly where to find the PDF handout on their student dashboard.</p>

<h3>Where teachers include the PDF version (and where students can find it)</h3>

<p><img alt="How to add a note and include the PDF in your assignment on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5423/content_teacher-pdf-note.png" /><br />
<img alt="where a student can find the PDF in an Ellii assignment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5422/content_student-pdf.png" /><br />
<br />
Here is what the career summaries look like.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="career summary chart for construction workers" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5420/content_Screenshot_2026-04-29_at_11.13.02_AM.png" /></p>

<p>Below are some suggested activities that you can do with these additional handouts either before or after you work through the related lesson.</p>

<h2>Warm-ups</h2>

<p>Before doing or assigning the full lesson, present the summary chart and give students a chance to write down anything they know or want to know about the profession. Ask for a show of hands to find out:</p>

<ul>
	<li>if students are interested in doing this type of work</li>
	<li>why students might or might not be drawn to this career</li>
	<li>what related jobs there might be</li>
	<li>if they know anyone who does this work&mdash;and if so, what that person likes or doesn&#39;t like about their job</li>
	<li>how this job compares to another career you&#39;ve been discussing in class</li>
</ul>

<h2>Pair &amp; group activities</h2>

<p>The classroom setting is ideal for exploring these summaries further. Here are some activity ideas:</p>

<p><strong>Jigsaw Expert:</strong> Give each student a different career to summarize and then put students in groups to share what they&#39;ve learned. Encourage students to jot down notes from the discussion onto their chart.</p>

<p><strong>Speed Dating: </strong>Each student gets a different career chart to ask and answer questions about for a short, timed exchange.</p>

<p><strong>Mock Interviews: </strong>Distribute a variety of career summary charts and place students in pairs to role-play as interviewer and interviewee for the career they receive.</p>

<h2>Writing &amp; research</h2>

<p><strong>Paragraph Summary</strong>: Invite students to write a paragraph summarizing the information from the chart.</p>

<p><strong>Job Ads:</strong> Have students write a short job ad for the career based on information from the chart and the reading.</p>

<p><strong>Compare &amp; Contrast:</strong> Encourage students to compare this career to another one you&#39;ve already covered. Provide some useful sentence stems to support the writing.</p>

<p><strong>One More Thing:</strong> After completing the lesson, have students add one thing they learned from the reading that isn&#39;t already on the chart. Take it a step further by encouraging them to do a little research of their own&mdash;what&#39;s one thing they could teach someone else about this career that wasn&#39;t covered in class?</p>

<p><strong>Is this Career for Me?:</strong> Encourage students to journal informally about the careers you explore. Is this a career worth considering? Why or why not? This will also be an <a href="https://ellii.com/lesson/5018-working-as-a-nursing-assistant" target="_blank">optional speaking task</a> in each lesson&nbsp;(coming soon).</p>

<blockquote>
<p>What ideas do you have for using these career summaries in a classroom setting?</p>
</blockquote>


How to Use Ellii's Career Summary Charts

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

Articles

<p>Did you know everyone at Ellii works remotely?</p>

<p>Our team is spread out across the&nbsp;US, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina, with&nbsp;contractors in even more&nbsp;countries.</p>

<p>As Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;videographer, having the opportunity to work from anywhere is fantastic. But having this freedom is not the most exciting part of remote&nbsp;work.</p>

<p>What I love the most is that I have the chance to <strong>connect and work with people from different parts of the world</strong>. Plus, I get to learn so much from my coworkers about their traditions and culture. Who knew that dinnertime is&nbsp;around 6:00 pm in the US and Canada? In Argentina, dinner around 9:00 pm. You can see why this came as a big surprise to&nbsp;me!</p>

<p>Discovering these&nbsp;new&nbsp;tidbits of information is the reason I enjoy working remotely&nbsp;so much. It allows me to learn something new&nbsp;at work every&nbsp;day.</p>

<p>The title of this blog post, &ldquo;Traveling with Ellii,&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t just refer to the fact that Ellii allows you to travel anywhere and <a href="https://ellii.com/careers" target="_blank">take your work with you</a>. It also implies that even when I&rsquo;m home in Buenos Aires, I&rsquo;m still traveling all over the world (figuratively speaking) thanks to my amazing&nbsp;coworkers.</p>

<p>When I look at the&nbsp;incredible hiking pictures our director of language development, Tanya, took around Vancouver, and then I see the&nbsp;unbelievable photos of a recent snowstorm in Winnipeg taken by our VP of people &amp; culture, Marta, I get to&nbsp;learn a little bit more about this amazing world we all live&nbsp;in.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I love imagining&nbsp;myself in those places too. What would it feel like to smell the trees along the hiking trails or to experience a&nbsp;freezing cold&nbsp;snowstorm?</p>

<p>So as you can see, I&rsquo;m always discovering new places and adventures at&nbsp;work.</p>

<p>But recently, for the first time since I started working at Ellii, I decided to go on an adventure:&nbsp;<strong>I went to live in Madrid, Spain, for two months</strong>. My team was nothing but&nbsp;supportive and encouraged me to take this amazing&nbsp;opportunity.<br />
<br />
And I can&rsquo;t begin to tell you what an incredible, fun, and inspiring experience it&nbsp;was.</p>

<h2>Living in Madrid</h2>

<p>For starters, I got to spend lots of time with my sister who&#39;s currently living in Madrid. We enjoyed morning walks together in the most amazing parks. My favorite parks in Spain were El Retiro, Madrid Rio, and&nbsp;Santander.</p>

<p><img alt="El Retiro, Madrid (park)" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2449/content_Retiro_Park.png" /></p>

<p class="caption">Retiro Park&rsquo;s lake on a cloudy day. <em>Photo by Lucia Padilla</em></p>

<h2>Touring Segovia</h2>

<p>I also visited other cities in Spain, like Segovia, where I saw one of the best-preserved, elevated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_of_Segovia" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Roman aqueducts</a> in the world.</p>

<p>Although its exact construction date is somewhat of a mystery, there&#39;s archaeological evidence that points to it being built around AD 112. It truly is an architectural masterpiece, and it&rsquo;s also in an excellent state of&nbsp;conservation.</p>

<p>Even though it looked small in the distance, I could still feel its powerful presence. When I got closer,&nbsp;the scale and magnitude of the construction hit me with such force that I couldn&#39;t help but feel tiny. Looking up at the aqueduct from down below, I couldn&#39;t stop thinking,&nbsp;<em>Did someone shrink me and I didn&rsquo;t realize&nbsp;it?</em></p>

<p><img alt="Segovia’s Aqueduct" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2450/content_Segovia_s_Aqueduct.png" /></p>

<p class="caption">Segovia&rsquo;s Aqueduct. <em>Photo by Lucia Padilla.</em></p>

<h2>Celebrating in Barcelona</h2>

<p>Another wonderful place I went to was the well-known city of Barcelona. I went there for <a href="http://www.spain.info/en/discover-spain/fiesta-sant-jordi-barcelona/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Sant Jordi</a>, which is celebrated every April&nbsp;23.</p>

<p>During this very important holiday, it&#39;s customary for friends, families, and&nbsp;couples to exchange roses and books while they celebrate in the&nbsp;streets.</p>

<p>Strolling around the city during this time is like a fairytale. You&#39;ll see the stores and buildings decorated with beautiful roses. I highly recommend you visit <a href="https://www.casabatllo.es/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Casa Batll&oacute;</a>&mdash;they go all out during Sant&nbsp;Jordi!</p>

<p>You&#39;ll also notice the streets packed with what feels like millions of stalls&nbsp;selling books and roses to passersby. It was a truly beautiful sight that even a rainy day couldn&#39;t ruin. I have to admit I was especially impressed by the&nbsp;Catalans who didn&rsquo;t seem&nbsp;to mind the weather at all and still enjoyed the&nbsp;celebrations.</p>

<p>But the reason I&#39;ll never forget this day is that I&rsquo;ve never seen so many people buying so many books in my entire life! I loved it.&nbsp;I wish I had been able to take more pictures, but&nbsp;I was completely engrossed in the&nbsp;festivities.</p>

<p><img alt="Raima's Stationery Store" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2451/content_Raima_Stationery_Store.png" /></p>

<p class="caption">Decorations inside Raima, Europe&#39;s largest stationery store. <em>Photo by Lucia Padilla.</em></p>

<h2>The beauty of remote work with Ellii</h2>

<p>All in all, traveling with Ellii is a wonderful experience. I can be&nbsp;home in a sweltering Argentinian summer and yet &ldquo;feel&rdquo; the chilling cold of a Canadian&nbsp;winter.</p>

<p>The freedom and flexibility of&nbsp;working remotely&nbsp;helps you be more empathetic and open-minded about the amazing people you work&nbsp;with.</p>

<p>Working remotely also transports you to other cultures and lets you experience someone else&#39;s traditions. I would not change it for the world. And yes, I do hope one day I get to see all my coworkers in person. But until that day comes, I&rsquo;ll keep learning and traveling around the world with&nbsp;Ellii.</p>


Working Remotely: Traveling with Ellii

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Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

<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 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>

<div class="white-box">
<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>We take pride in empowering English language teachers. That&rsquo;s why we love collaborating with organizations and businesses that provide professional development opportunities, teaching resources, industry events, and close-knit communities for educators around the&nbsp;world.</p>

<p>Visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/partnerships" target="_blank">Partnerships &amp; Collaborations</a> page to learn more about the brands we work&nbsp;with.</p>

<h1>Meet Bridge Education Group</h1>

<p>One of the organizations we love collaborating with is <a href="https://bridge.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Bridge</a>.</p>

<p>Bridge provides accessible and affordable English language teacher training, certification, and continuing professional&nbsp;development.</p>

<p>They offer&hellip;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/courses/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TEFL certification programs</a> that provide teachers with internationally recognized&nbsp;credentials</li>
	<li>in-depth, <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/courses/specialized" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">specialized professional development courses</a> to help teachers learn about the latest methodology, best practices, and technologies in&nbsp;ELT</li>
	<li>short <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/courses/micro" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">micro-credential courses</a> specially designed to help educators gain new skills that will take their teaching to the next&nbsp;level</li>
</ul>

<p>Bridge also publishes relevant and helpful English language teaching news and resources at <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">BridgeUniverse</a>.</p>

<h1>Why is professional development important?</h1>

<p>Why invest time, effort, and money in your professional development (PD)? Here are three compelling&nbsp;reasons:</p>

<h2>1. PD can help you land your dream teaching&nbsp;job</h2>

<p>Professional development can help you get the teaching job you&rsquo;ve always dreamed&nbsp;of.</p>

<p>Having additional professional development courses on your resume gives you added credentials that may qualify you for more jobs or promotions. It also shows potential and current employers that you value continuous learning and that you strive to be a better&nbsp;teacher.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>91% of hiring managers report certification is a criteria for&nbsp;hiring.</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;<a href="https://certiport.pearsonvue.com/About/The-value-of-certification.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certiport</a></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Ultimately, it opens the door to more teaching opportunities and helps you stand out against the&nbsp;competition.</p>

<h2>2. PD can help you get a higher salary</h2>

<p>Professional development can also help you get a higher starting salary or a raise. According to <a href="https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20160330005307/en/516651/5/2517910_Comparison_infographic.jpg?download=1" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Business Wire</a>, <strong>79% of certified professionals see a tangible impact on their career, including pay raise, promotions, and resume&nbsp;shortlists</strong>.</p>

<p>In interviews with potential employers, having training and development courses on your resume may help you negotiate a higher&nbsp;salary.</p>

<p>With current employers, completing certain types of professional development courses may help you qualify for a raise or&nbsp;promotion.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Certified professionals are 2.55 times more likely to get a promotion than non-certified&nbsp;professionals.</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Business Wire</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>3. PD can help you be a better teacher</h2>

<p>Finally, professional development can help you be a better&nbsp;teacher.</p>

<p>Thanks to professional development courses, new teachers are equipped with the necessary skills for success and experienced teachers are able to stay current and gain skills in new teaching approaches, technologies, and&nbsp;ideas.</p>

<p>Essentially, professional development gives teachers more tools to create better learning experiences for their&nbsp;students.</p>

<p>Interested in taking a professional development course? <a href="https://bridge.edu/tefl/online-tefl-certification" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Explore Bridge&#39;s online TEFL courses</a>&nbsp;today.</p>

<h1>How our collaboration benefits you</h1>

<p>There&rsquo;s never been a better time to invest in your professional&nbsp;development.</p>

<p>As part of our collaboration with Bridge, Ellii subscribers will receive a <strong>10% discount</strong> on Bridge&nbsp;courses!</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;re an Ellii subscriber interested in taking a Bridge course, watch your inbox&mdash;we&rsquo;ll be sending you an exclusive promo code you can redeem at&nbsp;Bridge.</p>

<p>New to Ellii? <a href="https://ellii.com/sign_up" target="_blank">Sign up to our newsletter</a> by creating a free account so you don&rsquo;t miss out on future&nbsp;discounts.</p>

<p>Happy upskilling!</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5><strong>Webinar: Tips for Finding Engaging Materials from Ellii (formerly ESL Library) &amp;&nbsp;Beyond!</strong></h5>

<p>Did you hear we recently collaborated on a webinar with Bridge? Last April, Bridge and Ellii discussed how to foster interesting discussions with intermediate and advanced-level learners. Our expert panelists shared their best tips and tricks for sparking meaningful and engaging conversations in the classroom. <a href="https://vimeo.com/699573636/fda4be7992" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">View the full&nbsp;recording</a>.</p>
</div>


Invest in Your Professional Development with Bridge Education Group

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and&nbsp;inspiring!</p>
</div>

<p>Sophie Collin was introduced to English at a very young&nbsp;age.</p>

<p>She grew up in a bilingual household in Quebec, Canada, where she often spoke English with her&nbsp;father.</p>

<p>At school, she excelled in her English classes and enjoyed speaking English with many of her&nbsp;friends.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Hence, as far as I can remember, I foresaw my career as an English language teacher,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Sophie.</p>

<p>After receiving a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in English Literature and working for more than 20 years in an English-speaking corporate role, Sophie decided to take the leap and pursue&nbsp;teaching.</p>

<p>Since 2015, she&rsquo;s been teaching ESL&nbsp;and Business English to adults from the A1 to C2 (Beg &ndash; Adv) levels in the Laurentians region of&nbsp;Quebec.</p>

<h2>A week in the life of a Quebec English teacher</h2>

<p>For Sophie, a typical week involves about 15 hours of teaching spread out over four days. She teaches groups and individuals both in person and online. Class time varies from 90 minutes to three hours a&nbsp;day.</p>

<p>&ldquo;My career as a teacher has been nothing less than gratifying,&rdquo; Sophie said, smiling. &ldquo;What I find most rewarding is to hear learners&rsquo; testimonials about how my teaching has been beneficial and impactful to&nbsp;them.&rdquo;</p>

<p><img alt="Sophie Collin, a smiling middle-aged woman with side-swept bangs and round metal-framed glasses." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2512/content_Ellii_Teacher-Feature_Sophie-Collin.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Sophie Collin is pictured here.</p>

<h2>How Sophie uses Ellii</h2>

<p>Sophie discovered Ellii when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Like many teachers, she had to pivot from teaching in person to teaching&nbsp;online.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I discovered through word of mouth the amazing website that is Ellii and immediately became a member,&quot; said Sophie, who quickly adopted the platform and now relies on Ellii for all her class&nbsp;curriculums.</p>

<p>&quot;I eagerly await&nbsp;the weekly newsletter so I can read <em>What to Teach This Week,&quot; </em>she said, excitedly.&nbsp;Sophie admits there&#39;s not a week that goes by where she doesn&#39;t use Ellii&#39;s educational materials, from the readings found in the lessons to the grammar&nbsp;exercises.</p>

<p>&quot;This state-of-the-art teacher&rsquo;s platform is simply a lifesaver, especially for last-minute classes and online teaching&nbsp;tips.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Her favorite Ellii lessons always involve an educational&nbsp;reading.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&ldquo;I love the reading lessons about historical or current information,&quot; said Sophie. &quot;Just today we read and learned about <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1852" target="_blank">Victoria Day</a> in Canada&mdash;the why,&nbsp;the who, and the what are always appreciated by my audience. It allows them to learn new vocabulary as well as ignite&nbsp;conversations.&quot;</p>

<p>Check out Sophie&#39;s&nbsp;video response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her English language&nbsp;learners.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/atpb1xbznxge4g64zf2i428mx869o3f243ua6y44"></iframe></div>

<blockquote>
<p>Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your&nbsp;classroom.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>


Teacher Feature: Sophie Collin

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<p>I&#39;ve been teaching people seeking refuge and asylum in the UK since 2007. I feel absolutely privileged to have them as&nbsp;students.&nbsp;</p>

<p>They are some of the kindest, friendliest, most generous humans I have ever&nbsp;met.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve&nbsp;learned so much about international culture and affairs. I&#39;ve&nbsp;also been particularly lucky in sampling all sorts of delicious traditional treats, and I&#39;ve been introduced to some amazing books, films, and&nbsp;music.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Even the loveliest of students come with&nbsp;challenges.</p>

<p>Many of them have experienced forced displacement and severe trauma. Some of them have lost families and loved ones or been permanently separated from&nbsp;them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>When people ask me where my students are from, it often depends on the political&nbsp;climate.</p>

<p>When I first started teaching ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages), my classes were predominantly Eastern European, Congolese, Somalian, and&nbsp;Afghan.</p>

<p>Over the years, this demographic has&nbsp;changed.</p>

<p>Now&nbsp;I teach a lot of students from El Salvador, Kurdistan, Eritrea, Syria, and,&nbsp;I&rsquo;m sure very soon,&nbsp;Ukraine.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In this post, I&rsquo;d like to share with you six ways in which you can support English learners from refugee&nbsp;backgrounds.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>1. Keep it relatable</h2>

<p>When selecting topics to study, <strong>choose something relatable which will benefit the learners in their daily&nbsp;lives.</strong>&nbsp;</p>

<p>For example, students who can&rsquo;t leave the country because they don&rsquo;t have the travel documents or the funds may not be motivated to talk about dream holidays in exotic locations. Instead, you could bring in leaflets for free things to do in the local&nbsp;area.&nbsp;</p>

<p>One Ellii lesson that my students really enjoyed was <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3656 " target="_blank">Hiro&rsquo;s Apartment</a>. It was a great way to introduce vocabulary related to housing similar to their&nbsp;own.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>2. Offer options</h2>

<p>Just as it&rsquo;s important to keep topics practical for learners, it&rsquo;s also important to ensure they&#39;re not triggering. Some&nbsp;seemingly harmless&nbsp;topics could upset learners. So it&#39;s always good to provide&nbsp;options.</p>

<p>For example, a learner who&#39;s lost family members may not wish to talk about their family&nbsp;in detail.&nbsp;In this case, you can ask them to choose to talk about someone special to them. This person could be a friend or an&nbsp;acquaintance.&nbsp;</p>

<p><meta charset="utf-8" /></p>

<p><strong>Providing options and adaptations ensures learners always feel included</strong> and that they can practice the language&nbsp;points.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>3. Explore intercultural diversity</h2>

<p>ESOL and ESL classes are often very&nbsp;multicultural.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve learned so much about festivals, food, clothes, and traditions around the world.&nbsp;These topics can really enthuse&nbsp;learners from refugee backgrounds&nbsp;and create rich&nbsp;discussions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>They&#39;re also a great way to <strong>encourage cross-cultural understanding and acceptance.</strong>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Have a look at a diversity <a href="https://ellii.com/calendar" target="_blank">calendar</a>&nbsp;or ask your learners when special events are coming up for them. Then teach a lesson on these special events. Ask them to share their own ways to celebrate. It&rsquo;s likely that each individual or family has their own unique way of marking a special&nbsp;occasion.</p>

<p>This is a great way for English learners to <strong>explore the diverse ways people live around the world</strong>. It&rsquo;s also beneficial for considering differences in individual and collective&nbsp;cultures.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Have a look at Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons" target="_blank">Holidays &amp; Events</a> section for 100+ English lessons about holidays, events, and cultural and religious observances&nbsp;around the&nbsp;world.</p>

<h2>4. Be trauma-informed</h2>

<p>As I previously mentioned, some learners may have mental health problems such as <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/95/lessons/1851" target="_blank">depression</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/95/lessons/4162" target="_blank">post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)</a>.&nbsp;You may need to be flexible in your&nbsp;approach.</p>

<p>Some students may have priorities greater than their language classes. For example, they may be trying to relocate loved ones, find a job, or navigate&nbsp;homelessness.&nbsp;</p>

<p>English language classes can be a great distraction from the pressures of life. <strong>Try to keep lessons as fun and engaging as&nbsp;possible.</strong></p>

<p>Also keep in mind that for some learners, holidays may not be the welcome break we&rsquo;d expect. English language classes can be a mental health lifeline. A way to keep&nbsp;busy.</p>

<p>If possible, try to <strong>find&nbsp;alternative ways for learners to pass the time during holiday periods</strong>. For example, look for things to do in the local&nbsp;community.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You can read more on supporting your learners&#39; mental health needs in my previous blog post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-promote-mental-health-in-the-classroom" target="_blank">5 Ways to Promote Mental Health in the English Language&nbsp;Classroom</a>.</p>

<h2>5. Advocate</h2>

<p>Throughout&nbsp;my years as a language teacher, I&#39;ve signed countless petitions,&nbsp;written numerous letters to politicians, and stood in the rain at many&nbsp;protests.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Advocating for refugee rights in this way helps me feel like I&rsquo;m making the world a better place. It also lets students see that I&#39;m there for&nbsp;them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In class, it&#39;s important to support students to find their own&nbsp;voice.</p>

<p><strong>Always be ready to listen to their needs and support them to advocate for themselves where possible.</strong>&nbsp;This can mean teaching them to write emails to their local councillors or simply pointing them toward&nbsp;organizations that can&nbsp;help.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>6. Fundraise</h2>

<p><strong><img alt="A smiling Emily Bryson posing with her bike in front of a giant ceramic mosaic sculpture of a fish in Belfast, Ireland." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2515/content_Emily-Bryson-Belfast-Cycle.jpg" /></strong></p>

<p class="caption">Photo of Emily Bryson posing with her bike in front of the Big Fish sculpture in Belfast, Ireland.</p>

<p>I recently cycled to the <a href="https://www.iatefl.org/conference/home" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">2022 International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) conference</a> to raise money for a refugee education&nbsp;charity.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I cycled 150 miles (241.4 kilometers)&nbsp;in two days from Glasgow, Scotland, to Belfast, Ireland&nbsp;(I cheated a bit and took the ferry from Cairnryan).&nbsp;The hardest part was packing a limited conference wardrobe&mdash;and trying to dry my wet socks with an automatic hand&nbsp;dryer!&nbsp;</p>

<p>I raised &pound;2,500 pounds (approximately US$3,060)&nbsp;for <a href="https://www.amalaeducation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Amala</a>.&nbsp;I was stunned by everyone&rsquo;s&nbsp;generosity!</p>

<p>Amala delivers educational programmes to refugee communities all over the world. They currently facilitate courses in refugee camps in Jordan, Kenya, and&nbsp;Greece.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Curious to learn more about my cycle and fundraising? Follow&nbsp;me on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/emilybrysonelt/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer no follow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EmilyBrysonELT" rel="noopener noreferrer no follow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/emilybrysonelt" rel="noopener noreferrer no follow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What do you do to support learners from refugee backgrounds? Have you been involved in or are you planning any fundraising? We&rsquo;d love to know! Share in the comments&nbsp;below.&nbsp;</p>
</div>


6 Ways to Support English Learners from Refugee Backgrounds

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


3 Awesome End-of-Term Activities for English Learners

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These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

<p>What do you think of when you hear &ldquo;California&rdquo;? Probably palm trees, surfers, and movie&nbsp;stars.</p>

<p>But what if I told you there were two different&nbsp;Californias?</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s true! While Southern California (SoCal) and Northern California (NorCal) might be part of the same state, they have completely different <strong>climates</strong>, <strong>landscapes</strong>, and&nbsp;reputations.</p>

<p>Though it&rsquo;s important not to believe all stereotypes, many&nbsp;Californians&nbsp;still love to debate these&nbsp;differences.</p>

<p>Here are a few of the biggest differences&nbsp;between NorCal and&nbsp;SoCal:</p>

<h2>Climate</h2>

<p>If your idea of California is all sunshine and T-shirt weather, you must be thinking of SoCal. There, even in December, the average weather ranges from 58 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit or 14 to 26 degrees&nbsp;Celsius.</p>

<p>NorCal is a different story.</p>

<p>Though it can still be warm <strong>inland</strong>, coastal cities like San Francisco are known for their rainy, foggy&nbsp;weather.</p>

<p>In fact, the fog is so famous in San Francisco&nbsp;that locals have even given it a nickname: Karl the Fog.&nbsp;Karl has his own <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/karlthefog?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter account</a>&nbsp;and is even the star of his very own <a href="https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/karl-the-fog" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">children&rsquo;s&nbsp;book</a>!</p>

<h2>Nature</h2>

<p>California is a long state bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean. There are beaches all along the coast, so you&nbsp;can surf pretty much anywhere. But&nbsp;if you&rsquo;re planning on surfing up north, you better wear a <strong>wetsuit</strong>&nbsp;because that water is&nbsp;cold!</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;re looking for palm trees, you&rsquo;re better off sticking to SoCal&nbsp;where most of the landscape is&nbsp;desert.</p>

<p>Because NorCal gets much more rain, it tends to be&nbsp;greener.</p>

<p>In fact, Northern California is covered in a vast forest, which is home to the world&rsquo;s tallest trees: redwoods (also known as sequoias). Redwood trees generally grow between 250 and 300 feet tall (72 and 91 meters)&nbsp;and some are wide enough to drive&nbsp;through!</p>

<blockquote>
<h3><strong>Fun Fact</strong></h3>

<p>Some redwoods can live to be 1,500 years&nbsp;old!</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Industry</h2>

<p>SoCal is the home of Hollywood. People all over the world move to SoCal hoping to become famous and &ldquo;make it big&rdquo; in the film industry.</p>

<p>NorCal, on the other hand, is the home of Silicon&nbsp;Valley.</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;d rather develop the next big app than star in the next big movie, the San Francisco Bay Area is the place for you. This area of NorCal is home to all the big tech giants, from Facebook to Apple to&nbsp;Google.</p>

<h2>Attitude</h2>

<p>Since California is a <strong>diverse</strong> place,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s impossible to generalize everyone. There&#39;s a huge Hispanic community in California since it used to be part of&nbsp;Mexico.</p>

<p>The building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s and the California Gold Rush of 1849 also brought many Asian workers to&nbsp;California.</p>

<p>But despite all this fabulous state-wide diversity, Californians will still try to convince you why their region is the&nbsp;best.</p>

<p>As a whole, California has a reputation for being one of the more politically <strong>liberal</strong> states in the US, though there are certainly <strong>conservative</strong>&nbsp;areas.&nbsp;</p>

<p>People from NorCal will tell you that people from SoCal are <strong>superficial</strong>, thanks to Hollywood. Meanwhile, people from SoCal will say that people from NorCal are a bunch of liberal&nbsp;<strong>hippies</strong>.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Are you more NorCal or SoCal?</h5>

<p>Now that you&rsquo;ve heard about some of the big differences between SoCal and NorCal, where would you rather visit? Which part of California seems more like your scene? Tell us in the&nbsp;comments!</p>
</div>

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li><strong>climate</strong>: <em>the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of&nbsp;time</em></li>
	<li><strong>landscape</strong>: <em>the&nbsp;nature in&nbsp;a specific&nbsp;region</em></li>
	<li><strong>inland</strong>: <em>the interior of a country normally far away from the&nbsp;coast</em></li>
	<li><strong>wetsuit</strong><em>: a tight outfit used to keep people warm in the&nbsp;water</em></li>
	<li><strong>diverse</strong>: <em>composed of many different types of&nbsp;people</em></li>
	<li><strong>liberal</strong>: <em>believing more in political progress or change than in tradition</em></li>
	<li><strong>conservative</strong>: <em>believing more in political tradition than in progress or&nbsp;change</em></li>
	<li><strong>superficial</strong>: <em>caring too much about&nbsp;appearances</em></li>
	<li><strong>hippy</strong>: <em>a group of people in the 1960s and 1970s who cared about social and environmental issues and believed in love instead of&nbsp;war</em></li>
</ul>


NorCal Vs. SoCal: The Two Sides of California

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<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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<div class="white-box">
<p>This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and inspiring!</p>
</div>

<p>Camila Mu&ntilde;oz was working as a translator when she had an epiphany.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Working as a translator in different places made me realize that, not only is English crucial for any job, but also that people are very intimidated when it comes to learning and speaking the language,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Camila.</p>

<p>This is what made her decide to teach English.</p>

<p>&quot;I wanted to show people that learning English can be hard at the beginning (like anything you try for the first time), but when you know the basics and how it works, you can have a lot of fun!&rdquo;</p>

<p>Camila&#39;s been teaching for almost five years now.</p>

<p>She started out teaching in an in-person setting, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she moved to teaching online.</p>

<p>&ldquo;It&#39;s&nbsp;been great!&rdquo; she said enthusiastically. &ldquo;I discovered that I could teach students from everywhere. Teaching online has been wonderful because not only does it save traveling time (and costs!), but it also allows me to use the interactive tools on the Ellii platform.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Currently, Camila teaches English remotely from her home in Concepci&oacute;n, Chile.</p>

<p>Her students live in different cities all over the country, ranging from pre-school age to adults. Most of her students are at the beginner and intermediate levels.</p>

<p><img alt="Camila Muñoz, a smiling woman with long hair, glasses, and a plaid shirt sitting at her desk holding an Ipad and headphones." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2437/content_Teacher-Feature_Camila-Munoz.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Camila Mu&ntilde;oz&nbsp;is pictured here.</p>

<p>For Camila, a typical day of teaching starts at 9:00 am. She spends her mornings planning her afternoon and evening lessons. Once that&rsquo;s done, she looks over completed homework tasks.</p>

<p>Lessons take place from 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm.</p>

<p>&ldquo;This is when I have the most fun since I get to teach and connect with my students,&rdquo; she said.</p>

<h2>How Camila uses Ellii in the classroom</h2>

<p>Camila loves how organized Ellii is and finds the platform incredibly useful.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I use many of the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons" target="_blank">Famous Things</a> lessons since I can decide which one to use depending on my students&rsquo; interests and they can practice the four skills when we use them,&quot; said Camila. &quot;There are so many topics and choices. It&rsquo;s truly amazing!&rdquo;</p>

<p>Her students also really enjoy the role-play activities.</p>

<p>&ldquo;They can have so much fun with them, and it&rsquo;s great speaking practice,&rdquo; she said.</p>

<p>Check out Camila&#39;s&nbsp;text response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her students.</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/afyoi8plwzah1ak07n7r8xkbphl42b4sk7tqyh4b" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<h2>The challenges of teaching groups</h2>

<p>For Camila, teaching groups can be challenging.</p>

<p>&ldquo;When it comes to group sessions, one of the major challenges is to make sure every student understands what the lesson is about,&quot; she said.</p>

<p>Camila admits that sometimes&mdash;especially when there are many students in the class&mdash;it&rsquo;s hard for teachers to make sure everyone is able to learn.</p>

<p>&quot;Since students are often embarrassed or don&rsquo;t want to share their answers in front of the whole class, the challenge that&nbsp;we must overcome as teachers&nbsp;is to give our students a safe learning environment that will allow them to learn and share more,&rdquo; she explained.</p>

<p>Camila finds that teaching young children can be just as challenging.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Also&mdash;and especially with preschool students&mdash;it&rsquo;s very challenging to keep them motivated and get their attention,&quot; she said. &quot;Therefore, we need to find different strategies to make learning a fun and engaging experience.&rdquo;</p>

<h2>When teaching becomes a self-fulfilling experience</h2>

<p>Despite these challenges, Camila finds being a teacher incredibly rewarding.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I love when my adult&nbsp;and teenage students, who were once terrified to speak English, realize that it wasn&rsquo;t that hard and that they&rsquo;re able to communicate and do things,&quot; she said. &quot;[They can] . . . enjoy&nbsp;their favorite TV show or listen&nbsp;to their favorite artists and actually understand&nbsp;what they are saying.&quot;</p>

<p>Camila says her favorite part&nbsp;about teaching her pre-school students is that they&#39;re like little sponges because &quot;they soak&nbsp;everything up and learn super fast.&rdquo;</p>

<p>She describes teaching English as one of the most self-fulfilling experiences she&#39;s had.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I never thought teaching could bring me and my students so much joy,&quot; she said. &quot;As a translator and somebody that loves language and teaching English, being able to share what I know and make it easier for others has been an amazing experience.&rdquo;</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.</p>
</blockquote>


Teacher Feature: Camila Muñoz

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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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<h2><a id="scope-and-sequence"></a>What is a scope &amp; sequence?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>A scope and sequence is a planned curriculum for a book,&nbsp;course, or&nbsp;program. The <strong>scope</strong> refers to the <em>range</em> or <em>breadth</em> of material. The <strong>sequence</strong> refers to the&nbsp;<em>order</em> in which the content is meant to be used.</p>

<p>A curriculum or program may be&nbsp;organized by <strong>grade</strong> or <strong>proficiency level</strong>. In some cases, it&#39;s organized by <strong>subject matter&nbsp;</strong>(e.g., science)&nbsp;or<strong> theme </strong>(e.g., community).&nbsp;Ellii, on the other hand, is more of a content library than either a ready-made program or curriculum. However, we do have ready-made pathways to help if you are looking for more structure. Keep reading!</p>

<p>In this post, you&#39;ll find answers to the following frequently asked questions about Ellii:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="#ellii-s-s">Does Ellii have a scope and sequence?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#courses">Does Ellii have ready-made courses?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#teaching-order">Does Ellii have a&nbsp;suggested&nbsp;teaching order?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#curriculum">Can I create my own curriculum with Ellii?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#targets">What targets and themes should I focus on for each Ellii level?&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li><a href="#levels">What if I don&#39;t know what Ellii level my students are?&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li><a href="#assessment">Can I assess my students&nbsp;with Ellii?&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="ellii-s-s"></a>Does Ellii have a scope &amp; sequence?</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re used to using a textbook series, you may be wondering where to find Ellii&#39;s scope and sequence information.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>Ellii (formerly ESL Library) has 2,500+ ready-made <strong>lessons</strong> and <strong>resources</strong> as well as&nbsp;4,000+&nbsp;<strong>flashcards</strong>. We also have <strong>videos</strong>, <strong>prompts</strong>, and other <strong>activities </strong>for teaching English&nbsp;for every <strong>age</strong>, <strong>level</strong>, and <strong>need</strong>. Our in-house publishing team adds new content daily based on teachers&#39; requests and needs.</p>

<p>Teachers from all over the world use Ellii in a variety of ways. Ellii materials can be used...</p>

<ul>
	<li>in <strong>traditional</strong> classrooms</li>
	<li>in <strong>online</strong> and <strong>hybrid</strong>&nbsp;classes</li>
	<li>to <strong>complement</strong> an existing&nbsp;curriculum (e.g., further practice with a&nbsp;target or theme)</li>
	<li>to <strong>build </strong>a&nbsp;curriculum</li>
	<li>to&nbsp;<strong>supplement&nbsp;</strong>a curriculum (e.g., lessons on holidays, current events, etc.)</li>
	<li>to focus on a certain <strong>macro</strong>&nbsp;(e.g., reading) or <strong>micro</strong>&nbsp;(e.g.,&nbsp;grammar) skill</li>
</ul>

<p>Teachers also use Elli with a variety of types of English learners. Teachers use Ellii with...</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>adult</strong> newcomers who require&nbsp;<strong>life skills</strong>&nbsp;and foundational English content</li>
	<li>&nbsp;<strong>K&ndash;12</strong>&nbsp;or <strong>higher-ed</strong> students who need English for <strong>academic purposes</strong></li>
	<li><strong>1:1 learners&nbsp;</strong>who need to learn English for specific purposes, such as&nbsp;<strong>workplace English</strong> or <strong>conversation English</strong>,<strong>&nbsp;</strong>or for improving a particular skill</li>
	<li><strong>multilevel</strong> classes</li>
</ul>

<p>At Ellii, we believe teachers know their students best! Rather than developing a single program that may or may not work for all students in a class, we focus on creating&nbsp;high-quality materials&nbsp;for every age, level, and need.</p>

<p>However, if you aren&#39;t sure what you need, we do offer mini-courses, collections, and a suggested teaching order for some sections.</p>

<p>Read on for Ellii tools and features that make planning easier.</p>

<h2><a id="courses"></a>Does Ellii have ready-made courses?</h2>

<p>Yes, and this area of Ellii is growing quickly. Visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Courses &amp; Study Packs</a> area and watch this library&nbsp;grow.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Example Courses &amp; Packs</strong><br />
<br />
Here are just a few of our ready-made Courses &amp; Packs:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ell-grammar-curriculum" target="_blank">Grammar Courses 1&ndash;9</a>&nbsp;(Grammar)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=43&amp;page=1">Ellii Up A &ndash; V</a> (General English) - Advanced levels (W&ndash;Z) in progress.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/simple-present/materials" target="_blank">Simple Present Power Pack</a> (Grammar)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/112/lessons" target="_blank">Pre-Employment</a>&nbsp;(Workplace)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/135/lessons" target="_blank">Functional Business</a>&nbsp;(Workplace)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-at-work/materials" target="_blank">English at Work</a>&nbsp;(Workplace)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/122/lessons" target="_blank">Travel in English</a>&nbsp;(Dialogues)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/essay-essentials/materials" target="_blank">Essay Essentials</a>&nbsp;(Academic)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/77/lessons" target="_blank">Everyday Idioms 1</a>&nbsp;(Vocabulary)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/79/lessons" target="_blank">Detective Series 1</a>&nbsp;(Vocabulary)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/medical-matters/materials" target="_blank">Medical Matters</a> (Life Skills)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/banking-basics/materials" target="_blank">Banking Basics</a>&nbsp;(Life Skills)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/pioneers-of-progress/materials" target="_blank">Partners in Progress</a>&nbsp;(Academic)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/moon-time/materials" target="_blank">Moon Time</a>&nbsp;(YL)</li>
</ul>

<p>Here is the scope &amp; sequence for Ellii Up A&ndash;E (low beginner).&nbsp;</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=43&amp;page=1" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4951/content_Ellii-Up-A-F-Curriculum_chart_D.jpg" style="width: 1200px; height: 1062px;" /></a><br />
<br />
Here is the scope &amp; sequence for Ellii Up G&ndash;L (high beginner).<br />
<br />
<img alt="Scope &amp; Sequence Ellii Up G–L" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5205/content_Ellii-Up-G-L-Curriculum_chart_D.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Here is the scope &amp; sequence for Ellii Up M&ndash;R (low intermediate)&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii Scope and Sequence Low Intermediate" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5402/content_Ellii-Up-M-R-Curriculum_chart_D.jpg" /></p>

<p>Here is the scope &amp; sequence for Ellii Up S&ndash;W&nbsp;(high intermediate).&nbsp;</p>

<p><br />
<img alt="Ellii Up Scope and Sequence High Intermediate" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5403/content_Ellii-Up-S_W-Curriculum_chart_D.jpg" /></p>

<p>Here is the Scope &amp; Sequence for Ellii Up X&ndash; Z (Advanced. Coming soon in General English Courses)</p>

<p><br />
<img alt="Ellii Scope &amp; Sequence Advanced" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5404/content_Ellii-Up-X_Z-Curriculum_chart_D.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Please <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com">get in touch</a> if there&#39;s a specific course or pack that would be helpful for your students. Be sure to mention their age, level, and specific needs.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><a id="teaching-order"></a>Does Ellii have a&nbsp;suggested&nbsp;teaching order?</h2>

<p>Ellii&#39;s materials are divided into lesson and resource sections.</p>

<p>Within one section, you will find content that&#39;s formatted in a similar way.</p>

<p>Some of Ellii&#39;s lesson sections have a built-in teaching order. We don&#39;t recommend only using content from within one section (unless it&#39;s a serial). However, we do recommend that you teach&nbsp;targets&nbsp;at the recommended proficiency level.</p>

<p>Here are some sections that have a&nbsp;<strong>Teaching Order</strong>. (This may not be the default sort filter, so you will need to change the category sort&nbsp;filter&nbsp;to Teaching Order.)&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/123/lessons" target="_blank">Super Simple Grammar</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/110/lessons" target="_blank">Super Simple Questions</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons" target="_blank">Functional English</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Practive Worksheets </a>(Teens &amp; Adults) or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons" target="_blank">Fun Grammar Lessons</a> (YL)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons" target="_blank">Basic Grammar Sentences</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Note that if you choose the&nbsp;Teaching Order sort filter in our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons" target="_blank">Holidays &amp; Events</a> section, you will see the content sorted by calendar order.</p>

<h2><a id="curriculum"></a>Can I create my own curriculum with Ellii?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Yes! You can save and create your own materials to build a curriculum&nbsp;that meets the needs of your class or even one student.<br />
<br />
Learn all about how to use the <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-elliis-lesson-planner" target="_blank">Lesson Planner</a> here.</p>

<p>More:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/217-how-to-use-folders" target="_blank">How to Use Folders</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets" target="_blank">How to Create &amp; Save Flashcard Sets</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We recommend using our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections" target="_blank">Collections</a> to find content from all different sections based on the <strong>theme</strong>, <strong>target</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>subject, </strong>or<strong> competency.&nbsp;</strong>You can then filter by <strong>level</strong> or <strong>age</strong>. When you click into the content, you can save it to your folder of choice.</p>

<p>Here are some popular ways to use some of our Collections:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content" target="_blank">What&#39;s New</a></li>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Target and Level/Age</a></li>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects" target="_blank">Academic Subject&nbsp;and Level/Age</a></li>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/clb-competencies" target="_blank">CLB</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/casas-competencies" target="_blank">CASAS</a>&nbsp;competency</li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="targets"></a>What targets and themes should I focus on for each level?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Here are some suggested targets, themes, and learning objectives for each proficiency level. Visit our<a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank"> Equivalency Scale</a> for more information about levels.</p>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Ellii level</th>
			<th>Suggested grammar targets</th>
			<th>Suggested themes</th>
			<th>Learning objectives</th>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pre&nbsp;Beg</td>
			<td>be, have, simple present, nouns, adjectives, yes/no questions, can</td>
			<td>colors, shapes, letters, numbers, signs</td>
			<td>identify letters and some numbers, count, read signs, understand very familiar everyday words or expressions (survival English)&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low Beg</td>
			<td>be,simple present, singluar &amp; plural nouns, articles, pronnouns, imperative verbs</td>
			<td>familiar objects, food, daily routines, animals, family, body, familiar verbs, people, community</td>
			<td>say and read high-frequency words with visual support, describe everyday actions, describe familiar people and things, read and say short sentences, give date and time, give commands or warnings, describe daily routines</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Beg</td>
			<td>modals of ability - present, present progressive, simple present vs. present progressive, adverbs of frequency, prepositions of time, prepositions of place, parts of speech, simple past, there is there are, yes/no questions, wh- questions, adjectives</td>
			<td>stories, surveys, fables, shopping, restaurants,&nbsp;directions, travel, short narratives (fiction and non-fiction), health</td>
			<td>listen and read along to short stories, ask and answer simple questions, give personal information, write simple sentences,&nbsp;listen and comprehend more familiar information, understand and give directions</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low Int</td>
			<td>modals of ability - past, count vs. non-count nouns, quantifiers, possessive nouns, articles, adverbs of manner, prepositions, simple future, subject-verb agreement, pronouns, gerunds and infinitives, modals of advice, modals of possiblity, present perfect, present perfect progressive, comparatives</td>
			<td>workplace, sports, holidays and culture, fashion, biographies, education, school</td>
			<td>describe future plans, describe likes and preferences, follow and describe procedures, compare and contrast, make suggestions, discuss unreal situations and possibilities, understand information on less familiar topics, recognize informal English</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Int</td>
			<td>present perfect, present perfect progressive, modals verb collocations, first conditional, equative, second conditional, comparative and superlative adjectives, comparatives, present perfect, present perfect progressive, modas of necessity and obligation, conjunctions</td>
			<td>current events, workplace, relationships, environment, historic events, soft skills</td>
			<td>discuss complex issues, offer a personal response, use academic and business vocabulary,&nbsp;work independently in groups, understand more natural everyday English, critical thinking</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Adv</td>
			<td>tag questions, past progressive, future progressive, phrasal verbs, passive, causative verbs, third conditional, past modals, adjective clauses, adjective phrases, adverb clauses, passive causative, direct and reported speech, embedded questions, past perfect, past perfect progressive, subjunctive, noun clauses, future perfect, future perfect progressive</td>
			<td>psychology, technology, politics, business, media, human rights, social justice, crime and punishment, law</td>
			<td>debate and discuss controversial topics, work on projects, read some authentic materials, argue, understand and use collocations and phrasal verbs, comprehend information at natural speeds, understand more idiomatic language and slang</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2><a id="levels"></a>What if I don&#39;t know what level my students are?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Try&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/4226" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s Placement Test</a>&nbsp;(60-minute, 4-skills) or <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/4164">Ellii&#39;s Placement Quiz</a> (30-minute, M/C). You can also use&nbsp;our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-our-new-grammar-tests" target="_blank">Grammar Tests</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2872" target="_blank">Language Scenes</a> for placement.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><a id="assessment"></a>Can I assess my students&#39; progress with Ellii?</h2>

<p>Ellii offers <strong>formative</strong> assessment opportunities in every lesson. In the digital versions, you can view your students&#39; results. (Some tasks require manual scoring by the teacher.)&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Each lesson section offers a different approach to assessment. Some lessons include a formal assessment task at the end.</p>

<p>For example, all of our <strong>Grammar Practice Worksheets</strong> lessons have a quiz to check the understanding of the target. Other lesson sections, such as&nbsp;<strong>Functional English</strong>, have assessments at the end of the lessons with ready-made rubrics.</p>

<p>We also have ready-made generic&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources" target="_blank">assessment tools</a> that you can use or adapt to your own needs. You&#39;ll also find <strong>summative</strong> assessments in our&nbsp;mini-courses and some&nbsp;serials.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>What leveling and standards does Ellii align with?</h2>

<p>Teachers all over the world use Ellii for a variety of ages and levels, so we do not stick with one specific system. We have an <a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank">Equivalency Scale</a> to help you out and we try to tag our content with every search term imaginable. Some teachers use <strong>CEFR</strong> levels and others use <strong>CLBs </strong>or&nbsp;<strong>ELDs</strong>. Others use something more aligned with specific assessments, such as <strong>CASAS</strong>&nbsp;competencies or&nbsp;<strong>NRS</strong> levels.&nbsp;In your <strong>Account</strong> settings, you can choose to view Ellii&#39;s levels and correlations in a few different ways. We are&nbsp;always adding new tags and filters, so let us know what you or your program needs! The Focus area of our lessons also includes <strong>modalities</strong> that may be useful for you to see.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<em>We hope you find everything you need!&nbsp;</em></p>


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