May 9, 2016

Week 3

Shopping

GOOGLE APPS LEARNING CENTER

Need a refresher on how to use one of the Google Apps? Would you like to learn how to use something new- like Google Forms?

Start by taking a tour here: Google Apps Learning Center




VENTURES

On Thursday, May 5 some of us were able to attend a seminar on how to use Presentation Plus. It's an interactive software designed by Cambridge for use with our textbooks. There is so much you can do with it!

You can project a page from the book, you can play the audio texts, you can link worksheets or YouTube videos- the possibilities are endless.

Your Hub Manager will share a document with you about how to use it. It has both instructions from Cambridge and notes we took from the training.

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Let's talk shopping! TEACHING RESOURCES

1. Need to start up some conversation about shopping? Joanne Springstead from the 
St. George library contributed this activity that can be used at all levels:
Shopping Dialogue Bubbles PDF 
Or download the PDF on the "money" wiki: alc-money.wikispaces.com

2. Conversation Questions from iteslj.org

FOR USE IN CLASS:

You'll find a lot of questions about Money & Shopping here.

Great for conversation activities in class, such as :

A) Students find a partner. Teacher tells students the question or writes it on the board. Students talk for 1-2 minutes with a partner (use a stopwatch). Switch partners. New question. 

B) Teacher prints and cuts out select questions (copy paste into a word document, cut out).

Each student receives one question. Students mingle, find partners, talk about their questions, then exchange questions, find a new partner.

QUESTIONS - EXCERPT - MANY MORE ON THE WEBSITE

A Part of Conversation Questions for the ESL Classroom.

(Some questions about money may be considered too personal to ask anyone who is not a very close friend or a family member.)

• About how much did you spend on presents last year?
• About how much do you usually spend each day?
• Are you a price conscious shopper?
• Are you good at saving money?
• Are you saving money to buy something?
• If so, what are you planning to buy?
• How much will it cost?
• How much longer will you need to save before you can buy it?
• Do banks pay a higher percent of interest here or in your country?
• Do you compare prices at different stores when you shop?
• Do you enjoy shopping?
• Do you ever buy second-hand things? ("used things")
• Do you ever give money to charity?
• How often do you give to charity?
• How much do you give?  MORE QUESTIONS ON THE WEBSITE

3. ESL DIALOGUES (READING AND LISTENING) from eslfast.com

Easy Conversations
---- For ESL/EFL Beginners

FOR USE IN CLASS AND FOR OUTSIDE OF CLASS PRACTICE.

Many shopping topics, including Looking for a Sweater / Looking for a Perfect Gift / The Sale is Over / Making a shopping list / Where to buy what.

All topics have multiple dialogues with audio.

If you introduce this website in class (how to access it, how to play audio and read along), students can practice at home, on a computer or their smartphone. 
Link students should use with their smartphones: www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/shop/shop.htm

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LIFEPRINTS 
Don't forget that all levels of the Lifeprints books address shopping in some for or another. Links to each Lifeprints Teacher Resource book are here: 
Lifeprints Teacher Resource Book 1
Lifeprints Teacher Resource Book 2
Lifeprints Teacher Resource Book 3


AUTHENTIC TEXTS
Would you like to use realia in class? Here's a quick read from the TESOL Blog about using them in a thoughtful and effective way: Authentic Texts in Class

MATERIALS DESIGN

The British Council website says it best:
So, you want to put your creative talents to good use by designing excellent and engaging materials for your English lessons but you don’t know how to get started. Look no further! Rachael Roberts, in less than an hour, gives you the material design recipe you’ve been looking for! 

How to Write Effective Classroom Materials

2016 NYS TESOL - Call for Student Projects

 "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." --Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Each year, in order to showcase the tremendous talents of English language Learners, NYS TESOL proudly sponsors a student project contest. As usual, the contest theme is framed within the shifting landscapes of the needs of our culturally and linguistically diverse society.

Contest Theme: Collaboration: Working with others is often required of students, employees, athletes, government officials, and many others in society. What are the benefits of working with others, and why do you think it is important that people work together?

 
Submission Guidelines: Contestants can choose to enter in one of the following two categories. Notice that each category is defined by separate guidelines and rubrics. No double entries are allowed.

Please submit your proposals online by May 31, 2016. Winners for each entry will be notified on June 15, 2016. Please refer to our rubric for more information

Definitions and Guidelines

Essay: An essay is a piece of writing written from an author's personal point of view that analyzes and evaluates an issue or a topic. Possible types include: personal essay, narrative essay, persuasive essay, etc. Please respond in an essay of 250 words or fewer (grades 4-5; 6-8), or 500 words or fewer (grades 9-12; university and adult education).

Digital Storytelling: Digital storytelling is broadly defined as the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including but not being limited to graphics, images, photos, audio, video etc.

·      The presentation should be no longer than five minutes in length

·      If a photograph/image is taken from the Internet it must be cited properly

·      The first slide/frame of the story should include the title, student(s) first name and the name of their school. Stories must be saved in .wmv or .mp4

All submission must be the original work of the contestant, unpublished or not accepted for publication. Submission can have more than one author and any prizes awarded will be split evenly between or among the authors.

Please include with each submission the contest category, the student's name, grade level, teacher's name, school's name and teacher’s contact information. Please ensure that the contact information will be valid over the summer of 2016. Please send all inquiries to Ms. Camille Perez at student_projects@nystesol.org.

Participants:

The Student Project Contest is open to any current or former English language learner in the following categories:

§ Students in grades 4-5, § Students in grades 6-8, § Students in grades 9-12

§ Students in university and adult education programs

Winners will be honored at our 46th NYS TESOL Annual Conference in Syracuse, New York. For more information about NYS TESOL, please visit our homepage at www.nystesol.org

SHOW US THE LOVE!

One of the only ways we can know if you like what we are doing is if you make a comment on our blog page. Like our blog? Are there topics you would like us to add? Please comment! 

Would you like to contribute something? A link, teaching tip, other? Any time!

Thank you, we really appreciate your feedback!

Have a great week!
Elizabeth & Elke