Helping Students Make Their Writing Fresh and Colorful
The community of online writers and educators makes the world a brighter place. Sharing ideas over the Internet has become so easy, and thankfully we can pass along good finds to our students with...
View ArticleWriting Tip: Teaching the Importance of Time Frame
When students write a narrative, one type of mistake I tend to see concerns verb tense. Students lose focus of what time frame they’re in and choose an inappropriate verb form. Have you observed these...
View ArticleTESOL 2018 Highlights: Online Tools for ELLs
Visiting the Electronic Village at the annual TESOL convention is a must for me. Even a single visit can result in the discovery of a few different resources. The title of one presentation this year...
View ArticleTESOL 2018 Highlights: Creativity Through Collaboration
For the second year in a row, Mary Allegra of University of Carabobo in Venezuela enticed me into the Electronic Village with her session title. Last year she co-presented in the EV about Quizizz (read...
View ArticleHow to Make the Transition between Informal and Formal Speech Fun, Clear, and...
Every learner has his or her strengths and weaknesses. I’ve observed how some students are completely relaxed in conversation, but struggle to write for professional or academic purposes. I’ve also...
View Article‘If Need Be’ and Other More Formal Uses of Conditionals
Conditionals are a topic I’ve addressed multiple times on my YouTube channel, and I plan to return to them again soon. Just a few more lessons, and I think I’ll have covered conditionals quite...
View Article5 Engaging Activities with Film Plots
In a recent YouTube lesson I decided to approach grammar through a list of my top 5 favorite disaster movies. I figured it would make the discussion of prepositions much more entertaining. I focused on...
View ArticleTESOL 2019 Highlights: Bringing Art Into the Classroom
I attended two sessions on the use of artwork in the classroom. Both gave good take-away. Monica Maxwell-Paegle of Georgetown University presented the poster session Using Artworks in Building Language...
View ArticleFiguring Out Figurative Language
The worrisome aspect about publishing a video is that you’re really putting yourself out there. You’re sharing your content with a potentially large audience that will evaluate and react to your work....
View ArticleCreative Writing: Building Stories, Skills, and Pride
Hello, dear readers! Welcome back. Let’s start talking and sharing ideas again. How was your summer? I relaxed more, read more, played the piano more, slept better, and fit in some quality time with my...
View ArticleStorytelling: Your Go-To Activity
Storytelling can be any teacher’s go-to activity because stories can be short or long and make use of any target language. If you have any concern about your own lack of creativity, don’t worry about...
View ArticleTimed Essay Writing and the Value of Checklists
What I love about writing is that you usually have the chance to form and tweak ideas through multiple revisions. Unlike real-time conversations, you can carefully choose your words and delete...
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6 Pitfalls of Writing
When I see my writing from twenty years ago or more, I cringe because I realize how much I had yet to learn. Not too long ago, I saw a writing project I did back in high school and my face turned red....
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Advanced Writing: Parallelism and Consistency
Parallel structure is important even at a basic level of writing. Upper level students know this and usually have an easy time spotting weaknesses in simple sentences. However, the more complex an...
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Developing Writing Skills Beyond Sentences
Editing texts with students recently has been a valuable group learning experience. Thanks to their willingness to contribute writing samples, they learn from one another’s choices as writers. There...
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How to Fix Awkwardly Worded Sentences
Even if students wish to focus more on speaking, it is helpful to work on writing. Why? By seeing the written words, students can more easily recognize awkward or incorrect syntax. Visually they can...
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Subject-Verb Agreement: Beyond Simple Sentences
Lack of subject-verb agreement is a common mistake, but errors in judgment with subject-verb agreement extend to inconsistency with reference words and combinations of indefinite articles with plural...
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Snacking on Syntax
Syntax is not a topic that excites learners like idioms or current issues. However, many recognize how important sentence structure is. One challenge is finding the time to develop these skills. Those...
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Studying Syntax: A review of the basics
A number of my students have the desire to study syntax in order to increase their confidence and accuracy when they write. I continue to believe that reading regularly indirectly helps by exposing...
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Email Isn’t Just for Business English
Who doesn’t write email? In today’s world, sending and receiving email is as common as having your morning cup of coffee. (I admit I’m a tea drinker, though!) If our goal as ESL teachers is to prepare...
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