Two useful vocabulary websites

In the next few weeks we’ll be running workshops on the best strategies for teaching Units 1&3 English and Literature. In both workshops, we’ll be stressing the importance of vocabulary instruction and sharing a whole range of strategies to improve students’ lexicon. One of the resources we’ll be discussing in this context is web based…

Virtual Communication with Students

It’s hard enough communicating with students under “normal” conditions, but with remote learning in progress, internet outages and distractions in the home environment have made communication between teacher and student even more difficult. The reality is that students find it very difficult to articulate what they need help with (“Everything” is not an easy difficulty…

Simple online lesson plan example

In our last blog, we emphasised keeping the technology of remote learning simple and using this as an opportunity to engage in micro units where students practise skills. Here’s an example of a simple lesson about a short film which does these things: *Can be placed online as a PDF *Students can complete in 20-30mins…

Essay topic brainstorming strategies

1. Teach students to recognise a main idea and a discussion point in a topic Generally, essay topics contain a main idea – a focal point of examples which have to be discussed – and a discussion point – a part of the essay topic which invites interpretation or qualification. It’s important for students to…