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This session, “Promoting Reading Fluency with the ACTIVE Framework,” explores the six elements of the ACTIVE reading framework, designed to systematically enhance reading skills in the EFL classroom.

These activities promote writing fluency and self-monitoring as well as skills such as getting started with writing and skimming. Students demonstrate understanding of their extensive reading. Timed repeated thinking and writing is similar to free-writing. It includes brief cycles of writing and reflecting. In each cycle, students start their writing over. A similar activity involves cycles of skimming, writing, and thinking. For variation, students can start from where their last writing left off or choose the most important point as a starting place for the next writing turn.

This session, ""What was it about?" Supporting Text Retelling and Response," discusses the importance of scaffolding techniques in post-reading tasks and showcases a tool, the story retelling wheel, which provides support for learners while giving them opportunities to be creative and take ownership of their reading.

In this special section of Forum, four commercial publications are presented. Topics include techniques to help middle school students with reading, student involvement and choice; an introduction to the concept of genre (of interest to ESL teachers, writing teachers, etc., including genre-based assessment and the importance of audience in writing); the use of literature circles with elementary learners to foster discussion and love of literature; and a book of EFL methodology.

This article describes Michigan, a US state also known as the “Great Lakes State.” It presents its geography, climate, history, commerce, industry, symbols, and tourist attractions and activities. The article also provides useful websites. It ends with a text about Motown, a legendary music label from Detroit.

This article explains how the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC) revised their curriculum to best prepare EFL students for English-speaking universities. After completing a needs analysis on how to best serve their students, the committee decided to make a more interactive classroom environment in which teachers integrated the four skills, used critical thinking activities, taught grammar in context, and used various methods of assessment. Feedback showed that both the students and the teachers responded positively to the changes.

Teachers, are you looking for more online professional development opportunities? Then check out the English Language Learner University from LINCS.

This webinar, Building Your Toolkit: Steps and Strategies for Teaching Academic Writing, provides participants with five specific steps and several strategies they can use in teaching academic writing in their own contexts.