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1. Effective Grammar Teaching: Balancing Input and Output

   In: American English Webinars Format(s): Text, Video

   This session, "Effective Grammar Teaching: Balancing Input and Output," aims to help you enrich classroom time by examining how to incorporate the practice of real language into grammar lessons.

2. Poetry Corner: Reading and Reacting to a Michigan Poem

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   “Poetry Corner: Reading and Reacting to a Michigan Poem” consists of activities targeting reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills using a Michigan poem called “How Is It That the Snow,” written by poet Robert Haight, who lives in Michigan.

3. A Lesson Plan Speaking (and Writing) of Sports

   In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan offers several sports-related photographs and classroom activities that use the pictures for individual, pair, or group work. The activities include a sentence-combination task, structured writing questions, open-ended writing tasks, a charting task, and questions for a whole-class discussion. The author gives suggestions for making the tasks easier or more difficult for multiple levels.

4. Student-Centered Speaking Activities to Increase Fluency and Accuracy

   In: American English Webinars Format(s): Text, Video

   This session, "Student-Centered Speaking Activities to Increase Fluency and Accuracy," focuses on activities that participants can use in teaching speaking in multi-level classes with students of all ages.

5. Health and Fitness

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The theme of health offers a variety of language-learning possibilities. This three-part lesson plan for young learners can be adapted to other audiences. It includes a reading, a dialogue, and a listening script. The first lesson asks learners to analyze lifestyle choices and give advice. The second lesson takes students to a sporting goods store, where they consider the language they need to talk with a sales clerk. The third lesson is about food choices, including ways to prepare foods. A follow-up activity researches how a famous athlete stays healthy.

6. Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

   In: American Rhythms Format(s): Text

   Jazz musician Kermit Ruffins performs along with a talented group of children in Breakfast Lunch and Dinner. Download the song and classroom activities.

7. An Integrated Skills Lesson Plan for "Maps and Legends" by Michael Chabon

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 2 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan is based on the article “Maps and Legends” by novelist Michael Chabon and is for high intermediate to advance students. The lesson includes group and pair work. Students discuss the neighborhood where they grew up. They read the text and identify unfamiliar words, then answer comprehension questions in writing or discussion groups. Post-reading activities include scanning, inferring meaning from context, dictionary practice, and discussion questions. The lesson ends with questions to make connections beyond the text and project ideas.

8. Speaking and Listening Online

   In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article gives an overview of online technology for developing students’ listening and speaking skills. The author explores websites for both receptive and interactive communication and discusses the benefits and limitations of the technology as well as possible classroom activities. The article argues that the quality of the programs supports their use in the second language classroom.

9. VOA Podcast: American History: A Declaration Seeking Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

   In: VOA Podcasts: Shows in Special English Format(s): Website

   Listen to Voice of America (VOA) Podcast: American History: A Declaration Seeking Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Podcast from VOA Learning English: About the USA. Stories are written at the intermediate and upper-beginner level and are read one-third slower than regular VOA English.

10. Authentic Video in the Beginning ESOL Classroom: Using a Full-Length Feature Film for Listening and Speaking Strategy Practice

    In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

    Using film in the classroom can be effective with beginning English learners. A full-length film offers continuous context to discuss humor, culture, and language functions, real-life communication with images and non-verbal cues, increased retention due to activating the right hemisphere of the brain, and the lowering of students’ affective filters. The authors include a lesson based on their experience teaching listening and speaking skills using the movie “What about Bob.” Assessment techniques and potential problems are considered.

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