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1. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This "Classroom Activities" features three stand-alone language-learning activity related to the theme of summer.

2. Using Brain-based Strategies and Critical Thinking to Maximize Vocabulary Acquisition

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

   This interactive webinar will focus on maximizing vocabulary acquisition for English learners with a focus on easy-to-implement classroom strategies and activities based on brain-based learning and critical thinking.

3. Contextualizing English Instruction to Focus on Environmental Issues

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

   This session, "Contextualizing English Instruction to Focus on Environmental Issues," offers teaching techniques to situate language learning within local, environmental settings and demonstrates how to use authentic materials to connect local to global ecological concerns for learners of all ages and proficiency levels.

4. Reading Logs: Integrating Extensive Reading with Writing Tasks

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article informs instructors about blending reading logs into writing tasks. Several benefits are discussed, including clarifying objectives of reading and providing opportunities to respond to reading, building critical literacy, and monitoring student progress. The article describes how to develop an extensive reading project for advanced students that includes both comprehension and vocabulary strategies. Details include how to structure and format the reading logs as well as assessment procedures.

5. Promoting Genre Awareness in the EFL Classroom

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The author introduces genre awareness, a concept from ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and EAP (English for Academic Purposes), and relates it to its potential use in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. She explains genre awareness as the ability to use the communication tool that is most appropriate for the purpose and audience. She recognizes several challenges to using genre awareness curriculum in the EFL classroom. Finally, she presents several useful genre awareness classroom exercises.

6. Writing for the World: Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic Writing

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article outlines a unit in which students write an article for Wikipedia as a way to learn and practice academic writing. Students learn how to use secondary sources in their writing as well as master a new genre with appropriate conventions and word choice. With this activity, students are encouraged to build academic writing skills in an interesting and public way. The author provides an explanation of Wikipedia as well as a step-by-step lesson plan with sample assignment sheets.

7. Football: Action on the Gridiron

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   This issue features an in-depth article on the history, mechanics, gameplay, culture, and appeal of American football as well as a piece on America's yearly big event (the Super Bowl). There are powerful, dynamic sports photographs and descriptive, numbers-based explanations of how to play. The historical context reveals that football is not purely an American creation. A discussion of current-day football describes it as an event instead of just a game. A vocabulary section is also included so that students can learn how to 'talk football.'

8. Lesson Plan: Greetings from Sunny New Mexico

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The New Mexico lesson plan for this issue is a self-contained 1 1/4 to 2 hour lesson with a complete pre- during- post framework for interacting with the main text - a letter from a friend living in New Mexico. The focus here is on the vocabulary and grammar of description (e.g., words for scenery and weather, relative "that" clauses). Extension activities are provided for multi-session lessons (e.g., written response, class survey).

9. Lesson Plan - Virginia: Jamestown and Its People (Volume 47, Issue 3)

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   The lesson plan “Virginia: Jamestown and Its People” consists of two parts using Jamestown, a historical site in Virginia, and several of its famous figures as the source for classroom activities. Part I activities are about the site including a brief history of Jamestown and its artifacts as a basis for writing and speaking activities, while the second part focuses on some famous figures who lived there as a basis for listening and writing activities.

10. Building Vocabulary and Improving Writing while Developing a Tourist Brochure

    In: English Teaching Forum 2008, Volume 46, Number 2 Format(s): Text

    This article describes how creating a tourist brochure can help students improve their vocabulary and writing skills. The author describes how to plan writing lessons based on the creation of a brochure: viewing videos, planning the brochure, writing the brochure, getting feedback and rewriting, and displaying the brochure. In the conclusion, the author highlights the benefits of the activity as providing opportunities for contextualized writing and vocabulary learning.

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