Boardwork

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When using the ESA methodology, there are a number of lesson formats available. In the third of this series we look at a Patchwork lesson. What does a Patchwork lesson look like and for what level of student is it most appropriate? Lesson aim: For the students to be able to discuss holidays using vocabulary and conducting a role-play. Student Level: Intermediate (Due to the complexity of Patchwork lessons they should only be used for Intermediate level and above) We start by reminding ourselves of the form of a Patchwork ESA lesson. We start with an engage as always and we will finish with an activate and there will be some combination of E, S and A within the brackets. Starting...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will take a look at a typical example of a boomerang lesson. First we will recap the structure E  A1  S  A2 Here the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs, what happens at interviews and so on and so forth. During that engage phase what we would hope to do is to elicit some useful language about, jobs, interviews and the types of questions that are being asked in interviews. Some of this information can be put on the board. We do no teaching in this phase, we do not correct any mistakes either, just let the students talk freely. Next, we're going to move immediately into an activate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Having been professionally teaching for a year now, this course provided me with a lot of new information, which I can incorporate in my teachings of the English language. I am not able to narrow down to a specific unit within this course because every unit had some information which I was not familiar with prior; however, I would have to say the units that stood out to me the most were: theories, methods, and techniques, managing classes, and teaching special groups. I currently teach students ranging from ages 4-12, and these three units, in particular, helped me to better understand the different levels of students, how to teach each level accordingly, the ESA lesson plans and the different styles, how to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph Van H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When acquiring a new language, the skills required can be split into two main categories; receptive and productive. These can be split again into reading and listening (receptive) along with writing and speaking (productive). Many decisions around the planning of lessons such as learning materials, activities, student participation levels, etc. are all heavily influenced by the students’ receptive skill levels and as such, they must always be taken into account if planning is to be effective. Receptive skills are particularly valuable to a student...  [Read more]