The Practical ESOL Tutor

Reading activities - it's all I'm thinking about at the moment!  How the heckers are we going to do it online or as blended learning?  I have some ideas... Whole Group Read - give/send out a text to read, allocate paragraphs to individuals who can then record themselves and share the audio with the group (or maybe a reading buddy) who listen and correct where necessary.  I have tried this out on Whatsapp and it worked surprisingly well! Read Along - the teacher reads a text and uses the pointer for students to follow.  This could be done using something like Loom or Screencastify .  This could be pre-recorded or live. Pair Read - use breakout rooms on Zoom etc for students to practise reading together.  This could even work with a jigsaw read.  The tutor can also join breakout rooms to support if needed. Read a book - there are lots of online libraries popping up now which have downloadable texts.  Download the text and give copies in class for reading practise

A couple of weeks into lockdown I thought it might be a good idea to have a weekly newspaper which we could send out to students electronically.  The fantastic team that I work with made this happen for us. Each week we gather news related items, simplify the language which we collate in the weekly ESOL newspaper.  We use Google Docs which can then be sent out via a link through any medium such as text message etc (if you want to try this make sure you go to the advanced settings and make link accessible to all ).  Within the articles for the paper we embed links to videos and other entertaining things.  The tutors edit the newspaper but we encourage our students to write things to add into it too.  So far we've had book reviews and recipes, complete with photos.  It's been lovely and I hope also creates a sense of community and connection between students. We have created newspapers for the entry levels so far.  Sometimes I set a couple of comprehension questions to check

Trying to engage students online is proving to be the hardest thing, don't you agree? So I've taken to having a daily game with my students.  My students are at Entry 2 and 3 but ideas can be adapted for lower or higher levels.  I'm lucky enough to be able to use Whatsapp groups with them via a work mobile (consent from students was first sought before setting up the groups and ground rules established, such as no texting after 4pm etc).  The fastest reply is the winner. If you don't have Whatsapp I'm sure this could be adapted to email or on a VLE.  Some key things to consider when playing. 1) Never underestimate an emoji! I use them as prizes and the winners get to decide the emoji prize for the next day.  Winners can also decide a question for the next day, this was a bit bumpy with my students as they struggled to think of questions, but it something I'm hoping to revisit in time. 2) Wording is key - create some excitement!  I used ready, steady, go.

Hi fellow tutors! Welcome to my blog.  During these strange and unusual times I thought it might be helpful to share with you what I have been doing with my students.  Online learning is very new to me, I have dabbled with VLEs (virtual learning environments) previously but now it's full online engagement all the way. I'm a practical practitioner so want to make this as useful and hands on as possible.  Here's what I have been doing so far. I created a YouTube channel to house all of the mini video lessons I had made.  Through time with students in classes I know that YouTube is accessed by a good 99% of them.  Not being a particularly public person and also to ensure good safe guarding I created a private channel.  This means that only my students can access videos I send out to them via shared links.  The students are able to like (or dislike!) videos and write comments should they wish.  What I really like about my channel is the analytics.  It gives you, as the a