Category: ELT

Should cursive writing still be taught in our schools? The old debate is back with a vengeance as schools shift resources from the intricate, painstakingly rendered script to keyboard skills. The Common Core State Standards, adopted by 42 states and the District of Columbia, call for handwriting instruction in kindergarten and first grade only, and… Continue reading What We Lose With the Decline of Cursive

Show-and-tell, as we know, is an age-old activity in elementary school classrooms. Kids bring in a pet, or a parent, or a certificate they won in dance class, or a trophy from peewee baseball. But why stop with the younger grades? What about older students? Sharing a meaningful memento with classmates is valuable at any… Continue reading Updating an Age-Old Class Activity

All this week, we’ve been celebrating the publication of Penny Ur’s new book 100 Teaching Tips, the latest in our Cambridge Handbook for Language Teachers series. Today, we’re sharing with you two of the book’s 100 hands-on tips across 19 different areas of classroom teaching, based on Penny’s comprehensive teaching experience in ELT over the… Continue reading 100 Teaching Tips: two tips on teacher talk

Learning new vocabulary Why not take a student-centred approach to presenting new vocabulary? Let students decide which vocabulary items they don’t know first, and give them time to work out the meaning from pictures, context, or examples. If they’ve tried to work out the meaning for themselves, they’re more likely to remember vocabulary than when… Continue reading Five top tips for teaching vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills

Educators are often asking themselves, ‘why should we engage with technology in the classroom?’ One of the key reasons is that technology provides valuable learning opportunities for educators which can then be applied to ensure technology is adopted in a cost effective, pedagogically sound way that is more likely to lead to learning. To help… Continue reading 8 tips to help implement technology use in your classroom

There are many reasons why peer observations with our teaching colleagues can be useful. They often share your background and so understand your students, books, pressures, etc. They usually approach problems from the same practical perspective as you. They probably know you and so often understand the best way to approach you. And you can… Continue reading 5 Activities for Peer Observation

Five reasons why feedback may be the most important skill Roberto Guzman on ‘Teaching English without Teaching English’ Authentic materials in the classroom: the advantages Catherine Thimmesh on ‘Creativity in the classroom’ Research Paper: ‘English Language Teaching in Gujarat: Contemporary Issues and Challenges’ by Kaushik Trivedi Assessment for the Language Classroom Joe Ruhl on ‘Teaching… Continue reading ELTWeekly Volume 9, Issue 6

Before I share my thoughts, I must make a disclaimer. If you’re looking for a magic solution to classroom challenges, the following will be helpful, but don’t expect major changes overnight. And please remember that a strong instructional philosophy (i.e., how one believes students best learn) and a well-thought-out lesson plan form the foundation for… Continue reading New Teachers: Classroom Management Essentials

A few months ago, I noticed an increased amount of discussion around the notion of blended learning. Many of these conversations started on a similar note: “We’re blended—all of our teachers use Google Classroom” (or Edmodo, Schoology, Canvas, Moodle, etc.). However, in probing further, I often discovered that these tools had merely digitized existing content… Continue reading Are We Innovating, or Just Digitizing Traditional Teaching?