I have been involved in education since 1990 and have worked all over the world as a language teacher, teacher trainer, technology trainer and educational technology consultant. In May 2012 I won a British Council ELTon for Excellence in Course Innovation for the Blended Learning in ELT course I designed for Bell Educational Services . I write and publish materials which make best use of educational technology.
I have been involved in education since 1990 and have worked all over the world as a language teacher, teacher trainer, technology trainer and educational technology consultant. In May 2012 I won a British Council ELTon for Excellence in Course Innovation for the Blended Learning in ELT course I designed for Bell Educational Services . I write and publish materials which make best use of educational technology.
In the lesson students will find out about the different things people usually have for breakfast in different countries and they will develop an awareness of the importance of having a good breakfast.
Aims:
To develop students’ abilities to think critically and form informed opinions.
To develop students’ abilities to understand statistical information.
To develop students’ abilities to check the credibility of online information.
To develop students’ abilities to carry out and create online research and to represent their findings visually.
To develop students’ abilities to extract information from research and create informative text based on their findings.
This lesson plan explores the topic of crime and motivation. It uses images and a crime story to develop students’ vocabulary around the topic of crime. It also helps to develop their understanding of narrative tenses.
Most importantly, the lesson pushes students to think more critically about the information they are being told and to think about how they can cross-check information.
At the end of the lesson, students are also encouraged to do research in preparation for a debate about various issues related to crime and punishment.
This lesson also has an interactive version of the materials that teachers can use with a data-projector or interactive whiteboard. The students can also follow the lesson and interact with the materials using a tablet, mobile phone or computer.
This lesson plan is based on an infographic that reports on a survey into advertising, people’s attitudes to it and how it influences them.
Aims:
To develop students’ abilities to think critically and form informed opinions.
To develop students’ abilities to study and research effectively using digital tools.
To develop students’ abilities to read and understand visual information.
To develop students’ abilities to check the credibility of online information.
To develop students’ abilities to carry out online research and to represent their findings visually.
To develop students’ abilities to extract information from research and create informative text based on their findings.
The materials in this plan can be used in different ways. The first four tasks can be used independently as a simple reading and discussion lesson.
The final four tasks can be used selectively to develop various digital skills.
This lesson contains eight tasks:
A discussion task that gets students thinking about advertisements and how they influence their behavior.
A reading task that develops students’ abilities to scan text for specific information
A reading task that develops students’ abilities to check and confirm information.
A discussion task that gives students the opportunity to reflect on the information and apply it to their own lives.
A social research task that gets students to create an online questionnaire to find out about people’s attitudes to advertising.
A research task that gets students to check the accuracy of information
.A research task that gets students to research the advertising techniques used by various companies.
A writing task that gives students the opportunity to consolidate their learning in the form of a blog article.
This e-booklet contains a collection of ten lesson plans to help you develop students' digital literacies and critical thinking skills. Based around authentic infographics the lessons start by using discussion to help students access what they already know about the topics and then move on to comprehension and a range of tasks that help students to explore the validity and authenticity of the information they find. They finish with structured research and presentation tasks that encourage students to work collaboratively and share what they have learned.
The lessons progress through a range of tasks that engage student’s interest, encourage them to:
-: interact and share what they know
-: develop their abilities to extract information from text and graphics
-: view information critically
-: check the credibility and validity of information
-: develop online research skills
-: use web based tools to create surveys and data visualisations
The lessons cover a range of topics including:
-: Advertising and how it influences us
-: Body language and how to understand it
-: Introverts and extroverts and how they differ
-: Emotional intelligence and how it impacts on our relationships
-: Facts about hair
-: Happiness and what effects it
-: Developing study skills
-: The environment and waste caused by clothes manufacturing
-: Daily habits of the world's wealthiest people
-: The history of marriage and weddings
Each lesson includes:
-: A step by step teachers guide with advice and answer key
-: Worksheets to print for students
When I first started hearing and reading about ChatGPT and all the marvellous things it could do, I was very excited, but my first impressions weren’t that great. Good, but not great.
I found it frustrating. I was reading articles about all the marvellous things it could do, but when I tried to get ChatGPT to do those things for me, the results were a bit disappointing. Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience.
The reality is that in order to get the best from ChatGPT, you have to learn to understand a little bit about it, the way it thinks and the way it understands language. I soon found that the more I studied this, the better the results were and the more things it would do for me.
What I’ll be sharing in this book are some of the ideas and insights I’ve developed from my time working with it. Along with the prompts and prompt templates, you can use to get the same or better results for your students.
Contents
Chapter 1 - An introduction to ChatGPT where we look at some of the basics such as parts of the interface, what they do and how ChatGPT works.
Chapter 2 - We look at what ChatGPT can do to help us prepare engaging materials and how students can interact with ChatGPT. This section will focus on exploiting ChatGPT in the classroom and for homework activities. This includes example materials, ideas and lesson plans that you can try along with the prompts that I used to create the materials.
Chapter 3 - We look at some of the ways you can learn more about teaching and ways that you can use ChatGPT to make your workload a little easier to deal with, especially lesson planning and language research.
Chapter 4 - We look at a collection of tips for helping you construct prompts. Prompts enable you to get responses from ChatGPT and the better your prompt writing is the better the results you will get.
Chapter 5 - We look at some examples of other AI tools that can be used alongside ChatGPT to do various tasks like creating images, audio and video, as well as creating quizzes, presentations and lesson plans.
Chapter 6 - We look at some of the various different issues and controversies that ChatGPT raises.
256 pages
In this lesson about money students will explore cryptocurrency, one of the most fascinating and poorly understood elements of digitalisation that could soon impact all of our lives. They will exchange their knowledge, views and experiences of money and read and research cryptocurrencies and the mysterious creator of Bitcoin - Satoshi Nakamoto and all of this while developing their English, communication skills and digital literacies.
Aims:
To develop students’ knowledge and ability to talk about and understand cryptocurrencies.
Level:
Intermediate + (B1- C2)
Materials:
Teachers’ Guide - (PDF)
Digital presentation: Demonstration Copy
In this lesson from the Building Dialogue series, we look at the controversial issue of the growing role of AI in our lives and in government.
Through the lesson, students find out more about AI and its abilities to make logical decisions by watching a short video. They will also listen to people sharing their views about the role of AI in government.
They use techniques from dialogue building to explore each person’s beliefs in a neutral way. They then find out about the beliefs of their peers by asking open questions and listening.
Aims
To give students strategies for engaging in dialogue and improving understanding of complex issues.
Time: 90 mins +
Level: B2 +
Materials
Teachers’ Guide: PDF
Presentation: Demo copy
Note-taking task: https://bit.ly/42uDtip
Listening gap-fill task: https://bit.ly/42dLTLA
Script task 1: https://bit.ly/3pe51u6
Script task 2: https://bit.ly/3HMzOVo
Question task: https://bit.ly/3nFV4Fh
Reflection task: https://bit.ly/3LEwn47
Understanding and being able to convey information about a sales funnel is an important part of any commercial business.
In this lesson, students will listen to three managers discussing their sales funnel, learn associated vocabulary and work together to design a sales funnel for a new company.
Aims
To enable students to understand and discuss the process of attracting and converting new customers.
Time: 90 mins +
Level: B1 +
Materials:
Teachers’ Notes - PDF
Presentation: Demonstration copy
Vocabulary activity: https://bit.ly/38EeLFJ
Listening activity: https://bit.ly/3kx1Rfs
Role play cards: https://bit.ly/3y2UqVj
Reflection task: https://bit.ly/3kwhKmg
Additional Materials:
Speaking activity: https://bit.ly/3ku3LNJ
This lesson is based on an infographic about the characteristics of introverts and extroverts and how these factors effect the kinds of work they choose to do.
In the lesson students will explore their views of what makes someone an introvert or extrovert. They will study an infographic which links the characteristics of each to different types of jobs and reflect on how the information applies to their own lives.
The plan includes a number of research tasks that develop students’ abilities to create and carry out online research and create online questionnaires.
There is also a reporting tasks which help student to develop the ability to analyze, synergize and share information as written text.
The files include a complete step by step lesson plan with printable worksheet and a presentation.
This lesson is based on an infographic about the characteristics of introverts and extroverts and how these factors effect the kinds of work they choose to do.
In the lesson students will explore their views of what makes someone an introvert or extrovert. They will study an infographic which links the characteristics of each to different types of jobs and reflect on how the information applies to their own lives.
The plan includes a number of research tasks that develop students’ abilities to create and carry out online research and create online questionnaires.
There is also a reporting tasks which help student to develop the ability to analyze, synergize and share information as written text.
The files include a complete step by step lesson plan with printable worksheet and a presentation.
In the lesson students will find out about the different things people usually have for breakfast in different countries and they will develop an awareness of the importance of having a good breakfast.
Aims:
To develop students’ abilities to think critically and form informed opinions.
To develop students’ abilities to understand statistical information.
To develop students’ abilities to check the credibility of online information.
To develop students’ abilities to carry out and create online research and to represent their findings visually.
To develop students’ abilities to extract information from research and create informative text based on their findings.
This lesson is based on an infographic about magnets. The infographics contains a range of facts and statistics as well as some information about magnets and how they are used.
In the lesson students will find out about the different uses of magnets and why they are so important.
The plan also includes a number of research tasks that develop students’ abilities to create and carry out online research, create online questionnaires and share their research by creating infographics, presentations and reports.
The files include a complete step by step lesson plan with printable worksheet and a presentation.
This lesson is based on an infographic about magnets. The infographics contains a range of facts and statistics as well as some information about magnets and how they are used.
In the lesson students will find out about the different uses of magnets and why they are so important.
The plan also includes a number of research tasks that develop students’ abilities to create and carry out online research, create online questionnaires and share their research by creating infographics, presentations and reports.
The files include a complete step by step lesson plan with printable worksheet and a presentation.
This lesson is based on an infographic about the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) and its role in our lives. In the lesson students will explore the differences between IQ and EI and develop an understanding of how they can improve their EI and how doing this can benefit them.
Aims:
To develop students’ understanding of EI and its importance.
To develop students’ abilities to study and research effectively using digital tools.
To develop students’ abilities to read and understand visual information.
To develop students’ abilities to check the credibility of online information.
To develop students’ abilities to carry out online research and to represent their findings visually.
To develop students’ abilities to extract information from research and create informative text based on their findings.
The lesson files include:
Step by step lesson plan and answer key
Presentation
Photocopiable worksheets
This lesson is based on an infographic about happiness and the factors that effect our happiness.In the lesson students will explore their views of what makes them happy and discover some of the science behind what happiness is and the factors that create and effect it.
Aims:
To develop students’ abilities to study and research effectively using digital tools.
To develop students’ abilities to read and understand visual information.
To develop students’ abilities to check the credibility of online information.
To develop students’ abilities to carry out online research and to represent their findings visually.
To develop students’ abilities to extract information from research and create informative text based on their findings.
The materials in this plan can be used in different ways. The first four tasks can be used independently as a simple reading and discussion lesson. The final five tasks can be used selectively depending on the aims of your lesson.
This lesson contains nine tasks:
A discussion task which gets students thinking around the topic.
A reading task which develops students’ abilities to check information.
A reading task which encourages students to look more carefully at the information.
A discussion task which gives students the opportunity to formulate a personal response to the information they have studied.
A research task which gets students to check and explore the authenticity of sources.
A research task which gets students to check the validity of the information in the infographic.
A research task which gets students to find out more about Maslow and the hierarchy of needs.
A social research task which gets students to create an online questionnaire to research happiness.
A writing task which gives students the opportunity to consolidate their learning in the form of a magazine article.
In this lesson students will explore their attitudes to buying clothes and find out about the costs and environmental impact of producing clothes.
They will do this by studying an infographic about the USAgain clothes recycling project, discussing the content and implications of the graphic and researching some of the background to the problem.
The materials in this plan can be used in different ways. The first four tasks of the plan can be used independently as a simple reading and discussion class. The last three research tasks can be used individually as follow up tasks or you could use all three. These tasks are likely to take longer and could be set as homework or independent study tasks.
This lesson contains seven tasks:
A pre reading task which encourages students to think about their existing clothes buying habits and attitudes.
A reading task which develops students abilities to scan text for specific information.
A quiz creation task which encourages students to ask questions about a text.
A post reading task which gives students the opportunity to formulate a personal response to the information they have studied.
A social media research task in which students create a digital questionnaire to research the opinions of their peers.
A writing task that develops students abilities to extract information from infographics and use it to create a persuasive text.
An online research task which guides students through the process of researching an environmental problem.
In the lesson students will learn some amazing facts about hair and the historical significance it has had in different cultures around the world. They will also learn to challenge and question the accuracy of information they find online.
This lesson contains seven tasks:
A discussion task which gets students thinking around the topic.
A reading task which develops students’ abilities to use text to check information.
A reading task which encourages students to develop deeper comprehension.
A discussion task which gives students the opportunity to formulate a personal response to the information they have studied.
An online research task which guides students through the process of researching and corroborating the credibility of online information.
An online research task which guides students through the process of creating research and disseminating the results.
A research task which develops students’ abilities to use social media to carry out research.
The materials in this plan can be used in different ways. The first four tasks can be used independently as a simple reading and discussion class.
The last three tasks are research tasks. These are the tasks that push students to develop their digital literacies most. It’s not necessary to use all the tasks. These tasks are likely to take longer and could be set as homework, independent study tasks or as projects and followed up in the classroom. The research tasks will all require internet access.
This book is a wonderful collection of 20 stories from teachers around the world. Each one describes how they try to be genuine in their interactions with their students and how they try to model the practices they promote.
The stories come from teachers of all levels, ages and grades. The book displays the wide range of diversity that exists in both the classrooms and the way teachers approach their profession around the world.
Edited by
Adelina binte Asmawi
George M Jacobs
Guo Qingli
Willy A Renandya
Foreword by Alan Maley
This ebook is 53 pages long and was originally published in 2009 so some of thetools are a bit out of date, but the ideas can still be used.
This document is intended as simple introduction to some free Web 2.0 type tools that can be used by teachers who are interested in using technology in language teaching. The tools presented here are just the tip of the iceberg and this should not be considered in anyway conclusive or even the ʻbest ofʼ Web 2.0 tools. New tools are emerging all the time, many not originally intended for education, but which can be put to good use by students and teachers alike to extent opportunities, enhance learning potential and develop the level of digital literacy that students will need for the 21st century.
TED Ed is a great tool for creating online lessons around videos. It enables you to structure a sequence of interactive activities around the video clip that guides the viewer towards a deeper understanding of the content. It’s an ideal tool for building blended learning.
In this document you can find:
-: a step by step guide showing how to use it
-: a video tutorial that shows you how to make the activities
-: some suggestions and ideas for using it in the classroom or as part of an online course.