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When adults from the community serve as mentors who reinforce high expectations, students gain another vital source of support.

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I grew up within an extended network of supportive adults. I cannot remember any adult ever using the word if when discussing my academic future; it was always " when you finish college" and " when you become a professional." It distressed me that many of the high school students I taught did not seem to have similarly consistent, nurturing encouragement.

One way I tried to give students the opportunity to experience such support was to create a classroom mentoring program. Mentors were not asked to tutor or help with homework or assignments (although some chose to do so). Nor would I discuss grades or student discipline issues with them. Their main responsibility was to encourage the students and provide positive support for their academic endeavors. The purpose of the mentoring program was not to replace parental involvement, but rather to strengthen it by providing another trusted adult, who along with me would share high expectations for each student.

Selecting the Mentors

Near the beginning of the school year, each student nominated a significant adult to be a mentor. I instructed them to nominate an adult they highly respected who cared about how they did in school and in life.

For those students who could not think of any adult they believed cared about their success, I always had a set of colleagues or community volunteers on standby. One such student was Christopher. He had been in self-contained special needs classes since first grade; however, when he entered high school, his mother wanted him to earn a diploma, not the special education certificate. Chris was hardworking and determined, but his greatest challenge would be passing the state literacy test required for graduation. One of my coworkers, an older woman, gladly agreed to be his mentor. Technically, she was the school attendance clerk, but to the students and the community she was much more. For Chris, she provided encouragement, a place to study, sometimes a ride to his rural home after one of his tutoring sessions. It took five years and six attempts on the test, but he did finally earn his diploma.

As a class activity, we would draft an invitation letter to the potential mentors and discuss our expectations of the mentors and of ourselves. Most students preferred to hand-deliver the letters, but I would always follow up with a mailed (or emailed) copy.

Responses were generally positive; most of the nominees took being invited to serve as an honor. Relatives, pastors, coaches, neighbors, and students' former teachers have all served as mentors. It was rare that parents or guardians did not want their child to have a mentor once I explained how the program worked.

Day-to-Day Application

After the welcome letter, communication with the mentors was on an as-needed basis. Sometimes, I initiated contact if I noticed a student struggling or knew something especially challenging was coming. Other times, the mentors contacted me to alert me to a problem or to get an update. During the school year, parents would tell me that having the mentors helped in so many ways. Some of the single parents were especially grateful that there was another adult encouraging their child. Some mentors came to school events regularly or became active school volunteers.

Although each student had a selected mentor, sometimes the mentors acted as a group. For example, one year during state testing week, several of the mentors worked together to provide break-time snacks with inspirational notes. Among the mentors, I found a range of community and culturally relevant resources for our class. Many of them provided artifacts, gave oral histories, spoke on a variety of subjects, or demonstrated crafts. The mentors were also a source of information for me about how to connect language arts instruction to students' lives in the larger community.

For example, one of the mentors was a local church pastor who had been active for many years in the civil rights movement. He not only knew many of the students and their families but also outlined the roles that some of those families had played in the fight for civil rights and in the development of the community. This information became the starting point for many of our classroom writing and research assignments.

At the end of the school year, the students invited their parents and mentors to celebrate their learning at a classroom showcase event. After the first year of this project, adults and students in our community began expecting the mentor invitations. Some students came to my class the first day with the names of their potential mentors and had already secured their consent to serve.

The impact on students was overwhelmingly positive. More than one student commented that while they expected me or their parents to push them (or nag them) about schoolwork, there was something different and affirming about these other adults taking an interest in their success. One student said, "It's like having our own cheering squad!"

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Setting Up a Mentoring Program to Encourage Students

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When adults from the community serve as mentors who reinforce high expectations, students gain another vital source of support.

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פורטל עובדי הוראה | מרחב פדגוגי

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Drama in the EFL Classroom - פורטל עובדי הוראה | מרחב פדגוגי

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Using drama in the EFL class can improve the language learners, reading and speaking skills. It encourages children to speak gives them the chance to communicate

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Even though poetry gets a lot of attention during Poetry Monty in April (as it should), it is fun to teach any time of year! I must admit that I am drawn to fiction, and teaching poetry seemed daunting at first; but I have discovered the joy of poetry while exploring it with my English language learners, and my students have been very enthusiastic about our poetry units. Here are some of the reasons why I've enjoyed teaching poetry so much with my ELLs:

Versatility

Poetry is so versatile, which makes it a great form to use in the ELL classroom. There are so many types of poetry and so many different forms that eventually, each student is bound to find a poem or poet he or she enjoys!

Language

Poems can be used to introduce or practice new vocabulary, language structures, and rhyming devices, and shorter poems often give ELLs a chance to explore an idea while working with a more manageable amount of text than a short story or essay.

Culture

In addition, many ELLs come from cultural backgrounds rich with poetry and folktales. From the epic poems of ancient civilizations to more modern political poems written during the 20th century, poetry opens an interesting historical and cultural window, and students may already be quite knowledgeable about the poets and poems that are an important part of their heritage.

Introducing ELLs to Poetry

Take a look at these different perspectives on reading and writing poetry from some of our favorite poets!

Poetry offers wonderful opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening practice for ELLs. Poetry also gives students a chance to expand vocabulary knowledge, to play with language, and to work with different rhythms and rhyme patterns. The benefits of using poetry are not simply anecdotal, however - they have been well documented. Research by Dr. Janette Hughes at the University of Ontario, for example, demonstrates the positive effects of poetry on literacy development. As Dr. Hughes points out, "paying attention to vocabulary and rhythm develops oral language skills," (Hughes, 2007, p. 1) and the development of oral language skills has a strong correlation to proficiency in reading.

Where to begin, then, as you consider how to begin a unit on poetry? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Draw on students' background knowledge

It may be helpful to start your poetry instruction by finding out what kinds of experiences your students have had with poetry. Do students know poems in their native language? Is there a particular poem from their country or heritage that they like? Would they be willing to share a translation? Who are the famous poets from their country? Have students written poems before? Was it in English or their native language? Did student enjoy writing poetry?

Getting students to think about poems they are familiar with can help make the transition into English-language poetry smoother. You may also wish to have students look at bilingual collections of poetry in English and their native language when available. How do the translations of the same poem compare? Are there words or phrases that don't translate well from one langue to the other?

Working with poetry from different countries and languages also is an excellent opportunity to encourage students to share their cultural heritage with the class, and to take pride in an art form that is part of their identity and may have been passed down across many generations.

For example, Carol McCarthy, a teacher in Queens, NY has capitalized on her students' poetic heritages by creating a unit called Poetry in Translation, in which students "translate the work of poets from their native country or ethnic heritage, and then write and translate their own poems" (McCarthy, Academy of American Poets website). She offers a number of ideas for guiding students in their exploration of poetry from their own cultures, which then provides a foundation for the comparisons students do of poems from different cultures later in the unit.

Using Poetry in Reading Instruction

Familiarize students with different kinds of poems

Poetry can range from simple and fun to complicated and abstract, which may be one reason it is daunting for many teachers and students alike. Start by choosing simple poems that aren't too abstract or complex - you'll get to Shakespeare eventually! Depending on the English level of the students, there are a variety of ways to start bringing poetry in the classroom. You can find many examples of poetry collections and novels in verse on our National Poetry Month resource page.

Talk about the differences between stories and poems. Provide students with a copy of a short story they've already read and a short poem. Ask them to work in groups and make a list of the differences between the two pieces, noting characteristics such as length or style. Have students share those differences with the class.

Start with poems that are manageable. Make sure the poems you present first have simple and familiar language, images, and themes so that they are accessible to ELLs. One ESL teacher recommends using poetry with "predictable language patterns, repeated words, phrases, lines, and identifiable rhymes" so that they are easier for students to read (Alpha, 2009).

Give students a chance to illustrate poems. Have students work in pairs to discuss and illustrate a short poem, or one or two lines of a longer poem. This will encourage them to think about meaning, and then express their interpretation in their own way. Ask students to share their illustrations with the class so that everyone has a chance to think about the different meanings that their classmates discovered.

Read a variety of poems out loud. Reading a poem out loud brings it to life. Students will begin to understand and notice different rhythms, rhymes, and feelings represented, as well as understand how the language creates an image or mood. The poem should be read in a natural voice, and the teacher can highlight the fact that you do not always stop at the end of each line, but instead use the poem's punctuation as a cue to where the pauses should be.

Be sure to include some poems written for kids and young adults. Children's poetry can be so much fun, and it also gives students a chance to talk about important ideas and feelings. Share the work of poets such as Juan Felipe Herrera, Francisco X. Alarcón, Pat Mora, Naomi Shihab Nye, Rene Saldana, Jr., Janet Wong, Margarita Engle, Nikki Grimes, and Nikki Giovanni, as well as these video interviews with poets from PBS Teachers.

Discuss the vocabulary used in different poems. Poems offer a wonderful opportunity to teach new vocabulary related to a topic or idea, as well as a chance to think about language. Why did the poet choose a certain word? How does that word make you feel? What kind of sound does the word convey? Students may want to pick a word or phrase that is meaningful from a poem and write it on a "poetic word" wall - sort of a graffiti wall of sentiments. Students can continue to add to the wall as they discover new items, or even as they write their own poems. Another idea is to use a bubble Thinking Map®. Students working in pairs take a word of interest from a poem and place it in the center bubble. They then fill in as many bubbles around the word with as they can with synonyms or related words. For example, if the word is "longing," students may write words in other bubbles such as, "missing, nostalgic, sorrow, homesick, desire, etc." Students can discuss how the poem would be different if one of the other words had been used. Pairs can share their word lists with other students and ask questions about new words they learn.

Give students a chance to read poems out loud together as a class and to each other. Reading poems out loud will improve students' confidence and oral language skills, as well as their reading fluency. See more ideas below.

Look for opportunities to include poetry in other contexts. There is a wide variety of poems that can accompany social studies, history, science, and even math lessons! Poems are also wonderful additions to a discussion on culture and holidays.

Use novels in verse. Novels in verse are available about a wide range of topics from many diverse authors and can help build students' confidence and reading stamina. Take a look at some of the titles available in our National Poetry Month resource collection from authors such as Margarita Engle, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Thanhha Lai.

Encourage students to immerse themselves in poetry

As students' comfort level increases, it will be possible to begin more in-depth conversations about different poetry forms, meaning, and language. Here are some ideas for more advanced students:

Use graphic organizers. These tools can be helpful when talking about a poem's structure or rhyming scheme so that students can reinforce their knowledge about the poetry form and meaning.

Discuss grammatical/syntax patterns found in poems. Poems may have unusual sentence structures that students will not encounter in prose text. Analyzing such sentences can help ELLs develop a better understanding of conventional English syntax.

Continue reading poetry out loud to your students. When introducing more complex poems with increasingly difficult English vocabulary, read the poem through and ask students for an initial impression regarding the meaning of the poem. A student might say, "I think it's about someone who lost someone they love." This can begin a discussion with questions such as, "Why do you think that? Is there a certain word or phrase that makes you think that? Does someone else have a different idea?"

Encourage students to share their personal interpretations. Students will soon see that each reader finds a different meaning in the poem, and that's ok. Students shouldn't be bogged down looking for the right and wrong answers.

Using Poetry to Develop Oral Language Skills

Give students the chance to read poems out loud

Reading poetry aloud is a great way for ELLs to practice pronunciation and fluency, as well as a chance for students to play with rhymes and language.

In order to increase confidence and fluency, have students start by reading some poems together as a class. Then have students choose a poem that they enjoy and then practice reading their poems aloud in pairs, experimenting with expression, volume, and speed. After students have had time to practice, listen in and offer some feedback on expression and pronunciation. Once students have one more round of practice, ask students to share their poems aloud with the class.

Poems can make wonderful class presentations, whether students read different poems from a collection aloud, act out a longer dramatic poem, or take turns reading a rhyming text. Andrea Spillett, an ELL teacher who blogs for Scholastic, describes a program in which students presented poems from Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak to their parents: "The book has a rhyming text about the months of the year. Students recited the poem of the month they were born. Simple costumes and a backdrop were used for the presentation" (Spillett, 2008). This demonstrates that poetry doesn't have to be complicated to be effective - even simple poems can be engaging!

There are many resources online that offer ideas for using poetry in the classroom - those listed in the Hotlinks section below are just the tip of the iceberg. I hope you enjoy your exploration of poetry as much as I have enjoyed mine. Once you get going, you'll wonder why it took you so long to get started!

Hot links
Academy of American Poets: Tips for Teaching Poetry
Here are a number of creative and inexpensive suggestions for making poetry a more important part of school life throughout the year.
Reading Rockets: National Poetry Month Resources
Reading Rockets has gathered together activities for parents and teachers, video interviews with our favorite children's poets, recommended books and anthologies, fun online games (check out Magnetic Poetry), and a peek at the latest poetry for kids!
Academy of American Poets: Poetry in Translation
This poetry unit created by Queens teacher Carol McCarthy draws on the unique abilities of the students in her multicultural classroom.
Academy of American Poets: Great Poems to Teach
Includes links to poetry from many poets including, Maya Angelou, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, and William Wordsworth.
Academy of American Poets: National Poetry Month
Provides a description of National Poetry Month, answers questions about how and when it started, and includes suggestions for celebrating.
Academy of American Poets: 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month
Includes links to creative ideas like "putting poetry in unexpected places" and "take a poem to lunch."
EdSitement: Poetry Lesson Plans
Lesson plans covering a wide range of poetry units, from Langston Hughes to Haiku.
TeacherVision: Poetry Resources for Teachers
A variety of printables, lesson plans, activities, and references for you to use in your cross-curricular study of the art of poetry.
PBS Learning Media: Poetry and Poets
Poetry lesson plans, including numerous video interviews with contemporary poets from around the world.

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Teaching and Reading Poetry with English Language Learners

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Even though poetry gets a lot of attention during Poetry Monty in April (as it should), it is fun to teach any time of year! I must admit that I am drawn to fiction, and teaching poetry seemed daunting at first; but I have discovered the joy of poetry while exploring it with my English language learners, and my students have been very enthusiastic about our poetry units.

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פורטל עובדי הוראה | מרחב פדגוגי

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Music is a wonderful way in which to acquire, process, and produce English.

Learning through music promotes enjoyment, reinforces vocabulary acquisition, motivates the learner and builds self-confidence.

The use of music for teaching and learning depends on the individual styles of the teacher and student.

Music helps with pronunciation, understanding the vocabulary out of context, exposes the beauty and variety of the English language, promotes interest in the English language, provides a success-oriented learning experience through repitition of the songs, improves the feeling of community in the class, provides a cultural experience, and helps with grammar learning.

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English Through Music - פורטל עובדי הוראה | מרחב פדגוגי

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Music is a wonderful way in which to acquire, process, and produce English. Learning through music promotes enjoyment, reinforces vocabulary acquisition, motivates the learner and builds self-confidence. The use of music for teaching and learning depends on the individual styles of the teacher and student.

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Have you ever had a class of elementary students who sat perfectly still?

Young students who used quiet voices and stayed completely concentrated on a single task?

Probably not.

Anyone who has taught a class of elementary school students for more than a day knows how difficult it is to keep students in their seats and focused on the lesson.
But instead of getting frustrated with the kids' energy, we should use that excitement for an educational activity.
When students don't release their natural energy, they become bored and distracted-they stare out the window, doodle, make paper airplanes or even run around the room. This can tire any teacher's patience.

Studies have shown that students learn better when they have more physical activity during the school day.

So let's couple that physical activity with English for an epic ESL class full of ESL activities that your students will absolutely love!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Benefits of Physical Activities in ESL Classes

When you incorporate physical activities in your ESL class, you will provide your students with an outlet for all their energy that other teachers don't allow them to release. A short period of exercise will make students more willing to sit still for another 10 to 15 minutes while you give your lesson. Just think, three to five minutes of physical activity that incorporates language can give you 15 minutes of quiet, organized class time.

And your students will use their language skills during and after the physical activity, increasing the total time spent learning. During physical activities in class, you will give students instructions-they will have to listen to participate in the activity. There will also be a spoken component to the activity to add to their language skills. In some cases, you can incorporate reading activities, thus including three of the four skills students need to use to learn English.

Because of the correlation between the English words and the physical response, the students will recognize words and phrases more easily. With a word as simple as "wave," you can get your students to listen, speak or act depending on the prompt.

Most importantly, using these physical activities in an ESL class will create a fun atmosphere for the students. Students who find a class fun are more likely to be attentive during lessons and retain the information better. It can also turn you into a more popular teacher at school.

Individual vs. Full Class Physical Activities for ESL Class

When incorporating physical activities into your ESL class, you can either do full class activities where everyone's participating, or have an individual do one of the activities. Individual activities will be a little more difficult for some classes, especially larger ones. You have to know when you can use them and how to maintain control of the other students while one student is performing the activity.

Singling out one student to perform an action in front the class (though it's easier and less embarrassing to have the student do it in front of his/her desk) is usually best reserved for a warm-up, introduction or review lesson.

If you're just introducing new vocabulary to be acted out, you may want to call on the better students who are more likely to already know the words and actions. You may, however, just choose a more outgoing student who wouldn't mind being moved around by the teacher as a demonstration. During a review, you can call on the struggling students to help reinforce the concepts.

But the best way to allow students to expend all of their excess energy in class is through activities that involve the entire class at the same time. These types of activities can depend on the number of students, size of the classroom and layout of the classroom. As you grow more comfortable in your space, you will know which activities will work and how to organize them in the space you have. FluentU's interactive videos are also a good source for full-class activities.

Think of it as a theater project-you are the director and you have to work with what you're given. You want a grand production, but you're provided with a small empty space and talent that may be a little rough around the edges.

For the best results, we're equipping you with five full-class activities below-which are sure to both delight students and improve English at the same time.

1. Teach verbs through motion

This is when you can teach verbs to the entire class. If you're teaching actions that can be performed in a small space, this is a perfect opportunity to get your students to act them out.

So after teaching your students words such as "jump" or "throw," you can ask your students to show you what these words mean. As you watch your students perform these actions, you can also see who knows what to do immediately and which students need to follow the rest of class-now you'll know who needs more help understanding vocabulary.

If you're using words that require a level of interpretation and imagination, such as "dance," you could have a bit more fun. Students love to show off in some of the most ridiculous ways-they'll appreciate seeing you laugh when their dance style is absurd (let them go, they can learn to dance when they're older).

This is also an opportunity for you to return to childhood games that require physical activity. You can teach your students parts of the body and actions through a game of Simon Says.

2. Reading and acting verb competition

A variation of this first activity could be done in teams. Using the competitive nature of the students, you can determine which group of students can best perform each action and arbitrarily award points depending on performance and overall behavior.

This basic game should have only two teams, no matter the size of the class. The game itself should only take 10 to 15 minutes.

1. Hold up a word or phrase for one team to read without showing the other.

2. When the first team correctly reads the word or phrase, the other team will have to act it out.

3. You can award a point for the team correctly reading and another for the team correctly acting it out.

You can also reverse the activity by playing charades and having the opposing team guess the action.

Another variation of the game includes showing the first team a picture that portrays an action and have a student from the team write the word or phrase on the board. The second team would then act out the word or phrase. Have fun trying these out and see what works best with your students!

3. Acting out dialogues

In smaller groups, especially with students who are a little beyond beginners, you can use short dialogues for students to act out. It can be a fairly simple dialogue, such as "Where is the library?" or "May I borrow a pencil?"

These should be dialogues that students have read before, so they're more familiar with the phrases and actions associated with them. There usually won't be as much movement here as you would have with the previous two activities, but there's still enough such that the students aren't stuck in their seats for an entire class period.

You can call two students at time (sometimes three or four depending on the dialogue) to the front of the room. Provide them with a prompt to begin the dialogue (i.e. ask one another for directions or about each other's hobbies). If it's a dialogue that involves props, such as "May I borrow a ...?," it may help reinforce the vocabulary by forcing the students to pick the correct item for the dialogue.

4. Twister variations

Everyone loves Twister, but it's not something you can play with an entire class. There are, however, variations that can be used in class to get the students moving and thinking.

You can use anything from colors and shapes to words and phrases that you place on the floor (use laminated versions and tape them to the floor so they don't slide around). Make them large enough or make multiples so every student has an opportunity when playing.

You or a chosen student calls out the word/color/shape/etc. and the class rushes to step on or place a hand on that card stuck to the floor. You can also show a color or shape and have the students find the matching word on the floor.

Note: You should not actually turn this into a traditional game of Twister as it could lead to more problems with students pushing and hurting each other.

5. Jump to the front

This game works with groups of three to five students at a time. You can break your class into teams and award points based on the results of each round.

As with other games, you can hold up a picture and have the students say or write the corresponding word or phrase. The first student to answer correctly gets to jump a space ahead (three or four answers should win the round). At each jump forward, there should be a card that the student must pick up and read.

If the student reads it correctly, he or she stays in that spot for the next question. If the student reads it incorrectly, he or she must jump back. Replace the card if the student gets it incorrect.

This simple game also keeps other students paying attention because they must behave to join in the game for subsequent rounds.

No matter how you include movement in your classroom, it will improve the overall performance and behavior of your students. They will make connections between English words/phrases and actions, while expending enough energy to sit still during the rest of the lesson.

The creation of a fun classroom atmosphere will also encourage students to pay attention and learn more, so add some movement to your ESL class today!

And One More Thing...

If you're looking for creative ways to teach English, then you'll love using FluentU in your classroom!

It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch regularly. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities.

You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students.

Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "searching," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about learning English!

Sign up for a free trial and bring FluentU to your classroom today.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

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5 Fun Physical Activities to Get Your ESL Class Moving and Grooving

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Have you ever had a class of elementary students who sat perfectly still? Young students who used quiet voices and stayed completely concentrated on a single task? Probably not. Anyone who has taught a class of elementary school students for more than a day knows how difficult it is to keep students in their seats and focused on the lesson.

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Using digital tools to transform the classroom

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Reading for fun has numerous lifelong benefits, and we have ideas for how you can promote this habit among your students.

Why don't students read? Most teachers have the goal of promoting students' lifelong love of reading. But why? And what can teachers and parents and librarians do to promote pleasure reading?

In our book Reading Unbound, Michael Smith and I argue that promoting pleasure reading is a civil rights issue. Data from major longitudinal studies show that pleasure reading in youth is the most explanatory factor of both cognitive progress and social mobility over time (e.g., Sullivan & Brown, 2013 [PDF]; Guthrie, et al, 2001; and Kirsch, et al, 2002 [PDF]). Pleasure reading is a more powerful predictor than even parental socioeconomic status and educational attainment.

So if we want our students to actualize their full potential as human beings and their capacity to participate in a democracy, and if we want to overcome social inequalities, we must actively promote pleasure reading in our schools, classrooms, and homes.

The Pleasures of Reading

Pleasure reading can be defined as reading that is freely chosen or that readers freely and enthusiastically continue after it is assigned. Our students (like all other human beings!) do what they find pleasurable. You get good at what you practice, and then outgrow yourself by deliberately developing new related interests and capacities.

Play pleasure/immersive pleasure is when a reader is lost in a book. This is prerequisite to experiencing all the other pleasures; it develops the capacity to engage and immerse oneself, visualize meanings, relate to characters, and participate in making meaning.

Intellectual pleasure is when a reader engages in figuring out what things mean and how texts have been constructed to convey meanings and effects. Benefits include developing deep understanding, proactivity, resilience, and grit.

Social pleasure is when the reader relates to authors, characters, other readers, and oneself by exploring and staking one's identity. This pleasure develops the capacity to experience the world from other perspectives; to learn from and appreciate others distant from us in time, space, and experience; and to relate to, reciprocate with, attend to, and help others different from ourselves.

Work pleasure is when the reader develops a tool for getting something functional done-this cultivates the transfer of these strategies and insights to life.

Inner work pleasure is when the reader imaginatively rehearses for her life and considers what kind of person she wants to be and how she can connect to something greater or strive to become something more. When our study participants engaged in this pleasure, they expressed and developed a growth mindset and a sense of personal and social possibility.

In our study, we found that reading pleasure has many forms, and that each form provides distinct benefits:

Taken together, these pleasures explain why pleasure reading promotes cognitive progress and social possibility, and even a kind of wisdom and wholeness, and, in a larger sense, the democratic project.

Promoting the Pleasures of Reading

We need to help less engaged readers experience these same pleasures. That is our study's major takeaway: We must make all five pleasures central to our teaching. We need to name them, actively model them, and then assist students to experience them.

To promote play pleasure, use drama techniques like revolving role play, in-role writing, and hot seating of characters in order to reward all students for entering and living through story worlds and becoming or relating to characters in the way that highly engaged readers do.

To promote intellectual pleasure, frame units as inquiry, with essential questions. Read a book for the first time along with your students-figure it out along with them, modeling your fits and starts and problems through think-alouds and discussion. Or pair an assigned reading with self-selected reading from a list, or a free reading choice that pertains to the topic. Use student-generated questions for discussion and sharing. Use discussion structures like Socratic seminar that make it clear there is no teacherly agenda to fulfill as far as topics or insights to achieve.
Courtesy of Jeffrey Wilhelm
To promote social pleasure, be a fellow reader with students. Put a sign on your door: "Dr. Wilhelm is reading _____." Read one of their favorite books. Foster peer discussion of reading and response in pairs, triads, small groups, literature circles, book clubs, etc. Do group projects with reading that are then shared and even archived. Have a free reading program and promote books through book talks, online reviews, etc.

To foster work pleasure, use inquiry contexts and work toward culminating projects, including service and social action projects.

To foster inner work pleasure, engage students in imaginative rehearsals for living, inquiry geared toward current and future action, or inquiry for service. Have students think as authors making choices and plan scenarios for characters in dilemmas or those trying to help the characters. Write to the future or to a future self.

Make no mistake, the next-generation standards worldwide require profound cognitive achievements. Meeting such standards and the demands of navigating modern life will require student effort and the honing of strategies over time. Promoting the power of pleasure reading is a proven path there.

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Reading for fun has numerous lifelong benefits, and we have ideas for how you can promote this habit among your students. Why don't students read? Most teachers have the goal of promoting students' lifelong love of reading. But why? And what can teachers and parents and librarians do to promote pleasure reading?

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Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader's theater scripts include lots of dialogue (Reading Rockets, 2015).

This picture above shows one example of what a readers theatre performance may look like. It can be informal at first but the students can practice numerous times to reach a "final performance" to act read or act out to the class. Using pictures of the characters like they did above can make it a little more realistic and fun for the kids performing and watching/listening.

Reader's Theatre Examples for Content Areas

(Education World, 2006) (Swallow, 2010).

Differentiated Instruction

Use easier scripts with fewer words for younger or struggling readers.

Write the script (or the student's part of the script) with print that is easy to read i.e. larger or in preferred font. Supply Braille scripts when needed.

Give the student their part in advance. Encourage them to practice at home with their parents

Have students read parts together.

Allow advanced students to write parts of the script.

When assigning roles, be sensitive to students' individual needs. Assign roles accordingly; provide extra, individual practice if needed (Reading Rockets, 2015).

Reasons to use Reader's Theatre:

It promotes fluency.

It helps readers learn to read aloud with expression.

It helps build reading confidence.

Steps to Reader's Theatre:

1. Choose a story that can be divided into parts, or characters (There are actual Reader's Theatre books that are available or teachers can create their own scripts for the students to use).

2. Assign reading parts to each child.

3. Ask students to read their scripts orally for practice.

4. Have students read assigned parts to the audience (Reading Rockets, 2015).

In the video above a third grade class performs a Reader's Theatre skit. They have read this many times before recording this performance and have practiced to make it their best. You can tell their teacher has taught them to use actions, props, and to change their voices to fit with the character. Reader'sTheatre doesn't have to be done this way with a performance at the end. Though it is fun for the kids to have the opportunity to give it their best by reading fluently and clearly as if they were performing in front of a real audience.

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Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills.

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What is gamification in education? - FutureLearn

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We discuss the concept of gamification in education, explore gamification examples and look at some gamification techniques.

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What are collaborative activities?

Collaborative activities are any activities where learners are working co-operatively in pairs or groups. For example:

Pair or group discussions

Completing shared tasks in a pair or group, e.g. matching, sorting, ranking

Activities or games with a competitive element, e.g. bingo

Drama and role play

Information exchange activities, including barrier games and jigsaw activities

Examples of activities

Collaborative activities can be used for any age-range and in any subject. EAL learners at any stage of language development can take part, particularly if those who are New to English are grouped with supportive peers. Here are some examples:
1. Group or pair discussion:
There are a range of pair or group discussions, for example:

Listening triangles: learners work together in groups of three: a speaker, a questioner and a note-taker.

The speaker explains the topic (or expresses their opinion on an issue) as directed by the teacher

The questioner listens carefully and asks for clarification or further detail

The note-taker observes this process and provides feedback to both speaker and questioner

Talk partners: Learners are paired for short discussion activities. Pairs can be selected, chosen randomly or regularly switched. It may be useful to establish ground rules and model some appropriate question types and responses.

Think-Pair-Share: Learners prepare a response to a text or prepare a piece of work and then explain their ideas to a partner. After the pairs have discussed the issue, they join with another pair, share views and emerge with a group conclusion or perspective.

Snowballing: Learners discuss something or investigate an issue in pairs. The pairs then join another pair to form a group and share their findings.  The small groups then join together to make a larger group: 2 →4 →8 →16 → whole-class.
2. Working on shared tasks, e.g. matching, sorting, ranking:
Working collaboratively on a task encourages use of the vocabulary of the curriculum area, and at the same time encourages use of the language of making suggestions, justifying opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, etc. It also gives practice in listening. Many of the resources on this website have images that can be made into flashcards which can be used for matching, sorting or ranking. For example, in A Balanced Diet learners are asked to sort cards with different foods on into groups according to their nutrient content.
3. Games and activities with a competitive element:
Games can be very effective in motivating learners, and in revising or consolidating curriculum content. They also practise the language of turn-taking and negotiating. Bingo is a popular game included in several of the resources on this site, e.g. food bingo. A quick noughts and crosses game can be produced for any topic on a whiteboard, i.e. a 3x3 grid with answers in each square. Split the class into two teams, and teams discuss possible questions to match the answers. There are likely to be a range of possible correct questions. In this example a question to which the correct answer is 'protein' could be 'What do you find in fish, nuts and meat?' or 'What do we need to build and repair tissue?'

Drama and role play can be fun and used successfully in any area of the curriculum. Drama is a very valuable tool for exploring issues, making learning memorable, encouraging co-operation and empathy. The use of drama and role play can create an opportunity for the learner to hear and rehearse language in a meaningful context, so as to be able to use it confidently in speech or writing.

5.  Information exchange activities:

Information exchange (or information gap) activities are communicative activities for two or more learners. They include barrier games and jigsaw activities, or any activity that involves learners having different pieces of information that they then have to convey to each other orally. Here are two examples:

Barrier games: In a barrier game Learner A and Learner B sit with a barrier between them and are required to convey information to each other, for example while looking at different text or images. A book or file propped on its side can be used as a barrier. E.g. Charles Dickens barrier game.

Rainbowing: This is a form of jigsaw activity where each member of a working group is given a different colour.  When the group task is complete the learners form new groups according to their colours. Within the colour groups, they compare findings, discuss what they have achieved, or carry out another task that they all need to contribute to, e.g. completing a grid.

How collaborative activities work

Many tasks can be made into collaborative activities by asking learners to complete them in pairs or groups rather than individually. For collaborative activities to work effectively it is important to:

Consider the grouping of learners carefully, for example placing early stage bilingual learners with peers who can provide good models of English, and/or share the same first language

Establish the type of behaviour that will be expected from learners for them to benefit most from these types of activities and ensure that everyone is clear what their role is, e.g. asking questions, answering questions, observing, collaborating on the set task

Bear in mind that group discussions can take place in English or in the learners' first language(s). Think about what they should get from the discussion and decide which language or languages the learners should use.

Encourage other members of the group to include EAL learners who may need support to take part in a discussion or activity. Make sure the EAL learner has a role in the discussion. Speaking frames can be useful to scaffold the language used, e.g. in the Charles Dickens barrier game cards with sentence starters on are provided to support learners who are at the New to English, Early Acquisition or Developing Competence levels.

For a range of free teaching resources that promote collaborative activities see the Collaborative Learning Project website.

Top tip: Ensure the tasks are sufficiently challenging and will provide a genuine need for discussion, problem-solving and working together.

Why are collaborative activities a Great Idea for EAL learners?

Collaborative activities are great for EAL learners because they encourage speaking and listening, and particularly exploratory talk as defined by Douglas Barnes. The idea that exploratory talk is really important for language development was adopted by socio-cultural researchers like Neil Mercer and Gordon Wells and also links to Michael Halliday's theories on the importance of interaction and the negotiation of meaning to language development.

Working with a partner or in a small group allows learners to feel more confident, and the language is being used for a meaningful purpose rather than out of context, as recommended by Swain and Lapkin (1995). Gardner (2012) argues that collaborative learning is a feature of inclusive classrooms, and the benefits of group work are also supported by Cordon (2000). Kotler et al (2001) and Wong Fillmore and Snow (2005) also highlight the importance of social interaction and active participation in language acquisition.

References

Cordon, R., 2000, Literacy and learning through talk: strategies for the primary classroom, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Gardner, P., 2012, Strategies and Resources for Teaching and Learning in Inclusive Classrooms (2nd edition), Oxford: Routledge.

Kotler, A., Wegerif, R. and Le Voi, M. 2001, Oracy and the educational achievement of pupils with English as an additional language: the impact of bringing 'Talking Partners' into Bradford schools, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4 (6), 403-419.

Swain, M. and Lapkin, S., 1995, Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: a step towards second language learning, Applied Linguistics 16 (3), 371-391.

Wong Fillmore, L. and Snow, C., 2005, What teachers need to know about language, Washington DC: Centre for Applied Linguistics.

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Collaborative Activities - The Bell Foundation

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Great Idea: Collaborative Activities Play What are collaborative activities? Collaborative activities are any activities where learners are working co-operatively in pairs or groups. For example: Pair or group discussions Completing shared tasks in a pair or group, e.g. matching, sorting, ranking Activities or games with a competitive element, e.g.

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9 Classroom Vocabulary Games to Use with Your Students

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Looking for some fun classroom vocabulary games to use with your students? Try these 9 quick and easy vocabulary review games.

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Shimrit Manay.
Reading a story character is so much fun. Students are engaged in the activity and look exited to read the text and improving their fluency.

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I like the idea of splitting the class into two groups, each time you give a word to one student who has to act the word to his group! I have used it in my class . It's very nice and the students like it

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i believe that combining misic and songs in teaching english is an excellent way to teach the language since children love listenng to music and by teaching them songs or poems it allows them to practice the landuage improve thier vocabulary and understanding the language.

the second video dlips on the vowles reciting it helps the childrem memorizing the letters 'identifying them in writing and learning how to read and pronounce the word correctly 'because it is repetative and has a certain rythem thah helps our memory /

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I learned a new term: gamification and it was really amazing to read about it and the implications that it can do in the learning process of our students. i want to try it with my students.
"studies have shown that 55% of Gen Z use their smartphones for over 5 hours a day.

By using a gamification learning approach, we can match the addictive bad habits and train students and learners to crave satisfaction from learning. "

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Project-based learning (PBL)  is a  effective way    that meets the needs of

both teachers and learners in teaching and learning a foreign language

effectively.

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A very interesting article. Explains in a very easy way how important is to include games or games technics in the learning process. I was interduce to some  apps I didn't know  that can  serve this goal.

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In this article I learned a lot of new things.
First, what is gamification and how it can help us in our life.
Second, how it is benefit in our classroom, with pupils, in order to do the learning interesting and to give them the motivation to learn. As we know our generation is using a lot their phones and video games on their phones. So if we can use this addiction for education why not?
Third, I learned also the disadvantages of the gamification.
And at the end, some examples of gamification that I havn't heard about them....
Thank you for sharing.

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When you want to teach any subject, a game
is a useful tool to teach vocabulary
There are many games but i especially like the vocabulary bingo game because the students can create their own cards and be active in the proccess

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using physical vocabulary games gives me flashbacks to times when I usued to prepare flashcards, pictures, items and other ideas to both present vocabulary and also use in in  content. nowdays, we have been teaching vocabulary through digital tools. evryday I am exposed to anothet digital game and I find it fantastic. yet, I think that using physical vocabulary games is important for addressing the pupil's learning style. certain students find it critic to stand up, move around, play around and move their body in any way that can help them grasp the material.

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must try some of them in class and see how the kids will cooperate with them. For me it is very difficult to make the kids speak and it seems like in a fun way it will make it easier.

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I found a few novel ideas I would like to try in the classroom.

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When you want to twach vocabullary, there is a good activity for individuals or smallr grups/
'  The  activity is Newspaper Search
in this activity the students should look for pictures that relate to the vocabullarygiven in class.

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I found that teaching poetry in class expands pupils vocabulary but also increases their love for the english language and literature
Reut Elkayam

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I use songs as part of the lesson. This is a great way to enrich English vocabulary in an experiential and a fun way.The songs  give  the students enjoyment and connection to the English profession.I want to  note that even in the lower grades, even though they do not know how to read,they learn amazing  by repetition the  songs and thus enriching their English vocabulary,

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I use songs as part of the lesson. This is a great way to enrich English vocabulary in an experiential and a fun way.The songs  give  the students enjoyment and connection to the English profession.I want to  note that even in the lower grades, even though they do not know how to read,they learn amazing  by repetition the  songs and thus enriching their English vocabulary,

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Yardena Azulay

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You don't have to be a  singer to teach songs. Read this article and learn how to use it. How to use songs in the English language classroom | British Council

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What makes for a successful song-based lesson? Adam Simpson, second-time winner of the British Council's Teaching English blog award for his post on conditionals (written with Paul Mains), explains.
One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is maintaining learners' interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age or background of the learner.
Planning for the use of songs in class
The process of selecting a song is one of the most difficult aspects of using music in a lesson. Here are some things you probably need to think about to ensure you get the right song.
Carefully examine what it is you want your class to learn in the lesson
Is this going to be a lesson focusing on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or a particular topic? I once used 'You're so vain' by Carly Simon to introduce a text that looked at vain people. In another lesson, I used 'In the air tonight' as it uses the present perfect continuous tense. Whatever your focus, remember that this doesn't necessarily place a limit on what you can do with the song. For instance, you might wish to use the song in question to exemplify a particular verb tense, and structure your lesson accordingly, but you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to look at those interesting idioms in the lyrics!
Think about the language level of your class
The language level of your class will determine not only which songs you can use, but also what other activities - such as games or written exercises - you will use to develop the lesson. Lower levels will become extremely frustrated with fast-delivered lyrics, for instance, while simple repetitive lyrics might not be interesting for more advanced-level learners.
How old are your learners?
If you're a teacher of young learners, you will probably want to use songs that are repetitive and very easy to understand. For teenagers, however, use contemporary or fairly recent pop and rock songs. My advice: it's often best to ask them 'what's cool'. Alternatively, for adult learners, who will probably have a more open approach to classes, use songs that are interesting to their age group.
Are there any specific cultural issues regarding the make-up of your class?
What kinds of things are generally unacceptable in the culture in which you teach? Whatever you do, don't use music solely based on your own cultural norms. Consider the audience and their sensibilities; even better, let them choose the songs that you use.
What kind of access do you have to the song?
Let's face it, this is the age of YouTube and you can find practically any song on this website. Nevertheless, an mp3, which doesn't require a connection, or even a good old-fashioned CD, can often be a useful backup.
Six steps for making a song the focus of your class
My intention here is to provide a basic outline you can use with any song. Remember, these are just suggestions so make sure to keep the profile of your learners in mind.

That's it - start things off by just listening. It's important to remember that this is supposed to be a fun activity; don't make it too serious or boring.

As an alternative, you can show a video clip if you have one - in fact, I strongly recommend it, as it will cater to more learners' learning preferences.

Ask learners if they've heard it before, and don't overload them with tasks at this point; simply let them enjoy the music.
2. Ask some questions about the title
Here are a couple of examples of the types of questions you can ask:

For John Lennon's wonderful 'Jealous Guy':

'What is a 'jealous guy'?'

'What are three things a jealous guy might do?'

'What kinds of jealousy are there?'

For Queen's classic 'We are the champions':

'What is a champion?'

'What kinds of champions are there in the world?'

'What activities have champions?'

Such questions tend to work really well as conversation starters, so group three or four learners together and then get feedback from each group on their thoughts. If you think it would help, make this your first step, i.e., before the initial listening.

Alternatively, prior to having listened to the song you can teach a couple of words and give a simple task for the first listening. My favourite strategy is to give three or four words from the song and ask to them to listen out for the words that rhyme with them. You could also brainstorm possible rhymes before listening.
3. Listen to the song again, this time with lyrics
This time, you should give learners the chance to read the lyrics to the song. At this point you might do one or more of the following activities:

Learners can just read the lyrics while they listen. They can possibly highlight unknown words for later discussion.

You can make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill; learners fill in the gaps as they listen.

You can make cut-out strips of selected missing words and again make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill; this time learners match the word strips to the gaps as they listen.

4. Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar
Virtually every song centres on a particular verb tense. This is too good an opportunity to pass up in terms of uncovering the grammar. My suggestion is to start with questions such as these:

How many examples can you find of the past simple in the lyrics?

Why did the writer of this song choose this verb tense?

This acts as a springboard for discussing the function of a specific tense, as well as examining its form. Furthermore, it often tends to raise awareness of grammatical flexibility and 'poetic licence' in the construction of song lyrics. Students often expect songs to obey the grammatical rules that have been drummed into them. In a surprisingly large number of cases, this can lead to the enlightening discovery that rules can be broken!
5. Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions
We've noted that many songs bend the rules of grammar. It's also useful to focus on the creative and artistic use of vocabulary we encounter in lyrics. Start with questions like these (again, for Queen's classic song 'We are the champions'):

What does 'I've paid my dues' mean?

What does 'my share of' mean?

What does 'I've taken my bows' mean?

Go through the meanings, illustrating with other examples if necessary. Songs often serve as really good contexts for phrases and idioms, but it's good to make sure that the meaning is clear. As with grammar, years of misunderstanding can come to light in this way!
6. Round things off with some creativity
Creativity is an important part of maintaining motivation but it shouldn't be limited to the teaching approach. Depending on the factors highlighted in the first part of this post (age, language level, cultural specifics, etc.), you might want to try finishing things off with an activity that stimulates creative thought. Here are a few examples of things you can do to get the creative juices flowing:

Write another verse of lyrics, maintaining the same mood and style as the original. This can be done individually or in groups. These new lyrics can be presented to the rest of the class. Perhaps several groups can work on this to come up with a completely new set of lyrics for the whole song.

A song tends to give you the perspective of the singer. Write a response (this can be a paragraph, i.e., not necessarily in lyric form) from the point of view of the person the song is being sung about, or any other protagonist.

Have the learners plan a music video for the song. In groups they decide the location, the characters, and what happens. Then each group explains their idea to the rest of the class and the learners vote on the best one. The results can be surprising, as they frequently come up with an interpretation that hadn't even occurred to you!

Write a diary entry for a character in the song. Get learners to examine the thoughts and feelings that inspired the story being played out in the lyrics.

Visit our award-winning website for more tips and activities for the English language classroom.

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How to use songs in the English language classroom

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What makes for a successful song-based lesson? Adam Simpson, second-time winner of the British Council's Teaching English blog award explains.

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From my experience, I can see that most of my pupils really like music. It is our connection to their world. They enjoy listening to music and like to study in that way. Thorugh music, we can teach everything, for example: grammar, new vocabulary, patterns, sentence structure .
etc'.
I believe it can help many pupils improve their skills and enrich their vocabulary. I use music a lot during my lessons.

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Drama in the EFL Classroom- by Shirel Zada

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Drama in the EFL Classroom- by Shirel Zada

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I thought a lot about something that could
Improve English speaking and reading skills. Students can be good at comprehension and know a lot of vocabulary but they have the speech barrier of the difficulty of putting from power to action.
And indeed I liked the idea of using drama in learning a second language in class.
This has many benefits: Improve English speaking and reading skills
Promote cooperative learning,
Allow students to be creative and express themselves,
Drama in the EFL classroom can turn language learning into an active, motivating experience.

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An interesting way to promote differential learning could be group work, according to levels. It is key in this day and age.