viernes, 1 de noviembre de 2013

New round of meaningful resources (including pedagocical material and audio books)

LOGBOOK

WEEK: Monday 28th October, 2013 to Sunday 3rd November 2013.
DATE: Friday, 1st November, 2013
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ELLO

Ello is a compilation of several English listening recordings regarding different interesting and appealing topics. All of the audio files come with their transcription, so that readers can follow conversations on different topics by reading, so as to increase their listening comprehension at the same time they receive pronunciation input.
After a wide research on the website, I saw it includes different level listening activities. I was hugely surprised when I saw readings about the recent Halloween festivity. Not to say a reading on the significance and origins of Cosplaying, in regards to the recent Manga Exhibition present in Plaza España.
Having discussed the possibilities this resource could bring us as future teachers with my partners, we came to the conclusion that it could have many uses. First of all, we could make comprehension questions for the pupils to answer them after having listened to the text. We could also use them to ease pupils practice pronunciation. They could also prepare a presentation or even a Prezzi on a specific topic by using the information given in a specific listening, or to promote simple debates in classroom. Should we be interested in material for beginners, we could pay for a licence on different PDF transcripts and listening activities, although we could use some of the free ones for third grade pupils to use.



SPOTLIGHT ENGLISH
Spotlight English is quite similar to Ello. However, it includes different topics from the ones in Ello, which can prove really meaningful for all children, as they can choose to read and listen to the dialogues on a preferred topic. One example of this can be found in a listening about the significance and origins of Cosplaying, in regards to the recent Manga Exhibition event being held in Barcelona’s Spain Square. The best part is that all of the audio files and transcribed dialogues can be downloaded or played for free.
Feel free to have a look at it:



SUPER SIMPLE LEARNING

This is not a resource I came up by myself. However, I felt I had to include it in this Blog, because appealed as really interesting to me.
I was astonished at the possibilities this web-site proposal could bring, especially for English teachers, and at the possibilities it offers. Super Simple Learning does include everything! Songs, games, party ideas, flashcards, worksheets, lesson plans… Even videos showing examples of the activities developed in class!
In my opinion, some songs for children are overused and overrated, being insufficient to please them and encourage them into learning. This website, however, offers not only simple songs for children but also funny and encouraging ones.
I decided to share it with you because I am convinced that, either being you a learner or a teacher, you can extract plenty of ideas from your website, as well as use its material in your own classroom, the same way I feel inclined to do. I hope you enjoy this wonderful website, full of resources!



CCCProse YOUTUBE AUDIO BOOKS
YouTube audio books are a resource for advanced learners to develop reading, intonation and pronunciation skills. Although these are way too age and stage inappropriate when bound to a primary school student group, they can be really useful for High School learners to become more fluent and practise English at home.
The website includes many audio books pupils can choose from and read for free, only by sitting in front of their respective computers, headphones on and get into the task. Feel free to have a look, as you might find really interesting ones.




CCCProse YOUTUBE AUDIO BOOKS (FOR KIDS)
When writing the last entry on CCCAudioBooks, telling its main drawback was the difficulty of the books exposed, I found out a variant of the website especially bound to kids. This one includes way easier books to be read, not as long or tricky as the other ones.
I think as a teacher I could use this resource, especially for kids whose parents did not have the money to be spent in books to read or who could not help their children to practice pronunciation by themselves. Children could either work audiobooks along the English classroom or read them outside school.
Personally, I would show my pupils the website and read an audiobook together in class, so that they would get familiar with the format. During the reading/listening, I would teach them comprehension strategies they could later apply at home so as to make the comprehension of the books easier, being able to progress by them.
These strategies are basically: before, during and after reading questions, which could help the children understand the meanings by gist, at the time they get familiar with the stories.







ALBA LEARNING AUDIO BOOKS
This is a website regarding Spanish audio books. It can be used for Spanish teachers, not really useful for English teachers though. Still, having to do a substitution, I would like to have this resource at hand, especially if asked to do it in a Spanish language classroom.



ANOTHER BLOG WITH SOME RESOURCES

Finally, I would like to share a Blog from which I got some resources from. It is really useful, as well, so feel free to have a look at it.

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