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Games, activities and teaching ideas > WORKSHEETS IN PLENTY.. WHICH ONE..HOW PRACTICAL TO USE???
WORKSHEETS IN PLENTY.. WHICH ONE..HOW PRACTICAL TO USE???
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exiliser
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WORKSHEETS IN PLENTY.. WHICH ONE..HOW PRACTICAL TO USE???
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I �ve become afraid of being called �Mr. Curious � in the site :)
Some time ago I �ve learned what many people (in this site) are doing for a living, thanks to everyone who were willing to share.
Today I �m going to ask something less personal but more relevant to the concept of teaching. Everyone knows we have enough material here in the site to teach English to all the human race (just kidding :) So far, I have collected as many as I can; but I �m still looking forward to seeing and, of course, downloading upcoming materials. It started since I got my first points, but more importantly, where does it end?
As a �beginner teacher � I couldn �t have the time and chance to use lots of worksheets, actually I must say I used a really small number of them compared to the number of the worksheets I �ve collected so far. So I am totally confused.. which material might came in handy, which one of them I can make use of as much as I can.. Most of them are great, of course, but some of them are more �attractive � instead of being �practical �.
So I want to learn your real experiences. Which material did you use, which one proved to be practically useful and how? Some of the creators describes how their worksheets can be used, and I read their way word by word. I would be deeply greatful if you could provide a link to the worksheet you used and a short (longer would be better) explanation as to how you used it. It may be your own material, or someone else �s, it doesn �t matter. I just want to know how did you make out using a particular worksheet you �ve taken from this site..
I hope I �ve made my point clear enough.. Thanks in advance for your valuable help.. |
9 Sep 2009
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crijus13
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I totally agree with u and share the same opinion about linking to real useful ws. |
9 Sep 2009
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donapeter
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Dear E,
I (my case here-right) use the worksheets from this site as extra-resources for the exercises and for the lessons from the book. If I teach Food , I �ll use the book first (as they all have the book) and if necessary I give them more wss on the topic (ws from here). I don �t use these materials as main source( there are some interesting materials that can be used as main source), I use them as complementary material for the topic OR as tests or homework. Some of the lessons in the book don �t have enough practice, so ..I use wss from here.
A very attractive ws from here can be use as a homework or as a practice ws.
D
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9 Sep 2009
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elderberrywine
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WARNING: this is going to be a loooooong answer.
I use the books and workbooks my students have first. They are quite modern and not bad. Sometimes there isn �t enough grammar practice, so I make my own exercises or look for exercises here.
I make sure that when the exercises I look for here are on EASY grammar I only download exercises with EASY vocabulary. For me, there is no point in practicing the difference between simple present and present continuous (which we teach in first year and revise in second year) with a worksheet that uses vocab related to the third or fourth year. That would only confuse my students, and vocab problems would prevail over the grammar I want to revise. Simple, neutral vocabulary prevents extra problems
I look for grammar worksheets without grammatical explanations or with explanations in very simple English - because in lower classes or most classes in fact I explain grammar in our native language.
I look for exercises or texts that don �t refer too much to foreign countries. I like them "neutral", not implying too many references to foreign culture - except, of course, British and American culture.
I like doing the first couple of sentences in class to make sure pupils get the hang of it, and then make them finish the ws at home.
I try to find ws with little colour and few images because I spend too much time removing them. Matching pictures and sentences is too easy for most of my students, so I �m not so interested in ws that have one side pictures only. I don �t have colour copiers, so I take out the colour.
What I can �t find here, and I sorely miss it, is worksheets that force students to use their imagination, to make their own sentences, to continue writing where the exercise was finished (because part of the story was missing), to imagine an ending, to write a dialogue based on whatever the exercise dealt with --- exercises which tickle their own creativity. In my view, worksheets that are full to the brim, extremely colourful and full of pictures and cliparts tend to make the brain numb and exercises in which students only have to add one word or pick and form one tense or so enhance automatic processes, not creative ones. (Do you see what I mean? It �s difficult to explain!)
Apart from that I have a very large collection of laminated exercises which I started a couple of years ago, ages before I discovered ESL printables. I use them for individual revising and individual teaching. I have three copies of each ws, laminated. PLUS one page with the correct solutions, laminated, too.
Grammar, vocab, style, easy exercises, really challenging ones .. I have virtually got hundreds of them.
Yellow paper for grammar, blue for vocabulary, white for writing exercises.
Whenever I feel revising is necessary or students should be allowed to study what interests them, I bring those tons of laminated worksheets to class and spread them on the window-sills or on desks. Students can then choose among them, do what they need or feel like doing (or what I advise them to do ;-)). When they �ve finished one thing, they check it and then do something else. I keep the keys, they come and pick them up when they have finished their exercise (just to make sure they really DO it ...)
These lessons are relaxing, - everybody works on what is good for them or what they chose themselves, they work at their own pace, they check their results themselves and come to me for questions - students are happy and I �m happy, too. I also do this kind of individual work whenever I �m too weighed down by corrections to prepare super lessons, when I �m not feeling well, when I �ve got a cold and my voice fails me, because once students know the routine I don �t need to say much. There �s always an atmosphere of great concentration in these individual lessons.
Hope at least part of this is what you wanted to hear, Mr Curious! ;-)
Dorothea
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9 Sep 2009
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