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    | English worksheets > contributions by bmcq 
 
			
			
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 bmcq
 Barbara McQueen
 
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 3 decades of mentoring fellow teachers one-on-one, through in-services, as an ESL teacher trainer for Oxford Seminars, and as a conference presenter for TESOL, the VWBPE, SLanguages, and MachinEVO.  Currently developing and delivering immersive online ESL courses in the virtual world known as Second Life that make use of situational role-playing, games, mysteries, machinima, and special events.
 
        Points: 1036 
         
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 | Group Discussion Rubric and Who Are the Best Citizens Discussion Topic Different cultures have different expectations as to what is considered appropriate and valuable in a discussion participant.  Hence, it is useful to clarify what these attributes are in English-speaking countries, like the United States, and to grade students accordingly.  I like to display the rubric in this file, write the students� names across...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: activity-card
 Downloads: 4
 
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 | Common Note-Taking Shortcuts and Practice Students need practice taking notes.  Too often they try to write down every word, they don�t use enough abbreviations, and they don�t interact to what they�re hearing while they are listening. So here is a list of many note-taking shortcuts and an efficient notetaking form, plus my notes on a practice mini-lecture I give on the differences between...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: activity-card
 Downloads: 12
 
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 | Game Project When it comes time for students to review everything we�ve learned in a semester in preparation for their final exam, I like to have them work in small groups to create review games.  This is the handout I give them to guide them through the process.  I find this task greatly improves the students� test scores since they have to do a lot of review ...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: activity-card
 Downloads: 13
 
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 | Definition Chart Game An important skill that ESL students need to acquire that is related to vocabulary is the ability to define words.  In fact, they need to be much better at this than native speakers of a language since ESL students will more often find themselves in a situation where they don�t know a word they need to use.  If your students can explain their probl...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: activity-card
 Downloads: 8
 
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 | The Main Construction Differences between Informal and Formal English Explanations and examples of the nine main differences between informal and formal English.
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 16-100
 Type: grammar-guide
 Downloads: 13
 
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 | Idioms Literal and Figurative Meanings Matching Game When students first hear an idiom, they may try to picture what the words literally say.  But idioms are figurative expressions that do not mean what the students might suspect.   When teaching idioms, it can, therefore, be quite instructive to have students draw two simple drawings for each idiom.  First, they should draw what the words literally ...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: activity-card
 Downloads: 22
 
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 | Five Pronoun Rules, Pronoun Exercises, and a Pronoun Auction There are many rules related to pronoun usage in English.  I�ve simplified the most common rules into one basic rule with four exceptions and come up with an auction activity to cement these rules into memories.  The basic pronoun rule covers 90 of all pronoun usage.  Exceptions, in general, drive students crazy.  But tell the students that they sh...
 Level: elementary
 Age: 10-100
 Type: lesson-plan
 Downloads: 5
 
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 | Diagramming Practice with Lines Decades ago we diagrammed sentences to help us understand their structure.  Not all students like to do this, but mathematical-logical students love it (see Gardner�s 8 types of intelligence.)  Diagramming is useful to show if we have complete or incomplete sentences, whether a given word in a sentence should be an adverb or an adjective, how prepo...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: worksheet
 Downloads: 6
 
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 | Body Parts Body parts labeling exercise using a formally dressed male that would be acceptable to people of all faiths.  I have Muslim students who would be offended with a female or casually dressed male. This could also be used for describing male business attire.
 Level: elementary
 Age: 5-100
 Type: worksheet
 Downloads: 27
 
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 | How-To Speech Ideas, Requirements, and Models It is appropriate to teach some public speaking skills to ESL students in addition to conversation practice.  The easiest first speech is a how-to speech since it is usually relatively short and uses visual aids that help keep the speaker focused and give the audience something to stare at besides the speaker.  In this file there are a list of many...
 Level: intermediate
 Age: 12-100
 Type: activity-card
 Downloads: 10
 
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            |   PowerPoint Basics
 This is a powerpoint on making powerpoints.  Although most students today know how to make a powerpoint, some don�t or some need a refresher on the options they can choose for their creations.  If it seems that many of your students need help, you might go through the powerpoint with them, perhaps a...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 12-100
 Downloads: 32
 
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            |   Horse Idioms
 English language learners of all levels love to learn idioms. This horse idioms collection has two slides for each idiom.  The first slide contains a picture based on a literal interpretation of the idiom.  Elicit suggestions from the students as to what the idiom may mean. Then show the next slide ...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 6-17
 Downloads: 17
 
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            |   Vocabulary Assessment
 If you are uncertain of the real level of your students, you may wish to use this PowerPoint to quickly check how much they know in several basic categories.  The slides are arranged from the most basic elements to more complex ideas.  You may randomly point to different items on each slide while ca...
 
            Level: elementaryAge: 5-100
 Downloads: 22
 
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            |   Field Trip Proposal�Project Example
 Students love taking field trips, but the time and paperwork required can deter many teachers from taking their students on these trips.  To allow the students to understand the many factors that must be considered and to have a say in the process, I created a field trip proposal project.  The stude...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 12-100
 Downloads: 8
 
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            |   Survival Game�Part 3
 A fun way for students to learn important emergency survival facts and to get students talking.  Students can play as individuals or as teams that must come to a consensus on what they think the correct answer is.  I like to have students or team representatives move to different parts of the room d...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 10-100
 Downloads: 57
 
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            |   Survival Game�Part 1
 A fun way for students to learn important emergency survival facts and to get students talking.  Students can play as individuals or as teams that must come to a consensus on what they think the correct answer is.  I like to have students or team representatives move to different parts of the room d...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 10-100
 Downloads: 68
 
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            |   Trial Facts for the Killing of Mr. Griffin
 A murder is described and other information about trials is given to enable your students to act as the witnesses, criminals, lawyers, and judge. Intermediate students will need a lot of help preparing trial questions, and the teacher will most likely need to be the judge, but advanced students can ...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 13-100
 Downloads: 25
 
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            |   The Untimely Death of Peter Profit
 This is a graphic novel of a mystery I set up for my students in the virtual world known as Second Life.  The students worked in teams to solve the mystery, and I took photographs of them as they worked. Then the students used my pictures to make this graphic novel with Comic Life software.  Later a...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 12-100
 Downloads: 15
 
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            |   Survival Game�Part 2
 A fun way for students to learn important emergency survival facts and to get students talking.  Students can play as individuals or as teams that must come to a consensus on what they think the correct answer is.  I like to have students or team representatives move to different parts of the room d...
 
            Level: intermediateAge: 10-100
 Downloads: 59
 
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