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ESL forum >
Concerning worksheets > ---
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blunderbuster
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Hi everyone,
Thank you Aloha_58 for standing out from the crowd ;o) I absolutely agree with what you have to say.
Fact is that most people don �t look closely at what they download, why else would they download one half of a worksheet that they can �t do anything with? People also download worksheets without thinking, I have seen exercises that were completely unsuitable for the age group that they were advertised for and also for any other because of the design. Just this morning I had a discussion about a worksheet with an art teacher and she confirmed the "hunch" that I had. The worksheet is useless because it will leave kids frustrated and confused but people don�t think and download it in dozens.
I hardly ever see people express criticism, a few days ago someone commented on a worksheet about the passive, stating that it contained sentences that a native speaker would never use......people need to know that, the worksheet got over 200 downloads. Another worksheet I looked at the othr day was also number one in its category and nobody seems to have seen or fixed a mistake that downloaders cannot edit themselves.
It is quite hard to find good worksheets once the "free" downloading period is over, they are hidden amongst the most downloaded ones. Also, it seems that older worksheets that would get an estimated 200 downloads today got over a thousand two years ago when there wasn �t as big a choice as there is today. It �s quite like in the jungle: the tallest tree gets the most sun. It will get even harder for new worksheets to get noticed because the selection of material here is growing very quickly and nearly uncontrolled.
Who am I to judge? I have taught 10,000 hours of English since 1998., have an M.A. (thesis on Kafka), lived in the US for three years, speak German, English, Spanish, French, read Latin, and teach all age groups, including executives.
Don �t wanna be your Cassandra, just expressing my opinion here.
Have a look at Urban Dictionary, their rating system helps.
Regards
Regina
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25 Feb 2010
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dosjulia
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Regina,
about the last part of your answer to Aloha_58: don �t forget that we are all human beings...it �s not a curriculum what allows you to judge the others (if there is anything at all that does!). The wiser we become, the humbler we should be. Which doesn �t mean not to stand up for our ideas....Judging is something completely different!
Regards
Julia |
25 Feb 2010
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elderberrywine
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I don �t think rating makes sense as we can only tell how good a ws is after close examination or after use in the classroom.
By the time this has happened I forgot the name of the author or don �t have time to look for it.
I �m very suspicious of the ws with the hundreds of downloads and would be just as suspicious about rating. What seems to please and attract so many people here is pretty useless for me:
- garish colours: impossible to print in my country
- coloured background: makes texts difficult to read
- loads of pictures ("match with the correct pictures") : not academic or demanding enough for my type of school
- lots of cliparts: not my taste at all
- simple content - often used with vocbulary that is much too difficult, for example exercises on the simple present and present progressive with vocabulary that is much too difficult for this early phase of learning English
I also notice many exercises where grammar is practiced for practice �s sake, especially the passive, in which you find sentences that may be grammatically correect, but that would make everybody �s toenails lift. Yet they get tons of download and praise. Really worries me sometimes.
I wonder how native speakers put up with the mistakes we make on this site... I admire their patience
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25 Feb 2010
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