Dear all

I have been a member for a long time now, and most of you know me very well. I think the site is marvelous e has helped me and taught mea lot about English material. That�s why I would like to open a discussion and perhaps Victor could also give his opinion. As I am also a moderator, I�m looking closely to the worksheets.It happens very often now, that people send things, that in my opinion can�t be considered worksheets as ( always in my opinion) worksheet means that there should be something to work on. Almost every day now we can find presentations of a grammar point - for instance  to Verb to be in Present tense, negative and positive and interrogativ. No task included. This kind of presentation can be found anywhere, in coursebooks, online. I don�t see why this is called a resource. Same with vocabulary lists. I know that Victor said that they are allowed, but if there is a task. Vocabulary lists also can be found online, so I can�t see the utility. Same with spot the differences. The author copies and pasts a picture , that�s all. Of course, some of them, with exercices are extremely useful.
Please give me your opinion.

MONIQUE 

A very interesting point you make there, Silvia.

To a degree, I completely agree with you. I definitely prefer a task after an explanation of grammar points. But I also see what Monique is saying about the beginners and also, I have seen worksheets which are nothing more than images with instructions that have been very useful for getting my students to speak. The same with flashcards. Those things are very, very helpful to me. It would be more productive if there were other tasks but sometimes it is better to keep things simple. 

Although some grammar explanations are very well done, it is always better to have a little task of some kind to help practice afterwards.

Having said that, there are quite a lot of worksheets that are for practicing a grammatical structure even though there are no explanations included.  

Hi Silvia,

 

We two have been here before;-) I personally think the rules are as clear as they need to be. 

 

I notice that today, you have reported a number of wss for being just cliparts and we all agree with that. You have also reported a copy of a letter, which is neither use nor ornament, so that is good. Lists are accepted, so I don�t think it�s for us to report them. Do you want Victor to ban them? Let�s see if he does. Imho, some can be helpful and others, not so, so they probably won�t get downloaded. Anything Monique does is wonderful, of course, so I regret her list ws being reported and it sure wasn�t me!;-) I haven�t seen any of the straightforward grammar guides you refer to, but I think they can be considered a resource and some teachers may find them useful. 

 

I think there is occasionally disagreement on the moderators� page (I think you will agree!) about clipart worksheets. I think if there is an instruction, however simple, then that is fine. Images are the life blood of ESL teaching, particularly for beginners. I think that sets of pictures for sequencing, unless they have been copied, should be allowed - there is a task. Spot the difference exercises are excellent for teaching ESL. Unless these are copied from places they shouldn�t be e.g. other ESL sites or books, they should be allowed, but actually, I don�t think they are allowed on here. They go like hot cakes on islCollective. I have to admit, it is annoying to see these wss having such success when I always include a truckload of exercises with mine!  But if thy are useful, fair enough. 

 

Tbh, I am amazed that people still go on writing their wss (me included) and uploading them and people go on downloading them. There is so much out there now. There really is no need for any more. But it�s fun! 

 

Have a nice day everyone (not Covidy though;-)) 

Lynne  

 

@Monique - don�t stay away too long. Missing you already. Love your fb posts. Looks like we can post icons again... @Silvia, your wss continue to be amazing. I admire your dedication to ESL. 

Lynne