December is Here!

It’s hard to believe that we are at the beginning of December, I’m not quite sure where November went. December is a short teaching month and I’m sure you all have your favourite material and resources to use for this time of the year. Make sure to spend some time talking about the origin and meaning of Christmas as well as the festivities, symbols, songs and stories that make it one of the most joyous times of the year for Christians and non-Christians alike throughout the world!  

Here is an easy reading you can share with your students: https://www.thoughtco.com/christmas-traditions-for-esl-class-1211198

This is a list of Christmas conversation questions.

Breaking News English: Christmas conversation and activity ideas

And, of course, BogglesWorld always has a lot of free activities for this time of the year:

https://bogglesworldesl.com/christmas_worksheets.htm.

Here is a listening activity that you can use: https://www.dailyesl.com/holidays/christmas-gifts/ 

Lastly, here is a great Christmas lesson from teachingenglish.org:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources/teaching-secondary/

lesson-plans/pre-interemediate-a2/christmas

Don’t forget that our last LTSS update meeting for the year will be held in person on December 15th at SSR.  We will get a chance to say ‘goodbye’ to Debra and wish her well on her retirement. 

As always, we’d like to thank all the teachers that shared resources. Keep ‘em coming 🙂

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We wish you all the best for 2024.  Enjoy your well deserved break and downtime!

Your PBLA Leads

November is Coming!

  

Here we are inching closer to the end of another year, and there is lots to talk about in November! Some tried and true topics you could teach are: Health and Wellness, Flu Season and End of Daylight Savings Time. If you haven’t already seen it, Tracy was kind enough to share some fun material on the tradition of Jack-o-lanterns:

https://youtu.be/StBd35QCq4A?si=rHbzzI4dcpJheMqa

https://youtu.be/JmtXPlHD2V4?si=J-EvAOrcjR9monCl

Remember to check out Danielle’s “Tech Know” session on November 2nd to learn about all things Google Classroom, and keep up with any Avenue updates. 

We hope you enjoy your time “at” the conference this year. Please check out some ready-made rubrics with drop down options shared by Tania from a previous conference. Please remember to share any useful resources with us and we will post it in our next blog! 

Listening Assessment Cover Page DROPDOWN.docx 

Speaking Assessment Cover Page DROPDOWN.docx

 Reading Assessment Cover Page DROPDOWN.docx

Writing Assessment Cover Page DROPDOWN (1).docx

Make sure to download these documents in order for the drop-down menus to work.

With the holiday season approaching, shopping, Black Friday and consumerism are all great topics to go over with your students. Check out a fun listening activity from ISL collective from one of my favourite movies “Confessions of a Shopaholic.” Shopaholic Movie Scene: English ESL video lessons (islcollective.com)

Finally, I know many of us are feeling the heaviness of the world events that are unfolding in front of our eyes. Remembrance Day may be a difficult subject for those directly or indirectly affected by war and genocide. While we might teach about the poppy and the significance of November 11th, it is important we are sensitive to the very raw emotions that many are feeling at this time. Perhaps another way to honour the day could be to do an activity on the Japanese art of origami and making cranes and talking about the dove – both symbols of peace. You can even make this into a listening/speaking assessment or skill using activity for following/giving instructions. Please see the link for instructions to include in your lesson plan:

Make peace cranes and doves - Veterans Affairs Canada

As always, thank you to everyone who continues to share with our team. We appreciate you all!
Hoping for peace now and always,
Haleema and Marina 

Best Month of the Year: October!

Welcome to October and to the best time of the year (in my opinion) - Fall. This year promises to be the warmest start to October in recent memory. Very soon the days will be cooler and I’m sure you’ve noticed that the nights are already a little longer. The leaves have started to change colour from green to brilliant yellows, oranges and reds. Kate shared this video a couple of years ago Why Do Leaves Change Color? What Makes the Leaves Fall? FreeSchool. It offers a great explanation as to why leaves change colour.

Here’s a video I shared earlier that shows some of the incredible fall foliage in Ontario.

Fall in Algonquin Is Canada's Best Kept Secret! Insane Foliage Roadtrip!.  

At this time, you may also be thinking of starting assessments with your classes. Remember to keep it simple for both your students and yourself. Most of you are probably using real world tasks in your classes just remember to make them skill using and include holistic feedback. You can use them as artefacts and include them in your assessment logs. Kate shared an Excel assessment log. Feel free to use whichever assessment log you feel most comfortable with.

You can check out: https://www.realworldtasks.ca/ for ready made assessments and rubrics.

Thank you to all the instructors who shared material and resources. Keep them coming. 

Thanks to Danielle for sharing the ELLII video she created.  Here are the links she shared with us as well: https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/videos,  https://www.youtube.com/@CHCHNews11/videos  https://www.youtube.com/@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian/videos

Thanks to Valerie for sharing a reading assessment on apple picking. Thank you Dawn for those hilarious ‘Canadian Slang’ terms and to Haleema for sharing links for Orange Shirt Day. And, of course, to Kate for sharing ALL of her resources and lesson plans.  

Keep your eyes peeled for a PBLA refresher, an invitation will come out shortly. 

Remember that you can reach out to Danielle for all your Avenue questions. 

Feel free to reach out to Haleema or myself for any of your PBLA questions/concerns.

Have a fantastic month.

Marina and Haleema

Back at it! - September

Happy back to school with one week down! (Let’s not think about how many more to go – ha!) We hope you are rested from the summer and ready to get back at it! Welcome to our new teachers and teachers taking on a new class. If you are on Zoom or in-person, we wish you an amazing year ahead with your students.

A lot of questions you may have about classes and getting organized may have the answers in the LINC handbook or one of the other documents sent out in the email from Carolyn under the subject “HERE WE GO!” You will find the following information:

1. INSTRUCTOR HANDBOOK 

2. SIGNATURE - INSTRUCTOR HANDBOOK – Should have been submitted by Friday, Sept 15

3. LEARNER EXPECTATIONS   Good idea to REVIEW WITH CLASS

4. INSTRUCTOR TEACHING SCHEDULE 

5. NON-TEACHING DAYS 

6. LANGUAGES - PROGRAM SCHEDULE

7. RESOURCE SUBSCRIPTIONS - updated logins

8. SOFTWARE - to share with your students

One way to keep on track with PBLA assessing and logging would be to fill out your students’ names on the assessment tracking logs right at the beginning of September. That way any RWTs, Skill Using Activities or Assessments you complete can be logged on to the tracking sheet. Remember even real-world tasks that are skill using, can be used as an artefact, so start tracking! If you did any “getting to know you interviews” and had students introduce a classmate to the class – that is a RWT! So, make a note of your students’ progress and put it in the log. Also, as many of us are using Avenue with our students, please remember to check out the updates posted by Danielle.

A great way to get to know your students and have them feel comfortable with each other is using icebreakers and games. Here are some links to some fun ways to break the ice with your students online, and many of these can be adapted to in person classes too:

21 Free fun Icebreakers for Online Teaching and virtual remote teams (symondsresearch.com)

12 Low-Prep ESL Games for Teaching Online (bridge.edu)

100 ESL Games | Ready-To-Use ESL Activities For Your Class | Games4esl

September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Some of us have probably taught about “Orange Shirt Day” but something important to consider teaching this year may be Reconciliation Awareness. To find dedicated lesson plans for LINC and ESL teachers who are teaching English to students from CLB Level 1 to 8 click on the link to access a resource request: Reconciliation Awareness LINC Lessons (RALL) | (issbc.org)

Yay! Sweater-weather and apple
picking season is almost officially here! If you want to share info about places to visit for apple picking with your students check out this link: Apple Picking in Hamilton, Halton and Beyond (activeparents.ca)

For higher level classes, this link below includes an audio clip with options of faster or slower speed of the text, you can turn this into a listening activity. Click on the link: 5 places to go apple picking in and around Halton (theifp.ca)

As always, thank you to our amazing team of instructors who are always willing to share with each other. Marina and I are happy to help you with any PBLA related questions. 

Have a great September,

Haleema and Marina 😊

June's Here!

We made it! We are in the homestretch and June is here! The end of May and beginning of June are usually the busiest time for us, as it is reporting time. Please refer to Carolyn’s email with the subject titled: “June 2023 - CLB Reporting Period” which gives details about proficiency lists, and step by step instructions for how to submit progress reports and conference summaries. If you have any questions during this process, don’t hesitate to reach out to Marina or myself. 

Please remember to check out the updates from our resident expert Danielle for the latest news on Avenue.

Though June marks the end of the school year for many of us, many students will be continuing to summer classes. Before that, there's still a lot to talk about ahead of summer. Some popular topics of discussion are, summertime leisure activities, travelling, and tourist attractions in Ontario. Some other special days in June are: National Health and Fitness Day June 4th, National Gardening Exercise Day June 8th, National Best Friends Day June 8 and National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 18th which is also Father’s Day!

For higher levels here’s a link to a reading about tourist attractions in Canada with some questions:

Skill Using Assessment Doc:

21 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Canada | PlanetWare

If you want to share some information about local parks and playgrounds with your students, click here:

The Best Parks and Playgrounds – Active Parents

Finally, here is a link to some different summer festivals and events happening around the GTA this summer:

Summer Fun - Child's Life (childslife.ca)

No matter if you are returning to teaching in July, or taking a much-deserved summer off, we hope you all have a wonderful and safe summer!

Haleema and Marina

April Showers Bring May Flowers (or possibly more snow)

We’ve had our April showers so now it’s time to bring on the May flowers. Hopefully, May will delight us with sun, warm weather and new blossoms. The start of May also brings us to the last 7 weeks of classes. We are in the final stretch of the teaching year - where has the time gone??

There are an array of teaching topics for May. For those with (or without) a green thumb, gardening is a great topic.  We also have the Victoria Day long weekend and barbequing. This May, we have the historic event of King Charles’ coronation. And, of course, we can’t forget about Mother’s Day. This is a great opportunity to talk about gender roles and parenting. This is an activity about Mother’s Day around the world from Livework Sheets https://www.liveworksheets.com/rh359042as.

Here is Ellii’s May topics: Calendar – Ellii (formerly ESL Library)

We are closing in on our reporting period and as such, now is a great time to get in those last few assessments and update your tracking logs. You can check out Real World Tasks - Home 

for some assessment inspiration. Then you’ll be ready for any benchmark changes you are planning to make.

Haleema and I will hold a HARTs refresher on May 12th, zoom link to follow. We’ll also spend a few minutes looking at www.tutela.ca.  There are a lot of great resources on the site.

Danielle sent out her invitation for Avenue updates on May 5th at 11:00. Be sure to join for the exciting news she was teasing us with at our April monthly meeting.

Also, mark your calendars for ESINC day on June 7th and Summer Centre Staff BBQ tentatively scheduled for June 15th.

As always, big thank you to everyone who shared lessons, material and resources. And, a big shout out to Kate for access to her google drive which she is constantly updating.

Haleema and Marina

Get a Spring in your Step – It’s April!

 

Can you believe it is April already? With the forecast calling for temperatures in the double digits, many of us will soon be catching spring fever! Speaking of spring fever, how about teaching a few idioms? You can find a good explanation on spring idioms here: 9 Important Spring Idioms (oysterenglish.com)

This month has lots of topics to discuss with our students. April is World Autism Month, many of us (about 1 in 66 people in Canada) are touched by someone with autism, and it’s important to increase our understanding and acceptance of people on the spectrum. To find out more about this topic check out World Autism Month - Autism Speaks Canada

Of course, in April many people will be celebrating the holiday of Easter:  Learn about Easter: Easter Vocabulary and Traditions in English + How to make Easter Eggs! - YouTube

You can also teach about the celebration of Eid, which marks the end of Ramadan. Here is a fun video from TVO kids on the celebration: Eid Al-Fitr | TVOKids.com and a listening skill-using activity you can pair with it:

Eid Al-Fitr Activity

Some other topics you can talk about with your students could be: spring cleaning, the environment, Earth day April 22, and don’t forget taxes are due on April 30!

Here is a list of lessons for April from Ellii: Calendar – Ellii (formerly ESL Library)

A reminder to check out www.Tutela.ca under their resources section and be prepared to share what you found at our next meeting. For anyone teaching CLB 3, here is a link to assessment templates for RWTs: Tutela.ca| Resource

Thank you to Joy who shared a great resource for free pictures: https://cocomaterial.com/ and to Tracy who shared a great RWT and mapping exercise. Find it here:

Mapping Exercise 1

Mapping Exercise Activity

As always, thank you to Kate for sharing her lesson plans.

Finally, please make sure to check out the Avenue updates from Danielle, and stay tuned for a future HARTs refresher to be hosted by Marina and I before the next reporting period!

Have a wonderful month everyone,

Haleema and Marina 😊

March is Here!

 

We finally made it to March! All indications are that March will be in like a lion and, hopefully, out like a lamb. With any luck, in a few short weeks, winter will be just a faint memory.

March is full of teaching topics. We start the month off with International Women’s Day on March 8th. How have the roles and rights of women changed since the start of IWD in 1911?  On March 12th, there is Daylight Savings. Always a great topic for debating the pros and cons of daylight savings. Then on March 17th, we have St. Patrick’s Day (the perfect opportunity to teach luck idioms). March 20th is Nowruz and the 21st is the official start of spring. What are your students looking forward to in Spring? And, of course, Ramadan starts on March 22nd.  Lent is also observed during the month of March. With higher level students you could compare and contrast Ramadan with Lent. They are both periods of fasting and self-reflection.  We also have March Break from the 13th-17th. 

Here is a link for March Break activities in Ontario https://www.destinationontario.com/en-ca/articles/fun-march-break-activities-ontario. Feel free to share it with your class.

Check out ELLII.com for prepared lessons on Women’s Day, Nowruz/Nauruz, Ramadan and Spring - all at different levels.

If you haven’t already tried the ready made listening/writing assessment - what are you waiting for? There are several great presentations this month so why not try out the templates.  Haleema and I would love your feedback on them.

As always, a big shout out to Kate for sharing ALL of her resources with us. 💙

If you have any questions or concerns regarding PBLA, please feel free to reach out. We are here to help.

If you have any Avenue related concerns, please contact Danielle - our go to Avenue expert.

Have a great month.

Marina and Haleema

 

February is Here!

With progress reports and conference summaries now out of the way, we hope you are having a great start to your month.

Is it too soon to be excited for spring? Well, Wiarton Willie may have given us hope by not seeing his shadow. Though it may be a tad early to talk about spring, there are plenty of other fun and important topics to teach about with your students. We’ve passed Ground Hog Day, and Lunar New Year, but Valentines Day – February 14 lends itself well to talk about symbols of love, relationships, marriage traditions in different countries, and of course – chocolate! 

Marina shared a lesson from Linguahouse. If you go to their website https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/chocolate they have a great video explaining the history of chocolate.

Also, here are two links to a lower and intermediate-level video you can use for a skill-using activity about Valentine’s Day:

Valentine's Day | English language learners - YouTube

Valentine’s Day in Canada! 🇨🇦 How is Valentine’s Day Celebrated in Canada 💘 - YouTube

Family Day – February 20 is a great way to talk about family relationships, parenting roles and responsibilities etc. You can search for many different activities that are happening around Halton and turn it into a reading/writing assessment or skill-using activity. Check out this link for more Family Day activities and ideas: 

Family Day 2023 - Things To Do With The Kids – Active Parents

All of February is Black History Month. Don’t pass up the chance to talk about the experiences and contributions of those who became an important part of black history. Some things to consider teaching: The Underground Railway, Notable Black Canadians, Racism and Discrimination. It’s a good opportunity to create a speaking or writing assessment by having students read about someone and sharing information about what they learned. Higher levels can present to the class, lower levels could answer 5 W’s. You may find some useful information from the following links:

Canadian Underground Railroad Resources for the Classroom (brightsparktravel.ca)

Noteworthy figures - Canada.ca

Have you been giving your students listening/writing assessments during presentations? Why reinvent the wheel? If you haven’t yet, try one of the ready-made listening/writing templates to use with any of the upcoming presentations in you class, such as Frauds and Scams or Self-care in Winter. 

Finally, it’s impossible to ignore the impact of the recent earthquakes, which have been devastating. It’s an opportunity to discuss how we can help those affected. There are numerous organizations collecting donations and supplies for those affected. Breaking News English has a lesson on this tragic natural disaster - find it here: 

Turkey Earthquakes - ESL Lesson Plan - Breaking News English Lesson

Take care, and have a great month,

Haleema and Marina

It's Time to Get Back in Gear!

 Happy New Year and Welcome 2023

Welcome back! We hope that you have a restful break and feel re-energized and ready to begin the New Year. This time of year is great to talk about goals, resolutions and reflect back on progress made in 2022. Chinese New Year is on January 22nd this year and it is always a fun topic to cover with students.

As promised in our last meeting, you will find the Listening and Writing Templates that Haleema and I created to use when you have speakers or presentations in your class. Please feel free to modify as you see fit. We hope that you find them useful for a quick and simple assessment. 

Presentation Assessment Templates: 1-2, 3-4, 5+

It’s also that time of the year when conference summaries and progress reports are due. I know…try to contain your excitement 🙂.  Haleema and I will be hosting a Hart’s refresher. More details to follow.

Thank you to everyone for sharing material, resources and assessments throughout 2022. Please continue to pass on any material/information that you found useful. 

As always, a big ‘Thank you’ to Kate for sharing her lesson plans and knowledge. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H83KKE2G9glN9Dk-8jREt436uOgI53m8?usp=share_link

Don’t forget to check out what Danielle has going on with Avenue.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any PBLA questions or concerns.

Your PBLA leads,

Marina and Haleema