Write and improve

Hello again
Sorry not to have been writing much recently, but I have so much on workwise right now, that it's hard to find time to do everything I'd like to.  Still, keeps me young and active as my dad would say!

Tomorrow, I'm off to San Sebastian again (I was there last Friday too).  I'm giving a session on Writing and Speaking for Cambridge English:  First and Cambridge English: Advanced.

I try to avoid repeating anything that I've done in San Sebastian before (quite a challenging task seeing as I'm usually there 5 times every year!), so I was checking out what new stuff there is and came across a very attractive development on the Cambridge English Youtube Channel.

Write and improve

I  registered yesterday to see how it works.  You register and put in very few details

The tasks are designed for levels B1 and B2.  Students type in their answer to the question they choose (or they can write about any topic), save their answer and submit it and get feedback on their errors and sentences.

To find out more, there are two videos on the Cambridge English Youtube channel:

Try it out - pass on the link to your students and contribute to a research programme!

Cambridge English TV - speaking test videos, webinars and so much more!

As I said in my previous post, we Cambridge English Assessment: seminar presenters in Spain and Portugal are gearing up for a new season of seminars and conferences.  We're going to be giving more seminars in even more places.  Hope to meet some of you there!

I am starting to look at the sessions I'll be giving soon in Bilbao and San Sebastian and at the materials I'll be using.

I took a look at Cambridge English TV on youtube and found some great resources there.  Back in February, I mentioned the YLE Teaching Tips available on this Channel.  

Today, I found two speaking test videos - one for Cambridge English: Key for Schools

 and the other for Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools.

Both show a complete sample speaking test and also provide a link to a pdf. document with comments on the Test and the candidates you see.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149448-ket-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/149446-pet-for-schools-examiner-s-comments.pdf

Teachers are always asking for examples of speaking tests to watch and to show their students.  Here you have two good examples!

Other brilliant resources on the Cambridge English TV channel are English Language Learning Tips, looking at various areas such as Tips for Listening and Speaking Tests, etc.  And recordings of webinars if you didn't catch them live.

Definitely worth a visit and saving to your playlists!

Cambridge Experience Santander, TESOL e-newsletter

Hello again
Today's post is going to be a mixture of things - an update on recent activities before I move onto newer things.

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Cambridge Experience in Santander on Saturday.  It was quite a sacrifice to make, seeing that it was our first glorious day here after days and days of cold and pouring rain!

There was a great turnout, filling the room in the Hotel Santemar.  Participants were rewarded for their dedication with a goodie bag full of useful materials for the classroom (as well as a nice bag!) and they certainly were willing to participate in all the activities.

Here I am being introduced by Helena, from the Cambridge English: Language Assessment in Madrid.
And here is the end of my talk!

And I also wanted to mention that the latest issue of the TESOLSpain e-newsletter is out. I was asked to write an article on this Blog!

How I came to write the Teaching Together Blog and why I enjoy it so 
much!

You can read it here.

Great, simple idea for Describing photos in Speaking Tests

I have just finished reading another post from the Cambridge English South East Europe Blog.

(I mentioned the tips for teaching YLE a couple of weeks ago here.)

I really liked a new tip for preparing the photo task for the Cambridge English: Preliminary exam.

Laura Casetti from Argentina submitted this tip. I thought it was great and well worth a mention on this blog.

Exam preparation idea for:
Cambridge English: Preliminary (PET), Speaking paper, Part 3

Summary:
1. Ask students to bring in a topic-related picture.
2. Divide the class into pairs and ask the students to swap pictures.
3. Ask the students to describe their partner’s picture.
4. Ask each student to describe their own picture to the class, and then explain how their partner described it.
5. Encourage the class to discuss further ideas.

Materials needed:
A picture or photo from home

Describing a personal photo
“I usually ask students to look for a picture at home, related to a given topic (usually the one we are dealing with in class), and bring it to the following class. This gives them the chance to choose a picture that, in a way, inspires them. The class works in pairs, exchanging their pictures, which, as I said before, have a topic connection.

Once they have done this, I give them a task for Part 4. After they have finished this, they are asked to tell the group how they would have described the picture they brought, and how their partner actually did this. Then, they can ask the rest of the group for further ideas.

This activity proves quite fruitful, since it allows students to open their minds to new ideas about what to say about a picture, enlarging the scope of possibilities. If this is done regularly when we finish dealing with a given topic, at the end of the course they will have a folder with their own pictures, which will be useful for revising the topics, prior to the oral interview.”

I would suggest that the same idea could be used with groups of Cambridge English: First, Advanced and Proficiency students.

With these groups, you could either ask them to bring in two related photos or they put their photos together and make pairs of photos and think of a question that could be asked in the style of the Cambridge English: First, Advanced or Proficiency photo tasks.

Back from Alcalá, a name change and gearing up for seminars and YLE.

As you will have seen from my previous two posts, last weekend nearly everyone involved in running the Cambridge exams in Spain and Portugal (Centre Managers, Inspectors, Presenters, Team Leaders, the people who work in the Madrid office...) met together in Alcalá de Henares to find out about developments taking place or in the pipeline.

At the gala dinner, I was extremely proud to be given an award - a silver plaque 'For continual support of Cambridge English activities in Spain as Senior Presenter and the development of the 'Teaching Together' Blog!

One of the biggest changes we learnt about and one which will affect all of us immediately is the change in the name of the organisation we work for.  We no longer represent Cambridge ESOL.  The name has changed to Cambridge English Language Assessment.

You can read about the change and the reasons for it here.

We will be receiving information about other developments, like the revision of the Cambridge English: First and Cambridge English:Advanced exams and the trialling of Computer Based Young Learners Tests over the next few months.  I will cover them on this blog as we get details of these.

Myself, well I'm gearing up to some busy months ahead.

Tomorrow, I'll be in Santurzi giving a seminar on Cambridge English: First for Schools and Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools.  Then, for the next five weeks, I'll be jumping in the car and driving to many more Centres in the north of Spain.  The rest of the seminar team is going to be very busy too.  You can find out more about where we'll be, click here to find out.

And I'll also be setting up the Young Learners Tests here in Cantabria for the Centre where I work.

There are lots of useful resources and also news to share about the YLE tests.  My next post will look at some of these.  Speak to you soon about these!

pinterest - a great tool for classes!

Yesterday evening, I was teaching the vocabulary for containers and the things usually contained in each type.

It suddenly occurred to me that pinterest could be the perfect record (and teaching and revision) tool for vocabulary areas like this.

I have created a pinboard for this topic.  You can see it here:

http://pinterest.com/annerobspain/containers-lexis/

Maybe we could start boards for the different levels of the Cambridge exams, especially for the topic areas that appear on the Cambridge English: Young Learners English Tests and the Cambridge English: Key and Cambridge English: Preliminary Tests??

Spain seen from two sides

After watching the news yesterday evening, I switched on the computer to take a look at the photographs that have been submitted to Antena 3, the Spanish TV news channel's website, in response to the article and the pictures that appeared in the New York Times on September 24th:

Spain Recoils as Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a Next Meal

(See this and the other photos here)

One of the biggest criticism's of the photos is that they paint a very one-sided picture of Spain and they are all in black and white.

There are 150 photos on the antena3.com website.  They are all in colour - some of them are very colourful indeed.

After looking through all the photos, my teacher's brain began thinking about how I could use them in class.

One way would be to use a couple of them to illustrate ways of completing three different sentences about Spain:

1  Spain, the perfect place to ...

 (ride a bike)

2  In Spain, we still have ......

 (bubbles and smiles)

3  Visitors to Spain should see:

(Granada)

As a follow-up, students could be asked to find three images of Spain to submit to Antena 3 for the campaign (1 picture for each sentence).

And the pictures make great material for the speaking tests for Cambridge English: Preliminary, First, Advanced and Proficiency.  Either the teacher or each student/pair of students could choose a pair of related pictures and then be asked to write the intoductory rubric (and follow- up question) for the pair of photos.

For example:  (For Cambridge English: First Speaking Practice)

I'm going to give you two photographs.  Both your photos show people from different generations spending time together.  I'd like you to compare your photos and to say what things the two people in each picture can learn from each other.   You have about a minute for this.

I hope you enjoy looking at the (Antena 3) photos as much as I did, as well as reflecting on the photos from the NYT.

  

Black Cat Online practice for Cambridge ESOL exams

This morning I received an email updating me about the resources available on the Black Cat Readers blog:  

Did you know that you can find hundreds of different kinds of interactive exercises on the Black Cat Readers blog?

Click on w.w.w.blackcatreaders.com/quizzes and discover a world of useful and interesting activities to practise your English: Grammar exercises, Vocabulary, Pronunciation and Listening activities, but also sections specifically designed to help you practise Cambridge ESOL exams.

Access is free! Hurry up!

 Given my obvious and known interest in any website or blog that claims to help students practise  and prepare for the Cambridge ESOL exams, I clicked on the link and checked out the materials there.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can search for Exam skills for the different levels of the CEFR - for Cambridge English: Key, Preliminary, First and Advanced.

As the next seminar I will be giving (November 9th San Sebastian) is about Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools, I selected the activities available for B1 and this list appeared:

It looks very useful.  I'll be recommending it to my students and colleagues to try out.  If you recommend it or use it, let me know what you think!

Have a great weekend!

My guest post on take a photo and ........

In a previous post, I wrote about an impressive blog:  http://takeaphotoand.wordpress.com/

A while ago, Fiona Mauchline, manager of that blog, contacted me after I left a comment on one of the posts.  She asked me if I'd be interested in writing a guest post for the takeaphoto blog.  I replied that it would be a pleasure and finally, 4 months later, this became a reality!

So, here is a link to the post.  I think that you'll find it relevant, especially if you're preparing student for the Cambridge English: Preliminary or Preliminary for Schools exam.
http://takeaphotoand.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/buddha-and-oral-exams/

Hope it's useful!

Anne

Preparing teenagers for the PET exam

I have met Emma Heyderman several times in San Sebastian and in Bilbao.

Photo:  http://ylandtsig.ning.com/profile/EmmaHeyderman

I have never been in the live audience at her seminars, but she has been part of my audiences at seminars, and I hold a lot of respect for her and her publications.

As so often happens these days, I was looking up something else (well, actually - I think I was preparing the previous post for this blog come to think of it!), when I came across a selection of videos featuring Emma on the Cambridge University Press ELT Youtube channel.

Take for example this one:
Preparing teenagers for the PET exam: Listening.

Emma demonstrates just how important it is for students to listen carefully to the whole of the listening texts and not to choose an answer too quickly.

As well as this video, you can find other clips looking at the other skills tested on Cambridge English: Preliminary.

So now, running up to the main examining period of the year and for us Cambridge ESOL presenters, coming to the end of our live sessions for 2011-2012, watch Emma's tips to gain some advice and ideas for your candidates.

PET Speaking materials on Writefix

While I was looking at Writefix, a website designed generally to work on the area of argument and opinion essays and describing graphs, I came across a section of the site that focuses on the Cambridge English: Preliminary speaking test.

If you move your mouse over the photo, you can see tabs of text with suggestions for things you could say about this photo.

There are also some Part 2 materials for you to use with students.

I think this could be VERY useful for class and for self-study for Preliminary students.

Hope you're finding my suggestions useful!!!

Recording students describing photos

Hello again!  Sorry I've been 'missing' for a few days but life has been even more hectic than usual this week!  And it hasn't been for a lack of ideas to share with you on this blog, believe me!  I have a file full of materials and lots of links saved in my 'For later' file on my computer.

So, let's make a start on one of them!

As I told you recently, I gave a talk at the TESOL Spain 2012 Convention.

As well as giving my talk, I was able to attend a few sessions.  The first one I went to a Keynote presentation given by Russell Stannard.  Here he is in action:

(Thanks Donna Koniholm for the great photos you took at the Convention!) 

I've been reading articles and tips from Russell Stannard for a long long time.  Quite deservedly, his website http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/  has won lots of awards.

For a quick (3 minute) presentation of the site by Russell himself, I recommend watching this video.

During Russell's TESOL presentation, the tool that really caught my eye was MailVU:  http://mailvu.com/.

This allows you to record video clips on a computer using the microphone and webcam and then send them to an email contact.

Here is Russell's description of the potential use of this site for language teachers:

… you can get the students to do recordings of themselves speaking in English at home … and then sending those recordings to you, you can then listen to them and obviously give them some feedback on their oral performance…

Watch Russell explaining this site here.


So, of course, me being a Cambridge ESOL teacher and teacher trainer, I thought:  What a fantastic tool to practise the 1 minute talking about photos tasks in the Cambridge English: Preliminary, First, Advanced and Proficiency Speaking Tests!!!

Let's consider how you could go about this:
For homework, tell students which photo(s) you want them to talk about and the question you want them to answer in relation to the photo(s)

For example,

Here are your photographs.  They show people spending their free time in different ways.  I'd like you to compare the photographs and say what are the advantages and disadvantages for the people of spending their free time in these different ways.  

Source:  First for Schools Handbook

You send students a link to MailVU by email.  They open the link, record themselves doing the task, and send you the clip by email.  You watch it and can give them feedback (by return of email/record a video of yourself talking about their performance/discuss the clip with them in class (maybe while you both watch the video).

I believe it has fantastic potential for working on this part of the Cambridge ESOL speaking tests!

If you try it out, please let us know about it!

Camera Obscura Drop Locations and great photos of London

My previous post talked about the Camera Obscura Project.


10 cameras were left at various locations last Saturday.

You can see where they were left here.

What a great set of photos for using in class!
Precisely because some of the photos (3, 4, 6 and 10 especially) are not so easy to identify because they do not show famous monuments.

So, for example, at Preliminary level (PET) we can practise language of speculation:
(For picture 10)

The camera looks as if it's on top of a bin or something you find in the street.
It could be outside a park or garden, because I can see a fence in the background.  The camera is easy to see but it might fall off and break.

One of the photos showing where the cameras were left looks very like this one:

You can see St Paul's Cathedral on the other side of the river and the Millennium Bridge which crosses the River Thames between the Tate Museum and St Paul's.

You can read the story of this bridge here:
http://www.urban75.org/london/millennium.html


And for some really great photos of London (as well as other parts of the world), visit Shew, the photographer's photoblog.

One of her photos reminded me of my last trip to London.  We saw squirrels everywhere in Hyde Park.

And Shew also has some amazing photos on Flickr.

Hope you find them useful!

A wonderful resource for teachers created by teachers

At the end of last week, I was finalising my preparation for a seminar on Bridging the gap from Cambridge English: Preliminary to First when I came across some fantastic news for teachers needing photos to use in class and to practise the photo parts of  Speaking Teachers.

This is a description of the site I’m referring to:

‘ Eltpics is an ever-growing gallery of creative commons licenced images for teachers and learners of languages.  It has its home on flickr.  For the last year it has been collecting photos by teachers for teachers for use in class, on blogs and wherever they fit in to learning and practising languages.’ Ceri Jones 

And here is a screenshot of the eltpics homepage on flickr.com:

 And once you’ve checked out these links, take a look at: http://takeaphotoand.wordpress.com/

This blog has weekly posts with ideas for using photos in our classrooms. 

Enjoy and use!

Anne