Online teaching #1: Preparing online teaching materials
Using online materials is environment friendly- teachers don't print out plenty of copies for the students, they have them all in their computers- this for sure is an advantage. Other materials than worksheets are needed in just one copy, so a teacher can show it to the camera. Online working conditions make the materials quite different than before, and in this post I'd like to show how it looks like in my case.
Books and worksheet
I'm lucky- my superiors sent me the electronic version of all books I need, and with older groups I use Macmillan which has electronic program I use since the very beginning of my teaching here. So first few words on that, later I'll write about the materials I myself found or prepared.
First: the Yazoo 3 series (3rd grade). I share screen and show to my Ss the PDF with scans of the book. Here you can see the course book and the workbook.
I discovered how easy it is on my computer to write or edit in any other way the PDF file. You can see how esthetic the workbook looks like, the writing is just perfect. When it comes to the course book I had more problems. On the left page there are visible word written with a pen, so my kids would get the answer immediately and wouldn't be motivated to work on the activity. So I decided to spent my time and cover it with white rectangles, as you can see on the right page. This allows me to put the answers during the lesson after I elicit them from my Ss. It takes some time, but not much, I'm really amazed with the effectiveness of my computer (I use MacBook).
The recordings for this series I've got from my superior. He put it all in the online drive so me and other teachers can use it or download it any time we want. I just need to remember to "share the computer sound" on Zoom before playing it and it works smoothly.
Second: the Beyond series by Macmillan (A2+). Here it is:
You can compare 1. simple view of the book and the program itself; with 2. a screenshot of my notes on one of the tasks with the answers given by just clicking the red questioning mark next to it. Other buttons like this works differently: the book will take you to a page when the grammar structure is extended, the mouse will take you to interactive way of doing an exercise, there also is a button for the audio or video recording (so it easier than the Yazoo because I've got everything in one place.) You can also see "+" and "-" button on the right which make anything bigger or smaller. On the left I can see previous and next pages of the book in a small version. I just love using it, it's user friendly and very clear and intuitive.
My materials for Yazoo (3rd grade)
I mainy use the course books with my students. Sometimes I show them other worksheets I find useful, they usually present a grammar issue more clearly or have more interesting content. I also have flashcards with new vocabulary to focus only on them while drilling. My Ss enjoy playing different games with the vocabulary, like Simon Says or Charades- both games are really easy to play using video. I share the screen with flashcards like here (so that everyone remember how many and what words are we learning):
Other materials we use are very different Internet sources. I'll give you links and write few words about each.
Polish website with very different vocabulary categorized thematically. You have picture dictionary and a lot of activities there to do. The vocabulary is universal so usually it cavers what is in the course book or sometimes add few words.
Color-pages that you can color online. Again, plenty of topics, the choose of a picture to color is very wide. Moreover, it works well if you "give control" on a Zoom lesson to a student (I do it as a reward at the end of the lesson usually). Before that you should explain to the Ss how giving control works and settle concrete rules as they can close the page or open anything in the Internet, and we would rather not have such situation.
An example of YouTube chanel which has amazing songs for kids. If I find something that fits well our topic, Together with my Ss we listen to the song and try to sing along.
Other webpage where you can find educational videos and games (!). The one above is about the Ocean and See Life. My Ss enjoyed very much playing the games, so I really recommend.
My materials for Macmillan (A2+)
My rule is generally the same as above: I try to do as much from the course book as I think makes sense, but if I feel like my Ss'll need more practice I look for an interesting worksheet. I try to find something more, like a video or kind of game, for every lesson so it's not just the course book (just like I did on lessons in the classroom). Here are examples:
1. Cultural differences video
2. Ester traditions from around the world
3. Present Perfect: Have you ever...? - 20 questions game
If needed, I create worksheets myself:
The materials I mentioned are basis for my teaching, I do my best to do variations of activities using the same material to make it as interactive as possible. The Beyond series is really well done for that, I usually do group works or individual work as pare work is still something I didn't try online. On Zoom there is the option to put Ss in rooms, but I doubt they wold talk in English all the time and I can be just in one room at a time.
I hope you find some sources helpful and that you'd like to use them in your teaching. That's all in this post, stay tuned for more online teaching content :)
