A Corpus-Informed Grammar Textbook Series

Cambridge University Press has just published a nice grammar book series that is based on real-world English, i.e. corpus linguistics. It is called Grammar and Beyond. Anyone can preview these fine grammar texts in their entirety until Feb. 21:

Book 1 and Book 2

I field-tested a past tense unit from Book 2 in my level 4 class last semester and really liked its approach to teaching and practicing the tense. My students enjoyed it totally, too.

Two CATESOL Awards

With the Feb. 1 deadline fast approaching, some of you might consider participating in one or both of these two CATESOL awards:

1. Community college credit student essay contest
2. Community college teacher development award

Ideas for Covering Syllabus

An on-going thread on the On Course Ambassadors mailing list is about innovative ways to cover a syllabus at the beginning of the semester. Here's a sampling of the ideas so far:

• create a syllabus scavenger hunt sheet so that the info you want to highlight within the syllabus becomes the answers; assign a homework grade for this so that your students can gather the info while earning an early grade
• do an expert jigsaw (http://www.jigsaw.org/steps.htm); immediately following the activity, each group generates questions based on the syllabus
• do a Think, Pair, Share ( http://www.teachervision.fen.com/group-work/cooperative-learning/48547.html
• give a homework assignment to read the syllabus and come to the next class meeting with three questions about the info/assignments in the syllabus; when taking roll the second day, have each student ask you one question when you call their name
• give each student the syllabus and then divide the class into two teams to play a bingo game on the board; students select a square and you read a question that you have created for that square that relates to a concept you want to reinforce; the winning team gets extra points on their first assignment
• give students a list of questions concerning the class that can only be answered if they have a course syllabus, the course calendar, the textbooks, and other handouts from the class, all of which you have planted around the room prior to the class; give them the instructions that they are to answer the questions without telling them that all of the resources they need are somewhere in the room; you then leave the room and observe through the window 
• divide the class into four groups on the second day of school and do a "syllabus quiz" large group activity; each group has signs that say A, B, C, D, True, False. When you project a question, the first group to have someone stand with the correct sign gets a point 
• take the syllabus, enlarge the print so that there are 5 to 6 pages, and then cup up each page into small puzzle pieces; put students into small groups and give them one page of the puzzle (i.e. cut up pieces) in an envelope and some tape; the task is to work together with their group members to put this one page of the puzzle together and then the small group is responsible for sharing their page with the class
• provide extra credit to students who can find an error in your syllabus; you will have a lot more questions pertaining to the syllabus as a result of their trying to find errors

Part-Time Faculty Have a Website

CATESOL has recently established a new interest group for part-time educators. Jose Lopez Mercedes is the PTE-IG Coordinator, and Barbara Luther is the PTE-IG Coordinator-Elect. The new IG now has a website accessible by this URL: http://www.catesol.org/igroups.html.

A New Website

http://www.embedplus.com/dictionary/how-to-pronounce-words-and-use-them.aspx is a new and unique website that allows users to type in a word that they want to hear the pronunciation of. YouTube clips will be served up that contain the use of the searched word. The user can loop back to hear the pronunciation of the word again and again. There are other useful tips for using the typed word. It's worth a try.

Typing Is Not Grunt Work

Here's an apparently fun and versatile website for "kids, students, and adults alike" who want to improve their typing skills. Click the image below to access the free online typing tutor called "PowerTyping"