Author Archives: Tanya Trusler

Spring Idioms

Posted by on Apr 16, 2014 0 Comments

“Is spring coming?” he said.
“What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
~ Francis Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing—spring is in the air! Your students are probably excited about playing outside again and looking forward to the Easter long weekend. Grab their attention with our Spring/Easter Idioms poster!

Students usually love learning idioms because they’re funny, but they can have trouble remembering them because they’re not literal. Using visuals such as this poster can help! Hang the poster in your class (along with our other idioms posters listed below, if you wish) so that students can see the idioms every day. You can also try some of the activities suggested below that will help students remember these idioms.

Download the printable Spring Idioms poster (PDF)
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Digital Tools for ELs: Summary of TESOL 14 Session

Posted by on Apr 08, 2014 0 Comments

The TESOL 2014 Convention in Portland was a great place for teachers to learn new ideas, feel inspired, and network. TESOL always has plenty of great sessions to choose from, and on March 28, I attended a valuable session called “Digital Tools for ELs: Constructing Language and Content Knowledge” (EL = English Learner). Since many teachers couldn’t make the convention, I decided to share what I learned at this session on our blog because I know many teachers are interested in using technology in the classroom.

This session was put on by some lovely ladies from the University of Alabama and Etowah County Schools. The ladies, including DeAnna Ruhl, Amanda Foss, and Holly Hubbard, gave an excellent presentation where they explained the pros and cons of various apps, which I’ll recap for you here.

  • Students can upload slides/photos and narrate each slide
Pros:
  • Easy to comment on and easy to share
  • Can be embedded (more…)

The Great Pyramid

Posted by on Apr 07, 2014 0 Comments

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? With our lesson on the Great Pyramid, students can learn about this famous ancient wonder of the world and discuss some of the mysterious facts surrounding it.

The Great Pyramid lesson, in the Discovery Center, includes discussion questions, a short reading full of interesting facts, comprehension questions, vocabulary review (including an odd-one-out exercise and a matching exercise), and a word maze. There is even an optional black-and-white title page for your young learners to color. (more…)

April Fools’ Day or April Fool’s Day?

Posted by on Apr 01, 2014 0 Comments

Don’t be an April fool—figure out the rules before talking about this holiday in class!

On April 1, people in many countries will play practical jokes on each other. These can range from taping a “Kick me” sign on someone’s back, to switching the sugar and salt, to the BBC airing a fake news story about a spaghetti tree. Mashable compiled a list of Google’s past April Fools’ jokes that would be fun to show and discuss in class. If you plan on discussing April Fools’ Day in your class, it’s a good idea to get the capitalization and punctuation rules straight first!

April Fools’ Day or April Fool’s Day?

It depends on where you live (or which spelling system you’re using to teach).

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition), the correct spelling of this holiday includes using the plural form “Fools” and capitalizing each word. This dictionary uses the apostrophe after the “s” to show the possessive form of the plural noun. If you are teaching students in the US, you should use April Fools’ Day. (more…)

Wendy – Simple Present Reading

Posted by on Mar 31, 2014 0 Comments

Simple present lessons are great for low-level students. In our featured lesson this week, Wendy introduces herself using simple present verbs, and she talks about her family and her favorite hobby, tennis.

All of the readings in our Library section can be done on paper or online, so teachers can choose how to present the reading and comprehension questions. Have your students do it on paper in class, or assign it for online homework and do the follow-up activities in class the next day. This lesson, Wendy, also includes a grammar exercise, spelling lesson, and twenty questions discussion activity.

Other simple present resources: (more…)

Sports Crossword

Posted by on Mar 24, 2014 0 Comments

There are many ways to review vocabulary, and using an activity such as a crossword puzzle is always a hit with students! Our Spotlight lesson this week is our Sports Crossword.

If you log in to Sprout English and type “sports” in the search bar, you’ll find over 50 lessons, flashcards, and activities about sports to do with your young learners. Try a lesson on Sports from our Word Bank, and follow it up with our Sports Crossword, Sports Jumble, Sports Word Search, or 3 Sports Mazes for fun-filled vocabulary review! (more…)

Sprout English Is Heading to the TESOL Convention!

Posted by on Mar 21, 2014 0 Comments

Hello, Portland!

It’s time once again for the annual TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo. This year, the Sprout English team is heading to Portland, Oregon from March 26–29, and we’re really looking forward to it!

It will be Sprout’s first year at the convention! Last year, the team was there at the ESL Library booth, and this year, our booths will be side by side, numbers 338 and 340. Our team is coming from Winnipeg (Ben, president), Toronto (Tara, writer), and Vancouver (me - Tanya, editor). We can’t wait to meet our subscribers and other teachers and publishers in the ELT field, so please come by and say hi! There will also be daily prize giveaways and special subscription deals for attendees. (more…)

Prepositions of Place & Giving Directions

Posted by on Mar 18, 2014 4 Comments

Our Spotlight lesson this week, New Town, is all about maps, prepositions of place, and giving directions. In my experience, textbooks often present a map and expect students to generate directions without much guidance. My students would often make many little mistakes, such as forgetting the article “the” before the building names and forgetting secondary prepositions (such as “to the left of”). I found that reviewing prepositions of place first was helpful, followed by providing students with a lot of examples of directions. With the help of our talented designer Robyn, I created a worksheet of common prepositions and directions that your students can use for easy reference. After reviewing these lists, give our Spotlight lesson a try!

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