New Activities on Website

I've written a couple of quizzes for Level 1 students working towards the End Test (Grammar). I've had a few people recently doing practice tests asking me what "grammatical" means, so the quizzes are there to give practice after the explanations have been given. I may also add the PowerPoint I've used to help in the teaching, though I've not posted this sort of resource before. I found the quizzes quite difficult, partly because the practice tests cover the issue in a number of different ways, but also because I am not at all sure how it is presented in current real tests. The quizzes may then get altered with more experience.

I also like the Handling Data resources from the Gold Dust Resources from the QIA. The for Interactive Activities were written for tutors learning but are great for some Level 2 learners. I like the way they show all 4 averages together subject to change as data changes. It is such an easy idea but I don't recall seeing it before. Many learners, especially the dyslexic ones, find remembering which average is which confusing, so a new resource is very welcome. This one shows it clearly, and you can hide the bar chart and frequency table if they interfere.

Blogs from Canada

I have been following a couple of blogs from Canada recently, and have added links for Literacies Cafe and AlphaPlus Blog on the Blogs page. I have been aware of the AlphaPlus Centre in Toronto for some years, but only came across the blog recently. A recent post points to this class blog which is a splendidly straightforward place to publish literacy learner writing. Literacies Cafe relates to Literacies, a research magazine and links to other Canadian blogs.

I think what is most impressive about these organisations publishing blogs for different purposes is the immediacy, helped by the accessibility. Literacies Cafe enabled me to participate in a forum thousands of miles away which was relevant to my day to day work. I have tried publishing student writing in a few ways over the years and have read student writing in a number of different contexts but the writing linked above is so current and immediate. This is a true Web 2.0 way of seeing what is happening around the world.