Archive for the ‘Teachers’ Category
We need a new home
Dr Rod’s English Blog has become a huge success, but we are totally frustrated by our limitations of being a Blog. The Blog acted really great in the beginning but as we have grown and our readership increased from 50 to over 19000 in 4 months we realize we need a different format and to offer many other things that we just cannot do.
We have identified areas where students from across the world need to work together – to collaborate, so see other kids work. We have seen teachers crying out for varied resources as well as original ideas. We never thought of our self as UNIQUE, yet we have become so. Every day I get letters asking for help on essays, exams, Shakespeare and hundreds of other things and yet many have to go unanswered.
So we need HELP! We cannot do this by a Blog any longer. I know Front Page and can work well with that. I would love to develop this site into an open resource linking together students of all ages from Year 5 through University. But they cannot search through Blog entries after Blog entries. So please, if there is anyone out there who can help us with a dedicated site – sorry we have NO money! And can help us get going for three months before the new school year begins PLEASE contact us here!
Write today! The possibilities are endless and the audience as you can see in UNIVERSAL not just USA, Europe but from Mongolia to Lesotho, Columbia to Yemen, Russia, Hong Kong, the lists is over 120 different countries. If your company today can help us PLEASE let me know.
Thanks Dr. Rod
We need a new home
Dr Rod’s English Blog has become a huge success, but we are totally frustrated by our limitations of being a Blog. The Blog acted really great in the beginning but as we have grown and our readership increased from 50 to over 19000 in 4 months we realize we need a different format and to offer many other things that we just cannot do.
We have identified areas where students from across the world need to work together – to collaborate, so see other kids work. We have seen teachers crying out for varied resources as well as original ideas. We never thought of our self as UNIQUE, yet we have become so. Every day I get letters asking for help on essays, exams, Shakespeare and hundreds of other things and yet many have to go unanswered.
So we need HELP! We cannot do this by a Blog any longer. I know Front Page and can work well with that. I would love to develop this site into an open resource linking together students of all ages from Year 5 through University. But they cannot search through Blog entries after Blog entries. So please, if there is anyone out there who can help us with a dedicated site – sorry we have NO money! And can help us get going for three months before the new school year begins PLEASE contact us here!
Write today! The possibilities are endless and the audience as you can see in UNIVERSAL not just USA, Europe but from Mongolia to Lesotho, Columbia to Yemen, Russia, Hong Kong, the lists is over 120 different countries. If your company today can help us PLEASE let me know.
Thanks Dr. Rod
We need a new home
Dr Rod’s English Blog has become a huge success, but we are totally frustrated by our limitations of being a Blog. The Blog acted really great in the beginning but as we have grown and our readership increased from 50 to over 19000 in 4 months we realize we need a different format and to offer many other things that we just cannot do.
We have identified areas where students from across the world need to work together – to collaborate, so see other kids work. We have seen teachers crying out for varied resources as well as original ideas. We never thought of our self as UNIQUE, yet we have become so. Every day I get letters asking for help on essays, exams, Shakespeare and hundreds of other things and yet many have to go unanswered.
So we need HELP! We cannot do this by a Blog any longer. I know Front Page and can work well with that. I would love to develop this site into an open resource linking together students of all ages from Year 5 through University. But they cannot search through Blog entries after Blog entries. So please, if there is anyone out there who can help us with a dedicated site – sorry we have NO money! And can help us get going for three months before the new school year begins PLEASE contact us here!
Write today! The possibilities are endless and the audience as you can see in UNIVERSAL not just USA, Europe but from Mongolia to Lesotho, Columbia to Yemen, Russia, Hong Kong, the lists is over 120 different countries. If your company today can help us PLEASE let me know.
Thanks Dr. Rod
Teacher Tips for Pronunciation
Below are tips for pronunciation activities you can do with your students, including links to printable resources and games and links to related web sites. Enjoy!
Poetry One interesting way to practice the rhythm or English, as well as such features as linking is to use poetry. One of the poetry web sites that we like is Academy of American Poets, which has a large collection of different poems, many with audio recordings made by the poet.
Walt Whitman’s poetry has also worked well with my students. Try the Poetry of Walt Whitman web site.
A neat poetry web site which even includes audio is actually the page for English 88: Modern and Contemporary Poetry at University of Pennsylvania. Check out the Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams.
Holly is a big fan of Haiku. It is a good way to have your students practice the concept of syllable. Holly not only has students read Haiku, but also write them.
Limericks can also be really fun and helpful. Their predictable stress pattern makes them useful for practicing sentence stress. You can find some (clean) limericks on the web at There once was a man from Nantucket. We’ve read some in class (clapping out the rhythm helps students pronounce the stressed and unstressed syllables), and for homework, they are working on creating their own limericks.
Drama Drama is also something Sharon used often with my students to practice rhythm, intonation, linking, etc. It’s often a good idea to have students work in pairs and focus on a particular aspect of pronunciation, such as intonation. Have them decide on the correct intonation, then record the scene, and finally listen and discuss their recording. The Dramatic Exchange Catalogue of Plays is one good web sites to find scenes to use with your students.
Bingo One of our favourite activities for a change of pace is PRONUNCIATION BINGO!!! To play pronunciation bingo, first you need to think up a bunch of words that sound similar (bath, bass, Beth, Bess, bus, but, bat, path, pat, bit, pit, etc, etc). Now, make up a stack of cards with all your words and bunch of bingo boards (Sharon has a set of six, and she usually can use them with groups of 20– it usually doesn’t matter if some students the same board. Because it is rather challenging to distinguish between similar sounds, we normally don’t have more than one winner). For the really adventurous teacher, you can have the bingo winner read out the words for the next game. Here are word stress bingo and final consonant bingo boards for you to download and print out.
Contrastive Stress Practice. Here is another fun activity. Have students write 10 FALSE sentences. They could be about anything, as only as they are not true. Next have students read the statements to their partner. The partner must correct each of the incorrect statements.
For example: "Christmas is in July." "No, Christmas is in December ."
My students really like this game, especially when the false sentences are outrageous!
Pronunciation Partners. Put students in groups of 4-5. Deal 6 cards to each students and put the rest face-down on the table. Students take turns asking for a card they need to complete their set.
Get cards and detailed instructions from our printable resource page.
Humming. Put students in pairs. Give student A a list of questions or statements. Give student B a list of replies. Student A should hum the intonation patterns of his utterances. Student B should reply with the correct response. We like to make sure that all of the sentences have the same number of syllables so that Student B really has to listen to the intonation to get the sentence. Example utterances:
|
Student A |
Student B |
|
I like pizza, pickles, and chips. |
Not all together, I hope. |
|
Would you prefer coffee or tea? |
Tea, please. |
|
Would you like some ice cream and cake? |
No, thank you. I’m not hungry. |
|
Next week we are flying to Rome. |
Really? How long will you be there? |
|
Is he going to the dentist? |
Yes. He has a toothache. |
Pronunciation Scavenger Hunts.
These are so fun and successful that they deserve a section of their own.
| Segmental’s |
Example: Find things in the classroom that have an /r/ sound.
|
| Syllables |
Note: This idea is adapted from a presentation Holly saw at TESOL. If anyone knows the origin of this activity, we’d love to give credit. |
| Word Stress |
|
For more pronunciation activities, check out Pronunciation with an Eye on Multiple Intelligences.
Teacher Tips for Pronunciation
Below are tips for pronunciation activities you can do with your students, including links to printable resources and games and links to related web sites. Enjoy!
Poetry One interesting way to practice the rhythm or English, as well as such features as linking is to use poetry. One of the poetry web sites that we like is Academy of American Poets, which has a large collection of different poems, many with audio recordings made by the poet.
Walt Whitman’s poetry has also worked well with my students. Try the Poetry of Walt Whitman web site.
A neat poetry web site which even includes audio is actually the page for English 88: Modern and Contemporary Poetry at University of Pennsylvania. Check out the Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams.
Holly is a big fan of Haiku. It is a good way to have your students practice the concept of syllable. Holly not only has students read Haiku, but also write them.
Limericks can also be really fun and helpful. Their predictable stress pattern makes them useful for practicing sentence stress. You can find some (clean) limericks on the web at There once was a man from Nantucket. We’ve read some in class (clapping out the rhythm helps students pronounce the stressed and unstressed syllables), and for homework, they are working on creating their own limericks.
Drama Drama is also something Sharon used often with my students to practice rhythm, intonation, linking, etc. It’s often a good idea to have students work in pairs and focus on a particular aspect of pronunciation, such as intonation. Have them decide on the correct intonation, then record the scene, and finally listen and discuss their recording. The Dramatic Exchange Catalogue of Plays is one good web sites to find scenes to use with your students.
Bingo One of our favourite activities for a change of pace is PRONUNCIATION BINGO!!! To play pronunciation bingo, first you need to think up a bunch of words that sound similar (bath, bass, Beth, Bess, bus, but, bat, path, pat, bit, pit, etc, etc). Now, make up a stack of cards with all your words and bunch of bingo boards (Sharon has a set of six, and she usually can use them with groups of 20– it usually doesn’t matter if some students the same board. Because it is rather challenging to distinguish between similar sounds, we normally don’t have more than one winner). For the really adventurous teacher, you can have the bingo winner read out the words for the next game. Here are word stress bingo and final consonant bingo boards for you to download and print out.
Contrastive Stress Practice. Here is another fun activity. Have students write 10 FALSE sentences. They could be about anything, as only as they are not true. Next have students read the statements to their partner. The partner must correct each of the incorrect statements.
For example: "Christmas is in July." "No, Christmas is in December ."
My students really like this game, especially when the false sentences are outrageous!
Pronunciation Partners. Put students in groups of 4-5. Deal 6 cards to each students and put the rest face-down on the table. Students take turns asking for a card they need to complete their set.
Get cards and detailed instructions from our printable resource page.
Humming. Put students in pairs. Give student A a list of questions or statements. Give student B a list of replies. Student A should hum the intonation patterns of his utterances. Student B should reply with the correct response. We like to make sure that all of the sentences have the same number of syllables so that Student B really has to listen to the intonation to get the sentence. Example utterances:
|
Student A |
Student B |
|
I like pizza, pickles, and chips. |
Not all together, I hope. |
|
Would you prefer coffee or tea? |
Tea, please. |
|
Would you like some ice cream and cake? |
No, thank you. I’m not hungry. |
|
Next week we are flying to Rome. |
Really? How long will you be there? |
|
Is he going to the dentist? |
Yes. He has a toothache. |
Pronunciation Scavenger Hunts.
These are so fun and successful that they deserve a section of their own.
| Segmental’s |
Example: Find things in the classroom that have an /r/ sound.
|
| Syllables |
Note: This idea is adapted from a presentation Holly saw at TESOL. If anyone knows the origin of this activity, we’d love to give credit. |
| Word Stress |
|
For more pronunciation activities, check out Pronunciation with an Eye on Multiple Intelligences.
Dr Rod's English's Blog 