Schule – Page 4 – School of Schenk

Legitimize Vocab Revision

My students often moan about tedious vocab revision. Despite ingenious online tools that help them revise (Quizlet), it still seems a boring chore to them. One part of the solution to me seems to show them their own progress, to make their learning visible. So, I have my students measure their vocab size at theContinue reading “Legitimize Vocab Revision”

Presenting Presentations

My advanced classes have a regular feature where the students present a TED-talk of their choice. I think they benefit in three ways from this activity. INPUT Looking for a TED-talk they like students have to browse several talks and thus are exposed to the language in these talks. They can even switch on subtitles to help themContinue reading “Presenting Presentations”

Keep it in the ground

Dear reader, this blog is supposed to be about teaching. Today it is about acting like a responsible human being. Please support The Guardian’s ‘Keep it in the ground’ campaign. To me pressuring companies and foundations to divest from fossil fuels seems to be the last possible exit route we have before we end upContinue reading “Keep it in the ground”

Prüfungsvorbereitung mit concept maps

Meine Abiturientinnen müssen in den Wochen vor dem Englischabitur in Partnerarbeit topical concept maps erstellen (jedes Paar nimmt sich EIN abiturrelevantes Thema vor). Die concept maps werden dann für alle vervielfältigt und als Gesprächsgrundlage für Kleingruppengespräche (4er-Gruppen) bzw. als Schreibanlässe oder schlicht als Lerngrundlage für Zuhause verwendet. Die Methode vereint Wortschatz- und Themenarbeit. Sie bietetContinue reading “Prüfungsvorbereitung mit concept maps”

Prompting a discussion on learning strategies

Last week I played a trick on my advanced level students. I gave them this article from Time Magazine’s website that makes the claim that higlighting a text is a waste of time. The claim is based on a study led by Kent State University professor John Dunlosky. I told the students to read theContinue reading “Prompting a discussion on learning strategies”

Better writing with Tim Cook

If you want to teach your students writing, why not use Tim Cook’s coming-out as an example? His text is put in simple words, structured in perfectly sound paragraphs (look at the way he uses topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph!). Of course, writing simple prose doesn’t mean you have to do withoutContinue reading “Better writing with Tim Cook”

balanced teaching

This article by Michael Swan is from 2006, so it might be very old news for a lot of you. However, I discovered it just recently and was blown away by its simplicity and brilliance. Swan argues for an approach to teaching English that balances extensive, intensive and analyzed input and output. To me thisContinue reading “balanced teaching”

[DEUTSCH] Leseempfehlung

“Hallo, mein Name ist Paul” ist ein frecher Essay über das Lebensgefühl heutiger Schüler – verfasst von einem ebensolchen.

[DEUTSCH] Neuigkeiten

Als kleinen Vorlauf für ein Relaunch dieses Blogs habe ich hier neue Seiten online gestellt, wo ich Lernmaterialien für Schüler für meine Fächer Deutsch und Englisch bereitstelle. Für die Zukunft habe ich zweisprachiges Bloggen mit einem stärkeren Fokus auf meine Schulart, den beruflichen Schulen in Baden-Württemberg, geplant. Dabei möchte ich neben dem Vorstellen und AndenkenContinue reading “[DEUTSCH] Neuigkeiten”

Hiatus

I’m currently taking a hiatus from blogging. The current format has left me somewhat dissatisfied lately. However, this will be the place to look for any new projects I might come up with. Thanks for reading and commenting on this blog.

Using the iPad to give feedback on students’ writing

Using the right set of apps the iPad can be a powerful device to get work done – despite all of its obvious limitations. ExplainEverything is my app of choice to give students feedback on their writing. Basically, it creates screen capture videos featuring the student’s text, my voice and a highlighting tool I canContinue reading “Using the iPad to give feedback on students’ writing”