Jarod Yong

In early 2017, I wanted to connect students in Malaysia & the US to help make learning English more relevant to young Malaysians & share the wonders of multiculturalism in my moderate-Muslim-majority country with young people in the US. I considered all of the barriers for such an undertaking & figured that the best way to do this was to run a video exchange project targeting teachers as they would be able to provide mentorship & support to their students. First, let me congratulate SMK St Thomas (Cikgu Khor), SMK Batu Lintang ( Cikgu Ho ), Youth Guidance (Mr Oommen), & Operation Breakthrough (Mr Rowles) for completing the project! In this blog post, I will share publicly available pictures & videos from the participants as well as what I have learned as the coordinator of the project.

How do you segue from reading & discussion into grammar with an activity that's engaging and cooperative? How can you squeeze more teaching out of a reading passage that you spent so much time sourcing & painstakingly adapting? This week's Low Prep post-reading activity was created to assess/develop my students' understanding of English sentence structure & give them an opportunity to communicate while figuring out a puzzle with a partner! If you've tried this, let me know how your lesson went in the comments! Skills Engaged: Grammar , Cooperative Learning Materials: Paper strips, & scissors Time: 10-20 min

What do you do to reinforce vocabulary you taught your students? Do you find yourself constantly having to repeat definitions? What if its the end of the day & your students have already sat through hours upon hours of lectures? This activity will definitely help you with all of the above! I don't know about you, but I for one am tired of constantly having to repeat the meanings of words that I've already explained a gazillion times before. I prefer to remain sanguine & tai-chi the learning burden onto my students. You will see them desperately racking their brains or pouring through their notes for this activity! Ah... the joys of learning. This is one of my favorite No Prep vocabulary practice activities & it never fails to wake up & engage my students. Students of all ages & levels will enjoy this one. It's a great way for students to revise the vocabulary you've taught them & practice their sentence formation skills too. Try it out ...

When you give your students a passage to read, how can you be sure that they are actually reading & comprehending the text? How do you make reading more engaging? Created out of necessity while working with a class of students who didn't like to read & inspired by an activity on Breaking News English , here's another Low Prep activity that you might want to try out in your ESL class. Try it out in your class & let me know how it went in the comments! Skills Engaged: Reading , Grammar , Cooperative Learning Materials: Whiteboard, poster/easel papers, & markers Time: 20-30 min

This is one of my favorite post-reading activities & students of all ages enjoy it too. The best part is it engages your students for 20+ minutes & it's No Prep ! Try it with your students next week & let me know how it went! =) Skills Engaged: Reading , Pronunciation, Memory, Writing , Grammar , & Spelling. Materials: whiteboard, marker, & eraser