On this page you will find an advanced curriculum, methodological articles, links to texts, lesson materials, plans and ideas.
An Advanced Curriculum
- An Advanced Level (C1) Core Syllabus (forthcoming)
- Course Planning (forthcoming)
- The Latvian Higher Level High School Literature-based curriculum
- The Latvian Association of Teachers of English advanced level curriculum.
An Active Study Notebook for English language learners, with a language guide and note pages to complete.
The Notebook has a self-assessment page, in line with the Common European Framework of Reference. The Language Guide covers word classes, the noun phrase, time phrases, verb phrases, the key verbs: do, get, give, go, have, put, take and turn, modal verbs, conditionals (seven of them), sentence analysis, idioms, binomials and metaphors. In the Guide there are pages for learners to collect their own examples. There is advice on how to exploit texts to identify new language, and key word pages to collect collocations and phrases associated with words the learners identify as important for them.
There are also topic vocabulary pages to collect language around different topics of interest. The Skills section looks at the language of presentations, meetings, reports, letters, telephoning and questions, again with space for learners to add their own examples of useful language. Finally, there is a list of irregular verbs.
The Notebook is available from all Amazon stores.
Methodology
These pages are focused on giving no-nonsense advice on different aspects of teaching methodology.
- Teaching higher level students
- Starting the course
- Choosing a book to read
- Creating and Using a Reading Journal
- Using Translation
- Student Research Projects
- Using Student Portfolios
- Using an Active Study Notebook
- Presentations Skills
- Presentation Feedback
- Multi modal texts: Posters, info-graphics and videos.
- Creating Multi-modal Texts
- Argumentative Essay Writing (forthcoming)
- A table analyzing C1 essay requirements. The table lists essay features, discusses these, makes observations on how to evaluate these, notes the performance markers and the allowable negatives.
| Feature | Discussion | Evaluation | Markers | Allowable negatives |
| Relevant | All parts of the essay should be relevant to the question set. | Evaluate the relevance of the content. | Relevant ideas. | Minor points may be less relevant to the central question. This would mean the essay could not score the highest band for task response. |
- Academic Writing
- a note on School Conferences
- Organising a student conference
- An article about websites to use for text analysis
- A worksheet to use when reading a text: Total Text Comprehension
There are also useful articles in the Thoughts section of this website.
Lesson materials, plans and ideas for High School Teachers
Links to Texts
- Link to a text about Organising an Academic Conference
- Link to a text on Selecting Speakers for Your Conference
- Link to a text on Writing a Good Conference Abstract
- Link to text on Academic Conference Posters
- Link to a text about Genres of Fiction
- Link to a Review of the BBC Radio adaptation of the Lord of the Rings
- Link to a Review of the BBC Radio adaptation of the Lord of the Rings with tasks
- Link to a text on Qualitative and Quantitative Research
- Link to a text about School Portfolios
- Link to a review of the novel Dune
- Link to a review of the novel Dune with tasks
- Link to a sample C1 Research Essay: The Iron Heel: Keywords and Collocations
- Link to a sample C1 Research Essay: Paul Atreides: The Hero’s Journey
- Link to a sample C1 Research Essay: Oil and Natural Gas: The Lifeblood of Our Civilisation
© Robert Buckmaster 2022