The blog has a good collection of well written articles with some really nice images, that go behind the stereotyped view of the USA.The postings are quite long and the English is quite challenging so they are probably best used with higher level EFL ESL students, though they are nicely chunked into sections with good clear paragraph headings, and the way the images are used with good captions, supports the overall understanding of the text.
You could divide the text up for split reading and get different students to read each chunk and then share what they have learned in groups.
Ted also includes a 'wild words' section which gives definitions of some of the more challenging words in the text, so they have made some provision for people whose first language isn't English.
I have to say that I found the blog pretty interesting (but I am in my 40s) and really liked the images. I created this activity, Where in America?, based around it for my Daily English Activities Blog.Hope you like and enjoy reading Ted Landphair's America.
Related links:
- Create EFL / ESL Lesson Plans in Mins
- Adventure Narratives for EFL ESL Students
- Using Word Clouds in EFL ESL
- Prompting reading speeds
- More Reading Activities
- Where in America?
Nik Peachey
Hi Nik,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to let you know that if you like Ted's blog, you may also like another blog recently launched by the Voice of America. The Student Union (http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union)is a blog about what it's like to be an international student in the US. It's written primarily by students themselves, who have come from all over the world to US universities. They share their experiences and offer advice for other prospective students. Hope you find it interesting and useful!
Also, Ted Landphair's blog has moved to http://blogs.voanews.com/tedlandphairsamerica if you want to update your link.