Christmas Wishlist

Christmas is almost there and it’s time to start thinking about what to offer. Books make perfect gifts and there are books suitable to every taste and pocket as well! Either with bookstore gift certificates, or taking advantage of book fairs, book sales, discounts or even second-hand books, there are no possible excuses for not choosing at least a book for yourself and/or for a Christmas gift.

Now, what books have caught your eye during 2012? Which ones are in your Christmas wishlist, either for you to buy / read or would like to get as a Christmas present? What book(s) are you most looking forward to reading on your upcoming days off?

My challenge and request would be for YOU to visit this  new wallwisher and simply write down what your choice(s) is/are. You just have to double click to add a new post-it or drag a file from your computer; If you wish to add any kind of multimedia file, at the bottom of the post, there are options to add a link, upload a file, or take a picture from webcam.

Why Wallwisher? Well, because it is so simple and allows you to publish anonymously. Experience tells me that many people visit this blog and one of the reasons some readers don’t leave a comment is to avoid being identified… That’s ok, I understand that - and exactly to try and persuade more people to collaborate and share their preferences, I’ve created this wallwisher. Nevertheless, if you lack ideas and/or have read a book recently, why not pay here a visit and (also) leave your recommendation(s)? 

Brace yourselves! Christmas is coming... and so (hopefully) are books!
Happy Wishing :=)

Summer Reading

Woman Reading, Jean-Baptiste
Camille Corot

Is there anything better than sitting in the sun and reading a good book???
But how to choose it and spend the last days of our summer holidays engrossed in a great book?
Well, fear not!
Let's help each other find new books based on the ones we already enjoy. Adult, young adult, whatever you like!
Help yourselves at http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/myreadings and share your readings as well.
Is there anything better than sharing? :))))

EDL 2010 (26 September)

Next Sunday September 26 is the European Day of Languages. Last year I posted here about it and there is not much else to add really. So, please have a look at my previous blogpost on this issue once there you'll find infos and resources as well. Nevertheless, as there are different ways to achieve the same goals  - and, in this case, to celebrate EDL, - I believe that in a multicultural class or with friends scattered around Europe, we could build a wall at http://www.wallwisher.com/build and ask them (either students or friends, or both!) to leave a greeting message in their own language; if this is not the case, something we could prepare beforehand is a matching exercise. Have a look at this word cloud:

Here we have the greeting "Good Morning" in different European languages and students could be asked to match countries / greetings. Interesting would also be to include Esperanto (which I didn't) and ask them to do some research on it as a possible communication language. They probably won't know some, but that could also provide an opportunity for research work not only on the correct greeting but also on the country (ies)...

Happy Sunday! Happy EDL 2010!!!

READING MISSION - reading for pleasure

After years buying books for the school library and some teacher training sessions with Verissimo Toste (THANK YOU!), I made up my mind it was time to do something to enhance reading habits among my adult classes and, at the same time, improve their English language proficiency.
As one of my most motivated classes started at 7 p.m., I launched the challenge: why not start reading a few lines / pages to calm down and relax while waiting for latecomers? Well, they accepted my suggestion right away and our deal was that I wouldn't test their readings in any way... I just wanted them to tell me what their story was all about! Not much, I guess...

Classroom Door sign

The following week I took some of my own books and some from the school library - basically Oxford Bookworms, stages 1 and 2, ranging from true stories to fiction, from literature classics to modern, so that they could have plenty of choice. Each student picked up one and I printed a classroom door sign (right)to remind sts of what we were doing and to let others know we didn't wish to be disturbed ;).
This reading mission went on for several weeks with me setting the example and never forgetting my own book; I obviously kept my promise and never asked them a single question (though they can't say the same...) - after all, that's what it was about: reading for pleasure to get an overall understanding of the text and ignoring (?) unknown words.
When the school year was about to finish, only two sts had managed to read their books till the very end. As requested beforehand, I asked for a very short summary/opinion/review of their books. In the meantime, I built a wallwisher so that they could publish what they were going to write. Again, I set the example and wrote two posts on my readings. That still wasn't enough for me though. To reward those two assiduous and punctual sts, I registered and created my first two glogs published here and here which will also be used by our school librarian.
No certificates (as I used to do with my teenager classes) but an environmentally friendly way of publicising what adult learners can also achieve (I did these two posters but we can also ask sts to do them themselves!); this way, there has been a much wider recognition and it surely boosted my adult sts' self-esteem. And how!

Here are a couple of related resources that might interest you.
Besides glogster, another suggestion to promote books is using book trailers / video as described here. A lighter way to find a new book to read is trying this literary web project.

Well, thanks for your time and patience. You know I do appreciate sharing and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Thanks again :)