Hi there, this is our new entry. We would like to share with you our
website review.
To do this we took into account some criteria that helped us to see whether
the web pages were reliable and valuable resources to teach or not. Some of the
categories we took into account to do this were reliability, responsibility,
objectivity, appropriateness and currency among others.
We want to clarify some points so you understand what we are talking about: We
analyzed two websites, Handouts Online - http://www.handoutsonline.com/ - and BBC learning english - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/. Both are sites
where you can find resources to use to teach in ESL/EFL classrooms, you can
print and then photocopy them. In the case of Handouts online login and payment
is necessary if you want to download more worksheets than the ones the web page
offers you as free user. Both sites are administered by a corporation and allow
you to send the authors an email if you have any doubts.
- Reliability/Responsibility: you have to
take into account who the author/s of the web page is/are, is there an
email to contact the people in charge, is there information about the
author/s qualifications?, do you have to pay to use the materials they
provide?
- Objectivity: the level to which this web
page is oriented, if you can adapt the materials or not.
- Appropriateness and relevance: is the
material offered appropriate for the level you are teaching? Is it easy and clear to work
with it?
- Currency: do you know when the page was last updated? are there links outside the page? do they work? can you access them anytime you want?
When talking about orientation, the BBC only works with Lower Intermediate,
Intermediate and English my way levels. It also has many categories to work
with-home, arts, tv, etc. On the other hand, Handouts is oriented to teachers
who teach High School, College or University students. To finish we would like
to say that only in BBC you can see when the page was last updated and which
the last activity they shared is.
What have we decided about these pages? Both are reliable and very useful
resources, besides in one of them you have to sign in and pay to access the
content, but on the other free samples are available and they are interesting.
As a recommendation you can go and take a look at them, and if you need
material to work with your students don’t hesitate to download the worksheets
that they offer to you. Let us know if you try any of them and if it works for
you!
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| Picture taken from:http://www.handoutsonline.com/index.php |
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| Picture taken from:http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/ |
