Volunteer Training Resources

More resources by topic

General teaching tips

• Reducing learner confusion (interactive presentation by Amy Grant)

• Retrieval Practice: helping students remember (from Cult of Pedagogy)

• When Should You Abandon Your Lesson Plan? (from Barefoot TEFL Teacher)

• What I learned about teaching English from Russian 101, by Linda Bonder 

• Increasing impact with assistant teachers (a short BLC presentation)

Instructional examples (videos)

• New American Horizons. Teaching ESL to Adults: Classroom Approaches in Action - 12 teacher training videos of classes in action 

• Linda's TESOL - sample online classes

• Putting English to work: list of videos with topic labels, and the playlist for the whole series

Teaching pronunciation

• Great, clear pronunciation videos: Elemental English

• Techniques for teaching pronunciation (from BLC)

• Teaching -ed pronunciation - a sample lesson, and materials

• Rachel's English: (and listening support)

• Eva Easton - great videos about specific pronunciation issues

Teaching reading 

• Letter sounds and spelling patterns, learner videos by Amy Grant

• Alphabetics - integrating reading instruction above the beginner level, by Kaylin Wainwright 

• Helping struggling readers - synthesized information for teachers, by Amy Grant

• 11 alternatives to Round Robin Reading - ways to get students to effectively participate in reading activities in class,  by Edutopia

• Supporting English Learners with Dyslexia, from Ellii

Teaching with technology

Zoom & WhatsApp

• • Setting up breakout rooms in Zoom, by Linda Bonder

  • Share only a portion of your screen, by Amy Grant

  • Basic “How to Use WhatsApp” - 3 minutes, by Amy Grant

  • Step by step: Creating and using a class WhatsApp group

  • Zoom, WhatsApp, and more - short video guides by Minnesota Literacy

  • Using Ventures Presentation Plus with Zoom, video

Games

• Creating Wordwall games (and other helpful videos)

• Making Flippity games

The Google Suite

• • Step-by-step Google Drive & Docs

  • Google slides for beginners

Beaverton Library: tech classes and one-on-one help

Creating helpful images with OpenArt: Demo video (see BLC's subscriptions list)

Workshops for more training

• Minnesota Literacy has many workshops throughout the year. See what's coming up and videos of past events. 

• Portland Literacy Council. Join their mailing list to learn about upcoming workshops.

• ProLiteracy webinars: what's coming up and videos of past events.