I’m continuing with mid-year “Best” lists.

I use short, funny video clips a lot when I’m teaching ELLs, and you can read in detail about how I use them in The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them). In short, there are many ways to use them that promote speaking, listening, writing and reading (including having students describe – in writing and verbally – a chronological description of what they saw).

I’m adding this list to All Mid-Year “Best Of 2019” Lists In One Place!

You can see all previous editions of this list, as well as all previous editions of this list, here.

Here are my choices for the past six months:

I’ve previously shared how I use illusions (see ILLUSIONS AS A TEACHING TOOL). Here’s a cool video that can be used with those strategies:

 

Here’s a fun video I’m adding to The Best Websites For Practicing English Pronunciation:

I’m a big fan of “choose your own adventure” stories – both text and in video. They’re engaging for everyone, including English Language Learners (see The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories).

Unfortunately, last year YouTube disabled the annotations tool that people were able to use to create those kinds of videos.  There’s still a way to do it, but it seems more difficult, and all the older videos that were on that list don’t work any longer as CYOA.

However, I read on TechCrunch about the video creator Eko, which creates similar videos for their own site and others for BuzzFeed. I don’t think the ones they make on their own would work for class, but their ones for BuzzFeed would work very well for English Language Learners.

For example, there’s one on ordering Ramen (when learning about food); another silly one on what kind of dog you might be, and another on reading Tarot cards (which could be dicey if some students find it conflicting with their religious beliefs).

I’ll be looking for more as they come out…

I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Helping Beginner ELLs Learn About Animals.

run Forrest RUN

Kitbull is a new short from Pixar. It’s a little longer than the usual videos I share, but it would be great for English Language Learners to watch and then write and discuss what happened:

I’m adding this new video to The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine’s Day:

BAO Pixar from nix on Vimeo.

I’m adding this video to The Best Christmas Videos For English Language Learners – Help Me Find More.

I’m adding this video to The Best Christmas Videos For English Language Learners – Help Me Find More.

Apple released this holiday ad that advertises them very little and, instead, emphasizes the importance of sharing our gifts to the world. In the video, a young woman writes a little bit each day and locks her work in a small box. One day, the sheets blow away in the wind and people start reading them – and, of course, love what she has written. One could be showing it to English Language Learners (stopping periodically to have students write and talk about what’s happening), and then have students discuss what gifts they might have – might develop – that they could share with the world.

I’m adding this video to The Best Sites To Teach and Learn About Thanksgiving.