We’ve added some new functionality to the TeachVid printables!
Previously, if you clicked on the “Gap fill” button, it automatically printed a random gap fill (with roughly 1 in 7 words gapped, up to a maximum of 30 gaps).
If you click on “Gap fill” now (as of 1st August 2019), you’ll see that the random option is still there, but there is also a new option to select your own gaps. (See image below).
Plenty has been written about the benefits for motivated language learners of using parallel texts to help learn a language. (Do a quick google search and you’ll see.)
Much of what is written in support of parallel texts is along the following lines:
Parallel texts can indeed be a powerful tool, if used by motivated language learners who really are using the time with the texts to understand how the Continue reading “In support of parallel texts” →
You may have already come across our blog post introducing “Learn mode” in TeachVid, in which we describe how TeachVid’s unique interactive player + captions + transcript / translation + various other tools combine to help students to engage with the video content even before they embark on any of the activities. (If not, here it is…)
Well, this blog post is all about “Activity mode”, which is arguably where the learning really begins…
Continue reading ““Activity mode” in TeachVid” →
Every TeachVid resource page has a share button (at the top-right of the resource image preview), which allows users to share a link to that particular resource page via Facebook or Twitter (as shown in the image above).
That’s fine if you only want to share a link to the resource page. But we thought it might be a nice idea to allow users to do a bit more than that…
Continue reading “Sharing links to resources & activities” →
We recently added a YouTube Channel feature on TeachVid.
If you open any resource page on TeachVid – this one, for example – and you scroll down to below the “Printables” and the “Transcript” section, you’ll see a YouTube Info section.
This section is automatically generated and shows:
It was previously the case that only those with Teacher subscriptions to TeachVid were able to create resources on TeachVid…
Not any more 🙂
All registered users can now create their own TeachVid resources!!
If you go to the resources section of TeachVid (you’ll need to register – FREE – or log in if you’ve already registered), you’ll see that you now have a “My resources” tab which looks something like the image below:
Continue reading “All registered users can now create TeachVid resources” →
Classrooms on TeachVid are set up by teachers, and users normally need to be sent an invitation to join these classrooms along with a password.
But we’ve now added an example classroom that anyone can visit.
The example classroom allows you to see what a classroom looks like – and what assignments and Live Sessions look like – from a student’s perspective. (The only difference here is that none of the assignments have a due date, and the Live Sessions are auto-generated roughly every hour.)
One of the simplest ways of creating YouTube video content that you can use with your students on TeachVid is to add a voice-over track to a still image.
Describing a picture is a common assessment method for language learners, so why not make simple video content based on a still image plus your own scripted description of the image content?
Try to include vocabulary and structures that would be useful in as many contexts as possible, and bear in mind that the content should be vocabulary and structures that you would ideally like your students to be able to produce.
Have a look at the examples below. (Click on the links in blue to open the resources.)
Before you look, however, let me quickly explain what you’re looking at…
Every TeachVid resource has its own resource page, which includes things such as printable pdfs, the video transcript, information about the resource, information about the YouTube channel, a link to the video on YouTube, and, at the top of the page, an “Open resource” button which is how you Continue reading ““Learn mode” in TeachVid” →
We’ve added an extra (optional) step into the TeachVid resource creation process: “Video times”.
Even relatively short videos – just a couple of minutes long – can actually involve quite a lot of text if you are making a resource based on the video transcript.
One way of exploiting a longer video is to essentially split it up into smaller sections, Continue reading “Video times: create resources from cropped videos” →
