Reading Charts and Graphs Quiz at Quia.com

 Click the link below to practice answering questions about charts and graphs!

LINK: READING CHARTS AND GRAPHS QUIZ

Below are some pictures of sample questions from the quiz (clicking on these pictures will do nothing--click the link above to take the quiz):

Irregular Verbs Grouped by Pattern

Recently I posted a link to a list of the 50 most common irregular verbs in the English language. Here is another list of the 50 irregular verbs used most often (I didn't bother to check whether the same 50 verbs were on both lists--maybe one of you will compare the lists and let me know!). It only lists the first two parts (base form and simple past form) of the 50 verbs, but it is in alphabetical order, and practice exercises follow the list:

LINK: Top 50 Irregular Verbs and Practice Exercises

Some people find it helpful to learn the principal parts of irregular verbs by the patterns they follow rather than by learning a list of the most common. The same website (www.englishhints.com) also has a page that groups irregular verbs by the patterns they follow. Best of all, it has advice on ways to study these lists, depending on whether you learn best by seeing, hearing, or moving (writing).

My Suggestion: Click on the link below to go to the 12 lists. Read the sections on How to Study Irregular Verbs and Using the Lists. Then make your own copies of the lists. If you like to have something handy to study when you're riding the bus, waiting for class to start, or taking a break, copy the lists onto 12 or more note cards that you can easily carry in a pocket, wallet, or purse. You can buy lined or unlined cards in various sizes, or you can make your own. Try some of the suggested ways of studying the principal parts such as writing them 10 times, or having someone quiz you, or reciting them over and over.

 LINK: 12 Lists to Help You Learn Common Irregular Verbs

New Study Stack Flashcards--Irregular Verb Practice

Test your knowledge of the simple past form of 50 irregular verbs:

LINK: Past Form of 50 Irregular Verbs

Quizzes on Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Click the first link below to take a quiz on comparative adjectives. The second link will take you to a similar quiz on the superlative form of adjectives.

For each quiz, you will see an empty box with a sentence underneath. Choose the adjective from the box at the right of the page and put it in the proper form (comparative for the first quiz and superlative for the second) to complete the sentence.

LINK: Comparative adjectives quiz

LINK: Superlative adjectives quiz

Summary and Quiz on Subject and Object Pronouns

Click on the link below to see a summary of the difference between subject and object pronouns. Then test your ability to use them correctly by taking the quiz that follows the explanation.

LINK: Subject and Object Pronouns at efl.net

Practice Map-Reading Skills While Relaxing!

Do maps on the TABE reading tests scare you? Maybe you haven't spent a lot of time looking at different kinds of maps or studying how to interpret them. However, here is a fun and relaxing way to get used to working with maps and answering questions about what they show.
 

My suggestion: Do you like to color? Some adults get out colored pencils and color their own pictures while their children play with crayons and coloring books. It's very relaxing, and your kids may even want to join you. If you click on the link below, you will see many images that can help you practice reading and understanding maps, keys (legends), and distance scales. Click on a few map pictures and study them, or print them out, get some colored pencils, and try doing the activities and answering the questions. I have lots of colored pencils in my classroom in you want to try it!

LINK: Click on this link to print a map activity sheet or view it online

Below are some examples of map learning activities you will see when you click on the link above:

Reading Skills Practice: Strategies for Better Reading

Reading tests have a time limit. They try to find out whether you read English well enough to quickly understand the meaning, of what you read. We call this skill reading comprehension (comprehension means understanding). To read well, you have to improve your vocabulary, but you also have to work on other reading skills: inferring, predicting, and identifying the main idea.

If you read well enough to understand what the author intends, you should be able to draw conclusions about what you are reading, or to predict what will probably happen next. Sometimes we call this skill "reading between the lines," or inference. To infer means to use what the author directly says to conclude or predict something that he author doesn't actually state.

My suggestion: Click on the link below to practice inferring, predicting, and identifying the main idea.

LINK: Strategies for Better Reading: Understanding, Predicting, Inferring 

Here is a sample question from this activity:

Making Inferences

Making inferences is an important reading skill. An inference is a guess you make based on what is stated and on logic. An inference isn't something that is stated directly in what you read. You have to make a logical guess or conclusion that isn't stated based on information that is stated in what you read. Here's an example from the quiz below:

     Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair. (Why would someone give this advice?)

My suggestion: Click on the link below to take a quick quiz on making inferences based on advice given by children. You have to infer the reason for the advice.

LINK: Quiz on Making Inferences

PRACTICE SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT IN THE PRESENT TENSE

Click the links below to practice verbs in the simple present tense:

LINK: Subject-verb agreement

LINK: Simple present, 3rd person singular practice

LINK: More simple present tense exercises

Reading Skill Practice: Summarizing and Finding the Main Idea

Finding the main idea in what you read takes practice. You have to learn to tell the difference between main idea statements and detail statements. You often have to recognize a summary (a brief statement of what the reading is mainly about) or a paraphrase (a statement that says the same thing, but with different words). You also have to learn to group details into categories by identifying what they have in common. Seeing what statements have in common helps you to identify the main idea of what you are reading, or to summarize it with different words..

My suggestion: Click on the link below to learn how to summarize and how to tell the difference between the main idea and the details that support the main idea.

LINK: Finding the Main Idea and Summarizing

UPDATED UPDATE: No classes will meet at the Outreach Center until further notice--classes will soon be available online

Please also check the college website for updates.

LINK: BHC Coronavirus updates

I will be contacting you soon by email or text to talk about arrangements for online classes or assignments. If you see this post, please email me with your current email address and cellphone number (where you can receive texts). I am going to the Outreach Center to retrieve the contact information I currently have for you there, and you should hear more from me by Monday. I am making plans to give you assignments online starting next week (March 23-27).

At this point, classes are definitely canceled through April 7. Most likely lessons will be online for the rest of the semester. Feel free to call or email me with your questions.

My Suggestion: In the meantime, I suggest you click the link below to visit the Daily Study page at manythings.org. Every day you can choose from many different activities to keep practicing your English regularly. Also, you can click the second link below to start studying English in levels.

LINK: http://www.manythings.org/daily/

LINK: learnamericanenglishonline.com

I miss you all and and encourage you to do some daily practice of English during this very strange time. Stay home and stay well!

Love,

Teacher Kathy

calderk@bhc.edu
309-948-9615 (cell)

Practice Past Tense and Time Clauses

 Click on the link below and scroll down to #1 to practice using past time clauses in sentences such as this:

1. Kate was skatedskatedwas skatingI don't know when she fell and broke her leg.    (You will click on the arrow in the box to show more choices, then click on verb form you think is correct) LINK: Practice past time clauses

Reading Skill Practice: Using Context to Find the Meaning of Unknown Words

When you are taking a reading test and come to a word that you don't know, don't let it slow you down. Think of yourself as a reading detective. Find clues in the context (words you do know that are around the word you don't know) that help you guess the meaning of the new word. You can often answer a question about what you read, even if you don't know what every single word in the reading  means.

My suggestion: Click on the link below to practice figuring out the meaning of new words from the context.

LINK: Learn to Use Context Clues for Unknown Words

Reading Skill Practice: Scanning for Information

On the TABE test, you have to read and answer questions about what you read in a limited period of time. It's important to know how to scan a reading selection for key words so that you can find the answers you need quickly. If you read every single word, you may find the answers to the questions, but you'll run out of time and you won't finish all of the questions on a timed test. Scanning is something you have to practice a lot before you can do it well under time pressure.

My suggestion: Click on the link below to improve your skill in scanning for details (specific pieces of information), rather than slowly reading every word.

LINK: Scanning for Specific Information 

Lessons and Exercises on Past Progressive/Continuous Tense

I am behind on posting what we've been doing in class, so I'm going to catch up with the most recent lessons and work my way backwards. Last week we studied the past progressive and simple past tenses and using them in time clauses. For instance, while is usually used with the past progressive tense: While I was watching television, while they were sleeping, etc. When, on the other hand, likes the simple past tense: The little boy was happy when his father came home.

My suggestion: Click on the links below for lessons and exercises on the past progressive/continuous tense and using it in time clauses:

LINK: Lesson on Uses and Forms of the Past Progressive Tense at myenglishpages.com 

LINK: Exercise on Forming the Past Progressive at myenglishpages.com

LINK: Lesson on Past Progressive Tense and Time Clauses at grammarbank.com

LINK: Exercise on Past Progressive Tense (scroll down to sentences 1-10)



Then click on these links to practice choosing between the simple past and past progressive tenses:

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at ego4u.com

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at Englishpage.com

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at Perfect-English-Grammar.com

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at a4esl.org

Do You Have Trouble with Parts of Speech? Here's a great game!

Playing games at sheppardsoftware.com is a fun way to get more comfortable with parts of speech.

To play, click on the word "Play" on the right side of the curtain.

The next screen tells you what a noun is and gives example. Click the button that says
"Choose a noun."

On the next screen, choose a noun by clicking on it:

Then, click   PLAY   ,  read about what an adjective is, and click the "choose an adjective" button.
On the next screen you will click on an adjective to describe the noun you chose:

Finally, you will follow the same procedure to choose a verb. You can click on all the choices to see what actions your noun character can take. In the picture below, the boy is sleeping:

Click on the link below to begin.

LINK: Who will be the star of the show?

You can also try some of the other games at the same website:

                          
       

                             

          

Review of Future Tense

There are three ways to express future tense: present continuous (for an activity scheduled ahead of time), simple present using going to, and simple present using will. Review and practice each way, using the links below.

My suggestion: Clink on the links below to review (read the summary) and then practice (click on the exercises) each way of expressing future time. Most exercises are "click and drag," but if you have to type in text, do not put in extra spaces (do not put a space at the beginning of your answer, and use only one space between words), or the computer will read your answer as incorrect.

LINK: Present Continuous (or sometimes Simple Present) for Future Scheduled Activities) 

LINK: Simple Future with "Going to"

LINK: Simple Future with "Will"

LINK: "Going To" or "Will"? 

Rachel's English Videos--Common American pronunciation reductions

In class today we talked about how Americans say gonna instead of going to, wanna instead of want to, whaddya instead of what do you, etc. These run-together pronunciations are called reductions because Americans reduce the sounds--make them smaller or run the words together--when we say them in everyday conversation.

 You can listen to many videos (and read along with the words you hear in the videos) at rachelsenglish.com. Spending time with these videos is one way to train your ear to quickly recognize what Americans say in conversation, which can seem very different from the written words. Listen to Rachel explain and pronounce these words or phrases, and practice saying them with her.

My suggestion: Click on the links below to practice some common American pronunciation reductions and get used to hearing them in conversation.

What did/whud' or What did you/wu-juh

I'm going to/I'm gonna/I'muna

Gonna (going to), ahright (all right), sorduv (sort of), kn (can) and others 

Here's a sample video:

Listen and Write the Verb You Hear

We don't have time to do a lot of listening practice in class. However, the Listening Lab at the website learnamericanenglish.com has many listen-and-write exercises. You can pick an easier or a harder grammar level (blue is the easiest, and there are seven levels in all).

After you click on one of the links below, click on the arrow next to the teacher's picture. He will dictate (read something for you to write down) a sentence. You have to listen for the verb and then write it down. When you write down the words you hear, you are transcribing those words.

At the blue (easiest) level, you listen to a sentence and then fill in the verb you hear (the rest of the sentence is already typed for you). Click on one of the following links to practice listening and writing at the blue level:

LINK: Listening practice--present tense verbs


LINK: Listening practice--present continuous verbs


LINK: Listen for the correct helping verb: be or do?

Third Person Singular Present Tense Verbs--That Pesky "S"

Last week we reviewed spelling rules for adding the final -s to 3rd person singular verbs in the present tense. English language learners have a lot of trouble with that final -s. Grammarbank.com has some good exercises on the 3rd person singular of simple present tense verbs. Again, beware of clicking on buttons which are actually links to downloads or advertisements, not grammar lessons or quizzes. Instead, scroll down to the numbered questions.

My suggestion: Click on the links below to practice using the correct person and number of present tense verbs. You'll also get a little practice with questions and negative statements in the present tense.

NOTE: If the sentence is a negative statement or question, type in the complete verb, including what is in parentheses, not just do or does, or your answer will be marked incorrect. Also, use a capital letter if the blank is at the beginning of the sentence. 

Example: ______ (Mark/like) cookies?
Correct answer: Does Mark like
Incorrect answers: Does, does, does Mark like, Do, do, Do Mark like

LINK: Practice simple present tense, 3rd person singular

LINK: More practice with simple present tense

Remember, simple present tense is used to give information (facts) or to talk about usual habits or activities. If you need to review the grammar of the simple present tense, click this link:

LINK: Review of simple present tense with frequency adverbs