Teach Collaborative Revision with Google Docs

http://www.google.com/educators/weeklyreader.html

Below is a cut/paste from the site...excellent information

"Revision is a critical piece of the writing process—and of your classroom curriculum. Now, Google Docs has partnered with Weekly Reader’s Writing for Teens magazine to help you teach it in a meaningful and practical way.

The sharing features of Google Docs enable you and your students to decide exactly who can access and edit documents. You’ll find that Google Docs helps promote group work and peer editing skills, and that it helps to fulfill the stated goal of The National Council of Teachers of English, which espouses writing as a process and encourages multiple revisions and peer editing.

On this page, you will find several reproducible PDF articles from Writing magazine filled with student-friendly tips and techniques for revision. You'll also find a teacher’s guide that provides you with ideas for how to use these materials with Google Docs to create innovative lesson plans about revision for your classroom.

Getting Started

1) Download a step-by-step tutorial [pdf] for Google Docs.
2) Learn about the comments and revision features of Google Docs [pdf].

3) Download, print, and share the following articles [pdf] with your students:

With a Little Help From My Friends: The Gifts of a Writing Buddy
Writing's Top 10 Tips for Revision
Collaborative Revision Checklist
Individual Revision Checklist
4) Download our Educators Guide: Teaching Revision with Google Docs

After reviewing our activity ideas and Google Docs tutorials, you may develop your own lesson plans and ideas. We want to hear from you! We invite you to share your curriculum ideas with the Google Educators community through our Google for Educators Discussion Group."

ESL: The English Learner Movie Guides

http://www.eslnotes.com/ The English Learner Movie Guides

Each individual guide is a detailed synopsis of a popular movie that consists of the following:
a summary of the plot
a list of the major characters
an extensive glossary of vocabulary and various cultural references that even advanced ESL learners would often not understand
questions for ESL class discussion

I really like this site, and it can have a lot of uses in a variety of ESL classes. Movies range from the classics: Wizard of Oz, To Kill a Mockingbird etc. to more contemporary flicks such as When Harry Met Sally or Legally Blonde. The plot summaries are great, but one of the best aspects is the glossary and cultural reference sections. I can see classes studying the plot, vocabulary and other references, and then watching the movie together. What about using It's a Wonderful Life before the holidays? A wonderful tool for speaking and listening activities. Lots of possibilities here.