SBHS ESL/Communities

My name is Neil Whitfield, ESL teacher at Sydney Boys High.

Welcome to my web site

It has all got rather big, so I thought you might like a bit of a tour.

There are many student link pages… The Quiz Page links

you to thousands of ESL quizzes.

All levels. Interactive.

Vocabulary, grammar, culture – you name it, it’s probably there.

… and various teacher link pages

You can see this one deals with Gifted Education and Multicultural Issues, but there is much more…

Boys’ education, for example.

FAQ: Very Important Pages!

…for example, FAQ 11.

A very conscientious senior student (LBOTE) asked how he could improve on a failing exam essay… The first page has the essay and comments.

FAQ 11: …what comes next…

The next page of FAQ 11 outlines what follows, with brief explanations underneath…

FAQ 11 is virtually a self-contained writing course…

FAQ 11: texts to work with…

There has to be a topic, so I chose the same one the student had done: “Images of Men” –pitched at YEAR 11 LEVEL.

There also have to be texts: this is the second one. There is also a visual text and a story.

FAQ 11: … ESL pedagogy…

FAQ 11 follows the usual ESL and English for Academic Purposes schema---

FIRST: Build the field…

SECOND: Explore language resources needed…

FAQ 11: ESL pedagogy…

THIRD: Provide models… There are four variations on a typical HSC answer: a speech, a feature article, a radio dialogue and a “straight” argument essay.

These models cannot simply be plagiarised…

FAQ 11: Prewriting model

... but they can be imitated, and analysed, and indeed CRITICISED!!

The red section is my prewriting thoughts. It attempts to model that part of the writing process.

FAQ 11: Model response

Next comes the “model essay” itself…

It is a genuine one-shot draft, just as students have to do in exams.

However, I may go back and tweak it here and there…if it is too embarrassing.

You also get on the Communities/ESL Site:

Multicultural resources…

Welfare issues… Typical student life

stories… Controversial

issues… And more…

You also get on the Communities/ESL Site:

A Guest Book: one way students can interact, comment, ask questions…

…and there’s lots more, so please explore!

Sydney Boys High ESL and Communities Pages

Thanks for watching our presentation.