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For Teachers
Here are a few ideas for teachers who use the VirtualWritingTutor with students. If you have others, please contact us and we will add your suggestion to the list. Click the logo above to return to the grammar checker.
1. ESL Textbooks for CEGEP
The Virtual Writing Tutor is free to use and 100% spam-free. However, there are products you can buy from Bokomaru Publications. These products support the development of the Virtual Writing Tutor and your students will love them. If you teach CEGEP ESL, Bokomaru Publications offers motivating textbooks for 100B, 101A, 101B and 102B levels. With minimal preparation and grading on your part, your students are sure to enjoy these distinctly interactive and cohesive college ESL course materials. These textbooks are used by some of the most popular English Teachers at Ahuntsic College. See testimonials from teachers at a range of CEGEPs to see what they are saying about the Actively Engaged series.
2. Photocopiable PDF Games and Classroom Activities
Some teachers don't use textbooks, preferring to use handouts instead. If that's you, we have a range of downloadable PDF products that your students will really enjoy. Not only are they motivating, these activities are very effective at getting learners to remember target grammar and vocabulary. These card games and interactive classroom activities have been tested extensively and enjoyed by ESL students here at a number of colleges in Quebec. They are affordably priced for individual teachers, with discounts for bundles and multiple-teacher licenses. They are not, however, for sharing with strangers online.
3. Add a link to Moodle
Add a link to the Virtual Writing Tutor in your Moodle course. 1. Turn editing on. 2. Create a label. 3. Switch to HTML mode by clicking on the <> icon on the editor bar. 4. Copy and paste the following code and click "Save changes". This is the intended result:
Click on the button to check your writing for errors on the VirtualWritingTutor.com grammar checker.
4. Online How-to Training Activities
Using a website for the first time in a second language can be daunting. Give your students practice using the VirtualWritingTutor's corrective feedback to correct a simple sentence with this Short Answer Quiz and practice correcting a complex sentence with this Long Answer Quiz.
5. Paper-Based How-to Training Activities
Here is a lesson on how to use VirtualWritingTutor on TeachersPayTeachers.com. It is free! Learning how to use the VWT...
Posted by Virtualwritingtutor on Sunday, September 20, 2015
6. Practice Assignment
Tell your students to correct a text containing typical errors with the help of the VWT. Here are a two examples of texts with errors in them that you can use with students:
my name is sophie Gagnon. i am born in laval. i live at Montreal. i have 17 years. i study in sciences humans since 2 years. Me, i like to do party with my friends. My best friend make me smile. (24 errors)
I make a lot of mistake that negatively effect my writing. Thats not good. I want alway to make the good choice of verbs. I want also to improve my pronunciation. My English-speaking friends talk about to help, but they never do. I work in a big store on the south shore of Montreal where there are a lot of immigrants people. I'm speaking every day to a men that works there. I think practicing with immigrants is equally as effective. So far, I have work there since 2 weeks and my English is getting more better. Also, I have learned already a lot about retail, but I will like to have a better job. I am waiting still for my first paycheck. They don't have paid me yet. When I will get paid, I will pay my parking tickets. Nevertheless if my English would be more better, I would definitely get a better paying job. I often wonder how many opportunities I would had had if I paid more attention to my nice English teacher in high school. (29 errors)
7. A Sound Bite
Teachers who provide corrective feedback by hand are often frustrated by how little their students seem to benefit from it. One problem is that students have to wait too long for the correction. Consider this sound bite from a Freakonomics podcast discussing the problem of delayed feedback:
8. Use the VWT with Frank Bonkowski's Introduction to Academic Writing Course
This new online course offers ESL teachers helpful support to teach academic writing. It is their own virtual teaching assistant. The Academic Writing Course is aimed at high-intermediate to advanced students at the 102B and 103 levels who want to write better critical essays.
Frank Bonkowski, Ph.D., ESL teacher at Cegep de Saint Laurent, created the course and published it in August 2016. The Academic Writing Course draws on his extensive experience in teaching, writing and online material creation.
The Academic Writing Course includes six sections with 32 audio/visual lectures, each with a recorded slideshow as well as an accompanying transcript. Teachers get support in showing learners how to formulate a debatable thesis, do literary analysis, undertake research, write clearly, revise and edit an essay, and more.
9. Get Involved--Stay in Touch
Of course, the VirtualWritingTutor is a work in progress. If you are an ESL teacher and would like to help us make the VWT better, please Suggest a New Error or Report a False Alarm using the email utility provided or by leaving a message on our Facebook wall or by posting a comment on our blog. We would love to hear from you, and your feedback will help us provide the ESL world with better corrective feedback.
The Virtual Writing Tutor has an Error Correction Practice Activity for students and teachers to practice spotting...
Posted by Virtualwritingtutor on Tuesday, September 22, 2015