ISL COLLECTIVE

Description of the tool

  • ISL Collective is a publishing and sharing platform used by over 2 million ESL teachers, with resources available in many languages.

How to access the website

  • The link for this web site is https://en.islcollective.com/ There are various different types of resources such as worksheets, power points and video lessons that you can use online or download.

  • The access to the online video lessons doesn’t require membership. However, you need to sign up if you want to download the worksheets or the power points.

How it works

  • There are thousands of ready video lessons on a wide variety of topics. ESL video lesson of the day pops up when you first view the main page of this web site. You can also search for free ESL video lessons if you want to find an educational video related to a particular topic: https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/

  • In each video, there are interactive questions of all types, i.e. complete the sentence, order the words, choose the correct option etc. There are also explanations for each answer. These questions and answers pop up on the screen as you watch the video. Nevertheless, it is highly suggested that you check the questions and answers before you do the activity with your students as there may be some mistakes. You can easily edit these questions, add your own questions and explanations by clicking on the “Copy & Edit” button that is available under each video as shown in the below visual.

  • You can also upload your own videos from You Tube just by copy-pasting the exact .url. However, you need to sign up before you can create your own contents from scratch. 

  • You can find the task description under each video lesson as in the below visual:

How it can be used in the classroom

  • Short video lessons can be used as a warm-up to familiarize your students with the topic or arouse interest so that your students are more motivated.

  • Video lessons can be used for listening comprehension and vocabulary teaching especially if you custom tailor the videos with a set of target listening comprehension goals or a certain vocabulary set.

  • Short video lessons can be used as a follow up. The students can do the video task in the breakout rooms and then discuss a certain issue raised by the video or write their reflections about it.