Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

Fall conference season is officially underway, and the Ellii team is buzzing&mdash;attending eight conferences this month alone, including BRAZ-TESOL, TESL Ontario, MITESOL, VATESOL, and more. Throughout the season, different members of our team step away from their desks to share Ellii&rsquo;s newest content and features&nbsp;and to chat with teachers and administrators about whether <a href="https://ellii.com/" target="_blank">Ellii</a> might be a good fit for their English language programs.

Conferences also offer something just as valuable: the chance to learn. Hearing from speakers, teachers, and publishers helps us better understand the evolving needs of today&rsquo;s English language learners&nbsp;and inspires new ideas for improving the Ellii experience for classrooms around the world.

<h2>MITESOL 2025 &ndash;&nbsp;Elevate, Motivate, Unite</h2>

The 2025 MITESOL conference took place on November 8, 2025, in the Student Center at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). The venue&nbsp;inspired this year&#39;s clever theme: Elevate, Motivate, Unite. The date itself was also significant! Michigan&#39;s governor, Gretchen Whitmar, officially declared November 8 as <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/proclamations/2025/11/08/november-8-2025-english-language-educators-recognition-day" target="_blank">English Language Educators Recognition Day</a> to honor the dedication of teachers who support English language learners and to acknowledge the value that these learners bring to Michigan.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Though I live in Windsor, Ontario,&nbsp;Michigan is my closest neighbor, so I&nbsp;was excited&nbsp;to attend, exhibit, and present at MITESOL on this monumental day!

<img alt="Anne Damiecka, Alexandra Covell, Tara Benwell at the Cambridge Ventures + Ellii booth at MITESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5000/content_MITESOL-2025.jpg" style="height: 526px; width: 500px;" />

Anne Damiecka (ESOL Specialist and Territory Manager, Cambridge University Press &amp; Assessment), Alexandra Covell (MITESOL President &amp; 2025 Conference Chair),&nbsp;Tara Benwell (VP of Publishing at Ellii) at MITESOL 2025

<h2>Morning Keynote&nbsp;</h2>

I knew it was going to be a worthwhile keynote when Dr. Raichle (Rai) Farrelly, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, began the first session&nbsp;by talking about&nbsp;how she likes to &quot;bookend&quot; her classes with stories.

In her keynote&nbsp;titled Mapping Knowledge and Language for a Change Agent Mindset,&nbsp;Dr. Rai used&nbsp;personal experiences, videos, and pictures to highlight why stories matter in our classrooms. Key takeaways were:

<ul>
	<li>stories drive connection</li>
	<li>stories are advocacy tools</li>
	<li>stories tell our history</li>
	<li>stories convey world views</li>
</ul>

Dr. Rai also shared&nbsp;strategies to foster curiosity, build knowledge, and inspire meaningful action to transform&nbsp;English classrooms into &quot;spaces for equity, connection, and global impact.&quot;

She illustrated the power of student agency by sharing a compelling story about young learners who launched a campaign to help school cleaners regain respect and dignity in their workplace.&nbsp;The young students developed an entire campaign to help change how cleaners were treated. They used this Design for Change model:

<ul>
	<li>Feel: What bothers you about the world?</li>
	<li>Imagine: Imagine ways to make the situation better.</li>
	<li>Do: Go out and put your ideas into action.</li>
	<li>Share: Inspire others with your act of change.</li>
</ul>

Dr. Rai also taught us about the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-54677-8_4" target="_blank">Care-Know-Do</a> pedagogical framework:

<ol>
	<li>Social Emotional Learning</li>
	<li>Meaningful Learning</li>
	<li>Mastery Learning</li>
	<li>Critical Socioconstructivism</li>
	<li>Inquiry-Based Learning</li>
	<li>Experiential Learning</li>
</ol>

Dr. Rai left us with these inspiring&nbsp;parting words from the late <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/3531-jane-goodall" target="_blank">Jane Goodall</a>.&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lfLKHY52ERc?si=hRdMrXzexjZaIzLo" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

<h2>Ellii Presentation</h2>

After spending some time chatting with teachers at the Ellii booth&mdash;where we were exhibiting next to our new publishing partner, Cambridge (Ventures)&mdash;I took a few steps down the hall to the Kiva Room, a cozy space with tiered bench seating. I was delighted to spend the hour with&nbsp;several teachers who were not yet familiar with Ellii (along with a few who were) during my session, Develop Oral Communication Skills in ESL Classrooms by Implementing Ellii&rsquo;s Game-Based Tools.

As a content creator, the workshop was an excellent opportunity to showcase&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Ellii Dilemmas</a> and get a feel for how engaged&nbsp;participants were in the activities.&nbsp;In her keynote, Dr. Rai&nbsp;emphasized three&nbsp;essential components to any student advocacy project. I was able to demonstrate how students can develop and build these very skills with&nbsp;Ellii&rsquo;s interactive activities:

<ul>
	<li>critical thinking</li>
	<li>meaningful communication</li>
	<li>academic language</li>
</ul>

<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls/names" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii Poll Names" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5005/content_ellii-polls-names.png" style="width: 500px; height: 299px;" /></a>

After students submit answers to a poll or dilemma, the class is prompted to look up at the teacher&#39;s screen to review and discuss the results, vocabulary, and questions&nbsp;in pairs or as a group. The activities are carefully scaffolded and useful language and sentence stems are&nbsp;provided. In addition to participating in the activity, attendees&nbsp;shared lots of ways that they would use these activities in their own classrooms.

<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls/names" target="_blank"><img alt="Tara Benwell, VP of Publishing at Ellii, demonstrates Ellii Polls in the Kiva Room at Eastern Michigan University, MITESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4999/content_MITESL-2025-Ellii-Polls.jpg" style="height: 453px; width: 500px;" /></a>

This is the first time I have seen this result. 100% of participants polled said they&nbsp;liked their <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls/names" target="_blank">names</a>!

If you missed this session at any recent conferences and want to learn more about Ellii&#39;s FREE interactive, game-based activities, check out these posts and videos:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Introducing Ellii Polls</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/announcing-ellii-dilemmas" target="_blank">Announcing Ellii Dilemmas</a></li>
</ul>

<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas/the-crooked-coworker" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii Dilemmas" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5007/content_ellii-dilemma-crooked-coworker.png" style="width: 500px; height: 299px;" /></a>

If you missed the session, watch&nbsp;an interview with <a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes/episode/1a443540/e77-ellii-dilemmas-sparking-real-dialogue-in-the-elt-classroom-with-ben-buckwold-and-tara-benwell" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud</a> podcast that just came out this week, featuring&nbsp;the story behind the development of this&nbsp;&quot;tech-enabled&quot; tool that encourages students to look up, listen,&nbsp;and speak.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JNk03oadJgI?si=ZvyC5Tga2YG8Gkgs" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

After a lively morning of sessions and conversations, it was time to break for lunch&mdash;and another inspiring keynote.

<h2>Lunch Keynote&nbsp;</h2>

The exhibit hall was closed during the luncheon, giving exhibitors a chance to mingle with attendees and enjoy a delicious meal (falafel, chicken, and cookies!) along with a wonderful keynote.&nbsp; 
 
Dr. Katie Welch&mdash;who has presented twice at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA53ad4GloU" target="_blank">#ElliiCon</a>&mdash;spoke about social-emotional health for teachers in her talk, From Fatigue to Flourishing: Supporting Teacher Well-Being in Tough Times. She shared a range of practical ideas for educators, including an &ldquo;extension request form&rdquo; designed to help teachers reclaim their time.&nbsp;Katie also recommended the <a href="https://truthforteachers.com/podcast/" target="_blank">Truth for Teachers</a>&nbsp;podcast.

One of my favorite moments of the conference was a story Katie told about teachers advocating for fair pay in their small Texas community. She described how one teacher refused to take no for an answer and rallied others to use their voices and advocate for themselves.

Back at the booth, Katie and I spoke with an MA&nbsp;student who admitted it&rsquo;s a challenging time to be preparing for a teaching career amid so much negativity surrounding the profession. She thanked Katie for offering hope.&nbsp;

<h2>Ventures 4e (+ Ellii)&nbsp;</h2>

Another bonus of attending the MITESOL conference was learning all about <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/cambridgeenglish/catalog/adult-courses/ventures-4th-edition" target="_blank">Ventures 4th Edition</a>, set to launch in summer 2026. Now that Ellii can be bundled with Ventures, you&rsquo;ll often find us side by side in exhibit halls. It was a pleasure getting to know CUPA district manager Anne Damiecka and discussing Adult Literacy needs in Michigan.

I also attended Anne and Katie&#39;s&nbsp;session and learned about the exciting updates coming to Ventures 4e&mdash;especially the new Lesson G, which will focus on workplace themes.

<img alt="Anne Damiecka sharing Ventures 4th edition at MITESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4998/content_MITESOL-2025-Ventures.jpg" style="height: 438px; width: 500px;" />

Anne Damiecka&nbsp;speaking during the Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners in Michigan session, presented with&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Katie Welch&nbsp;

Ellii will be developing&nbsp;new Ventures collections to go with the 4th edition before the updated coursebook series is released&nbsp;next summer.

<a href="https://ellii.com/ventures" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii + Ventures" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5009/content_ellii-ventures.png" style="width: 500px; height: 305px;" /></a>

<h2>Gratitude</h2>

MITESOL 2025 was a day filled with inspiration, community, and meaningful conversations. I returned to Canada feeling&nbsp;grateful for the educators who continue to elevate, motivate, and unite English language learners wherever their classrooms may be.

As we head into a season of gratitude, I want to extend a special thank-you to Alexandra and the entire MITESOL team for organizing such a productive conference and for helping Ellii feel right at home. And to Ashley, Ellii&rsquo;s conference coordinator extraordinaire&mdash;thank you for planning every detail and keeping us perfectly on track during each and every busy conference season!&nbsp;

English Language Educators Recognition Day Announced at MITESOL 2025

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2727/Tara_English-Language-Educators-Recognition-Day-Announced-at-MITESOL-2025_Banner.png

Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

This post answers frequently asked questions about Ellii&#39;s Placement Tests. For general questions about Ellii&#39;s assessment content, view this related post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-assessments" target="_blank">How to Find Assessments on Ellii</a>

<h2>Ellii&#39;s Placement Test (Autograded)</h2>

The <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5606-ellii-placement-test-autograded" target="_blank">Ellii Placement Test </a>(autograded) is designed to help teachers or administrators&nbsp;determine the Ellii level of a new English language student. This short, autograded test does not include writing and speaking tasks.&nbsp;Students have&nbsp;30 minutes&nbsp;to complete the Ellii Placement Test. There is also a printable version with downloadable audio available if schools prefer this method.

The Ellii Placement Test (autograded) has 30 multiple-choice questions and is divided into 3 sections:

<blockquote>
Part 1: Listening (3 recordings, 9 questions) 
Part 2: Grammar (12 questions) 
Part 3: Reading (3 readings, 9 questions)
</blockquote>

For the most accurate scoring, teachers should encourage&nbsp;students to skip questions they can&#39;t answer rather than guessing.

<blockquote>
Score Range = Ellii Level 
 
0-3% = Pre Beg 
4&ndash;17% = Low Beg 
18-40% = High Beg 
41-63% = Low Int 
64-83% = High Int 
84-97% = High Int &ndash; Adv 
98-100% = Adv
</blockquote>

After completing the assessment, students are assigned a score and suggested a level placement. This helps teachers decide which Ellii materials to use with their students. 
 
The type of level teachers&nbsp;see is based on the settings they have selected on their Account page (Ellii, CLB, CEFR, ELD, NRS). A percentage score will also be shown.

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Placement Test (Speaking &amp; Writing)</h2>

The<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4226-ellii-placement-test-writing-speaking" target="_blank"> Ellii Placement Test (Writing &amp; Speaking)</a> assesses all four skills and is designed to help teachers determine the Ellii level of a new English language student. Teachers can also consult our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies">Equivalency Scale</a>&nbsp;to determine which materials are best suited for their&nbsp;students based on their level preference.

We recommend giving students a time limit of&nbsp;60 minutes&nbsp;to complete this test in order to get the most accurate level placement. If assigning the digital version, teachers can include this guideline as a note: &quot;Please use a maximum of 60 minutes to take this test. I will see the time taken after you submit your answers.&quot;

A printable version with suggested rubrics for the speaking and writing portion is available in the Teacher PDF. If students are taking the digital version, teachers may want to share expectations so students understand what they will be looking for in a response. There is also an <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4798-ellii-placement-test-ireland">Irish version</a> of this test.&nbsp;

This test is divided into 5 sections:

<blockquote>
Part 1: Listening (6 recordings, 12 questions, 20%) 
Part 2: Grammar (16 questions, 27%) 
Part 3: Reading (3 readings, 9 questions, 15%) 
Part 4: Writing (3 short answers, 1 long answer, 22%) 
Part 5: Speaking (1 long answer, 16%)
</blockquote>

For the most accurate scoring, students should be encouraged to skip questions they can&#39;t answer rather than guessing. Here is the suggested level placement for the full test with speaking and writing portions.

<blockquote>
Score Range = Ellii Level 
 
0-3% = Pre Beg 
4&ndash;17% = Low Beg 
18-40% = High Beg 
41-63% = Low Int 
64-83% = High Int 
84-97% = High Int &ndash; Adv 
98-100% = Adv
</blockquote>

The score and suggested level will help teachers decide which Ellii materials to use with their students. The type of level teachers see is&nbsp;based on the settings they have set up on their Account page (Ellii, CLB, CEFR, ELD, NRS). A percentage score will also be shown.&nbsp;

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Exit Test</h2>

To assess students&#39; gains since they took the autograded <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5606-ellii-placement-test-autograded" target="_blank">Ellii Placement Test</a> or to use an alternative version of the autograded Ellii Placement Test, teachers can assign the&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5607-ellii-exit-test-autograded">Ellii Exit Test</a>.&nbsp;This is an additional autograded proficiency test with different questions at the same difficulty and with the same number of questions as the autograded Ellii Placement Test. Some teachers also use it to deter cheating or to offer extra practice taking assessments. Students have 30 minutes to complete the test.&nbsp;

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Proficiency Level Account Settings</h2>

Under Account settings (top right on Ellii), teachers can adjust their level preferences to the ones they want to see on the materials. Teachers choose the&nbsp;generic&nbsp;Ellii level (Pre Beg &ndash; Adv) with the option to add one of the following level systems:&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<blockquote>
Canadian Language Benchmarks: CLB 1&ndash;12 
Common European Framework: CEFR A0&ndash;C2 
English Language Development:&nbsp;&nbsp;ELD 1&ndash;6 
National Reporting System: NRS 1&ndash;6
</blockquote>

<a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4927/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_1.54.43_PM.png" /></a>

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Equivalency Scale</h2>

If you want to know more about Ellii&#39;s levels, consider reviewing our <a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank">Equivalency Scale</a>. You can find this comparison scale on the footer of the site.&nbsp;

<hr />
<h2>Ellii Solo</h2>

If your school has <a href="https://ellii.com/solo" target="_blank">Ellii Solo</a>, Ellii&#39;s self-study solution designed for pre-enrollment learning paths, computer lab programs, and independent learning initiatives, students will take the Ellii Placement Test when they first begin the program. This test is the same autograded test that teachers assign on Ellii. After taking the test, students will be directed to ready-made pathways of self-study packs and courses most appropriate for their level. The proficiency level will be displayed the way the administrator has chosen (e.g., Ellii + CLB). 
 
<img alt="Ellii Solo Level" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4928/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_3.25.40_PM.png" /> 
Students must complete a pathway or retake the placement test in order to unlock higher-level pathways.&nbsp; 
<img alt="Ellii Solo Pathways" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4929/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_3.35.56_PM.png" />

Students using Ellii Solo can also access the&nbsp;Library if they choose to explore courses, packs, and videos&nbsp;without using the guided pathways.

<img alt="Ellii Solo Navigation bar" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4930/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_3.37.18_PM.png" />We hope <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s diagnostic assessments</a> help you and your learners find the content and courseware you need to ensure proficiency success!

All about the Ellii Placement Test

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2718/Tara_Ellii-Placement-Test_Banner.png

<h1>The Happiest Conference</h1>

You may have seen that Disneyland was celebrating its 70th year, but did you know that CASAS was busy marking&nbsp;its own milestone just a few blocks away? 
 
<a href="https://www.casas.org/" target="_blank">CASAS</a> (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems) is used to measure the basic skills of adult learners in the US.&nbsp;CASAS assessments help adult educators identify skill gaps, place students into appropriate programs, and monitor progress of employment-related competencies.

The annual CASAS Summer Institute conference was held in Garden Grove last week. Over 1,000&nbsp;attendees gathered to learn, network,&nbsp;and celebrate its 45th year. Ellii was excited to take part!

<img alt="Yacht Rocks" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4728/content_boat.jpeg" />

Not a boat! Ellii team (Tara, Marta, and Wendy) and friends at the CASAS networking social, Yacht Rock!, in the driveway&nbsp;at Hyatt Regency.

Despite&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5548-trump-deploys-troops-to-la-immigration-protests" target="_blank">tension in LA</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;hazy skies that locals described as&nbsp;June Gloom,&nbsp;our week in Garden Grove was filled with&nbsp;energy, hope, and camaraderie.

Here are some highlights and takeaways.

<h2>Learning</h2>

Ellii sponsored, presented at, and attended the CASAS Summer Institute (SI) this year, and it was fun to be a first-timer!&nbsp;&nbsp;As head of Ellii&#39;s content team, I&nbsp;spent my time soaking up information at the sessions, focusing on&nbsp;research about the following hot topics in US adult ed:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/el-civics" target="_blank">EL Civics (COAAPS)</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/us-civics" target="_blank">Citizenship Preparation</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;page=1" target="_blank">IET Programs</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/the-multi-modal-multi-sensory-multi-cultural-power-of-multi-literacy-learning" target="_blank">Multiple Literacies</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS STEPS</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2>Best practices road trip</h2>

It was refreshing to attend an education conference&nbsp;where there were several sessions that barely touched on AI. Every session I attended at CASAS SI was informative and useful for the Ellii team;&nbsp;however, the one I enjoyed the most was a&nbsp;CASAS session titled&nbsp;Best Practices Road Trip by Laura Fetter and Astrid Robitaille. Throughout the session, educational specialists were invited&nbsp;up to speak about special programs and initiatives that teachers and administrators had implemented in&nbsp;their state.

Educators touched on a variety of topics from assessment to orientation. One popular tip everyone appreciated was the idea of&nbsp;waiting until Day 2 to assign the CASAS test, which agencies found resulted&nbsp;in fewer students dropping out before they even get started.&nbsp;

After the mini-presentations, Laura and Astrid&nbsp;summarized the highlights by reading out postcards, sometimes even attempting to mimic the state&#39;s English accents! The session had all of the essentials of <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/speaking-at-an-elt-conference-top-tips-for-successful-presentations" target="_blank">a successful ELT presentation</a>.

<img alt="CASAS best practice road trip session and postcard from CASAS" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4740/content_postcard-road-trip.jpg" />

<h2>Resources</h2>

Ellii received several shout-outs at the sessions, and it was great to hear this enthusiasm in California.&nbsp;Here are some other resources that were shared in the sessions:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/CASASAssessment">CASAS YouTube Channel</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://elcivics.otan.us/" target="_blank">EL Civics Exchange</a> (Contact elcivicsATcasas.org to get on the email list)</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship" target="_blank">USCIS Resource Center</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@uscis" target="_blank">USCIS YouTube Channel</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://usahello.org/" target="_blank">USA Hello</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.usalearns.org/" target="_blank">USA Learns</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/esl/venturesadulted/venturesarcade/" target="_blank">Ventures Arcade</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.crowded.worlded.org/skillblox" target="_blank">SkillBlox</a></li>
</ul>

We are now prioritizing a long list of actionables related to content and features, rewriting our own road map&nbsp;to ensure we are providing just what adult educators need. This includes finding out which civics objectives&nbsp;our subscribers are focusing on next year, adding more high-beginner civics content, amping up our Citizenship Prep content,&nbsp;and continuing to build new exploratory&nbsp;IET courses that are in high demand.&nbsp;

<h2>Presenting</h2>

Wendy Klatt, our education specialist, delivered two&nbsp;presentations at the conference&nbsp;and also managed the booth and poster area where attendees could stop in anytime for live demos, Q&amp;As, and merch! 
 
In the first presentation, Wendy walked teachers and administrators through Supporting CASAS STEPS Success with Ellii, sharing our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/casas-competencies">CASAS collections</a> and NEW <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Test&nbsp;Preparation</a> section, which has a digital/printable practice test for every level of the Reading STEPS and Listening STEPS tests.&nbsp; 
 
Ellii was honored to have Ventures author Donna Price join&nbsp;Wendy for a session on Connecting Engaging Lessons and Games to the English Language Proficiency Standards.&nbsp;

<img alt="Wendy Klatt and Donna Price, enthusiastic attendees at Ellii session at CASAS SI 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4741/content_wendy-donna-audience-ellii.jpg" />

<h2>Networking</h2>

What was different about the CASAS conference from other recent conferences I&#39;ve attended? The CASAS team set the vibe! Even though it was a large conference and it was my first time attending, it had a small, close-knit feeling. People chatted over breakfast, in the elevators, and on the nice breaks between sessions. You saw speakers and attendees more than once. There were scheduled social events, including morning fitness opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, this conference did not feel rushed. It helped being able to pop up into our rooms whenever we needed to reflect or refresh.

<img alt="Kevin and Deb" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4729/content_Kevin-debra.jpeg" />

At breakfast, we met Kevin and Deb (above) from Dinuba Adult School. They manage a small adult school outside of Fresno and spoke so highly of their ESL instructor (who they likened to Mary Poppins) whose students come to class even on prep days and feel lost without her when school is not in session.&nbsp;We all felt&nbsp;a renewed sense of gratitude for being in this industry where we can experience a strong sense of purpose at work every day.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<img alt="Marta Solodun (Ellii COO) and Donna Price (Ventures author)" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4743/content_donna-marta.jpeg" />

Marta Solodun (Ellii COO) and Donna Price (Ventures author and VIP guest) at the CASAS luncheon

At the booth, I met Lauren, an Ellii super user who has been using our new <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Practice Tests,</a> which she described as &quot;more rigorous&quot; than our competitors.&nbsp;We took in the keynote together and chatted about multiple literacies, including financial literacy, AI literacy, and even driver&#39;s literacy. Lauren shared an interesting life-skills&nbsp;learning opportunity that happend&nbsp;in her class when two students bumped into each other in their cars. She brought the class out to the parking lot as they exchanged information and took photos of the scene. The entire class learned language and practical tips to use at the&nbsp;scene of an accident.

<h2>Food &amp; fun</h2>

We did not go hungry at this conference, unlike many others I have attended over the years.&nbsp;

A full breakfast was served each day, and&nbsp;coffee&nbsp;and water were widely available. CASAS and its sponsors also provided a luncheon and an outdoor dinner party with food and dancing. In the evenings, friends of Ellii joined us at some&nbsp;local eateries:&nbsp;Nova Kitchen &amp; Bar for sushi and mochi and&nbsp;Puesto Anaheim for tacos and cocktails. I also enjoyed a 5K run&nbsp;to Downtown Disneyland, where I indulged in a kid&#39;s meal at Ballast Point Brewing. We even caught the Disney fireworks from our hotel parking lot!

<img alt="sushi restaurant Garden Grove" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4731/content_sushi.jpeg" />

Nova Kitchen &amp; Bar with Tara Benwell (Ellii VP of Publishing), Marta Solodun (Ellii COO), Donna Price (Ventures author), Wendy Klatt (Ellii Education Specialist), and Alisa Takeushi (OTAN)

<h2>Adult ed acronyms</h2>

As Canadians who are often traveling to the US for adult ed conferences, we are constantly learning new acronyms. Here are some that came up often at the CASAS conference last week and might be useful for anyone who is new to this industry or market.

<blockquote>
ABE: Adult Basic Education

AEFLA: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act

CAEP:&nbsp;Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (a nonprofit organization that accredits educator preparation programs)

CASAS:&nbsp;Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (assessments that measure the basic skills of adult learners in the US)

CCR: College and Career Readiness Standards

COAAPS:&nbsp;Civic Objectives and Additional Assessment Plans (pre-approved objectives and assessment plans designed to help adult learners develop civic knowledge and skills in California)

ELA: English Language Acquisition

ELP: English Language Proficiency standards

IELCE:&nbsp;Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (education services provided to the English language learners who are adults&nbsp;to help them achieve competency in English language and acquire skills needed to function effectively as parents, workers, and citizens in the US)

IET:&nbsp;Integrated Education and Training (blends adult ed/ESL with workforce training and preparation)

N-400: application for naturalization in the US

NRS: National Report System for adult education (the accountability system for federally funded adult ed&nbsp;programs in the US)

OTAN:&nbsp;Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (provides support for instructional technology and distance learning to literacy and adult educators&nbsp;in California)

STEPS: CASAS&#39;s Student Test of English Progress and Success&nbsp;

USCIS:&nbsp;United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (government agency that processes immigration applications in the US)

WIOA:&nbsp;Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services)
</blockquote>

Thank you to CASAS organizers and friends Jane, Jennifer, and Karla for making us feel welcome and putting on an outstanding conference. We hope to see you next year for CASAS Summer Institute 2026!&nbsp;

PS. If you haven&#39;t tried Ellii&#39;s NEW&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Practice Tests</a>, we hope you&#39;ll check them out and send us some feedback.

&nbsp;

CASAS Summer Institute 2025: Reflections & Takeaways

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2702/Tara_CASAS-Summer-Institute-2025-Reflections-Takeaways_Banner.png

<h2>Let&#39;s start with an intention</h2>

At the beginning of my <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1990-yoga" target="_blank">yoga</a> class every Tuesday, my favorite teacher, Leanne, invites us to start with an intention. I am always amazed what a difference this can make to my practice.&nbsp;

Heading to Long Beach, California, from Windsor, Ontario,&nbsp;for TESOL this year, I felt like I needed to set myself up for success in an intentional way.&nbsp; 
 
The first thing I did was buy a book at the Detroit airport.&nbsp;Inciting Joy by Ross Gay jumped out as if to say &quot;pick me,&quot; so I did. The bookseller smiled and said, &quot;Great choice. The world needs more of this right now.&quot; Yes, I thought to myself, my TESOL 2025 intention is joy.

<blockquote>
&quot;My hunch is that joy is an ember for or precursor to wild and predictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity. And that solidarity might incite further joy...and...noticing what we love in common, and studying that, might help us survive.&quot; 
 
~ Ross Gay, Inciting Joy
</blockquote>

<img alt="inciting joy Detroit airport" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4466/content_TESOL-giraffe-chandelier-book-inciting-joy.png" />

I had been thinking about The Joy of TESOL after a&nbsp;sneak peek of the presidential keynote via <a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes/episode/20e6a4a0/e65-the-world-comes-to-tesol-with-dr-debra-suarez" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>. In Episode 65, Debra Suarez reflects on&nbsp;walking into TESOL for the very first time&mdash;a&nbsp;sea of&nbsp;flags from all over the world taking her breath away&mdash;and how she felt she had finally found her place in the world. A place where like-minded people share a passion for teaching and language learning.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, back in Canada, Ellii&#39;s CEO, Ben Buckwold, seemed to be tuning in to the same sentiment.&nbsp;Before leaving Winnipeg, Ben picked up a box of US-Canada pins to share with any TESOL attendees who wanted to express solidarity.&nbsp;

Below are 10+ joyful highlights from my 15th year at TESOL.

<h2>Delightful sessions</h2>

Regrettably, I missed Tuesday&#39;s opening keynote about&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1467-hip-hop-rap" target="_blank">Hip-Hop</a>, so Missy Testerman&#39;s keynote on Wednesday morning was the true start of TESOL 2025 for me.&nbsp;

Missy, from Tennessee, was the&nbsp;2024 National Teacher of the Year.&nbsp;Her sunshiny voice lit up the room and her stories about her young ELs and their families were touching and uplifting, setting conference attendees&nbsp;up for an inspiring day. She talked about little Adrian (11 going on 37), who is eager to get married after learning about&nbsp;tax codes, and of her teacher&#39;s pet, Anna, who loves school so much she dreams of stealing the&nbsp;flip chart. Missy reminded us&nbsp;that English teachers often&nbsp;spark a language learning journey for&nbsp;an entire&nbsp;family, especially the moms working in the&nbsp;home.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;Teaching is the only career that guarantees every other profession.&quot;

~&nbsp;Missy Testerman, TESOL 2025
</blockquote>

It is always a joy when you attend a session full of useful tips and ideas that relate to your own work in ELT.&nbsp;This year we attended sessions on:

<ul>
	<li>CASAS eWorks</li>
	<li>teaching literacy (Google the&nbsp;&quot;flyswatter&nbsp;vocabulary&nbsp;game&quot; for some fun)</li>
	<li>inquiry-based learning&nbsp;</li>
	<li>service learning</li>
	<li>job skills of the future</li>
	<li>AI for personalized learning</li>
</ul>

One noteable session was&nbsp;a talk on Positive Education by George Kokolas. The speaker shared simple, yet powerful reminders about the impact of positivity in the classroom. If&nbsp;we don&#39;t feel positive ourselves, we can&#39;t expect our students to arrive ready and eager to learn. He focused on the importance of developing&nbsp;character strengths and suggested creating &quot;inner-strength&quot; groups to help students develop their strongest skills.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;Decide to be a positive educator and embody it. Positive education is not taught, it&#39;s caught.&quot;

&ndash; George Kokolas
</blockquote>

Another excellent session was Techniques and Materials to Teach Basic Literacy Level ESL Learners by Gretchen Bitterlin. This session was full of useful tips for using the Early Production Technique and gave us some inspiration&nbsp;for growing our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/english-basics" target="_blank">English Basics</a> section.

We learned three words in Mandarin and got a&nbsp;feel for how much repetition is needed to own a new word (an average of 20&nbsp;passes&nbsp;for recognition and 60&nbsp;for production). She recommended following this formula when introducing new vocabulary:

<ol>
	<li>nonverbal statements (Show me the pencil.)</li>
	<li>yes/no questions (Is this a pencil?)</li>
	<li>or questions (Is this a pencil or a ruler?)</li>
	<li>wh- questions (What is this?)</li>
</ol>

Gretchen also recommended focusing&nbsp;on listening, pointing to research&nbsp;suggesting that listening without oral repetition in the earliest language learning stage actually improves an EL&#39;s pronunciation over time.&nbsp;

At a session called&nbsp;AI in Materials Development, Brent Warner shared the publishing statistic that&nbsp;it takes about 6&ndash;8 years to publish a course book. He walked us through a fun way&nbsp;of using AI to generate personalized stories that started with surveying ELs about their favorite celebrities and activities.&nbsp; 
 
In an NGL session titled Future-Ready Skills for the Global Workplace, Caitlin Thomas, a dynamic speaker,&nbsp;talked about AI fluency being the new digital literacy. During the talk, I jumped over to Basecamp to share&nbsp;this thought-provoking quote with Ellii&#39;s creative Publishing team.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;AI won&#39;t replace humans, but humans who use AI will replace those who don&#39;t.&quot; 
 
~ Caitlin Thomas, National Geographic Learning 
&nbsp;
</blockquote>

Ellii&#39;s CEO, Ben Buckwold, also gave three presentations that were well attended, including a session on&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a>, our FREE interactive feature. We enjoyed hearing fun stories about <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/names" target="_blank">names</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/parenting-styles" target="_blank">parenting styles</a>, and <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/tipping" target="_blank">tipping</a>,&nbsp;and were thrilled to see how our interactive feature could inspire&nbsp;so much conversation with just a few questions.

<h2> 
Our happy place (the Ellii booth)</h2>

Back at the booth, the Ellii team was impressing teachers with&nbsp;ready-made, breaking-news, multilevel lessons about the NASA astronauts that had been stuck in space for nine months.&nbsp;

It was impossible not to to feel happy as our team&nbsp;handed out chocolate and T-shirts, especially to anyone who popped in to see what&#39;s new or&nbsp;who said the magic words (I Love Ellii). Ellii sponsored TESOL&#39;s Day 1 coffee hour in the Expo Hall, delivering some liquid life&nbsp;to a long line of thirsty TESOLers!&nbsp;

<img alt="Ellii coffee cart TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4460/content_Ellii-tesol-coffee-cart-tshirts.png" />

As they gathered up stickers, pens, and more&nbsp;fun swag, Ellii subscribers shared what they are excited about this year,&nbsp;including:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">our NEW CASAS practice tests</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/pronunciation" target="_blank">our Pronunciation videos</a>&nbsp;(Lise was there in person and felt like a celebrity!)</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLIzmA29Xw&amp;t=3s">AI feedback tools</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls">Ellii Polls</a></li>
	<li>Ellii&#39;s upcoming partnership with Cambridge University Press &mdash;Ventures (more info coming soon)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Lovely Long Beach&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>

It was my first time in Long Beach, and even though it was slightly warmer at&nbsp;home&nbsp;in Canada,&nbsp;the sun was shining most of the week! Getting a chance to run on the beach at the crack of dawn&nbsp;with a new colleague was a joyful way to start each day.

Our team had a lovely stay at the Hyatt and enjoyed local sushi, Greek, and Thai food. Besides the orange cranberry muffins that tasted like creamsicles, the&nbsp;food that brought me the most happiness was a loaf of olive bread on the patio at Sevilla!&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<img alt="Team Ellii at TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4461/content_Ellii-team-TESOL-2025.png" />

Wendy, Ann, Lise, Ashley, and Tara from Ellii at TESOL 2025 in Long Beach, California

<h2>Exciting announcements</h2>

Just like every year, our team arrived at TESOL with some exciting announcements. 
 
On Thursday, we celebrated the release of <a href="https://www.englishapp.com/" target="_blank">English App by Ellii</a>, our new language learning app for students available in the App Store and on Google Play! After months of building, curating, and designing in preparation for this exciting launch, it was almost hard to be away from Ellii HQ that day!&nbsp; 
 
<img alt="English App released" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4462/content_Ellii-englishapp-cambridge-ventures.png" />

On Friday, Ben, Wendy, and I shared more exciting news at&nbsp;a TESOL session focused on an upcoming partnership&nbsp;between Ellii and&nbsp;Cambridge University Press.&nbsp;Over the years, we have learned that many Ellii subscribers use Ventures as their core text, and we&#39;re excited to offer some supplementary support for this popular CUP series.&nbsp;More on this development coming soon!

<h2>Real-time requests</h2>

You know what else brings me joy as the head of an agile publishing team? Requests from teachers! Last year at TESOL, attendees asked for many items that we have since checked off! Here are a few:

<ul>
	<li>an additional <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5227-how-to-cite-a-source-apa" target="_blank">How to Cite a Source</a>&nbsp;in English&nbsp;lesson that focuses on&nbsp;APA&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>higher-level <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">grammar</a> lessons&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>more lower-level <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/that-s-news-to-me" target="_blank">That&#39;s News to Me</a> lessons&nbsp;&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>the ability for administrators to create their own <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Study Packs</a>&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>more accented voices in our audio and video&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation">test prep content</a>&nbsp;✓</li>
</ul>

This year we had a few new requests that I hope we can tackle before Salt Lake City:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/pronunciation" target="_blank">pronunciation lessons</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/pronunciation" target="_blank">videos</a> that go beyond the vowel and consant sounds (suprasegmentals)</li>
	<li>more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/phonics-stories" target="_blank">Phonics Stories</a></li>
	<li>the ability to create your own <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a></li>
	<li>lower-level, shorter Ellii Polls that can be done faster</li>
	<li>other fun activities like Ellii Polls</li>
	<li>work-related videos with real people in real-life scenarios</li>
	<li>more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/real-world-reading">Real-World Readings</a></li>
	<li>even more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/grammar-stories" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a></li>
</ul>

Wherever we go these days, we always get a lot of love and requests for our videos! As one&nbsp;speaker&nbsp;mentioned, students light up when you put a video on, especially when they are in a class with a no-cellphone rule and seem to be starving for screen time.&nbsp;

<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii Videos" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4456/content_cute-kitty-video-TESOL-2025.jpg" /></a>

I&#39;m more of a giraffe chandelier gal than a cat person,&nbsp;but still, whenever this video came on at the Ellii booth, it brought me so much joy.

<h2>Friends of Ellii</h2>

Last year at TESOL, we got to meet Shey and Anna from our favorite ELT podcast,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>. This year we got to hang with&nbsp;them again and also celebrate being their podcast sponsor! We can&#39;t wait for their TESOL 2025 recap.

<img alt="Anna and Shé from the Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast with Tara Benwell and Ben Buckwold from Ellii at TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4463/content_friends-of-Ellii-TESOL2025.png" />

Speaking of sponsorship, you&nbsp;may remember Diego from coffee talks with TESOL experts&nbsp;or from our very own Ellii Con coffee talk about AI (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPg8qkpwBWk&amp;t=149s" target="_blank">How Fast Is IT Moving?</a>). Ellii sponsored Diego&#39;s time at TESOL this year, and, at the booth, Diego and I did a deep dive into Ellii&#39;s new AI feedback settings. We looked at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLIzmA29Xw&amp;t=3s" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s new Grade Feed</a> and how Ellii Bot&nbsp;was leaving feedback for&nbsp;his students. I helped Diego switch his settings to the recommended middle ground so that he could review and adjust the AI ratings and feedback before submitting it to his students. An interested teacher passed by to listen to our conversation and instantly wanted to learn more about why teachers love Ellii. There&#39;s nothing better than live&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/tour/testimonials" target="_blank">testimonials</a> and demos by real Ellii users at the booth. Thank you, Diego!

<blockquote>
Did you attend TESOL 2025 or a recent conference or webinar? What brought you joy?
</blockquote>

Next week, we will be off to Dallas, Texas, for COABE 2025. We hope to see some of you there for a little more joy! 
 
~ Tara &amp;&nbsp;Team Ellii

<img alt="Tara Benwell in a fuzzy egg chair at TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4464/content_Tara-egg-chair-tesol.png" />

Fuzzy egg chair to relax in before a presentation? Pure joy!

Inciting Joy at TESOL 2025 in Long Beach, California

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2624/Tara_TESOL-2025-takeaways_Banner.png

Find quick links to each episode of the Teacher Think-Aloud podcast, hosted by Shélynn Riel and Anna Ciriani-Dean and sponsored by Ellii.  

Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast

Discover what's new or coming soon, including upcoming lessons and resources and product feature updates. 

Announcements

<h2>Happy New Year!</h2>

This year, Ellii will be sponsoring&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>! As&nbsp;founding fans of this #ELT podcast&nbsp;and&nbsp;firm believers in the power of reflection, we are confident this will be a great fit for Ellii.&nbsp;

In addition to enjoying&nbsp;many&nbsp;episodes and meeting up with this friendly podcast duo in person at the TESOL convention in 2024,&nbsp;Ben and I made an appearance on The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast last year for <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-talks-materials-writing-teacher-think-aloud-podcast" target="_blank">Episode 60</a>. We loved talking about materials writing and sharing Ellii&#39;s (formerly ESL Library&#39;s) origin story with Shey and Anna.&nbsp; 
 
If you are unfamiliar with this podcast and are looking to start the year with some fresh and friendly professional development, we encourage you to browse past episodes of The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast. If you like what you hear, be&nbsp;sure to subscribe so you don&#39;t miss all of the new shows.

In their<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes/episode/26cb7c6b/e63-2024-end-of-year-reflection" target="_blank"> 2024 End-of-Year Reflection</a> episode, Shey and Anna discussed&nbsp;some of the themes they are considering for&nbsp;2025:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Ready-to-use teaching tips</li>
	<li>Career advice</li>
	<li>Broader TESOL trends</li>
	<li>Emerging ELT topics</li>
	<li>The intersection of personal and professional lives (finding balance in&nbsp;both worlds)</li>
</ul>

Find The Teacher Think-Aloud podcast in all of your favorite places:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">www.teacherthinkaloud.com</a>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e60-from-teaching-to-materials-writing-a-chat-with/id1629819608?i=1000670852097" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a></li>
</ul>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tBD4sc4TzB0" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4207/content_Ellii-Think-aloud-podcast-2025.png" /></a> 
Happy listening!

New Year, New Reflections & a Partnership with The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2616/Tara_New-Year-New-Reflections-and-a-Partnership-with-The-Teacher-Think-Aloud-Podcast_Banner.png

Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

Ellii&#39;s new <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;page=1" target="_self">career-specific courses</a> were initially designed to be used as self-study solutions for English learners looking to explore a variety of career pathways. While some students are waiting patiently to get into English language classes, others are looking for specialized content that meets their specific needs outside of a General English class.&nbsp;

Teachers or administers can assign a course, and&nbsp;ELs&nbsp;can work their way independently&nbsp;through the digital-only units on their laptops or mobile devices. All tasks and assessments are autoscored; however, we hope that teachers are&nbsp;monitoring students&#39; results and progress and helping as much as they can along the way.&nbsp; 
 
But what if you want to teach Ellii&#39;s workplace&nbsp;courses in a group setting? We know now that many teachers are previewing these ready-made courses with this question in mind.

Here are some ideas for adding speaking, writing, and other group activities into a classroom setting. Please share your own activity suggestions and feedback in the comments below!&nbsp;

<h2>Exploit the dialogues in pairs&nbsp;</h2>

Each unit in a career-specific course at Ellii&nbsp;centers around one dialogue with two or three speakers. As a self-study task, students can read and listen to the dialogues and review vocabulary in context. As a class, you can play the audio and students can follow along. Students can also take turns reading the dialogue out loud. But what else can you do in class with ready-made dialogues? Here are some ideas:

<ul>
	<li>Read the dialogues&nbsp;out loud as a pair&nbsp;and then swap roles</li>
	<li>Peform the dialogues for the teacher and work on pronunciation and intonation</li>
	<li>Swap out a set number of words or expressions and perform a new dialogue&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Write an entirely new dialogue using the key vocabulary and expressions&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Role-play what happened before</li>
	<li>Role-play what happens next</li>
</ul>

<h2>Have a class discussion after&nbsp;each scenario</h2>

<ul>
	<li>What was the dialogue mainly about?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What went wrong?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What went right?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Do you think this scenario would happen&nbsp;on a daily basis? If not, how often?</li>
	<li>Is this a scenario that you could see yourself excelling in? Why or why not?</li>
	<li>Are you still interested in this career after studying this scenario? Why or why not?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What else do you want to know about this type of scenario?</li>
</ul>

<h2>Help the new vocabulary become more sticky</h2>

Here are a bunch of activity ideas we have shared in the past about reviewing vocabulary with ELLs. We also recommend using these blank&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2966-vocabulary-cards" target="_self">Vocabulary Cards</a>.

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-remember-vocabulary" target="_self">How to Remember Vocabulary</a>&nbsp;(Share the URGE&nbsp;method with your learners)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary" target="_self">4 Activities for Reviewing Vocabulary</a> (Hot Seat, Matchup, Concentration A &amp; B)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/one-to-one-vocab-review" target="_self">One-to-One Vocabulary Review Ideas</a>&nbsp;(Wh-questions;&nbsp;Reduce, Reuse, Recyle; Speed Sort; Word Soup; and more!)</li>
</ul>

In addition, we&nbsp;hope you have already discovered the places to find related flashcards and silent clips&nbsp;(and how to use them) in this&nbsp;post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/career-pathways-for-newcomers" target="_self">Career Pathways for Newcomers</a>.

<h2>Have students quiz each other&nbsp;before assigning the assessments</h2>

Each workplace course has two assessments&mdash;a mid-course and a final assessment. Your students can work in pairs&nbsp;to quiz each other on the vocabulary and scenarios&nbsp;using the Review task from each unit. Alternatively, ask each student to come up with five questions and then pull them out of a box and quiz the class as a group.&nbsp;Students can raise their hands or approach the board to answer. Examples of question types include drawing, spelling, or defining&nbsp;words. Encourage students to also ask&nbsp;main idea or detail&nbsp;questions about the scenarios.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Draw a call button for me.</li>
	<li>When would a nursing assistant use an ear thermometer?</li>
	<li>How does a pharmacist technician verify a person&#39;s ID?</li>
	<li>How do you spell autoclave?</li>
	<li>What kind of questions does an EMT ask when arriving at the scene of an accident?</li>
</ul>

<h2>Create your own additional units together</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Put students in pairs or groups of three.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Have groups come up with a new scenario involving the worker (e.g., nursing assistant) and a colleague or patient/customer from the course.</li>
	<li>Encourage students to research their new scenarios. (They may want to try to use AI for this task, but make sure that they fact-check the results!)</li>
	<li>After writing a new short dialogue, encourage students to choose about 6&ndash;10 keywords that they want to teach from it. (Alternatively, encourage them to&nbsp;recycle vocabulary they learned in&nbsp;the course.)</li>
	<li>After writing their new dialogues, have students work together to peer-edit each other&#39;s work (try our <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2218-writing-correction-key" target="_self">Writing Correction Key</a>). Where would the new scenario fit best into the course?</li>
	<li>Students can then try to create other tasks to build out their lesson (matching, dialogue, vocabulary review, comprension, review), using the template that Ellii has used in the course.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Interview a professional</h2>

To build these courses, Ellii collaborated with people in the field, including nursing assistants, phlebotmists, and others. Your students could do this as well!

Do you or any of your friends, colleagues, or even students know someone who works in this field? Would they be willing to come into your class to talk to the students or even call in via speaker phone?

Have your students prepare&nbsp;some questions for a professional whether you find someone to ask or not. If you can&#39;t find someone to answer the questions live for you, consider putting students to work researching the answers to their own questions.

<h2>Reflect on the course</h2>

We hope you and your learners always take the time to reflect on the content you use at Ellii. We have plenty of reflection tools that you can use in our Assesment Tools area. Some of these tools may be useful for you to use alongside these courses. You could even have students share comments on this blog post!

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2557-3-2-1-reflection" target="_self">3-2-1 Reflection</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2228-exit-slips" target="_self">Exit Slips</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/3085-wrap-up" target="_self">Wrap-Up</a></li>
</ul>

<h2> 
Help Ellii design a printable workplace course template</h2>

If you are&nbsp;hoping to use paper-based versions of Ellii&#39;s workplace courses, we would love to hear from you!

<ul>
	<li>Which tasks and activites would you like to see in a paper-based version of Ellii&#39;s courses?&nbsp;Would you use an abridged printout that has the dialogue and comprehension questions, or are you looking for a full printable lesson with all of the tasks from the digital version (i.e.,&nbsp;similar to an Everyday Dialogues PDF)?</li>
	<li>Would you be using the printable version in a group or one-to-one setting?</li>
	<li>Is there a reason the digital version is not currently meeting your classroom needs?</li>
</ul>

Any suggestions or feedback you have will help as we explore how to reverse-engineer our courses for your printable needs in 2025. Thank you for your requests!

<blockquote>
What ideas do you have for adding&nbsp;engaging classroom activities to self-study materials.
</blockquote>

Transform Self-Study Workplace Courses into Engaging Group-Learning Experiences

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2610/Tara_Transform-Self-Study-Workplace-Courses-into-Engaging-Group-Learning-Experiences_Banner.png

Every week, our Customer Support team answers dozens of questions from Ellii subscribers. The Support team&nbsp;passes some of these questions on to our Publishing and Product teams in order to:&nbsp; 
 
1. gather specialized tips and suggestions that will benefit teachers&nbsp; 
2. push for features, updates, and content that subscribers request 
 
Frequently asked questions&nbsp;often turn into full-length blog posts (e.g., <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_parent">grammar questions</a>), Help Docs (e.g., <a href="https://help.ellii.com/" target="_parent">step-by-step instructions</a>), or videos (e.g., in-depth feature <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2HAIBUNgKo&amp;list=PLP0N5nuiA3aM_OP18M7G9XSYjXigIuunA" target="_parent">explainers</a>).&nbsp;Reflecting on questions like these&nbsp;also helps us think about what we can do to improve the user experience for teachers, students, and administrators.

Here is a question the Customer Support team passed on to the Publishing team this week.

<blockquote>
I was wondering which lessons already have built-in assessments. For example, your <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1754-making-requests" target="_parent">Making Requests</a> lesson, found in the <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/functional-english" target="_parent">Functional English</a> section, already has a ready-made assessment included with it.
</blockquote>

For 20+ years, Ellii (formerly ESL Library) has been creating materials&nbsp;focused primarly on helping students learn, practice, and use&nbsp;real and relevant English.

We began incorporating formative and summative assessments into our ready-made lessons and courses several&nbsp;years ago when teacher&nbsp;requests for ready-made assessments&nbsp;began to pour in.&nbsp;

With so many different types of lesson sections and resources available at Ellii, we did not take&nbsp;a standardized approach when it came to adding assessments. For example, we added multiple-choice quizzes to our&nbsp;foundational sections that focus on grammar and vocabulary. For sections focusing on life skills, we added assessments more aligned with&nbsp;real-world tasks with ready-made tools for grading and offering feedback.&nbsp;

While some teachers appreciated our ready-made rubrics, other preferred editable ones that they could customize. To answer this need, we developed an Evaluation resource category in our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_parent">Assessment Tools</a> section and added generic forms that could be used with a variety of lessons.

<h1>Index of assessments on Ellii</h1>

As we work on improving how teachers can find suitable assessments on Ellii, we&nbsp;hope the index below&nbsp;will give you a better idea of what types of assessments you will find in sections that have built-in assessments.

We also have several sections that were designed to focus on skill using, and we do not have plans to add assessments to these. If you come across a lesson or section that you think would benefit from the addition of&nbsp;built-in assessments, please let us know!&nbsp; Note that some of our older lessons in the sections below may be missing a printable or digital&nbsp;assessment.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_parent">Diagnostics</a></h2>

The following tests are available to help you get a better idea of your students&#39; proficiency levels. This can then help you determine which level of Ellii you should set your filters to when browsing lessons for these students.

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4226-ellii-placement-test" target="_self">Ellii Placement Test (Speaking &amp; Writing)</a>&nbsp;(Multiple-Choice and Open Answer: Grammar, Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4164-ellii-placement-quiz" target="_self">Ellii Placement Test (Autograded)</a> (Multiple-Choice: Grammar, Listening, Reading)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5607-ellii-exit-test-autograded">Ellii Exit Test (Autograded)</a>&nbsp;(Multiple-Choice: Grammar, Listening, Reading)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2448-grammar-test-1" target="_self">Grammar Test 1</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2449-grammar-test-2" target="_self">Grammar Test 2</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2450-grammar-test-3" target="_self">Grammar Test 3</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2451-grammar-test-4" target="_self">Grammar Test 4</a></li>
</ul>

<img alt="speaking task placement test" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4100/content_Ellii_placement-test-speaking.png" />

A sample speaking question from Ellii&#39;s Placement Test.

<h2><img alt="grammar test 2 writing" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4099/content_Ellii-Grammar-Test-2-Writing.png" /></h2>

A sample index of questions and a sample writing question from the digital version of Ellii&#39;s Placement Test.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Test Preparation</a></h2>

In this section, you will find ready-made practice tests for all levels of the CASAS STEPS Reading and Listening tests. These tests are modeled after the CASAS STEPS tests and will give your students practice and help them become familiar with the types of questions they will encounter on the real tests. The amount of time students have and the number of times they can listen to the audio is identical to the real tests.

<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4925/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-17_at_2.01.13_PM.png" /></a>

To use the tests in practice mode during class time, you can click on the left menu and launch the questions in a Task player. Otherwise, assign a test to your students and they will see it in the same way as you do when you click the Launch assessment button.

<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank"><img alt="practice task or test mode" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4926/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-17_at_2.03.43_PM.png" /></a>

&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/grammar-practice-worksheets" target="_parent">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a></h2>

This is our most popular grammar section. A suggested teaching order is available.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>printable quizzes</li>
	<li>digital quizzes</li>
</ul>

Note: We&#39;ve had some requests to offer assessments in our companion grammar section for young learners (<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/fun-grammar-lessons" target="_parent">Fun Grammar Lessons</a>). If this is something you would like to see on Ellii, be sure to let us know.

<img alt="grammar assessment printable" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4071/content_Grammar-printable-quiz.png" />

A sample assessment from a printable lesson in&nbsp;Grammar Practice Worksheets.

<h2 class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/super-simple-grammar" target="_parent">Super Simple Grammar</a></h2>

This section offers verb basic grammar drills focused on a single target.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>printable quizzes</li>
	<li>digital quizzes&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/functional-english" target="_parent">Functional English</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around real-world dialogues. It focuses on teaching everyday vocabulary and expressions used in daily&nbsp;interactions.&nbsp;Each lesson includes&nbsp;a few short dialogues.

<ul>
	<li>printable review tasks for assessment purposes with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment tasks (some include videos)</li>
</ul>

<img alt="functional english assessment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4074/content_Functional-english-assessment.png" />

A sample ready-made rubric from the&nbsp;Functional English section.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/english-basics" target="_parent">English Basics</a></h2>

This section offers&nbsp;lessons for newcomers with very low-literacy skills.

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment (check)</li>
</ul>

<img alt="money assessment tool b" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4092/content_money-assessment-tool-ellii.png" />

A sample assessment&nbsp;and rubric from the English Basics section.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/everyday-dialogues" target="_parent">Everyday Dialogues</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around real-world dialogues. It focuses on teaching everyday vocabulary and expressions used in English-speaking communities and&nbsp;workplaces. Each lesson introduces one main dialogue. Assessments may introduce new dialogues while reviewing targeted language. Role-plays that can be used for assessment purposes are available in each lesson. A generic <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2771-role-play-assessment-tool" target="_parent">assessment tool</a> is also available.

<ul>
	<li>printable review tasks that can be used for assessment purposes&nbsp;</li>
	<li>role-plays that can be used for assessment purposes</li>
</ul>

<img alt="everyday dialogues sample assessment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4082/content_Screen_Shot_2024-11-05_at_11.39.31_AM.png" />

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/real-world-reading" target="_parent">Real-World Reading</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around real-world reading and vocabulary. Each lesson features&nbsp;materials with&nbsp;authentic formats, such as receipts, maps, posters, and emails. These materials help prepare adult ed students to answer reading questions on&nbsp;standardized proficiency tests.

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment</li>
</ul>

<img alt="real-world reading digital assessment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4101/content_Ellii-digital-assessment-sample.png" />

A sample digital assessment from&nbsp;the Real-World Reading section.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/reading-in-english" target="_parent">Reading in English</a></h2>

This academic English&nbsp;section centers around reading strategies. It focuses on reading skills that are useful for improving comprehension.&nbsp;Each lesson is based on&nbsp;one main reading skill.

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment (check)</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/writing-in-english" target="_parent">Writing in English</a></h2>

This academic English&nbsp;section centers around writing&nbsp;strategies. It focuses on writing&nbsp;skills that are useful for academic and workplace purposes.&nbsp;Each lesson hones in&nbsp;on&nbsp;one main writing skill.

<ul>
	<li>printable writing challenge</li>
	<li>digital writing challenge&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<img alt="digital writing challenge" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4102/content_Ellii-sample-writing-assessment.png" />

A sample writing assessment from the digital version or a Writing in English lesson.&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/career-pathways" target="_parent">Career Pathways</a></h2>

This digital-only workplace section focuses on career exploration with an emphasis on vocabulary and reading comprehension. Each lesson introduces one possible career pathway.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>digital quiz</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/super-simple-questions" target="_parent">Super Simple Questions</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around very short&nbsp;real-world dialogues for absolute beginners.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment suggestions&nbsp;in answer key</li>
	<li>digital assessments</li>
</ul>

<img alt="Assessment suggestions in Answer Key" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4084/content_Assessment-in-akey.png" />

A sample answer key excerpt with suggested tasks a teacher could use for assessment.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=43&amp;page=1" target="_parent">General English courses</a>&nbsp;</h2>

These Ellii Up courses are designed for teachers who do not use a coursebook or do not want to build their own curriculum. They&nbsp;offer a sequence of lessons from multiple sections on Ellii&nbsp;at a single proficiency level. Students can progress through the levels and take assessments as they go.

In addition to the course assessments, some lessons within each course&nbsp;have their own assessments within them.

<ul>
	<li>mid-course assessment</li>
	<li>final assessment</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=3&amp;material=courses&amp;page=1" target="_parent">Grammar courses</a></h2>

These courses are designed for teachers who do not use a coursebook or do not want to build their own curriculum. They&nbsp;offer a sequence of grammar-focused lessons from multiple sections on Ellii&nbsp;at a single proficiency level. Students can progress through the levels and take assessments as they go.

<ul>
	<li>final digital assessment</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;material=courses&amp;page=1" target="_parent">Workplace&nbsp;courses</a></h2>

These ready-made courses focus on business English or career-specific English.&nbsp;They&nbsp;offer a sequence of lessons at a&nbsp;proficiency level with two main assessments. These are ideal for self-study.

<ul>
	<li>mid-course assessment</li>
	<li>final assessment</li>
</ul>

<img alt="final assessment sample workplace course on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4083/content_Screen_Shot_2024-11-05_at_11.44.52_AM.png" />

A sample vocabulary question from a final assessment in an Ellii workplace course.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=2&amp;material=courses&amp;page=1" target="_parent">Serials</a></h2>

These ready-made courses focus on informal English.&nbsp; They&nbsp;offer a sequence of lessons at a&nbsp;proficiency level with assessments throughout.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>3-4 assessments (printable/digital) per course&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_blank">Generic evaluation &amp; reflection tools</a></h2>

Ready-made printable rubrics and forms to use for a variety of purposes when assessing language learners. Below are 10 examples. Many more are available in our <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_parent">Assessment Tools</a> section.

<ol>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2832-english-questionnaire" target="_parent">English Questionnaire</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2132-reading-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Reading Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2131-writing-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Writing Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2129-speaking-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Speaking Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2130-listening-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Listening Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2326-advanced-reading-comprehension" target="_parent">Advanced Reading Comprehension</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2383-personal-opinion-assessment-tools" target="_parent">Personal Opinion Assessment Tools</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2126-self-evaluation-form" target="_parent">Self-Evaluation Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2228-exit-slips" target="_parent">Exit Slips</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2557-3-2-1-reflection" target="_parent">3-2-1 Reflection</a></li>
</ol>

<h1>A Note on Grading</h1>

If you&#39;re interested in learning more about Ellii&#39;s Grade Feed, please watch this video. Note that important updates are in the works, including expanding on our use of AI for grading open-ended writing and speaking responses.&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lk1zLa3MGU0?si=UxvrrU74VSMcEXEy" width="640"></iframe></div>

<blockquote>Which Ellii assessments have you used? Which tests are your students preparing for? Share thoughts and feedback about assessment in the comments. Be sure to share your feedback on&nbsp;Ellii&#39;s new CASAS practice tests!</blockquote>

How to Find Assessments on Ellii

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2569/Tara_How-to-Find-Assessments-on-Ellii_Banner(2).png

<blockquote>
&quot;We look for teachers first. Why? Because those skills do transfer quite nicely when you&#39;re developing content. [...] We&#39;re first and foremost a content platform for English teachers.&nbsp;[...] Planning, preparing, actually speaking in front of people really helps you write better lessons.&quot;

 
&mdash;&nbsp;Ben Buckwold, founder of Ellii
</blockquote>

Reflection and podcasts... These are two of my favorite things!&nbsp;Combine these with two of ELT&#39;s brightest&nbsp;hosts and you get <a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>, a show I think you&#39;re going to love.

I was an early fan&nbsp;of this ELT podcast&nbsp;and have enjoyed many episodes over the past few years. As a superfan, I invited Anna and Shey to join&nbsp;us at ElliiCon in 2023. We also met them in person at this year&#39;s&nbsp;TESOL conference in Tampa. Ben (founder of Ellii) and I&nbsp;were thrilled when they asked us to be guests on their show this season&nbsp;and have eagerly awaited <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1AN6jiVh8g&amp;t=2s" target="_blank">Episode 60</a>:&nbsp;From Teaching to Materials Writing: A&nbsp;Chat with Ellii (with Ben Buckwold &amp; Tara Benwell).

One particular area of interest Anna and Shey have been exploring recently&nbsp;is how ELT careers can&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/thinkaloud_pod/status/1836788677185339587" target="_blank">go beyond the traditional classroom</a>. They asked us to&nbsp;speak specifically about materials writing and share stories about how we branched into the publishing field. After 18+ years of working together, it&#39;s no surprise Ben and I got a little nostalgic at times. We hope you love&nbsp;Ellii&#39;s origin story!

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q1AN6jiVh8g?si=P1D1eYG1_k5-x7Cz" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

As a team of makers who started in the classroom, we have explored similar topics on our own blog as well. Here are some related posts to check out after you listen to the episode.

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/beyond-teaching-elt-careers-to-keep-you-motivated" target="_self">Beyond Teaching: ELT Careers to Keep You Motivated</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/5-ways-to-make-passive-income-as-a-teacher" target="_self">5 Ways to Earn &quot;Passive&quot; Income as a Teacher</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teacherpreneur" target="_self">How to Be a Teacherpreneur</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-our-new-name-ellii" target="_self">We&#39;ve Changed Our Name to Ellii</a></li>
</ul>

And here is Anna and Shey&#39;s reflection question for you to ponder. Please share your thoughts in the comments below or with our hosts on their own&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/blog" target="_blank">blog</a>!

<blockquote>
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to transition into another area within education? What roles are you entertaining? Have you already done it? How have your teacher skills transferred into your new role?
</blockquote>

You can download this&nbsp;podcast&nbsp;in a variety of places:

<ul> 
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e60-from-teaching-to-materials-writing-a-chat-with/id1629819608?i=1000670852097" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a></li>
</ul>

Subscribe to the Teacher Think-Aloud podcast and reflect on your teaching practices with a variety of&nbsp;ELT&nbsp;guests and topics!&nbsp;Be sure to follow Anna and Shey&nbsp;on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-think-aloud/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="https://twitter.com/thinkaloud_pod" target="_blank">X</a>&nbsp;and find your own way to support their work.

Happy listening!

&nbsp;

Ellii Talks about Materials Writing with The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2566/Tara_Ellii-Talks-about-Materials-Writing-with-the-Teacher-Think-Aloud-Podcast_Banner.png

<blockquote>
Q. What is Ellii (formerly ESL Library) best known for? 
A.&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons" target="_blank">Ready-made lesson plans!</a>

Q. What has Ellii become known for in the past&nbsp;few years?&nbsp; 
A.&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos" target="_blank">Ready-made videos!</a>

Q. What has&nbsp;Ellii been focusing on in 2024? &nbsp; 
A.&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Ready-made courses!</a>
</blockquote>

Creating ready-made lesson plans for English language teachers&nbsp;continues to be a priority at Ellii as it has always been. However, each year, the Publishing team tries to add content that is new or innovative, whether its related to a trend/theme (social-emotional learning), skill (speaking), modality (videos), or need&nbsp;(workplace English).&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 
Throughout 2024, Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;Publishing team has been focusing heavily on developing full courses with a workplace theme. That does not mean we have stopped making individual lessons and videos! You can find all of our new content in our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content" target="_blank">What&#39;s New?</a>&nbsp;monthly collections, including new lessons that were released with the launch of&nbsp;our newest lesson section:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/career-pathways" target="_blank">Career Pathways</a>.

<h2>Career Pathways</h2>

This new digital-only lesson section, available in our Academic &amp; Workplace English genre, is suitable for high-beginner to low-intermediate adult ELLs&nbsp;who are looking for work or considering job opportunities&nbsp;in an English-speaking country. These lessons are exploratory in nature and ideal for self-study. They feature real photos rather than illustrations, a common request from today&#39;s adult ed instructors.&nbsp; 
 
Each career-specific lesson includes:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>a vocabulary preview task, featuring 10 keywords with&nbsp;real photos</li>
	<li>a short reading about a specific career (with audio)</li>
	<li>a reading comprehension task&nbsp;</li>
	<li>a gap-fill listening task</li>
	<li>a quiz</li>
</ul>

<h2>Lessons</h2>

We launched this new section with popular career choices for newcomers:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5018-working-as-a-nursing-assistant" target="_blank">Working as a Nursing Assistant</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5034-working-as-a-pharmacy-technician" target="_blank">Working as a Pharmacy Technician</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5030-working-as-a-dental-assistant" target="_blank">Working as a Dental Assistant</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5035-working-as-a-phlebotomist" target="_blank">Working as a Phlebotomist</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5016-working-as-a-custodian" target="_blank">Working as a Custodian</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5038-working-as-a-paraeducator" target="_blank">Working as a Paraeducator</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5223-working-as-a-medical-assistant" target="_blank">Working as a Medical Assistant</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5229-working-as-an-emergency-medical-technician" target="_blank">Working as an Emercency Medical Technician</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Watch for new lessons regularly&nbsp;and use the comments to let us know which career pathways your students are considering so we can add the lessons that would be most useful for you.

<h2>Workplace Courses</h2>

Our library of ready-made career-specific workplace courses is growing!

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S2HAIBUNgKo?si=NhL0x5b7M_0So49a" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

To find Ellii&#39;s related courses, go to our <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Courses &amp; Study Packs</a><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?page=1" target="_blank"> </a>page and filter to the <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;page=1" target="_blank">Workplace</a> category. Be sure to check back regularly.&nbsp;Here are some Workplace courses we have released (or are working on)&nbsp;in 2024:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/phrasal-verbs-and-pre-employment/materials" target="_blank">Phrasal Verbs &amp; Pre-Employment</a> (video course)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/phrasal-verbs-and-employment/materials" target="_blank">Phrasal Verbs &amp; Employment</a>&nbsp;(video course)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/nursing-assistants/materials" target="_blank">English for Nursing Assistants</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/pharmacy-technicians/materials" target="_blank">English for Pharmacy Assistants</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/dental-assistants/materials" target="_blank">English for Dental Assistants</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-for-phlebotomists/materials" target="_blank">English for Phlebotomists</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/healthcare-vocabulary-1/materials" target="_blank">Healthcare Vocabulary 1</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/healthcare-vocabulary-2/materials">Healthcare Vocabulary 2</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-for-paraeducators/materials" target="_blank">English for Paraeducators</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-for-custodians/materials" target="_blank">English for Custodians</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-for-emergency-medical-technicians/materials" target="_blank">English for Emergency Medical Technicians</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-for-medical-assistants/materials" target="_blank">English for Medical Assistants</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-for-home-health-aides/materials" target="_blank">English for Home Health Aides</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Allied Health Focus</h2>

You likely noticed that many of the workplace courses in our library are related to healthcare! At Ellii, we work hard to fill the immediate needs of schools and organizations that use our content. Allied Health&nbsp;is a growing industry with a shortage of skilled workers in both the US and Canada.&nbsp;

At Ellii, we are not healthcare experts, but we are language and teaching experts. We&nbsp;teamed up with professionals in the healthcare field to help us create these non-credit,&nbsp;exploratory courses made specifically for English newcomers&nbsp;who are considering&nbsp;different career pathways. These courses may also be useful for experienced healthcare workers who&nbsp;need to upskill to&nbsp;gain employment in an English-speaking country by improving their English proficiency.&nbsp;Our materials writers and editors worked with nurses, EMTs, dentistry professionals, and others to ensure that the scenarios and objectives were realistic, authentic, and functional. These dialogue-based courses are ideal for IET programs and&nbsp;focus on key vocabulary, phrases, and common workday scenarios for a variety of healthcare careers.&nbsp;

<h3>Highlights of Ellii&#39;s Allied Health Materials</h3>

<blockquote>
<ul>
	<li>career exploration</li>
	<li>non-credit</li>
	<li>dialogue-based</li>
	<li>common scenarios</li>
	<li>WIOA compliant</li>
	<li>NRS aligned</li>
	<li>skill-building (vocabulary, phrases, grammar, soft skills)</li>
	<li>intermediate+</li>
	<li>communicative</li>
	<li>mobile-friendly</li>
	<li>ideal for self-study and pre-enrollment</li>
	<li>built-in assessments</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>

 
To learn more about Ellii&#39;s Allied Health&nbsp;content, watch the recording of this webinar!&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vMlFNOxnhwg?si=7oNAM-swuNBIUgmi" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

<h2> 
Related Ellii Poll</h2>

Get your students thinking about jobs with this interactive Career Pathways <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/career-pathways" target="_blank">Ellii Poll</a>.

Did you know that unlike Ellii&#39;s lessons and courses (which require a subscription),&nbsp;Ellii Polls are free for anyone to use?&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Learn how to access Ellii Polls and invite students here.</a>

<h2>Related Media</h2>

<h3>Flashcards</h3>

We also have Flashcard sets related to many of these Career Pathways. Find these sets in the <a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job" target="_blank">At Work &amp; On the Job</a> genre in the Flashcards area of our&nbsp;Media Gallery.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/jobs-occupations" target="_blank">Jobs &amp; Occupations</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/job-actions" target="_blank">Job Actions</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/at-the-office" target="_blank">At the Office</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/community-helpers" target="_blank">Community Helpers</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/nursing-assistants" target="_blank">Nursing Assistants</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/pharmacy-technicians" target="_blank">Pharmacy Technicians</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/dental-assistants" target="_blank">Dental Assistants</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/at-work-on-the-job/phlebotomists" target="_blank">Phlebotomists</a></li>
</ul>

If Allied Health is the focus for your students, this <a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards/body-health-medicine" target="_blank">Body, Health, &amp; Medicine</a>&nbsp;genre will have plenty of useful words for your students to learn.&nbsp; 
 
To make the best use of Ellii&#39;s supplementary visuals, check out&nbsp;these related Help Docs and videos:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets">How to Create and Save Flashcard Sets</a></li>
	<li>&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/198-how-to-use-the-flashcard-player">How to Use the Flashcard Player</a></li>
	<li>&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/246-how-to-share-flashcard-sets-with-students">How to Share Flashcards with Students</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>Silent Clips</h3>

Do you use Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/silent-clips" target="_blank">Silent Clips</a>?&nbsp;We have&nbsp;a new&nbsp;video&nbsp;category full of action verbs related to popular jobs.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace" target="_blank">Nursing</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/pharmacy-vocabulary">Pharmacy</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/dentistry-vocabulary" target="_blank">Dentistry</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/phlebotomy-vocabulary" target="_blank">Phlebotomy</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/manufacturing-vocabulary" target="_blank">Manufacturing</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/restaurant-hospitality-vocabulary" target="_blank">Restaurant Hospitality</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/hotel-hospitality-vocabulary" target="_blank">Hotel Hospitality</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/education-vocabulary" target="_blank">Education Hospitality</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/construction-vocabulary" target="_blank">Construction Hospitality</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/workplace/custodian-vocabulary" target="_blank">Custodian Hospitality</a></li>
</ul>

Here are <a href="http://4 Creative Ways to Use Silent Video Clips in English Class" target="_blank">4 Creative Ideas for How to Use Silent Clips in the Classroom</a>.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
Is there a job your ELLs are interested in that you would like to see added to&nbsp;Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/career-pathways" target="_blank">Career Pathways</a> section (or expanded into a full&nbsp;Ellii course)?&nbsp;Is there a task or activity you would like to see added to existing and future lessons in this section? Please leave a comment for our Publishing team.&nbsp;
</blockquote>

Career Pathways for Newcomers

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2561/Tara_Career-Pathways-for-Newcomers_Banner.png

Each month, I&nbsp;closely review the feedback and requests that come in via Ellii&#39;s Teacher Survey.&nbsp;

We get such wonderful&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/tour/testimonials" target="_blank">testimonials</a> and helpful feedback from this survey! Here is one request that came in this week:

<blockquote>
&quot;Providing more robust training materials for teachers to maximize the use of Ellii&#39;s features and improvements would greatly enhance my ability to provide high-quality education to my students.&quot;
</blockquote>

Helping teachers maximize their use of Ellii&#39;s planning tools and other features&nbsp;is something we are focusing on heavily in 2024.&nbsp;From attending and hosting conferences&nbsp;to building out <a href="https://help.ellii.com/" target="_blank">Help Docs</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP0N5nuiA3aM_OP18M7G9XSYjXigIuunA" target="_blank">explainer videos</a>, we are always experimenting with how best to deliver training and offer&nbsp;support. This <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/212-how-to-use-ellii-teacher-training-module">Teacher Traning Module</a> is a great place to start! 
 
Are you an Ellii subscriber? Here are five&nbsp;things to try if you want to maximize your use of the platform:

<h2>1. Subscribe to Ellii&#39;s YouTube Channel</h2>

The Ellii for Teachers YouTube channel&nbsp;&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/@elliiteachers" target="_blank">www.youtube.com/@elliiteachers</a>)&nbsp;is where we post all of our helpful videos for teachers, including short explainers and long-form demos&nbsp;of&nbsp;Ellii&#39;s new features and updates.

<h2>2. Visit Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;Feature Release Blog Post</h2>

Ellii&#39;s product team releases a series of new features and&nbsp;updates every six&nbsp;weeks! These updates are often based on customer requests. Visit this <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/feature-releases-platform-updates-2023" target="_blank">post</a> regularly to see what&#39;s new and updated throughout the year.

<h2>3. Use Ellii&#39;s Help Docs</h2>

When you are logged in, you will see a menu underneath your name in the top right corner. Click on the&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/" target="_blank">Help</a> section to find articles with step-by-step instructions and&nbsp;screencaps on how to use all of the features on Ellii. The Help&nbsp;area also has its own&nbsp;Search field for features.

<h2>4. Contact Ellii</h2>

We have a dedicated customer support team that is available to answer your emails. If you have questions or feedback that you want to give directly to a person at Ellii, you can use this <a href="https://ellii.com/contact" target="_blank">Contact</a> form. It is located in the footer of every page on Ellii.

<h2>5. Get What&#39;s New? Content Notifications &amp;&nbsp;Newsletters&nbsp;</h2>

Ellii&#39;s publishing team&nbsp;sends out a&nbsp;What to Teach This Week newsletter every Monday.&nbsp;You can also watch for new content in our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content" target="_blank">What&#39;s New Collection</a>. We also send out email updates about important features and updates. Go to your Account settings (in the menu underneath your name). Then choose Notifications and make sure you are getting the updates you want and need.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
Are you an Ellii subscriber? What feature or tool do you rely on for teaching English? Is there a feature or tool&nbsp;you want to learn more about?
</blockquote>

5 Ways to Maximize Your Use of Ellii 

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2558/Ellii-Video-Survey-2_Banner.png

These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

<blockquote>
<h2>When does a joke become a &quot;dad&quot; joke?</h2>

When it becomes apparent.
</blockquote>

<h2>What&rsquo;s a &ldquo;dad joke&rdquo;?</h2>

A &quot;dad joke&quot;&nbsp;is a simple joke that is easy to deliver and understand. It is usually a one-liner/pun or a simple joke with one question and an easy answer that is often a play on words. It is called a &quot;dad joke&quot; because it will&nbsp;make a child groan. (So bad, Dad!)&nbsp;Dad jokes are also&nbsp;usually clean for all ages.

You won&#39;t get any belly laughs with a dad joke,&nbsp;but hopefully someone at least cracks a smile.

<h3>12 &quot;dad jokes&quot; to tell this Father&#39;s Day</h3>

Are you a dad? Choose your favorite joke and share it with your child(ren) this Father&#39;s Day. You can also write one of these jokes inside a Father&#39;s Day card or tell it at a Father&#39;s Day gathering.

1. What do you call a priest that becomes a lawyer?

a father-in-law

<hr />
2. What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for college?

bison

<hr />
3. Why did your&nbsp;old man fall in a well?

Because he couldn&rsquo;t see that well.

<hr />
4. What do you call a fish with no eyes?

a fsh

<hr />
5. What do you call a sad strawberry?

a blueberry

<hr />
6. What did the paper say to the pencil?

Write on!

<hr />
7. Why can&rsquo;t your nose be 12 inches long?

Because then it would be a foot.

<hr />
9. The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense.

<hr />
10. Why was six afraid of seven?

Because seven ate nine.

<hr />
11. What do Alexander the Great and Winnie the Pooh have in common?

They have the same middle name.

<hr />
12. Did you hear about the two people who stole a calendar?&nbsp;They each got six months.

<h2>What to say after hearing a joke</h2>

No matter how bad a joke is, the person telling the joke&nbsp;expects a response. Laughing is the best way to respond, but here are some things you can say:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>I like that one.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>That&#39;s hilarious!</li>
	<li>My dad would love that joke.</li>
	<li>I will tell that one to my dad.</li>
	<li>I have to remember that one.</li>
	<li>That was&nbsp;terrible.</li>
	<li>That was so bad.</li>
	<li>I&#39;m going to pretend I didn&#39;t hear that.</li>
</ul>

<h2>What to say if you don&#39;t understand a joke</h2>

We hope you understand the simple dad jokes above, but it&#39;s not always easy to follow or understand longer or narrative jokes, especially in a new language! If you don&#39;t understand a joke, you can say the following:

<ul>
	<li>I don&#39;t get it.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Give me a minute.</li>
	<li>Say that again?&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
	<li>That went above my head.</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Do you have a good &quot;dad joke&quot; to share? Make sure it has all the qualities of a dad joke. Then share it in the comments! Practice responding to jokes too!
</blockquote>

12 "Dad Jokes" for Father's Day

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2552/Tara_12-Dad-Jokes-for-Fathers-Day_Banner(2).png

<h2>Music City Vs. The Big Guava</h2>

Every year, spring conferences bring&nbsp;us to new cities for professional development, team building, and a chance to showcase everything we&#39;ve been creating and releasing, including <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content" target="_blank">new content</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/feature-releases-platform-updates-2023" target="_blank">courseware</a>.

This spring, Ellii hit two cities in one week, with COABE in Nashville taking place right before&nbsp;TESOL in Tampa! It was a whirlwind of a week, and I thought it would be fun to compare&nbsp;the two conventions in one reflective post. (Scroll to the bottom for the video highlight!)

<blockquote>
&quot;The period following a conference is essential for translating the enthusiasm and ideas from the event into actionable steps.&quot; 
 
~ Ixchell Reyes,&nbsp;<a href="http://Beyond the Buzz: 5 Ways to Cultivate Convention Connections" target="_blank">Beyond the Buzz: 5 Ways to Cultivate Convention Connections</a>
</blockquote>

<img alt="Ellii TESOL booth 2024" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3654/content_tesol-booth-2024.png" />

<h2>COABE &ndash; the Coalition on Adult Basic Education</h2>

Together in Harmony

It was Ellii&#39;s first time attending the COABE National Conference (and my first time in Nashville). While the venue was intimidating, I knew it was going to be a successful conference when the first visitor to the Ellii booth, an ESOL instructor&nbsp;from Owens Community College, arrived with a sunny smile and some live <a href="https://ellii.com/tour/testimonials" target="_blank">#Love4Ellii</a>.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;I love Ellii! I don&#39;t even bother looking anywhere else!&quot; 
~&nbsp;Duaa Mustafa Ali
</blockquote>

<img alt="Ellii subscribers with T-shirts at COABE" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3668/content_COABE-Ellii-Tshirt-subscriber-dua.jpg" />

We loved handing out I love Ellii T-shirts to all of the subscribers who visited our booth, and we often spotted people wearing them throughout the week.

COABE attendees loved Ellii for several reasons, including our:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/casas-competencies" target="_blank">alignment to CASAS competencies</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/pronunciation" target="_blank">pronunciation videos</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">foundational content</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/214-how-to-sign-up-as-a-student-using-a-class-code" target="_blank">ease of student onboarding</a></li>
</ul>

Unlike at TESOL, not all of the attendees at COABE were focused on English language teaching. However&nbsp;there was no shortage of attendees looking for a solution like Ellii. These&nbsp;topics were of outmost interest to ELT attendees:

<ol>
	<li>CASAS STEPS assessments that have replaced the Life and Work series</li>
	<li>English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Integrated English Training Courses (IET)</li>
</ol>

Ellii has new initiatives coming soon related to all of the above thanks in part to&nbsp;the feedback and requests we received at&nbsp;COABE! It&nbsp;is going to be an exciting year of new releases for Ellii.

<h3>COABE sessions</h3>

The sessions I found most useful at COABE were about the updated CASAS tests. We&#39;ve been following the updates closely and are excited to be in close connection with CASAS as we continue to develop content that is useful for skill-building and skill-using in preparation for these assessments.&nbsp;

<h3>Nashville &amp; the Opryland Resort&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>

<a href="https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/bnago-gaylord-opryland-resort-and-convention-center/photos/" target="_blank">The Gaylord Opryland Resort</a> was enormous and not easy to navigate! Even after three days at the resort, finding our way around was difficult and we missed a few sessions due to getting lost in the labyrinth. We were grateful for&nbsp;the complimentary snacks that were often placed right in front of the Ellii booth. 
 
As for Nashville itself, the Ellii team spent some time with locals rather than venturing into the tourist areas. We loved <a href="https://www.urbancowboy.com/nashville/" target="_blank">Urban Cowboy</a> for its cozy atmosphere, live music, and delicious hot cider, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lockelandtable.com/" target="_blank">Lockeland Table</a> for it&#39;s great pizza and cool vibe. The highlight was&nbsp;American Legion <a href="https://www.post82.org/" target="_blank">Post 82</a>, where we got a real flavor of Nashville for&nbsp;Honky Tonk Tuesday. The hospitality&nbsp;(including friendly Uber drivers) in Nashville was possibly the best&nbsp;I&#39;ve experienced in all of my years of attending conferences in the US. I look forward to returning for a holiday in the summer!

<img alt="Ellii enjoying Nashville Urban Cowboy" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3669/content_Ellii-COABE-2024-Cider-Urban-cowboy-Nashville.jpg" /> 
&nbsp;

<h2>TESOL Convention 2024</h2>

Tampa Bay, Florida&nbsp;

As a TESOL sponsor it was fun to arrive at the Marriot to&nbsp;find&nbsp;Ellii represented on the hotel key cards!&nbsp;

<img alt="Ellii key card at TESOL 2024" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3662/content_key-card-2024.png" /> 
&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;Go meet someone who will change your life.&quot;&nbsp; 
 
~ Shelley Taylor, TESOL President
</blockquote>

The TESOL setup was a long day for Lise and Ashley with the rest of our team&nbsp;finishing up at&nbsp;COABE,&nbsp;but like every convention season, it&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/all-hands-on-deck-all-the-time" target="_blank">all hands on deck</a> at Ellii! (And smiles all around.)

<img alt="Lise and Ashley from Ellii set up the booth for TESOL 2024" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3658/content_lise-ash-set-up-2024.jpg" />

TESOL always offers sessions on a wide range of topics, and we were curious if Emily&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elt-trends-to-watch-in-2024" target="_blank">ELT Trends</a> post was on target for 2024. Here are some topics that seemed to be getting a lot of interest at TESOL this year:&nbsp;&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Integrating AI&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Building community</li>
	<li>Storytelling</li>
	<li>Academic vocabulary</li>
	<li>Visual literacy</li>
</ul>

We attended sessions on all of the above and more! Here are some&nbsp;useful sources that were shared that we want to learn more about:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/" target="_blank">The Manchester Academic Phrase Bank</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/G/Grammar-Choices-for-Graduate-and-Professional-Writers-Second-Edition2" target="_blank">Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writers</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engage-your-audience-microsoft-teams-speaker-coach-/">Microsoft Speaker Coach&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VkDf9LyEk" target="_blank">Jungle Chase</a> (Brain Break)</li>
	<li><a href="https://textinspector.com/help/corpus-of-contemporary-american-english-coca/" target="_blank">Text Inspector from COCA</a></li>
</ul>

Ellii&#39;s CEO Ben Buckwold gave several presentations that were well-attended, including a session on&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a>, our new FREE interactive feature. 
 
Some requests we received in our own sessions and at the booth included:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>a need for high-intermediate <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/real-world-reading" target="_blank">Real-World Reading</a> lessons</li>
	<li>a higher-level lesson on <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/3867-reading-for-detail" target="_blank">Supporting Details</a></li>
	<li>an additional <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2230-how-to-cite-a-source" target="_blank">How to Cite a Source</a>&nbsp;in English&nbsp;lesson that focuses on&nbsp;APA instead of MLA</li>
	<li>higher-level <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">grammar</a> lessons</li>
	<li>more<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/mini-debates" target="_blank"> Mini-Debates</a></li>
	<li>more lower-level <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/that-s-news-to-me" target="_blank">That&#39;s News to Me</a> lessons&nbsp;</li>
	<li>the ability for teachers&nbsp;to edit Ellii Polls</li>
	<li>sentence frames in the Stop &amp; Discuss area of&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li>the ability for administrators to create their own <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Study Packs</a></li>
	<li>more accented voices in our audio and video</li>
	<li>standardized test prep content</li>
</ul>

<h3>Tampa &amp; the Convention Center</h3>

TCC was a great venue for TESOL! It was located right on the gorgeous <a href="https://thetampariverwalk.com/">Tampa Riverwalk</a> (ideal for someone like me who is training for a marathon).&nbsp;I even saw a dolphin during a boardwalk coffee break!

<img alt="Tampa Riverwalk" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3667/content_tampa-riverwalk.jpg" /> 
 
The lovely&nbsp;Marriot hotel, where some of the sessions were located, was just a few minutes-walk to the convention center, with&nbsp;good&nbsp;restaurants within steps of our room, including the&nbsp;delicious Mexican restaurant,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lonatampa.com/" target="_blank">Lona</a>. We also enjoyed the Cuban bread at <a href="https://tampabayhistorycenter.org/columbia-cafe/#menu" target="_blank">Columbia Cafe</a> and a windy dinner on&nbsp;the hotel patio with our new Canadian friend Johnny, founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.roshi.ai/" target="_blank">Roshi</a>!&nbsp; 
 
The TESOL Expo Hall felt&nbsp;a little too big for the number of exhbitors this year, but we were happy to meet so many teachers and administrators like we do every year!&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<img alt="Ellii CEO Ben Buckwold with TESOL 2024 attendees" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3656/content_ben-attendees-tesol-2024.jpg" />

In addition to meeting subscribers and those who want to learn about Ellii, it is&nbsp;always lovely to chat with friends&nbsp;who&nbsp;we network with throughout the year! This year we got to meet Shey and Anna from our favorite ELT podcast,&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast.</a>&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="Anna and Shey of Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast with Ellii's VP of Publishing Tara Benwell at TESOL 2024" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3670/content_Ellii_Anna-Shey-Tara-TESOL-2024.jpg" />

To celebrate a successful&nbsp;week, we attended&nbsp;a stand-up comedy show at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thegimmickcomedy/?hl=en" target="_blank">The Gimmick Comedy Club</a> and walked through the lively downtown streets&nbsp;following&nbsp;a vibrant&nbsp;<a href="https://tampapride.org/parade-2/" target="_blank">PRIDE parade</a>. The ride back on the free <a href="http://www.tecolinestreetcar.org/" target="_blank">TECO streetcar</a>&nbsp;with new friends from a UK publishing team was a fun way to end a great week!

<img alt="Ellii team (Lise, Ashley, Tara, Ann) at TESOL 2024" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3671/content_Booth-Team-TESOL2024.jpg" />

<h3>Ending with a Full Circle Moment&nbsp;</h3>

While COABE was a great new experience&nbsp;and felt like the right place for Ellii to be, the highlight of the week for me was in the last few moments of TESOL,&nbsp;listening to our CEO, Ben, deliver the speech before the closing plenary. Ben had us in stitches and then almost in tears as he&nbsp;described the&nbsp;full circle moment of being in Tampa for TESOL as a top sponsor, the same city where our TESOL story began back in 2006. Here&#39;s the video recording. Thank you to everyone who reached out to say they loved this moment too!

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8vhmgjB8UM0?si=hq8Bz-NS1buZArQA" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

 
We hope to see you next year in Dallas, Texas, for COABE 2025 and Long Beach, California,&nbsp;for TESOL 2025!&nbsp; 
 
~ Tara &amp;&nbsp;Team Ellii 
&nbsp;

PS. A special thank you to the&nbsp;TESOL attendee who delivered my purse&nbsp;safely to the information booth when I got a little too excited at an active storytelling session and left it behind. Though I may never get to thank you properly, this simple act of kindness left me full of gratitude&nbsp;(and gave me a story of hope to share with my Uber driver on the way home to Canada).

VIEWING POSTS BY

Tara Benwell