C1 Course Material

Here is a list of materials that could be useful in teaching the various parts of the "English II" highest-level course program developed by the Skola2030 project. Teachers who follow the alternative program developed by the Latvian Association of Teachers of English (LATE) or other programs might still find these resources relevant, though these resources are organized by unit acording to the Skola2030 program.

On this page, the program has been divided into three parts, with the first focusing on working with works, translations, and adaptations of English literature and other authentic texts; the second focusing on the process of conducting academic research in English in order to complete the pre-requisite exam tasks; and the third focusing on preparing students for the highest level exam.

Each of the three "parts" starts with a basic overview and general commentary on the units of that section that is specifically designed for teachers with less experience to consider different possible approaches.

Part I: Working with literature and other authentic texts

• An overview of and commentary on the first four units of the course for teachers (Joe Horgan)

Unit I - Advertisements

• A Kahoot presentation that interactively teaches about different advertising techniques that students might use in their advertisement (Joe Horgan)

• A list of advertising techniques (with examples) for students to reference while they are creating advertisements (Joe Horgan)

• A sample rubric for an audio advertisement project (Joe Horgan)

Unit II - Book Analysis

• A sample English language reading journal document that students can fill out as they are reading their book — based on the example from the Skola2030 sample program

• A list of the most common literary devices with explanations from Writers.com

• Advice on how to figure out the meaning of unknown words from Grammarly.com

• A printable collection of activities using the full text of Jack London's novel Call of the Wild (Joe Horgan)

Unit III - Translation

• Translation Techniques and Tips by the Palex Group

Unit IV - Adaptation (Film, TV, Play) Analysis

• Exam-style listening tasks about film adaptation and writing movie reviews (Joe Horgan)

• Exam-style reading tasks based on newspaper and blog reviews of the film Home Alone (Joe Horgan)

• An excellent list of vocabulary to use when writing a film review (Vytautas Magnus University)

• A series of videos explaining the visual language of camera shots, camera angles, and movements

• Advice from Duke University about structuring and writing film reviews (Duke University)

• An analytical reading task based on three American newspaper/magazine reviews of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone where students have to analyze the structure and content based on the below rubric that they might use to write their own review (Joe Horgan)

• "The Egg" - a well-known 1000-word short story by Andy Weir which has been adapted into multiple short film versions (all less than 20 minutes) that can be used to help students practice writing reviews of adaptations (Worksheet by Joe Horgan)

• An updated adaptation review rubric based on the original Skola2030 rubric using SOLO levels (Joe Horgan)

• A notetaking worksheet for students to use while watching the adaptation based on the above rubric (Joe Horgan)

Part II: Conducting academic research in English

• An overview of and commentary on the fifth through eighth units of the course for teachers (Joe Horgan)

Unit V - Research Posters

• Reading and listening tasks as an introduction to Academic English (Joe Horgan)

• A presentation about research questions including examples of research questions by my students from previous years (Joe Horgan)

• A printable guide to evaluating sources for research (Joe Horgan)

• A printable checklist for students to analyze and use when evaluating sources for research (Joe Horgan)

• An interactive presentation (Kahoot) about evaluating sources and determining their trustworthiness (Joe Horgan)

• A printable worksheet students can use to organize their research and take notes (Joe Horgan)

• A guide on how to paraphrase and sample tasks on paraphrasing by Perdue University's Online Writing Law

• A modified version of the VISC poster presentation criteria with concrete explanations of the various criteria

• New York University's guide on research posters

• A website which automatically formats sources into APA-format citations (Citation Machine)

Unit VI - Academic Writing

• APA's research paper format (not just for citations) — a widely used and easy to follow format that you can require students to follow when writing the paper. Sample APA format papers can be found here.

• A guide to quoting and paraphrasing from Perdue University's Online Writing Law

• A modified version of the VISC grading criteria for the essay with specific explanations of what is required in each section (Joe Horgan)

Unit VII - Research Presentations

• Two videos you can use to help students prepare for the presentation

• A useful list of signposting phrases to help refresh students before the presentation (Bialystok University of Technology)

• Specific task requirements for the research presentation (Joe Horgan)

Unit VIII - Academic Conferences

• Organizing conferences (Joe Horgan)

• A conference feedback worksheet for student attendees (Joe Horgan)

• Abstract assignment (Joe Horgan)

Part III: Preparing for the Highest Level English Exam

• Advice about getting ready for the higher level exam (Lāsma Ēķe and Līvija Grosberga-Taubere, via visc.gov.lv)

Exam Preparation 

• Printable materials based on James Joyce's short story collection Dubliners (Joe Horgan) — online versions can be found here.

• Other printable reading tasks that can be used to practice including: (Joe Hogan)

  • A Christmas-themed short story students can use to practice definite and indefinite articles

  • A multi-text reading task about the topic of immigration

  • A multi-text reading task about the topic of procrastination

• A mobile-friendly website with previous years' "highest level" and "optimal level" speaking task questions which students can use to practice with one another to practice for the speaking section (Joe Horgan)

• Previous year's exams (visc.gov.lv)