Soporte para profesores y escuelas

November 2021 Teachers' Newsletter

Welcome to your teachers’ newsletter for November.

In this issue we: share top tips and resources to help build your learners’ confidence; give students control over their exam practice with Test & Train; make paper-based A2 Key for Schools and B1 Preliminary for Schools exams available on demand – and more!

Confidence-boosting exam preparation tips

Have you seen our exam preparation tips? We’ve shared some great ideas and resources to help you set goals, create learning plans, and build your learners’ confidence as they start preparing for their Cambridge English exams.

Test & Train: The exam workout that counts!

Discover a new way to access official Cambridge English preparation materials for B2 First and C1 Advanced. Flexible, online practice lets students take control of their exam preparation.

Get your students talking!

Speaking Part 1 of B2 First for Schools, B2 First and C1 Advanced requires students to talk about themselves. Here’s how to give them lots of practice:

  • Brainstorm typical everyday topics such as school, sports and holidays.
  • Ask students to prepare interview questions based on the topics.
  • Have learners ask and answer their questions in pairs.
  • Remind them not to memorise set answers for the exam!

Find more teaching tips for:

More flexible exam dates for your students

Your local authorised exam centre can now offer paper-based A2 Key for Schools and B1 Preliminary for Schools on dates that suit your needs.

 

You and your students can benefit from more choice – with the same quality, security and reliability as all Cambridge English exams.

The word of the year saw more than 243,000 views on Cambridge Dictionary during 2021.

Are you joining us for a webinar?

Explore our upcoming webinars:

Exam preparation and real-world English for A2 Key for Schools and B1 Preliminary for Schools

Find out more about how preparing for Cambridge English exams develops real-life language skills.

 

Are your students thinking about applying to study in the US?

Johns Hopkins University discusses how best to research different colleges in the US and decide which ones to apply to.

We hope you found this newsletter useful. If you missed our last edition, you can read it here. For more resources and support, visit our website.

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* Te recordamos que Enseñamos Juntos es un boletín en inglés para profesores de academias y colegios.

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Don´t miss...

New booklets to help students prepare for our updated exams!

Our updated A2 Key, A2 Key for Schools, B1 Preliminary and B1 Preliminary for Schools exams will go live in January 2020.

To help your learners prepare and understand what to expect on exam day, we’ve created four new candidate booklets that you can download for free.

Each booklet contains details about the exam, information about how to prepare, and section-by-section tips. There’s also practical information about how the exam is conducted, and how learners will receive their results.

Download the candidate booklets for:

Supporting you at the start of the school year

The start of the academic year is the perfect time to explain the benefits of Cambridge English Qualifications to both students and parents.

Whilst your sc

hool may have already decided to offer Cambridge English Qualifications, some parents will need more information to understand the value of learning and assessing English.

Our level-based exams provide a clear path for developing English language skills, step by step. This clear path for progression inspires learners to go further, opening doors to exciting higher education and workplace opportunities.

See the infographic

Helpful timeline

Don’t forget to use our helpful timeline to plan your school year!

It includes useful tips and links to resources for teachers preparing students for Cambridge English Qualifications.

Download the timeline

Teaching activities

Autumn has just started and in Cambridge Assessment English we want to celebrate this new season with activities for students, from Pre-A1 Starters up to C1 Advanced.

Happy teaching!

Download activities now!

New! Fun poster activities help prepare school students for the revised exams

Our updated A2 Key, A2 Key for Schools, B1 Preliminary and B1 Preliminary for Schools exams will be going live in January 2020.

To help you prepare students, we’ve created colourful classroom posters that include words from the updated wordlists. They encourage students to develop their speaking, listening, pronunciation and vocabulary. Each set of posters also includes a range of classroom activities.

Here are some examples of the classroom activities you can try – they’re fun and require no preparation!

20 questions
Put students in groups of three or four. One student chooses a word from one of the posters but doesn’t tell anyone what it is. The other group members take it in turns to ask questions to guess the word. Example questions for the food poster: Is it a feeling? ‘No.’ Is it a place? ‘No.’ Do you eat it? ‘Yes.’ Is it sweet? ‘Yes.’ Is it healthy? ‘No.’ Is it ice cream? ‘YES!’

Quick stories
Challenge your students to write a story in 35 words using as many words from the poster as possible. You could adapt this and ask students to make a dialogue instead – they could then act them out!

Student-created memory cards
Students cut up paper to make 20 squares (this could be more or fewer). In pairs, students choose ten words from the poster to draw as pictures on different squares. They then write the vocabulary to match the pictures on the other 10 squares. Once they have finished, they can play Pelmanism together by turning the squares over so the pictures and words are not visible. Each person takes it in turns to choose two squares. They must find the word that matches the picture. If they find a pair, they keep it. This can be adapted depending on the level of the class – students could make a complete sentence using the word when they find the matching pair.

Download the posters and classroom activities for:

A2 Key for Schools
B1 Preliminary for Schools

Teaching resources

Teaching resources

Don't miss...

Timeline resources for planning your school year   

You can plan your school year more easily with our new Information for preparation centres section on our website. Resources are mapped to key milestones throughout the school year, alongside useful advice for communicating with students and parents.

 

Our candidate experience videos have been a popular addition, as they show learners what it’s like to take a Cambridge English Qualification.

Download our timeline for teaching to remind yourself of what’s coming up this year and how to access teaching materials quickly.

Download the timeline

Digital banners for your website

Using the same style and artwork as in the campaign, we have created some digital banners for Authorised Exam Centre websites.

They feature stats about the benefits of our qualifications. Thanks to the feedback gathered in previous campaigns, we have noted that you prefer to link them to your own sites, so we are happy for you to link these banners to any relevant page showcasing information for new Preparation Centres.

Download the digital banners

Fun new flashcards for the classroom

We’ve added hundreds of free flashcards for Pre A1 Starters, A1 Movers and A2 Flyers ready for you to download! They are a great way to help young learners develop their vocabulary and practise new words.

Simply download the flashcards, print them off and start using them in your lessons. You can even display them around the classroom to help students revise.

Read our article to find out more about using flashcards with your students.

Download the flashcards

A4 Flyers in English and Spanish

We have A4 Flyers that include all the benefits, facts and resources schools and PLSs will get from working with us once they start preparing for our exams. Take them with you to schools and language centres. We have them in two languages, in English or Spanish, choose the one you want!

The perfect hook to convince schools and PLSs!

English
Spanish

Help to Learn competition

If you would like to know more, please click here.

Are you a Private Language School teacher?

We are pleased to announce the second edition of the Help to Learn competition, organised by FECEI and Cambridge Assessement English.

In our second competition we encourage our students to prepare a poster or video to raise awareness among young people of the possible consequences of their digital fingerprint.

Online training

Online learning – the future of English teaching?

Teaching English online is becoming more popular all over the world, offering greater flexibility in where English is taught and learned.

Our free online course, starting on 28 January 2019, which explains the skills, knowledge and resources you need to design and deliver effective online English lessons.
Online teachers, trainers and other learners will help you understand how to adapt your face-to-face teaching skills to an online environment and how to get started.

Sign up now for this MOOC