Teaching Harry Potter: Hagrid’s Speech

Hagrid’s speech in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone may confuse students but can offer an engaging way for students to explore dialects, pronunciation variations, and the role of language in character identity. This post outlines key teaching points and interactive activities to help students analyze Hagrid’s unique way of speaking. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: Dealing with Vocabulary

Using Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as the basis for vocabulary instruction offers a rich, engaging context for your students—especially those at B1 level and upward. This post provides research-backed insights, practical strategies,  checklists and templates to help you navigate the complexities of vocabulary teaching in a literary context. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: Reading Aloud?

Reading aloud in class is a topic that sparks plenty of debate among language teachers. While some see it as a cornerstone of developing fluency, others view it as unnecessary or even counterproductive for many learners. Personally, I believe reading aloud can be a valuable tool when used purposefully and with the right students, particularly those who will need to speak or present publicly in English. For other learners, while occasional practice can still be beneficial, it may not always be a central focus of your lessons. Here’s a closer look at the pros and cons of reading aloud, along with suggestions for how to use it effectively in your classroom. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: Vocabulary Activities

For B1-level students, the challenge lies in striking the right balance: ensuring the vocabulary is accessible but still engaging and new. Vocabulary activities should help students make connections between the text and their own language use, while also deepening their understanding of the story. Here are some ideas I’ve used to build vocabulary activities for B1 learners in my Harry Potter course. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: Optional Homework

My students are all private clients with busy lives, so I prefer to make homework optional. This way, when it is completed, it’s a pleasant surprise. For this course, since students are already tasked with reading chapters and occasionally writing summaries, it’s even more important to keep additional homework optional. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: Grammar Work

When studying a text, it can be challenging to decide which grammatical structures to focus on. This often depends on the level of the course. Some teachers I’ve spoken to feel it’s reductionist to tackle grammar in texts, arguing for a more ‘Language Arts’ approach. I disagree. The beauty of using texts with students lies in studying language in context—all aspects of language, including grammar. Also, it’s important to work with students’ (and parents) expectations. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: Chapter Books

Key to working with chapter books as a class is ensuring that everyone keeps up with the reading. It sounds simple, but in practice, it’s not! However enthusiastic students might be, there’s always someone who hasn’t managed to do the homework or has missed a class. Read more

Teaching Harry Potter: The Challenge

I’ve twice been asked to design a short online course based on Harry Potter for B1 and A2 teenage learners. However, with no graded reader available and parental expectations focused on the “real book,” I’m unsure how advisable a course would be. Read more

Vocabulary Profiling 1

How do you decide on the vocabulary to teach students?
 
Which vocabulary in a given text would you want students to learn and which items could you just gloss?

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Literature Circles

Over the summer I explored Academic Reading Circles (ARC) with pre-sessional students and was impressed with the depth of reading comprehension and quality of discussion they prompted. The students found them both valuable and enjoyable.

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