iGCSE ESL: Note-taking & Summary Skills

I will be taking over the Year 4 and Year 5 iGCSE ESL classes next year. Several students have signed up for an additional EAL class to help them with the note-taking and summary skills sections. I remember from my time in Korea that the lessons I created around David Attenborough documentaries were useful for the students. For any of you who haven't seen the documentaries, they are excellent for Level B1/B2 students. The documentaries are an hour-long, but they are filled with short 5 to 10-minute sections about an individual animal these are perfect for the students to watch in class. Added to this is the legendary narration by David Attenborough, he doesn't talk very much, so lots of long pauses for students to make notes or fill in blanks, and when he does talk, well, every single word is pure gold. My previous worksheets focused on vocabulary, grammar and then some critical thinking questions at the end. These questions would be based on the part 3 questions in IELTS.

Having remembered that the documentaries lend themselves very well to note-taking, I decided to create a worksheet that would focus on note-taking and developing a summary. I've attached the worksheet to this blog, drop me a line if you have any questions.

As you can see, pretty standard stuff. Prediction, vocabulary, listening comprehension, note-taking, summary, and reflection.

Hope you enjoy it.

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