TESOL Materials/Guide

''' Welcome to the TESOL Materials Guide at Wikiversity. ''' --Stevesilsbee 13:54, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Project Goals

 * Establish and develop an  open educational resource tool that allows teachers to:
 * contribute lessons/activities/ideas that they use in the EFL/ESL classroom
 * modify and/or use materials left by other teachers
 * Raise awareness of free resources available on the Internet that may benefit EFL/ESL teachers
 * Foster a sharing, supportive teacher community
 * Create an alternative to traditional textbook teaching

Structure
Content is organized in a hierarchical system starting with the main category page(TESOL Materials). The main category page offers an index of subcategories related to language teaching. Each subcategory is then broken down into smaller subcategories or resource pages which link to specific submissions or external links. The result is a cross-referenced library of TESOL materials.

Getting Started
Before adding content, it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with how Wikiversity works. Some good places to start would be:
 * Main Page- offers a broad overview of Wikiversity
 * Help:Contents- links to several other vital information pages (strongly recommended)
 * Wiki 101- contains very useful and easy to understand information about submitting and editing content (good for when it comes time to submit)
 * Media Files- lists the types of audio/video/text files currently allowed at Wikiversity

Another good idea is to look at other pages and see how they are constructed in terms of format. To see how different pages are formatted, go to a page and click on the "edit this page" tab at the top. You will be able to see the formulas used for that particular page. navigation will look and function better if we all try to remain constant. On the other hand, if you want to follow your own style or think something needs to be changed within existing pages, feel free to do so! As a courtesy, whenever major changes are made, it's polite to leave a comment as to why the change was made. If you are inexperienced, don't feel too overwhelmed. Chances are you will be able to start contributing after even the briefest of introductions. Even if you're not sure, take a chance. Don't worry about making mistakes; they can be undone. As stated above, one of the goals here is to foster a supportive community, so let's all work together to see what we can build.

Content and Format

 *  Content - While this project is aimed at high school and university students, all content is welcome. In the early stages it will be very important to get a nice sampling of materials in order for the project to take shape, so any contributions at that time are much appreciated. Make sure "original" materials are not plagiarized and sources are cited when needed (citation templates can be found here). One important note about content is that all material posted must be free, so links to sites that require registration, charge for access or try to sell a product are not allowed.
 *  Format - Although there are no absolute right or wrong ways to submit, format and organize content here, it should be noted that Wikiversity does have set   policies that need to be adhered to. Navigation will look and function better if format remains consistant, but you are free to submit in any style so long as it is acceptable to Wikiversity. Since pages are open source you can change the content of an existing page or the way it is formatted (just remember that somebody probably worked hard to make that page, so comments are appreciated to justify making major changes). A basic  submission template has been created as a starting off point, but there is no obligation to use it.

Submitting Material

 *  Checking Categories and Pages - Go to the TESOL Materials Category page and see what categories and pages are listed. Make a note of which ones could be linked to your submission. Submissions may be linked to several pages (e.g. a listening exercise might make use of a specific grammatical structure and could therefore be linked to both the "Listening" and "Grammar" categories). If you don't see a category or resource page that would link to your submission, create it (see "Creating a New Page" below).
 *  Creating a New Page - The easiest way to create a new page is to go here. In the shortcut box, type the name of your page and click "Create page". Make sure your page is appropriately titled. If your submission is similar to another, then note that in your page name (e.g. taking messages 2). It might also be a good idea to incorporate "TESOL" into the page name to eliminate confusion for other users, but this decision is left up to you. After clicking "Create Page" you will be directed to the edit box for your new page, where it would be a good idea to link the page to other resource and/or category pages (see "Linking section below).
 * creating resource pages- type the name of your page and click "Create Page".
 * creating category pages- type "Category:the name of your page" and click "Create Page".
 *  Template - If you decide to submit an activity using the submission template, open the Activity Submission template, click edit this page and copy the formula. Then follow the process above to create a new page. When the edit box appears, paste the formula into the edit box and replace the information under each area with your activity information. Preview the page and save. This is your new page ready to be linked into the project.
 *  Linking - When making a page, it is important for it to be linked to an existing category or resource page so that it becomes part of the project. Pages that are not linked will be invisible. Since links are case sensitive, it is important that links are titled exactly as their page names. For more on links see the links page. You can link any one page to several other pages.
 * linking to category pages- insert the link into the page that you wish to be listed on a category page. For example, The category page Category:New Dynamic English is linked to the category page Category:Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). This is done by clicking the "edit this page" tab on the "New Dynamic English" page and inserting the link Category:Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) into the edit box. The page "New Dynamic English" will then show up as a subcategory on the CALL page. Similarly, this resource page, TESOL Materials Guide is linked to the category page Category:TESOL Materials. The link  Category:TESOL Materials is inserted into this  page and shows up as a linked page on the "TESOL Materials" category page.
 * linking to resource pages- insert the link into the page that will direct you to the desired material. For example, a resource page has been made under the name Simple English Introductions. This page is linked to another resource page, New_Dynamic_English-Module_1:1_(Names_and_Places), another resource page that offers different links to materials. More specifically, it's linked to the "Hello Max and Kathy!" section of the page. To insert the link, click the edit key next to the desired section and type the name of the page to which the link will lead. In this case, we would click the edit key next to "Hello Max and Kathy!" and type Simple English Introductions in the edit box, and save. The  "Simple English Introductions" page is now linked to the "New_Dynamic_English-Module_1:1_(Names_and_Places)" page.

Templates
These are some templates that are used in the design and layout of pages in TESOL Materials:
 * Activity Submission- This template is used as a format for submitting activities. Copy and paste the formula for this template on the page you want it to appear on.
 * Category Welcome Header- This template is used as a welcome header for category pages. Copy and paste the formula for this template on the page you want it to appear on.
 * Resource Welcome Header- This template is used as a welcome header for resource pages. Copy and paste the formula for this template on the page you want it to appear on.
 * Navigation Box- This template was originally created to be used as a page navigation tool, but has been replaced by the navigation bar (below).
 * Quick Navigation Bar- This template is used as a page navigator at the top of each page. When adding this template, type on the top line in the edit box of the page you want it to appear on.

Comments and questions can be left on the discussion page

Wikibooks

 * English as an Additional Language
 * First Certificate of English (help for the Cambridge examination)

Wikipedia

 * English language learning and teaching