Teaching and writing materials for migrant learners in Australia
2016 Aug 16

When ESOL reading becomes fun…

Carly and Kumar to the rescue… Yesterday I had to find an activity for a young woman waiting for her husband to finish English language class… what could I offer her to make that couple of hours less tedious? I showed her a few ESOL reading books, and she grabbed Karen Barber’s ‘Carly and Kumar’, with a smile, though she … Continue reading

Welcome to Hope Street literacy level (CPSWE) reader

The latest book in the Hope Street series is an introduction to the series for ‘beginner beginner’ learners – those who are just able to read single sentences on very familiar topics (as in Module B of the CPSWE). Target learners: CPSWE or ‘prelim’ Welcome to Hope Street is aimed at learners towards the end of the ‘prelim’ journey, or … Continue reading

2015 Dec 08

A new link for those free reading books: ‘Bad Hair Day’

Bad Hair Day cover

A kind teacher just alerted me to an out of date link…for the lovely ‘Bad Hair Day’ ESOL/EAL reading resources by Karen Barber (who also wrote the Carly and Kumar books). These readers were free on the Central AMEP website, but now I see the link has changed.. UPDATE: It has changed again, and the readers are now on YouTube! There … Continue reading

2015 Sep 20

My job really is the best…

Front cover of My Job is the Best

My Job is the Best: a new ESL Extras title I have a new ESL Extras book out, but this time it’s a free download. My Job is the Best is another very simple set of Australian ‘stories’ about different Hope Street characters. It has an illustrated, very simple story, with ‘cut-up’ pages, exercises and teacher/tutor notes, like the other books … Continue reading

2014 Aug 31

More Carly and Kumar and ‘catching the reading bug’

Karen Barber with her new book

I finally met up with Karen Slikas Barber and asked about her new book, More Carly and Kumar, from Read Me Again Press. Karen, you’ve got a new set of Carly and Kumar stories out – what inspired you to start writing again? My students were reading the Carly and Kumar stories, saying they were funny, then heading to the library … Continue reading

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