The Mushroom

The Boss!

The Museum Collector

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An epic adventure story written for children by children. A successful adventurer known as the Museum Collector travels far and wide to collect educational treasures for the Aladinland Museum. On his way, he encounters all manner of interesting creatures. This story was developed by a six-year-old and a four-year-old through their play together. As the … Read more

The Wizard’s Mission

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Introducing a novel written by Mushroom’s creator based on the novels we read in ELL classes in 2024. A simple task. A hidden truth. An empire on the brink. Nolan Teks, a meticulous scribe seeking promotion in the scholarly haven of the Grand Library, is thrust into an epic adventure when a seemingly straightforward mission … Read more

Appreciating Shakespeare

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This page provides space for my current English Language and Literature students (and anybody else who might want to join in) to discuss their studies of Shakespeare. Think of it as an online Student-Led Seminar 🙂 Welcome to this online Shakespeare Discussion Corner! 🎭 Hello, fellow Shakespeare enthusiasts! 🌟 Whether you’re diving into the enchanting world … Read more

Hair-Dal and the Heavenly Llama

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An epic adventure written for children by children. The story is about an adventurer’s epic journey, the mysterious llama he meets and the troubles they encounter. This story was developed by a six-year-old and a four-year-old through their play together. As the children played and narrated the story they were creating, the editor simply wrote … Read more

Ecological Crisis in Elf Wood

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An epic fantasy adventure written for children by children. The story introduces various monsters that wreak environmental havoc and follows the superhero, Aladin-Man’s efforts to prevent ecological disaster. This story was developed by a six-year-old and a four-year-old through their play together. As the children played and narrated the story they were creating, the editor … Read more

Enchantia: Legends & Tales of Good & Bad

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The book below is the result of a three week project and subsequent proofreading and editing. Although the whole reads a little disjointedly, probably due to the sheer number of minds working on this story in a relatively short period of time, the ideas are interesting and most are well written. Some students even started … Read more

Animal Farm News Reports

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My Grade 8 students were practising writing news reports about the battles in Animal Farm to explore how language choices create bias in news reporting, even when sticking to the facts. Unfortunately, the images of the first three pages lost quality during the transfer from camera to computer 🙁 but you can still appreciate the … Read more

Reading for Writing Strategy – IELTS Preparation

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This article presents a self-study strategy for students preparaing for the IELTS Writing test by reading about the common topics and studying the language typically used to discuss those subjects. Whilst I intend to do more research into this and publish the results to help my students, the recent advances in AI tools means this … Read more

Converting the Discussion Skills Assessment Score to an IB Score

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This article reports on the addition of two further columns to the Discussion Skills Assessment (DSA) instrument: Columns L and M as shown in the screenshot below. I have been using the DSA to assess my IB MYP English Language and Literature (ELL) students during student-led seminar discussions in class. My previous research (Clark & … Read more

Discussion Skills Assessment (DSA) and the Student-Led Seminars Approach

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This page introduces my work on the development of the Discussion Skills Assessment (DSA) instrument and its current status at the time of writing. Historical Development and Rationale The student-led seminar approach I have been pioneering in different educational contexts was first inspired by a student-led seminar activity that formed part of the University of … Read more