How do I choose authentic material?

[Sparinoid]

Hi everyone,

I've just received the first draft for the 3rd and final assignment of my course and I am really struggling. It got sent back to me as I chose the wrong authentic material. The task is for upper-intermediate students but the one I selected was too easy for them but I can't tell which one will be too easy or too hard.

I don't want to make the same mistake again as it's meant restarting the whole task again, essentially from scratch.

Does anyone know any possible suggestions of where to look?

Thank you very much

[kdammers]

You can use a "crutch": Go to a legitimate site that has authentic material that is labeled or sorted as to level. For example, Search domain learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/upper-intermediate-b2https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/upper-intermediate-b2 .

[Harry F.]

Choosing appropriate texts and grading your own language to suit your students' needs and level is definitely one of the toughest things about starting out in tefl. I don't know how much this will help, but I have recently been using a great text checker resource from Oxford learner's dictionaries (https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com). They grade the difficulty of a text based on the frequency that words are encountered. The text checker highlights all words at A1, A2, B1, B2 etc. For an upper intermediate text you would not want to see more than a few words at a higher level than B2. This is also a great resource for grading students' written work as it really helps you to zone in on a student's ability to use 'more advanced' language.
ps. I promise I don't work for Oxford university press!

[Sparinoid]

Hey again,

That has been really helpful. I looked at other videos and saw what I should be looking for in a video and used the dictionary to determine whether the language was right for the students.

I think I have decided what video I want to use but I'm still uncertain.

Could someone please tell me whether this seems appropriate for upper-intermediate students?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prIaF1w ... el=ITVNews

[hcb2022]

Sparinoid, I thought the video you chose was excellent!

[ashvaganda]

try working with gpt chat.