Kim Saunders had developed a series of lessons on common public health concerns such as bedbugs,lice and roaches for the refugee program.
However these problems can happen to us all and the lessons are suited for all immigrants who may not be aware of what they can do about them. If they receive a letter about a lice outbreak from their children’s school, they may be confused about what is happening.
The lessons are provided complete with pictures, readings, activities, and handouts. You can find them on the Lessons by Wake Tech instructors page under the Public Health section. The page is located in the Lesson Planning Category of links.
Take a look around this page – you may find other useful lessons created by Wake Tech teachers over many years on a variety of subjects.
Please check outAll Things … Worksheets – the latest link added under “Teaching Ideas” category. You can find time saving worksheets on various topics and grammar points,
Teachers! If you need some ideas for weather lessons be sure to check out the resources in the English Blog. There are videos showing sample weather forecasts, online games students can use to practice weather vocabulary, and interesting videos to introduce weather terms.
Read this post on the English blog for directions on how to those activities. You can also use that post to guide students to the activity you want to use.
Tipping is a part of American culture. Most of us know to leave a tip for hair stylists, waiters, massage therapists, pizza delivery people, and valet parking? But, what about other services, such as movers, hotel housekeepers, and take out food? What’s the standard? Who should we tip? Along with vocabulary and grammar in a lesson on tipping, you’ll also be sharing in American culture with your students. Take a look below for lesson plans and resources.
Students come into our classrooms with varied levels of knowledge, experience, and motivation. With differentiated instruction, the teacher plans and carries out varied levels of instruction in response to this variety of needs.
Much of the research and information about differentiated instruction centers around K-12 education. However, many of the recommendations are applicable to the adult ESL classroom.
In summary, there are two key points about differentiated instruction:
Teacher uses a variety of instructional methods and activities to meet the needs of all of the students.
Teacher uses a variety of assessments to evaluate knowledge, instruction, and learning.
Here are some links that include academic research, classroom strategies, and approaches, specific to ESL.
This link has specific recommendations for differentiated instruction in the classroom. Although it is geared toward K-12 education, the activities and ideas are applicable to the adult classroom.
This article obviously is targeted towards the secondary level teacher, but there are many strategies included here that apply to adult learners. It includes specific examples of differentiated activities.
Differentiating Reading and Writing Strategies for the Classroom
shorten a lengthy text
Provide visuals along with the text
Simplify text
Write words instead of complete sentences
Write a fewer number of sentences
Create an illustration to demonstrate comprehension
Use a word bank for cloze activities
For a dictation activity, (lower level), have students write the beginning letter of the word, while the higher level students write the complete word
Differentiated Learning Stations
Open ended activity. Example: Students draw a picture to illustrate a story. Beginners can write key words, other students can write sentences. The video demonstrates using thought bubbles for this activity.
From simple to complex. For example, in the Memory Game, the higher students use vocabulary words, while the beginner students use pictures and letters.
Today’s post is about food idioms. It focuses on materials you can use in the classroom for some of the common food idioms that we use in the United States. It is structured to be used in combination with the food idioms post on the English Language blog (http://eslblogs.waketech.edu/esl-english/)which has information and practice for students! Use them together and save lesson planning time! Scroll to the bottom of the page to find quizzes.
Halloween is next Saturday, and many ESL teachers will include some type of lesson or celebration about the holiday. Here are some links to some of the most popular sites that offer lessons on Halloween. This post just might save you a search or two!
If you are searching for lesson plans you might want to visit the ESL Virtual Library of Lesson Plans. It’s a collection of plans and learning activities created by teachers at North Carolina community colleges.
North Carolina Curriculum Guide (includes lesson plans and activities)
Citizenship Preparation
In My Own Words (students’ stories about coming to live in the United States)
Links to Literature (student activities to link literature to American history and civics)
Participatory Learning in ESL
Living in America (addresses civics and culture)
Salud Latina (health lesson plans)
Technology (lesson plans focused on civics/incorporating technology)
The House I Live In (civics, housing, and the American Dream)
Can I use these materials in my class? Yes, of course! That’s exactly what the site is for! Use the materials for lesson planning and classroom activites. There are worksheets, activities, lesson plans, videos, audio collections, and games.
Who created this content? Most of the lesson plans were created by instructors at North Carolina community colleges. Each lesson plan includes the creator’s name/community college.
What is best about this site? It’s full of lesson plans and activities. Once you choose a topic you’ll find multiple levels of information. You just have to start looking around! It’s very easy to navigate.
What levels are the lessons intended for? The majority of the lessons are appropriate for beginner and intermediate level students. As with most lessons, you can simplify or expand the lesson to accommodate the students in your class.
What is challenging about the site? As a user, I want to know the credentials of the authors, and also the sources and reasons behind a post. At times it’s not clear to me the purpose of a post, or the source of the information. But, that wouldn’t stop me from using the site! It has tons of information!! Take a look!
The New American Horizons organization is a wealth of resources for ESL teachers. They have multiple videos for ESL teachers that demonstrate teaching techniques and tips. Today we’re going to focus on vocabulary instruction for lower level students. There is a link to a video included in this post at the bottom of the page.
Some key points from the video:
TPR is a great way to introduce vocabulary! Why? It includes multiple skills and senses, such as watching, touching, speaking, and listening.
Teach the vocabulary in context.
Begin with explicit instruction.
Recycle the vocabulary through diverse activities.
Use the vocabulary in new ways.
Connect the new vocabulary to real life.
Questions that come up during the lesson.
If they are related to the current lesson, then deal with them at that moment.
If they are not related to the subject, address them later. (For unrelated questions, I usually have a “parking lot” list for things to address after the lesson.)
Classroom routines are important to support learning. Use the same games and activities for each lesson. Students focus on vocabulary practice rather than learning a new game. Use these activities to assess learning and where the gaps are. For example, students might be able to identify a word on the page, but can they spell it, or actually use the word?
Examples from the video:
Bingo-play first with pictures to associate the sound/picture relationship, and then next, with words.
Spelling activity-teacher dictates, students listen and use letter tiles to spell the word
Line up activities (by alphabetical order, birth date, etc.
Use the different activities to assess learning and where the gaps in learning are. For example, the students may be able to identify a word, but can they spell it, or use it? Watch this video for more details!
Do you like to trade ideas with other ESL teachers? Ever wonder what other teachers are doing in the classroom? How about “best practices” for teaching a particular grammar point or managing a classroom? These, and other ideas, can be shared and discussed on a new Facebook page. Beth McMillian started the group called Adult ESL/ESOL Exchange, and it’s open to all ESL teachers!
It’s new, so you can be one of the first to join. Want to give it a try? Just click on this link:
Kim Saunders had developed a series of lessons on common public health concerns such as bedbugs, lice and roaches for the refugee program.
