The purpose of this lesson is for students to be exposed to, understand, and begin using common American-English idioms. Students will practice using the idioms through speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This is a video that shows how adult ESL students use smart phones to take and share pictures. The teacher explains the variety of topics she uses the pictures for and students can be seen showing discussing the pictures.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
This video shows how writing letters for and about family can help someone learn English as a second language.
Material Type: Lecture
This is a lesson that introduces students to cause and effect in reading passages. It also includes signal words that can assist students in identifying cause and effect. This is the introductory lesson. Extension activity (challenge) allows students to write their own cause and effect statements.
Material Type: Lesson
Comparing sales ads for the Shopping Unit for Beginner Adult ESL learners. Using sales ads students will learn how to figure out sale prices, percentage discounts, and final cost of items. They will compare ads from advertisers, compare like items, and find the best price available. Students will learn how to make sentences using comparatives (and superlatives – for higher level ESL learners.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Game, Interactive
The purpose of this lesson is for High Intermediate to Advanced adult ESOL students to learn new vocabulary, practice reading, and hone their conversation skills while learning about the use of the penny in the United States.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Adult ESL learners may not know the American measurement system. The United States is one of only five countries still using Fahrenheit to measure temperatures (see list below). Simplifying the conversion can help our learners make sense of local temperatures. The method below is “a reasonable approximation”, not an exact calculation.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive, Lesson Plan
The purpose of this lesson is for students to practice and improve English conversation, writing, vocabulary, and reading through the lens of the Earth Day holiday (April 22nd). Also, students can brainstorm and share what we can do to preserve the Earth on a global or personal scale.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
This website has a fun short video and an interactive practice activity to teach and assess common suffixes. It is geared toward adults but would be appropriate for secondary as well.
Material Type: Lecture
An integral component of the adult ESL literacy and low-beginning level course outlines is an introduction to the parts of the body. The author addresses this content area, suggesting a variety of classroom activities and instructional strategies which promote student success in the development of this competency
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This website gives a short written explanation and plenty of practice for common prefixes. There is also a video on prefixes and other interactive activities for suffixes and more.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Interactive
The lesson plan is useful for building community in an Adult ESOL class for intermediate and advanced level students. The plan contains icebreakers and a review of adjectives that describe character.
Material Type: Game, Lesson Plan
This activity is a good review for adult or teen ESL learners on time clauses. The movie, In Time, is set in a futuristic world where time is the currency. After ten questions on what happens before or after another, there are three interesting discussion questions.
Material Type: Assessment, Lesson Plan
This lesson presents common household vocabulary. It includes activities for cooperative learning, student interviews, and vocabulary development.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This lesson introduces ESOL or ELL students to common food items and their location on supermarket shelves. The lesson also provides an overview of the organization of supermarkets and the distribution of food items along different aisles. Materials include a list of vocabulary, cooperative learning activities, and a handout to complete while visiting the supermarket.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Online instruction is an important supplement to traditional classroom instruction. However, internet access is not always available to all students. This lesson presents options for students without a home computer. It also lists 5 helpful ESL/ELL websites.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Taxes are part of daily life in the United States. The activities included in this lesson plan introduce ESL students to income taxes, the important date for submission of income tax returns, and the simple forms most students will need to complete. A variety of materials and resources are provided.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Great speaking and listening lesson about a girl who overcomes barriers and succeeds against the odds through pure determination.
Material Type: Diagram/Illustration, Interactive, Lesson Plan
Conversation questions provides lists of questions organized by topics such as holidays, fashion, films, childhood dreams, etc. One thing to bear in mind here, is that the aim is to get students talking, not just to answer yes or no to the questions, even when those questions are polar questions, and that there won't be any "right" or "wrong" answers. Although the format may look like a questionnaire, the idea is that the questions are mere prompts/cues for meaningful communication and should not just be "ticked off" in rapid succession.
Material Type: Assessment, Game, Lesson Plan
This computer-based project was developed for my ESL Computer Lab. Students who attend this lab learn the basics of using a computer and complete mini-projects in English to build English Proficiency. This Job Research lesson may be used as a introductory lesson to preface a deeper career exploration. Additional lessons may include writing a cover letter, identifying personal jobs skills, goal-setting, writing a resume, and practicing for a job interview. However, this lesson is limited to using websites to obtain information about a job of interest to the student. At the end of the lesson, students present their slide show to the class.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
