100+ Printable board games and templates for kids and beginner ESL students. Download and use in class today!
Learn three simple things you need to teach your ESL beginners right away. These include variations of introductions, classroom surroundings and basic needs
A list of ESL websites that have plenty of activities, teaching strategies, worksheets, templates, lesson plans and articles which will help in your work.
When I was a brand new teacher, I thought the quality of my teaching was ultimately tied to the quality of my resources, so I spent hours searching for great materials. I believed that if I had quality resources, ones that my students enjoyed and were engaged with, then that would make me a good teacher. Well, I still believe that having quality resources is extremely important, but over the years I've also come to realize that being a good teacher is SO much more than the tools in my toolbox. Everyday has a million moving parts that need our constant attention, focus, knowledge and skills of best practice. So even though I now believe that being a good teacher is more than the quality of my teaching materials, knowing that I have a good variety of kid tested and teacher approved resources at my fingertips allows me the time and energy to focus on other aspects of my teaching day. So today, as a follow-up to my original "favorite resources" post, I want to share with you MORE of my "go-to" resources that I consistently use in my classroom with my students! Build a Sentence I love this resource, and so do my students! This resource gets beginning and intermediate ELs speaking and writing! First, a photograph is posted. Then students generate a word bank by telling what they see in the picture. I ask for one word at a time. No matter the level of my ELs, everyone can come up with at least a word or two. I get additional details by asking about colors and quantities of items they see. Once our word bank is sufficient, they use those words to create varying lengths of sentences. They are asked to create a 3 word sentence, then a four word sentence, then a five word sentence, and so on. I'll ask, "Who thinks they can come up with a 4 word sentence?" My students all start thinking and counting on their fingers, then quickly a hand shoots up, then another. They love it! This activity is heavily scaffolded for beginners. Students orally create the word bank and sentences, but I write the words and sentences on the board using correct spelling and grammar. Then they copy. I am a big believer in modeling for beginners, and I model a LOT! This activity is a definite favorite among my students. They practice their oral language skills as well as their writing skills. I do this with my small groups at least once a month. Writing with English Learners I created this resource to prep my students for the writing portion of the annual language proficiency assessment. In Virginia, where I'm from, ESL students take the WIDA ACCESS each winter. Being that writing is the literacy skill that usually takes the longest to develop, I wanted to explicitly teach the skills students needed to be most successful on this assessment. In my lesson plans, I incorporate a listening, reading, speaking and writing focus each week. For the writing focus, I usually pull from these two resources. Whether I am teaching how to stretch out words, write a story, explain a process or analyze information, this resource allows me to choose the skills my particular groups need to work on. For my intermediate and advanced ELs in grades 3-6, I focus on "language formats" found in writing. Whether they are asked to describe, provide an opinion, analyze or compare and contrast, understanding and applying the language with that format is key. 5 Ws and H - A Writing Resource for Adding Details This resource is a new favorite! It teaches students to add meaningful details to their sentences. I often ask students to "tell me more." This writing activity gets them in the habit of giving more information in their sentences by adding thoughtful details. This resource is designed for gradual release. The first set of activities can be done in a whole group setting. A photograph is projected and students are asked to answer the 5W & H questions about the picture. This information is then used to write two thoughtful sentences. As students become more proficient with adding details to their sentences, the next set of activities can be done in either a small group setting or as an independent activity. The last set of activities are writing prompts that students can independently respond to in their notebooks. Posters are included which add a great visual reference for a classroom display. Restate the Question This is a simple, yet effective, activity that teaches students to restate the question or prompt in their answers, both orally and in writing. As a writing activity, either project a prompt on the whiteboard and have students write their responses in their notebooks, or print out the question and have them glue it into their notebook. This takes modeling the first several times, but afterwards should be a quick independent activity. For a speaking activity, pull out a card and ask the question. Students take turns answering several of the questions. This works great in a small group setting. My students often ask if we can keep on "playing." VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! Incorporating videos into my lessons is a MUST! When I plan a new unit, one of the first things I do is to scour the internet looking for fun and meaningful videos. My go to place is YouTube. There are some real gems out there, but it does take some looking. When I find a goody, it goes into my collection and I use it again and again. Here is a blog post that I wrote about using short films to teach reading comprehension skills. I continue to add to the list as I find new films. Click on the image to see the list! Check out my Short Film Bundle here. Monthly Themed Vocabulary This is an great resource to use with primary learners and beginning ELs. Each month contains 20 vocabulary words. I love this because it's relevant to what's happening around students at the given time of year. Along with the terms, which I use as a monthly word wall, matching cards, writing activities, a vocabulary booklet and BINGO games are included. In closing... As I create my weekly lesson plans, these "tried and true" resources are many of the activities that my students use throughout the school year. Having a collection of reliable and engaging materials available frees up the time I'd otherwise spend searching. I'm sure you have your go-to resources too. Happy teaching!! (Affiliate Link)
A list of ESL websites that have plenty of activities, teaching strategies, worksheets, templates, lesson plans and articles which will help in your work.
Check out the following ESL lesson plans and lesson plan templates to get your teaching on in style! It's English teaching made easy!
Looking for esl task cards to use with your english language learners? Try these picture cards that are perfect for quick and effective language practice!
You’ll learn the 13 rules which help you to teach ESL effectively, together with info on how to become an ESL teacher in no time.
This 3rd part of ESL ideas (view other parts of the series here: part 1, part 2) features 7 more quick but powerful tips. Some of them will will definitely come in handy one day. Who kn
Check out these private teaching activities and games for your ESL lessons. Keep things fresh and interesting in your 1-1 English classes.
Do you struggle with finding interesting ways to teach ESL listening skills? Maybe you have an activity or two already but you want to be able to mix it up and keep things interesting. By the end of…
10 ESOL Teacher Must Haves. Check out these items to make your teaching job easier.2
Students work in pairs and role play the given situations. This activity will help your students develop and improve their speaking skills in an interesting way! - ESL worksheets
10 fun and educational ESL activities for busy teachers! Try these games and activities in your classroom (or virtual classroom) today!
Let's face it, when planning weekly lessons, having a few "go-to" activities on deck can make the task of planning much easier. These are not just "fillers," but tried and true activities that are meaningful, fun and effective at building language. Here are three weekly language building activities that do NOT require planning time. 1- Weekend Update/Weekend Plans This is an awesome activity for beginning and intermediate English learners to build speaking and writing skills. Weekend Update (WU) is usually a Monday activity, and Weekend Plans (WP), a Friday activity. For my beginners, who I see everyday, I do both. For some of my groups, who I meet with only a few times a week, I'll pick one or the other. Weekend Update - I want to know what my students did over the weekend, and I want them to practice oral language using past tense verbs. Once I ask the question, "What did you do this past weekend?" or "What did you do over the weekend?" students take turns answering the question. I provide a sentence starter for my beginners. Then, I repeat their sentence back to them using correct grammar, and help with any basic vocabulary, as needed. Next, I write their sentence on the board. Lastly, they copy their sentence into their notebook. I like to write each student's response in a different color marker so that they can easily distinguish between the sentences on the board. Depending on a student's level of language proficiency, I might ask clarifying questions in order to get a few more details from him or her. I want to push them to use more language, if they are able. Weekend Plans - It's the same concept as Weekend Update, but with this activity I want to know what plans they have for the weekend, or what is something they would like to do over the weekend. I also want them to practice oral language using future tense. So the process is the same as WU, just done towards the end of the week, usually on Thursday or Friday. My students really love this activity; and I'd better not forget to put it in my plans, otherwise they WILL let me know! So as a warm up activity or a closing activity, simply write WU or WP in your plan book and know that 7-10 minutes is going to be this fun and engaging weekly activity. *As my students' language skills progress, I like to find ways to challenge them. For example, after everyone has shared their update or plans, I'll ask students to tell me what one of their classmates did over the weekend, or what one of their classmates plan is for the weekend. NOW we are practicing listening and reading skills PLUS using appropriate pronouns! There are lots of ways to modify this activity to either simplify or to challenge students! As a bonus, this activity is a great way to build relationships. You get to know your students better, and as you share things about your weekends, they get to know you too:) 2- Restate the Question Students need to be able to restate a question, or a prompt, when responding either orally or in writing. This is especially important for their annual language assessments (WIDA ACCESS). For this activity, the objective is put the question in the answer. This will require some modeling at first. Once a week, I incorporate a 10 minute Restate the Question (RQ) activity into my weekly plans. I change it up from time to time, so that students stay engaged. (For groups that I see less often, it may be a quick 5 minute activity.) Here are a few examples of how I incorporate it. Oral Activity- I use activity cards. I place the cards in the middle of the table, and either I'll pick up and read the question, or I'll have them do it. Then, they take turns responding to their card, being sure to restate the question or prompt in their responses. My students love this activity too! When it's time to put away the cards, they often ask to "play" a little longer. Writing Activity - Give students a question or prompt, either printed out or written on the board. If printed out, I have my students glue it into their notebooks. Then have them respond in writing. Afterwards, I ask students to share their responses. This is a designated weekly activity when we purposefully focus on building this skill, however, this skill is informally practiced throughout the week. Click HERE for "Restate the Question" cards. What if students don't yet have enough language? Start with very basic questions. What's your name? My name is _______. Do you like pizza? Yes, I like pizza. Or... No, I do not like pizza. How old are you? I am ____ years old. Where are you from? I am from _____. Using sentence frames is another great way to give beginners the practice they need. For example: Question: What is the problem in the story? Sentence Frame: The problem in the story is _________________. Question: What did the story remind you of? Sentence Frame: The story reminded me of __________________. Restating the question is an important skill. This past year I made time for it in my weekly plans and I saw great progress with my students. 3- Daily Language Review I use this resource a lot with my beginners and intermediate level students. It's a daily activity, most days, so I know that 5 minutes will include this "warm-up" style activity. Although there is no planning involved, there is some printing. But that's OK. I spend 15 minutes a week printing out what I need, then I cut and staple. That's it! I'm ready for the week! The student pages are a half page booklet with 5 days worth of activities, usually only about 4 or 5 short questions per day. Since my students are learning the basic concepts of English grammar, writing mechanics and spelling, we do this activity together. We walk through it as a group and we talk about it. I often use it as a jumping off point for skills that need more attention. I can either go more in depth right then, or take note that I need a lesson on a particular skill for a future lesson. It has a little bit of everything, and it helps to expose my students to many of the skills they'll need as their English progresses. As the year goes on, I may have them do parts of it by themselves, like "Fix the Sentence" before going over it whole group, but for the most part this activity is heavily supported by the teacher. Full disclosure, I don't get to this everyday. If we have a lot to do in other areas, this might get pushed to the side, but students will often ask me if they can try to do it on their own in their general education classroom. Of course I say YES!!! I love it when they ask me that question! *********************************************** My students enjoy all three of these activities, they really do. I can honestly say that each one has proven to be fun, engaging and effective in building my students' language skills. These are my go-to weekly activities that I do not need to plan for; and you can bet that they will be in my lesson plan book. I simply write WU, WP, RQ and DLR on the days, and for the groups, that I want them, and that's it! It makes planning out my whole week, for all of my groups, much easier. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Check out our top picks for ESL pronunciation games and activities to help students work on and improve their English speaking skills.
Beat the overwhelm of teaching an absolute beginner with this downloadable checklist
Read all about low-prep fun vocabulary games to play with your adult ESL students to help them practice and improve their English vocabulary.
Games are a great way to keep students engaged. Check out this list of games to use with your ELLs to help them improve their vocabulary.
Use a simple. five-step framework that will yield high results for your ESL students.
Beat the overwhelm of teaching an absolute beginner with this downloadable checklist
Lesson plans, worksheets, word games and PowerPoint slides. There are many ESL websites for teachers. Find the best one for you and your students!
The start to the school year for newcomer ELLs can be overwhelming and nerve-wracking. It is our job to set them up with tools to help them feel comfortable exploring a new language in a
Teaching English as second language (ESL), which websites do you use for preparing lesson plan, classroom activities, teaching resources and materials? These are some of the websites we know.
Improve your second language teaching skills by avoiding mistakes such as talking to much, echoing, sentence completion, and unclear instructions. Follow @tesolAmerican TESOL
Beat the overwhelm of teaching an absolute beginner with this downloadable checklist
In each text there are 10 mistakes that the students must find and correct. It gives students a possibility to practise their knowledge about English grammar. - ESL worksheets
Check out this book if you're struggling with ESL classroom management! There are tips, tricks, and solid advice for handling TEFL classes.
Check out the best ESL reading comprehension activities and games, along with worksheets & lesson plans. Teaching reading can be fun!
Beat the overwhelm of teaching an absolute beginner with this downloadable checklist
English may sound daunting to English learners but it does not have to be. Use these 5 tips to teach phonemic awareness and phonics to older ESL students.
32 sentences to correct. You can practise verb forms (present, past, future), modal verbs, questions, comparatives, pronouns. Key included. Hope you find it useful. Have a nice week, mada :) - ESL worksheets
How to plan ESL lessons 300% faster with this easy trick! Download these 3 free teacher to teacher lesson plans.
Students find the odd word of four and then they match the word sentences on the right. They write the word on the empty lines. - ESL worksheets
Do you need some interactive listening videos for your ESL students? I've collected these videos from numerous Online Listening Websites for ESL Kids sources and I though I'd share them in this post.
Pinterest is a popular resource for English language learners! You can find there worksheets, activities, articles and tips. Click here to read about some of our favorite Pinterest Boards for ESL students. Check them out, as well as the Really Learn English Pinterest boards.
Do you know these paintings or who painted them? Guess and discuss. This conversation worksheet with 10 photos of paintings and 9 conversation questions can be used as a basis for an informal discussion about art, paintings, museums and more. It can be used for Internet research and/or giving short presentations as well. Teacher notes included. - ESL worksheets
How to teach ELL students to read challenging, on-grade level texts through Visible Reading, a differentiated, process-driven reading strategy.
