24 ESL Cheat Sheets - Back To School Edition

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First Lesson Magic: How to Introduce Yourself First lessons are the perfect opportunity to tell students a little bit about yourself and get to know something about them as well. This may be your first chance to determine your students’ English level so it is important to encourage them to speak as much as possible.

How to Proceed

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Warm up

Most teachers find one or two great warm up activities and use them often in their classes. If you have an activity that you like to start classes with, the first lesson may be the perfect time to introduce it to your new students. If you are not attached to any particular warm up activities, you can use the first five to ten minutes of this lesson to generate an interest in the topic, in this case, yourself. One way to do this is to have students guess things about you such as where you are from. You can use a handout of about fifteen questions for this activity and leave enough space for students to write their guesses as well as space to write the correct answer which they will learn later on in the lesson.

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Introduce

Especially if you are from another country, students will be very interested in hearing about where you are from and specific cultural aspects of your country. Using pictures or flashcards will help students grasp the meaning of your self introduction without understanding every single word or sentence. The best approach is to use the simplest possible language during this section of the lesson. If students seem to understand the material very well you can prompt them to complete sentences based on the materials you are showing them to give them an opportunity to demonstrate things they

have already learned. If you plan to do an activity later based on the introduction, you may have to repeat the material a couple times.

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Practice

Now that your class has learned a bit about you, have them fill in the correct answers on the worksheet you gave them earlier or ask them questions based on your presentation and see if they can answer them. This will give you time to evaluate your students’ level and also see what they understood from your presentation. If your presentation was too easy or difficult, you can adjust it before presenting to other classes.

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Review

Use the last three to five minutes of class to have students ask you any questions they might have. This can be intimidating so you could expand it into a larger activity where students work in groups to think of a question to ask. The benefit of being the first group to ask a question is that no one else has asked the question already. Tell students that questions cannot be repeated so if another group asks the question first, they will have to think of a different one.

Icebreaker

At this point an activity would be important. You can use an ice breaker to get everyone moving and more relaxed. This also shifts the focus of the lesson from you to the students. Starting the activity yourself will give students an example of what they are being asked for. A very simple exercise would be to say your name and favorite color and have students take turns doing this. If your class has been together for years and years and the students are very familiar with each other, you may even ask the student whose turn it is to say all the students’ names that have been said already before saying his own. This will give you more time to learn the names and you can end the activity by attempting to say all the names in order.

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volunteer can answer that question. Encourage all students to participate.

The first lesson is very important. You have to strike a balance between having fun and maintaining order in the classroom. Students need to respect you in order for you to have control of the classroom environment so use the first lesson to introduce yourself, learn something about your students, have fun, and establish your authority. See BusyTeacher’s Back to School worksheets here: busyteacher.org/ classroom_activities-vocabulary/ holidays_and_celebrations/backtoschool-worksheets/

How do YOU teach your first lessons? Please share with us online!

Produce

Now you can ask students to volunteer to give self introductions. This activity can be structured a number of ways. If giving a full self introduction is too challenging, ask students to just say one thing about themselves or to use the worksheet as a guide so that if the first question on the worksheet was “Where are you from?” the first

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Your First Lesson: 5 Essential IceBreakers That Guarantee Success Starting a class with an entire group of new students can be a stressful experience for both teacher and student. Teachers may feel awkward speaking in front of a group of new faces who appear to be watching in a quite judgemental manner. Students also feel the nerves during a first class, as they may not have spoken English for a very long time. Their last experience with an English teacher may have been in a strict, grammar-focused classroom environment many years ago. This often creates a series of confidence issues with the student, having not used the language for an extended period and fearing making a mistake. The first class should be to promote a positive learning environment, where usage of the target language, whether right or wrong, will be viewed as being beneficial for the students. Additionally, the first lesson is also a prime opportunity to build a rapport with the students. By developing a strong connection with students, teachers set a cooperative learning environment that is easy for you and comfortable for the students. You should also use the first class as a time to evaluate the level, needs and wants of the students, and this can be done through a number of activities that are fun, entertaining and sure to develop on all of the important qualities that set the mark for what will be a successful course.

Fun First-Lesson Ice-Breakers

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‘?‘

When you walk into a class for the first time, instead of introducing yourself, draw a big question mark on the board. You could tell them that you would normally introduce yourself, but you’re feeling a little tired and that they must do the hard work. For more advanced students, the teacher could walk in the class and have students ask whatever comes into their mind with little preparation, while lower levels could work in pairs or groups and write down some questions they could ask. Error correction is very important, the teacher should write the question on the board, and if a question is asked in a structurally incorrect

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way, the teacher can elicit the answer from other students in the class. This is good way to build the confidence of students and show them that incorrect answers are still beneficial to the class.

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‘Lie Detector’

Lie detector is a great way to build rapport and trust with students. This activity involves the teacher writing three sentences on the board about him: 2 are true, and 1 will be a lie. Teachers should embellish the details slightly and write some sentences that the students wouldn’t be likely to guess. Depending on the level of the students, the students can then ask questions about the topics of the three statements of the teacher to determine the lie. BUT, the hook to this game is that YOU, the teacher, may lie verbally to the students in your response, and the students must play the role of a lie detector and figure out which sentence is a porky pie. You can then set it up as a fun game, while analysing the level of the students by getting them to write three sentences about them, with one of the sentences being a lie. A good way to do this is the class versus the teacher, if the student can successfully deceive the teacher, the class will get the point.

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Talk about your partner

In some classes, especially basic levels, the students may not possess the necessary knowledge of structure or vocabulary for the above exercises. Introductions are vital, as the teacher can learn a lot about the interests, along with wants and needs of a student. You may find out something rather unique, like the softly spoken middle-aged woman who drives rally cars as a hobby on the weekend! This would make quite a fantastic talking point when it comes to asking the student about her weekend. To avoid being predictable and to challenge the students, introductions can be done with a twist – by finding out the information from their partner and completing presenting the information to the class. This takes a traditionally quiet, individual task and transforms it into a fun, social activity that incorporates the

additional skills of forming questions – provided the student uses English and not their native language!

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Expectations, wants and needs

When dealing with children, the expectations of the teacher play a significant role in contributing to a productive flow of the course, especially for dealing with classroom management. However, when it comes to dealing with adults, focusing on the expectations of the students is vital when providing extracurricular activities. All adult students would have an expectation of an English class, and when you fulfil the expectations of the student, you succeed as an ESL teacher. By finding out the expectations of the students, you can tailor the course around their wants and needs, which at the end of the day gives you positive feedback and provides you with a great reputation that can lead to more opportunities in the future.

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End the class on a fun note

After completing a successful first class, leave on a high note and play a game. A great little quicky vocab game is to come up with a topic, e.g., ‘The Beach’, and have the students stand up and form a circle in the middle of the room. The student must say an original word associated with the topic, e.g., ‘sand’, ‘sea’, etc. If the student gives an answer that is not associated with the topic, takes too long to answer or repeats a word, they must sit down. The game continues until one person is left standing, who is the winner.

As the saying goes: ‘first impressions last’, especially walking into a class full of new faces. All you need to do is arm them with the confidence to succeed, find out what they expect from the class, while taking a fun and light-hearted approach. By following the above steps, your students will love you, and have the confidence to express themselves and walk away from the class having learned something new in constructive and enjoyable atmosphere.

Fabulous Ideas for the First Day of Class On the first day of class, the halls buzz with excitement. Teachers get ready to greet their students, anxious to get started, and our young, or not-so-young, learners are nervous, wondering what their teacher’s like. Of course, first impressions count, and it’s essential to have a first day of class that will set the tone for what the rest of the school year or course will be like. And it will be fun!

Getting to know your new students The first day of class is a great opportunity to get to know your new students and find out a little more about them.

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This Is Me:

(busyteacher.org/2897-this-is-me. html) This is a very simple worksheet for very young learners who may not be able to write. They draw a picture of themselves and several of their favorite things. After they’ve completed their worksheets ask them to stand up and show their pictures to the class. If possible, you may ask them to describe or name some of the things in English.

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This Is Me (for older students):

(busyteacher.org/2899-this-is-me-olderstudents.html) This one is similar to the above worksheet but for students who are already able to read and write in English. You may also ask them to share the information they’ve written down with the class. The last part of the worksheet is particularly useful for teachers. It asks students basically how much they like certain activities like singing, coloring, playing games, etc. and it will give you an idea as to what type of learner each may be.

Icebreakers Never underestimate the importance of activities to break the ice on the first day of class. No matter how old or how young your students are, there is always a little anxiety about having to speak a language that is not their own.

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Introduce me:

This activity is a great way to start a class of adult learners who are not complete beginners. Split them up into pairs and have them take turns asking each other questions. You should have some prompts written down on the board or on a handout, and they should be suitable to their level. For example, beginner-intermediate students should have a list of questions, like:

Where do you live? What do you do? Where do you work? Etc. More advanced students, may be simply given areas to investigate, like:

Education Family Work Leisure activities and hobbies, Etc. They should be encouraged to take notes, and try to remember as much as they can about their partner. Once they’re done interviewing each other, each student has to introduce his or her partner and tell the class what they’ve learned about that person. Very young learners or beginners can simply be taught to ask simple questions like, “What’s your name?” and “How old are you?”, then introduce their new friend to the class: “This is Sandra.

She’s 7 years old.”

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My goals:

Unlike most school courses, learning English as a second language is quite often something that is chosen by the students themselves. Adult students, at the very least, will be able to tell you why they’ve enrolled in an ESL course. But little ones may also have great reasons to want to learn English. You may ask them to write this down on the first page of their notebooks, so they can always have that to look back to.

A word book Create a personalized dictionary that each student will keep for the duration of the course. Hand out a few blank sheets of paper to each of your students, as

well as a piece of poster board of the same size. The poster board will be the front cover of their dictionary, which they can decorate as they please. The blank sheets of paper will be the pages of their dictionary. They should write down new words in their dictionaries, with a short definition, example, or drawing.

Looking to the future - Buried Treasure Here’s another great activity for the first day of school that will blow your students away on the very last day of class. Create a Treasure Chest. Ask your students to draw pictures of themselves and write something on the back: a description of themselves, their favorite things, what they hope to learn and do in class, etc. Measure each of their heights with a piece of string or yarn and label each one with a child’s name. If possible, record each of them speaking, briefly stating their names and a little something about themselves. Get a cardboard box that will hold all of the drawings, pieces of string, and the cassette or disc, seal it with tape, and hide it somewhere in the classroom, or take it home with you. On the last day of class, you can play a Treasure Hunt game, complete with treasure map, or simply re-open the box in a grand ceremony. Students will have a blast looking at their earlier work, and they’ll be amazed to see how much they’ve learned and grown. You can do something similar with adult learners. Ask them to write a paragraph about themselves, with no corrections from you, just a spontaneous sample of writing. Keep all of your students’ writings, and on the last day of class show these to them, so they can see how far they’ve progressed in their writing skills. You can also record them speaking. Whatever you do on the first day of class, take the time to get to know your students and let them get to know you. Set forth the classroom rules with the little ones, discuss your students’ goals for the course.

But the most important thing is to lay a solid foundation for what will be a year of cooperation and learning.

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Back to School Tech Tips for ESL Teachers: Use Online Resources Not you new ing,

exactly tech-savvy are you? But have to admit that starting a school year can be overwhelmparticularly for new teachers.

Luckily for us, the World Wide Web offers ways in which we can share the load and support each other, tools that can certainly make things easier. There is also an astounding amount of information and resources for ESL teachers, and not just in the form of worksheets and printables for download. Even the ESL teachers who are most reluctant to use the newest online tools should take advantage of the vast amount of resources available to them, and here are but a few of the things you can do online to start the new school year off on the right foot:

Back to School Tech Tips for Smart ESL Teachers

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Use Twitter

that allow you to create your own free websites and guide you every step of the way – no need to know anything about programming, no need to hire expensive web designers. But why create your own website? Your custom made website can be an invaluable link between the classroom and home. In your class website you can: - Post schedules and calendars - Share pictures of your special projects - Keep parents informed on what you’re doing in class - Give your students extra homework or reading materials - Post videos or songs for extra, fun practice - And the list goes on... If you think a class website will only give you more work to do, that may not necessarily be the case. Once you have your website up and running, you may only have to update it once or twice a week. You can always choose how much of your time you’ll dedicate to it, but chances are you’ll get hooked!

Twitter can be an invaluable tool for those interested in building a network of like-minded professionals. For ESL teachers, in particular, it provides an excellent way to trade secrets, exchange tips, or simply share the trials and joys of teaching.

This is a great way to get parents interested in what their kids are learning, but it also shows them exactly what they have been doing in class. Remember that before you post photos of your students on the Internet, it’s best to get a signed authorization from their parents.

Once you have your account set up, all you have to do is start following other ESL teachers or ESL publications, organizations and websites. It’s as easy as typing “ESL” in the “Who To Follow” search box. You’ll have thousands of suggestions to choose from. And don’t forget to add twitter.com/#!/busyteacher_org to follow us on Twitter!

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Also, TwitterforTeachers.com has an excellent database of ESL teachers you can follow – remember to add your name to the list so that others can find you.

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Create your own website

Creating a website used to be a monumental task, but not anymore! There are sites like wix.com and weebly.com

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scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do) helps you choose the right book for you class. Scholastic’s Classroom Setup Tool (teacher.scholastic.com/tools/class_setup) takes the guesswork out of organizing your class for more effective lessons.

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ESL blogs may offer worksheets to download or just simple, good advice. There are different types of ESL blogs, but most have one thing in common: any ESL teacher will find something useful in them, perhaps a pearl of wisdom, or a really great video to watch. Blogs are also great places to leave comments and connect with the blogger, who is this case, is an ESL teacher, just like you! OnlineDegrees.org has published a great list of Top 25 ESL Blogs for Teachers and Students (onlinedegrees.org/top-25-eslblogs-for-teachers-and-students).

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But don’t just stop at downloads. Use all of the tools available to you that can help you get things done easier and faster. Scholastic Book Wizard (bookwizard.

Invest in your professional development

You may have already gotten your degree, but this does not mean you have nothing left to learn. There are plenty of ways in which you can further your education, from a Master’s degree to technology courses. •

Walden University (waldenu.edu) offers online degrees like the Master of Science in Education and the Bachelor’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology.

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Want to finally get your TESOL certification? TESOL. org (tesol.org/s_tesol/seccss. asp?CID=1770&DID=9326) offers a directory of degree and certificate programs, while tesolonline.com offers classroom-based or online courses in 20 international locations.

Download ready-made materials

Creating your own worksheets, flashcards and posters can be time consuming and exhausting. Why create yet another worksheet on the present perfect when hundreds of ESL teachers have done so before you? Make use of the online resources available to you and download the materials you need. Here at BusyTeacher.org, we’ve got worksheets, flashcards, puzzle creators and more!

Read ESL blogs

So, don’t be tech-shy and try some of these resources and tools. Remember that the newest information and communication technologies can only make our lives easier.

Back To School: How to Establish Classroom Rules with Your Students We all know what our classroom would be like with no rules. Complete chaos. Utter mayhem. An environment that is not conducive to learning. It is obvious that there should be classroom rules. However, these should not be set forth entirely by the teacher. There’s no better way to establish classroom rules than to do it with your students’ collaboration. This way they will have to obey rules that they’ve come up with, and you’ve agreed to. Still, establishing class rules requires a contract between teacher and students, and reaching this agreement is a process all on its own.

Let’s take it step by step:

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Review their goals

Ask students why they’ve enrolled in the course, or if they were enrolled by parents, why they want to learn English. Adults will most likely tell you they need English for better job opportunities. Lots of teens think about their future studies or employment opportunities as well. And don’t be surprised if you hear very young learners say they want to learn English simply because they want to learn it. Review their goals. Do they want to be able to read a book in English by the end of the year? Understand native speakers better? Write job application letters? Chat with friends in other countries? Whatever their reason is for wanting to learn English, and no matter what their goals are, tell them that it is essential that all of you as a group establish a contract together, to create the best learning environment, one that will help them reach their learning goals.

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Brainstorm possible disruptive behavior

Ask your students to come up with things that might disrupt the class, anything that will make the class stray from its goals. For example, if students want to improve their listening comprehension or learn to think in English, it will be highly disruptive to hear students speaking their native language. Little ones might say that they don’t want any shouting, yelling, or hitting in class. Some students may say that they shouldn’t interrupt someone when he or she’s speaking. Here are some more classic examples of disruptive behavior. If your students forget any of these, you may want to mention them yourself: •

Name calling, insults or put downs

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Bullying

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No respect for other students and their personal belongings

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How to avoid disruptive behavior

Tackle each of the point mentioned one at a time, and ask your students what the rule should be so that this does not happen in class. For speaking their native language, they’ll say that it is forbidden in class - they should try to speak English at all times. And to avoid interruptions and make sure everyone has a chance to speak, your students will suggest that they have to raise their hands. Try to phrase each of the rules in an affirmative way, for example, in a way that tells them what they should do and not what they shouldn’t do. Having your walls filled with “No shouting”, “No eating in class”, in other words, no, no, no everywhere does not contribute to creating a very positive learning environment either. Here are some more examples of other possible classroom rules: •

Treat your classmates with respect

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Treat the teacher with respect

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Respect others’ personal belongings

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Participate actively

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Complete your assignments and tasks

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No respect for the teacher

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Reluctance to share

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Unwillingness to participate in an activity

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Not following directions

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Cheating

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Not completing tasks, assignments, homework

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Follow the directions and rules for each game or activity

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Untidiness, littering

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Keep the classroom neat and tidy

Never underestimate your students. They know full well the types of behavior that are disruptive in a classroom. As they come up with these ideas, make a list on the board.

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The consequences

Now, what happens when a student breaks one of the rules? They can also come up with ideas, but they may need more guidance or suggestions from you.

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It is recommended that you implement a system of rewards as well, not just consequences of not following the rules. Some consequences may be logical: if a student throws paper or garbage on the floor instead of in the garbage can, he or she will be responsible for making sure the classroom is tidy before going home. You may choose to give them a warning first: the first time someone insults or disrespects a classmate their name goes on the board. The second time, they lose a privilege, like going outside to play. The third time, a call is made to his or her parents. However, rather than coming up with “punishment”, why not think of a positive reinforcement of the rules? Like a star chart with stickers, prizes for collecting the most good behavior stickers, etc...

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The written contract

Now you have to put it all in writing, after all, verbal contracts won’t hold water in a classroom. Young learners can make a poster illustrating the rules, and then put it up some place where it’s clearly visible. Older students may write it themselves as a group activity, and you may also put it up on the wall, or make copies for each to paste onto their notebooks. Keep in mind that classroom rules are important for students of all ages, even adults. Don’t think that adult learners don’t need rules. They may not resort to name calling, yelling, or other forms of immature behavior, but they may unwittingly disrupt the class by interrupting, speaking in their native language, answering their cell phones, etc. You don’t have to treat them like children to teach them the importance of following certain rules.

So, to sum up, make sure each and every student is clear on the rules, the consequences for breaking them, or the rewards for following them, and that your contract is visible to all. Once you have accomplished this, everyone will be ready to get to work.

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Back to School: How to Organize Your ESL Classroom •

ESL books? Check!

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Flashcards and illustrations? Check!

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Back to school supplies? Check!

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Classroom setup? Uh-oh...

You may have spent months gathering materials, planning lessons, and getting ready to start the new school year, but have you given any thought to how you will set up your ESL classroom? Your classroom is the physical space where your students’ learning will take place, and there are ways in which you can maximize this space for more effective lessons. Here’s how:

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have partners for role plays and pair work. Keep in mind that studies show that students who sit facing each other tend to speak more. You may also choose to abandon your desk at the front of the class and sit with your students. You can try anything you want, as long as it helps them participate and feel comfortable.

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Your students will be doing different things in the classroom from playing games to participating in fun art projects. Set up different corners in the classroom. Here are some suggestions for “special” areas: •

Arrange desks or tables

Most of your space will be occupied by your students’ desks or tables. Your layout will depend on how many students you’ll have, but in any case try to avoid lining them up in rows. Your students will have lots of pair and teamwork activities. Your basic options are: •

A classic horseshoe or semicircle with all of the students facing the board and a large open space in the center,

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A full circle,

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Desks arranged in pairs or groups of four,

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Pairs may sit side by side or facing each other, the same goes for groups.

Whichever arrangement you decide on, make sure it suits the types of activities you’ll do. For example, the horseshoe is great for young learners because you can have the large area in the center to sit in or play games. Teens will love sitting in groups of four, while adults sitting in pairs will

Organize special designated areas

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A reading corner: Make sure you have at least one shelf with several books students may browse. Even if they can’t read some of them, they will spark curiosity and interest in your students. Here, you can keep the books you may choose to read out loud to the class. You may also choose to add a couple of chairs of cushions next to the bookcase so students can make themselves comfortable after they grab a book. An art shelf: Art and crafts supplies should be accessible to your students. They can help you hand out crayons, scissors or paper, but more importantly, they can help you put everything away once you’re done. Designate a special bookcase or cabinet for art supplies, and keep everything tidy and organized, for example, in labeled boxes or containers. Center stage: This should be the area designated to play games, act out role plays, sing and dance, etc. Many students are self-conscious about being in the spotlight, but the more they use this center stage area, the more comfortable they will feel.

You can add as many areas as you like, or are able to add, within the confines of your classroom. Young learners love dressing up and a trunk filled with costumes is a great addition to an ESL classroom.

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Arrange any other extra furniture

With the space you have left, see where you can place the remaining furniture so that it is accessible to either you or your students. Low bookcases should be easy for students to reach, while you may choose to have the cabinet where you store your personal belongings and private things behind your desk or in an isolated corner. Place accessories like coat racks and umbrella stands near the door.

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Decorate your classroom!

Make the most of your bulletin board. Use it to make your students feel welcome. If you have foreign students who know little about the American or English culture, put up posters or illustrations to give them a feel for what they will be talking about, try photos of major American cities, typical English locations, foods, festivals, celebrations, etc. Moreover, hang plenty of charts, posters and illustrations throughout the classroom, but don’t do this simply to add color or fill up empty walls. Put up materials you know you will use later in class, like maps you will point to, or charts with numbers, the alphabet or the past form of irregular verbs.

Whatever you do, the key is to make your classroom student-centered rather than teacher-centered. Don’t think about what would look pretty to you or would make you the most comfortable. Think about a set up that will encourage participation and give them plenty of space to grow.

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Back To School: Great Ideas for Activities to Kick off the School Year Anxious to get back to class? Well, your students are probably anxious too. Since most don’t know you or their fellow classmates, you’ve probably got some great icebreakers and first day activities in store for them. If not, check out some of our latest Back to School worksheets. But the best way to eliminate all of this anxiety is to prepare some awesome activities for the entire first week of class to serve as a transition into the real work ahead. Also, bear in mind that in the first week you should take the time to get to know your students and their learning styles, but also review any essential grammar, structures, and vocabulary before you start teaching new things.

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ocabulary review – A game of Jeopardy

If you’ve never played a game of Jeopardy with your ESL students, you have no idea what you’re missing! It’s an incredibly flexible game, adaptable to any content, whether it is grammar or vocabulary that you wish to review or practice. In this case, we’ll see an example of how to create a game of Jeopardy to review basic vocabulary.

Setup: Divide the chalkboard or whiteboard into 5 columns with 6 rows. On the first row choose a category for each column, for example: Fruits, Vegetables, Animals, Clothes, Colors, - for the remaining rows give each box a certain number of points. It should look like this: Fruits

Vegetables

Animals

Clothes

Colors

10 pts

10 pts

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10 pts

10 pts

20 pts

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30 pts

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40 pts

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50 pts

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50 pts

Prepare 5 questions for each category. You may choose to do so in the Jeopardy format: I am red and I grow on trees. Answer: What is an apple? Or you may simply show them a flashcard and the student is required to name the item. As mentioned earlier this game is very flexible and may be adapted to all types of questions and answers.

Rules: Students are divided into teams. Each team chooses a category and number of points they’d like to play for. If their answer is correct they get the number of points they are playing for, but if they are wrong the points are subtracted. So, the higher the points, the higher the stakes. You may also choose to have the game in PowerPoint format, or on a piece of poster board, which you can laminate and reuse as many times as you want simply by sticking the names of different categories in the first row.

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rammar Review - Songs

Songs are a great, fun way to review specific verb tenses or structures, and something you can do with students of any age or level. Here are some wonderful worksheets that are ready to use:

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“We are the champions” by Queen - students review the present perfect tense

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“Have you ever” by Brandy – another great song for present perfect review

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“Hey, Jude” by The Beatles – to review imperatives

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“Lucky” by Britney Spears – to review the simple present tense

There are countless songs you may use to review structures, grammar, or vocabulary. Classic exercises are gap-filling, but you may also use them to spark a discussion or speaking activity. If you don’t have any of the songs in an audio file, you can easily find the videos on YouTube.

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peaking activities - What can you say about me?

Ask students to bring 5 or 6 things to class, including: a piece of identification (if possible, passport or driver’s license), a family photo, a favorite book or magazine, a toy or collectible, etc... Bring some items of yours as well. Each student displays his or her items on the teacher’s desk, and fellow classmates say whatever they can about the person’s family, hobbies, likes and dislikes, etc...

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uess who I am?

Put an assortment of celebrity pics in a bag or just their names - make sure that they are celebrities they all know. Each student draws one name or picture and the others have to ask questions to guess who it is. Questions must be yes or no, and the goal would be to review simple present questions: Do you live in the US? Do you sing? Do you dance? Etc...

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riting activities - Future predictions

To review simple future with will, future continuous, or any type of future tense, ask students to make some predictions for the end of the school year or course: By the time school ends, I will be taller. I will speak English better. I will have lots of great friends. Etc. Collect their writings and save till the last day of class. Students read their predictions and say whether they came true or not.

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oard game - Conditionals

Make your own board game, laminate with contact paper, and use every time you wish to review a particular grammar point. On a large piece of poster board, draw a snaking path, divide the path into rectangular boxes, mark some special ones as “Go forward 2 steps” or “Move back two steps”. Once you have finished decorating, apply some contact paper over it. All you have to do is design a set of cards for each thing you want to review. Here’s a suggestion to practice conditionals: Make a set of cards that begin with the “if” clause: If I had a million dollars... If I were a famous star... If I lived in a foreign country..., etc. Students have to complete the sentence correctly to be able to roll the dice and advance in the game.

If you have any ideas for the first week of school, post them online. We’d love to hear them!

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How To Break The Ice: 5 Creative Ways To Get Your Class Talking Icebreakers are important when you are trying to get to know your students. They are even more important if your students do not know one another well either. Depending on how your school organizes its classes, you may use these types of activities primarily at the beginning of the school year. You can also adapt icebreakers into activities to use when starting new topics. It is sometimes easier for students to share their ideas if they know the rest of the class will have to share theirs too.

Try These Ice-Breakers:

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Learn The Names

In order to learn students’ names, you can conduct an activity where students take turns saying their name. You can make this more challenging by having students say the name of the last student to speak or even the names of all the students who have already said their name before saying their own name. To make it more interesting and to learn a little more about your class, ask students to include something specific such as their favorite cereal, color, sport, or movie. By the end of the activity you should try your best to say every student’s name. If students are learning the names of their classmates for the first time, conduct some other name activities for practice. For one activity, have students stand in a circle, on a student’s turn he should say a word or sentence related to whatever prompt or topic you choose, and then call out the name of a classmate to go next.

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Find Someone Who...

If students know one another’s names, get them talking about some other topics by having them

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play “Find Someone Who ~” where students ask and answer questions based on pictures or phrases to find someone for each question who can answer “Yes.” The model question for this activity could be “Do you like ~.” or “Do you have ~.” After five to ten minutes, depending on the number of questions students have to ask, have everyone sit down and call on students to read some of the answers, for example “Ben likes soccer.” This way the class can learn more about individual students. Try to encourage students to give sentences about people who have not yet been mentioned. This gives everyone the opportunity to share something.

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Talk and Remember

Another activity gets students talking with the people seated around them. Have students talk to the person to their right about hobbies for instance. After a minute or two have students turn to the person to their left and talk about another topic. You could also do this as a mingling exercise where students have a limited amount of time to exchange information before moving on to the next person and conversation topic. Be sure to ask some students things they learned about their peers at the end of the activity so that they try their best to remember the conversations they had.

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What’s Important

If your class is quite small you may also consider having students think about the three things they would take with them to a deserted island and then share why they chose one or all of those things. This is an excellent way of getting to hear about what is important to your students and how they are able to organize their thoughts. If your class is larger, you can conduct the same activity in

groups which is good for getting students talking with one another but will exclude you for most of the activity. Another similar group activity is to have students write down the first word that pops into their head when they hear you say a certain color. Students can then discuss why they chose certain words in their groups or just have the student with the most unusual choice explain his choice. After a few minutes give them another color to think about and discuss. Groups should present the class with a brief summary of their discussions towards the end of the lesson.

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Three Adjectives That Describe You

For introductions, you could also have students choose three adjectives to describe themselves. Perhaps a the end of the year have students fill in adjectives for all their classmates, nothing mean spirited, and give students a summary of what their classmates said about them in the last lesson. This should give students some positive reinforcement and point out their personality strengths. It may be interesting to compare these with the adjectives students chose to describe themselves too.

Icebreakers are excellent because they give students the opportunit y to share things about themselves and learn about their peers. These activities often get students moving or thinking creatively. They can be lots of fun and dissolve any tension or nervousness there might be in your classroom. It is important that students be able to interact with one another easily because learning English is all about communication. Students will need to be comfortable sharing ideas with the class and talking with other students in groups or in pairs on a regular basis.

Essential Back to School Supplies for the ESL Classroom The success of your ESL class depends on a great, lit tle recipe: generous scoops of experience, a pinch of creativity, and a few handfuls of supplies and resources. Combine these ingredients and you’ll have engaging ESL lessons every time. While the experience and creativity are entirely up to you, we can help you out by compiling a very useful list of supplies that will ensure you have everything you need to get the year off on the right foot.

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n-the-go Essential Back To School Supplies

Here are our recommendations for things you can easily keep in a pencil case or box. We recommend a plastic see-through pencil case - you’ll find things much faster, and make sure it’s big enough to hold all of these teaching essentials, but small enough to carry with you everywhere you go. •

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•

•

•

A mechanical pencil: For constant clear, fine writing, with no sharpening required. A black or blue ballpoint pen: Keep in mind that black is better when you make copies. A green pen: Did you know that corrections made in green are a lot “friendlier” and more encouraging to students than those in red? Moreover, papers that are covered in red corrections may have a negative effect on students’ self-confidence. A couple of colored markers: For labeling, posters, index cards, etc... A permanent marker: To write your name or initials on all of your personal items.

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A small stapler: In case the one in your classroom runs out of staples or is missing.

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An eraser or two

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A few paper clips in different sizes

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Correction fluid or pen

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A couple of rubber bands

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A highlighter (in any color)

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A pad of small Post-its

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A box cutter: This is a tremendously useful item for cutting thick cardboard (keep this away from kids!)

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A ruler

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A pair of scissors

M

ust-have Teaching Supplies

These are the items you should keep somewhere in your classroom or in a box or locker if you happen to share rooms with other teachers. Although some of these should be supplied by the school, you should have your own just in case: you don’t want the great lesson you’ve planned to be ruined just because an essential item has gone missing, or worse yet, waste precious class time searching the school to track it down. •

A box or colored chalk (if you have a chalkboard)

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An assortment of whiteboard markers (if you have a whiteboard)

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A chalkboard or whiteboard eraser

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A pack of 3x5 index cards

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Adhesive labels in different sizes

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A rag, dishtowel, sponge, or roll

of paper towels: For spills and cleanups. •

Clorox or Lysol wipes: To disinfect items, toys, or desktops. Use baby wipes to cleanup sticky fingers.

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An assortment of cardboard: Big and small pieces, thick or thin, you always need some to make cards, games, posters, etc.

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Poster board in different colors

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Clear contact paper: A great, inexpensive way to laminate cards or game boards.

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An assignment book: Or calendar, whatever you prefer to use to keep track of tasks, assignments, and tests.

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Paper bags

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Ziploc bags

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A bell: For classroom management or games.

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An egg timer: Great for games and activities.

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Envelopes: To send out notes to parents, invitations to events, etc...

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Dice: Try to have more than one set, and in different sizes (the younger your students are, the bigger the dice).

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An assortment of paper items: Paper cups and plates, sheets of paper, and scrap paper in a variety of colors and sizes.

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Craft items: As many as you like or you think you’ll need, like sticks, pipe cleaners, Styrofoam balls, playdough, or watercolors. Although yours is not an art class, an art project every now and then is always fun for students, particularly little ones.

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Play money: A great item for games and to teach numbers in English.

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Rubber stamps

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Yarn or string

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An assortment of flashcards

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Storybooks in English

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CD’s : Children’s songs, stories, etc...

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tudent Supplies

These are things students should have in their own pencil boxes, but may not have for any particular reason: some items get lost, they may run out, they may even forget their entire pencil case at home. Make sure you have these items safely stored in the classroom for these cases.

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An assortment of colored crayons, markers, and pencils

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A few number 2 pencils

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Glue

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A couple of extra scissors

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uggested Realia for the Classroom

Never underestimate the power of teaching English through real objects, particularly for kinesthetic learners, but any type of learner will have fun learning if you stock up on these items: •

A real or toy clock with movable hands: To teach time, of course.

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A play tea set or assortment of plastic dishes, cups, glasses, tableware, etc.: To practice offering, ordering, serving food and drinks.

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A variety of balls and bean bags in different sizes

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An assortment of small toys: Planes, cars, trucks, trains, animals, dolls, etc.

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Real city maps: To practice asking for and giving directions.

A few black or blue ballpoint pens

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Items of clothing

Loose-leaf paper

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Toy phones or cell phones: For telephone conversations

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Holiday items: Halloween Jack O’Lantern or pumpkin, Thanksgiving items, Christmas decorations

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Plastic foods, fruits, and vegetables

Keep in mind that realia may be used for both children and adult learners. For adults, there are tons of real life items you may use in class, from bus tickets to checks, job applications to airline tickets, etc. Naturally, some of the items above may be purchased and supplied by the school, but make sure you have everything you need.

Also, remember that if you need to buy some of these supplies yourself, you can get a group of teachers together and buy teacher supplies in bulk for important discounts. The variety of items largely depends on your students’ ages and the types of activities you’ll have. Have we missed any essential supplies? Let us know!

Teacher Supplies: Getting Ready for School on a Tight Budget Don’t let the economic downturn rain on your back to school parade! C’mon! We all know just how resourceful teachers can be!

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trategy # 1 - Make a List

If you hit the stores with no list, you’ll most likely buy teacher supplies you don’t need, and thus spend more than you should. Before you make your shopping list, however, set a realistic budget for yourself. Don’t think about how much you’d like to spend on teaching supplies, but how much you honestly think you could afford to spend on them. Next, draw three columns on a sheet of paper, and name each: absolute essentials, things you’d like to buy, things you could do without. Place each of the educational supplies on your list in one of the three columns. Now, you’ll clearly see what your priorities are, and you should be able to purchase your essential teaching items for sure and at least some of those you’d like to have, if not all. Remember that there will most likely be some last minute or unexpected expenses you did not factor into your list.

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trategy # 2 – Reuse Existing Teacher Supplies

Seriously and objectively consider your current inventory of teacher supplies. Which school supplies can be reused, recycled, or which need not be replaced just now? We all love to start school with a shiny new set of fresh color markers, but if last year’s set is still in working order, maybe you can wait till mid-year to buy a fresh pack. Don’t throw away anything that can be reused for other purposes: •

•

Last year’s folders or notebooks could be used for art this year. Broken crayons may have multiple uses: sharpen them and use the shavings for art or as a replacement for glitter, invest in a crayon maker and make patchwork crayons, melt

them and cut them into shapes with cookie cutters for great gifts. •

Sharpen scissors, never throw them away!

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trategy # 3 – Buy Teacher Supplies in Bulk

ferent sellers, thus guaranteeing you’ll get the lowest price and find back to school deals. NexTag.com allows you to create alerts for specific teacher classroom supplies, and it’s a very useful site if you’re on the lookout for more expensive things like laptops, overhead projectors, or other electronic devices.

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Most school supplies can be bought in bulk from office or special ‘discount teaching supplies’ stores, as well as on the Internet. To obtain the best bulk discounts, get together with several of the other teachers from your school and try to put together a group shopping list and get cheap teacher supplies. Look for back to school deals while they still last!

trategy # 6 – Shop at discount or specialty stores

DollarDays offers hundreds of products at wholesale prices. Besides the basic school supplies, DollarTree also offers great supplies for teachers like flashcards, activity books, and teaching aids. Buy a case with an assortment of Fisher Price Flash Cards for $ 27 and pay just $1 for each!

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Staples has the widest selection and most of the educational supplies needed by teachers.

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In addition to their great bargains in school supplies, Office Depot offers a Go Back Smarter program: sign up to become a Star Teacher and get more discounts on already cheap teacher supplies!

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Walmart has by far the best deals and lowest prices, but you may not find some of the things you need.

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trategy # 4 – Use Free Internet Resources

The Internet is just packed with free resources for teachers - all you have to do is find them. Download printable stickers and print them on Avery label paper. Don’t invest in classroom management software, organizers, etc., if you can download some free of charge. Teacher’s Desk offers several. Why buy activity books, workbooks, templates, worksheets, and even posters when you can download them from BusyTeacher.org?

Your local supermarket or shops may be just around the corner, but if you have to make a longer trip to reach one of the shops listed below, it’ll definitely be worth your effort:

Don’t feel compelled to buy everything in one single store. You could go to Walmart for basic back to school supplies and then head on down to Staples for more teacher supplies. Don’t forget that several stores, like Walmart, offer price matching. When the store with the lowest price is out of stock, take the ad for this store to another one that will match this price.

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You could also wait till the clearance sales hit the shops some time after back to school sales - you’ll have to wait a bit, but the savings on back to school stuff are huge at that time.

At Pricewatch.com you’ll find hundreds on teacher supplies on sale, and the site tells you exactly where to buy them. Pricegrabber.com also has a great Back-to-School Shopping Guide that allows you to compare prices from dif-

Apply any of these strategies, or several combined for greater savings. But whatever you do, don’t just blindly shop at any round the corner store. Not when you can buy more with your hard-earned cash. Yes, it does take time and planning, but the savings will definitely be worth it.

trategy # 5 - Do Your Research and Compare Prices on Educational Supplies

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15 Little Tricks to Get Your Class’s Attention (and Hold It) Beginnings are always the hardest. Ask any teacher who walks in at the beginning of the class session and finds Casy text-messaging someone, Katie and Sam chatting, and Tom snoozing. This behavior isn’t limited to children, either: inattention is endemic in our fast-paced culture with so much competing media and information distracting us. However, it is necessary to get the class’s attention at the beginning of the session to establish order, the plan for the day, and begin instruction. But it’s not always so easy. What can you do to get the class’s attention riveted on you?

Starting off Strong Often students goof off because they just don’t know what else to do. You can start strong every day by establishing a clear routine and expectations for starting off: that they come to attention, be in their seats, and ready to work. Hold to this routine to establish order in the class. Having a clear plan for the day also gets student’s attention.

5 Tips to Get the Class’s Attention

1

Change the level and tone of your voice

Often just changing the level and tone of your voice, lowering it or raising it, will signal to the students it’s time to pay attention.

2

Use props like a bell or whistle

Better for lower level or younger learners, props like these clearly mark beginnings, endings, and other transitions within the class. ’

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3

Holding up a striking picture related to the session, such as environmental debris if the class topic is related to the environment, is sure to get all eyes on you. Don’t comment on it, allow students to start the dialogue.

ginning. Then tailor the material to the class: for example, if you are teaching the past tense and find students already have control over the simple past and past progressive, find out what they know about the past perfect. Or if you’ve given all three tenses at them, assuming it’s just review, but they appear lost, focus on just one tense.

4

3

Use a visual related to the instruction

Make a startling statement or give a quote

Use choral chants of material

Writing a surprising statement or quote related to the content on the board has a similar effect: for example “More than half of children in

Better for lower-level students, having students chant together key phrases or sentences from the material gets them focused on the material. This also provides practice in the rhythm and intonation of English.

topic is language acquisition.

4

California speak some language other than English at home” if the

5

Write a pop quiz question on the board

Write a basic comprehension question related to the reading on the board. Students have to answer it on slips of paper and turn them in. This gets students focused right away on course material. The question can then lead to discussion after the quiz.

10 Tips for Holding Attention Now you have your students’ attention. Holding it is another story.

1

Make presentations clear

Use of clear charts and visuals hold students’ attention and make the content clear.

5

Involve students in lecture

Don’t just lecture on the past tense with charts and board work - this will surely put everyone to sleep. During the lecture, stop to ask students about last weekend, summer, etc., to keep them involved in the content and practicing the material.

6

Use humor

Know your students and relate content to them, and relate the content to the course objectives. For example, if the content is the Vietnam War, finding out what they already know about the Vietnam War and how it relates to their lives is important.

Use of humor related to the content is another attention-getter: students appreciate teachers who know how to use humor appropriately related to the material. For example, relating a brief humorous anecdote about what a bad day you had yesterday to demonstrate past tense verbs will get students’ attention and lighten the mood.

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7

Relevant tasks

Teach at appropriate level of difficulty

Material too hard or too difficult can result in student inattention. Check for understanding or boredom at the be-

Establish the routine, task, and time limit

If students are to work in groups, for example, they should know which group they belong in, what they will be

doing, and for how long.

8

Plan carefully and fully; make the plan apparent to students

Students will lose focus if the objectives and plan for the lesson are not clear to them. Writing what the class will be doing on the board helps keep focus.

9

Divide tasks into manageable subskills

If students are going to be participating in a class debate, telling them to “Debate the issue” may result in a lot of students wandering around confused. Outline what is involved in a debate on the board and break it down: today decide the issue and our sides, tomorrow establish the roles within our teams, the next day research, and so forth.

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Establish clear roles

In doing the debate, to continue the example, everyone within the group should have a task: either preparing some research for the debate, outlining the debate, preparing a counterargument, etc. If everyone’s role is clear, and everyone has a job to do, this results in less web-surfing and updating Facebook profiles during class. (Yes, adults

and ESL students do it, too.)

Following these guidelines of starting strong and planning for holding the class’s attention will result in a lesson that all students will participate in fully.

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5 Sure-Fire Ways to Bond with Your Class Bonding with your students is essential not only to the success of your class, but also to your students’ learning. When you effectively bond with them, you create a unique connection between you and your students, and this connection pretty much guarantees they’ll be more motivated, more willing to participate, and more receptive to the activities you propose. Here are some sure-fire ways to bond with your ESL class:

How To Proceed

1

Break the ice

To start the school year off on the right foot, it is imperative that you try to bond with them from the start. On the first day of class, adult ESL students in particular, are often selfconscious or insecure about their English level, so the best way to bond with them is to break the ice in ways that will help them relax. Try this for a very original icebreaker. Tell students that you’ll begin with a pop quiz (and ignore their panic-stricken faces). Give each of them a sheet with quiz questions about you: what your favorite color is, favorite movie, favorite music, how long you’ve been a teacher, even your age. Of course, they won’t know the right answers tell them to guess! Afterwards, they share their guesses, and you can see who was right. It’s a fun, non-conventional way to tell them a little bit about yourself.

2

Show interest in them

If you really want to bond with your students you must show them you are genuinely interested in them. Ask them about their hobbies, afterschool activities, and families. Talk to them before class, after class, or during lunch hour, but make sure you know a little bit about each of your students.

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3

Get personal

Throughout the course, don’t forget to share with your students little tidbits about your life, particularly if they are things they can relate to. Are they excited about the upcoming Bon Jovi concert? Hey, you bought tickets weeks ago! Is there a movie they’re dying to see? Tell them you saw it and what you thought about it. If you start the class by asking them what they did over the weekend, tell them what you did, too. Teachers often ask students about their families, activities, and interests, but some neglect to share their own things, for fear of it being too personal. Stick to topics that anyone can talk about and show them you’re a real person, who has a life outside of school. Once they become familiar with your cat and the antics he pulls, he’ll be more popular than Garfield with you class! And don’t forget to show pictures!

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Take some time to celebrate!

Learning is not only about serious study time and targeted activities. To avoid falling into the “all work and no play” mindset, one that will not help you bond with your students, schedule some special days for celebrations, like Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and make these days all about the fun! Of course, there’s still plenty they can learn about American customs and traditions, but they’ll be too busy having fun to realize they’re actually learning too. Don’t forget to include birthday celebrations.

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Show them you care

Bad things happen - that’s a part of life, and your students are not exempt from heartbreak, sadness, or worries. If one of your students has just lost a grandparent, or other family

member, tell him or her how sorry you are for their loss. If one of them seems to be having a hard time, if you sense there’s something going on, don’t be afraid to talk to the student in question to find out what’s wrong. It’s not your job to offer solutions or any type of counseling, but you can at least show your concern and point them in the right direction.

No matter what strategy you use to bond with your students, above all else, keep it real and keep it genuine. If you care enough to want to bond with them, then you care enough to want to genuinely get to know them, and let them get to know you. And this is the best, most effective way to bond with them: showing genuine interest and the desire to form a bond that will help you work together towards achieving all of your ESL goals.

Little Things That Make Your Lesson a Success When we think about teaching a new class, the first things that come to mind are all of the curricular aspects: the grammar, structures and vocabulary we’ll cover throughout the course. Our teaching goals are most often aligned with these things we wish our students to master upon completion of the course. However, consider this: most teachers are able to teach the grammar... but how can you make a difference? What can you do to truly make your lesson a complete and utter success? These “little things” will work wonders... be sure to try them!

Little Things That Make Your Lesson A Success

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Teaching in Context and with Real-Life Examples We all have to use a course book, that’s true. But the problem with course books is that they are filled with fictional characters students may have a hard time relating to. Why would they care about a fictional “Mr. Thompson” and how he did in his job interview? Or worse yet - why would they be interested in reading about a town that doesn’t exist, when they can read about a real one, one they could possibly even visit some time? Say you’d like to read about two cities and practice comparatives and superlatives. Use real maps and accurate information you can easily find on the Internet. Use your students’ resumes to practice interview questions, not “Mr. Thompson’s”. With the huge royal wedding that made the news of year 2011, wouldn’t your students love to know more about Prince William and Kate Middleton? Whenever possible skip the fictional characters and use real people, real places - and don’t forget to include some realia!

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Catering to Your Students’ Needs

Sometimes the course book sets out activities that are not really appropriate to the group you’re teaching. This is frequently the case with teenagers, when some of the material may be either too childish, or too adult. Don’t be afraid to make some minor adjustments to make the material work for your students’ needs.

is by incorporating some of this talent. Why play a CD when you have a student who can play the song on his guitar? If you have a group of very artistic youngsters, give them crafts to engage them in their learning.

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Using Their Likes and Preferences

This is also particularly useful to remember with students who have really specific needs, for example a group who wishes to improve their Business English writing skills. Imagine you’ve just covered a chapter where the topic was “Hotel English”. Ask your students to write an email to inquire about a hotel’s conference facilities for homework, and you’ll have them practicing their email writing skills.

Related to the above, but only slightly different, is to use their interests to increase motivation and participation. If most of the class has read the Twilight books, use the characters to practice physical descriptions, talk about the weather in the small town of Forks, practice conditionals – would you become a vampire if you had the choice?, compare different types of supernatural beings, etc. Besides, just knowing who Bella and Edward are will definitely give you some street cred!

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Boosting Their Self-Esteem

Students, particularly adult learners, are often self-conscious, insecure and feel frustrated with their efforts. Corrections are an essential part of the lesson, but don’t forget to praise their efforts, as well, no matter how small their achievements may seem. One great way to give them instant boosts of self-esteem is to end each lesson with a “What have you learned today?” This simple question is a great way for them to review the day’s activities and see just how much they’ve accomplished. Even if their answer is “We learned the alphabet today”, this is something they should be proud of.

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Taking Advantage of Learning Styles or Special Abilities How many times have you met students with amazing talent and unusual abilities? Whether it is incredible musical or artistic talent, exceptional writing or speaking skills, another wonderful way to make a lesson a huge success

Teaching Culture

Learning English as a second language is not all about the grammar, structures and vocabulary. It’s also about why, how and where it’s spoken. What is Thanksgiving and how did it originate? This is something that will surely interest your students. Compare the way things are done in different cultures. Students who are accustomed to having dinner at 8 p.m. might be surprised to find out that Americans usually dine at 6 p.m. It will take a little bit more of your time to prepare, and you might be tempted to go with the course book materials. But any extra time spent will be well worth it once you see your students fully engaged in the lesson and putting to practice everything they’ve learned. We’re not saying you should throw the course book out the window! Just make these “little” adjustments here and there and you’ll see big differences. Don’t forget that BusyTeacher.org has hundreds of ready-made worksheets available for you to download and use with your class. Which will you use today?

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7 Best Ways to End a Lesson Who among ESL teachers does not understand the purpose behind a warm up activity? We all agree that it’s important to get students focused, to introduce a task or topic, to break the ice, or simply place your students in “English mode”.

But

what

about

cool

downs?

Many teachers are not aware of the importance of a cool down. Many teachers just play a game or let students work on an activity till the bell rings. When you do this you neglect to give your students closure on what they have learned for the day. You’re not capitalizing on your unique opportunity to effectively wrap things up in a way that will benefit your students’ learning.

The warm up and the cool down are like the introduction and the conclusion of an essay. An essay with no conclusion has a very abrupt ending. If you just let students work on an activity till it’s time to go home, you are not only giving them a sudden and abrupt ending to the lesson, you may also come across as disorganized and improvised. The cool down, however, clearly shows students that this is the way you planned for the lesson to end and that you’re ending it like this for a reason.

7 effective ways to end a lesson – because those last minutes matter!

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hat have you learned today?

It goes without saying that you should never end a lesson by introducing something new, just to leave your students hanging till the next class. The best way to end a lesson is to give students some kind of review activity, so that they may see the progress they’ve made in just one lesson. One of the most common and easiest to implement is simply taking the last 5 minutes of class to ask your students, “What have you learned today?” Notice, here, that you’re not the one telling them what they’ve learned. They may give you a list of new words, or say they learned to speak about what they did in the past or what

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they will do in the future, etc... Also, it’s important to speak in functional ways, for example not say they learned to use the “simple present” but rather that they learned to speak about their habits, schedules, and everyday activities.

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erformance correction & feedback

Right before the last 5 minutes of class you can have some sort of performance activity, for instance a role play. Usually we don’t correct students during the role play so we don’t interrupt the flow, but when they’re done you can end the class with corrections of words or expressions they used incorrectly, things they forgot to say, etc., and your students will go home with these corrections fresh on their minds. Students may also give their opinion or feedback on their classmates’ performance.

60

seconds

Choose a few students and give each 60 seconds to speak about something you’ve covered that day: what they did yesterday if you worked on simple past, talk about Halloween, professions, or animals, older learners may even give a “how to” lesson, they may also summarize a story they heard, or place themselves in another person’s shoes, like a celebrity, profession, or even animal. But they must speak for a full minute. To motivate students to speak, you may choose to reward the student who says the most, or includes the most information, with a reward sticker.

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rite an email

Ask students to imagine they have to write an email to a friend or family member and tell them what they did today in their ESL class. Students have a chance to summarize what they’ve learned in written form. This writing activity may be tailored to any topic. If you talked about farm animals, ask students to write about their favorite animal and why it’s their favorite. And the same goes for foods, sports, celebrities. Adult learners may write a business email with the new vocabulary they’ve learned.

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ay goodbye

For very young ESL learners the best way to wrap up a lesson is with a goodbye song or saying goodbye to a puppet. The puppet may “ask” them questions about something they learned, and even give them a short “review” by asking, “What’s this?” or “What’s that?” or any other question or expression they may have learned. You may set aside this special time with the puppet every day at the end of the class, so children know what to expect, and even though they may be very young, they will still have this sense of closure.

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idying up

After a special holiday class, or right after a lesson packed with arts and crafts, ask students to help you tidy up the classroom. Make sure you factor in this tidy up time when you plan crafts. Letting students run off with their art work just to leave you in a classroom littered with papers and art supplies gives them the wrong message.

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haring with the class

Another great way to end your class is by asking your students to share whatever it is that you worked on that day: a fall collage, a painting, they may read something they’ve written. The important thing here is to give them a space to share something they’ve produced with the language elements they’ve learned.

You can do anything you want to wrap up your lesson and be as creative as you want to be. However, it is essential that you provide these three things: •

a time for students to cool down after an activity-filled class

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some sort of review of what they’ve learned

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the proper closure to the day’s tasks

Keep these three essential points in mind, and you’ll come up with great, effective ways to end your lessons every time!

Fabulous Fall Activities for the ESL Class For those in the northern hemisphere, the return to classes is accompanied by the arrival of fall. As students and teachers get into the full swing of classes and busy schedules, we also start looking forward to apple picking, bonfires, and backyard fun with leaves. Why not bring some fall fun into the ESL classroom? Here are some suggestions for fabulous fall activities.

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Why not have a lesson outdoors and enjoy the fall foliage? There are lots of things you can do outside before it gets too cold and learning opportunities abound in a simple exploration of the school yard. •

Tree vocabulary: roots, trunk, bark, branches, leaves, twigs, seeds, pine cones, etc.

•

Tree bark rubbings: head outside armed with some sheets of thin drawing paper and crayons. Students choose trees with rough bark, and stick their sheets of paper onto to trunk (use adhesive tape or thumbtacks) for some invigorating rubbing!

Fabulous Fall Activities For Young Learners

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amily Tree

This is a great way to either teach or review family vocabulary. Have your students draw a tree trunk with bare branches, or draw your own template to photocopy. Hand out small brown leaves you’ve previously cut out from brown construction paper, of approximately 2 inches in length, and have students write the names of their family members and who they are, for example, “Karen – sister”. Students paste the leaves onto the branches, with grandparents at the bottom closest to the trunk, and younger members of the family on the outer branches. You can then have a “show and tell” session and ask students to show their family trees to the class and talk about their families.

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pple Prints

You’ll need to gather these items: red apples (one for every two students), foam trays, red tempera paint, and white construction paper. Cut cross section of the apples and give each student one apple half. Make sure they understand these are not for eating. Students place one apple half on red tempera, then stamp it onto a sheet of construction paper. You may choose to use them as fall decorations for the classroom, make pretty fall cards, etc...

utdoor fun

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Fun with leaves: there are countless crafts you can do with leaves: leaf rubbings are great fun, students may also collect leaves for a collage, or simply have a competition to see who grabs the most and have them practice their counting in English.

Fabulous Fall Activities For Older Learners

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all preparations and resolutions

Discuss all of the things students and teachers did to prepare for the return to classes. Remind students that just as they took the time to prepare to go back to school, there are lots of animals that are now making their preparations for the winter. Discuss with students what some of these preparations are, introduce and practice key vocabulary (geese, moose, deer, squirrel s, etc.) and what they do in the fall (migrate, gather acorns, hibernate, etc). Now’s a great time to discuss with them, if you haven’t already, what they hope to accomplish in the coming year. Have them make a list of

resolutions for the new school year, something like: •

make new friends

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learn lots of new words in English

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read more difficult texts in English

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understand a movie without having to read subtitles

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Etc.

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nterview Mother Nature

Briefly discuss with students the figure of Mother Nature, and what her role is in the change of seasons. Have each student write a series of interview questions for Mother Nature: they can get as creative as they like, and ask things like: •

What is your favorite season?

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Is your job difficult or easy?

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Do you ever have a vacation?

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Why do leaves fall from trees in autumn?

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Why do birds fly south?

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What’s your favorite animal and why?

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What’s your favorite tree and why?

Each student then swaps questions with a classmate and answers the questions. Remind them that in most cases there may not be a “correct” answer - they may be creative with their answers as well.

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ecommended vocabulary

Use this vocabulary list to make your own crossword puzzles, word searches, fill in the blanks exercises, and more. With VocabMaker (vocabmaker.com/) you have the chance to make

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all types of worksheets. Try BingoCardPrinter (hub.webring.org/hub/teachersonlinere) to make fun bingo cards with fall vocabulary. You can ask students to match pictures to words, or animals to actions, etc. This is the recommended list of fall vocabulary, but you may use or add as many words as you like depending on your students’ level: Animals: Goose/geese Moose Deer Squirrel Bird Bear Crow Turkey Foods: Apple Corn Pear Pumpkin Actions: Bury Gather Harvest

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Hibernate Lay Mate Migrate Rake Miscellaneous: Brown Orange Red Yellow Chilly Cold Colors Country Crops Grain Hay Leaf/leaves Maple Scarecrow Sweater Vegetables Farmer Fur

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ecommended reading

A great way to complement any of these activities is with some reading. These are just a couple of recommended books for fall reading,

but there are plenty of others available at Amazon. It’s Fall (Celebrate the Seasons) (amazon.com/gp/product/0761313427?i e=UTF8&tag=busyteacheror-20&link Code=as2&camp=1789&creative=3 90957&creativeASIN=0761313427) by Linda Glaser, for ages 4 to 8, is a great choice for reading aloud. Autumn Orange (Know Your Colors) (amazon.com/gp/product/140483108 8?ie=UTF8&tag=busyteacheror-20&li nkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative= 390957&creativeASIN=1404831088) by Christianne C. Jones, for ages 4 to 8, allows children to explore the main color of the fall season.

Fall is a truly magical season. We can feel how the air turns cooler and see how the landscape changes before our very eyes. Sooner than we think, we’ll have to hide indoors, and in some places everything will be covered by a blanket of snow. Take advantage of the opportunities the season offers and fall into some fall fun!

How to Write a Lesson Plan: 5 Secrets of Writing Great Lesson Plans Writing a lesson plan will ensure that you are prepared for your class and will make it run more smoothly. It is important to break the material up into several sections and choose activities suitable for each. Knowing approximately how much time an activity will take is important, but after the first lesson you may need to adjust things accordingly. It is best to be flexible seeing as different classes will respond to material differently. If at any point students struggle, you will have to dedicate more time to instruction or drilling before moving on to practice activities. For the purposes of this example let’s assume that an English class is forty-five minutes long.

How To Proceed

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Warm up

A warm up activity can be used in a number of ways. It can get your students thinking about material that will be used later on in the class, review material from a previous class, or simply get your students thinking in English, moving around, or awake. This activity should only take up a small portion of your lesson, perhaps five minutes.

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Introduction

A good introduction will create a need for students to learn the material you are going to present and get them interested in the day’s topic. This is the part of the lesson where the teacher does the most talking, so, try to get students involved and use choral repetition to keep students talking about half the time. Depending on how complex the topic is or how much new vocabulary there is, the introduction could take some time but in most cases, about ten minutes should be sufficient.

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Practice The practice activity would normally

be about ten minutes and have students working individually or in pairs. Practicing model dialogues, completing worksheets, and doing short activities would be appropriate. This may take about ten minutes including going over the answers or having some demonstrations.

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Production

In the production activity students should have to produce material on their own. Rather than reading sentences, perhaps they have to answer questions or make their own sentences. Longer activities such as board games, which can be played in groups, or activities for the whole class, where students work in teams, would be best. The remaining class time can be devoted to this activity.

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Review

It is a good idea to plan another five minute activity that can be done at the end of class as a review or used as the warm up in the following lesson. If the production activity does not take up the remaining portion of the class period, you have a backup plan.

Important When writing lesson plans, be sure to include what part of the textbook you are covering in the lesson, the target structure, new vocabulary, directions for all the activities you intend to use, and the approximate time each section of your lesson will take. The idea behind a lesson plan is that another teacher could pick it up and successfully teach your class without further instructions.

each group because two to four students is a lot different than five to ten. Writing out your lesson plan can also help you figure out what material you must prepare for a lesson because if your production activity will only take about ten minutes, then you are obviously going to need an additional activity to end the class with.

Not all lessons will be conducted the same. In some instances, the introduction of new material may take an entire lesson or the production activity may be an entire lesson. It is always good to have familiar activities to fall back on in case something doesn’t work quite the way you had planned. If students are playing the board game without actually speaking, in other words just moving their pieces around the board, they are not getting the necessary practice so you may have to either join the group having difficulties or change activities altogether.

At any rate, lesson plans are enormously helpful and if the following year you find yourself teaching the same material, preparation will be a breeze. Do you have any advice on how to write lesson plans? Please share your best practices with us online!

If there is an activity where you plan to ask the students questions so that they use the past tense in their responses, write down the questions you plan to ask. It is more difficult to think of appropriate questions on the spot and you are more likely to ask them a question using vocabulary they are unfamiliar with as well. If there is a group activity in the lesson, write down about how many students should be in

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7 Ways to Turn the Boring Coursebook into Engaging Speaking Tasks Most ESL teachers need a coursebook to follow. It gives us a structure. It gives students a structure. But it does not give us fun, engaging speaking tasks. At least, most coursebooks don’t, which is unfortunate since most students sign up for ESL classes to learn to speak English. However, because we are resourceful teachers, we can always supply the engaging speaking tasks that coursebooks seem to be missing.

7 Things You Can Do with the Coursebook

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You got the job!

Most ESL coursebooks include a unit on jobs or professions. Activities usually involve describing what each profession does or involves. To make these tasks a little more engaging, have your class conduct job interviews instead. Divide students into pairs: one student is the interviewer and the other is the interviewee. Go around the class and give each pair a different profession or job to interview for.

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Shopping information gap

An information gap exercise is a great way to engage students in speaking tasks. In this Shopping Information Gap, students are divided into pairs, and each is supplied with a worksheet with some information missing from it. Students ask each other questions to find the missing pieces. Use this worksheet, or try this one for Personal Information, but you may create your own information gap exercise on any coursebook topic.

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Find someone who…

This is another classic activity, one that is quite popular among ESL teachers. Students are given

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a worksheet, and their task is to ask the questions that are modeled in the worksheet, or come up with the right questions to find out who among their classmates has done something in particular. A great way to practice present perfect questions with “ever”. Try using a famous fictional character, like James Bond and ask your students to find someone who “has driven a

sports car”, “been to India”, “used a spy gadget”, etc.

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Meet My Friend!

This is the ideal speaking task for beginners. In the worksheet, you’ll find cards with personal information on one side, and blanks to be filled in on the other. Students are divided into pairs, and they interview each other. They must supply the information given on their card, and take notes on their partner’s. Then, each must report what they have found out about their new friend.

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Rock n’ Role Play

Role plays are another classic speaking activity. And most coursebooks include role plays. But not all students enjoy them or take advantage of their opportunity to speak. The problem is not acting out the role play but how well the roles have been set up. To ensure successful role plays, you must go beyond the typical, “Stu-

dent A is the client, student B is the customer”. When preparing role

play cards or instructions include a lot of details and complications.

This popular board game can be adapted to suit any vocabulary. Some course materials even come with their own Taboo cards. But it’s not too hard to make your own. Each card should have a word to be described, as well as a few others words that can’t be used in the description. For example, if the word is “cow”, the other words that can’t be used might be “milk”, “dairy”, or “udder”. Award one point for each word guessed correctly, and the team with the most points wins.

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Let’s debate!

Class debates are amazing opportunities for extended speaking practice. As in the role plays, the effectiveness of the debates lies in how successful you are at engaging students. Some great topics for debate are: •

Pros and cons (of social media, email, the Internet, etc.)

•

Solutions to a problem (global warming, energy crisis, etc.)

•

Planning meetings (city planners deciding which problems need to be addressed, for example, and encourage students to use modals to say what should, could, or must be done)

Feel like throwing the boring coursebook out the window? No need to!

For example, divide students into groups and tell them they play in a Rock n’ Roll band. Give each of them a different weekly schedule of activities. They must check their schedules and set up at least two practice sessions for the week. The more filled up their schedules are the harder it will be for them to schedule their rehearsals.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right? Instead of working against it, work with it. Take what you need from it and create your own engaging speaking tasks. Or try any of these ideas and you will not only get your students to speak, you may have a hard time getting them to stop!

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If you have any speaking tasks that work for you, don’t hesitate to share them with us!

Taboo

5 Best Ways to Introduce New Vocabulary New vocabulary is one of the basic building blocks in your students’ learning. But have you ever put much thought into how you introduce new words? Learning long laundry lists of words can be very tedious for students. On the other hand, introducing words in students’ native language and then translating them into English or vice versa is not very effective, either. You have to start training them to think in English right from the start. Needless to say, the language you are teaching should be spoken at all times, even if students are absolute beginners.

How to Introduce New Words

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Pointing

Pointing is probably the technique of choice when teaching real beginners. The teacher shows students illustrations or flashcards and points to the items they wish to teach. You can also use posters, Power Point presentations, or different types of computer software where illustrations are presented in electronic format. Google Images is a real life-saver!

•

•

Synonyms – You substitute one word students are familiar with for another new one.

When you call someone, do you sometimes have to wait? You have to hold. Do trains usually run on time? They are on schedule.

touching my nose! Touch your nose!), actions (I’m walking to the door), and the imperative mood or commands (Sit down! Stand up!)

Antonyms – You substitute one word they are familiar with for its opposite.

The main advantage in miming and TPR is that you can get students physically engaged in the lesson. It gets them out of their seats and shakes things up.

Is a Ferrari a cheap car?(No) It’s an expensive car.

Substitution works very well with phrasal verbs, which usually have a one-word equivalent: Do you put off

going to the dentist? You postpone seeing your dentist.

However, you should be careful when using words that are not exact synonyms or antonyms. Remember to imply that the connotation may be different in some cases.

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Naming

This technique is similar to substitution, but in this case, you set a scene or situation and then substitute it with a new word or phrase, thus effectively naming the scene.

Pointing works best with nouns which include food, clothes, animals, professions, sports, classroom objects, office supplies, etc... but also colors, actions, and any adjective that can be clearly illustrated (like facial expressions, for example to teach feelings). The main advantage of pointing is that words may be introduced in blocks, and you may easily and effectively introduce several in one lesson. Works well with visual students.

Do you usually eat pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast? (No) So, you have a light breakfast. The hotel accepted too many reservations. The hotel is overbooked. The steak I ordered last night was not cooked enough. It was undercooked/rare/bloody.

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This technique works great with kinesthetic learners, namely those who learn best by moving their bodies. Most teachers believe that mining works best with children, particularly when it comes to exaggerating emotions and facial expressions, but adults may also enjoy miming.

Substitution

This technique can be used with students of all levels and works best with concepts and ideas that can’t be easily seen or touched, like abstracts, or anything that is not a real object. There are different ways to use substitution:

advantages of Total Physical Response in the ESL classroom. TPR works well with parts of the body (I’m

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Miming and Total Physical Response

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Realia

The use of realia, or real-life objects in the ESL classroom can make a huge difference in student learning. It engages them and motivates them to learn. It’s fun and sets a more natural learning environment. Some realia you may use to introduce new vocabulary includes: •

Maps

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Tea sets, dishes, and utensils

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Clothes

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Toy planes, trains, cars, animals, furniture, etc.

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Family photos

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Holiday items (pumpkin, Easter eggs, Halloween or Christmas decorations)

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Plastic fruits and vegetables

There are lots of ways in which you can effectively introduce new vocabulary and not have to resort to translation. Make sure you introduce new words in context and give students plenty of chances to practice. Whatever resources you many need, rest assured that BusyTeacher.org will provide more than enough.

Which techniques do you use to introduce new vocabulary? Feel free to share them with us online!

Most teachers are also aware of the

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How to Get Everyone Speaking in a Multilevel Class You can try role plays, and that works to some degree, but shy students and those with less fluency won’t participate at the level teachers would like. Group discussions can be hit or miss. One solution for the multilevel class is the Strategic Interaction Method. This method combines group discussion with role play and class discussion to encourage stress free participation from students at all levels.

How to Get Everyone Involved

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The Scenario

Strategic Interaction begins with a scenario. This scenario is a real life situation in which your students will be required to use language to solve a problem. Though a group of students will receive each scenario’s information, only one person will perform the assigned role during the performance stage. Each group’s information about the scenario is different. They do have shared information about the situation, but each group also receives information specific to the role assigned to that group, that is the personal agenda of the role that group will be fulfilling. This situation and conflicting agendas will create tension between the roles and a conflict which needs to be resolved.

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Rehearsal

Students are given time in group discussion to determine the strategies they will use in the performance stage. Though only one student will actually be performing the interaction, all students can participate in the rehearsal phase and give advice to the performer. By discussing strategies in groups, students who are not confident enough to perform a role play in front of the class can participate in a less intimidating environment offering valuable input to the group and learning from others the language needed to accomplish their goal.

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Performance One student from each group will

participate in the performance stage. Remember that at this point neither group knows the agenda of the other, and each participant has his own agenda to accomplish. The goal of the different roles will be at odds with each other, so students must decide if and when to compromise on their goals. At any point during the interaction, the person playing the role can pause the interaction and consult with his or her group for advice and input. This gives strategic interaction an advantage over the simple role play. Students playing the roles are freed from the need to know all the answers and students at all fluency levels can participate in giving advice.

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Debriefing

After the performance, conduct a debriefing. Debriefing is the only part of the activity that happens with the entire class. In the debriefing stage, the teacher should lead a discussion about the interaction. You can encourage students to offer opinions about successful communication strategies or unsuccessful ones, and provide an opportunity for students to ask questions about any part of the interaction. In addition, during debriefing students can share alternative resolutions to the situations and share how they could have been achieved.

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Possible Scenarios

In any scenario you use, each role should have an agenda in conflict with the agenda of the other role. Here are two possible scenarios you can use with your students. You can also easily write your own as long as each the two agendas create tension in the situation. Scenario One: This scenario between two friends puts the participants in a tense situation, each reticent to tell the other the full truth of what has happened. Role A: You borrowed your friend’s car to pick your significant other from the airport. Because you parked the car il-

legally, it was towed. You do not have money to get the car back from the towing agency. You are about to meet with the friend who leant you the car. Role B: Although you know your friend can be irresponsible at times, his/her significant other was flying into town and you were unavailable to pick that person up. Instead you loaned your car to your friend. Thankfully, your friend did not have any accidents. Because you have some unpaid parking tickets, the police would impound your car if anything had happened. You do not have money to get your car back if something like that happens. You are about to meet your friend and get your car back. Scenario Two: In this situation, each of the participants has pressure to achieve an outcome in opposition to the other participant. Role A: You are a teacher who has gotten much criticism for giving too many students A’s. You are on a program this semester to only give A’s to the top five students in your class. If you fail to be more restrictive in giving high grades, you may lose your job. Role B: You are a senior in college and have achieved a 4.0 up until this semester. Every other semester when you have failed to get an A, your professor has allowed you to do makeup work or retake tests to improve your grade to an A. You are about to graduate and do not want your perfect record spoiled. You are about to meet with the only teacher who did not give you an A this semester. Try and get him/her to change your grade.

As you can see, strategic interaction is one of the easiest ways to get everyone in your multilevel class speaking. By taking away pressure and embarrassment and giving students the support of their group, you can get everyone in your class speaking today.

How to Turn a Disaster ESL Lesson into a Triumph It happens to even the best teachers: a well thought out, carefully planned lesson goes horribly wrong and you are stuck in the middle of class with confused, frustrated, and disengaged learners. Students can react to material in different ways than you anticipated and new activities may take less time, be more challenging, or not work out quite the way you expected.

Never continue following a lesson plan that is failing. This will only waste everyone’s time and students will not get the most out of their lesson with you. It is hard to think of new ideas and come up with an alternate plan during a lesson but this is the best course of action.

How To Turn A Disaster Lesson Into A Well-Deserved Victory

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hat went wrong?

Identify what went wrong so that you will not repeat the mistake with another class. This will also help you determine if it is the lesson or activity itself or the particular students you are working with that led to this issue in the first place. If students do not understand the material you are covering, rephrase your introduction with mini comprehension checks throughout. Ask students to explain to you what you are teaching and even translate it if necessary to ensure that everyone has a more thorough understanding of the lesson material.

If an activity did not work out the way you planned or finished earlier than expected, you can stall a little by asking students to demonstrate their knowledge of the material while you decide what to do next. These are two very common occur-

rences especially for new teachers who assume that students clearly understand material after just a short introduction and are still learning about student behavior, lesson plans, and time management.

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Change course

You are going to have to finish the class and maximize the class time you have with your learners, so, decide how to proceed. Often it takes only about five minutes to realize something is wrong, decide to change course, and transition into another activity. The longer you have been teaching, the more backup activities you will have stored in your memory, so, draw on your past experiences for inspiration. Thinking on your feet in front of an audience, regardless of its size, is stressful but remain calm and remember that whatever you choose also has to require no real preparation and only the materials you have in your classroom. By keeping this in mind you will automatically focus on simpler exercises. Once you have thought of another activity you can relate to the topic you have been talking about, segue into it as if it were a planned part of the lesson. You can say something like

they walk out your door for the day. Students will forgive failed activities from time to time if you do not force them to suffer through them for long and come back strong after realizing your mistake.

By turning a disaster lesson a r o u n d, yo u a r e s av i n g yourself and helping your students. This is a skill and as such requires a lot of time and experience to improve. One way to help you prepare for this unfortunate yet inevitable situation is to plan an extra activity for each lesson (this is where BusyTeacher.org is your best friend). This can be something short and should function as a review. It will be easier to transition if you already have a back up plan and you can simply expand on it or repeat it several times if you have more time that you expected. If you do not use the activity at the end of your class period, you can use it as a review in the next lesson. It is just that easy. Good luck!

“OK, I think we have had enough of the board game for today, now I’d like you to ~.” An activity that was finished too soon or was uninteresting to students has effectively been pushed aside with this brief sentence and the class can move forward.

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End on a high note

Finish the class with a short, fun activity that you know students enjoy. This can be a familiar warm up activity like ESL Shiritori or an exercise like Crisscross which can be adapted to any topic. Your lesson can then end on a positive note and this will be the most recent memory students have of your class when

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9 Five-Minute Activities That Will Save Your Lesson One Day Teachers always need to have an activity or two on hand in case a lesson takes a lit tle bit less time than expected or does not work ou t exac t ly as plan ned. Some activities that work well in one class totally flop in another so you will have to be flexible with your lesson plan and able to adapt when necessary.

How to Proceed

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Short Reading Activities

With a reading passage, you can conduct this short reading race to give students some more pronunciation, speaking, and even listening practice. Have students stand up and tell them that each column of students is a team. For this activity the first student should read the first sentence, the second student should read the next one, and students should continue reading sentences until the entire passage is complete and then sit down. The first team to read all the sentences and sit down wins. You can play again using the same passage starting with the student in the back or make each row a team instead. To help students make their reading sound more natural, introduce slash reading. To do slash reading, simply read the passage aloud to the class pausing when it is natural to do so while students repeat after you and make slashes or breaks in their text.

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Short Writing Activities

Shiritori is a Japanese game that has been adapted for ESL classrooms. For this game make each column of students a team and give them space on the board to write. You should write one word on the board and a member from each team should rush to the board to write a word that starts with the last letter of your word. The next team member then has to think of a word that

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starts with the last letter of the word his team member wrote. Students continue taking turns writing words on the board until you stop the game. It should be very fast paced. You can stop when groups start running out of space to write and decide the winner based on number of words or points. One point for 1-4 letter words and two points for 5 letters or more seems to work well but words with spelling errors and duplicates do not count. Boggle is another activity students can do in groups. Give each group a piece of scrap paper, draw a boggle letter grid on the board, and have students find as many words as they can within the time limit. You can create your own grids but be sure that there are enough word possibilities for your students to find. Give students a scoring system, ask them to score their papers and hand them in. In the next class you can announce the winning team and the best word. Another popular favorite is Hangman, but it is best to avoid the hanging imagery in the classroom so a scoring system would be better. You can choose the sentences and have students work in groups, taking turns, to figure out the answer.

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Short Speaking Activities

Crisscross is a great warm up game. Ask students to stand up and start by asking a question, the student who answers correctly can choose his row or column to sit down, continue by asking another question. The game ends when everyone is sitting down. You can add a twist if there are a lot of questions you want to review with the class. Have just the first row of students stand up and when a student gives the correct answer, have him sit down and ask his team member, the student sitting directly behind him, to stand up. For this activity teams should be even or you will have to work in a way of making them even and you can draw this activity out by keeping the teams neck and neck. Fruit Bas-

ket is another speaking game where students sit in a circle with one less chair than participant. One student stands in the middle of the circle and makes a sentence. After the sentence has been said everyone that the sentence applies to must switch seats leaving another student in the center. Sentences such as “I am a student.” are sure to get everyone moving. Chinese Whispers is another speaking activity that can be done in the classroom. Think of some sentences to use, form teams, and ask the first student in each column to come to the front of the classroom or into the hallway to be given the sentence. The first team who writes a sentence on the board should receive points but the most points should go to the team that has the sentence most similar to the original.

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Short Listening Activities

Bingo is a classic game that you can use not only in numbers lessons but also when talking about letters or even words and phrases. If you have noticed that students struggle with the pronunciation of numbers such as thirteen and thirty, you can have a short Bingo session using only these numbers. Rather than make Bingo cards, have students fill in the grids themselves. Karuta is another Japanese game. Have students sit in groups and spread vocabulary cards face up on the desks. When you say a word aloud, the student who grabs the correct card first gets to read it aloud and keep it. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. This can help students with spelling, listening, and pronunciation.

These are just some of the many excellent five to ten minute activities you can use as warm ups or when things do not go exactly as planned. See more of BusyTeacher’s Warmers, IceBreakers and Fillers online.

Becoming A Super ESL High School Teacher: 8 Secrets Any teacher who has spent some time teaching in schools (especially in Asia) soon realises that small class sizes are somewhat of a distant mirage - a myth that only a fortunate few who work at international schools have the opportunity to experience. Many government schools often have class sizes that regularly exceed 50 students! Imagine teaching 50 fifteen year-olds who have no interest in English. What would you do to capture their attention and get them interested in English?

lish teacher to teach the grammar. Your task as a native speaker should be encouraging students to use the language.

Teachers should draw on their own experience as a learner and recall the teachers who had an impact on them when they were the age of their students. The boring French teacher, who droned on and on about masculine and feminine words, was not really awe inspiring and generally sent students to sleep quicker than you could say ‘bonjour’. It is the teacher who is a little eccentric, unpredictable and, ultimately, inspiring who manages to capture the attention of the students.

Predictable teaching means that students very quickly switch off and continue with their own thing. Keep them focused on what is happening in the classroom by being a little unpredictable. Try asking ‘trick’ questions or saying ‘Good Afternoon’ in the morning. This tests their English and checks that they are tuned in. Speak loudly, speak softly, just don’t be boring and monotonous.

Here’s How You Can Become A ‘Pro’ High School ESL Teacher:

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Give them what they want

If you want the best result from stubborn high school students, the most effective technique is to give them exactly what they want. If they want games, then give them games! The great part about giving students what they want is that this can be used as a bargaining tool in order for you to get them to complete work. Senior high school students can be difficult to enforce discipline, so one fantastic way is to negotiate with them. If they complete the required exercises, then they can play a game at the end of class! When it comes to exercises that can be a little ‘dry’, edit them so they can talk about things that your students are interested in. Find out about some of their favourite pop stars, movie stars and base the exercises on that.

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If possible, stay away from the grammar!

In many cases, it is the task of a local Eng-

Don’t focus on grammar, keep the emphasis on communication. Of course, if a student makes a grammatical error on a regular basis, do correct them. However, provide usable examples of the grammar within context that the student could use, not out of a textbook.

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Don’t be predictable

Have a laugh!

Be prepared to laugh at them and laugh at yourself. Students generally respect a teacher who they can have a joke with. Generally, this works in the favour of the teacher, as most ESL/EFL teachers cannot speak the L1 of the student. If the student can joke to the teacher using English, well hey! They are using English! When you have a laugh and a joke with them (in English), then you are providing them with English, albeit in the form of a joke.

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Make it real

One thing that we find works really well is to throw away the grammar books and get the students to work on a skill that they could use later in life or with their further education at university. Some projects that help build on real life English include: •

Work as a group to plan a company, then present.

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Research and report on what’s happening in another country.

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Devise an advertising campaign for a produce.

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Work as a group and plan a travel itinerary around the world – decide as a group where you would go and what you would do.

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The psychology of a fun class

Starting off with a game and ending with a game is what we refer to as a ‘Sandwich of Fun’. By starting with an activity and ending with an activity, students generally forget about the ‘boring’ grammar exercises or reading activities.

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Set fair rules with their input

When you set the rules with the students, you create a fair environment where the students can voice their expectations of the teacher. If all of the students agree to the rules of both teacher and students, cooperation should be easy to maintain. Also set some fun rules as well, for example, make it a rule that students should answer the question ‘How are you?’ with anything other than ‘I’m Fine’.

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Focus on students who want to learn

Often when faced with classes where 46 out of 54 students don’t want to learn, it’s a good idea to put the activity on the board and then focus on assisting those students who want to learn. Without totally neglecting the needs of all students in the class, simply assist those students who really want it. Focusing on a student who doesn’t want your help takes valuable teaching time away that could be used on providing assistance to a student who truly appreciates and wants to further their English skills. Practically any teacher has the ability to become an inspiring teacher to senior high school students. It is simply a matter of walking into the classroom with the right attitude and by following the above tips and tricks.

Even with more difficult classes, teachers can still be an inspiration to their students and provide them with a set of useful language skills that will stay with them forever.

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Back to School Dilemma: Technological Gadgets in the ESL Classroom? If you teach a student over 10, chances are they have a cell phone. At the very least. Some may show up to class with an assortment of gadgets, including iPods, PSPs, or Blackberries just to name a few. So, how should you handle this? Issue a complete ban on any gadget or use them to your advantage?

another’s that is ringing. It’s safe to say that most students would agree to turn off their phones during class. Remind adult learners who for some particular reason may need to be reached urgently, like doctors or parents, that they may put their phones on “vibrate” instead.

First comes acceptance. Like it or not, iPhones, iPods, iPads and the like, are here to stay. And if they don’t stay, they will be easily replaced by other “i” products. Backpacks and bags even come with special compartments that are specifically designed for such devices. It wouldn’t be unheard of for an adult learner to bring a laptop to class. Schools are wired with WiFi. It’s so easy to take these gadgets everywhere we go – why not bring them into the ESL classroom?

learning goals and how important it is for them to immerse themselves in an English-speaking environment. How could they possibly listen to you in one language and respond to text messages in another? Kindly ask them if it would be too hard to hold the text messaging until class is over.

Next, comes the question: should you completely ban them from your ESL classroom? Some schools have a policy regarding the use of technological devices within school grounds. If they are not allowed, communicate this to your students. They must understand that it is school policy and that if they insist on bringing technological devices to school, they may be confiscated. In this case, the responsibility lies with your students. But what if your ESL school has no such policy? You may choose to ban electronic devices from your classroom anyway, and if you do, this is a rule you must be prepared to enforce. But you might be more successful with your students if, instead of banning electronic devices, you teach them some good gadget etiquette.

How to Teach Students Gadget Etiquette

2 Remind students of their language

3 Remind students that the school can’t be held accountable for electronic devices that may disappear from the premises. Ask younger students if they are willing to take the risk of losing their brand new PSP or Nintendo DS. With a little nudging, they might agree that the risk is not worth it.

4 Determine if you will allow some electronic devices and not others - for example, cell phones will be allowed but not gaming devices. Also, you may limit to what capacity they may use each device, for example, they may use them to take notes, record role plays, or videotape a skit, but not to play games, text friends or chat. This may depend on the size of the class: smaller classes are easier to monitor, while for larger groups this may be too hard to control. 5 Teach by example. If they see you checking your messages while they are busy completing a worksheet or reading task, you won’t get your point across. See? You’re hooked too! Teach them, instead how much fun you can have with very low tech like a ball, a blindfold, or a box of odds and ends.

1 Ask your students what could possibly

If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em

be the most annoying thing about any electronic gadget. Most would agree it’s the ringing, the interruption that may cause you to lose your train of thought during class, whether it’s your phone or

Now, what if you were to use these very same devices in the classroom to aid your students in achieving their learning goals? What if you could turn these gadgets into tools instead

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of distractions? Many teachers argue that by using electronic gadgets in the classroom they have better chances of reaching students, particularly teens, who tend to be self-conscious, shy and uncommunicative. Here are some ways in which you can make your students’ electronic gadgets your allies instead of adversaries:

Business e-mail Why have students write email with paper and pen? They send email in electronic format. Why not do it in English? Have your business English students or adult learners send each other e-mails during class.

Paper-free activities Remember that the less paper we use, the better it is for the environment. Dictate some questions for homework, but tell them they can use their electronic notepads. Encourage the use of iPads or laptops for note-taking or writing tasks, if possible and if you have small groups of teens or adult learners.

Record it! Cell phones with cameras are great tools for an ESL classroom. Film a role play between two students, and have a critiquing session afterwards. Do you or your students remember everything they said during a role play? Record it in audio and play it back. Have students record an audio file of you reading a short text, and give them comprehension questions to answer for homework.

Should you ban elec tronic devices from the classroom or use them to your advantage? That depends on school policy, student ages, and class size. Sometimes, the decision is yours. The potential is there if you choose to exploit it. What is your take on this hot topic? Do you allow or use gadgets in the classroom? Share with us online!

7 Back to School Games And Activities To Help Students Bond Whether you have a class full of antsy five-year-olds, shy teens, or busy adults learners, they all have one thing in common: they will be together for the duration of the ESL course, and they will work toge ther to achieve their English-learning goals. What better way to start classes than to help them get to know each other? Here are some games and activities. These are more than simple icebreakers: they will help your students really bond as a group:

Back To School: How To Help Your Students Bond

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A Blank Canvas to Fill

Once you’ve greeted all of your students and gotten all of the introductions out of the way, present them with a completely blank bulletin board. Tell them that their first task as a group will be to decide what they want to do with it: •

Fill it with drawings of what they did over the summer?

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Put up family photos?

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Choose a theme and decorate accordingly (fall, summer movies, pop stars?)

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What they hope to learn?

When they have chosen their theme, they must decide how they will decorate the bulletin board and which materials they will use (you may have a box of odds and ends they can recycle).

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Right on or Dead Wrong?

Hand out slips of paper and ask each student to write two things about themselves that are true and one thing that is untrue. Shuffle the papers and give one to each student. Students must guess which statement is untrue about their classmate.

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Show Your Stuff

Tell your class that they will have the chance to show off their best talent. Have students divide themselves into groups according to different abilities. Form groups of students who have musical talent, artistic skills, or are really creative writers. Each group has to work as a team to prepare something to show to the class. Dancers may choreograph one of their favorite songs. Artists may create a poster. Writers may write a short story. Give them enough time to prepare and choose a day for your talent competition. Each team has to vote for another team they consider the best. The winning team wins a special prize.

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Things in Common

Create a questionnaire with 5 to 10 questions like: •

What’s your favorite American/ English food?

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What’s your favorite American/ English TV show?

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What’s your favorite international pop star?

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What’s your favorite color?

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What month were you born in? Etc.

Students must first complete this questionnaire and then walk around the classroom to find other students they share some of these things with. They must write the names down. When everyone’s done, each student counts how many people they share things with. The student with the biggest number wins!

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What a Cute Baby!

Ask students to bring in baby pictures of themselves and put them up on the bulletin board. Students take turns matching a student to a baby pic. The student who guesses the most correctly wins. For obvious reasons, this game works best with teens or adult learners.

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Bag It!

Give each of your students a paper bag and instruct them on what to do with it: •

First, they must decorate it in a way that represents them. Students may draw a guitar on it because playing the guitar is their favorite thing to do. Or perhaps they can draw something connected to a sport they play. Or their country of origin.

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Secondly, they must place three things that represent them inside the bag. Obviously, they must be small enough to fit inside.

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Finally, they must bring the bag and its contents to school, and share it with the class.

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Choose a Class Name and Create a Flag

You may have a class with students from different backgrounds and nationalities. While you may encourage them to share information about their countries of origin, it would be nice for them to also form their own little “nation”. Ask students to come up with a name for their class: English Ninjas, Grammar Warriors, or the like. Then, they may create their own class flag or banner, something that will represent them as a group. If you decide to create a class website, you can tell parents what your “English Ninjas” have been up to and proudly display their work.

Try any of these activities, and you’ll see. What was at first a group of complete strangers will become a group of students who share a great many things and are ready to embark on this adventure that is learning English as a second language. And if you have any suggestions of your own, please feel free to share them with us online!

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