ESL Teacher Trainer

a friendly blog designed to provide tips, tricks and suggestions for non-native & native ESL teachers

Free Graphic Organizers

September 23rd, 2010 by · No Comments · Graphic Organizers

Freeology has a bunch of very useful graphic organizers. I use them with my classes all the time. For example, in the curriculum we use (Backpack by Mario Herrera & Diane Pinkley)  there is a 4 page pull out story called Backwards Betty.

Of course, Backpack has some great ideas on how to use the story in the class, like writing Betty’s activities backwards, but I wanted to take it a little farther and give the students a taste of what it is like in a real American school. I went to Freeology and downloaded the 8 event graphic organizer . Then the students had to reread the story and pick out two events from each paragraph on a page, but first, I made sure to do a before reading activity.

The book walk thing get tired after a while. I decided to use the reading short stories chart with a special emphasis on predicting what the story was about just by looking at the pictures. The bottom half asks them about the characters and the setting.

Next, I created a custom graphic organizer. I took short snippets from the story and inserted a blank text box below so the students can draw pictures of what Betty should be doing instead.

Finally, the students  used the hamburger graphic organizer to create a paragraph based on the pictures they drew. I modeled/scaffolded the sentences for the lower level ESL students by writing starter sentences on the board. At the same time, I introduced the concept of topic sentences which probably should have another post devoted especially to that subject.

Cook Up Your Own Interactive Lesson Plan

June 10th, 2010 by · 1 Comment · Interactive Lesson Plan

Ciabatta Bread

Ciabatta Bread

Sometimes you just have to think on your feet and be creative. When you see that your loosing your student’s attention, it is time to pull out that metaphorical bag of tricks. I always like to combine something practical with something fun.

One particular lesson springs to mind, I cooked it up while standing in line at Panera Bread. Panera Bread is a chain in the eastern portion of the US that serves a wide range of soup, salad, and sandwiches on freshly beaked bread.  Anyway, after much deliberation, I decided on sourdough and ciabatta bread. I then went to the library and got several books on baking bread. We sampled the bread and walked through the step by step pictures on how to make the bread. This was a great conversation starter activity because all the ladies had made bread before. We discussed how to activate the yeast, how long it takes to rise, how to make flat bread/pita bread and other bread related topics. Also, I picked up a nonfiction book that told us why the ciabatta bread has holes in it, as well as, the history of sourdough bread.

Since I worked for a family literacy program, I also picked up some children’s books about bread and read them to the ladies.

So the point of this post?

Always be looking for ways to connect with your students and keep it fresh! If you keep your mind engaged, you can always cook up an interactive lesson plan that will be fun for all.

A Few Variations of a Sentence Making Game & A Gratuitous Idiom

May 29th, 2010 by · No Comments · ESL Game

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Its a real *side splitter!

I love Richard Graham! He is ALWAYS sharing such fantastic and useful teaching information. The latest is a sentence making game.  The key is to focus on one specific verb or group of verbs. You (the teacher) will provide the verb(s) to each pair.

Here is what I would do, enlarge and print out a list of verbs from one of the sites suggested below or focus on specific verbs from previous lessons, kind of like a review. Print out the list and then cut the verbs up into slips and hand them out to each pair.

Now, at this point you can do this game in a number of different ways:

  1. See how many silly sentences the students can come up with, within a given amount of time.
  2. Focus on different verb tenses. When time is up, have all the different tenses of the same verb come up in front of the class to share their sentences.
  3. Do a “Round Robin” version of this game. Have the pairs sit in a circle. Set  a timer to go off every minute or so and when the timer goes off, have the pairs pass the verb to the right, until it gets right back to where it started. At this point, have the all the  pairs share the different sentences made from the same verb.

Here is a list of sites that have a whole boat load of handy verbs that you can use:

  1. ESL Gold
  2. English Club
  3. Linguanaut
  4. Using English

Let the students come up with the:

  • Who = personal pronoun
  • When = time related
  • What = common noun
  • Where = location specific

And I would also like to add this variation for the more advanced learners:

  • Why = This could be fun! Let’s see what silly circumstances the students make up.

Attention – This activity has the potential to be a real *side splitter!

*side splitter – Something that is so funny, it makes one double over (bend over) from laughing so hard. It may also cause one to cry/tear up and have difficulty catching one’s breath from all the excessive laughter.

Student Created Wordsearch

May 17th, 2010 by · No Comments · ESL Workshop, Student Created Products

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Make your own wordsearch

This activity can work in several ways.

Use it to keep the middle school kids/adults busy thinking in English or use it as training tip/activity for your ESL counterparts.

Materials:

1) Grid Paper – Either buy the stuff the kids use for geometry or click here and here for a free online source of graph paper. I’m not sure those blue lines come out so great when you go to photocopy them, so it is best to print them out and use a nice crisp black and white master copy. Then keep it in your file cabinet for future use.

2) Pencils

4) Word categories

This is a great activity for students who finish assignments up early. I would use it as a fun competitive activity, as the author suggests. It is also a fantastic way to reinforce old vocabulary words. Just pick the categories from previous lessons. Assign different categories to different pairs/groups and then let the games begin!

Special Note – Let the students refer back to notes or their text book to help jog their memories, if need be.

Teaching Phonics to Adults, Part 2

May 16th, 2010 by · No Comments · Adult Phonics

No Cindy Bears Please!

No Cindy Bears Please!

Here’s my take on teaching phonics to adults. It is identical to teaching children. The same rules apply, but the materials or props must be age appropriate. No cute little cuddly pictures of bears. Go find a real picture of a bear. This same rule applies whether you are teaching Mongolian adults or Spanish adults. Go get a picture of a bear THEY are familiar with. (Do they have bears in Mongolia?)

That also means no children’s songs either. Do your homework and find age appropriate songs, then focus in on a particular song. If you are all befuddled and don’t know where to start, then start with Bibi Baxter. She is the reigning queen of age appropriate musical english lessons.

Remember that we are dealing with adults who can’t read English. They aren’t morons (in reality they may even have a higher degree than yours) and we don’t want them to think they are babies either. With that being said, treat them with respect and ditch the kids stuff, but keep the time tested pedagogical instruction of phonics. You can thank me later.

How to Teach Phonics to Adults, Part 1

May 14th, 2010 by · No Comments · Adult Phonics

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What is the best way to teach phonics? There are a few good programs out there, Hooked on Phonics, springs to mind immediately, but if you don’t have access to Hooked on Phonics, then you will have to make do with whatever means are available to you.

When I taught ESL to adults, I had several illiterate Arabic speaking ladies from Yemen in my class. It was tough for them. They couldn’t read Arabic or English. I had one motivated little lady who actually took the bulls by the horns and managed to read up to a 3rd grade level. I’d love to take credit for her accomplishments, but seriously, any advancements she made was purely due to her determination and plucky spirit, plus she had a supportive family, which helps tremendously in that culture, believe me.

In order to teach these ladies English, I focused a good portion of the lesson on phonics. I determined that phonics was the way to go. That whole word nonsense is for the birds (more about that later.) This ehow article suggests that starting with consonant sounds is where you should start. I disagree with that. I feel starting with the vowels is the foundation upon which you should build this skyscraper called the English language. The way I see it, the vowels are the mortar that bind the bricks or consonants together. Once the vowels are mastered, moving on the the consonants will be like the icing on the cake.

This article stresses the importance of teaching short vowels first. Once the short vowels are mastered, move onto long vowels.

Another thing to note here is that when you are teaching adults the material must be age appropriate. It is easy enough to find loads of material for children, but what about the adults? That’s not so easy. Unfortunately, the stuff that is out there costs money. You are just a teacher, living on a meager salary, so unless your employer shovels out the dough you are left to scavenge for yourself. But don’t worry. I’ll post more on that later.

Free ESL Conversation Question Powerpoint

May 14th, 2010 by · No Comments · Free Powerpoint Download

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Wacky English Conversation

Download this free Powepoint that you can use in the classroom to encourage English conversation, but watch out, the topics are a little wacky! I wrote this particular presentation to appeal to high school students and up.

Powepoints are fantastic tools for the classroom. A savvy teacher will be able to create their own conversation Powerpoints through a number of ways. If you are teaching a group of ESL teachers that don’t have a clue about how to go about creating a Powerpoint, then show them how to do it. Go to your favorite ESL conversation/question website  and cut and paste the questions on to the slides. Give them a quick overview of how Powerpoint works and then demonstrate how to cut and paste.  Have a volunteer come up and give it a try too.

If you have a technologically savvy group then you can skip this step and just refer them to your favorite sites and show them what you have done, like a little visual comparison lesson. Say something like, “This is what I found.” Then show them the website page. Next, say something like, “And this is what I created.” Then show them the corresponding slide. You may want to do a little cut and paste mock up so the visual learners get it. Be sure to talk about what you are doing, while you are doing it. This is for the auditory learners. Getting the volunteers to come up and actually do it, is for the kinestic-tactile learners.

Ways to create ESL Conversation Questions:

1) Cut and paste the questions from the internet onto the Powerpoint slide.

2) Write your own questions (time consuming, but worth it) because you own the content.

3) Scavenge it off of the internet for free.

4) Pay for it.

Check back. I’ve written more questions. It is just a matter of time before I get around to creating another ESL conversation Powerpoint.

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Pulling Off an ESL Teacher Training Workshop

May 13th, 2010 by · No Comments · ESL Workshop

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Have you been asked to put a teacher training workshop together? If so, don’t sweat it. I have an outline that you can use to pull it off. With that being said,  you still have to do the actual leg work and presentation yourself.

Any questions? Leave me a post and I’ll try to get back to you  A.S.A.P.

1) Start with an Ice breaker activity. Pick out one you feel comfortable doing. Tell them that it is a great way to build “community.” Do one with the class and then cherry pick the best ones to put in a handout. BTW – The first four are geared to the business crowd.
http://www.icebreakers.ws/
 http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson273.shtml
 http://www.team-building-leadership.comfree_icebreakers.html
 http://www.icebreakergames.net/

ESL Ice breakers -http://www.eslflow.com/speakingandcommunicativeicebreakeractivities.html
 http://www.myseveralworlds.com/teach-and-travel/esl-activities/

2. Next, teach them how to write a lesson plan. Show them examples of good lesson plans. Talk about the objective, materials, activities, etc;  Also, show them an example of a lesson that incorporates before, during and after activities. For example, a before activity will be something that will tweak your student’s interests, motivate or inspire them. A during activity will be something they can do during the lesson, pair work, group work, jigsaw activities, something like that. An after activity can be a reflection, a game or video that reinforces the targeted skill or  a worksheet. The trick is to present a cumulative activity that sums up the lesson in neat little package.
http://www.jobmonkey.com/teachinghtml/making_lesson_plans.html
 http://www.teaching-esl-to-adults.com/best-esl-lesson-plans.html

3. Model how to do a lesson plan for them on an overhead projector, if you have one. Do this on the fly. Have the teachers throw out suggestions for a lesson. Pick one and talk them through it as you are writing it down. The idea here is to show them your internal thought process. This is important, sometimes ESL teachers have no formal pedological training. By revealing your thought process you will help break down any internal barriers that may prevent them from being the best teacher they can be.

Lesson plan templates. Give them choices. Here are a a couple of  links. Cherry pick the best ones to put in your handout packet.
http://www.lessonplans4teachers.com/templates.php
 http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LessonTemplate.htm

4. Make sure to tell them that they should put the objective on the board, but it should look like this: What am I learning today? Then state what it is that the students are learning that day. For instance, is the targeted skill grammatically focused? Then list the grammar skill the students are learning and below that  list two or three examples to show proof that they actually learned the skill. So, below the objective write something like - I learned  ___ and I can  ____  and _______ .
Other useful resources:
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/templatesresources.htm
 http://www.internet4classrooms.com/links_grades_kindergarten_12/classroom_forms_teacher_tools.htm

5. Talk about the different needs in the age groups and the assessment process dividing them into beginner, intermediate and advanced.

6. Primary and middle school –  Here I would push Genki English. Yes, I love Genki English. Richard Graham has done all the work for you. It’s a no brainer. It is worth the investment, if you are going to work with kids, that is. Also, I believe his lesson plan model is excellent, even if you don’t want to invest in the product. http://genkienglish.net/lessonplan.htm

BTW – If you are going to be teaching ESL to children and you don’t  have any formal teaching background, do yourself a favor and buy this product. You will be so happy you did. The kids will love it, you will have fun teaching the lesson and most importantly, you won’t have to spend all your free time putting lesson plans together.
7. Richard Graham also has a bunch of games on his site too.
http://genkienglish.net/games.htm
Cherry pick these, do a couple with your trainees and put some for the handout packet.

8. No matter what the student’s age group, music is a good way to introduce new vocabulary and get the students to remember it. http://www.ehow.com/how_2287875_teach-esl-using-music.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Music is always good to help reinforce grammar and vocabulary. Try to work in a few gestures to activate muscle memory.
Here is an example to show them. http://www.genkienglish.net/mrwolfsong.htm

For teens and adults. http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/popsongs/index.htm
For school age youngsters.http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/youngchildren/index.htm

Using music to teach ESL tips:
I would highlight the vocabulary words on the worksheet and put it on the board too. Tell the  trainees that this is just an example of what they can do to any song they choose. Make sure you try to get that idea across, that’s important. You want to empower your teacher trainees.

Model how to introduce the new vocabulary. Richard Graham suggests singing it with out the music first, then add the music and gestures later. Lastly, wrap it up with a game that uses large muscles. That creates muscle memory and helps the students remember the words better. The same idea applies to the gestures when doing the songs.
http://www.genkienglish.net/adultsongs.htm

9. Introduce TPR. http://www.genkienglish.net/Warmup.htm Model how it is done. Have fun! You could insert this randomly when it looks like you are starting to loose the your trainee’s attention.

10. Talk about cooperative group activities and pair work.
This subject is huge! You could put together another workshop on this topic alone. Below are a slew of links that will introduce the concept of cooperative group work and give you and idea of how to incorporate it into the classroom.

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm
 http://www.teachervision.fen.com/pro-dev/cooperative-learning/48531.html
 http://groups.physics.umn.edu/physed/Research/CGPS/trdvscoop.html
 http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index.html
 http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/time_savers/grouping/
 http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/

Jigsaw activities
http://www.jigsaw.org/overview.htm
 http://www.eslprintables.com/printable.asp?id=36000
 http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/ESL_Multilevel_Activities.htm
 http://www.tefl.net/esl-lesson-plans/esl-activities-vacation.htm

Newspaper Jigsaw activities
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/journ.htm

Pair Work – Talk about why it is important and how to incorporate it into the lesson.
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Moodie-PairWorkTesting.html
 http://www.eslprintables.com/printable.asp?id=1430

Additional resources
http://www.efl4u.com/
 http://www.rong-chang.com/lsnplan.htm
 http://www.esl-lesson-plan.com/
 http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/lesson-plans/

Games – I’m sure you have some favorites too.
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Ersoz-Games.html
 http://www.mes-english.com/games.php
 http://www.rong-chang.com/game.htm


Links to other sites that you can give them as a “free gift.” Be sure to download some of the songs and showcase the ones you like best. Or if you have the LED projector, go to the website and click on a few songs.

http://www.eslteachertalk.com/
 http://www.esl-lounge.com/songstop.shtml
 http://www.songsforteaching.com/esleflesol.htm

http://www.esl4kids.net/songs.html
 http://www.esl-galaxy.com/music.htm

http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Songs/
 http://www.gigglepotz.com/eslsongs.htm

Here is the link to my TPT page. Feel free to share it with your teacher trainees. It is a free download. If you like it, please give it a good rating. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ESL-Wacky-Conversation-Starters

Lastly,show them how to do this:
Cut and paste questions to make a Powerpoint, sentence strips or question cards. http://iteslj.org/questions/
Have an example ready. Show them how to use the same questions to make 3 different activities (Powerpoints, sentence strips and question cards.)

Don’t forget to cover thematic units and phonics.

I know there is a lot here and you probably won’t be able to cover all of in in one session.  Just pick what is the easiest to manage for you and check back, soon I’ll elaborate more on cooperative learning activities and more.

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May 13th, 2010 by · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

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