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Hardeman County ESL
guy@hardemancountyschools.org
731-267-7011

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McNairy County ESL
harvillea@mcnairy.org
cell: 731-610-2365

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What (Teachers) really say about school, students, and Professional Development nearing the end

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What teachers say in parent conferences when the only translator is the student

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This will be where a summary of annotations will be, you don't have any annotations yet.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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If your new English language learner is not speaking, don't worry. Most newcomers go through a stage during which they do not produce language. This doesn't mean they are not learning.

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All Grade Levels

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strategies for teaching english language learners

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WIDA: CAN DO Descriptors by grade level cluster; download for PreK-K, Grades 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, or 9-12

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The WIDA CAN DO Descriptors are used by ESL teachers in coaching general education teachers about differentiated instruction for English language learners.

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Moises, a fictional young Spanish-speaking immigrant, faces conflicts in his English-immersion school in the United States in this video from Media That Matters: Immersion. Moises understands math concepts well, but his limited English means he does not have the vocabulary to understand the language of story problems. He struggles, along with his math teacher, to prepare for two weeks of standardized math testing.

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Resources for teachers of ESL students

English Language Arts (ELA) Teachers

Pete's PowerPoint Station - A collection of free PowerPoint presentations for the content areas. Simple English is used which makes it easier for ESL student to understand the main concepts. This site is also full of great visuals to accompany concepts.

Breaking Down the Walls - Ideas and reading resources centered around accepting differences and valuing different cultures. Under "classroom resources" there are several suggestions, activities, and links to reading materials and study guides to help students think about their own and others' cultures. Target audience seems to be higher elementary and middle school students.

ESL Stories - This site has many different stories that students can read and then answer the questions that follow the story. Students can click on the words in bold for a definition of that word. There is also a button after the quiz so they can check their answers. The stories range from easy to more difficult.

Everything ESL - This is another site that offers many great ideas for teachers of ELL's. There are examples of lesson plans, teaching tips as well as different resources and a teaching tips section.

Mr. Lettiere's English - Reading and Writing: A great resource of short stories with quizzes, novel guides, projects and more.

DLTK's Growing Together - For our youngest learners...crafts, ideas, and activities to help develop letter recognition, sight word, sequencing, and other early literacy skills.

Good Games - If you are an elementary teacher, definitely check out this site. This site has different games that focus on vocabulary (i.e. around the school), grammar and speaking. You can actually print out different game boards and pieces to use in the classroom.

Lingro - Allows students to translate words directly within the website as they are reading. Lingro remembers all the words you look up, so you can easily review and study them.

Brain Pop - Animated Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 kids.

Brain Pop Jr - Provides educational movies for K-3 students. Homework Help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. Exceptional resource for teachers.

Brain Pop ESL - is an educational resource featuring games, lesson plans, activities and animated movies. BrainPOP ESL is designed for all English Language Learners.

New York State Department of Education Bilingual Education Site - This site includes information about state standards and assessments for ESL students.

Mathematics Teachers

Mathematics Dictionary - This site has simple explanations for more than 600 mathematical terms, which are organized alphabetically. It also includes practice activities and calculators for each of the defined terms.

Bilingual Glossaries - This website provides links to glossaries for many languages. They are organized by language, and sometimes by content. What a great resource for you!

Colorin Colorado - This site provides resources for educators and families in both English and Spanish. There is an area devoted to teaching content to ELLs; there are several helpful articles about teaching math to ELLs.

Enhancing Mathematics Teaching - This site, facilitated by the Texas State University System, ahs many tools including sample lesson plans, online training videos, resources in Spanish and other helpful materials for teaching math to ELLs.

Escort - This site includes downloadable HelpKits for PreK-6 and secondary teachers. There is an entire chapter devoted to math for ELLs, as well as general classroom strategies.

Boggles World - Worksheets for Teaching ESL Young Learners Math

Strategies to Support ESL Students in Math - How to help English language learners develop math concepts while learning English.

Pete's PowerPoint Station - A collection of free PowerPoint presentations for the content areas. Simple English is used which makes it easier for ESL student to understand the main concepts. This site is also full of great visuals to accompany concepts.

Brain Pop - Animated Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 kids.

Brain Pop Jr - Provides educational movies for K-3 students. Homework Help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. Exceptional resource for teachers.

Brain Pop ESL - is an educational resource featuring games, lesson plans, activities and animated movies. BrainPOP ESL is designed for all English Language Learners.

Lingro - Allows students to translate words directly within the website as they are reading. Lingro remembers all the words you look up, so you can easily review and study them.

New York State Department of Education Bilingual Education Site - This site includes information about state standards and assessments for ESL students.

Science Teachers

Pete's PowerPoint Station - A collection of free PowerPoint presentations for the content areas. Simple English is used which makes it easier for ESL student to understand the main concepts. This site is also full of great visuals to accompany concepts.

Bilingual Glossaries - This website provides links to glossaries for many languages. They are organized by language, and sometimes by content. What a great resource for you!

Paso Partners - This website offers actually lessons and curricular materials that can be used in grades K-3. These PDF's can be downloaded and work to 'integrate math, science, and language. Some of the lesson materials are what we would consider to be very "busy' for an ESL student, so please feel free to bring materials to the ESL teacher if you have questions about the appropriateness of the materials for your specific ESL student. Topics include: The Five Senses, Spiders, the Human Body, Oceans, the Stars, Matter, and others.

Boggles World - Learning ESL through Life Science Content

Stories about People - Easy to Understand English: Biographies, Text & MP3 Files. There are 235 fifteen-minute MP3 files and 9 shorter MP3 files discussing Scientists, Athletes, Activists & People Important to Social Reform, Artists, Business & Industry, Health, Musicians, Inventors, Designers, Developers, Explorers, etc.

Brain Pop - Animated Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 kids.

Brain Pop Jr - Provides educational movies for K-3 students. Homework Help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. Exceptional resource for teachers.

Brain Pop ESL - is an educational resource featuring games, lesson plans, activities and animated movies. BrainPOP ESL is designed for all English Language Learners.

Lingro - Allows students to translate words directly within the website as they are reading. Lingro remembers all the words you look up, so you can easily review and study them.

Science Bilingual and ESL Glossaries - These documents are a very valuable resource to any science teacher who has a student whose first language is not English. These are extremely useful for foreign exchange students, English as a second language learners (ESL), or just students who are having a hard time translating information from English into their native language.

Science A-Z - Internet-delivered, Leveled Elementary Science Units. Download affordable science curriculum science books, science labs, science projects-at three levels of difficulty per elementary grade span. Subscription required.

New York State Department of Education Bilingual Education Site - This site includes information about state standards and assessments for ESL students.

Social Studies Teachers

Lingro - Allows students to translate words directly within the website as they are reading. Lingro remembers all the words you look up, so you can easily review and study them.

Current Events for High School Students - This site would be excellent for high school current events. It offers a quick synopsis of an article and then follows with different activities and worksheets that the student can complete. What a great way to help students improve their reading comprehension and improve the complexity of their vocabulary!

Times For Kids - The latest news from around the world for kids in grades K-6. Includes related polls, games, and websites.

Pete's PowerPoint Station - A collection of free PowerPoint presentations for the content areas. Simple English is used which makes it easier for ESL student to understand the main concepts. This site is also full of great visuals to accompany concepts.

Brain Pop - Animated Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 kids.

Brain Pop Jr - Provides educational movies for K-3 students. Homework Help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. Exceptional resource for teachers.

Brain Pop ESL - is an educational resource featuring games, lesson plans, activities and animated movies. BrainPOP ESL is designed for all English Language Learners.

Teaching Social Studies to ESL Students - Content-Area Instruction for English Language Learners.

New York State Department of Education Bilingual Education Site - This site includes information about state standards and assessments for ESL students.

Modifying for ESL students

Each ESL student needs a different amount of support in the classroom. At the beginning of the school year, the ESL teacher will provide you with a list of specific modifications that are recommended for each ESL student. To help you develop a unit plan that modifies for your students, use the Modification Plan Form below. These materials are also available on EagleNet should you wish to download the template.

Essentially, there are three components to modify for an ESL student:

Content (the curriculum, essential ideas, key understandings, vocabulary, terms, etc.)

Instruction (the method of presentation, classwork expected of the student, and materials provided to the student)

Assessment (the manner in which student knowledge is evaluated and graded)

Some ideas as to how to modify in each of these areas are provided below. There are also some forms and samples provided for you on EagleNet.

How to modify content for ESL students

Depending upon the level of English proficiency, your ESL student will be able to manage a certain amount of material in your class. Remember...ESL students are intelligent and really want to learn what you are teaching! They want to learn some or all of the content of the class. The suggested guidelines might help:

Early Beginner: identify two or three essential ideas for students to learn and several background words that would be helpful for students. For example, if you are teaching a unit on the properties of fluids, these new students might be able to learn words such as: water, solid, fluids, liquid, soft, hard, wet, and so on.

High Beginner / Intermediate: Identify several essential ideas for students to learn and a concentrated list of core vocabulary. These ESL students would benefit from a shortened list of the vocabulary that you've identified as important for this unit.

Advanced: These ESL students should be expected to learn the majority or all of the content that you teach to regular education students. However, they may need more time to complete assignments, demonstrate their knowledge, and more support and structure during lessons and assignments.

How to modify instruction and materials for ESL students

Many teachers feel overwhelmed at the prospect of modifying their classroom instruction for ESL students. They may assume they should prepare a completely alternate lessons, or find very different materials for these students. That simply is not true! A few simple strategies will help you change the existing lesson so that the ESL student can make progress too. Remember: the definition of 'modify' is to change something that already exists, not to create something new.

The key to success in modifying instruction and materials is PRE-PLANNING!!! If you can modify your materials BEFORE the lesson, the ESL student will be able to make the most of the existing instructional time.

Early Beginner: these students can be the most challenging to reach, as their communication skills are not well developed. Try to write out as many simplified directions for them as you can. Provide graphic organizers to them. Pre-copy the class notes and give students the notes before the lesson. Use highlighters and sticky notes to identify the material you expect them to focus on.

High Beginner / Intermediate: Identify several essential ideas for students to learn and a concentrated list of core vocabulary. These ESL students would benefit from a shortened list of the vocabulary that you've identified as important for this unit. For simplified materials that would help these students make progress, we suggest browsing popular ESL sites and sharing materials with colleagues.

Advanced: These ESL students should be expected to learn the majority or all of the content that you teach to regular education students. However, they may need more time to complete assignments, demonstrate their knowledge, and need more support and structure during lessons and assignments. Check out our resources page of ESL sites for more ideas.The trick to working with these students is to continually check in with them regarding how much they understand. Because these students have strong social language skills, it is easy to assume that they understand much more than they do and/or that they have the background knowledge needed to make good progress. Since these students have spent the past few years learning English, they may not have the same background knowledge as your other students.

How to modify assessments for ESL students

We recommend identifying the way in which you will assess the ESL student at the outset of the unit. Depending upon the ESL student's level, you might choose one of the following levels of assessment:

Descriptions of each type of assessment are below. Please note that all ESL students may receive extended time to complete assessments and also use their bilingual translators. These accommodations are recommended by the NYS Department of Education.

Alternate: Allow the ESL student to demonstrate their knowledge in a completely different format. Generally, for beginning students with limited proficiency in English, pictures, drawing, and short verbal explanations work best. At this stage, the student is generally only graded on content, and not on spelling, grammar, or stylistics.

Label a picture or diagram

Draw a picture that demonstrates a key idea

Explain an idea orally

Answer a few questions orally

Draw lines between vocabulary terms and pictures

Allow students to submit a project in lieu of an in-class test. The project might take a week or more for the student to complete.

Simplified: Develop a short assessment that evaluates only the essential ideas and core vocabulary that the ESL student was required to learn.

True/false

Multiple choice with two answers

Matching with a limited number of choices

Word bands provided

Modified: Use the same test that you've prepared for regular education students, but shorten it and focus on essential ideas and core vocabulary.

Cross out half the questions

Require students to complete only certain portions of the test

Provide a word bank (write it on the test)

Allow students to choose to answer 5 of 10 questions

Provide multiple choice answers for questions that would normally require students to create an answer

Turn short answer into multiple choice or a math problem

Shorten the length of the required answer

For multiple choice, cross out one or two of the incorrect answers

Accommodated: Use the same test as used for regular education students, but also allow ESL accommodations such as extended time and the use of bilingual translators/dictionaries.

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Pete's PowerPoint Station - A collection of free PowerPoint presentations for the content areas. Simple English is used which makes it easier for ESL student to understand the main concepts. This site is also full of great visuals to accompany concepts. Breaking Down the Walls - Ideas and reading resources centered around accepting differences and valuing different cultures.

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English language learners (ELLs) often have problems mastering science, math, or social studies concepts because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects. ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy, will benefit from explicit instruction of comprehension skills along with other skills.

Examples of comprehension skills that can be taught and applied to all reading situations include:

Summarizing

Sequencing

Inferencing

Comparing and contrasting

Drawing conclusions

Self-questioning

Problem-solving

Relating background knowledge

Distinguishing between fact and opinion

Finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details

These skills are particularly important for comprehending what is generally known as information reading or expository reading.

For more information, see our related articles and classroom videos:

Why reading comprehension skills are particularly important for ELLs

ELL students will still need a lot of vocabulary development and teaching of comprehension strategies even if they:

have been mainstreamed after some bilingual instruction;

are being pulled out for English as a Second Language or Sheltered English instruction; and/or

have been assessed as English proficient but you know that they still need additional help with language, reading, and writing.

Here is a way of thinking about the support your ELLs will need:

Classroom strategies: Steps for explicitly teaching comprehension skills

The following steps are useful for all students. However, these need to be complemented with the additional steps below to ensure comprehension for ELLs.

Introduce the comprehension strategy or skill (see above list) through examples. Discuss how, when, where, and why the strategy or skills are used. For example: contrast main idea with details, fact with opinion, good summaries with poor summaries.

Have students volunteer additional examples to contrast and discuss.

Label, define, model, and explain the strategy or skill. For example, after listing four facts about a healthy diet and four opinions about what is good to eat, label one list as facts and the other list as opinions.

Give students opportunities to practice using the strategy with a peer as they apply it to a short, simple paragraph from a science text or any expository text.

Debrief with the whole class to ask students to share how they applied the strategy or skill.

Additional steps for ELLs

Identify vocabulary words that you think might be difficult for students to understand when they read the text. Write ELL-friendly definitions for each - that is, simple, brief definitions ELLs can easily understand.

Model think-alouds. For example: verbalize a confusing point or show how you use a strategy to comprehend something. "This sounds very confusing to me. I better read this sentence again."

Demonstrate fix-up strategies. For example: I need to think about this. Let me rethink what was happening. Maybe I'll reread this. I'll read ahead for a moment.

Partner ELLs with more dominant English speakers and ask each student to take a turn reading and thinking aloud with short passages.

After working with partners successfully, ask ELLs to practice independently by using a checklist such as the following. Be sure to explain all the terms and model each.
While I was reading, how did I do?

Celebrate each ELLs' progress with recognition notes, praise, and/or class applause.

For advanced ELLs

When students' English proficiency and basic reading skills have increased, you can teach the following steps not just to ELLs, but to all students - because everyone will benefit.

In pairs, have students survey the text and use an idea map to record the main idea and details.

Ask partners to read the text.

Have partners restate the main idea and supporting details. At this point, they can add to their idea map or make necessary corrections.

Then ask students to reread the text and either develop their own questions (pretending to prepare a test for their partner) or write a short summary of what they just read.

After that, have partners check each other's work.

Finally, partners can share their questions or summaries with other teams.

Other ideas

For building ELL comprehension

Teach students how to use these tools for informational or expository reading:

Ask students to use the following strategies to summarize (orally or in writing):

Retell what you read, but keep it short.

Include only important information.

Leave out less important details.

Use key words from the text.

Questioning ELLs after reading

After the ELLs and/or whole class have completed the reading comprehension activities above, you can anchor or test their comprehension with carefully crafted questions, taking care to use simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

These questions can be at the:

Literal level (Why do the leaves turn red and yellow in the fall?)

Interpretive level (Why do you think it needs water?)

Applied level (How much water are you going to give it? Why?)

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Reading Comprehension Skills for English Language Learners

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English language learners (ELLs) often have problems mastering science, math, or social studies concepts because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects. ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy, will benefit from explicit instruction of comprehension skills along with other skills.

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by Jane D. Hill and Cynthia L. Björk

Key Ideas for Chapter 2

Students acquiring a second language progress through five predictable stages.

Effective ELL instruction

Reflects students' stages of language acquisition.

Helps students move through the language acquisition levels.

Engages ELLs at all stages of language acquisition in higher-level thinking activities.

The Five Stages of Second Language Acquisition

Anyone who has been around children who are learning to talk knows that the process happens in stages-first understanding, then one-word utterances, then two-word phrases, and so on. Students learning a second language move through five predictable stages: Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluency, and Advanced Fluency (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). How quickly students progress through the stages depends on many factors, including level of formal education, family background, and length of time spent in the country.

It is important that you tie instruction for each student to his or her particular stage of language acquisition. Knowing this information about each student allows you to work within his or her zone of proximal development-that gap between what students can do on their own and what they can do with the help of more knowledgeable individuals (Vygotsky, 1978).

Another reason for all teachers to gain insights into their students' stages of second language acquisition is to meet the requirements of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which requires ELLs to progress in their content knowledge and in their English language proficiency. How are we going to accomplish this if we are not all responsible for content and language?

Activity

Complete the "stages" activity in Appendix 4. If time allows, add two more teacher strategies to each stage. When you are finished, answer these questions:

Why should we be aware of the stages of language acquisition?

What are the implications of the stages for mainstream instruction?

Tiered Questions

Research shows that high levels of student engagement are "a robust predictor of student achievement and behavior in school" (Klem & Connell, 2004, p. 262). At the same time, one way for mainstream teachers to engage their ELLs more is by asking tiered questions. We recommend that teachers ask frequent questions throughout their lessons, as doing so lets ELLs practice their new language and helps teachers assess how much of the content the ELLs understand. Of course, questions should be tailored to each ELL's level of second language acquisition.

Figure 2.1 summarizes the five stages of language acquisition and shows some appropriate prompts and sample questions to use for each stage of second language acquisition. By knowing the stages of language acquisition and stage-appropriate questions, you can engage students at the correct level of discourse. Asking the tiered questions that accompany the stages of acquisition is one way to help students move to the next stage. To ensure that the student is being challenged and pushed to the next level, it is important to once in a while ask questions from the next level as well.

Although there may be an approximate time frame for each stage of language acquisition, the length of time students spend at each level will be as varied as the students themselves.

As you can see from Figure 2.1, it is OK to ask Preproduction students "Where is ... ?" or "Who has ... ?" questions-that is, questions that require a pointing, drawing, or circling response. It is even OK to ask Preproduction students a question every so often that requires a one-word response, because we always want to transition them to the next stage.

For Early Production students, questions that require a one-word response, such as yes/no and either/or questions, are acceptable. You also want to begin asking students at this stage questions that require a phrase or short sentence.

Speech Emergence students should be asked to answer questions that require a short-sentence response. It is OK to sometimes ask these students questions requiring a multiple-sentence response, but it is not OK to ask them questions requiring a pointing or one-word response.

How about Intermediate and Advanced Fluency students? It is OK to ask them questions that require a lot of verbal output, but it is not OK to ask them questions requiring minimal verbal output.

You can use tiered questions to include all ELLs in whole-class activities, or one on one to check comprehension or content learning. To accomplish this, you will need to know each student's stage of language acquisition.

Classroom Example

To improve her ability to ask tiered questions, a 1st grade teacher asks the school ESL teacher to demonstrate the strategy in her class during a discussion of The Three Little Pigs. For each stage of second language acquisition, the ESL teacher asks the following types of tiered questions:

Preproduction: Ask questions that students can answer by pointing at pictures in the book ("Show me the wolf," "Where is the house?").

Early Production: Ask questions that students can answer with one or two words ("Did the brick house fall down?" "Who blew down the straw house?").

Speech Emergence: Ask "why" and "how" questions that students can answer with short sentences ("Explain why the third pig built his house out of bricks." "What does the wolf want?").

Intermediate Fluency: Ask "What would happen if ..." and "Why do you think ..." questions ("What would happen if the pigs outsmarted the wolf?" "Why could the wolf blow down the house made of sticks, but not the house made of bricks?").

Advanced Fluency: Ask students to retell the story, including main plot elements but leaving out unnecessary details.

Activity

Turn to the sample lesson plans in Appendix 5-8 and select the one that's most appropriate for your grade level. After reading the lesson, match the sample student responses at the end to their respective stages of second language acquisition. You may be asked to share your responses with the large group.

Tiered Thinking Across Stages of Second Language Acquisition

What distinguishes low-level questions from high-level ones? You likely use or recall Bloom's taxonomy (Bloom, Englehart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956), which provides a structure for categorizing the level of abstraction of questions. Figure 2.2 illustrates the levels in the taxonomy, starting with questions for recalling information (low level) and concluding with questions for predicting and discriminating among ideas (high level).

Figure 2.2. Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy

The Ramirez study of bilingual educational programs (Ramirez, 1992) found that in all the language programs studied (including immersion and early- and late-exit transitional programs), teachers tended to ask low-level questions. In fact, in more than half of their interactions, students did not produce any oral language; when they did, they engaged in simple recall.

You may ask yourself, "How can I possibly ask a Preproduction or Early Production student a high-level question if the most that student can do is point or give a one-word response?" Do not mistake an ELL's limited output for an inability to think abstractly. It's easy to keep asking Preproduction students yes/no questions or have them respond by pointing, but the students must do more than simply recall knowledge. We can't have ELLs stuck at the lowest levels of thinking.

Have you ever seen the levels of thinking from Bloom's Taxonomy aligned with the stages of second language acquisition? For some reason, many people think that students in the initial stages of acquisition can only answer low-level questions, and that those in the advanced stages are more likely to answer high-level questions. However, this is not the case.

As Figure 2.3 shows, the levels of thinking and the stages of second language acquisition should operate more as axes than in side-by-side alignment.

Figure 2.3. Relationship Between Bloom's Taxonomy and the Stages of Second Language Acquisition

Appendix 1 shows an actual matrix using both the levels of thinking and the stages of second language acquisition.

English language learners at all stages of acquisition should be asked questions at all levels of thinking. We don't want them to get stuck at a knowledge level only. We want to challenge their thinking and speaking abilities.

Card Sort Activity

The statements on the cards for this activity in Appendix 9 are taken from a high school science class during a plant unit. The students have already acquired and integrated plant knowledge and are now ready to practice, review, and apply what they've learned.

How would you engage students across all stages of second language acquisition at all levels of thinking? Place the activity cards on the most suitable space on the game board.

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The Stages of Second Language Acquisition

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by Jane D. Hill and Cynthia L. Björk Students acquiring a second language progress through five predictable stages. Effective ELL instruction Reflects students' stages of language acquisition. Helps students move through the language acquisition levels. Engages ELLs at all stages of language acquisition in higher-level thinking activities.

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Google’s service, offered free of charge, instantly translates words, phrases, and web pages between English and over 100 other languages.

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Jobs, Worksheets, and Flashcards for the ESL and TEFL Teacher.

Find Science Worksheets and Teaching Resources at www.science-teachers.com

Halloween Flashcards

Amounts and Containers
Superhero Flashcards

The continents and oceans card game. Good content-based ESL for practising present perfect and simple past as well as geography terms.
Clothes Flashcards History Worksheets and Teaching Resources at www.littlehistorians.com.

Site Search

Glossary of ESL terms

Snowflakes are beautiful!

Phonics Resources

CVC Words

Consonant Digraphs

Long Vowels

Introduction: Young Learner Worksheets:

Basic ESL worksheets for K7 young learners . This section has been much expanded with over one hundred units of young learners' teaching materials.

Seasonal Links:

Fall Worksheets

Teach autumn vocabulary with these fall worksheets and activities. Also, check out the fall teaching resources for young learners, the fall bingo, and fall super quiz game.

Halloween Worksheets

There are a number of Halloween worksheets and activities including Halloween bingo, Halloween flashcards, Halloween videos, and the Halloween super quiz game. There is also a Halloween young learners unit.

new! Super Quiz Game

Generate quiz games for your class with the new Super Quiz Game generators.

Get your students ready to interact with coworkers in the worplace with these Workplace Interactions
workplace listening, reading, and vocabulary selections.

new! Listening Selections

Practise listening with beginner, intermediate, and advanced listening dialogues.

new! Vocabulary Video Presentations

There are a number of vocabulary video presentations on topics such as the season, cooking verbs, and places in a city.

Content Questions

Board Game

An excellent communicative activity with extensive support materials for teaching kids. In the Content Questions Board Game game kids answer content questions like What do seeds need to grow?

Word Skills Game

Rhyming Riddles

This section contains rhyming riddle worksheets that can be used as fun vocabulary review and rhyme awareness exercises. Now there are also anagram riddles, homophone riddles, and word morph riddles as well.
Proverbs Communication Activity I need a Ticket to Osaka, Japan? Frog Life Cycle Worksheets Can I Bug You for a Sec?
A solving a puzzle. A good classroom English role-play as students use language to talk role-play where students ask for help about words.
Reporting Changes Can I take a message? Telephone English
Students practice taking and leaving message with this telephone English role-play . There is also a business English version .
Giving Directions
A role-play to practice asking someone out to dinner and giving directions to the restaurant. Also, Giving directions II: directions by subway or bus route . And finally, giving directions III: directions by roadmap and suggesting somewhere to go .
Movie Lessons!
Two great activities with worksheets, role-plays, and activities for teaching ESL for movies.
I'm Calling about the Apartment? Little Letter Tracing Worksheets: A Visit to the Doctor Role-play How Much Is It? Short Conversation Resources Teaching Effective Communication Through Graded Reading Materials TEFL Grapevine Grammar Soccer: Reported Speech: Traveling Among Monsters Language Enrichment:
The Biggleborians: This worksheet combines anthropology and ESL. Useful for teaching the present progressive and the past.
Irregular Past Tense Verbs Food Chain Worksheets:

Word Skills Cloze Activties

This section contains worksheet generators for reviewing word skills such as synonyms, antonyms, categories, past tense, and naming.

Large Flashcards

We've collected all of our large flashcard sets into one section.

Job Fair: A Role-play
Easy ESL Crosswords
A collection of ESL crosswords put together by Lanternfish ESL:

English Vocabulary Games
A collection of games and vocabulary activities on a variety of themes put together by Lanternfish ESL for advanced beginner to intermediate students:

Teaching Relative Clauses with Massive Comprehensible Input
This section contains 20 crosswords made using a database of clues in the form of relative clauses. There is also a new collection with word skills crosswords.
Describing and Captioning Pictures
A great activity for sentence level speaking and writing. Students describe a picture in as many sentences as they can. There is also a section for young learners now. And now there is a spot the difference section and story questions worksheets.
Initial Sounds and Final Sounds Phonics Worksheets
Over 30 new worksheets that cover the initial sounds of words . There are also some newly added Final Sounds Worksheets . Also check out the phonics monsters .
Alphabet Worksheets
A collection of alphabet worksheets including alphabet mazes , alphabet trains , and big letter coloring worksheets and small letter tracing sheets .
Reading Puzzle Packets Juicy Baek: ESL Surveys: Telephone Language: Superlatives Communication Activity The ESL Science Center:
A with science articles geared towards monthly web magazine ESL learners. This month: Reptiles, Amphibians, Science, Scientists, and Anthropology.

Writers Workshop:

T he workshop has moved. Lessons on Weighing an Argument, Building an Argument, and Refuting an Argument.
Preposition Cards:
G hosts, trolls, and aliens are in the house.Check out the Preposition Flashcards.
Hypothetically Speaking Game: Web Guide Other Resources?
T he Dolch Sight Words teaching materials are new. As well as the Phrasal Verb Crosswords . The Harry Potter Worksheets .
ESL Business Activities: ESL Game Boards:
Dozens of Printable Game boards for communicative classes.
Holiday Worksheets Information Gap Exercises Conversation Question Prompts
Learn forest animal names and the conjunction 'and' with this Bingo Game . Now, there are many new bingo games with bingo card generators with topics such as birds, animals, kitchen objects, shapes and colors .
City Worksheets:
Activities and worksheets with a city theme .

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ESL Teacher Resources, Job Boards, and Worksheets

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Worksheets, jobs, flashcards, lesson plans, and activities for teaching ESL and EFL

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It is possible to help a beginning English-language learner (ELL) improve so much in a matter of months that he or she can pass the sixth through eighth grade state standardized tests. This student can go from five to 50 percent on a school curriculum test. It's happening in my middle school classroom, and it can happen in your classrooms, too. With the right support and differentiation, ELLs will be successful in your general education or language arts classroom.

As you read the following, keep in mind that these ELL strategies are good for engaging all students. That's because they're interactive and focus on the four domains of language -- reading, writing, speaking, and listening -- which all students need support in developing. Often with general education students, reading and writing get the most attention, while speaking and listening development are neglected.

1. Students should read a book of choice every day.

Research shows that reading daily improves a student's fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, analytical skills, and memory. Work with your librarian to give your students access to books at all levels. Encourage them to read books from different genres at their level. If you have students still struggling with English, computer programs such as i-Ready, Kurzweil, or Starfall can give them a foundation. Transition them to children's books or graphic novels after a month or two.

Once the students are finished reading, creatively tie their silent reading time into your curriculum and lessons. If you're introducing or reviewing "conflict," ask the students to explain and define the conflicts in their books. Relate back to their books with any of the other reading concepts, too. If you're working on a writing conventions mini lesson, have the students refer back to their books to see how their author uses these conventions. The students need to know that their silent reading relates to the big picture.

2. Your lessons should be multimodal.

Teachers need to present material in various ways to reach all types of learners. You can easily prepare ahead of time by adding visuals that will help the students gain access to the content.

Before each lesson, pull up different internet tabs (or apps like the Oxford Picture Dictionary) that include images, videos, and other multimedia to help ELLs understand parts of the vocabulary lesson. A folktale lesson about the "The Crane Maiden," for example, should include vocabulary like crane, marsh, loom, and quilt. These vocabulary words will add to a general idea of what the story is about. Pull up pictures on Google Images and click through them during the lesson as you explain and pre-teach the vocabulary. The story also talks about a maiden using a loom. Along with the images, present a YouTube video of someone using a loom to make a beautiful quilt. These activities will bring about authentic learning and draw from background knowledge.

3. Shorten your lecture.

When students are engaged daily in structured conversations, they are learning. The teacher should facilitate that learning. Structure your class so that you're giving five- to seven-minute lectures and then allowing the students to discuss the subject with guided questions and prompts that use academic vocabulary.

As the rest of the class reads from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, ELLs might read from a children's version and watch a few video clips from the classic MGM film that go with the chapter. Show them the tornado scene, the Munchkin scene, and the Yellow Brick Road introduction, giving them visuals to help them during the structured conversations. After reading, the groups will have meaningful, authentic conversations about what they just read. While the teacher facilitates the process, instead of standing in front explaining, the beginners can start piecing together vocabulary that they see and hear.

4. The students must be writing.

The only way students are going to improve at writing ideas and conventions is to actually write. They should practice writing what they are passionate about -- and that doesn't come from worksheets and drills. After writing sentences and essays, they should learn how to edit and revise their own errors. We should not be correcting their essays for them.

Allow the students to choose topics of their choice. Give them a guide to follow, but don't confine them to certain topics, number of paragraphs, or sentences. They should decide what they want to write about and how they want to write. As they finish their first draft, guide them through ratiocination techniques. In terms of language, this means focusing on word usage, "to be" verbs, run-on sentences, repeated words, and more, rather than the content. Don't correct students' errors for them. This helps them recognize their own errors now and for the future. ELLs can use these techniques, too. When you use mentor texts to explain writing conventions in mini lessons, students will learn how to write as they see these models and look for their own errors. They will jump from beginners to intermediate or advanced writers in a matter of months using these skills.

With these four strategies, I guarantee that you will see incredible improvements in your middle school students. My students were engaged in the lessons and learned new vocabulary words and content each day. I didn't have discipline problems with them because they weren't bored or confused. They improved on curriculum and district tests at an average rate of 15-30 percent when we followed these four strategies.

ELLs and other students can all benefit from these strategies in general education classrooms. Let's not shelter them from this authentic and enriching learning environment.

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4 Strategies to Help ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom

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It is possible to help a beginning English-language learner (ELL) improve so much in a matter of months that he or she can pass the sixth through eighth grade state standardized tests. This student can go from five to 50 percent on a school curriculum test.

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800+ free worksheets volunteer translators roll of honour about this resource

on line so far: English-to-any language (verbs + vocabulary), Romanian-English (verbs + vocabulary), Russian-English (verbs + vocabulary), French-English (verbs + vocabulary + grammar), Polish-English (verbs + vocabulary),
German-English (verbs + vocabulary), Dutch-English (verbs + vocabulary), Italian-English (verbs) (vocab translated not yet validated), Arabic-English (verbs + vocabulary), Urdu-English (verbs + vocabulary),
Spanish-English (verbs) (vocabulary c. 60%, rest not yet validated), Turkish-English (vocabulary), Bulgarian-English (vocabulary), and Hungarian-English (verbs). More sets in preparation - see the Translators' page.

CHINESE: English ~ Mandarin (vocabulary), English ~ Pinyin SC (vocabulary), Pinyin SC ~ Mandarin (vocabulary), English ~ Cantonese (vocabulary), English ~ Pinyin TC (vocabulary), Pinyin TC ~ Cantonese (vocabulary)

The English content of all 14 separate dual-language worksheet sets is the *same* - so children of different nationalities can learn English side-by-side in classrooms.

The index below links to complete lists of all worksheet content in any vocabulary category. The main Arabic page here links to vocabulary category index pages and individual worksheets, and the latest info on translation offers and new languages is here .

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FREE educational resources for children, parents + schools

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Free Arabic-English worksheets - vocabulary and verbs - at FREEWAY and Project HappyChild

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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English has practically become a universal language.
Literally millions of people are studying it.

That means new beginner ESL students are joining the ranks every day.

Creating lessons plans for beginner ESL students may seem like an overwhelming task. However, it can be done. If you follow these 10 steps, it can actually be a totally pain-free process.

1. Identify Your Students

Are you teaching children or adults? Teenagers won't take well to learning nursery rhymes and adults may need to study business English, even if they're just starting to study the language. It's exceedingly important to have a clear focus on the needs of your target audience, because you'll need to consider these needs while developing your own ESL lesson plans.
Teaching ESL to Children
With children, use all sorts of games and activities. According to the British Council, young children are natural language acquirers. All they really need is to see that English class is fun!

Another interesting point identified by the British Counsel is that boy's and girl's brains process language learning differently. Girls tend to be somewhat more adept at picking up new languages, so mixed-gender classes may result in having multi-level classes. Being aware of this developmental process will make you more aware of why certain students may need additional time to progress.
Teaching ESL to Teenagers
Teenagers are right in the sweet spot between childhood and adulthood. They may need to go back and learn some basics, or they might be years into their English language learning.

They'll mostly need material and resources that are relatable and engaging, like pop music and technology. Don't go easy on them-keep them challenged during class time.
Teaching ESL to Adults
When it comes to teaching adults, get them talking about themselves and asking questions with other students.

In many business situations, they'll need to be conversational and to have a vocabulary related to their field. So if you're working with engineers, incorporate relevant terms-including jargon, if required-into your lesson plans. It may sound difficult, but oftentimes the words will be Latin-based and will sound similar to the words in your students' native language.

When beginning adult students start to recognize technical terms, it'll encourage them to feel more comfortable with language learning.

2. Develop a Plan

The big picture question you have to ask yourself before you start planning lessons for beginning students is: What do you want them to be able to do by the end of the class? This might include what they'll be able to understand, say, read or write.

Remember that they're beginners, so you'll have to keep things in line with their newbie perspective. Another question is: What are the skills they need to reach their language goals? By having the answers thought through you can work backwards and divide the whole lesson into key components.

Brainstorming is essential to get the creative process started. Jot down notes to yourself or open a Word file to keep track of your ideas. Some ESL teachers may want to create a multi-colored mind-map.

Another approach is to talk with other ESL teachers about their planning strategies. Even if your school or college has a curriculum, you'll still want to personalize it for the students you will be teaching.

3. Create interactive classes

Make it your goal to get the students doing most of the talking. Absolutely nothing is more boring than a teacher droning on and people-no matter what age they are-tuning out after about five minutes.

This is most easily done in a one-on-one tutoring session, as you can just keep asking questions and directing the conversation. In classes, have students work together or interview each other and then present reports to the class.

Use technology to encourage interaction. Watch a YouTube piece to give students a discussion topic. There are 58,906 clips specifically for beginner ESL students, so the most difficult part of the task is deciding which one to use. Again, it all goes back to the age and interests of the students you're working with.

4. Include all four language components

Young children will start off with speaking. This comes most naturally to them.

With older students and adults, though, the general trend is that the first skill they'll learn is to read in a new language. Next they'll be able to listen and understand. Television, radio, DVDs, computer programs and music come in at this point.

The next step for adults is that they'll start to speak. In some cultures, students of all ages are horrified about making mistakes and will be reluctant to talk. If you can convince them that making mistakes is acceptable, you'll have accomplished a major step towards making them willing to speak and interact.

Writing in another language is often the most difficult skill for students to develop. Unless students become totally bilingual, chances are that they'll never totally master the skill of writing. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't encourage them and that they shouldn't try.

One way to help students develop their writing skills is to have them keep journals or diaries. The translation sites on the Internet may not be perfect, but they're getting better all the time. And they're certainly much faster than using a dictionary.

5. Develop a vocabulary book

Again, this requires some planning in advance.

Developing vocabulary books will depend on the situation. With one-on-one adult tutorials it's a straightforward exercise. With young children it's best done as a class activity so that everyone is, literally, on the same page.

With beginner students about 12 or older, you'll find that they may want to develop personal vocabulary books to reflect their personal interests.

Do you want your students to write down each new word as they learn it or do you want them to separate new words into categories? Do you want them to use cellphones, tablets or notebooks to record words? While paper may be outdated in some contexts, it can still reinforce the written word.

6. Start with the pronouns

English is a pronoun based language: I, me, you, he, she, it, us, them.

With children you can use flashcards with pictures. Older students and adults will have written materials before, so the focus is getting them to memorize the words. Pick key topics for fluid conversation. For example, you could help them to create a pronoun chart.

Another essential set of words are the 5-Ws: who, when, where, when and why. Again, create a chart and get them using the words regularly.

7. Introduce the most important verbs

The Oxford English Dictionary has identified the most frequently used verbs. Beginning students can start working with common verbs like be, have, do, say, get, make, go, know, take and see. The problem with verbs in most languages-and English is no exception-is conjugation. This is where you link the verbs back to the pronouns.

8. Pick out the most important nouns or objects

Different students will have some nouns or objects that are most important to them. Again, this goes back to your big picture planning.

Developing noun clusters is one way to start. Categories such as food, sports, clothes and holidays fit nicely into this approach. Link it back to the vocabulary book and make sure everything is recorded so that students can review it all later.

9. Speak in sentences

As soon as beginning students understand the very basics, move towards speaking in simple sentences. Knowing things in isolation is of little value when it comes to understanding English. Memorizing the names of all the colors is a waste of time if students don't use the words in full sentences.

"I see the book" may sound very elementary-which it is-but it's a sentence. When beginning students can start to put pronouns, verbs and objects to real use, they're closer to being able to move up to the intermediate level.

10. Begin each class with a review

Rather then launching into new material, take the time to review the material that was covered in the last lesson. With children it might be getting them to identify the names of food from photos. With adults it could involve asking them about what they learned in the last lesson.

The review is also a way to evaluate how much your beginner students are understanding. If they can't remember words or sentences you may need to slow down. On the other hand, if they can rattle off everything from the last lesson, you may have to pick up the pace so that they don't get bored.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is the way babies learn to talk and it doesn't differ all that much as we get older. That's where the concept of getting students speaking from the beginning comes into play. With older students, all this is effectively reinforced with vocabulary books and diaries.

So take a deep breath, follow the 10 steps and create some innovative ESL lessons for your students!

Oh, and One More Thing...

If you liked these tips, you'll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.

It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities.

You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "brought," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

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10 Steps to Beginner ESL Lesson Plans That Get Your Students Off the Ground

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English has practically become a universal language.Literally millions of people are studying it.That means new beginner ESL students are joining the ranks every day.Creating lessons plans for beginner ESL students may seem like an overwhelming task. However, it can be done. If you follo

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Between the Lions . Get Flash | PBS KIDS!

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Educators! Visit PBS Learning Media for more Between the Lions.

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Copyright© 2013-2017 Flippity.net. All Rights Reserved.

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These glossaries are to provide permitted testing accommodations of ELL/MLL students. They should also be used for instruction during the school year. These glossaries may be downloaded, printed and disseminated to educators, parents and ELLs/MLLs.

Bilingual glossaries are an essential and expected test accommodation for ELLs/MLLs in the State of New York. The languages of these glossaries cover the top 10 languages at the state level, with new languages added based on changing language populations in the NY State student demographic data.

Schools should provide testing accommodations to ELLs/MLLs, as needed, on all NYS ELA and content-area assessments (i.e., Mathematics, Science and Social Studies). Districts/schools must make all necessary arrangements to make these accommodations available for ELLs/MLLs who need them. Please click here for the New York State Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages Webpage on "Assessment and Testing Accommodations".

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These glossaries are to provide permitted testing accommodations of ELL/MLL students. They should also be used for instruction during the school year.

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ESL Powerpoint (PPT) Games

If you are the type of person who prefers to have games on powerpoint or as printable handouts, we have been thinking of you. We offer board games, powerpoint games and more for the classroom and one to one teaching. They have made my lessons fun and I have no doubt yours will be fun too. Added to the good news are the templates we offer that you can use to create customized games for your classroom and teaching.

It is total fun and highly engaging fun lessons with these resources. Games have the power or eliminating negative emotions and keeping learning total fun.With the absence of the affective filter, learning is much more effective. Visit this page.

Printable ESL Board and Card Games

We offer a variety of printable ESL board games and card games to help give your students lots of communicative practice. These games are in printable ESL PDF and MS Word formats. All of these games have been used in ESL classrooms and trust me when I say they work great. We have games like the Crocodile Board Games, Pirate Game, Round Table Card Game, Q and A Card Game, Power Cards and more games of our creation. Visit this page.

ESL Board & Powerpoint Games Templates

ESL Game Templates - Powerpoint and Word Game Templates

On ESL Games World we do not only aim at providing you with games for your classrooms. We have taken a step further to offer you free ESL games templates to empower you with the tools to make your own exercises. Create Powerpoint and Printable Games in minutes. We understand that you may not have too much time for planning a lesson. This is why we offer you our most precious game templates for free. Create your own exercises using our highly intuitive game templates. With our templates, creating materials have never been easier. You will create customized games to practice the language focus of your lessons.

Classroom Tools - Click Here!

Get some cool tools for use in your classroom. There are timers here and gadgets that are useful to both ESL teachers and students.

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ESL Beginner, Elementary, intermediate and Advanced Level Games & Exercises

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ESL Powerpoint (PPT) Games If you are the type of person who prefers to have games on powerpoint or as printable handouts, we have been thinking of you. We offer board games, powerpoint games and more for the classroom and one to one teaching.

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Here is a color coded ESL for kids webmix. Blue is for reading, Green is for Flashcards and Vocabulary, White is for Games, Purple is for phonics, and pink is for singaglongs

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