I’m always looking for activities that get students physically moving while also giving them exposure to meaningful language. Recently, I used a game that I call “Change Places If You…” It’s a game I played in my high school youth group, but I’ve adapted it a little to make it easier for language learners. In …
Author: Allison Lewis
The Importance of Consistency in Free Reading Time
Students need time to read books of their choice. They need time to read in class, and it needs to be consistent. I’m talking about giving students time to read in class where they are independently reading books or stories that they choose, whether you call it FVR (Free Voluntary Reading), SSR (Silent Sustained Reading), …
Continue reading The Importance of Consistency in Free Reading Time
How to Do a MovieTalk with Full-Length Movies
In my first few years of teaching ESL, I always thought that movies and videos in English would be great resources to use in class. But whenever I tried to use them, it never worked well. The students could barely understand anything, and the whole experience just ended up being frustrating for both my students …
Continue reading How to Do a MovieTalk with Full-Length Movies
Reading Conferences
In January, I started doing reading conferences with my students for the first time. There are two main schools of thought about what teachers should do while students are reading silently during independent reading time in class: one is that the teacher should read silently with the students to model and encourage reading (and prevent …
Valentine’s Day 2019
Valentine's Day is almost here! I posted some ideas for Valentine's Day back in 2017, but I wanted to post about some new ideas I have for this year. In my classes, I'm planning to use this Romantic World Records activity. It's a group guessing game I created using information from the Guinness Book of …
Video: My Students’ Favorite Part of Class
It’s important to ask our students for feedback about our class. What do they like about our class? What do they not like? How did our class make them feel? I typically give my students a paper survey to fill out at the end of the semester. I tell them not to write their names …
How to Add a Little History and Culture to Class Every Day
One of my plans for the new year is to start integrating more information related to U.S. culture and history into my classes. At the end of last semester, as I talked with my classes about what they liked and didn’t like, several students mentioned that they liked learning about U.S. history, culture, the news, …
Continue reading How to Add a Little History and Culture to Class Every Day
