Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

Still wonder what the other 49 are doing while you connect with one at a time.

Thoughtfully planning lessons that will include as many students as possible in terms of something that's meaningful to their goals (ideally related to how they will need or want to use English in the future) is the best 'connection' type possible. What you describe is out-of-class-time talk; optional, casual, and in much smaller groups than those described here.

[Non Sequitur]

Have to agree with Spiral.
I start with the macro level i.e. I've got 18 weeks.
1.5 contact hours pw and 50 students.
I use most of the first week getting my marking/progress slips in place and I always try to finish the semester with one clear week in hand.
That's now a total of 16 weeks to use.
I have two assessments - mid semester and final.
As 60 percent of semester mark is class work I really need to bolster the assessment opportunities in the mid semester portion.

[Non Sequitur]

[Non Sequitur]

Oh yeah and about songs in the ESL classroom try this:
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Schoepp-Songs.html