Teacher Discussion Forums

Love group work for middle and high school students for several reasons. They get to practice their English in small group settings with little anxiety, if you group them according to language, higher level students can help lower level students, and they get social interaction as well as whatever t...

I had the opportunity this year with high school students to create some lesson plans that utilized Bloom's high level questions and was pleasantly surprised to see that the results brought more student involvement and a deeper level of understanding to the skills being taught. I used a lesson plan ...

While projects can be a wonderful way to assess learning in ELL's, there are pitfalls when they are not thought through. Additionally, modifications and changes may become necessary during the project as well. During this past semester, several students in my grade 9-12 h.s. ESL class were assigned ...

I just experienced a conversation with an academic content area teacher that I think will change the way they deal with future ESL students (I hope). During class, this teacher handed out the study guide for the class final exam. When she came to the aforementioned ESL student, she asked him to use ...

Now that my student teaching requirement has been fulfilled, I have spent some time reflecting on what I learned from the cooperating teacher, the students and the experience as a whole. Seven years ago, I was hired for a one-year maternity leave position to teach ESL to grades 7-12. I traveled betw...

Our graduate class has been watching "micro lessons" of each of the students in the class for the past two weeks. Our assignment was to design a unit lesson and then pick part of it to teach using the other students in the class as their 'pretend' ESL students. I have been awed by some of the lesson...

As I am sure it is no surprise that at this time of year, my English language learners, who are working hard to pass their academic classes are panicking about upcoming final exams. They want credit for classes and they do not want to go to summer school. A simple e-mail to their teachers was easy t...

As part of my teaching practicum for ESL in grades 9-12, I surveyed my students to ask for ideas on subjects they wanted to cover before the end of the school year. They wanted to practice English that would help them in real life situations. I designed lessons that had them filling out real job app...

There seems to be a lot of debate as to the advantages and disadvantages of CALL in ELL classrooms, but an important point is missing. We live in an age where technology changes from week to week and if our second language students are going to successfully compete with their native English speaking...

A class assigned reading for an ESL Teaching and Assessing class described several principles of CALL which stands for Computer Assisted Language Learning that hopefully all teachers are aware of as they are mostly common sense principles. That being said, I found the two most important to be pre-sc...

I use Starfall.com with Pre-K and Kindergarten age students that are second language learners and the site is completely appropriate for your 3-year old. The graphics and modeling would be perfect for age appropriate phonemic awareness and beginning to read skills. Additionally, your son will learn ...

Two 11th graders passed the HSPA on their first try!!!! The other 8 students that took the test came very close, several scored between 196 and 198, so close. I am so glad that the test is broken down into components so that they can concentrate on those areas that they need to improve on. Sometimes...

After having a bad day student teaching last week, I ask the students to give me two topics that they would like to cover this week. They wanted to practice speaking English in real situations. Since most of my students are in 10th and 11th grade. I obtain copies of job applications from the Guidanc...

Okay, I am going to try (after my observations today and tomorrow) to hold a discussion with my secondary level language students where they direct what they want to learn next. I have some wiggle room in the next few weeks of school. So what better time to let them have some control of the content ...

I am completing my practicum in 2 high school classes, each is 80 minutes long. One class has 6 students with proficiency levels in the high 3's and low 4's. They need to be pushed a little sometimes, but I started using journal prompts (grading and reading them daily) to settle them down and get th...