Breaking News English

I found this site on Enid's blog.  I really liked the website because it provides short news articles about real topics and then has students use reading, writing, listening, and possibly speaking skills to learn about the topic.  Most of the articles could be used in a high school setting.  I like the idea of incorporating news into the classroom, and these articles seem relatively straightforward and easy to follow.  The website provides hand-outs and worksheets for each news article, which is a great aid for the teacher and students.  The lay-out of this website is not the most appealing or easy to follow, but I think the content is worthwhile.

You can find this site in my Resources list or you can click here. 

English Listening Online

Although this website advertises its listening activities, it does incorporate reading and speaking as well.  For example, one of the audio recordings is about dream houses.  Real people from around the world give a brief explanation of their dream house.  Students listen to the audio but can also follow along with the provided transcript.  Students, therefore, are practicing listening, reading, and getting a sense of intonation, rhythm, and stress.  (However, because many non-native English speakers have recordings, the suprasegmentals are not perfect).

After students listen to the recording and read the transcript, there are reading, speaking, and vocab quizzes that students can take.  They are simple, but help students understand vocabulary and the main points.  Most of the topics would be appropriate for high school students.  Listening to real people give their opinions may encourage students to connect to the lesson and want to share their own opinions about the topic.  For the dream house topic, I could extend it by having students write about their dream house, draw a sketch of it, and share it with their classmates.  All 4 competencies could easily be woven together using this website.

You can find this site in my Resources list or you can click here.

Don't Forget to Vote!

Don't be shy!  Take my poll - How many languages can you speak fluently?  See the side bar to the right to vote.  :) 

National Geographic Lesson Plans

When I taught high school geography, I used to use some of the lesson plans from the National Geographic collection of lesson plans.  I really liked them because they had clear objectives and fit nicely into our curriculum.  Now that I've revisited the site from an ESL perspective, I think these lessons would still be very effective in the ESL classroom.  The lessons are categorized by standards, so you can easily find a topic that fits your goal.  The lessons are comprehensive--they provide you with the objectives, materials (like maps, worksheets), and a list of online resources.  Many of the lessons also incorporate the computer/internet, which is a great way for students to learn how to use it for research or other activities.   

I also like that there are a variety of topics that would relate well to international students.  Lessons under standard 6, for example, relate human experiences to their environment and society.  Some of the lessons may be too difficult for low or intermediate ESL students, but could easily be adapted to their level.  Of course, the suggested time frame would probably be longer for ESL students. 

These lessons are great for integrating skills.  Most of them have visual, reading, and writing components.  Discussions are also prevalent in the lessons.  I think these topics relate well to teenagers and would spark their interest and motivation.  The use of computers in the lessons would probably be a good incentive as well.  These lessons incorporate many different skills that could engage and challenge students.

You can find this site in the Resources column or you can click here.  

Review Games and Activities

These games and activities could easily be adapted to integrate all 4 skills, and I think they could be used as review activities, especially for thematic vocabulary.  The Fast Words and Word Association games are quick games to review vocabulary and get the students engaged. 

This site also gives an example of a song cloze.  This is something that would be engaging and interesting for students, but the teacher would need to find a song that could support the learning objectives of the class.

You can find this site in my Resources list or you can click here.   

Picture Dictation

In this activity, the teacher or a student describes a picture verbally and students must draw what they think they hear.  Therefore, this is a great activity for students to practice speaking clearly and listening carefully.  It gives an opportunity for creative students to learn by drawing.  Unlike the samples on this site, I would choose pictures  that are more relevant to teenagers. 

You can find this website in my Resources list or you can click here. 

This idea could also be used for vocabulary building.  Students would have to verbally describe the vocab word and a student could have to draw or guess what the word is.  You could reverse this idea by playing Pictionary, where a student draws and his/her peers guess the vocabulary word.  

Ice Breakers

One way to integrate skills in your classroom is through ice breakers.  This collection of ice breaker resources can give you some ideas of how to weave reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking into more activities.

1.  Introductory Class Ice Breakers - One activity is a partner interview.  Students can create questions they want to ask a partner, and then the interviewer can ask questions and write the answers while the interviewee listens and answers.  Students could practice using complete sentences and using correct intonation for questions and statements.  The Name Game helps students practice adjectives by matching their name with an adjective that starts with the same letter.

2.  'Knowing Yourself' Ice Breakers -  So, don't be alarmed just because these ice breakers are from a juvenile justice website.  They actually have some good activities that help students understand themselves in various ways (drawing, writing, TPR) and then share in small groups or with the class.  Some activities relate to life changes and finding commonalities between friends.  If your ESL class is very diverse, these ice breakers may help students feel more comfortable and give them opportunities to talk about culture and life experiences that have shaped who they are.

3.  Culture Starter Activities - The ESL Flow website has A LOT of ice breaker activities.  I noticed that many of them have some cultural component.  For example, one of them could be used to teach etiquette for gestures like hugging and shaking hands.  There is a worksheet with pictures on it that could guide this activity.

What is nice about this website, in addition to some cultural-specific activities, is that many of the links have pre-made worksheets, which will save teachers time in preparing for these activities.  For example, there is an interview activity that is suitable for high school students.  There is also a worksheet about restaurant problems.  Not all activities are relevant to high school students, so teachers would want to pick the most appropriate and effective activities for their students.    

4.  New Friends Bingo - This Bingo card will help students meet new friends by asking them about pre-made topics.  Students will practice asking questions, listening, and answering.  There would be a few boxes that may need to be changed.  For example, this was made for a middle school in Minnesota, so boxes that relate to those specifically may have to be changed for your own context.  You could create your own bingo chart based on the format and topics in this one. 

Communicative Activities with Writing

This website has some intermediate communicative activities that incorporate some writing skills and concepts like theme, plot, setting, and characters.  The Story Game suggests that students use these concepts by telling a story in a circle, in which students build the story one sentence at a time.  Other activities, such as the Newspaper Headline activity, use writing components at first and then students present their written product to the class.

These activities don't have really specific guidelines, so I think teachers can use these ideas as a starting point and adapt them to fit their own curriculum or goals.  I like most of these ideas because they do have a writing component and encourage teamwork and conversation. 

You can find this site in my Resources list to the right or click here.

Skillswise Website

This BBC website has reading, writing, grammar, listening, spelling, and vocabulary tutorials.  It also has tutorials for a few basic topics in math.  Within each one you can find fact sheets, worksheets, and quizzes for various topics that are fairly straightforward and easy to follow along with.  If I used this with students, I would choose specific tutorials for them to work through.

For example, there is a Game under the Reading tab that has students summarize an audio recording of a vacation.  As students listen, they can type notes in a provided box (to practice summarizing), and easily print it straight from the site.  I would look for specific activities like this that would interest and challenge students.

You can find this website in my Resources list or you can click here.   

Telephone Activity

This telephone simulation does incorporate all 4 competencies.  Students read cards to know what role to take in each phone conversation.  They listen for cues and leave and take messages.  The number of worksheets for each student might be overwhelming for lower level students.  The teacher may want to alter the worksheets to make them simpler (and I noticed at least 2 typos among the handouts).  However, this activity does give ample opportunities for students to practice the 4 skills in a structured way. 

You can find the website in my Resources list or click here. 

Favor for Integrated Skills in the ESL/EFL Classroom

This webpage describes the image of the ESL/EFL classroom, discusses two types of methodology, and then provides tips for teachers to consider in developing an integrated-skills classroom.  Rebecca Oxford, the author, begins by describing the ESL/EFL classroom as a tapestry—the many elements of teaching and learning that create successful language learners when woven together.  She discusses segregated-skill instruction, but clearly does not show favor in this style of instruction.  She mentions some cons to this methodology, but does suggest that even within segregated-skills classes, teachers can and should weave together the 4 competencies of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

            

The second half of her article favorably describes two types of integrated instruction:  content-based and task-based.  She finishes by naming some advantages to these types and then lists some considerations for teachers as they develop integrated instruction.  Some tips include learning more about the types of integrated instruction, evaluating the use of integrated skills in your own teaching approach, finding materials that encompass all 4 competencies, and teaching language learning strategies that can apply to multiple skills. 

These are great starter points for a teacher who is not familiar with this methodology, but I would have liked to see more specific suggestions that included activity ideas or to hear about successful experiences from real teachers.  Oxford does not focus on a specific age group or proficiency level, so the generalizations may seem unhelpful.  However, I think this site would benefit those who have worked in segregated-skill environments or those who question one style over the other because it gives clear reasoning for the advantages of integrated instruction. 

           

Teachers out there:  Have you tried one or both of these styles of instruction (segregated vs. integrated)?  Which one do you prefer and why?  

You can find this site in my Resources list or you can click here.  

ESL PartyLand

I recommend this site because it specifically has a section that lists thematic lessons that include different activities which are based on the theme and use elements of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  There are several themes that are relevant to a high school setting, such as entertainment, shopping, and natural disasters.  Within each unit there are lesson plans with printable worksheets or activity cards; therefore it not only gives you a description of the activity, but also provides the materials.  I came across one link that did not work, but otherwise, the (many) links seem updated and interesting. 

             

This site has links for students and teachers, so the website could be used by students inside or outside of class to take quizzes, practice vocabulary, and learn about pop culture.  Most of the topics have conversation questions, activities, and interactive comprehension checks (multiple choice or cloze quizzes, for example).  I like that there are tabs under the student section that say Learning English as a Second Language, Why Learn English as a Second Language, and Best Way to Learn English as a Second Language.  This might be encouraging for students who are just beginning to learn English or for students who are not motivated.  Overall, this site is comprehensive in its ideas and materials.  I would recommend this site to teachers because they can find practical and relevant lesson ideas that do integrate the 4 competencies.

You can find the link in my Resources list on the right side of the screen or you can click here.

Take my Poll!

I'm curious...how many languages can you speak fluently?  Take my poll on the right side of the screen, and see how you measure up! 

Welcome!

My name is Mrs. Regina Smith, and I am a Master's student in the Department of Foreign Language Education at the University of Texas at Austin.  I have taught secondary social studies for 3 years and have informally taught ESL to adults for 2 years.  My passion for teaching and learning about other cultures and languages has blossomed in the past several years, and I am looking forward to teaching English Language Learners in the high school setting.  

With the changing demographics in the United States, our role as ESL teachers is constantly changing and growing.  This blog is meant to provide other high school ESL teachers with ideas and suggestions for teaching our students, particularly about how to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening into our lessons.  This is a place to share experiences and find new resources for your classroom, so please share what you have found useful from this site or from your own experiences in the secondary setting.  This will help ESL teachers new and old to keep up-to-date on activities, methodologies, and issues in this field.   

Thank you and enjoy!