The best and most effective ESL informal assessment tools for all four language domains – listening, speaking, reading and writing Assessment of ESL student progress can be a tricky task. We have state and federal testing that we are responsible for but what about the daily, informal assessment? In one of my previous blog posts,…
It is the middle of the school year and you have just found out that you are getting a new student, who does not speak English at all. What do you do? You could spend your time and try to come up with a plan for teaching your ESL beginners. But since the programs for…
In my previous post I talked about the ESL newcomer curriculum and even earlier – topics to cover when you have and absolute beginner ESL student. But I just realized that none of those tips covered writing in greater detail! So let’s not waste any more time – here are some ideas on how to…
One of the most frequently asked questions that I hear from ESL teachers in lower-incidence districts is that related to a curriculum, especially a newcomer curriculum. What materials do you recommend? How do you find an affordable program that would meet the needs of our newcomers? As an ESL teacher, who works with students in…
As I was reviewing my blog posts, I realized that I don’t have much content relating to grammar teaching. So today I am fixing this and will give you my best tips for teaching grammar to ESL students! In this post, I am going to break down a few of the things to consider when…
This weekend I went to the annual NNETESOL (Northern New England TESOL) conference, which is always full of great workshops to choose from. The keynote speaker talked about growth mindset, a topic that is such an important factor in learning a language. One workshop shared instant scratch quizzes and their benefits and rewards to teaching…