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…
Keeping pace in teaching ESL students Keeping pace during your ESL lesson is an art that takes both practice and experience. Ever been in a classroom or workshop where the time seemed to drip slowly like molasses? What about a completely opposite experience – you didn’t even look at the clock and boom – it…
How to teach the sounds and letters of English to older English learners I don’t remember much of phonemic awareness or phonics instruction when I first started learning English. It may be that it was a while ago (ahem) and my memory no longer stretches that far. But it may also be that when you…
Every teacher needs a few tricks up their sleeve and a good icebreaker activity is certainly one of them. Whether it’s the beginning of a school year with a new group of students, a new student joins you mid-year, or any other occasion – such as you need to prepare the class for teamwork –…