Blog Posts

For many students, participating in class discussion can be scary and overwhelming. However, I have found that by using sentence frames in a competitive way, students can feel more excited and confident to participate.

Time: approximately 50 minutes Level: adaptable to multiple levels. I used it in an advanced class one level below freshman composition. In past posts, I wrote about “Close Reading Folders” and “Close Reading Knowledge Building,” two activities to get your students working together to unpack key passages of a text. I love the concept of […]

Reading is an excellent way for students to grow their language skills. Having just the right activity to help students access the text on an even deeper level can not only expand your students’ learning but also create engagement and make learning fun. Check out these five activities to help you do this.

All of our students bring with them unique thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. When we give them opportunities to share, together they can grow their understanding of a topic. Check out this idea for a deep reading activity that can be used in both lower and more advanced levels alike.

Start your class off on the right foot with this community building activity that doubles as a lesson in how to be a successful language learner.

Set students up to be successful with a challenging reading with this pre-reading activity. They’ll get some great speaking practice in the process.

Check out this list of interesting websites/apps I heard about at the CATESOL conference.

The annual CATESOL conference is a professional development event for ESL educators in California and Nevada. I attended this weekend and will summarize some tidbits I learned about critical thinking and also vocabulary strategies.

Here’s another way you can structure error correction to liven up your class and put the fun in grammar.

Use this post-reading poster activity to help students dig into readings and prepare for a synthesis essay.