California Community Colleges

The Escape Room: Class Version

September 28, 2019

Get your students thinking about the benefits of struggle and mistakes with this engaging activity. It's great for first week community building that will get your students working together, solving...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Critical Thinking / Discussion / Reading

Close Reading Rounds

March 22, 2019

Purpose: Post-reading debrief Time: approximately 50 minutes Level: adaptable to multiple levels. I used it in an advanced class one level below freshman composition. In...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / California Community Colleges / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Discussion / Reading

Five Interactive Activities to Debrief a Text

February 24, 2019

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...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Discussion / Reading / Talking Chart / Teacher Tips

Schema Jigsaw Grid

January 18, 2019

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. ...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / California Community Colleges / Class Routines / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Critical Thinking / Vocabulary

CATESOL Conference Reflections: Part I

December 9, 2018

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...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Class Routines

Quote Search Posters

November 21, 2018

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

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Conference Highlights / Reading

Close Reading Folders

November 19, 2018

Get your students to work together to unpack and better understand key passages from a text you’re working on in class with this close reading group activity. ...

Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Grammar / Group Activity / Reading / simple past tense / Verbs / Writing

Writing, Grammar, and Punctuation Tie the Knot at RACE-2-WRITE

August 21, 2018

Have you been looking for a great way to help your students practice writing? Learn about the game Race-2-Write that will get your students writing while at the same time helping them become more aware...

Acceleration / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Discussion Game / Lessons and Handouts / Student Packets

Language and Identity Unit

June 20, 2018

This unit is based around the theme of Language and Identity. There are two readings that are the basis of the essay at the end of the unit. ...

Acceleration / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Writing

A Dinner Party: Creative Analysis Activity

June 19, 2018

Help your students build analysis of multiple sources with this engaging activity that uses art to help students draw connections between multiple readings. ...

Acceleration / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Education

The Accelerated Instructional Cycle

June 15, 2018

The accelerated instructional cycle is a way to approach an integrated reading and writing course to help students gain a deep understanding of texts and work to write complex and rich writing assignments....

Acceleration / California Community Colleges / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Education / Teacher Tips

Learning is Confusion Figured Out

June 14, 2018

How can we design ESL curriculum that is relevant and engaging to students? Check out this post for some ideas. ...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Advanced Composition / California Community Colleges / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Discussion / Group Activity / Reading / Writing

5 Collaborative Class Routines

June 12, 2018

Are you looking for some engaging ways to get your ESL students to work collaboratively? Check out these five ways to get students working and talking together....

California Community Colleges / Program Support

ESL Open House and Orientation

April 10, 2018

Do you coordinate an ESL program? You may consider hosting an ESL open house and orientation to boost enrollment and support your new students. Check out these ideas from an event we host at my school....

California Community Colleges / Program Support

ESL Program Brochure Template

March 18, 2018

Improve your program's outreach with this program brochure template using Canva. ...