Classroom Ideas

Creative Reading Responses

May 22, 2018

Engage your class with these great idea for using various genres as reading responses. ...

Acceleration / Advanced Composition / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Writing

Three Strategies to Improve Student Writing

May 14, 2018

Learn about three valuable writing tools you can use to help students improve their writing and overall reflection and metacognition skills. ...

Activity Ideas / Classroom Ideas / Conference Highlights / Teacher Tips / Writing

Writing Partners: Contextualizing Written Communication

May 13, 2018

Add this collaborative activity to your class to give your students engaging and authentic writing practice. ...

Advanced Composition / Classroom Ideas / Group Activity / Writing

Do you have conflict or struggle with peer reviews in your course? Check out this post to learn two new strategies that can be adapted to any writing assignment to help prevent disputes and people pleasing. Writing...

Acceleration / Classroom Ideas / Group Activity / Slides / Vocabulary

Vocab Building Flashcards

April 30, 2018

Help your students grow their English vocabulary with these flashcards designed to help them grow their word knowledge in a collaborative way. ...

Acceleration / Classroom Ideas / Community Building / Conference Highlights

The Affective Side of Things

April 25, 2018

Learn about effective classroom routines to support students' affective needs and promote retention and success. ...

Acceleration / Classroom Ideas / Group Activity / Reading / Vocabulary

Word Webs: Vocabulary Routine

April 7, 2018

Although we put a lot of effort into helping our students learn words, I would venture to guess we don’t often stop to reflect just how these words are stored our minds. What does research of the mental...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Classroom Ideas / Group Activity / Reading

SPUNKI Reading Response

April 3, 2018

You can use this collaborative sharing activity to get students to see their classmates' reflections on a particular class reading. It's a great way to start a discussion of a class reading....

Classroom Ideas / Community Building / Icebreaker

Five Introduction Icebreakers

March 27, 2018

Having students introduce themselves and learn a bit about each other is a first day of class staple. Of course, there are many different ways this can be done. This post shares a few of my favorites that...

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Classroom Ideas / Discussion / Writing

Position Posters Debate

March 25, 2018

The art of argument isn’t always easy to master, especially when you’re doing it in another language. This poster position debate is a fun and engaging way to scaffold this skills whether the end goal...

Classroom Ideas / Teacher Tips / Vocabulary

5 Awesome Vocabulary Websites

March 12, 2018

The more I teach and study language, the more I believe in the power of words. There are many great websites that can help you when creating vocabulary activities for your class. Here are some of my favorites....

Activity Ideas / Classroom Ideas / Discussion / Discussion Game / simple past tense / Uncategorized / Verbs

Fantastical Stories: Past Tense Fun

March 2, 2018

"How can grammatical knowledge be transferred to oral fluency?" I don't have all the answers, but this past tense activity will certainly get students chatting....

Acceleration / Activity Ideas / Classroom Ideas / Vocabulary

Flash Card Vocabulary Exchange

February 1, 2018

This is a semester-long assignment that helps boost students vocabulary a lot. I've been doing it in my class this semester with great success and plan to keep it as a norm in all of my future classes....

Classroom Ideas / Learner Resources

Becoming Multilingual: Study Strategies for the Language Learner

January 17, 2018

Even though there are many benefits, the question many people have is how? Learning another language can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. This article tells about some great strategies to help...

Classroom Ideas / Teacher Tips

2 Great Ways to Let Google Lighten Your Load

September 26, 2017

There’s no doubt that technology has changed education. One of my favorite technology providers for education is Google. They’re an innovative and user-friendly company that has a lot of great services...

Classroom Ideas / Grammar / Learner Resources

The Sunday Review is Back

September 24, 2017

If you are learning English, the Sunday Review is a resource that can help you with this process. After a summer break, the Sunday Review is back for the fall semester with a weekly list of sentences with...

Classroom Ideas / Syllabus

Syllabus Makeover: Five Ideas to Upgrade Your Syllabus

July 26, 2017

As teachers, it's our goal to create a great syllabus and then to encourage our students to become familiar with all the information it has to offer. Check out these five great syllabus upgrades that...

Classroom Ideas / Community Building / Icebreaker

Five Great First Day of Class Activities

July 26, 2017

As August approaches, and with it the start of school, it's a great time to look at ways we can lower the affective filter in our language classes and create a strong positive classroom rapport...

Acceleration / Classroom Ideas / Lessons and Handouts / Reading

ESL Reading Log

March 25, 2017

Help your ESL students dig deeper into a book with this reading log. Students will write reflections, consider reading strategies, dig deeper into vocabulary, and write a summary. ...

Classroom Ideas / Grammar / Learner Resources / Slides

The Sunday Review

March 5, 2017

This week, TESOL Planner is releasing the first in a series of grammar practice slide shares to offer English learners the opportunity to study and review on their own. If you’ve ever found yourself...