Clean Up Your Mess is a very accessible website on the basics of visual design. As you might expect, everything is presented quite clearly, and terms are explained (and illustrated) very well. I really like the overall thrust, which is in favor of cleanliness and organization. I will absolutely point students towards this website the next time I require some sort of visual component to a project.

Thanks Larry

For me, I usually approach lesson plans the same way I approach planning courses. I start from the big picture. What are our goals for the day? Maybe we want to practice a particular skill, or increase our knowledge about certain content, or make progress on a long-term project. Once I have the main goal(s) in mind, I decide what our big activity will be.

Let’s say, for example, that I want to give the students a chance to learn some new vocabulary words, while practicing figuring out meaning from context. So I need to find / make a reading that has vocabulary words whose meanings can be figured out. What then?

Once I know some of the activities I want to include, I think about different approaches. There are tons of ways to “do a reading” or “introduce vocabulary words”. Personally, I usually try to do each activity in a way that maximizes student interaction, with the goal of meaningful communication. Sometimes, I might do readings as homework, and have small group, student-led discussions (like this). Another approach would be to have students take turns reading sentences or paragraphs, discussing vocabulary as we go.

If I really want to concentrate on the content, I might give the students a worksheet that asks some content questions, and includes the vocabulary words I want to target. I could read the reading aloud, before handing it out, and ask the students to do their best to fill out the worksheet. Next, I could give them the article, and have them check their answers and fill in the blanks in small groups. I might ask each group to come up with another content question based on the reading, and see if they could stump the other groups. It really just depends on what skills we want to work on. For homework, we could do a writing activity that asks students to reflect on their own experience with / opinions of the topic, giving them a chance to use the vocabulary in a more meaningful way.

In terms of time, one important thing that I’ve learned is not to schedule my “big” activity for the end of the lesson. Often, that results in it being rushed, or cut entirely. Even if I’m able to get through it, we might not have enough time to reflect on it as a class afterward. In a two-hour class, I would typically begin the main activity right after our break. Obviously, though, it depends on the activity.

I almost always go into class with more planned than I expect to have time for. That way, if something isn’t working (like, if a set of discussion questions falls flat) I can cut it and adjust the lesson on the fly. I tend to be very flexible, and try to give my activities time to breathe if students are getting a lot out of it.

In writing this, I can see that I rely a lot on intuition in my teaching, and that makes me doubt whether or not this type of “advice” is helpful to novice teachers. Any other suggestions on approaching lesson plans? Any questions on what I’ve shared here?

It’s simple to use. Just copy and paste some text into the box, and it will highlight a number of potential problems. For each, you are presented samples of the word / phrase used in context (from a seemingly random website) along with a pie chart breaking down the relative frequency of each alternative. I used a sample of student writing, and found the suggestions to be mostly accurate.

I wouldn’t just give it to students as a failsafe tool, though. Instead, I’d like to go through an example of their writing as a class, to look at how some of the suggestions are misleading.

For example, the sample of writing I used contained the phrase “put on Internet”. While ESL Assistant highlighted this phrase, it also “recommended” it, in the sense that “put on Internet” was favored 51% to 49% over “put on the Internet”. In the examples, though, it’s clear that Internet is used as an adjective in the former, while it is a noun in the latter, and my student meant it as a noun. Reminding students to look at the part of speech of the examples could help them get even more out of this tool.

Another example was the phrase “try make a lot” for which ESL Assistant had a 99% recommendation for “try a lot”, as opposed to “try to make a lot”, which wasn’t suggested at all. Still, I think this is a neat resource for students. And, surprisingly, “trying make” and “trying to make” were split evenly, with millions of examples on each side. Yikes. This tool would definitely be improved if they restricted the sites it pulled examples from.

Thanks Larry

This new research-based teacher’s guide helps students develop English language skills through highly engaging real-world investigations of current global issues. Designed for intermediate-level English language learners and striving readers, Making Connections combines language learning with opportunities for students to think critically about sustainable solutions for community development, environmental issues, quality of life, and more. Aligned with education standards, this 352-page guide includes nine chapters with lessons that have been reviewed and field tested by content experts, teachers, and students. Throughout the teacher’s guide, ideas for differentiated instruction make this text applicable for student levels ranging from beginner to advanced.

The table of contents, chapter 1, and chapter 3 are available to download if you’re interested in checking it out.

One example that I like is a series of 5 stories told by child laborers. They are powerful, and simply told. I would certainly consider bringing them into a class activity on globalization or consumerism.

via IATEFL’s global issues SIG

One thing that I really like is the fact that the lesson plans include Civic Integration Activities and Home Support Activities, encouraging students to get involved and take action both in their community and at home. If I were doing a unit on waste or consumption, I would certainly look in this PDF for some lesson plans.

Via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

The two poems I used as examples were “God to a Hungry Child” and “Two Young Women”. “God to a Hungry Child” is written from the point of view of God, addressing a hungry child. Thus, in the writing portion of the activity, I ask students to write something from the perspective of God explaining something to someone. “Two Young Women” has a similarly imitatable (albeit totally different) structure to it.

Here is the handout I used, which explains the activity and includes the two poems.

This is a retooling of an older activity that I used as part of a series of green-themed activities at another language school.

• Final Project Topic and Action Ideas
• Final Project Rubric
• Pay It Forward Questions
• More Topic and Action Ideas
• World Changer Interview

Each Tuesday, students led reading circle articles. In addition, on the Tuesday of week 5, I introduced some ideas for final project topics and actions. For homework, I asked them to write out a one to two paragraph long proposal, due the following week. On Thursday I gave them a rubric outlining the project requirements. We also watched a clip from Pay It Forward and did some discussion questions.

Tuesday of week 6, I gave students some more ideas for final project topics and actions. I also asked students to get into groups and do mini-presentations on their topic and action ideas. On Thursday, my mentee taught, doing a lesson on issues in Africa.

Week 7, after the reading circles, I introduced the World Changer Interview. I asked students to choose a person, find some information, and prepare 5 questions that they would like to be asked about. We will do the interview roleplay next week. On Thursday, my mentee taught again, doing a review lesson that culminated in having the students present short news reports in groups.

If you’d like any more info on any of these activities, feel free to ask!

• Reading Circle Peer Evaluation Sheet
• Financial Crisis Timeline Activity
• Financial Crisis Lesson Handout
• Financial Crisis Readings

On Tuesday, we did the first reading circle. I was pleased to see that it went well. I had done this with a global issues class I taught in Hawaii, but at that school reading circles were a common part of the curriculum. Here, none of my students had done them before. Still, they did a great job preparing their articles and had active discussions. I was a little worried about this because, in whole-class activities, there are a few people who tend to dominate. Fortunately, things seemed very balanced in the groups, with quiet students becoming more talkative.

After they did the reading circles, I handed out the peer evaluation sheet. I don’t know if I’ll bother doing this in the future, as the feedback has been extremely positive and thus not particularly useful, but I wanted to give it a try. Plus, I like letting students know that I want their opinions.

For the remainder of Tuesday’s class, I briefly introduced the final project. I didn’t give them any handouts, but I wanted to get them started thinking about possible issues and actions. For their project, I’m going to have them choose an issue, do some research, and then take an action related to the issue. Their project (in the form of either a paper or a presentation) will be to share what they learned about the issue, and their experience with their action. I will introduce it more formally next week.

On Thursday, my mentee taught her first class of the term. For a topic, she chose the global economic crisis. She did a great job. Last week, she had asked students if they were interested in learning about the financial crisis and, to my surprise, they were. I didn’t think that an ESL activity about the financial crisis would go over well.

She started by splitting the students into pairs and giving them one event from a timeline. They were asked to summarize the event in their own words, and then place it on the timeline that was drawn on the board. Students were then asked to take turns explaining their part of the timeline, while the teacher answered questions and helped with vocabulary.

She next gave students a handout which included some vocabulary words and discussion questions. She went through the vocabulary words, then had students watch a video clip explaining how the crisis happened. They watched it twice. After, the students discussed one of the questions from the handout in a small group. Each group then shared a brief summary of their discussion with the class.

The last thing she did was lead a short class discussion about the nature of sources, explaining the difference between subjective and objective and discussing their relative advantages and disadvantages. She also gave the students some readings offering additional information.

Watching someone else teach my class was a very interesting experience. First of all, I was able to see my students from a different perspective. One thing I realized is that I need to be firmer with them. With adults, I tend to shy away from telling them what they must do, preferring instead to frame things as suggestions. For example, instead of telling students to be quiet, I usually just start talking and wait a few moments for them to realize on their own. Part of my job as a teacher, though, is to be more authoritative, pushing students to do things that are good for their language acquisition, even when they may not want to do them.

I also appreciate the opportunity to see someone who has a different approach than I do. For example, I would never have done the timeline activity at the top of the class. I almost never do activities where students get up and move around. Seeing that it can work, and how it adds variety to a lesson, I hope I can start using this type of idea in the future.