Teaching for ELLs

Originally used with the textbook, "ACCESS World History" by Great Source, this resource uses pictures to enrich a basic defintion that students would look up in their textbook or online. Format is similar to two column notes, with a vocabulary term on the left and space for a definition on the right, but with the addition of a picture representation of the term or concept in a third middle column. First three pages are English only, pages four through six are the answer key, and pages seven thr

Many history students have learned about the devasting effects that colonization, removal from their lands and forced migration had on Native Americans. This reading explores additional impacts on the way of life, environment, cultivation of plants and European weapons had on Natives, particularly in New England. This is an adapted text appropriate for WIDA level 3 and 4 English Language Learners. Modifications include: simplified sentence structure, vocabulary footnotes, additional visuals, a f

This is an activity I've used with advanced adult ESL learners to teach the 3rd conditional for years and always works well. The third conditional, or unreal past, is always tricky to teach because it's based on imagining a different version of past events that influences the present. This activity gives it a more relatable context, so students can see how a chain of past events influenced the present. I usually introduce the three conditional tenses before teaching this lesson, having students

For high intermediate ESL, EFL or ELL students learning participle adjectives (-ed and -ing adjectives). It's very short, but sticks to traditional wedding toast routine; describes past, present and future wishes. ESL/ELL text books often teach this topic related to employment or job applications; for example, a motivated student vs a motivating job. But these word forms are often used in wedding speeches to describe the bride or groom as well. Putting this in another context can yield some fu

Are you students having trouble remembering how to spell irregular past verbs? This ESL hand-out groups a variety of common irregular verbs by their spellings-very helpful to get students engaged in thinking about how the words they hear are spelled. First two pages has verbs listed by category and labelled. Pages three and four have verbs groups, but the categories are missing and students have to deduce category and write in the label. If they see the pattern that verbs with a double "e" los

The typical high school or middle school locker is opened using a combination of three numbers. The first number is after turning a few times to the right, then stopping on the first locker combination number, then turning left past zero and hitting the second number. Finally, turning to the right and hitting the last combination number directly. These directions are summarized and translated into Spanish, with three blanks for students to write in their combination. Prints four locker guides p

Have you ever asked students to write a research paper on X and goten something unexpected? Or did they submit something that wasn't written in their voice? You may be a victim of "Just Google It." We all suffer from overconfidence in our ability to use Google for research, and university researchers who've studied our over reliance on Google found it actually makes our answers to research questions worse, despite boosting our confidence. If this effect is observed in university students, how do

Introduces concept of using "to be" for desciptions of the whole person, while using "to have" for parts of a person. For example, "She is a girl" vs "She has brown eyes." Moves to guided practice where students look at four photos of people and try to describe the, then compare to what was written in the Slideshow. Finally, allows either independent practice or listening practice to describe 16 different people on the final slide. Appropriate fore WIDA level 1 learners. GoogleSlides intergrat

Content area: Health class, nutrition, or science. A cloze based on a www.phschool.com reading that is free and accessible to all. The cloze works on reading comprehension by scrambling the order and cause/effect relationships in the reading. Most native speakers can complete this activity independently, ELLs may need a little help find keywords, then re-reading to change to the sentence structure required by the cloze. The Thought Questions at the end are a stretch activity challenging students