… Sorting clothes before washing, putting them into piles, pulling out the socks so they aren’t balled up, making sure it’s not all been twisted into clumps, but loose and free to move and be cleaned; I never stuff a washer full; that soapy water … Read More →
Category Archives: Lessons
In my words, March 11 – 17
… Observing Children Yesterday afternoon, after school, I approached a group of children, teacher in front, the kids straggling behind but together like ducks, all excitedly talking (quacking) at once. I overheard some boys. One of them said: “I catched them last summer!” I never … Read More →
Acquainted with the Night
Acquainted with the Night is a good poem to show English language learners the present perfect, that period of time in the past that comes right up to the present but remains unspecified: “I’ve walked a mile.” “But when?” The simple past comes to an … Read More →
5 American Poets
The five poems and poets that follow are for English or ESL teachers who are looking to do a class with some poetry. I made videos to go with the poems just for the fun of it, but also to provide some visual food for … Read More →
Poetry Lesson: The Fog
I do a poetry lesson using Fog by Carl Sandburg. Recently two students of mine did versions of the poem I enjoyed very much. One was by Gurami, who is from Georgia. His original poem was very exciting like saying English in a new way … Read More →
Hope is the thing with feathers: A closer look at and a lesson for an ESL teacher
I love and yet have mixed feelings about a poem by Emily Dickinson, but it doesn’t stop me from using it in an ESL poetry lesson. I let the class memorize the first stanza to exercise their brains thinking about English and to better feel … Read More →
ESL Lesson: The Rabbit and the Turtle: Activity Three: Either, neither, but, so, and too
Introduction: The first four activities in this lesson are pre-reading ones, and hopefully get students used to working together writing, talking and thinking about language and syntax. The teacher talk in this activity repeats itself about main verbs and helping verbs in compound sentences. The … Read More →
ESL Lesson: The Rabbit and the Turtle: Activity Two: Writing Simple Sentences
Objective: Students will understand the simple structure of a sentence by writing four kinds of sentences using the completed Venn diagrams from Activity One as prompts: affirmative and negative sentences, and Yes/No and Explanation questions. Students will write Explanation questions of their own, ask them … Read More →
ESL Lesson: The Rabbit and the Turtle: Activity One: Similarities and Differences
Introduction: Because a fable like the Rabbit and the Turtle deals with essential human truths everyone understands, it’s a good place for ESL students to start to work together. This lesson is geared toward High Beginners through Intermediates, but it can be ratcheted up or … Read More →