I like this icebreaker because the students enjoy it. On the first day of class, I have students pair up and interview one another for twenty minutes. They really enjoy getting their cell phones out to show the class their photos. The students will pair off and then they have to introduce their partner to the class. I will have a one minute timer on so we stay on pace. After the introductions, I have […]
Reading Homework – beginning
This is a handout based on a reading from World English 1 second edition, pg.74-75 “The Cradle of the Inca Empire”. I was using it as homework in a high-beginning integrated skills course, earlier in the semester. I took it out of the book to better encourage students to write on the reading, and added tasks to the reading based on what students had been learning (emphatic adjectives and past tense). I wanted them to practice annotating […]
Listening – Gerunds
This is a listening exercise – fill in the blanks with the gerunds you hear. The exercise uses the song “That’s Important to Me” by Joey and Rory who sing about the values and related norms important to them. This activity follows a reading entitled “The Influence of Culture” in Chapter 2, The Power of the Group in Academic Encounters 3, Reading/Writing 2nd ed. by Jessica Williams, Kristine Brown and Susan Hood. It extends the […]
English for Employment Syllabus
The attached is a syllabus for an English for Employment course for intermediate students and above. The course entails career exploration by examining interests and skills and related career fields and academic requirements. The as American education system as well as the Yuba College general education requirements leading to an associates degree, certificate and/or transfer are also covered. See syllabus: << 259SyllabiS2018 – SAMPLE SYLLABUS >> As the syllabus shows, we also explore reading job […]
Your Dream Job
Before students can decide on a career of study, it is important to take them through some initial steps to explore their interests and preferred working environments as well as what types of skills they already have and what fields these may be useful. The attached handout is the written segment of this lesson leading to a writing assignment expressing all these preferences in a well-developed paragraph. Being able to state what we want is […]
Reading Demonstration – comprehension and vocabulary in context
Reading Demonstration – Importance of Context in Comprehension This reading demonstration was taken from Dimensions of Literacy, by Stephen B. Kucer (page. 142, Table 6.2). The purpose of the exercise is to help students examine their own reading process and strategies used to gain meaning. Use this as an opportunity to discuss and share out reading strategies used by your students and share you own. Distribute the reading to students asking them to […]
Introduction to PowerPoint (MS2013 – but works with 2016)
This lesson is an introduction to PowerPoint 2013 for purposes of having students prepare a PowerPoint presentation about themselves (see last two pages of this lesson). The lesson is set up to teach students most of the functions they will need by creating two practice slides about a Vacation to Tahoe. There are both written directions and screen/slide shots of the steps to assist students who experience difficulty reading the instructions to be able to […]
Telling the Time
In my low-beginner listening class students learn how to recognize numbers in different contexts. One of the contexts is time. In addition to the practice provided by the textbook (“Skillful Listening & Speaking”), I use a map of world times zones to practice telling the time. << https://www.worldtimezone.com/ >> It is a world map which shows current times in major cities. I simply zoom and scroll around the map while asking the class to tell […]
Phrasal Verbs
One of the most challenging but interesting skills in teaching English vocabulary is phrasal verbs. I like to use pictures when teaching phrasal verbs (see examples attached) – otherwise, they become a long list of pretty word combinations which mean nothing to students. I simply browse the web for the most representative and/or peculiar/funny/memorable image to represent a phrasal verb. For example, I illustrate “get along” with a picture of tiger cubs playing with rabbits. […]
Forming Adjectives
As part of my low beginner listening course I teach adjectives derived from nouns with the -y suffix. In addition to the material provided by “Skillful Listening & Speaking”, I made a list of such adjectives to expand the vocabulary and also review the alphabet and spelling (which is never a bad idea with beginner students). I spell the original noun; students write it down. Student read the noun and then say the corresponding adjective. […]