I’m a bit late to the game but I do like the 30 Goals project so I’m going to try to keep up. At the very least, I’ll do them on my own schedule. I hope the community aspect will encourage me to find the time to blog, which is one of my New Year’s Resolutions, along with finding time to do a lot of other things that aren’t work, sleep or zoning out. So here’s a mishmash of things that I think are important in the English language classroom, …Continue

In honor of National Grammar Day, and because of some of the thoughts that I’ve been posting on recently, I thought I’d post on how I approach teaching grammar.
First of all, we need to view grammar not as a set of rules that must be memorized, nor as something that stands outside of other aspects of language. Grammar has to be taught in some kind of communicative context. Having students fill out worksheets where they put the verb in past simple doesn’t help them to use the language. And it’s …Continue

An interesting article that refutes some of the newer pedagogic theories of learning. It seems like more and more teachers move away from testing students. Partially because we move farther away from believing that the value of education is in testable, objective measures. And also because those who do try to force teaching and learning into objective measurable criteria are technocrats and bureaucrats who link testing to sticks and carrots. Furthermore, there seems to be a snowflake trend in child-rearing in general that we shouldn’t put any kind of stress …Continue

This is an article that’s being posted around the Interwebs from the New York Times: Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age.
Interesting points in it for teachers and students to keep in mind. Like Wikipedia (besides not being a serious academic source) is not common knowledge. You do have to cite it.
While reading this article I was thinking of how we teach students not to plagiarize. Usually we focus on rules and citing styles and the penalties for plagiarizing. Maybe we should focus more on why plagiarizing …Continue

I got interviewed for a great blog primarily on children’s literature called Wontok Check out some of my philosophy of teaching and how I failed a ninth-grade class (as a teacher, I failed them. Not that I gave them all Fs).
Also I met Heidi via the TESOL Core Certificate Course. I had heard bad things about online classes and awful things about CELTA and other teaching certificates. That they were too basic or taught only one style of teaching, a lot of touchy-feely stuff, the instructors were all bitter …Continue

I’m currently enrolled in the TESOL Fundamentals of English Certificate course and one of my fellow students posted the most wonderful metaphor on teaching beginning students:
You have to help the students break the ice with the language
For me that brought up the perfect image of shy students terrified to make a mistake or overwhelmed by how little they know, trying to just get to know English. It’s a lot like being at a party with a group of people you don’t know. At first, it’s terrifying, but gradually you break …Continue

Students learning a new language often have moments of low self-esteem. They make a lot of mistakes, they can’t communicate as well as they would like to, and they are sometimes subjected to humiliation by teachers or fellow students. So one great way to build up that confidence is to remind students that they are accomplished in many areas. The Expert Game is a great lesson plan that makes students discuss a topic they know well or a skill they have mastered. In this way their confidence is boosted, they …Continue

Another work related lesson plan and one that kids love is Odd Jobs. In every country and culture every kid wants to grow up to be a fireman or a policeman or the President or maybe a businessman. But who wants to be a bus announcement reader? Or a circus cleaner? Who gets these jobs and what do these people really do every day?
This lesson plan gives students the chance to play the role of someone with a Truly Odd Job and imagine what they do every day, in the …Continue

One of the big issues I have as an English tutor, particularly when I do private lessons, is that I never know where that line is between meeting the students’ needs and just doing whatever they want. For example, right now I’m teaching an IELTS course. I firmly believe that studying every day (6 days a week) for one and half hours, is too much for an IELTS prep class. Students need time to reflect and do other things with their brains. Plus I find that 75% of students who …Continue

Another fun vocab building lesson plan, the School Slang Lesson Plan teaches American school traditions and socialization while also introducing kids to teenage slang and terminology like freshman, sophomore, detention, midterm, prom and jock. A lot of your students have been exposed to American teenage movies, and they will love to discuss exactly what all the slang they’ve heard means.
Also this lesson uses pictures to teach idioms which is a great tool to help kids remember new vocab and phrases. Because idioms don’t translate literally, and sometimes metaphors don’t …Continue

The Food lesson plan is one that goes over very well with students. It’s accessible to everyone. Beginners can handle describing their native dishes simply and you can push more advanced learners to describe detailed recipes. The lesson also has a multicultural aspect as the teacher can introduce common foods from his/her home country. Finally, the plan moves on to discussing holiday meals, which means this lesson can be used for any holiday, especially holidays that have associations with special foods: Christmas, New Years, May Day, Nauryz, Easter, Ramadan, Passover.
Or …Continue

One of my favorite lesson plans to teach is At the Restaurant. I compiled it from a series of sources like The British Council and TEFL.net and edited the activities and worksheets to make them more fun and accessible and so that everything relates together into one big lesson.
So if you’re looking for a complete lesson plan about food and restaurants that features vocab building, discussion, reading, cultural notes and a great role play that can be targeted to beginners, intermediate or advanced learners, take a look at At …Continue

This lesson plan is based on a bunch of different plans that I have seen here and there. Have You Ever, Would You Ever basically asks students a number of hypothetical questions to get them talking about extreme situations. I wrote this list as one appropriate to younger learners as well as to former Soviet learners based on their experiences. It can obviously be rewritten as you see fit. It’s a great plan because it can work as a first day lesson, or as a quick activity to kill some …Continue

As I am moving my site over to the WordPress system, I’m also reorganizing everything so that as much as possible is included in the WordPress installation as possible. That way everything will be much easier to find for you, my readers. As I do that, I’m also going to take the chance to post about the lesson plans.
So the first lesson plan to be ported is not a lesson at all. It’s an article, Why Plan?, which includes a lesson plan template and advice on basic ways to …Continue