Fun and engaging ESL activities, games and worksheets in printable PDF format with full teacher's notes and answers for English teachers to use in class.

Some of you may know that I have the mother of all multi-level classes this year: 6th-12th grade, 1st-7th year Spanish. I asked parents and students for grace during the first few weeks as I figured out how to meet everyone’s needs, and they did. We are now finishing up week four, and I have a…

Create a Syllabus That Your Students Will Actually Want to Read. Free Resource to download to help you create an Art Syllabus for your art students. Want to try your hand at a visual syllabus? We'll give you three helpful hints. This article will take 8 minutes to read.

Help your beginning writer become an excellent essay-writer with this helpful proofreading practice sheet.

Give your child practice with his sentence building skills with this printable worksheet that's all about capital letters.

With my small group pull-out sessions limited to half-hour increments, I'm always looking for quick, engaging reading and writing activities to reinforce literacy skills. I used to think dice games were only for teaching math and probability, but I'm starting to discover that there are ENDLESS possibilities for using dice with literacy. Are you looking for a few ideas? Well... let's shake and roll! 3 Roll-a-Dice Activities for Reading & Writing My roll-a-dice resource collection continues to grow, but here are a few resources that I've added to my literacy toolbox that may be perfect for your students. 1. Roll-a-Story

Last week, I blogged about Bloom's Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). (See April 2, 2012.) My friend, Andrea, over at One Teacher's Take...is Another's Treasure commented that she also uses Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels and Marzano's Dimensions of Thinking, both of which are new to me. So, I immediately googled them. Here's what I found. . . Webb's DOK Levels look like this: What I like about Webb's model is the 4 levels versus Bloom's 6. It's always nice to condense things, isn't it? At least in my realm of preparing dozens of lesson plans each day, less is more! The 4 level descriptors (the inner circle) boast newer and somewhat clearer concepts. Then my eye wanders over the outer circle. Ouch! Another sea of verbs to swim through. The 4th level, presumably the quarter in which we strive to spend most of our time, is curiously short on verbs compared to the other 75%. Are those 8 verbs/phrases just more succinct? Or, do they reflect the limitations foisted upon teachers by the Common Core of Teaching Standards, standardized testing, and uniform time lines? Surely that triad has bearing on it. Perhaps there is more to be considered, however. Is the 4th level truly where teachers strive to be? I hope, in my heart of hearts, that the answer is YES. However, it is possible that some, if not many, teachers find little motivation to work on level 4. Their efforts are not evaluated by standardized tests, depriving them of extrinsic approval. Paychecks remain static whether teachers push their students toward extended learning or not. Indeed, rewards are esoteric. Certainly the dedicated, professional teacher experiences intrinsic satisfaction. S/he may even be fortunate enough to receive accolades from students, parents, colleagues, and/or administrators. Is that enough? In a future blog, I'll discuss Marzano's Depth of Knowledge Levels. Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts about teaching HOTS.

Your students are bright, but they don't always sound like it. Help improve student vocabulary with these 600 ways to say common things.

Are your students having trouble identifying theme within a story? This step-by-step process scaffolds through several reading comprehension skills to help students get a thorough understanding of theme. Students will be able to determine the theme of a story, poem, or drama from details in the text by first

Corkboard Connections is a blog written by Laura Candler who enjoys connecting terrific teachers with amazing resources!

Teaching children to read is one of the greatest things in the world. Ever. I have a lot of literacy resources that I LOVE. Some of my p...

Close reading is an essential skill for middle school and high school English Language Arts. Students need to be able to decipher complex texts, and this strategy will help students take their literary analysis to a deeper level during reading workshop. It will also help facilitate writing worksho

Keep this study aid handy during homework time, or keep a copy in the back of your binder for classroom reference.

Is your kid having trouble with contractions? Try out this simple memory matching game.

Here is a collection of eight class discussion techniques to structure classroom discussion and ensure all students' equal participation.

This past week, we learned about synonyms. The kids really grasped the concept by mid-week! I am excited to see them start using synonyms...

Reading nonfiction texts can be overwhelming for students, especially when it comes to a topic they are unfamiliar with at a reading a level that is even slightly above theirs. With a push to read

I LOVE saving figurative language until June - it's such a fun language unit ... and perfect for our "dreaming of summer brains". We finished up our EQAO testing mid week, and this onomatopoeia activity was the perfect break from testing. How fun is that??? Students chose two contrasting colours - one for the background and one for the word and border "bursting out of the page". They also needed newspaper (cut just a fraction smaller that the "bursting out of the page border" and glued the newspaper on top. They glued their word on top of that (we had brainstormed a lot of onomatopoeia words, but for some reason most of them chose SPLAT for their word). I also had them do a little shading under their letters for that little extra POP (see, I know some onomatopoeia words, too). ;) I had seen this awesome idea on Pinterest and followed it back to Artisan des Arts. Her examples are FANTASTIC!! We also wrote simile poems this week. I found a little template HERE for the students to use for their rough copies. When students were finished their templates, I had them write out their good copies, and illustrate a few lines with a small image. I hung these up, too ... LOVING our bulletin board switch up ... even this late in the school year!!! (I have two of these "smART class" bulletin boards side by side in the classroom. 15 more school days left ... I think I can ... I think I can ... Happy Friday!!!

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I just can’t wait to teach grammar?” I mean, we know that grammar is important and that we do need to teach it, but let’s be honest…It’s not usually one of the more exciting subjects to teach. That’s why I came up with some games, to make teaching parts […]

Teach kids about adverbs - a surefire way to instantly improve and enhance independent writing.

Diagramming sentences helps kids see English grammar at-a-glance. It's easier to practice analyzing English parts of speech on the diagram charts and worksheets.

This post has 5 activities to make teaching adverbs FUN! Some of these activities will also help students learn to use adverbs in their writing.

Let's take a little peek in a day in first grade! I love my job and working with the kids, tap to get some tips and tricks you can use too!

The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…

Prefixes and suffixes in first grade? Kindergarten ? What?! I'm not sure who decided teaching them so early was the way to go but never fear...

Our Spelling dictation words this week are focusing on plurals. I'm a bit worried about introducing this concept with ELL learners, so I th...

An Upper Elementary Collaborative blog written by 13 teachers. Includes teaching ideas and resources for grades 3, 4, and 5.

Check out these fun teaching materials for teaching comma rules to upper elementary including an anchor chart, videos, and graphic organizer.

Last week we started our study of verbs. I have used a few free verbs study packs I've found on TPT to introduce the concept. I love thi...

Language Arts Freebies in Laura Candler's online file cabinet for teachers.