For Jaclyn...

Dearest darlingest Jaclyn,

In response to your questions about what ESL sites I often use, I am dedicating this post to you. Rachel, Hannah, and I teach approx. 16 classes a week, all different levels. We take a lot of ideas and materials from these sites and adapt them for the level with which we're working:

1. http://esl.about.com/od/englishlessonplans/English_Lesson_Plans_for_ESL_EFL_Classes.htm
This has a lot of good activities/ grammar information. It has many dialogues for practice, as well.

2. http://www.eslsite.com/
I love the game ideas on this site. They can be very easily adapted for almost any level.

3. http://iteslj.org/questions/
This site has lots of discussion topics and question prompts. It can easily be adapted for different levels, as well.

4. http://edhelper.com/crossword_free.htm
We use online crossword puzzlemakers to make puzzles to review vocabulary words/ concepts. You can have students work in team or individually.

We FREQUENTLY use tic-tac-toe as a competition: divide the team in two. Ask each team a question from the lesson. When they answer correctly, let them choose where to put their x or o. Surprisingly, this is a big hit.

Hangman is also a crowd-pleaser. When we teach vocabulary, we often play Hangman (in teams) to review. Once they have the word, have them orally define.

We also play BINGO, Charades, and Jeopardy. All are big hits. BINGO and Jeopardy require a bit of preparation, but the BINGO cards and the Jeopardy can be reused.

I'll try to update you on other activities we use that seem to be effective. In fact, I'm just going to start blogging about it: www.erininukraineesl.blogspot.com. Hope this helps you some!

Love,
Erin