Find online lesson plans on many topics or use the useful external links to create your own lessons for your ESL beginners (CLB 1-4).
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED POST
Week of Aug. 10/26
This lesson plan offers engaging activities for your first day of class, focusing on classroom rules, introductions, and cultural exchanges.
The plan includes lesson objectives, warm-up exercises, two short videos, and a range of…
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What’s on this page?
ESL DIRECTIONS, A TOOLKIT
About ESL Directions
This website for ESL teachers offers online lesson plans and multimedia materials tailored to beginner ESL students.
You will also find curated lists of links to external digital tools for generating custom flashcards, video and audio files, and interactive games.
What’s on this website?
Health
- Parts of the body and illnesses
- Calling 911
- At the doctor
- Going to the dentist
- At the pharmacy
- At the eye doctor
- Calling 811 (in Alberta)
- Understanding the Alberta health care system
Food, food shopping, and restaurants
- Recipes
- Buying groceries
- Talking with the grocery cashier
- Ordering food in a restaurant
- Going to a coffee shop
- Ordering takeout
Meeting people
- First day of class
- Small talk
- Greetings
Your home and community
- Family
- Your home (rooms in your house and finding and renting an apartment)
- Gardening
- Visiting the public library
- Your local school (parent-teacher interviews)
- In a clothing store and winter clothes
Work
- Finding and applying for a job
- Job interviews
Alberta
- About Edmonton
- Regions
- History and culture
Canadian culture and environment
- Culture
- Geography
- Seasons and months
- Weather forecasts
- Winter weather
Canadian holidays
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Thanksgiving
- Halloween
- Remembrance Day
- Christmas
Introducing Canadian citizenship
Introduce your beginner students to some topics related to Canadian citizenship through simplified and shortened lesson plans.
- Who we are
- History
- Regions
- Symbols
Transportation
- At the airport
- Driving
- Taking the bus
All about numbers
- Cardinal and ordinal numbers
- Canadian currency and making change
- Banking vocabulary and using an ATM
- The Canadian tax system
- Telling the time
Understanding grammar: The building blocks of language
- Parts of speech
- Verb tenses
- Pronouns
ESL videos
Find all of the short ESL Directions videos in one place. Use these short videos on their own or as part of a longer lesson plan.
Topics include:
- Alberta
- Canada
- Health
- Numbers, money, and banking
- Work
- Your home and community
RELATED PAGES
Find digital ESL resources for beginners
Here are some digital-friendly and mostly free websites I use to find resources for my ESL beginner students (CLB 1-4). The…
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Create digital ESL resources for beginners
Here are some free digital-friendly websites I use for beginner ESL students (CLB 1-4). The sites include audio resources, vocabulary flashcards,…
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Click the small arrow on the right below to see all of the ESL Directions videos, or visit the ESL Directions: Learning English YouTube playlist.
Latest videos:
RECENTLY UPDATED LESSON PLANS
Talking about illnesses
This lesson plan focuses on teaching students about common illnesses and their treatments. Aimed at…
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Seasons and months
This lesson plan teaches ESL students the names for seasons and months, with a focus…
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ABOUT ESL DIRECTIONS
Kathy Garnsworthy, the creator of ESL Directions, is an ESL teacher, movie buff, constant reader, and former editor and communications pro. Now a graduate of the Teaching English as a Second Language program at the University of Manitoba and an ESL teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, she specializes in teaching online classes of beginner ESL students.
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