Choose from a variety of activities to engage your students on the first day of class.
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Week of Dec. 15/25
Teach your beginner ESL students about preparing for a traditional Canadian Christmas and encourage them to share their own cultural traditions.
The lesson includes interactive vocabulary activities, a short video, and reflection questions to…
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Lesson plan overview
| Task | To give your students a chance to learn about you and about each other. |
| CLB level | CLB Stage I (CLB 1-3) |
| Delivery method | Online |
| Class size | 10-15 students (vary the number of activities according to your class size) |
| Estimated time | 1.5-2.5 hours (Choose from a range of activities to create an engaging first class for your students. The class length will depend on your class size and how many activities you choose.) |
| CLB Skills and Competencies | Speaking: Interacting with others Sharing information Listening: Interacting with others Comprehending information Reading: Comprehending information |
| Language focus | Learn the vocabulary needed to understand this topic. Use the appropriate grammar structures and vocabulary to respond personally to the reflection questions. (Encourage students to respond in full sentences.) |
| Cultural focus | Students will share information about their cultures with each other. |
| Specific task learning objectives | Students create some classroom rules together. Students (and the teacher) learn something about each other and our different cultures. Students understand that there are multiple ways to learn English and share their own suggestions. Students complete a needs assessment to guide lesson planning over the coming term. |
| ESL Directions original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities? | This lesson includes original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities. |
| Resource attribution | ESL Directions original resources are marked below with an asterisk (*). Feel free to use these, but please give credit to ESL Directions. |
Lesson plan
Warm-up: Introducing the topic
- Today, we’re going to learn about each other and also discover what we’d like to learn in this class.
Creating classroom rules
- Our classroom rules (Use this BookWidgets tool to create classroom rules together with your class. Clicking on the plus sign at the top right allows you to enter text.)
Getting to know you
FEATURED CONTENT
- Getting to know you* (Two students ask each other questions to practice their English and find out more about each other.) 🎥
- Find out more about about your classmates* (Role play and open-ended questions based on the video dialogue.) 🎥
Tell us about where you’re from
- Describing your country* (Vocabulary flashcards.)
- Pair matching* (Match the images and descriptions.) 🔊
- Vocabulary review scattersheet* (Ask students to define each term. Refresh the page to see a different configuration.)
- Country questions and answers* (Open-ended questions about each student’s country.)
- Mapchart world map (Configure the map to “Show country names.”):
- Ask students where they are from and highlight their country on the map.
- Ask students about their countries:
- Are there mountains?
- Many rivers and lakes?
- Forests?
- Deserts?
- What kind of animals would we see in your home country?
- Many people? Few people?
- Anything else you want to tell us about your country?
- Give students a few minutes to find an item from their culture in their house. Ask them to describe the item and to tell the class what it means to them.
Ways to learn English
FEATURED CONTENT
Needs assessments
Choose the needs assessment that best fits your students from the list below. (Notes: Click on each image tile to make it bigger and to display its information. Note students’ topic choices.)
- Where do you want to speak English?*
- I need English to …*
- What do you want to learn?* (Canada/Alberta specific.)
- Where do you want to speak English?* (Canada/Alberta specific.)
- Where do you want to speak English? 2 (An alternative version with some different options.)
Reflection questions
- How long have you been learning English?
- Did you learn English in your home country?
- How did you learn English there (e.g., emphasis on grammar, conversation)?
- What are your suggested ways to learn English?
- What aspect of English do you need most help with?
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FIRST DAY OF CLASS WORDWALL ACTIVITIES
Wordwall is a very useful interactive lesson-creation site. If you sign up for a free Wordwall account, you will be able to see our “First day of class” folder, which includes ESL Directions activities that you can add to your lessons.
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ABOUT ESL DIRECTIONS
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 a TESL Canada certified ESL teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, I specialize in teaching online classes of beginner ESL students.
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