Novelinks
Running Out of Time: Anticipation Guide
Get your class ready to read with this anticipatory set for Running Out of Time. Small groups each consider one thought-provoking statement. After each group comes to a consensus, the whole class participates in sharing ideas and voting...
Facing History and Ourselves
Fishbowl Discussion
Filter young teenagers' opinions and perspectives with a classic fishbowl discussion. Given any topic relevant to your curriculum, a group of class members engage in discussion for their peers to observe.
Curated OER
Test Your Speaking & Listening Skills: How To Give a Small Group Or Individual Presentation
How do you structure oral presentations? Guide your orators with this plan. Groups of English language learners will practice presenting their opinion in response to the question "Do you think the death penalty is justified for some...
ESL Base
Future Board Game
Are your pupils going to enjoy this game? Definitely! Small groups practice conversational skills and the future tenses by asking and answering the questions provided on the game board.
Road to Grammar
The Unexplained
Are you afraid of what goes bump in the night? Talk about the supernatural with your English language learners to find out their beliefs while practicing speaking skills. Learners read three different viewpoints on the paranormal and...
Road to Grammar
Fame
Smile for the camera and find out how your English language learners feel about fame! Class members read three different points of view on fame and then discuss ten questions about the topic.
Curated OER
The Lightning Thief: During Reading Strategy
After reading up to page 371 of Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, get insight into how Percy felt making a major decision through active discussion strategies that enable both academic and thoughtful...
University of Kansas
Feelings - Thematic Unit
Boost language skills with a unit all about feelings. Scholars from all grade levels take part in several lessons that incorporate specific vocabulary terms and adjectives while discussing their feelings with their peers. Reading...
Road to Grammar
100 Ice-Breaker Questions
What if you could ease your English language learners into class with engaging questions? You can do just that with these questions. The questions, designed to prepare learners for working with English, are grouped by topics, such as...
British Council
What's Your Name?
What is your name? Scholars join in small groups to discuss questions about their names and listen to an audio about names before completing a worksheet. Afterward, individuals create a list of names heard in the audio and classify them...
Road to Grammar
Globalization
How familiar are your pupils with globalization? Hold a discussion on that topic using the questions and viewpoints provided here. Learners can study the vocabulary and read the points of view in order to prepare for the final talk.
Road to Grammar
Language Expansion
Improve your pupils' language skills with these discussions and activities. There are four topics included here, and each is paired with discussion prompts (small group and whole class), student handouts, and teacher notes. After...
Road to Grammar
Techonology
Technology is a hot topic, so why not discuss it with your English language learners? There are three viewpoints from students included on this page, along with vocabulary words and ten tech-related questions to discuss.
Road to Grammar
Capital Punishment
Hold a brief discussion about the death penalty with your English language learners. The resource includes vocabulary words to examine, three different viewpoints for students to consider, and a list of discussion questions. The resource...
Andrews McMeel Publishing
POW! A Peanuts Collection
Make a study of Charles M. Scultz's famous comic strip Peanuts in your language arts class. Class members read and discuss the baseball-themed book POW! A Peanuts Collection. After talking about themes and vocabulary, they complete...
Macmillan Education
Christmas: #SadTree
Christmas trees can be as large and elaborate as the tree in Rockefeller Center, or as small and understated as Charlie Brown's tree in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But where did the tradition of Christmas trees come from? An engaging...
Perkins School for the Blind
Conversation Skills
It is so important for learners with multiple disabilities to learn how to communicate for both social and functional reasons. Each child will choose a topic from the list and generate five questions related to that topic. They'll split...
Curated OER
Rhetorical Devices in a Primary Source
Analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech as a primary source document. After reading up on rhetorical devices and working in small groups to define terms, class members identify and explain the use of...
Curated OER
Is Social Media a Trustworthy News Outlet?
Examine the role of social media in social and political uprisings. Pupils listen to NPR audio clips about social media and the Arab Spring and read an article that proposes the idea that revolution will not happen through social media....
Classroom Adventures Program
Creating Characters
Examine character in depth. Over the course of these six lessons, learners explore their own character traits, determine the traits of characters in the books they read, practice comparing and contrasting, and collaborate in small groups...
EngageNY
Analyzing the Main Idea in Video: Understanding the Limbic System
It's time to put on those thinking caps and analyze the brain! Pupils watch a video about teenage brain development, using a note-catcher to capture their thoughts about the main idea. Finally, they select two pieces of information from...
Novelinks
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Problematic Situations
When is it okay to go against authority and what can happen if you do? This is the leading question in this activity to accompany your classroom reading of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. After reading chapter eight,...
Sacramento Country Day School
7th Grade Character Development Workshops
Be proactive. Begin with the end in mind. Synergize. These are just a few strategies outlined in Sean Covey's ground-breaking best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. With a series of five character development workshops...
Overcoming Obstacles
Using Appropriate Resources
A lesson dives deep into reference materials. The class begins with a discussion of which resources are best used for specific purposes and how to identify ways to get the needed information. Learners share information about the internet...