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Recent Newsletter Articles

Grammar Monster

Completely free website with mini grammar lessons based on common mistakes, vocabulary building activities for ESL students, idioms, punctuation, and more. Each lesson contains an explanation, examples, and a short quiz. There are many interactive online activities for the vocabulary portion of the website. Read More

Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab: Vocabulary Quizzes

Find 1-3 minute intermediate level listening tracks with a variety of activities for learners to test their understanding, including multiple choice questions, gap-fill exercises, and sentence and vocabulary matching. Read More

Total Physical Response (TPR): A Curriculum for Adults

Learn about the "how" and "why" of using TPR in the classroom and explore a lesson routine that can be used for a wide variety of TPR topics. A great resource for teachers who are new to incorporating TPR into their lessons. Read More

ESL Literacy Readers (Bow Valley Readers)

This collection of 40 theme-based readers features adult ESL learners engaging in everyday work and life activities. The learner page provides ESL students with access to seven levels of stories written specifically for adults. Each story focuses on a different learner and has an accompanying listening track so learners can listen as well as read the story. Read More

Rachel’s English

This YouTube channel contains hundreds of videos unpacking the sounds and rhythms of the English language, as well as videos exploring idioms, vocabulary, and recommendations for strengthening listening and learning skills. Read More

National WWII Museum

Offers free access to lesson plans, essays, and multimedia resources, including videos and oral histories, from the National WWII Museum education collection. The classroom materials are leveled for middle and high school students and can be searched by subject and type of resource. Topics include the war in Europe and the Pacific, the impact on the homefront, and the legacy of World War II. The collection also offers lessons that explore the impact of the war on scientific innovations. Read More

Activities for Tutoring a Pre-Literate Student

Find activities ideas for low-literacy learners in phonics, speaking, listening, reading, and writing in this handout. Read More

Global Oneness Project

According to their website, “We aim to connect, through stories, the local human experience to global meta-level issues, such as climate change, water scarcity, food insecurity, poverty, endangered cultures, migration, and sustainability. Through featuring individuals and communities impacted by these issues, our stories and lessons provide opportunities to examine universal themes that emphasize our common humanity... Our lessons facilitate the development of students' critical thinking, inquiry, empathy, and listening skills." Read More

Talking Politics: Valuing Different Perspectives

This video from Edutopia demonstrates how high school students learn how to share and listen to opposing beliefs with empathy in the classroom. Read More

Ten ESL Activities to Teach Perfect Pronunciation and Get Mouths Moving

This article from the FluentU English Educator Blog provides ten activities for teachers to use when students have difficulty differentiating between two sounds (known as minimal pairs). Read More