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Recent Newsletter Articles
Five Activities to Promote Interaction and Communication
This packet contains in-depth descriptions of five communicative activities that can be used with literacy- and beginning-level learners through advanced level learners. Read More
Give It a Go: Teaching Pronunciation to Adults
This interactive PDF resource provides "a brief and accessible overview of how pronunciation works in English, some explanations of the particular difficulties faced by learners from different backgrounds, and activities that teachers can use to help adult language learners to improve their pronunciation." Read More
Goal-Setting Lesson Plans
The San Diego Continuing Education Program has created PDFs of a three-part goal-setting lesson for adult ESL students. The lessons and materials are appropriate for high-beginning to advanced level learners. Read More
Ideas for a Multilevel Class
This article includes recommendations for multilevel teaching strategies and classroom management suggestions distilled from an experienced ESL teacher. The article is part of a National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) digest, and includes links to additional articles on the topic of multilevel instruction. Read More
DigitalLearn
This site is a collection of self-directed tutorials for users to increase their digital literacy. Modules are video-based with narration, 6 to 22 minutes long, written at the fourth grade reading level. Read More
Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing
The website ReadWriteThink has a sample peer editing checklist that can be adapted for a variety of writing levels and focuses. It also contains suggestions for scaffolding peer editing with learners who are new to the process. Read More
ESL Literacy Readers
This collection of beloved theme-based readers for beginning levels of ESL literacy has been discontinued (in late 2024). They are no longer available at the Bow Valley College site. However, colleagues at the Immigrant Welcome Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, have a number of the readers posted (with permission) on their Adult ELL Pathway to Literacy website. This document outlines the changes and how to find these materials. Read More
Eslflow.com
This website contains free downloadable handouts on a wide variety of ESL topics, including Business English, English for Tourism, and jobs and careers. Read More
Breaking News English
This website is a long-time teacher favorite, featuring readings from news stories around the world in seven different levels. Each article is written in three to four different levels and contains printable activities and handouts. Read More
Citizenship Teaching Resources – Literacy Minnesota
The Citizenship Kit provides teachers and volunteer tutors with all of the materials that necessary to help learners prepare for all portions of the citizenship interview, as well as activity ideas to challenge learners and keep them engaged as they study one-on-one with a tutor. Additional citizenship instructional resources are available as well. Read More