Here at Busy Teacher you can find a lot of teaching ideas that have worked for other ESL instructors. There are currently 1,378 available worksheets in this section alone! You can also sort worksheets by ranking to see ones that received positive feedback and read what other teachers have said in the comments section. These tools can help you decide what worksheets to use in your classroom. This worksheet contains great color flashcards for different types of food and includes instructions for a card game. It is just one of the free, printable worksheets you can find. If you need further resources, look at some related articles; they contain a lot of lesson ideas too.
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ESL Articles
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On one of the first days of class, have students interview each other in pairs and then write short one paragraph biographies of their partners. The teacher should start the lesson going over the ...
After reading a story or article in class, have students work in pairs to create a one-sentence summary. One person writes while the other refers to the reading to come up with ways to summarize t ...
At the end of class after watching a movie or reading a story, have students create a new ending for the story. Begin by asking, “What would happen if John and Mary didn’t get married? ...
After a reading or lecture, have students write for several minutes about what they view as having been the “muddiest” or most difficult or unclear portion of the material. They can th ...
After reading a narrative passage, such as a story or narrative essay, have students work in groups to create scenes from that reading. They assign the roles, and then perform the scene. They may ...
A set of conversations cards on second conditional for students to discuss what they'd do in different situations. Cut out the cards, laminate them and ask your students: What would you do if? Ha ...
After students complete a reading, have them “interview” the author. Have them brainstorm some ideas of what they would like to ask the author, such as “When did you first become ...
After introducing to students how to paraphrase and quote, a good follow-up activity is to practice incorporating sources. The teacher should a position related to a current reading on the board: ...
Play the beginning of a popular TV series, such as an episode of the detective series “Monk” or an older series such as the comedy “Friends.” It should be a series with hal ...
At the end of class, have students work together to plan a dinner party of the characters or real people that appeared in their reading that day. Who would they invite? Why? Who should sit next to ...
This is a set of cards to revise Reported Speech (statements, questions and commands). Students take cards in turns and have to change the sentence written on it into the Reported Speech. A grea ...
After introducing the vocabulary of housing and furniture, put students into groups to design their dream houses. One person can “draft” the plan while the whole group contributes to t ...
After reading a story, have students create a “tableau” from that story. A tableau is a “living picture” and is silent. It was a popular party game in Victorian days. Stude ...
A good end-of-class filler is to further discuss an idiom that came up that day: its meaning and origin. For example, an idiom that might come up in class is “under the table,” to disc ...
After teaching students how to quote, have students work in pairs to create imaginary conversations by selecting quotes from their text and then mixing them up with new dialogue they write themsel ...
After introducing a new topic, have students write keywords related to the topic onto sticky notes and organize them in a flow chart on a large poster board. For large classes, students can be bro ...
In the last part of class, have students create “bumper stickers” around a course concept.
First explain what a bumper sticker is (a short, usually clever slogan placed on the back, o ...
Have students get into small groups at the end of class to discuss that session’s reading.
Each group member should offer an opinion on the reading with support for that opinion. One member ...
After students read a well-known story or watch a famous movie, have them rewrite the ending.
For example, if they watch the movie West Side Story, have them consider the possibilities if the her ...
Begin a lesson the day students bring in essays by reviewing the three basic sentence types in English: simple, compound, and complex.
A simple sentence is a subject, verb, and complete i ...
This is a set of 20 cards on countable and uncountable nouns. They're great not only for vocabulary, but also many sentence patterns. Try them for “ some”/”any”, “ Li ...
Teachers often bring in elements of popular cultures to lectures for students to relate to. It can work even better if the material is a cultural icon. Not everyone knows who Lady Gaga is, especia ...
After returning student compositions, take some time to review the marks on student papers that they often ignore.
“How many students see ‘R’ on their papers?” the teacher ...
When introducing the concept of argumentation to students, use the example of arguing to a family member for a new car.
The thesis/premise begins the argument: We need a new car. Students then ne ...
Project the ABC on the board, above each letter write the following letters at random:
L for left,
R for right, or
C for clap.
The students have to say the alphabet while they raise ...
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