2. Reading
As students are ready to read, remember second language
learners read by sight FIRST. They must have words to
associate to phonetic learning.
Learn vocabulary, and then step by step, teach the
appropriate phonics using word families. First grade
materials are very appropriate as a first step.
Progress through the grade levels as vocabulary is learned.
You will find students so thrilled to be able to read in
English the level and content are irrelevant to them.
If you are able, be sure students also have literature in
their own language to read also.
3. Key Comprehension Questions
As students begin to read in English:
Begin to ask orally questions about the story.
Discuss together. Give them the words.
Have student repeat verbally what the correct
answer is. Do this as an echo drill many times for each
answer.
Together write the answer, and they can copy the
written answer.
Have them keep a dictionary of words so they can
have the words easily available to refer to when necessary.
After they become skilled at this and have gained
vocabulary have them add a sentence or more to what
was written together.
4. Some Oral Questions
Predicting
1.What is going to happen?
2.What is ___going to do now?
3.Where is ___going?
4.Who/What is going to be there?
5.How is ___going to feel?
6.What is ___going to say?
7.What is ___thinking?
8.What will be found there?
9.Who will win/succeed at the end?
10.How will the problem be solved?
5. Other Oral Questions
Drawing Conclusions
1.What is happening?
2.How can you explain what is happening?
Why do you think this happened?
3.What could have gone wrong?
What would you have done?
4.How would you feel about this?
5.What is your opinion?
Why?
6.Which side would you take?
Why?
7.What do think is the right thing to do?
Why?
What else is possible?
6. More Oral Questions
Making Generalizations
1.What is the story telling us?
2.What is the author trying to tell us?
3.What is the story's message?
8. 3 Draw a cat Draw a hat Draw a mat Draw a rat
L
E Draw a fat Draw a cat in a Draw a rat on a Draw a bat.
T rat. hat. mat.
T
E
R Draw a bat on Draw a rat in a Draw a rat and Draw a cat and
a mat. hat. a cat. a rat in a
W hat.
O
R Draw.... Draw.... Draw.... Draw....
D The cat sat on The rat sat on The cat sat on The cat sat on
S the rat. the cat. the bat. the hat.
14. Calendar: Months : January, February, March,
April, May, June, July, August,
September, October, November,
December
Week : Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday
Days : today, yesterday, tomorrow,
this week, next week, last week
Holidays : Christmas, Halloween,
Presidents Day
Seasons : Winter, Spring, Fall,
Money Dollars, penny, dime quarter, cents
Summer
Past, half an hour, quarter of an
Time hour, on time, oclock, punctual
27. Supermarket Ads–
There are a lot of possible activities using
supermarket ads. Here's a good follow-up for food
vocabulary, recipes, etc: Bring in multiple copies of
supermarket circulars. Put students in groups of
three. Tell each group they are friends planning a
dinner party. Each group has $75 to spend. After
planning their party, each group elects one student to
present to the rest of the class. Once all the groups
have presented, ask the class to vote on which dinner
party they would most like to attend.
28. Delivery Menus–
Pick up delivery menus. After reviewing
menu/food vocabulary, put students in groups
of three or four. The task is for groups to
decide collectively on what they will have for
dinner. (You may need to tell your students
that in the United States, it is common to
order food for everyone to share; the bill is
usually divided equally.)
29. Give each student a role card. Possible roles
could be: "You're a vegetarian, but you don't
like mushrooms or spinach." "You only have
ten dollars to contribute to the meal. You
really like spicy food." "You love shrimp. You
will be very unhappy if your group doesn't
order at least one shrimp dish." "You have a
sensitive stomach and cannot eat spicy food."
After each group decides they should elect
one member of the group to participate in a
telephone role-play in front of the whole
class.
30. Labels–
You can use either food or clothing labels.
For clothing labels, simply bring in around
seven different garments and hang these in
places around the room. Review
clothing/laundry vocabulary with the class.
Then, give each pair a short worksheet which
describes each clothing item (e.g. the plaid
Gap shirt, or the wool sweater) and asks the
same set of questions for each item.
31. Some possible questions could be: " Are you
going to put it in the washing machine, wash it
by hand or take it to the dry-cleaners?" "Hot,
warm or cold water?" "Are you going to put it
in the dryer, hang it up or dry it flat?" or
"Does it need to be ironed?"
32. Simple Comic Strips– White-out the
text bubbles. Make multiple copies of
the same strip. Distribute one per pair.
Students work together to fill in the
bubbles while you circulate and assist.
Once the students are finished, post
their comic strips to allow their
classmates to compare with the other
versions. You may then want to give
them the original for class discussion.