A terrific short video that can be used to anchor a lesson plan for an ESL conversation or writing class.
Writing a Thesis Sentence and Other Style Tricks
Learn English Writing
A thesis sentence is the like a map. It helps students focus their writing in a specific direction. When students learn to write a thesis, their writing (as well as their speaking and thinking) will become sharper and clearer. This exercise teaches students to write one thesis sentence pattern.
Trivia about Learning and Remembering
Here are some odd bits of information about language learning. My hope is to inspire and motivate students. The information about learning words comes from this useful site.
LEARNING WORDS
- ESL students need to know about 2000 word families to read and understand 85% of the words in general texts.
- To read a novel, magazine or newspaper, students need about 8000 to 9000 word families.
- We need to see or hear a word 10 to 50 times in order to learn the word and its meaning. (Waring)
TIME TO FORGET
A website from the University of Waterloo suggests how easy it is to forget new material if we do not review.
This graph shows the speed of forgetting. It starts with material that students learn in a one hour university lecture.
ESL Writing Prompts
Writing prompts are often useful tools to help English students kick start a small ESL writing project. Here are a few prompts written by a creative guy.
Number 2