ESL Methods

Nothing is more fun in learning a lesson than the actual experience of a field trip. After learning about animals, my master teacher and I took the students to the Saipan Zoo as the culminating activity. The students love seeing animals such as the lion, tiger, monkey, bear, owl, sheep, turtle and others at the zoo. This trip help the students gain an experience that will help them understand the real size and color of each of the animals, the food they ate, and the behaviors they display. Field trips help all students gain an experience and understand the concept of the lesson or topic being taught better.
This is a group activity on animal habitat under the community theme. I used visual cues or drawing of a few animal habitats that I was introducing to the class. Students, when called are to come up and write a name or draw an animal that belong to the habitat. ESL students understood the concept of the topic better when there is visual cue presented to them. Visual cues or pictures helps all students including ESL students understand the lesson being taught.
Here, I demonstrate and model to the students the step by step procedure of how to manipulate the clay dough to a landform shape. Demonstrating and modeling helps ESL students understand directions better.

In this picture, I watch 3 ESL students work in a small group hands on activity on landform. One of the students is a student with special needs. The other two students are general students working as buddies with the student with special needs. Work Buddies or small group is one method that can help ESL students or students with special needs learn and enjoy activities together.