Cycle Three

There are so many ways to use AI to help students develop their competencies or even to help teachers gain efficiency. In this activity, students will collaboratively write song assited by an AI app called Suno. They will then compete against other teams and vote for the best song. I think it can be done from elementary cycle 3 up to sec 5 enriched. (Make sure to read the notes in the TG about the use of AI in the classroom.) 

Rosie Revere enjoys coming up with new ideas and inventions. In this reading activity, students will explore and connect with the text before making an invention of their own. This activity will allow you to observe the development of the C2 competency. Students will also speak English while they collaborate to design a new invention. 

In this C3 writing task, students will have the flexibility to choose one of the three writing tasks. A model text is also provided for them. Teachers could also decide to use one of the texts to model the task and then offer two choices for the actual final task.

**WARNING** Zombies have now entered Canada and it's too late for many Canadian provinces. The experts foresee the arrival of the zombies in the province in a matter of days. Please ask your students to collaborate with the Ministry of Zombie Prevention and Outbreaks to create a zombie survival guide for the residents. Everyone should take this treat seriously.   

Let's face it, although we don't want to think we are getting older, some gadgets and contraptions from our past are completely unknow to our students. In this C1 activity, students will have to discuss and agree on the use of different objects from the past. They will even be invited to survey their parents about these items. 

Japan definitely has its shares of innovative contraptions and vending machines are no exception. There are vending machines for almost anything from hot dogs to live insects! Discover the surprising world of Japanese vending machines with your students and invite them to create their own silly or not-so-silly vending machine. In this short LES, students will do a collaborative planning before individually writing their text. This activity can be done online or in class.

Using talk detectives in the ESL classroom is a great way to teach students how to successfully interact orally in English.  What are talk detectives you ask?  In a nutshell, while students are interacting orally, the appointed talk detectives walk around the classroom and look for specific observable elements in the discussions. Not only does it help students better understand oral interactions, but it creates peer-generated observations for the student portfolio. These tools can be adapted to use with students as early as Elementary Grade 3 to Sec 5. 

What will I do with my students if a classroom closes and I have to teach online? Well hopefully this emergency planning will give you a hand. You will find activities for a complete cycle in this planning. It includes everything you need, from the presentation documents to the students documents ready to share. We use Google for Education so you’ll find most documents in the Google format. However, I did create either a PowerPoint or PDF version of all documents for teachers using other teaching platforms. 

It is unavoidable! The ESL classroom will be very different as of May 11th. Some schools might even remove ESL from the curriculum until June. But for those of you who will teach ESL with all the measures in place, I hope this document helps you find a couple ideas to use in the classroom. In no way does this document replace your official MEES documents. It only presents my take on how to go about the next few weeks in the ESL classroom. You will find essential elements to be learning from the Progression of Learning for each level as well as ideas to continue leading activities for all three competencies. 

These ten different oral interaction activities were created for intensive English teachers who wanted to keep their students interacting orally during this social distancing period. Each oral interaction activity comes with an introduction activity and a wrap-up. Although they were created for intensive ESL, teachers could use them with other levels as well. These activities were also thought out to be long-lasting and they will definitely be useful for both Elementary and Secondary teachers once we're all back to our normal lives. Please watch the explanation video before downloading the files. 

Travelling is one of the popular reasons why people start learning English. We originally created this project at our board to prepare students for their end of the year trip while integrating the use of iPads in class. Over time, we added different destinations for students to discover. You will also find a template to create your own student booklet with your favorite destination. You will only have to change the title and five QR codes.

Do you remember Carmen Sandiego? This criminal mastermind helped many children of my generation in learning geography. She was the inspiration for this new Breakout lesson. Students will follow Carmen through different countries around the globe and they will need to interact orally to solve the different puzzles. This breakout activity integrates technologies. Students will need an iPad or Chromebook to scan the QR codes on the map. There aren't any devices available? Don't worry! There is a printable version of the information cards. 

Here is a series of thirteen different task cards for ESL students to use with Chromebooks or with a Google for Education account.  The different tasks include the creation of an interactive greeting card, the production of a weather report, the invention of a fake  Facebook profile for a celebrity, the making of different videos using an online video editing tool and so on. Increase students' motivation and engagement by offering them the choice of a task. Let students be creative while they learn and develop their competencies. 

As an educator, I strongly believe that learning about culture is a key part of learning a language. To me, learning about other countries, landmarks, social habits, cuisine, art, and music can help shape the students' minds and make them better citizens of the world. Here's a little scavenger hunt about different Christmas traditions from around the world. Students will learn about different traditions and celebrations in Argentina, Greece, Kenya, Japan, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, and other countries through reading texts and watching videos they will access by scanning the QR codes. 

Creating postcards is one of my favorite activities to do with students. It is such a flexible activity and can be adapted to suit almost any theme. This postcard isn't the traditional postcard. Using online tools, students will create an interactive postcard of a randomly assigned country. They will have to do a quick research online to find a video and information to use in their written message. Then, students will add their postcard link on a world map to combine all the class' postcards. This postcard template could also be modified to be used as a C2.

Emojis are literally everywhere. They form a language of symbols understood internationally. In this learning and evaluation situation, students will explore texts to learn more about the invention of emojis. They will go through different learning stations to discover and create around this theme. They will answer questions as a demonstration of understanding. As a reinvestment task, students will create a vlog by each recording a video including information about how emojis came to be. You can even create the vlog for real if  you have the parents' approval.

Have you ever seen a child coming face to face with a rotary phone for the first time in their life. Most of them have no idea what to do with such a contraption. Through this learning and evaluation situation, students will learn about past inventions such as the rotary phone, the Nintendo, the Walkman and color television. After reading texts, they will sequence information, write the information down in graphic organizers and answer true or false questions to demonstrate understanding. As a final reinvestment task, students will write a dialogue between time travelers.  

Let’s be honest, C2 is a struggle even for the most experienced teachers among us. The demonstration of students’ understanding through questions is not much of a problem, but creating reinvestment tasks can be challenging.  Yet, if you get to tame the beast, you will happen to find that reinvestment tasks can be fun and engaging for students.  In Outer Space, students will learn about 4 different aliens living on a far away planet. As a reinvestment task, students will write the diary entry of an astronaut who just landed on that planet and met aliens. 

In this project, students will discover various locations around the world by going on six different day trips. While doing so, the students will complete a passport to get country stamps. The length of a day trip varies from 20 minutes to 45 minutes, as each day trip contains an optional writing task. An explicit model is provided for each task. Tasks are also separated in different levels to allow for differentiation. Don’t forget to look for the “Going Beyond” activity for older or stronger learners. Are you a virtual reality newbie? Don't worry!

The main objective is to have students from intensive ESL classrooms interact orally in English with students from other regions. Another educational aim of this project is to broaden the students’ horizons about the different cultures of the world. In traditional Mystery Skype events, two classrooms interact together and ask questions to one another until the students guess in which city of the world the other class is located. The students can only ask yes/no questions. The activity was a success. The students were engaged and the situation was definitely authentic. 

Grade 6 students have had more than their share of animals projects in ESL. Yet, I've decided to create another one. Not only do students enjoy the proposed angle from which we discover animals, but they enjoy the collaboration in the exploration of the texts phase. The magazine presents animals with special abilities, some of which will have your students laughing out loud. This LES brings the animal theme to another level. This LES includes a complete reinvestment task as well as oral interaction and writing tasks. 

Be flexible in the classroom is fundamental. Not only does it provide a better leaning experience for students, but it allows for differentiated instruction. Also, providing a choice of tasks reinforces engagement and positive behavior. These writing tasks have been created to share the same learning outcomes and  to be evaluated with the same criteria. Therefore, students could chose a first writing task as a formative evaluation on which the teacher would give feedback. Then, students would select a second task among the three choices in order to be evaluated. 

Breakout EDU activities are definitely a new trend in education. Inspired by the "Escape the Room" puzzle and adventure games, the concept has been used in schools all over the world to foster cooperative learning. It is an interesting context for our ESL learners to engage in authentic interaction situations while developing functional language and vocabulary. The Case of the Haunted Castle was inspired by the Clue board game. You will see many resembles with the characters and rooms from the game. Will your students be able to help the characters escape from the haunted castle? 

Same engaging activity but without the expensive box. This activity is done in teams of four instead of being a whole group activity. Inspired by the "Escape the Room" puzzle games, the concept has been used in schools to foster cooperative learning. It is an interesting context for our ESL learners to engage in authentic interaction situations while developing functional language and vocabulary. Will your students be able to help the characters escape from the haunted castle? 

When you think about it, the main purpose of describing a place or character in a text is to help the reader create an image in their mind. Using descriptive words related to all five senses is a very effective strategy to improve the personalization of  a descriptive text. In this lesson, students will learn how to use their five senses to better describe. They will collaborate to build a common vocabulary bank that will be used as a common resource for writing the final text. 

Based on the famous television show The Price is Right, this learning and evaluation situation promotes oral interaction by proposing different games and team challenges to the students. As a final task, the students will have to write the script for a supermarket radio advertisement. A audio model for the task is provided. Whether you prefer the original show host Bob Barker or the most recent host Drew Carrey, watching an episode of the show is a fun way to start the LES. 

Using role-plays in the classroom is a great to foster oral  interaction amongst second language learners. In this investigation, the students will each have to portray a character. They will be given cues that need to be respected in order to follow the storyline. However, the students will be given time to build on their character and bring props if needed. Not only does this activity engage students in the interaction but it also helps develop problem-solving strategies. Will you find out who did it?

Penpalling in the ESL classroom is such a great activity. Not only does it provide an authentic audience to the writers, but it also allows them to engage in the publishing phase of the writing process.The idea behind the creation of this project was for students to experiment with collaborative writing through their penpals. The student booklet will be sent back and forth from one class to the other. Without even knowing each other, the students will develop a narrative and use peer editing strategies to improve their writing skills. 

Is there anything better than travelling to some of the most beautiful islands in the world while making sure our students are developing their ESL competencies? Unfortunately, I can only offer you this pretend cruise but I'm hoping you and your students will have fun doing this activity. In this breakout activity, students will have to collaborate and discuss to solve the different puzzles. They will also have to use their reading strategies to find key elements in the texts and demonstrate understanding.