Lesson Plans

Here are some of the ESL teaching materials developed by REEP volunteers and arranged by lifeskills topic. They include individual lesson plans and activities, as well as a comprehensive set of 24 lessons and teacher's guide that also correspond to the lifeskills topics. They have been made available in PDF format for you to download and use without charge. To view and print PDF files you must have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Volunteers who wish to contribute teaching materials to this collection should contact the REEP Volunteer Program at reep@apsva.us. Contributed materials must be original and not under copyright. Materials on this site may not be distributed for commercial purposes or incorporated into other collections or Web sites.

Click on any link below to take you to that section:

PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION

Lesson Plans

• Describing People

• Introductions

• Alphabet and Introducing Self

• Completing a Simplified Identification Form

• Personal Identification Lesson 1

• Personal Identification Lesson 2

Handouts

• Describing People - single large photo

• Describing People - multiple small photos

• Family Grid - fill-in chart

• Identification Game - questions

• Personal Identification Grid - fill-in chart

• Personal Identification Mingle Cards

TIME AND CALENDAR; DAILY ROUTINES AND LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Lesson Plans

• Ordinal Numbers and Calendar

• Telling Time

• Joe's Day and Daily Routine

• Weather

• Days and Dates

• Time and Weather

Handouts

• Ordinal Numbers - flashcards

• Time - dialogues about opening/closing times of businesses and daily activities

• Bus schedule - dialogue

• Leisure Activities - dialogue chart

• What Time Is It?

• Months of the Year Unscramble Activity

• US Weather

MONEY AND BANKING

Lesson Plans

• Identifying Coins

• Counting Money - 1

• Counting Money - 2

• Check Cashing

• People and Things in a Bank

• Money and Banking 1

• Money and Banking 2

• Money and Banking 3

• The VA Adult Learning Resource Center (VALRC) offers an ESOL toolkit for financial literacy called Money Talks that includes lesson plans, handouts, and visuals. These materials range in level from literacy level to intermediate. This toolkit focuses largely on managing money. The topics are checking accounts and basic banking services, credit, goals and budgets, growing your money, loans, and saving money.

• The Federal Trade Commission has developed consumer.gov, a website aimed at providing basic, understandable information on managing money; credits, loans, and debt; and scams and identity theft. They also have a toolbox section that has lesson plans, worksheets, videos, and resources to help immigrant communities. Note they also have a presentation on scams against immigrants. This content is for intermediate and advanced learners.

Handouts

• Banking Information Grid - fill-in chart

• Banking Survey - fill-in chart

• Prices Information Gap

CONSUMERISM (Shopping)

Lesson Plans

• Identifying Food Items

• Identifying Clothing Items with Superlatives

• Identifying Food with Comparatives

• Identifying What Others Are Wearing

• At a Restaurant

• Ordering from a Menu

• Describing Clothing and Sizes

• Fast Food

• Food

• Drink

• Clothes

Handouts

• Supermarket Information Grid and Dialog

• Where is-Where are worksheet

• Food and Clothing Shopping Questions and Answers

• Food: Count/No Count Nouns - grammar chart and "circle correct word" exercise

• Ordering Food in a Restaurant Dialog

TRANSPORTATION

Lesson Plans

• Airports - Part 2

• Riding the Bus

• Directions

• Bus and Train Schedules

• Car Parts and Problems (contributed by Jim Pomeroy)

• Hometown

• Community Locations

• Metrorail, bus, taxi

Handouts

• Transportation Information Grid (2) - fill-in chart

• Public tranportation (bus and Metro) - vocabulary and dialogues

• Reading and answering questions about simplified used car ads

HOUSING

Lesson Plans

• Renting an Apartment

• Do You Live in a House or an Apartment?

• Looking for a New Apartment

• Housework

• Housework and Laundry

• Housework (Part 2)

• General and Living Room

• Dining Room and Kitchen

• Bedroom and Bathroom

Handouts

• Describe Your Apartment Info Grid

• Rental advertisements and abbreviations

• Home Repair Problems - vocabulary, complaint letters/phone

• Getting Utilities Turned On - dialogue

• What's in your house? - fill-in chart

• Household Chores - Vocabulary, dialogue, pictures (color)

COMMUNITY AND CIVICS

Lesson Plans

• America's First Colonies

• An Introduction to the Library

• Places in the Community

• The Fifty US States

• The US Presidential Election

• Arlington National Cemetery

• Preparing for Disasters

• A Community Problem

• USCIS offers lesson plans with instructions and teaching strategies for novice and seasoned ESL instructors preparing students for U.S. citizenship. Lessons include content on American Government, American History, and Integrated Civics covered in the Civics Test as well as language needed for the reading and writing portions of the English Test. Handouts with interactive games and student-centered activities encompass all four language skills.

• ESL holiday lessons has reading, listening, and vocab activities for all of the holidays.

HEALTH, EMERGENCIES, AND SAFETY

Lesson Plans

• Toothache

• Calling 911

• Calling in sick - Lesson 1

• Calling in sick - Lesson 2

• Doctor's appointment

• The Human Body

• The Five Senses

• Treatments and Appointments

• There are a few other ideas for lesson plans here from readingconnections.org. Lesson plan titles include The Right Dose, Identifying Parts of the Body, Taking Medications, and Communicating with Health Professionals.

• Virginia Adult ESOL Health Literacy Toolkit Created by a hospital social worker and ESOL educator, this toolkit offers explanations, tips, materials and links to help ESOL educators and programs better understand and address the health literacy challenges faced by adult English language learners in US healthcare.

• Florida Health Literacy Initiative's Staying Healthy - Created by the Florida State Literacy Resource Center, the Staying Healthy curriculum has full lessons on healthcare, doctors, medicine, healthy food, and staying healthy. These resources are good for high beginners and up.

Handouts

• Health Information Grid

• Calling 911 - dialogue

• Emergency & 911 questions

• Possessive pronouns - written exercise with health theme

• Calling emergency services - dialogues

• Making a doctor's appointment - dialogue

• Doctor's appointment schedule book - visual

Teacher's Note: These two handouts are intended for use together. Divide the class into groups and assign the most advanced student in each group the role of doctor's receptionist. Other students call in to him/her.

• Drugs Information Grid

• Drug labels and pharmacist instructions (Teacher's Note: You can also cut up these labels and paste them on cards to use with the drugs information grid if you can't bring in sample medicine bottles)

• Calling in sick/Talking about illness to a friend - Dialogues, vocabulary

COMMUNICATION: PHONE AND MAIL

Lesson Plans

• Communications - Phone and Mail

• Wrong Number

• Phone

• Mail

Handouts

• Phone Actions TPR Game

• Telephone Information Gap - advanced

• Telephone Numbers Information Gap

• Telephone Numbers Listening Activity

• Post Office - story with questions, buying stamps dialogue, vocabulary, past tense verbs

EMPLOYMENT: FINDING A JOB, KEEPING A JOB, AND ON THE JOB

Lesson Plans

• Four Day Job

• Employment and job skills

• Occupation Vocabulary

• Past, Present, and Future Jobs

• Employment 1

• Employment 2

• Employment 3

Handouts

• Dialogues about reading job ads and employment skills

• Skills inventory grid and dialogue; match occupational titles to skills

• Answering questions about job advertisements (Teacher's Note: To use this handout, paste in recent employment ads from your local newspaper. Make sure the ads contain the answers to all the questions in each grid.)

• "Can" and "To Be" Sentence Correction Activity