The Three Rs

Purpose: to help learners understand what recycling is and why it’s important, as well as to provide listening practice

Prep Time: time needed to view the video and think about how you’ll explain vocabulary

Materials: index cards, copies of worksheet, equipment needed to show video, realia needed to clarify examples of reducing, reusing and recycling

Prep: gather realia, locate index cards, make copies of worksheet

Procedure:

1) Setting the Context and Introducing New Vocabulary:

Start by giving students some examples of reducing, reusing and recycling and ask students if they have done any of these things or anything similar and why. It is not necessary at this point to use the terms reduce, reuse, or recycle. See below for some possible examples you could tell students.

Examples of reducing: using cloth grocery bags, using plastic containers to store food, use your own water bottle, write on both sides of a piece of paper, turn lights off when no one is in the room

Examples of reusing: giving clothing to a younger brother or sister, buying something that is used (a car, books, appliances), new uses for boxes or jars

Examples of recycling: using paper, plastic, glass, cans to make more of the same thing

Teach students the terms reduce, reuse, and recycle, referring to the examples that you discussed. Then elicit/discuss reasons why doing these actions are important.

Please note: If students aren’t familiar with recycling, avoid turning the lesson into the topic of how to recycle; this would make a good follow up lesson. Instead, focus on what it is and why it is important.

2) Practicing the New Language

For this portion of the lesson you will need access to the Three Rs video found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKdZYYmTT9A

You’ll also need copies of this fill-in-the-blanks worksheet.

Introduce the Three Rs video by telling students that they will be doing a listening activity called the Three Rs. Ask students to guess what the Three Rs are.

Play the video once and ask students what they remember.

Pass out the fill-in-the-blanks worksheet and, if necessary, watch the first part of the video and do a couple examples as a class. Then play the whole video a couple times while students fill in the rest of the blanks.

Check the answers for a couple of students and then refer other students to the ones who have the correct answers until every student has the answers. If there is interest, play the video again while students compare their answers to what they hear in the video.

3) Follow-Up Discussion

Students can work with partners or in small groups to come up with some more ideas about ways that people can reduce, reuse and recycle and then report their ideas to the rest of the class.

4) Wrap Up

Pass out an index card to each student. Write the following questions on the board for students to answer on their index cards.

1. Write your name

2. What are three things that you learned today?

3. What questions do you have about the Three Rs?

Read the cards and choose some questions from the cards to discuss/answer as a class.

What is it?

Purpose: To practice vocabulary, descriptions and sentence formation

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Materials: Index cards

Preparation: Choose nouns that your students know and that relate to their goals. Write each noun on a separate index card or piece of paper. Lower-level learners can be given pictures.

Procedure:

1. Give each student a card with a word on it. They should write or say three sentences that describe the word. For example: It is yellow. It has a peel. You take the skin off it before you eat it. Encourage students to use complete sentences.
2. After writing the sentences, each student should read them out loud. The other students in the class should try to guess what the word is.

Picture Flash

Purpose: Visuals cues provide an interesting and challenging way to review vocabulary, as well as testing students’ powers of observation. This activity works well in one-to-one situations as well as in a group.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Materials: If the group is large, you’ll need a projector so that everyone can see and participate.
Choose pictures from magazines, or the Internet, that relate to the lesson topic. You’ll also need
a blank sheet of paper to cover the picture.

Preparation: Select several photos related to your topic. Make sure all the students in a class can see the area where you are projecting the picture. If working with an individual student, sit at a table to facilitate showing the picture.

Procedure:
Explain that you will show the picture very briefly. Model this.

Ask the students to talk about what they saw after you cover up the picture. For example, you might flash a picture of a room. Encourage students to shout out what room it is.

Flash the picture again and see what else students can add. What’s in the room? Are there people in the room? What are they doing?

Flash the picture until students can’t add any more details.

Repeat with other pictures if desired.

Note: If you’re using a projector, don’t turn it on and off during this activity. That will quickly ruin the bulb. Cover and uncover the picture using a piece of paper.

Texting to Teach Reading and Writing

Purpose: To incorporate text messaging into reading and writing instruction for ESL or general literacy/ABE learners.

Tips for using texting with students:

· Ask students to read a text and then summarize it for you in one to three text messages. Compile the summaries, if working with a group, and ask the students to choose the best summary.

· Send out a word of the day. If you are studying workplace skills, send out words related to those lessons. Ask student s to respond by sending you a definition of the word. For more information on how to do this, visit http://www.ehow.com/how_4995209_use-text-messaging-teach-esl.html

· Share grammar tips. The article above will tell you how to do this. Ask students to write back incorporating the grammar in context.

· Ask students to text you their opinions related to a discussion or an article covered in a lesson recently, or ask them to text you and tell you something that they learned in a recent lesson.

· Create a glossary to help “translate” text message abbreviations and acronyms. Sites such as Sharpened Glossary (www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronyms.php) allow users to type in an acronym and find out what it means. Try sending out a message with various abbreviations or acronyms and encourage students to use a site like Sharpened Glossary to decode the meaning.

· Share announcements. If class is canceled due to a blizzard, students may be more likely to respond to a text message than an e-mail or phone call.

Note: Be aware that keyboards can be very different and someone with a normal keypad (non-blackberry or qwerty) will be much slower than someone with a specialized keyboard.