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About

I'm Judie Haynes, an ESL teacher from New Jersey, USA, with more than 32 years of teaching experience. In addition to my classroom work, I have authored and co-authored four books on ESL, co-written a chapter for TESOL's Integrating Standards into Classroom Practice and am contributing a column for Essential Teacher magazine. » Learn more

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You can find even more lesson plans and classroom activities in one of my four books.

Challenges for ELLs in Content Area Learning
Do you want to help classroom teachers in your school with their English language learners? Begin by understanding the challenges ELLs face in their content area learning.

Quick tip!  In order to acquire English, ELLs need to understand what is said to them. The message should be appropriate to their language level. This language should be just beyond the learners’ current proficiency but easy enough for them to understand. Develop ELLs’ background knowledge through the use of gestures, pictures and realia to make input comprehensible.

Valentine's Day Hearts
Have a heart! Use Valentine's Day to give your students an interesting opportunity to learn and use figurative language in English.

Lincoln's Birthday: February 12th
Introduce the concepts of slavery and the Civil War when studying this famous American President.

Bloom's taxonomy and English language learners
Your English language learners should be developing thinking skills as they acquire English. Dust off your copy of Bloom's Taxonomy and ask questions from all levels. There are activities that ELLs can do on every level.

Help Your Newcomers Develop Pride in Their Heritage
Do you know how to use the diversity in your classroom to help your newcomers develop pride in their native languages and cultures? Try some of these ideas.

Let It Snow!
Snow provides a real reason for beginning ESL students to use their English skills. Here is a sample lesson plan for grades K-3.

Hot Topics

ELL service provider and informal assessments
Susan writes: Hi Judie, The ELL department has a question for you and all who can help us. Due to RTI and the over-emphasis on data driven instruction, our young Kindergarten and ... More

Vocabulary study for a Japanese student (L2- intermediate-speech emergence
Anjali writes: Hello, I love your website. I am teaching elementary ELL and have a second Grader from Japan. He struggles with writing, spelling and vocabulary words. I have an IA who ... More

Number of children in pull out programs
Anonymous writes: Hi what is the average number in a pullout program in NYC for ESL? Is there a limit? Please help, I have 68 kids! More

Evaluations
Karen S. writes: I received a low score on a recent evaluation. My class was beginning ESL. The students have oral skills, but are not at all functional in other skills. The ... More

Teaching pre school and early elementary
Deborah Kreitzer writes: I would like a little information on how I can get involved in teaching online (home schooling) if you have any information I would really appreciate it. Thank you I ... More

Explaining Ell student's fatigue to classroom teacher
Ginny Booth writes: I am trying to advocate for a high school Ell student who clearly gets tired operating in a second language all day - he is also a special ... More