Using the Internet for Content Based Instruction
by Judie Haynes
Need ideas to enhance your content-based ESL instruction? Make your thematic units come alive and put pizzaz in your lessons by incorporating internet sites into your plans. If you teach small groups, you only need one computer to pique your students’ interest.
The internet is a wonderful resource for educators. You can find materials and ideas to supplement almost any lesson you are teaching. It can be a tool for teachers or students to research content information. You can also find ideas for helping the classroom teachers in your school.
Here are some recommended sites for thematic units on Halloween, Bats, Popcorn, Thanksgiving, Harvest Festivals, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teaching About America.
Fall Lesson Plans
Halloween
- Pumpkin Science
- The Virtual Haunted House
- The Pumpkin Farm.
- Animated Halloween
- Pumpkin/Halloween Sites
Popcorn
Bats
Harvest Festivals
- Harvest Festivals Around the World
- Kente Cloth
- Harvest Moon Stories
- Vietnamese Story
- Multicultural Masks
- Stories from India
- Rangoli Patterns
Thanksgiving
- Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
- Caleb Johnson's Mayflower site
- The Voyage of the Mayflower
- The First Thanksgiving
- Plimouth Plantation Site
- Thanksgiving Lesson Plans
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- Golden Legacy History Magazine
- The Civil Rights Movement
- Audio of "I Have A Dream"
- Teeny Tiny Book about Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Martin Luther King Links
Teaching About America
- Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
- The U.S. Flag Fact Sheet
- Flag Fold
- Star Spangled Banner
- The Great Seal of the United States
- Statue of Liberty
- National Bird
- Uncle Sam
Professional Development for Classroom Teachers
- Gestures
- Comprehensible Input/Output
- ESL Teacher as Cultural Broker
- BICS & CALP
- Culture Shock
- Keys to Effective Communication
- Stages of Language Acquisition
Teacher Resources
- Discovery School.com Lesson Plan Library
- Teachersfirst.com
- Kid’s Domain
- National Geographic’s map machine
- Education World
- Social Studies for Kids
- ReadingA-Z.com
- Ellis Island site
- NASA for Kids
- History Wiz.com
- Online Science Fair Handbook
Activity Downloads
Note: To view the classroom activities, you must have Acrobat Reader intalled. Acrobat is a free application available from Adobe Systems.
Related Links
Harvest Festivals Around the World
Harvest Festivals have been held as long as people have been sowing and gathering food. Show your students how people all over the world celebrate the harvesting of a good crop.
Pumpkin science
This "Pumpkin Science" lesson gives English language learners a background in how plants grow. It also provides them with practice in estimating and in predicting outcomes.
Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
Gobble, gobble! Get ready to break out the cranberry sauce and put the stuffing in the oven with our Thanksgiving related lesson plans and activities for ESL students Grades 1-4.
Will the Pumpkin Sink or Float?
Teach a lesson on sinking and floating in the fall and use pumpkins to tie it to Halloween. This lesson also provides your English language learners with practice in estimating and in predicting outcomes.
Settling the Plymouth Colony
Introduce the concepts of religious freedom and self-government with this social studies unit on the Plymouth Colony designed for Intermediate ESL students in grades 3-8.
Bats Are Everywhere!
Are bats blind? Do they attack people? Do they carry rabies? This thematic unit provides a change of pace to your study of animals. Help your students explore the scientific facts and myths about bats. Increase vocabulary, study animal classification, and add to knowledge about animals.
Pumpkin Carving for K-2 Students
Children love Halloween and your English language learners are no exception. They usually have little experience with celebrating Halloween the way we do in the United States and will love this lesson on carving pumpkins.
Teaching about America
Feelings of patriotism are very strong in the United States at this time in our history. It is very important to teach your English language learners about the songs and symbols of America so that they show respect at appropriate times.
Resource Picks
History Wiz.com
History Wiz.com comprises a huge number of resources for students. Enhance your lessons with this impressive site .
Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
This informative site has a wide range of useful information for teaching students in Grades K-12. Listen to Yankee Doodle Dandy and learn the background to this famous American song which dates from before the Revolutionary War. A community map with a post office, police station, and hospital is an excellent teaching resource for students in K-1. Access quick facts about Washington D.C. for students in grades 2-4. Try the games and puzzles about U.S. presidents for grades 5-8.
Golden Legacy Homepage
This site is an excellent resource for students in grades 4-12. There are illustrated history magazines about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass and inventors Latimer & Woods. The comic book style is very appealing to middle and high school students. You need to be patient while the site is loading, however.
Jolly Time popcorn
The Jolly Time popcorn site is a commercial site which sells popcorn products. However, it also features a "Kid's Club" section with games, activities, crafts, jokes and recipes as well a factual information for older children.
Symbols of U.S. Government
This compelling site is part of the Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids. It contains a picture and text about seven symbols of the United States as well as pictures and a short text about numerous monuments. There are also recordings of eight patriotic songs.