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I was asked by a teacher online for advice on how a long-term sub could teach an ELL Newcomer class, and here’s the advice I gave:

1. They can practice short conversations. The teacher can model them, and then students can pair up and practice. If they have mini whiteboards, next they can be in groups of four and students take turns “dictating” the conversations as students write them down without looking. This blog post has four downloadable packets of conversations – graduating in difficulty – the sub can print out.

2. The sub should organize her weeks thematically – one week on school, next week on food, etc. The picture word inductive model is a great way to do this. The sub can find a picture online, print out copies, and project the image on the whiteboard. They then label words and have students learn the words and write sentences about it. Here’s a step by step process.

3. The sub can reinforce those vocabulary words (maybe twenty each week) by playing games on Wayground/Quizziz. They can project the game on the whiteboard, and students can play on their phones or Chromebooks. It’s a great formative assessment, too. They can also use AI to easily create the games – see here.

4. Here’s a list of online sites ELLs can use on their phone or Chromebook.

5. Teaching grammar is obviously important. You can find lots of resources here, including a suggested sequence to follow. The sub can follow that sequence by printing out worksheets (the iSL Collective is a great source) and then following them up with reinforcing online games at Wayground and other sites.

What do you think?  It’s not an ideal curriculum, but it seems doable for someone with not background working with ELLs.