Just because you prefer a particular type of creative expression doesn’t mean your students do, so give them choices and let them express themselves.

It’s okay for students to make a home movie, put on a one man play or paint a picture to present to the class. Give your students choices on how they express themselves or present information. Think about realistic ways students will have to use English in the real world and try to make your homework practical. Your students may not find themselves planning out a menu for Thanksgiving when they leave your ESL classroom, but odds are they’ll have to order food at a restaurant or write a memo. Is it practicing a certain grammar point? Improving their listening skills? Pronunciation practice? When students know why they’re doing something, they’ll be able to tell on their own when they’ve successfully completed their homework assignment.

Let students know what goals you have for a particular assignment.

So take a minute to write any homework assignment on the board so students can read it as well as listen to it. It can be tempting to just announce homework assignments to students at the end of class, but language learners benefit when you reinforce what you say with what they can see. (Download) What Makes Homework Work?Īssigning homework that works isn’t as hard as you might think, especially if you focus on the following points. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. How? The first step is to assign homework that works. In fact, it’s possible to assign homework to your ESL students that will have them begging for more. Under normal circumstances, that might seem highly unusual, but not when you make homework fun and engaging.

You’re just wrapping up class when you hear someone call out from the back of the room, “Please, please, teacher, you forgot to give us some homework!”

In other classrooms, students run out the first chance they get. J9 Entertaining ESL Homework Ideas to Improve Your Students’ Language Skills

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