Tag Archives: handouts

• Short, High-Interest Articles for Extensive Reading: #15: “Wanting To Stop Unhealthy Habits”

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(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

                                      Wanting To Stop Unhealthy Habits

Jena and Daniel had similar problems. They both had habits that were bad for their health, and they couldn’t stop. Jena ate too much junk food, like chips, candy, and cupcakes. Daniel smoked cigarettes. They both had cravings, which means they wanted something very much and couldn’t stop thinking about it. They tried different ways to quit for many years, but they finally found a new method. Research shows that this method is more effective than others, and thousands of people have used it to stop their unhealthy habits.

Other methods didn’t work.                (See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the 15th article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

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• Short, High-Interest Articles for Extensive Reading: # 14: “Why It’s Hard to Apologize”

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(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

Last week, Emily took her driver’s test but failed. At dinner, she told her family but asked them all to promise not to tell anyone because she felt embarrassed. Yesterday, a friend, Jay, said to her, “Your sister, Kara, told me that you failed your driver’s test. Are you going to take it again?” That afternoon at home, Emily was upset and told Kara, “Kara, I asked you not to tell anyone one about my test, but Jay said that you told him.” At that moment, Kara knew she should say sorry, but she didn’t want to. There is a common saying, “Three of the most difficult words for people to say are, ‘I am sorry.’”

(See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the 13th article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Continue reading →

• Fun Activity To Reduce Irritating Classroom Behavior

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(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)

 (This is a revision to an earlier posting: Enjoyable and Effective Awareness Activity for Changing ESL Students Classroom Behavior)

Most ESL students don’t do goofy things just to irritate the teacher. Usually, they are unaware of how they are coming across or unaware that they are acting differently from the other students or even what is expected of them.  These are some of the habits students tend to bring to our classes:

  • Chronically arriving to class late
  • Chatting with classmate
  • Text messaging during class
  • Not paying attention
  • Not participating in a group
  • Calling out answer before others get a chance
  • Sitting in the back of the room day-dreaming
  • No eye contact to teacher or classmates in a group
  • Speaking own language in a group
  • And more

An effective approach to circumventing these habits is one in which students become aware of the effects these habits have on the teacher and other students. In this post, I’ll explain how programs that I’ve taught in were able to help students see how their behavior is viewed by others. Not only was the process enjoyable for the students, but also, we noticed far fewer students engaging in these behaviors.

Here is how we did it. 

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• Motivating Students Through Flow Experiences

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It was a teacher-experience that I would have paid good money for. My students had been working individually. With one minute left in the class, I softly told them that it was time to stop for the day. Some of them sort of jumped when they heard my voice and looked at the clock. Then a few of them slowly started to pack up their stuff. But most of them continued to read and write, finally standing up a few minutes later.

On my way home, reflecting on what I had just observed in that class, I realized that my students were probably in a state of flow. Deconstructing the lesson, I noticed that it contained many of the characteristic that researchers say promote flow. And after seeing my students’ responses, I became determined to apply as much as I could to future lessons. And that is what I have tried to accomplish in the sample activities below.

Why should we care about flow? Research has found that people who reportedly experienced flow in an activity tend to spend more time doing it and do it better. Also, they do it for intrinsic reasons; in other words, they felt enjoyment and satisfaction from the activity itself.

My students who seemed to have been in a flow state were probably experiencing characteristic described by researchers. They lost a sense of time; what they were doing seemed effortless; and they were especially focused.

Setting up activities to encourage flow experiences Continue reading →