What are some good/fun projects for ESL middle school kids?
walltofloor asked:
I want to give my ESL kids projects to do that they’re going to have to put effort into/spend more than 10 minutes on. Do you have any recommendations?
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I want to give my ESL kids projects to do that they’re going to have to put effort into/spend more than 10 minutes on. Do you have any recommendations?

February 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 am
One of my favorite activities in a foreign language class are skits. I enjoy getting students to work out real life situations using their vocabulary. Pairing the students up is a good way to do this, but if you are looking for a way to make it more involved, I would recommend groups of 4 to 6 so that it is more elaborate and involved. Also, you could make it into a full theatre activity that would involve a finalized script, with stage directions, all written in the target language. To add a bit of fun give the students an opportunity to make costumes and backgrounds. This could easily be linked to a literary unit or writing lesson.
Personally, I am also a big fan of songs. I can still remember a lot of the songs I sang in high school french class. “Tete epaule genoux pieds!!” Having the students memorize and perform or even write their own songs using the target language could be a really fun activity.
These two specific ideas could be elongated into a full take-home project, or done in pieces for in class work.
Hopefully this helped!
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Compare English Idioms - such as “sleeping like a log” - the literal meaning and the ideomatic meaning, and also the origin of the phrase. They can write on them, or illustrate for lots of fun.