Recommended Links for ESL Curriculum/Lesson Plans

The Minnesota Literacy Council’s website has a large collection of unit plans/lesson plans for volunteer tutors. Although much of it is designed for group instruction, the lessons can be easily adapted for one-to-one tutoring. Their Pre-beginning ESL Story Bank and Beginning ESL Story Bank downloads include easy illustrated stories about everyday life themes, with corresponding exercises for practicing vocabulary, phonics, and reading comprehension. There are also a robust set of units in their Pre-beginning ESL curriculum, Beginning ESL Curriculum, and Reading for Life curriculum downloads.
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a good method for working with beginning-level language learners. It is based on the coordination of language and physical movement. This manual explains how to use it.