Teaching Newcomers English – Speaking Lesson S001 Family

Teaching newcomers English can be challenging because they often arrive in the U.S. with little to no English proficiency. This makes communication and engagement difficult.

We’ve created this speaking lesson plan for newcomers (S001 – Family) to help! This is a ready-to-use resource designed to help teachers build confidence in their students through practical, engaging activities. This lesson provides essential vocabulary and structured speaking exercises surrounding the topic of family, ensuring newcomers can begin using English in real-life contexts from day one. Download it now and make English learning more accessible for your students!

Remember: A newcomer is a student born outside the U.S. who has been in U.S. schools for less than three years (total time, not necessarily consecutive years). Newcomers are incredibly diverse, with students coming from various countries, speaking many different languages, and having a wide range of educational experiences prior to arriving in the U.S. Some Newcomers are well-educated and literate in their L1 – home language.  Others may not have attended school regularly or at all in their home country.

More about teaching newcomers English

Newcomers have limited language to understand instructions, so we recommend drilling and repetition of tasks to help them succeed in the classroom. Students will also benefit from returning to previous slides to consolidate their learning.

How should you teach S001 – Family?

“Family” (WIDA: Entering) is a lesson plan download aimed at newcomer students with low English proficiency levels. It is perfect for both individuals and groups.

Objective: To introduce vocabulary to describe family. To provide speaking practice.

Can do: At the end of the lesson, students can ask and answer simple questions about family

All the vocabulary introduced in this lesson are related to family: mother, father, brother, daughter, little, big, parents, children… When introducing these phrases, remember to refer to the related images to provide context clues.

This lesson includes plenty of complete the sentences, read and repeat, read and discuss, and describe the picture exercises to help students practice.

Note: This may be a sensitive topic for some students. Review the lesson content before teaching and adapt where necessary.

Download the lesson here!

If you are looking for even more information on how to teach this lesson plan, be sure to download a free Off2Class account. You will gain access to teacher notes that will guide and prepare you. 

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