Hello there!

I have been teaching a class this summer for my newcomer students who have fairly low English skills.  The term is almost over, and I feel that we have made a lot of progress.

I have been working through a textbook (and accompanying videos) named "Side By Side" (and Side By Side TV.)

For as long as I have been teaching ESL, the books in that series have been my favorite to use!  They have clear, repetitive, and humorous exercizes focusing on basic English grammar and conversation patterns.  I'd recommend it to anyone who teaches ESL.

My newest discovery are the videos which accompany the textbooks.  For each unit in the text, there is a 3-5 minute segment on the video pertaining to what the students had just learned. 

Today in class, we finished a 50-minute tape.  I decided that we should watch the whole thing from beginning-to-end as a review.  I was surprised at how well the students remembered all of the dialogs on the video!  They were able to speak along with a lot of the conversations on the video.  (I was really proud of the kids!)