If given the choice, I’ll often not use a textbook when teaching English classes in a Korean university. The reasons for this I explain in this other post: No Textbooks for Me!
So what do I actually teach in class then if I don’t have a textbook? When I don’t use a textbook, I’ll use the following sites for ESL lesson planning ideas. I take an idea, or article and then create a lesson plan surrounding it. Once you get a bit of practice, it’s not so difficult and I can actually do it quite quickly.
Let’s get to the best sites for ESL/EFL lesson plans:
#1: ESL Writing
The listening lessons are excellent and are great for getting some discussion going on in your classes. The writing stuff is decent too, including practice worksheets on editing, making good sentences, etc.
Seriously, there’s lot of good stuff on there and you could spend a few hours finding basically everything you need for your conversational English, or writing classes at the university level.
#2: Breaking News English
I use the 2-page “mini-lessons” over at Breaking New English exclusively because the full lesson plans just have way too much repetition.
I’ll often take the article and then use that as the basis for my own lesson plan that I make. My favourite thing? The readings and listening files are graded according to level.
#3: Film English
Film English has excellent lesson plans based on short videos. I haven’t really delved fully into this site, but there’s lot of potential and you should definitely check it out if you like to show some videos in your classes.
It’s usually much better to use this stuff than to design your own lesson plan based on videos from YouTube.
#4: Business English Pod
This is my go-to site for everything English job interviews or business English. They have a paid part of the site, but I’ve been happy with only their free content so far. It’s also a great site for students to study with on their own.
#5: ESL Speaking
It’s my website! I use lots of these activities for any of my speaking or conversation classes. And many of my favourite ones can be found at this website. Games, activities, lesson plans and more, both for kids as well as adults.
You could also check out this book of mine on Amazon: 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Teenagers and Adults. There are enough speaking activities to get your through the entire semester of teaching.
You’ll have enough lesson planning ideas for months! The key to happy, engaged students is a variety of activities and ESL Speaking, or this book will help you do just that. Save yourself some time by spending a couple bucks to have this handy reference tool
Have your Say about ESL Lesson Planning Websites
What are your top picks for ESL lesson planning websites? Do you have a go to resource or two? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
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I just found your site and relate to so much of what you say. Thanks heaps for all the info. I’m feeling even more hopeful that I might achieve my goal of spending less time lesson planning. ‘ESL lesson planning is my life’ is not how I plan to continue..
It gets much easier with a bit of experience to spend less time on lesson planning. Keep on going!