Question 1

What are graphic organizers and how do I use them?

Accepted Answer

Graphic organizers usually include boxes for writing information and pictures to help students organize information they read from a text. Below is a picture of a historical timeline which is a perfect example of a graphic organizer to help students organize important dates from a historical text.

Graphic organizers are incredibly helpful tools for organizing information, regardless of whether students are English learners or not.

For our English learners who are attempting to access grade-level materials, they can be crucial.

In the ESL Curriculum Membership, you can find a growing library of graphic organizers you can use to scaffold learning for your English learners.

Click Here to Check Out the Graphic Organizers

Question 2

Is the Kid-Inspired ESL Curriculum differentiated by grade level?

Accepted Answer

The curriculum is differentiated by grade level and proficiency level.

Because teachers' goals for their students as well as students' situations vary greatly from school to school, I've provided numerous ways to sort through a wide variety of resources and tools inside the membership.

You can learn more about finding materials inside the membership here.

There are also lots of supporting materials to help your students access grade-level material from their gen ed classes if needed.

I add new materials monthly, so if you ever need anything, let me know!

You can sign up for the Kid-Inspired ESL Curriculum Membership here.

Question 3

Do you provide refunds?

Accepted Answer

If, for any reason, you don't absolutely love all the time you save using the ESL Curriculum Membership, you can get a full refund anytime within the first 14 days after your initial purchase. To request a refund, please contact support@kid-inspired.com or click the bubble at the bottom right hand corner of the screen and click "Get in touch."

If you have any issues, I'm here for you. I want you to have the absolute best possible experience. I started the Kid-Inspired Classroom to make a difference in teachers' lives and, if I don't succeed in that, I don't want your money.

Question 4

How does the numbering on the lesson pages work? (i.e. Unit 1 #1, Unit 1 #1.1, etc)

Accepted Answer

If you've started using the curriculum, then you've probably noticed the numbers at the top of the pages within lessons.

The numbering system may seem a little odd at first.

Let me explain the logic behind the system and why it can be a little odd at times:

**Here were the criteria I wanted to meet: **

Each page, organizer and worksheet had its own number in case you were assigning a single page to students and needed to refer to it.
Subsidiary pages would be numbered in relation to their primary page. (Primary page like a vocabulary page for instance = Unit 1 #1; Subsidiary pages like vocabulary worksheets related to the primary page = Unit 1 #1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.)

**Here were some of the challenges that came up: **

Over the course of creating materials for the curriculum, some of which were created only for the site (we don't use them at our school) a couple of things happened from time to time:

Sometimes, subsidiary pages could relate to more than one primary page and when I chose to put them in one lesson as opposed to another, the numbering was sometimes off.
Sometimes, I chose to leave out a page from a lesson because I didn't feel like it was up to standard or was one too many pages for that lesson or still needed work. This has created gaps at times in the numbering.

The primary reason for the system is to give you a way to refer to a specific page, so you can safely ignore it if it does not benefit you.

Question 5

How do I assign materials online using Seesaw?

Accepted Answer

Using materials on-line in Seesaw is simple.

If you're already a member of the Kid-Inspired community, you can log in and take the course Engaging Learners Online! for lots more resources and strategies you can use while teaching online.

Start the Course

To get access to the curriculum, you can choose from one of the following memberships:

Kid-Inpspired ESL Curriculum Membership ->

Includes the entire curriculum and all supplementary teaching resources.

Independent Teachers Membership ->

Includes the entire **Kid-Inspired ESL Curriculum Membership **
Also includes your own website, payment processing, scheduling, course-building software, community of other teachers going independent, training courses on topics such as finding students, desigining your site, marketing, etc.

Question 6

How long does a level in the ESL Curriculum Membership generally take to complete?

Accepted Answer

How long does a level in the ESL Curriculum Membership take to complete?

The time it takes to complete a level varies based on a number of factors.

Number of Classes a Week - with classes every day you would move significantly faster through the material than only having classes 2-3 times a week.
Length of Classes - 1/2 hour, 1 hour, 1 and 1/2 hour classes, the length of classes affects how long a level takes.
Homework - How much practice your students would be doing outside of class on their own.
Goals - How quickly you and your students want to make progress. If you skip certain pages or even certain units, you can progress more quickly but with not as much depth. If you work through all of the materials and take your time with it, you can get a lot of depth but progress much more slowly. One option is to discuss with students what goals they’d like to set for themselves each week or month.
Motivation - Every class of students is different, just as how every teacher teaches is different. If you have an energetic, focused and motivated class, you will likely be able to work quickly through the materials. If you have a group of students who are discouraged, unmotivated and drag their feet, you will likely need to spend as much time on relationship and trust building as you do on the curriculum which would slow you down significantly.

At the school where we developed the curriculum, we generally take a semester (about 4 months) to go through a level with a group of 10-12 students, 2 days a week each, class being 2 hours and 15 minutes.

In the summer, we sometimes do more concentrated versions of a level where students come to class every day for 2 hours and finish a level in a month.

If you'd like to discuss your particular needs, contact John at john.carlson@kid-inspired.com

Question 7

What's the difference between Diphthongs, Blends, and Digraphs?

Accepted Answer

Diphthongs, Blends & Digraphs

I had no idea what these were when I first began teaching phonics.

Not that I needed to know what these terms meant in order to teach phonics well, but it did help when it came to sorting out the different combinations in my head as I was teaching them.

Here are the basic differences between Diphthongs, Blends, and Digraphs:

Blends - Consonant Blends include letter combinations like st, pr, and nk. You can hear the individual sounds even as you are blending them.
Digraphs - Digraphs include letter combinations like oo and ew. They only make one single sound when blended together.
Diphthongs - Diphthongs include letter combinations like ai and oa. They make one sound that morphs into a second sound when blended together. (For example, "ai" sounds like "aaaeeee" if you say it really slowly, like a long a morphing into a long e sound 😁 .)

Question 8

Why do phonics lists in the beginners levels have so few words?

Accepted Answer

Here is a picture of one of the phonics practice pages from Beginners 3.

The lists on these pages are quite short.

I learned this the hard way, through experimenting with lots of students over a lot of years.

Longer lists of words are fine for stronger students, but weaker students feel overwhelmed when looking at them.

Also, stronger students who can read all the words on a simple list are probably ready for simple texts instead of lists.

Use the short lists to help students master a new sound.

Once they have mastered that new sound, you can have them try longer lists of words, but they are probably going to be more motivated to reaad simple texts instead.

Question 9

How do I find materials I need in the membership?

Accepted Answer