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.

![ESL-Teaching-Graphic-Organizers6.jpg](https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/VJjCVlXBck/resources/ZMOnaK5ADk/ESL-Teaching-Graphic-Organizers6.jpg)

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](https://kid-inspired.com/paths-to-fluency/graphic-organizers/)

Question 2

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 accounts@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 3

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.

![Kid-Inspired ELL Beginners book 3 (full color)35.png](https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/VJjCVlXBck/resources/RhCsjSmhWs/Kid-Inspired%20ELL%20Beginners%20book%203%20%28full%20color%2935.png)

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 4

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](https://kid-inspired-classroom.malcolm.support/faqs/how-do-i-find-materials).

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.](https://kid-inspired.com/esl-curriculum)

Question 5

What grade levels is the Kid-Inspired ESL Curriculum appropriate for?

Accepted Answer

If you teach K-7, you will find engaging, effective teaching materials for your students.

Since every teacher's situation is different, there are a variety of ways for you to find what you need inside of the membership.

You can read more about finding materials by [following this link](https://kid-inspired-classroom.malcolm.support/faqs/how-do-i-find-materials).

You can sign up for the [Kid-Inspired ESL Curriculum Membership here.](https://kid-inspired.com/esl-curriculum)

Question 6

What is a "tense" and why is it important?

Accepted Answer

As native speakers, we were never really taught formal English tenses.

We just learned them naturally, by speaking a lot.

If you ever took Spanish or French though, you'll know all about tenses.

The verbs in a sentence change based on the time frame in which they occurred. That is a tense.

And there are six major tenses in the English language. (There are lots more than that, but the others aren't as common and they are fairly easy considering they are just variations of the six major tenses.)

Here they are:
1. Present Simple
2. Present Continuous
3. Future ("will" & "going to")
4. Past Simple
5. Past Continuous
6. Present Perfect

I've had people argue with me that there is no such thing as a future tense, just a heads up.

In our case, considering we speak about the future using a particular grammar structure, for all effective purposes, it is a future tense, and our students need to know it in order to communicate effectively.

Now...

The next issue is how to teach these tenses.

Well, don't over-explain them.

Children learn English tenses just fine by interacting with their parents without their parents needing to give long, drawn-out grammar explanations.

Kids repeat everything they hear. Over and over.

Parents correct them at times by telling them how to say it correctly.

That's how we want to teach as well.

Tell the students what they need for a tense - a quick grammar explanation.

Then get them practicing it by hearing, speaking, reading and writing it A LOT.

That's it!

And that is exactly how the materials in the ESL **Curriculum Membership** are set up.

**You'll find speaking pages with sentence starters that you can use with your students.**

* Start by using the example sentences, repeating them until the students have become familiar with the structure.
* 
* Then they can start changing words in the sentences to make them their own.
* 
* Then they can start making their own sentences in little back-and-forth Q&A activities with partners.
* 
* By the end of a class period, they will have said so many sentences in a particular tense that they will be doing it without thinking about it!!

Question 7

How do I assign materials online using Google Classroom?

Accepted Answer

## Using materials on-line in Google Classroom 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](https://kid-inspired.com/courses/engaging-learners-online/)** [Join the Membership](https://kid-inspired.com/esl-curriculum)

Question 8

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: **
1. 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. 
2. 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:

1. 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. 
2. 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 9

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 10

Are there leveled readers in the membership?

Accepted Answer

**If you're in need of reading passages, I've got you covered. **

There are tons of literacy lessons inside the ESL Curriculum Membership each with an engaging, original reading passage that your students will love.

There are also fun phonics and Dolche Sight Word reading passages that you can use for extra reading practice at any level depending on students' reading needs.

Sign up for the [ESL Curriculum Membership here](https://kid-inspired.com/esl-curriculum).

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