Question 1

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:

Present Simple
Present Continuous
Future ("will" & "going to")
Past Simple
Past Continuous
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 2

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.

Question 3

How do I edit a group?

Accepted Answer

Double click on any field in the table to edit it.

Or you can click on any row in the Groups table and an edit button will appear. Click on the Edit button to edit details.

Question 4

How do I assign students to a group?

Accepted Answer

When you create a group, you can add students to it on the same form.

You can also add students at any time by clicking on the Assign Students to a Group button or by visiting the Group Details page and adding students there. The Group Details page can be found by clicking on the Details button next to any group in the list of Groups.

Add Students to a Group Now ->

Question 5

How do I download ELL Student Plans?

Accepted Answer

INSTRUCTIONS for Downloading ELL Student Plans:

Create Student Plans
Filter the Table to Show the Student Plans You want to Download
Click the Download Student Plans Button in the Reports Toggle at the bottom of the page.

**Note: **The Download Reports button will only download records that are showing in the table. If records are on the second page, they will not be included. You can choose All in the Show # entries above the table to download all at once or download the results page by page.

Question 6

How secure is the platform and how is data managed?

Accepted Answer

All data is hosted securely on servers in the United States and protected with enterprise-level firewall and DDOS protection. On account closure, all data is completely removed after 90 days. All data can be completely removed at any time on request.

The platform also avoids requesting any identifying sensitive data like addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, etc. except where absolutely necessary.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support.

Question 7

What are Progress Reports?

Accepted Answer

Progress Reports are a great way to communicate with parents, colleagues, or admin about how a student is doing.

You can have the comments for the 4 language domains on the report automatically populated based on assessment results or complete them yourself.

You can also easily duplicate previously created reports from the Progress Reports page or copy comments from a previous report on the Create Progress Report form page.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Create Reports
Filter the Table to Show the Reports You want to Download
Click the Download Reports Button in the Reports Toggle at the bottom of the page.

Question 8

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?

Q: How do I download ELL Student Plans?

INSTRUCTIONS for Downloading ELL Student Plans: Create Student Plans Filter the Table to Show the Student Plans You want to Download Click the Download Student Plans Button in the Reports Toggle at the bottom of the page. **Note: **The Download Reports button will only download records that are showing in the table. If records are on the second page, they will not be included. You can choose All in the Show # entries above the table to download all at once or download the results page by page.

Q: What are Progress Reports?

Progress Reports are a great way to communicate with parents, colleagues, or admin about how a student is doing. You can have the comments for the 4 language domains on the report automatically populated based on assessment results or complete them yourself. You can also easily duplicate previously created reports from the Progress Reports page or copy comments from a previous report on the Create Progress Report form page. INSTRUCTIONS: Create Reports Filter the Table to Show the Reports You want to Download Click the Download Reports Button in the Reports Toggle at the bottom of the page.

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 9

How do I remove students from a group?

Accepted Answer

On the Groups page, when you click on the Details button for a group, a new window will open with that group's details including a list of the students in that group.
To remove a student, simply click on any row. A little popup will appear that says Delete. Click on the Delete button to remove the student from the group.

Question 10

How do I find materials I need in the membership?

Accepted Answer

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.

One way is to use the Kid-Inspired ESL Assessment which you can download for free here: https://kid-inspired.com/english-language-assessment/
You may also find the Foundations for Fantastic Classes course inside the membership helpful as well for deciding which materials to use with your students.
There is also a quick Level Chooser Assistant where you can answer a few questions and get an idea of leveling (You can find this on the homepage).
Finally, since you know (or will know) your students best, you can dig into the different levels yourself and test things out by starting a little low and working your way up to where students are productively challenged.

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