How to Make ELD Exciting!

Teaching ELD can get repetitive and is totally draining.  And this year I have 3 sections of this, which means that every-other-day I teach language learners for 4 hours.  That can turn into a very long 4 hours.  I try to make it exciting (for both them and me), since I have the attention span of a 5 year old....

SSSSOOOOOO.....on days that it's extra boring (the curriculum calls for extra boring occasionally......), I reward them with about 15 minutes of something fun (some sort of game....)

Today we played "Words With Friends" on my phone.....I stick it under my document camera and we play.  Sometimes it's boys against girls, sometimes underclassmen against upperclassmen, sometimes just half the room......

Today it was me against my class...they were SILENT and super attentive.  It was AWESOME!

Embarrassingly, my 5th period beat me by 6.  I 'm pretty sure they had a ringer......