Oh, I should mention that 13 year olds are the target.

If a teacher out there could email me some of the lesson plans that have worked reliably, that would be great.

Alternatively/In addition, if any kids could describe some good fun, inspiring, and informative lessons that would be great.

Also wondering if there are any teacher resource websites that might assist in this regard?

Thanks you so much, I am getting nervous!
To be honest, I'm not really that nervous, but the aim was to get as much help as possible.... and this is the best set of answers I have ever received, by the way.

Apprehensive might be the more appropriate word, but to me kids are just little adults (who aren't able to control some of their behaviour from time to time), so I should be fine as far as communication goes.

I just don't want to run the risk of having an unsuitable lesson and losing them first lesson!!!

I had the best seventh grade English teacher. He taught us so much without us even realizing that we were learning anything. It was great.

The first class he taught us about perspective. He let us look around his classroom for a minute. Then, he told us to either stand on top of our chair, or sit down on the floor. He told us to look around the room now and think about how different the room looked from that angle. Then he went on to tell us about perspective and what it means.

We did a unit on mysteries. We read three Sherlock Holmes stories, two of Poe's Auguste Dupin stories, and saw two movies "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Clue". We had to write four essay One on each of Poe's stories, one for Sherlock Holmes, and one for Clue. It was good practice for writing essays, and we learned a lot about the outline of a mystery. After this, we partnered up and wrote our own mysteries. The super-detective I created became a major character of mine in stories I wrote afterwords.

When we were learning about the outline of an essay, he brought in a tape of commercials, which he played for us. We had to point out the clincher, the introduction, the conclusion, and all those things in each commercial. We separated the good commercials from the bad ones, and then wrote our own commercials for a sports drink we made up.

When we were learning about elements of literature, he seperated us into five groups and each group had to research a certain element, and then teach the class about it in a fun, creative way.

After reading the book "Tangerine", we were separated into groups again and made newspapers that dealt with issues in the story. Each newspaper had a weather report, a few editorials, a first page news story, a sports page, and a comic or cartoon.

When we read "Treasure Island", we did something similar to the project we did with plot, except this time we were researching either treasure, modern pirates, historical pirates, or ships. My group researched treasure, and we finished our presentation with a game of Jeopardy, with a treasure map style board.

The class was everybody's favorite class, I think. Throughout the year, we had a few major projects that lasted a few weeks, but in between we just had short lessons, vocabulary quizzes, spelling tests, and notes on grammar.

He didn't do this with our class because we were the Honors class and he trusted us, but with the regular classes, he gave occasional "D.I.R.T." quizes surprise "Did I Read This" quizes with a few questions about the novel the class was reading.

He was asking me about an idea he had for a new unit for his next class He was going to do this whole unit on fairy tales and use that to teach the class about plot, and read a novel related to the topic as they did that.

By the age of 13, most kids like to read in different ways, so leave it up to the class if they want to read in class or not. Kids like me liked to read ahead a lot, so we preferred to read at home, but others had a lot of questions to ask, so they liked to sit and read in class.

Also, if a story you're reading is going to have scary parts, warn the class about it. A few friends of mine had nightmares about "Murder in the Rue Morgue" when we read the beginning, so after that, our teacher let them leave the room while he was reading the gorey parts.

Good luck! If you would like to know more about what my English teacher taught us, just email me. =)

Try some of these websites:
www.abcteach.com
www.chompchomp.com
and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page at abcteach.com,click on best teacher sites you'll have
plenty of sites to check out.
Good Luck!

I'd guess that teaching English to English speakers may or may not be just like teaching English as a second language in a foreign country, so see the first site (below). See resources for teachers.
The second site is wide-ranging and many provide lesson plans.

Jeremy, capitalize English when refering to it as a language in a sentence.

don't be nervous...they are like animals and can sense fear! Be brave and be yourself...relax, relax, relax. Try to have some fun and don't jump into work right away, Bond with the kids, play some productive games. Remember what you like to do on a first date...well, no...I mean movie and a pizza right? You can generate a common experience and don't really have to talk much in the movie but still spend time together. do the same with your new class. Make a word search, puzzels on paper, a sentence auction, simon says, whatever. If you have fun, even if it is really silly, they will have fun.

OK. Pep talk over..now some resource sites:

learningpages.com
edhelper.com
enchantedlearning.com

learningpages.com
edhelper.com
enchantedlearning.com

they might be a little too old, but try the alphabet song. Otherwise do things like...they have to name animals, food etc. that begin with each letter of the alphabet. All word games should be ok.

www.softschools.com

Teaching Resources

http://atozteacherstuff.com/

http://www.virtualsalt.com/

http://absoluteshakespeare.com/

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REVenglish.htm

http://www.literacylessons.co.uk/

http://www.virtualsalt.com/literary.htm

http://www.teachnlearn.org/index.htm

http://www.virtualsalt.com/index.htm

http://www.lessonplanz.com/

http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculum_esol/

http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/teachers.html

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/index.htm

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/

http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/H/homeworkhigh/

http://www.etni.org/

http://www.onestopenglish.com/

http://www.byteachers.org.uk/school.htm

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/index.html

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/resources.html

http://www.sitesforteachers.com/

http://www.teachnet.com/

http://www.eduref.org/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/

http://www.4teachers.org/archive/

http://www.4teachers.org/

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/

http://www.englishforums.com/

http://www.zozanga.com/

http://www.schoolexpress.com/

http://www.2020site.org/

http://www.btinternet.com/

http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/

http://www.wacona.com/

http://www.abcteach.com/

Welcome to CanTeach! With hundreds of lesson plans, thousands of links, and tons of other resources, we hope you find something useful to help you out.

http://www.canteach.ca/


http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/search.htm

SEARCH

The Literacy Web

At this time, you can use the menu features available through the left blue column or the main categories across the top of the page to access information on The Literacy Web.

TEACHERS

.Preschool
.Grades K-2
.Grades 3-4
.Grades 5-6
.Grades 7-8
.Grades 9-12
.Special Needs
.ESL/EFL
.Adult Education
What's New
Literacy Topics
Research

The Literacy Web Home

http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/search.htm

TEFL Methodology Index.

Approaches & Methods in Second Language Teaching.


http://www.midlandit.co.uk/education/ind...

http://eduscapes.com/

http://www.happychild.org.uk/shadow/inde...

http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/...

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/deve...


I am in still in the process of putting these links together so you may find some repeated, if you want anything that is not included, please feel free to e-mail me and I will see what I can do. There is absolutely no charge for the help that I give.

kevsav025@yahoo.co.uk


Printable Work Sheets.

http://www.sitesforteachers.com/index.html

http://www.printablecalendar.ca/

http://www.zozanga.com/

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/

http://www.ezschool.com/worksheets/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/

http://school.discovery.com/

http://www.schoolexpress.com/

http://www.abcteach.com/

http://www.kidsdomain.com/

http://choreworksheetsforkids.com/

http://www.beginningreading.com/

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/gettingorganized/planner.php#weeklyplnrev

Kevin, Liverpool, England.

There's one site that will give you everything you need...

www.webenglishteacher.com


AMAZING!!! It's geared toward grades 5-12 and covers every bit of content including grammar, writing, literature, etc.

BBC is your best source.

try following URLs

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/literature.shtml
http://www.anglik.net/tefl.htm
http:/www.eltweb.com/
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/EnglishP/englesson/

At this time, you can use the menu features available through the left blue column or the main categories across the top of the page to access information on The Literacy Web.

You can refer to Oxford Seminars' ESL Teaching Resources (http://www.oxfordseminars.com/esl-teaching-resources/index.php), a huge collection of activies, etc. for ESL teachers.

Lyndsey Pratt
Oxford Seminars
http://www.oxfordseminars.com