ESL: English as a Second Language

The goal in the game is to spend as little money as possible while maintaining a balanced diet in the whole week. Each day the player will be given a certain budget to purchase food ingredients in order to fulfill the calorie goal of that day. During the game, the player will lose if the available budget is not enough to purchase the items and cannot fulfill the calorie goal of the day, so the player must spend money wisely and stay healthy.

ESL: English as a Second Language

Beginning High, Intermediate Low, Intermediate High, Advanced

This set of 6 lessons is designed to teach intermediate level literacy students nutrition awareness while teaching basic computer and Internet use and improving reading comprehension. The primary goal is to improve reading comprehension. Computer use and the Web sites related to nutrition are vehicles for increasing literacy.

ESL: English as a Second Language

Intermediate Low, Intermediate High

Create a "sticky" (like an online Post-it note) on an online class bulletin board answering a question prompt provided by the teacher related to a course, theme/topic, or objective.

ESL: English as a Second Language

Beginning High, Intermediate Low, Intermediate High, Advanced

These PowerPoint game templates can be downloaded from the site and customized with vocabulary from your course content. The files include hyperlinks (hot spots that, when clicked, go from one slide—such as a question slide—to another slide, such as a correct or incorrect answer slide). With Word Jumble, learners are given a word taken from topics from the course content. The word is jumbled, and participants must reflect on course content in order to be able to un-jumble the word. With Flash Cards, learners connect definitions with keywords or concepts. A definition is shown to the learners and they must make the correct association of the definition to the word or concept it defines. The games can be used as team competitions for vocabulary teaching review and reinforcement.

Screenshot of the University of Wisconsin's Parade of Games

ESL: English as a Second Language

Beginning Literacy, Beginning Low, Beginning High, Intermediate Low, Intermediate High, Advanced, All Levels

Use the activity in conjunction with a lesson plan or unit on money, shopping, or paying bills. (Here is a lesson plan from KQED on Understanding Check and Checking Accounts which may be useful.) Use this handout to teach about the parts of a check. The handout includes a pair speaking/comprehension step.

ESL: English as a Second Language

Beginning Literacy, Beginning Low, Beginning High