December December is the make it or break it month for most students. Either their enthusiasm, or their allocated budgets, or their visas, or everything is running out. Then there is also the sense of bewilderment. They feel cold, sad, and without futures. To build self-confidence, we teach each other.
Topics are invariably about how to do something they know well, for instance, cook a family recipe.
We learn about conversion from metric to US measuring systems, about kitchen verbs, and American kitchen appliances. Then we collectively write a recipe book, grouping together students of the same country as much as possible. The students, through this activity, always realize that they are much alike. Here are some other activities I do with my beginning ESOL class. At the beginning of the year, to introduce the students to the alphabet and also to break the ice, I group students in fours or fives.