1. How much does Entry to English cost?

For the 2022-23 school year, Entry to English is free to teachers to use in their classrooms, both physical and virtual.

2. Do I have to use the Entry to English units in order?

We strongly recommend teaching the units in order.  Many units deliberately include review of material taught in earlier ones.  For example, in Unit 3 on numbers, students use knowledge of color and shapes from Units 1 and 2 to respond to questions like “How many red circles do you see?”  Early units introduce activities, partner practice and games.  Later units use more complex and faster versions of those routines.

3. What grade level is Entry to English for?

The Entry to English curriculum is intended for teachers to use with students in all elementary and middle school grades, regardless of their first language literacy.

4. What is different about Entry to English?

What makes Entry to English special? Here are the features we think matter most:

• First, we use careful sequencing of content beginning with simple content (colors, shapes, numbers) with a clear visual representation.

• Second, we teach students activities and routines through wordless animations in our videos and simple illustrated instructions in the student workbook.

• Third, we create a familiar routine for introducing, practicing and assessing vocabulary and skills. This routine reduces anxiety and helps students focus on the content because they know what to do.

• Fourth, we give plentiful practice opportunities with limited vocabulary. We don’t try to teach every shape or part of the body. Instead, we give students repeated opportunities -in a group, with a partner and alone - to practice key vocabulary that becomes a base for future learning.

• Fifth, we make it teacher friendly. Everything you need is here. You will, of course, add new games, activities, informal assessments and more. But you won’t have to spend hours frantically trying to find resources for each new unit you teach.

5. What materials will I have to teach each unit?

On this site, you will find a lesson plan, videos and a student workbook. The lesson plan gives an overview of the unit, which is organized around a topic such as colors, family or the seasons. The videos are used to introduce, practice and assess content. There are multiple videos for each unit - one per session or group of related activities. Finally, you can download and print the student workbook, which gives students a place to record their responses to listening, reading, and writing drills and assessments as well as some “just for fun” activities.

6. Is Entry to English a research-based strategy?

Anecdotally, we have had lots of positive feedback from teachers (and their students). In addition, we are analyzing pre and post-test scores from the 2021 to 2022 school year to help demonstrate the success of the program.

7. How do I get the student workbook? 

The student workbook is available to download in PDF format from the Resources page.

8. Can I download the videos?

Yes, you can download the videos from YouTube. Links to the videos are available from Unit pages in the Curriculum section.

9. Who created Entry to English?

Entry to English is the result of several years of collaboration between two English as a second language (ESL) teachers, Amy Graham and Erica Russell.  Amy first developed Entry to English during summer vacations from Arlington (VA) public schools because she couldn’t find anything that worked well for her beginning students.  She subsequently added routines and activities that she used successfully when teaching math to middle school students who were in the early stages of learning English.  Erica is responsible for many improvements in the program based on feedback from her elementary and middle school students and her deep understanding of the art of teaching. You can read more about us here.

10. What is a unit? 

A unit is a set of lesson organized around a broad topic such as colors, parts of the body or the seasons.  Early units focus on vocabulary but each unit contains one or more sentence frames so students are using the vocabulary to express complete ideas or ask and answer questions.  We do not try to include every word related to a topic. For example, we teach students to tell the time by stating the hour and the minute.  This is an acceptable and understandable way to learn to tell time.  As they advance in English, they can learn other ways to tell the time (E.g. It’s half past two.) Our goal is to provide a strong foundation for that additional learning.

11. What is a session? 

A session is a group of related activities.  We recommend that you complete all the activities for that session before moving to the next one.  Class times vary by school district and some use block scheduling so a session may or may not correspond to a class period.  Normally, the key vocabulary and grammar points are introduced in the first session.  During the last session, students take listening and speaking tests.  The videos for each session vary in length because the videos are only part of the program. During a session, students may review vocabulary in the video for 3 minutes but then spend 20 or 30 minutes engaged in practice activities with a partner and 15 minutes completing workbook pages. 

12. How do I prepare to use these materials? 

Start with the lesson plan to get acquainted with the vocabulary, grammar, partner activities and, in later units, reading comprehension skills presented.   Watch the video for the session noting points where you may want to elaborate or give additional instructions.  You can choose to turn off the audio and provide the narration yourself when your class watches.  The pace will seem slow to you and to your advanced beginner students but remember Entry to English is for true beginners.  Finally, look at any pages to be completed in the session and be sure you understand what students need to do. Answers will be found in the lesson plan for quick checking.  We encourage students to check their own work and usually only assign formal grades based on the end of unit tests.