How Educators are Using Lingolift

A staple in many ELD classrooms, Lingolift’s videos are helping newcomers develop their language skills. This article shares real examples of teachers integrating Lingolift into their classroom routines and provides effective strategies for maximizing student success.

Here are some examples of how different teachers use Lingolift: 

Nancy Servin, a high school teacher in Lompoc CA, assigns Lingolift’s short engaging videos on essential topics like Introductions either as a review of vocabulary or supplemental material to reinforce English language skills. Here are two ways she uses Lingolift: 

• Pre-teaching vocabulary: Before a lesson about weather, she assigns the Lingolift lesson What's the Weather Like? to introduce basic weather-related vocabulary with simple sentences. After watching the video, students complete a picture-word activity with the vocabulary from the video and practice using the words to form simple sentences like what they watched in the video.
• Comprehension Practice: For a lesson about daily routines, she has students watch a related Lingolift video. After watching the video, she provided students with a comprehension worksheet with simple questions like “What time does the boy wake up?” To support understanding, she provides pictures choices for answers and allows the students to listen multiple times.

Becky Canter, an ESL educator in Texas, used the First 90 Day Guide to help her get started with Lingolift. She found that after the first two weeks students were able to listen, speak, read, and write words related to these collections: Greetings, Introductions, Manners, At School, At Home, and Family. At the end of the 90 days, students had interacted with over 300 English words in a variety of ways! Becky likes to extend her lessons beyond Lingolift and keep students actively engaged by incorporating word cards and sentence frames. After a few days, her students feel confident to write on the board, and the activity evolves into a fun relay race where pairs compete to see who can build the most sentences. It is learning, friendly competition, and fun all rolled into one!

Kelsey Cardenas, an 8th grade ELAR teacher based in Texas, uses Lingolift to have students practice all four language domains in her classroom. Students watch the Lingolift videos, learn the vocabulary, practice speaking, and ultimately, provide a written response related to the topic. She uses lessons that the students easily relate to, like introducing a unit on food with the Lingolift lesson Food Preferences because it’s a great starting point, since everyone has foods they like or dislike. This familiar topic helps students feel more at ease, making it easier for them to open up and share with their peers and teacher.

Here are some tips for teachers who are new to Lingolift: 

• Use the Teacher's Guide, which includes ready-made resources for before, during, and after viewing Lingolift videos for your teacher-led lessons.
• Allow flexible seating for students so that they can feel more comfortable when practicing their speaking in Lingolift.
• Assign different lessons for each English language proficiency level in your classroom so that students have the right language supports at each stage. This article has examples.
• Implement Lingolift in a variety of ways – independent study, small group, station rotation, or whole class.
• Use the First 90 Day Guide! It includes lesson guides, content suggestions, and instructional ideas.