A selection of English ESL checklist printables

I try to help my students develop a process that they can use to answer longer writing questions - I've outlined this in my "writer's checklist" post. This is designed to add some more information to that sheet, by giving good tips for note taking/making.

How To Make Good Notes

This is a listening task based on the Episode of Bro' Town (New Zealand TV series). It contains vocabulary checklist and 2 listening comprehension exercises. 

Proceed with caution: some people might find the language a bit offensive so you need to make sure you know your students very well before you play it. All my students absolutely loved the series and found the listening really useful. 

Bro'Town The Weakest Link

A simple checklist for students learning how to use the programme powerpoint. Objective is to keep a record of achievement as they learn the basic skills in the software. Useful for children or adults just beginning to use powerpoint and can also be dated to show progression in their learning.

Useful for ICT classes or even basic vocabulary to do with the software for foreign laguage. 



Learning Power Point Skills

Checklist for learners when starting a writing unit

Overview for writing

The transition from carefree summer days to the structured routine of the classroom marks the all-important back to school season, a time filled with anticipation, excitement, and often, a touch of anxiety for young children and their parents alike. Whether your child is stepping into a school for the first time or returning as a seasoned student, the first day can feel like a monumental event. How can you transform those first-day jitters into joyful confidence?

Introducing "Ready, Set, School!: The Ultimate Back to School Guide with Fun First Day of School Activities." This enchanting and thoughtfully designed 32-page book is the definitive resource for families navigating this significant milestone. It serves as a gentle, empowering guide created specifically to demystify the school experience, build a positive mindset, and provide children with the tools they need to start the year with a beaming smile.

This book moves beyond simple stories and provides a practical, step-by-step journey through 30 encouraging directives. Each page is a mini-guide, presenting simple yet effective first day of school activities and routines that make the unknown feel familiar and safe. The narrative is crafted in accessible, child-friendly language that speaks directly to a young reader's heart, turning potential worries into exciting "I can do that!" moments. Paired with each directive is a unique and creative prompt for a warm, vibrant illustration, making this a visually stunning experience that captures a child's imagination.

Inside this comprehensive back to school guide, you and your child will explore:

The Excitement of Preparation: Discover how to turn the back to school checklist into a thrilling adventure. The book includes guidance on activities like packing the "adventure bag" (backpack), choosing a special first-day outfit to boost confidence, and establishing a healthy sleep routine for superhero energy.
Navigating the First Day Journey: From the emotional but happy goodbye hug at the door to the first brave steps onto the school bus, this guide provides a reassuring roadmap. It gently prepares children for meeting their new teacher and finding their own special spot in the classroom, turning the classroom into a welcoming home base.
Essential Social Skills & Fun Activities: A core focus of the book is fostering crucial social skills. It provides actionable advice and easy-to-understand scenarios for making new friends, the magic of sharing, the power of being a good listener, and why kindness is a superpower. These foundational lessons are some of the most important first day of school activities a child can learn.
Building a Lifelong Love for Learning: The book is designed to instill a love for learning from day one. It encourages curiosity, celebrates the courage to try new things, and normalizes making mistakes as a part of the learning process. It powerfully communicates that it's always okay to ask for help, building a foundation of resilience and academic confidence.
Understanding School Routines: Simple, illustrated guides explain common classroom procedures in a non-intimidating way. Children will learn about lining up, what to expect at lunchtime and recess, the fun of story time, and the importance of teamwork during clean-up time.
For parents and educators, this book is an invaluable asset for the back to school period. It serves as the perfect conversation starter, allowing you to discuss feelings, expectations, and strategies together. It provides a shared language and a positive framework to refer to, making the entire process smoother and more connected.

"Ready, Set, School!" is the ultimate companion to ensure your child feels seen, heard, and prepared. Prepare your child for a successful and joyful return to the classroom and make this back to school transition the best one yet. Give them the gift of confidence and start their academic year off right

The Ultimate Back to School Guide with Fun First Day of School Guide

ACTIVITY 1: For this, the article will be worked only the half. For this, students need to work in pairs and to have printed the first four paragraphs. One student will have two and the other the two left. Students will dictate to each other their paragraphs. Student 1 will dictate paragraphs one and two to student number 2; likewise, student number 2 will dictate paragraphs three and four to student 2. Students are not allowed to look the sheet with the other paragraphs printed.



ACTIVITY 2: You must create a story or a dialogue from the magazine article. You will be free to write any story related to the main character, which in this case is an octopus. The story need to contain at least 50 words. 



ACTIVITY 3: Students will paraphrase the story. This will be spoken. The teacher may choose a few or many students in order to listen to their paraphrases. Students need to include at least 5 relevant aspects of the article. The teacher will fill a checklist with their relevant aspects wished to be included in the paraphrasing.

Did you know this about female octopuses? 3 ACTIVITIES

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

30 Checklist English ESL worksheets pdf & doc