Beginner Online ESL Curriculum to Teach Kids

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The key to a great class is an outstanding curriculum. The curriculum is key to your success. The curriculum staples should include grammar, phonics, sight words, word families, and reading. The term curriculum refers to the lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or program.

To get to the apical level in English education is no small feat. You need the staples plus a few other things like American Slang and idioms. What is American Slang? American Slang! Slang is language (words, phrases, and usages) of an informal register that members of particular in-groups favor (over the common vocabulary of a standard.

What are idioms? An idiom is a figure of speech established by usage that has a meaning not necessarily deductible from those of the individual words.

            add fuel to the fire

• Definition: Something that worsens an already bad situation.
• Example: “I wanted to intervene when they were yelling at each other, but that would have just added fuel to the fire.”
  

        beating around the bush

  • Definition: Avoiding the main issue.
  • Example: “I kept trying to steer the conversation back to his alibi, but he wouldn’t stop beating around the bush, bringing up things totally off-topic.”
    

        chip on your shoulder

    • Definition: When someone is upset about something that happened a while ago.
    • Example: “He has a chip on his shoulder from years of being bullied as a kid.”
      

      come hell or high water

      • Definition: Possible obstacles in your path.
      • Example: “I promise you, come hell or high water, we are going to make it to your party tonight!”

      cry over spilt milk

      • Definition: Complaining about a loss or failure from the past.
      • Example: “She was mad that he broke her vase, but it was an accident, and there’s no use crying over spilt milk anyway, so she forgave him.”
        

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        Examples of American Slang

      • to jack up the prices (phrase; to

        suddenly increase prices)

        In the summer months, hotels and airlines increase their prices because everyone wants to make a booking. During winter vacation, ski resorts jack up their prices.

        So, “to jack up prices”  means to suddenly increase prices. This expression has a negative connotation. You’re not happy and you think the price increase is unfair.

        Example:

        1. What?! The hotel only costs $40 a night in February! And it’s $100 in July. They really jack up their prices. Those thieves!

        5. to drive someone up the wall (phrase; to make someone crazy)

        If you’ve ever been in a room with 10 hyperactive children, you might tell your friend “These kids are driving me up the wall.”

        It means they’re making you crazy and irritated. Imagine that you feel crazy enough to try to drive your car up the wall of a building. That’s the emotion this expression conveys.

        Examples:

        1.My stepmother really drives me up the w all!
        2. At the office, my colleague works in a completely unorganized manner. This drives me up the wall.
        3. The hot weather these days drives me up the wall.

        4. to ride shotgun (phrase; to be in the passenger seat)

        This expression comes from the old American West, when the person sitting next to the driver of a stagecoach needed a shotgun to defend against attackers.

        Today, we say the person in the passenger seat in a car is riding shotgun. So, riding shotgun is less violent than you might imagine. Except if it’s two teenagers fighting over who has the privilege of riding shotgun…

        Examples:

        1. With your long legs you have to ride shotgun.
        2. I’m driving. You are riding shotgun.
        3. I’m riding shotgun with my best friend.

        7. a couch potato (noun; someone who always stays inside)

        This one is funny if you literally imagine a big fat potato sitting on a couch. It’s not very nice to call someone “a couch potato” because it means they just sit on a couch all day and watch TV, look at their smartphone, or play video games.

        It’s certainly not good to have the physique of a potato!

        Don’t be a couch potato, but do watch today’s lesson on American slang!

        Example:

        1. My little brother is always at home and watches his series. He is such a couch potato.
        2. We are going out for a walk. Come with us, don’t be a couch potato!
        3. During the corona quarantine, we were all couch potatoes.

        Now, what about you?

        What other fun American expressions do you know?

        Have you ever heard your American friends use one of these?

        And of course, please share the video and its lessons with a friend who might like them.

        DanielAnthonyDiDio

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