Lenny.com
Explore
Create
ActivitiesNewMathEnglish Language ArtsScience & EngineeringSocial StudiesGlobal LanguagesHealth & Physical EducationSpecial EducationCounseling & Life SkillsArts & CreativityESL
Lenny.com
Lenny.com
Explore
Create
ActivitiesNewMathEnglish Language ArtsScience & EngineeringSocial StudiesGlobal LanguagesHealth & Physical EducationSpecial EducationCounseling & Life SkillsArts & CreativityESL
Lenny.com
Lenny.com

Solutions

Lenny for EducatorsLenny for SchoolsLenny for Districts

Product

ExploreSign inCreateSupportAbout

Resources

Getting startedMTSS Acceleration Program

© 2026 Lenny Learning Inc.

TermsPrivacyAccessibility
LinkedInInstagramX
Lenny
ESLBeginner EnglishBasic VocabularyBasic GrammarBasic ListeningBasic SpeakingBasic ReadingBasic WritingIntermediate EnglishIntermediate VocabularyGrammarListeningSpeakingReadingAdvanced EnglishAdvanced VocabularyAdvanced GrammarAdvanced ListeningAdvanced SpeakingAdvanced ReadingAdvanced WritingAcademic English SkillsStudy SkillsTest-Taking StrategiesContent Area LanguageResearch and Information Literacy

Island Survival

A high-engagement 60-minute middle school ESL lesson focused on collaborative decision-making, modal verbs of necessity and advice, and justifying opinions. Students analyze a shipwreck survival scenario, negotiate supply rankings using structured language frames, and reflect on their linguistic and teamwork strategies.

Island Survival

A high-engagement 60-minute middle school ESL lesson focused on collaborative decision-making, modal verbs of necessity and advice, and justifying opinions. Students analyze a shipwreck survival scenario, negotiate supply rankings using structured language frames, and reflect on their linguistic and teamwork strategies.

Water Pump

Purifies fresh river water from microbes

Heavy Tarp

Creates waterproof storm & sun shelter

Signal Flares

Launches bright red SOS flares for planes

First Aid Kit

Bandages, antiseptic & fever medication

Fishing Kit

Nylon line, steel hooks & sinkers

Machete Knife

Cuts bamboo, clears paths & builds traps

Solar Beacon

Sends automated satellite coordinates

Crank Torch

Hand-powered light for night defense

You cannot keep all 8. Four items must be abandoned on the shore!


Deep Exploration: Crew Roles (20 Mins)

Team Challenge

1. Commander

Keeps the crew focused and ensures every member speaks.

“Who has not shared yet?”

2. Scribe

Records the crew's top 4 items and written justifications.

“How do we spell our reason?”

3. Linguist

Listens closely and checks that teammates use modals correctly.

“Remember to use must or should!”

4. Spokesperson

Presents the crew's #1 item and defends against challenges.

“Our crew concluded that...”

Rule of Consensus: All 4 members must agree before writing down the final list!


Crew Defense & Cross-Examination

Classroom Arena

Spokesperson Pitch

State your crew's single most critical item and provide two modal reasons:

“Our crew determined that we must keep the [item].”

“Without it, we could not survive because...”

Opposing Crew Challenge

One crew challenges another crew's logic using respectful critique:

“You claimed you must have [X], but wouldn't [Y] be more critical because...?”

“How could you survive if...?”

Listen actively to opponent arguments — every perspective counts!


Metacognitive Reflection

Final 5 Minutes

1

Language Audit

Which modal verb did you use most often in your crew discussions? Why?

Must • Should • Could

2

Mindshift Check

Did a teammate persuade you to change your initial top tool choice? How?

Power of Persuasion

3

Exit Sentence

Write one conditional survival sentence on your worksheet before leaving!

“If we..., we will...”

Complete Section 3 on your handout — Great work surviving today!

[ ] Keep [ ] Leave
[    ]

Castaway Island Expedition • ESL Middle School Page 1 of 2 • Turn over to write Crew Justifications & Reflection

Expedition Defense & Reflection

Written Rationale & Self-Audit

Use: MUST • SHOULD • COULD

Part 3: Crew Written Justifications (Top 4 Items)

Write complete sentences using modals and because / so that

1 Rank #1 Item: Modal stem: We must choose... because...

2 Rank #2 Item: Modal stem: Our crew should keep... in order to...

3 Rank #3 Item: Modal stem: We should also prioritize... so that...

4 Rank #4 Item: Modal stem: Finally, we could use... if...

Part 4: Metacognitive Reflection & Exit Ticket

Individual Completion (5 Mins)

1. How confident did you feel using modal verbs (must, should, could) today?

[ ] 1 - Developing [ ] 2 - Getting There [ ] 3 - Proficient [ ] 4 - Expert

2. Mindshift Check: How did listening to a teammate's argument change your thinking about which tool to keep or leave?

3. Exit Sentence: Write one conditional survival prediction for your first night on the island:

Castaway Island Student Log • Lesson ID: island-survival Page 2 of 2 • Submit to Teacher at the End of the Period

You might also like

Meal Masters Student Packet

Healthy Bites

A comprehensive 5-day English as a New Language unit for 6th grade exploring food vocabulary, countable and uncountable nouns, cafeteria transactions, and healthy recipe writing. Students develop practical communicative fluency through visual vocabulary practice, role-play cafeteria simulations, and scaffolded creative writing tasks.

ZF

Zach Foster

6
Junior Chef Recipe Studio

Junior Chef

Guides students to design their own healthy school lunch menu and compose a step-by-step recipe description using transitional sequencers like first, next, and finally. Students apply countable and uncountable quantifiers to ingredient lists and evaluate the nutritional balance of their meal.

ZF

Zach Foster

2
Heritage Words Test

Heritage Words Test

A comprehensive, ENL-scaffolded multiple choice vocabulary test covering tradition, culture, adapt, ancestors, represent, generations, and heritage. Features accessible definition matching, sentence context completion, and a student writing application section.

EM

Edwin Mejia

Hot Sun Teacher Guide

Reading 1 - Desert Survivors

A 5-day foundational phonics and early literacy unit for ELPA21 Level 1-2 English learners, featuring 45-minute daily lessons centered on desert wildlife that systematically build word identification, CVC decoding, Elkonin box encoding, and decodable reading.

KJ

Katie Jordan

15
Cafeteria Champs Simulation Packet

Cafeteria Champs

Immerses students in cafeteria ordering and financial transactions using functional conversational routines and price questions. Students practice asking 'How much is...?' and ordering politely with 'I would like...' in authentic peer-to-peer cafe simulations.

ZF

Zach Foster

2
Magna Carta ESL Reading

Magna Carta ESL Reading

A two-page historical reading adapted from McGraw Hill covering the Norman Conquest, Henry II, and the Magna Carta. Each of the seven paragraphs is numbered and paired with a concise Spanish summary alongside comprehensive ESL vocabulary glossaries, cognates, concept maps, and sentence frames.

JO

Jacob Obannon

Hot Sun Teacher Guide

Reading 1 - Desert Survivors

A 5-day foundational phonics and early literacy unit for ELPA21 Level 1-2 English learners, featuring 45-minute daily lessons centered on desert wildlife that systematically build word identification, CVC decoding, Elkonin box encoding, and decodable reading.

KJ

Katie Jordan

15
Meal Masters Student Packet

Meal Masters

Focuses on food vocabulary across meal times and the grammatical distinction between countable and uncountable nouns using 'a', 'an', and 'some'. Students categorize foods into breakfast, lunch, and dinner while practicing preference phrases like 'I would like' and 'I prefer'.

ZF

Zach Foster

2
Middle School Drama Mad Libs Activity Sheet

Middle School Drama Mad Libs Activity Sheet

An engaging, printable Mad Libs activity sheet designed for 8th grade beginner English learners with significantly longer fill-in-the-blank writing lines, roomy authentic blank spaces, vocabulary scaffolding, and a drama-meter rating.

SC

Sarah Cordero

Panel Power Slides

Graphic Novel Sleuths

A high-interest, low-readability graphic fiction sequence designed for 6th grade ENL learners. Students build reading comprehension through visual storytelling, exploring character, setting, compound nouns, action verbs, and verb tenses.

ZF

Zach Foster

10
Affix Explorer Worksheet

Affix Explorer

A targeted morphology and reading comprehension lesson for 6th-grade multilingual learners exploring common high-frequency prefixes and suffixes.

HA

HAYDEE AYALA-GONZALEZ

2
Cockpit Comms Cluster Worksheet

Cockpit Comms Cluster Worksheet

A cockpit-themed phonics and pronunciation worksheet featuring 10 air traffic control sentences packed with consonant clusters. Includes a radio transmission log, cluster classification radar exercise, and flight readback checklist for students.

KC

Kristina Carnes