Most adult ESL teachers have a solid collection of worksheets. But task cards? Most have never even heard of them. And I can’t stop thinking about how adult ESL teachers are missing out on them.
Task cards are huge in K-12 education. Walk into any elementary classroom and you’ll probably trip over a dozen sets. But in adult ESL? Crickets.
Which is wild, because they’re perfect for our students. (And no, you don’t need the cutesy clipart and thick colorful borders that dominate the K-12 market. You can get clean, professional versions.)
They’re also perfect for adult ESL teachers who are constantly juggling multiple levels in one classroom, who need resources they can reuse instead of photocopy every single week, and who are tired of fighting for copy machine time. Task cards give you flexibility that worksheets just can’t match.
The first time I saw task cards, my brain started humming with possibilities. I just love a resource format that’s versatile, don’t you?
Task Cards vs. Worksheets: What’s the Difference?
Task cards are bite-sized practice opportunities. Each card focuses on a specific skill or concept that you’ve already taught. They’re not for introducing new material. They’re for reinforcement.
So what makes them different from worksheets?
Freedom.
With task cards, your students can be anywhere. They could be moving around the classroom, throughout the building, or even outside in the sunshine. Worksheets pin students to their seats, which is sometimes necessary when space and time don’t permit movement. But when students are up and moving? It’s so much easier to discreetly monitor them and take notes on what they’re struggling with and what might be too easy.
When Should You Choose One Over the Other?
I use both. Once I discovered task cards, I knew I’d use them often, but I could also immediately see that sometimes worksheets would be the better option. Each format has strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes one is clearly the better choice.
Here are five things to consider.
How’s the Weather? (No, Seriously!)
Rainy days? Generally worksheet days. Students are rarely coaxed into being gregarious when it’s pouring outside and prefer to hunker down quietly.
Sunny days with beautiful weather? Task cards scattered outdoors so we can all enjoy the fresh air. Students talk more anyway when the weather is nice, so moving outside makes me a better neighbor to another class that might need quiet.
How Energetic Are Your Students?
If they’re already hyped up because of a sports event or holiday coming up, I’ll choose worksheets to help everyone calm down and focus. If they’re dragging and half-asleep? Task cards all the way, because I can get everyone up and moving.
Is Time of the Essence?
Limited time? Task cards are perfect. It’s easy to have students complete just a few. When all they see are a few cards, they don’t end up with that awful feeling of being given busy work to fill time.
Give students a worksheet without time to complete it? They might feel like it wasn’t important to begin with OR feel stressed that they couldn’t finish it all.
Another time consideration is MY time. Do I have time to fight my way to the front of the line to make copies of all the worksheets I need, or is it easier to grab a set of pre-made cards I’ve used with another class? The reusability factor is one of my favorite time-saving aspects of task cards.
How Much Physical Space do You Have?
If I have lots of space for everyone to move around or can get outside the classroom, I love using task cards. The groupings and set-ups become almost limitless. But I’ve taught in extremely cramped conditions more than once, and worksheets are much more suitable then.
Here’s a fun way to use task cards that gets your students moving: Attach a card to a headband and have each student wear one. As they walk around reading and answering the task cards on their classmates’ headbands, they also have to ask each other’s names. Instead of writing the number of the task card, they write the name of the student wearing it.
How Much Talking do You Want to Encourage?
When I have a class that loves to talk to each other and learn together, task cards give them that interaction they crave. But if the class next door has a test or listening exercises? I’m more likely to choose worksheets to keep the sound down.
What about those classes where students just DON’T talk to each other? Task cards aren’t going to change personalities, so while I might use them occasionally, I’m far more likely to stick with the worksheets they’re more comfortable with.
Why Students Prefer Task Cards
One of the biggest reasons my students report preferring task cards is the feeling of being motivated instead of overwhelmed.
Imagine you’re learning another language, and you look down at your desk and see a full-sized page covered in text.
Did your mouth just get dry?
Now imagine a card with only one question on it.
That bite-sized task gives students more confidence in tackling the question than a worksheet full of questions would. They might end up answering the same number of questions that they would have on a worksheet, but with each question presented one at a time, students are far less likely to feel like they’re drowning and shut down.
It’s Not Just about the Foreign Language
When you teach adults, you’re teaching people with a million responsibilities outside your classroom that they can’t just stop thinking about because they walked through your door. Their minds are already going in a dozen directions at once. A traditional worksheet covered in text is more likely to trigger anxiety or a brain freeze than a can-do attitude. Task cards break everything down into manageable chunks.
Need more reasons? Task card sets can also be used repeatedly, they pave the way to more group exercises, they’re easily turned into games, and they make assessment quick and simple.
Task Cards Make Sub Plans a Breeze
You know how it’s easier to just teach while sick instead of taking time for self-care? Who wants to spend all their free time creating special lesson plans in advance just to be able to attend their brother’s wedding?
Make the task cards yourself or buy them. Start now.
When you have a solid library of task cards, they’re invaluable for the substitute who has to take over because you’ve come down with food poisoning. Just declare a day of enrichment and allow students to pick and choose what they want to practice while the substitute supervises and checks answers. You won’t need to create those special lesson plans because everything the substitute and your students need will be right there.
Oh, and those days when you lose your voice? This can save you.
What Does Using Task Cards Look Like in Practice?
Think differentiation. As you build up your library of sets, you make it easier and easier to provide enrichment for students who have already mastered a concept that you need to teach the rest of the class. You’ll be able to give individual students or groups a challenge or further reinforce a concept they’re weak in while you’re working with other students.
With task cards, you can allow students to choose what to focus their attention on. Sometimes they want intensive practice, but sometimes they’re already drained from life outside the classroom and prefer something lighter.
Task cards that students can share and complete individually or in groups help you meet everyone’s needs. Nobody ever gets a class of students whose skills, strengths, and weaknesses are perfectly matched, and trying to provide individualized instruction to everyone at the same time can be a nightmare. Solid sets of concept-specific and skill-specific task cards make it more manageable.
Not Convinced? Task Cards Are Easy to Turn Into Games
You can add task cards to almost any game out there. Use them with:
- Simple board games where everyone has to draw a card and answer it before rolling. If the answer is correct, they can roll the die and move that many spaces. If the answer is incorrect, they miss that turn.
- Card games: With UNO, you can add the rule that whenever a student plays a draw two or a draw four card, the next player has to draw two (or four) task cards, split them with another student of their choosing, and answer the questions before proceeding. You can add them to the pile for Go Fish and require students to draw a card AND a task card to answer.
- Connect Four: Either purchase a Connect 4 game or make a board version. (Cut out large circles of two colors of paper, draw a grid on the board, and have students tape their circles to the grid box. This is more effective if they’re familiar with how the pieces “fall” into place when playing the game.) Divide your class into two teams. Give each team a set of task cards. As the teams complete task cards and verify the answers with you, they get a game piece to play. You can either have them take turns, or to really amp up the fun (and the pressure), allow them to play each game piece as they earn it.
Don’t Have Any Board Games or Card Games?
Not a problem. The task cards can be the only material you need.
- The Seated Folk Dance: Divide your class in half, with each half seated in a row facing the other half so that each student has a partner facing them. Give each pair a task card. Students collaborate to come up with the answer and record their answers on their own papers. When time is called, one row of students moves one space to the left while the other row stays seated. The cards move one space to the right. Now everyone has a new partner AND a new task card to complete.
- Tic-Tac-Toe: Draw multiple Tic-Tac-Toe grids on the board. Give each team a set of task cards. As they complete the task cards and verify the answers with you, give them a board marker to mark their X or their O for their team. Again, you can either have the teams take turns or increase the excitement (and likely the sound level in your classroom) by allowing them to mark their X or O as they earn it.
Students can check out task cards like library books!
I don’t remember ever having students specifically ask for extra worksheets to practice with at home on their own time. But I’ve had many students check out sets of task cards. I’ve even had to limit how many sets they can take at one time, or I’d be cleaned out completely. And I have a LOT of sets.
I let them take an answer key home to check their own responses. This gives them immediate feedback and greatly reduces the number of questions they have when they return the task cards the next day. When they have access to the answers, they’ll spend time trying to figure out why their answers were wrong instead of just asking me. Instead of explaining 15 questions and answers, I might only have to explain one or two.
The Bottom Line
Traditional worksheets absolutely have a time and place in the classroom. Task cards can and do as well. Give them a try. Start building your own library of them. (You can find TONS in my TpT store↗!)
You might just find yourself getting as excited as I do when it’s time to pull them out.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
Read more about teaching adult ESL!
