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"Despite our best efforts as teachers, there simply is not enough class time for working adults to learn English as a second language in the classroom at the speed that many of them need to meet their personal language learning goals. " Article by Alexandra Lowe on learning outside the classroom.

This blog has great links to citizenship-related exercises and teacher resources, such as the US Constitution in simple English. Should be an important resource for US teachers of adult ed, as well as teachers of American culture overseas.

This is a great site to teach adult and high school learners more about how to use the web and sift false info from true. Something like a WebQuest, but with varied levels of understanding implicit in the lesson plans and activities.

This web resource is for teachers of high beginning and intermediate writing courses and intermediate ESL learners. The resource provides 8 units that 1) teach about paragraph structure and paragraph elements: topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence 2) introduce transition words and coherence in a paragraph 3) provide the opportunity to learn about and practice basic writing skills such as making an outline and staying on topic. Clear explanations are supported by examples; therefore, teacher can use this resource for class preparation, and ESL learners can use it as additional material to learn about paragraph writing. Practice activities provided by the website are not interactive; however, most of the assessment tasks have answer keys. In addition, each unit provides lesson in a PDF format that can be used by a teacher as a handout. -- From Lena Shvidko For ESL K-12 learners, but would be useful for adults as well. Focuses on the paragraph, rather than the essay, so makes a good beginning set of lessons.

"City College of San Francisco ESL students explore the Living Roof at the California Academy of Sciences with its 1.7 million native plants and exciting green technology which controls the building's temperature. Instructor: Cora Chen (visit Cora's ESL Page)" This is a nice example of how a day-trip can be combined into a media and reading-writing project for adult students.

This site is a geat resource for content-based learning for teens and adults. You can browse by categories (right-hand column) for topics in history, nature, people/biography, science, etc. There are no lesson plans or other educational apparatus.

This is an amazing resource for teaching high school/adult ed. It is video-based and free--individual students can sign in, or a teacher can register a whole class and keep records of their activities. There is an excellent explanatory video for teachers also. Lots of listening/speaking/reading practice.

This is a great digital images project using photos of graffiti on Flickr, and a spreadsheet of questions on Google Forms. Students sign in to select images that will support the ideas they write about. Thanks to Webhead Sasa Sirk, Carla Areana, Bee Dieu, and Rita Zeinstejer!! Also included are links to posts that Sasa's students made and responses from Rita Z's student sin Argentina. Nice example of collaborative Web 2.0. (Caution, some graffiti have adult language and themes!) See also http://wallstalking.org/.

Although the home page looks like it's for children, the text is really fairly complex, so high school or adult is more appropriate. Offers suggestions on point of view, reviews, summaries, etc. A sophisticated mind-mapper.

Podcats are updated every couple of days. Created by Jeff McQuillan. Topics are mainly American-oriented, and each podcast includes a "Learning Guide.l" Podcasts seem mainly for low advanced, university/adult students.

Songs/music videos with lyrics side-by-side. Should be great for teens and young adult learners. (Also great if you never could understand those words!) Have your students write their own lyrics to songs. Or write their own music as a project. If using clips in a project, be sure to respect copyright.

Vocabulary exercises at many different levels with lots pre-reading (sentence-level), and then exercises with cartoons and sounds for help. Highly interactiv--point and click on an item, drag-and-drop an item to a cartoon figure, listening to the item and type, etc. Despite cartoon/movie figures, adults could use these exercises, too (from Russel Stannard, TeachertrainingVideos.com).

"What you see here are candid submissions from people who have engaged in a little exercise. Here's how it works. Think about the word Race. How would you distill your thoughts, experiences or observations about race into one sentence that only has six words?" This National Public Radio blog makes the perfect starting point for a multicultural lesson for ESL/EFL students. The entries are sheer poetry and give a great deal of content to think about the issue of race and one's place in society, for better or worse. Each 6-word "poem" makes us, as one contributor said, "Look past race to underlying humanity."

Loads of ideas for using the video camera (mobile phone camera or video recorder) in the classroom. From Nick Peachey's newsletter.

Lots of bookis read aloud. with text before your eyes. Being read to is a good way to get a sense of the language. Recommended by Russell Stannard at http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/10jan/index.html.

This is a totally cool way to look at Flashcards, and includes not only polls taken by Webheads, but some lesson plans for use with your students. (Note also the way the blog entry is organized.) Study and blog by Karenne Sylvester, Webhead.

If you are a fan of grammar, this site is for you. Hundreds of online lessons for further practice.