Group items tagged

Mechanics and drama help students understand science and how life works. For young and very young learners, this lesson demonstrates how to engage learners physically in the subjects they are studying.

The PBS site is free and has wonderful video and interactive activities for young and very young learners, that allow them to investigate the relationship between science and other aspects of real life. Very high quality and suggestive discussion questions, even if you don't use all the materials. Includes daily news stories and technology tips.

A clever game site that could be used for lesson on where garbage goes. for very young learners, but supposedly adaptable to older learners, too.

This cross-platform app -- iPhone and Android -- lets students create their own games and instructional programs. Free for teachers and students, you need to sign up for an account, but you can work on a computer to create the HTML5. Learning games can be dreary, but creating them can be very interesting for students. The frontpage shows middle school learners working away, so this might be good even for younger learners.

Games and puzzles for young learners (K-8th) to practice math. Includes a Teacher's Page to help inspire your class.

Gives examples of very young learners using blogs as digital portfolios. Good discussion of formative and summative assessment as well.

"I was recently in a third grade classroom and was struck by the presence of rules that were posted for how to have a conversation. The poster said, "Each person must contribute to the discussion but take turns talking. Ask each other, 'Would you like to add to my idea?' or 'Can you tell us what you are thinking?' Ask questions so that you understand each other's ideas. Say, 'Can you tell me more about that?' or 'Can you say that in another way?'" "Having visited many middle and high schools, I think these same rules could -- and probably should -- be posted there as well. " How important the rules of conversation are! We all too often expect our students to "get into groups and discuss," but how often are these productive conversations? These tips/strategies are well worth practicing at the beginning of every year/semester, and not just with young learners. These tips are also a nice practice for EFL/ESL students as they prepare to speak with native speakers.

R. Byrnes has found some good sites for young learners, including PBS Kids and a Council of Europe game. Topics include cyberbullying as well as online safety.

This is a site for young learners/young adult learners who might be doing e-pals -- or for the teacher who wants to use conversation in the classroom, perhaps as a good warm-up activity while students are arriving and settling down to their class work.

"Featuring practical advice and tips to inspire practitioners, carers and parents, this is a valuable resource for encouraging young children to talk about everyday skills in a context they can relate to. "The series uses simple, positive language and gorgeous full-colour illustrations to teach children aged 0-5 important personal and social skills. From making friends and sharing, to eating and tidying up, this series will help explore positive behaviour with children in a fun and friendly way." Though written for native speakers, the content and language level with pictures should make this series useful for very young NNS learners.

This is a clever illustration of how several writers can collaborate in Google Docs/Driver to create. Your young learners will catch on fast.

A nice collection for students to explore science. Project- and content-based learning for young learners-adults.

This 25 min. video tutorial shows how to set up your flipped classroom and use iMovie to create polished lectures for your lessons. Your adult or young learners may also use the information to create their own presentations or peer-teaching lessons.

This is a nice demonstration of scaffolding, note-taking, and discussion for young adult / adult learners.

"Free Math Help offers a variety of free tools to help students with Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics. The site has a simple interface with color coded tabs identifying their four categories which are lessons, calculators, games, and forums." This blog post describes the website, which includes over 100 lessons, calculators, and games for younger learners.

This software helps learners develop their basic paragraph writing skills. Students learn how to write an effective paragraph -- developed by reason, detail, sequence, example, and cause and effect. The full version of the software provides 15 interactive writing activities on a variety of topics. Choosing from a menu of topics, students are guided to generate ideas, write a topic sentence, body of a paragraph, and a conclusion. Each interactive activity includes the following steps: pre-writing, writing, organizing, revising, rewriting, and publishing. The software is a great tool for assessment and self-assessment, for individual practice, and may be especially useful in classes where a teacher is not able to provide personal attention to individual student. -- From Lena Shvidko The focus on process in writing is important, from pre-writing to developing an idea. Would probably be appropriate for both young and adult learners.

A nice collection of apps for iPads for younger learners. Includes writing, telephony, geography, maths, and literacy.

The Japan Virtual Science Center has Webby Award winning science videos and trials where students can experience phenomena. A great place to support ESP learning and STEMs in your classroom. Some videos are animations for younger learners.

Publishes weekly articles on practical approaches and lesson plans for teaching EFL online. Here at the ELT Newsletter teachers of English can * read weekly articles on topics of interest to ELT professionals - updated every Friday * gather teaching tips from the weekly articles * find links to other sites of interest to English teachers (and learners) Every week we publish a new article on ELT. We cover a wide variety of topics - young learners, adults, general English, business English, exam classes, modern concepts and ideas such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Multiple Intelligences, and more. If it's of interest to English teachers, it's of interest to us! --EHS

This Teaching Channel video demonstrates student discussion with guidance from the teacher. For young learners, but applicable for all.