ELI Websites

Interesting infographic about "how Americans spend their time". Depending on your Pathways book, it could tie in very well, especially the "Life in a Day" unit (Level 3? Can't remember). Plus it would support the focus on visual literacy that Pathways (and research) is focusing on as a critical 21st century student/workplace skill.

A very cool site that lets you "explore" various national parks with beautiful AV support. Looks like it would be an excellent supplement to the Pathways books.

Op-docs is a series of video interviews (some animated, some filmed, whatever) that are, obviously, opinion pieces. They're not terrible long (from about 5 minutes to 15 minutes) and cover a wide variety of topics. They would probably be a good resource for Level 5 and 6 teachers. The speaking, while mostly native speakers, was not incredibly fast. They also could be used as resources for combining ideas from multiple resources.

Free reading excepts on a variety of topics, organized by lexical level and accompanied by questions, discussions, and teacher activities. Probably best for Level 5 / Level 6 / advanced students

Free reading excepts on a variety of topics, organized by lexical level and accompanied by questions, discussions, and teacher activities. Probably best for Level 5 / Level 6 / advanced students

Simon's cat -- always wordless and usually funny videos for students to watch and describe in writing, speaking, etc.

Fun wordless cute video. Student could describe the video in writing / speaking or whatever other creative activities you can think of doing with it.

Cool collection of short videos that might fit well with Pathways curriculum. Accessible to Level 3(?) and up

Game based practice for vowel & consonant sounds using the IPA. Would need to know IPA in order to use. Good teacher training website as well if you need to learn the IPA. Free but if students register they can track their progress.

Looks like a good website for exploring global / cultural themes. Educator guides are available. Dedicated to advancing global education through film.

Very cool sight with videos and short lessons explaining various skills -- summarizing, inferring, etc. For native speakers but I think Level 5 & 6 would be fine with it. Thanks Joy!

Thanks Joy! Great website for beginning students -- all skills but free pronunciation practice for English specific problem areas

Some different ideas in here about keeping students moving and engaged. A few I haven't tried but will for my fall oral communications class. Share feedback please if you try any of them!

Hi, this Ted video is excellent and relates perfectly to the Pathways 4 Chapter 2 L/S part on Chernobyl. Monica

Different ways to create student groups to meet various needs.

Different ways to create student groups to meet various needs.

For native speakers but some fun games (go under language arts) to practice sentence structure, commas, parts of speech, etc. Probably best for Levels 4-6

Articles!

Nice, clear explanation. Thanks for sharing!

This goes both ways, top to bottom and bottom to top. I was initially thinking of the sting that class evaluations can often have but then expanded that to "why is the sting going down more often than up?". There should be a system in place that voices both ways; I grow as a teacher through student feedback (often with an "ouch!" factor; I should grow in admin through the same system. Thoughts about a feedback loop that would be safe and useful? You can slip an anonymous note under my door for now... :-)

Short list of usual approaches to add rigor (critical thinking) to all types of assignments

Some of these would have to be modified for ESL students and some are totally out there (I'm going to try #4, "if you're bored, tell me why" , but rephrased "Are you bored? Tell my why and what would make it more interesting" -- can't wait to see the answers)

There are a lot of graded stories here, started below first grade reading level (but for adults). Readings can be timed to increase fluency. Could be really good extra practice especially for lower level reading. Printable worksheets to check understanding