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I stumbled upon this resource while researching the tools and techniques used by a school that I'm applying to teach for.The Reading Assistant is based on speech recognition technology that helps students practice reading aloud (pronunciation) and answer comprehension questions (reading and critical thinking skills). From what I can tell, this paid software is available online, for maximum student convenience. After students complete assignments, teachers receive reports on students' performances. The program claims to have 300 graded readers that align with  US Common Core standards from elementary to high school. To me, the capability of this program to "listen" to students' pronunciation and provide help and individualized feedback is its greatest advantage. The inclusion of a variety of resources for developing vocabulary and work knowledge are also important points for me. Overall, this looks like a useful resource for K-12 schools that want to supplement classroom reading instruction.

I opened the Pizza Restaurant "Community" topic. Part 1 is a Listening (using an optional audio segment), and read along section. I didn't see an option for speed and I found the reading to be fast for a language learner, but they can repeat it for multiple readings. Part II is a discussion with a couple of questions, "What kind of pizza do you like and what toppings do you like on it? And "Are there any unique toppings that people put on pizza in your country that reflect your local foods?" Part III is an online investigation with a link to a practice. From their Website: "One of the best ways to improve communication skills is to become familiar with the language by reading, building vocabulary, and discussing what you study in daily conversations. Too often, ESL/EFL students spend time reading about topics that they normally wouldn't use in daily conversation. This site presents short conversation starters or readings that you can study and then try to apply in everyday situations Before anything else, be sure to read the page, Using This Site, to understand the purpose of these materials and how to best use them. The table below outlines current and future topics. Those with links are now available. Write me if you have an idea for a new reading topic."

Eyercize has significant potential in high-intermediate and high level language learning classrooms. The premise is fairly simple. The site allows users to paste text into a text box. From there, the users can learn to read faster in that the site will sequentially highlight groups of words at a time. The site allows the user to adjust how many words are highlighted and at what speed the highlighting occurs. Teaching language learners and readers of all types to read in such a matter is important in that advanced readers do not read one letter or word at a time, for the most part. Advanced readers take in groups of words and quickly progress through a passage. Eyercize can help learners learn this ability.

Not sure if someone's already posted this, but this is a great tool for getting an idea about text difficulty for reading. We regularly use this at the PIE for developing reading passages for Reading and Writing classes.

I don't think this resource has been posted yet. It's a website with simple news stories for English language learners. Each news story has a recorded version that learners can listen to and a transcript for them to read. The transcripts have glosses for difficult words as well. Overall, it looks like a good resource for in or out of class reading or listening activities.

I like stories that come with transcripts. Because it will help students listen and read at the same time. I think that having students with different learning styles, this would be extremely beneficial. Thanks Alan

This website is great for reading material. It's a compilation of original poetry and fiction (ranging from flash fiction to short stories to novels). There is also an essay section. Because much of it is unedited, you might need to read through a few to find good quality, but if you're teaching reading/writing, this could be a good resource to have students look at different pieces and compare them. There's also an option to review pieces, so there can be some level of interaction. Do note, however, that content is rated for maturity by the authors, so that can vary.

Students can go to this website for extra practice with reading. First, they should click "register" then they will create an account and should click "continue reading" which will send them to a quiz to place them. The quiz is very advanced and students may need to use a dictionary to take the quiz. After the quiz is done, students are placed and can begin reading!

English Daily is an interesting site for English learners because of its vast array of resources. For learners who have an interest in learning about English idioms, learners can discover the definitions of idioms and read examples of them in context. To learn about English language culture or for practicing reading fluency aloud, the Movie Lines section of the site contains portions of dialogue from popular movies. To practice comprehension questions, the comprehension section allows learners to read a passage and to answer questions about it. While the website has many advantages and may appeal to younger learners and business professionals alike, the presentation of the content is not very aesthetically pleasing, and the site is full of advertisements that may distract learners from the content they are attempting to learn. Additionally, the site is not very interactive beyond the news section that allows learner to listen to a news story and to complete cloze exercises. Furthermore, the answers to exercises are presented on the same page as the exercises themselves, so clearly a learner would need to be rather autonomous to use the site effectively. To fully incorporate the site into a classroom, a teacher would benefit from creating supplemental materials such as a learning log in order to track student learning.

This website gives learners an interactive way to work on noticing and correcting spelling errors and other types of errors. For one activity I tried(there are three different types ), a sample writing is provided that learners must try and correct using editing symbols. This could be a good way to have learners develop their editing skills outside of class on their own. There are also different types of activities, including spelling and reading, spelling and writing and spelling and thinking. So it seems there is some integration of different skills into the interactive activities. Learners can also choose their level, so with some experimenting teachers could recommend an appropriate level based on learners' proficiency level.

I like this. It can be used to train students on how to comment on their peers' papers. Very interesting

Here is another adult education newspaper. It includes grade-leveled articles (ranging from 3-12) written by adult students on topics relevant to adults. I have not personally used this resource, but I know it can be challenging to find relevant and engaging reading materials for adults who are learning to read. Like News for You, this newspaper provides audio files, which I have found to be a nice feature for literacy classes. The site suggests having students listen to short sections and then read them aloud to improve fluency. The newspaper is produced by the New England Literacy Resource Center.

Sorry, this resource isn't free, but if your ESL program decides they can spare just $5-6/week, then both students and teachers can use the same password to access news stories as well as features such as audio recordings of stories, exercises, crossword puzzles, and definitions of key vocabulary. I taught a weekly current events ESL class for adults, and students loved News For You. Each week there are 7 new stories, and several students would read/listen to all the stories before coming to class. I would pick one or two stories to focus on during the 90-minute class. I made my own activities, but students who wanted to could do the online exercises at a library or community center computer. However, because the stories are written for adults who are learning to read (either ABE or ESL students), the content is not as authentic as a regular newspaper. But the fact that it is motivating and accessible to students and encourages lively discussions in class makes it a nice resource.

These are really interesting videos that you could assign. Students have the option to read subtitles (sometimes up to 30 or so languages in subtitles). They could listen and read in their language and then in the target language. Comprehension could improve because students already know the content. Good listening exercise, too. This video is called "What adults can learn from kids." One of my favorites is about dance - of course, it's called "Dance vs. powerpoint…." That title makes me smile! http://www.ted.com/talks/john_bohannon_dance_vs_powerpoint_a_modest_proposal.html Another one on teaching: http://www.ted.com/playlists/11/the_creative_spark.html

This article has a number of ideas tied to different iPad apps to be used in relation to reading. There are interesting ideas here even if you decide not to use an iPad. Some of the ideas, such as creating comic strips or dramatizing a scene from the book could easily be done with or without apps.

ESL Video is a website that pairs authentic videos with comprehension questions. The user selects a video at a particular level and about a particular topic, views the video, and answers questions about what was said in the video. While such a resource could be used in a listening and speaking class, some, or at least one, of the videos could be used in a class focused on reading. To explain, the video only had music for the soundtrack while simple text appeared on the screen for the viewer to read. Of note is that many of the videos feature popular culture, so conceivably these videos would contribute both to language learning and to learning about the culture of English speaking countries. One interesting video features Jimmy Fallon, the Roots, and Carly Rae Jepson playing "Call Me Maybe," and the related quiz asks learners to fill in the blanks in lines of lyrics. Also, teachers are able to create their own quizzes for the website.

Brainstorming is an important part of the writing process. Bubbl allows students to draw mind maps on the computer. In class we talked about creating mind maps in Google Draw, but Bubbl might be easier to use in the sense that you don't have to create the structure for the mind map itself. By simply clicking the tab key, you can add another idea bubble. By clicking enter, you can add a new "level" of ideas. You can also click on the line connecting idea bubbles and hit delete if you would like to separate the ideas. These mind maps can be saved, printed, or exported. I have used mind maps in my writing classes before (with paper and pencil), but sometimes they can get a bit messy and hard to read. One benefit to using this website is that students can edit their maps and keep them fairly organized and easy to read. My students also appreciate opportunities to practice typing in English, so they may be more motivated to type up their idea maps. However, brainstorming activities in class are often fairly short. Sometimes it is a quick 10-minute activity at the beginning of class to get ideas flowing. Using the computer to create mind maps may not be ideal for these quick warm-up activities since time will have to be spent familiarizing students with the website itself.

Similarly to the Breaking News English website, the Famous People English website features simplified mini-biographies on famous people from all over the world. Each passage also comes with a variety of activities. I have used this site many times for finding level-appropriate reading passages.

I use this website frequently to find simplified reading passages of current events. The passages are ranked as easier and harder and include a variety of activities (though the activities are redundant for each passage). Most passages are 1-2 paragraphs long.

Funded by the NSF, contains digital versions of children's books from all over the world. There are books in many languages, some with translations. Searchable by region, topic, and level. Could be assigned as extra reading homework, or used for projects.

This program allows for real-time polling in the classroom. After a class account is created learners can log on with their smartphones, tablets or laptops. Throughout a lecture, reading or any other class activity students can show their understanding or lack of understanding through the click of a button. Presentations can also be embedded as well.

At ESL Video, you can create your own quizzes and use other peoples quizzes. You can access beginning, intermediate, high Intermediate quizzes for videos. It was free to sign up, but it is a limited source for borrowing quizzes. These are the guidelines for making quizzes: - If you suspect the video or thumbnail-image violates copyright law, don't use it. ( - Read the "Top 10 Distractors" article by Sharon Yoneda. ( - Read the "Real (Teacher) World Application of ESLvideo.com" article by Sharon Yoneda. ( - Base your quizzes on shorter videos rather than longer videos. ( - Create your quiz first in a Word or text document, then copy / paste into the quiz builder. - Create quizzes with more than five questions. - Check your questions and answers for typos. ( - Music video quizzes - don't skip lines in the lyrics and be sure to add the transcript (often easily found with a Google search). ( - Design distractors that demonstrate mechanical, structural, phonological or othographic relevance. When you create your quiz, you add title, description, tags (past tense, WH questions, Directions), Question for Comments, Thumbnail Image, Video Embed code, level, language, and quiz type.