Group items tagged

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.

A resource for free online English lessons and exercises. A place for learning English in class or at home! Grade school (K-12), General Educational Development (GED), English as a Second Language (ESL), and all interested in advancing their knowledge of the English language should be able to benefit from this website. We offer a large variety of accurate and concise skill building resources geared towards a range of ability levels. We hope you find our resources visually appealing, straightforward, easy to locate, and able to capture the essence of the English language. No registration is required to access these resources.

This is a useful resource for teachers who want to use Skype in the classroom. The short annotations help seekers decide which lins are most relevant for them. There are resources for teachers looking for classrooms to connect with, for individual learners looking for conversation partners, and much more. I can see this as a go-to source for K-12 and higher ed teachers who need to communicate often (it's free) with people who live far away (it's internet-based).

Think of "Pronunciation for Teachers" as a professional clearinghouse for information. We include links to teaching and research resources, information about what researchers and teachers are... This seems like a great collection of resources for teaching pronunciation. It is supported by some big names in the field.

Nice, Randy!

English-Guide.org is an incredible website, albeit it looks like it is designed for children. That said, if you're teaching children English learners, great; you're all set to go. If you're teaching adults, this site could be used as a respite from the intensity of intensive English programs. While many of the resources on the site are language learning games that take the form of drill-and-kill exercises, not all of the material is so rudimentary. For instance, the Career/Business section under Listening links to many listening passages at elllo.org (another useful site for listening and speaking teachers). On elllo, learners can listen to business passages, such as one on personality traits and answer comprehension questions. It would be tempting to let a class full of learners loose on this site to see what resources they would gravitate toward. The major categories of resources Vocabulary, Listening, Grammar, and Others, and within these categories, like I mentioned, there are both games and more sophisticated exercises at the learners' fingertips.

VOA Special English has high-interest stories for language learners that are spoken at a slightly (sometimes more) reduced rate with clear enunciation. I've enjoyed pulling stories off of here for multi-level classes of ESL adults who want to learn more about America. A word of caution, not all stories are totally g-rated (a current story on Rihanna is not something I would use with PIE students). One advantage of VOA is that many stories have full or partial transcripts available as a resource. Many stories also have built in language activities that students can do on their own during class or as homework. While I sometimes find the reduced pace of VOA special English falling short of authentic, overall, I think this is a useful resource for teachers.

The VOA special English was widely used by Chinese English learners years ago. VOA does not only has a slow pace but also uses only "high-frequency" words. Maybe less authentic, but a good resource to start with.

This site provides a wealth of information about technology for classroom use, as well as current discussions about technology and resources for teachers. I think K-12 teachers should subscribe to the newsletter to stay informed about what's going on in the field. I've been skimming the site, and so far, I've come across interesting research about the use of games in the classroom, as well as serving diverse populations, like special Ed through technology. The strength of this site is it's breadth of topics, but the weakness appears to be the amount of time sorting through everything to find what you want.

My blurb: I checked out this site based on Heidi Wright's recommendation. You do have to pay for a subscription, unfortunately, but the newspaper is very readable, the layout is nice, and it comes with teacher resources and activities. Heidi's blurb: I have just finished a research project on a ESOL suitable newspaper called Newsademic. I send my PPT to the company and they sent me a free subscription. They also sent me a link to pass on to friends so they can get a free two month subscription. For those of you beginning to teach or those going overseas, it is cool. The newspaper, which is written for 9-16 year old native English speakers, works with intermediate level and above (we have used articles in level 4 at PIE ) and covers lots of current international topics. No pop culture and intentionally balanced opinions. British or American edition available for spelling. The newspaper comes with two sets of exercises and is delivered every two weeks. The Flesch-Kincaid level runs from 6-11 with an average of 8.3 and the Lexile level runs from 860 to 1150 with an average of about 950-1020. You can make as many copies for your school as you want. To buy a year subscription is $32. Their blurb: Newsademic - a Children's newspaper used for educational resources, home schooling and English study

"ESL, English as a second language, teaching materials and resources for speaking, study and learning. TESOL teachers, schools, and programs." This source is useful for both students and teachers. Students can practice their skills. They can do anything from talking to someone in English or studying for the TEFOL exam. For teachers, this site is an excellent resource. Teachers can find anything from sample lessons to specific textbooks to use in the classroom. I used this site last semester for my practicum, and it almost always had something useful or lead me in the right direction. It's truly a great resource to take advantage of!

I found this article on NEA's website (which I recommend on it's own). The topic is using social media to enhance the classroom. We've talked about most of the technology in here, but the applications of the resources are focused to younger learners and flipped classrooms. Google Docs are used with middle schoolers to prevent them losing track of the documents. Google forms are used to speed up quiz grading, and cell phones are used to help facilitate meaningful (and safe) field trips. If you are considering a K-12 career, this article might help you be on the cutting edge in interviews and in the classroom. Finally, at the end of the article, you'll find links to other online technologies to try. Happy tech-ing!

This is super cute! Definitely a K-12 resource.  So, with Class Dojo, the teacher projects a class of little monsters on the screen. Each one corresponds to a student. The teacher can give praise (a +1) on screen for being on task, participating, or other positive things. On the flip side, the teacher can also give corrective feedback that displays a -1 by the student's monster. This program also allows the teacher to take attendance, create student behavior reports, and share student reports with parents. Another great feature is the random button, in which one student's monster is selected. This could be great for calling on students to answer questions. I think this would be really motivating for students because it's like a mirror that the whole class can see. However, I can see it being a big adjustment for teachers at first. It might also damage students' face to be reprimanded on screen. I like how this application focuses on behavior, rather than linguistic ability. I think some students benefit from additional feedback on their behavior.

Here's my blurb: If you decide to do a Digital Storytelling project in your ESL class, how do you go about evaluating it? What kind of rubrics do you use? This site discusses 16 types of communication (or genres) and 9 traits for scoring. It provides example rubrics. In fact, it provides a pretty neat rubric customization tool. There are suggestions and sample lesson plans for both formal and informal evaluation, and peer review activities. Quite nice! The resources section contains lots of PDFs about incorporating digital stories into the curriculum. Here's their blurb: DigiTales.us provides ideas, resources and inspiration for families, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, churches and everyone else ready to discover the power and magic of merging the art of storytelling with the enchantment of using digital tools.

My blurb: Teacher training videos, for your ongoing professional development. These videos seems to be geared towards K-12 education and are on a variety of subjects. However, there are 391 videos about teaching English, some of those are TESL specific (I noted at least 3 on teaching Listening and Speaking skills). They also have 108 videos on teaching Modern Languages (mostly French and Spanish). Also, they have ideas for using technology in the classroom, under the "ICT" subject. For instance, they have a "Using web-based software to enhance speaking skills" video, and a "Flip Video Cameras" video. Their blurb: Education video resources, lesson plans, inspiration and ideas to use in classroom. Professional development, CPD and training for everyone working in schools.

While browsing the language learning resources from various universities, I came across these links for international broadcasts on Indiana University's website. There is also a link to SCOLA, a non-profit that provides authentic foreign language learning resources. You can get a SCOLA app or web subscription. In terms of evaluating foreign language news sites, I'd say to use similar criteria as you would in evaluating other classroom activities. Does the content relate to class material and/or student interests? Is the level appropriate (vocabulary, pace, etc)? Is the length appropriate, and can you justify using class time to watch or read this material?

Jennifer ESL could be used in the classroom or for self-study. I really like her videos because she goes into detail about pronunciation. I think she gives explanations that are thorough, but comprehensible for beginning students. I would suggest that students use this resource outside of class for additional practice.

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

online resources for CBI

more CBI resources

I love this website. Here's why: to use many online resources, you have to provide an email address. And then you have to check your email to validate that you gave the company a real email address. If you are a teacher, simply looking at resources and you don't feel like submitting your re email address, just use 10 Minute Mail. I used it today to sign up for Grockit and Socrative. The website gives you an email address that lasts for 10 minutes. If you have to wait for another website to email you, just wait for the email to show up. (The page autorefreshes, I believe.) Then you're all set.

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.