Find ESL Teacher Handouts, Grammar Worksheets, and Printables on this site. These will give you a quick source of easy-to-use handouts for instant extra practice with your ESL/ELL students. Parents may elso find the handouts helpful at home.
In the Classroom: ESL/ELL teachers may want to share this source with regular classroom teachers and with parents to help provide students with extra practice. Some of your larning support students may benefit from them, as well. Don't forget to print the answer sheet, as well!
Try this article on using buddies as a helpful strategy for your ESL/ELL students. Specific suggestions wbout what kind of buddy to choose and what buddy rsponsibilitites should be are very useful. You may want to share some portions of this article with the buddies themselves in secondary-level classes. Don't forget to also read TeachersFirst's Top Ten Tips for Working with ESL/ELL students.
Your class is welcoming some ESL/ELL students. Here are some tips for starting out right with newcomers who speak little or no English. The tips include drawing on the resources of others so you, as the teacher, do not feel you must do everything yourself. Don't forget to also read TeachersFirst's Top Ten Tips for Working with ESL/ELL students.
ESL Gold's "Words and Phrases" page is a listing of vocabulary, grouped in categories ideal for learning a new language. The categories are divided by levels from Low Beginning to Advanced. Many of the categories provide a picture dictionary of all items. Some of the more advanced levels do not include pictures. All levels have audio pronunciation. The higher levels contain vocabulary in context, word phrases, and other vocabulary development activities without definitions. This site requires Windows Media Player or Quicktime to play the audio. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use this site to share vocabulary by category, using pictures, audio, and written words with your ESL/ELL students, primary students, special ed students, or speech/language students. Include this link in a newsletter that goes home with ESL/ELL students. Mark it as a Favorite on your classroom computer. Demonstrate how to use this website on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students work alone (or with a partner) at their current speaking level. This website could also be used in a regular education class with emerging readers. The five difficulty levels allow teachers the flexibility to differentiate the instruction. Note: small type fonts and some advertising may make this site difficult for some younger students to use. Preview and decide what your class can handle.
This lesson uses a bilingual (Spanish-English) picture book to increase comprehension and reading skills in ESL students by having them retell the story in a variety of ways. Many non-ESL/ELL students would benefit from the same skills.They make vocabulary lists, make diagrams, retell the story, and rewrite the book using their own words. Teachers can generalize the knowledge gained after using this lesson plan to incorporating other bilingual books while teaching ESL students. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Allow ESL/ELL or other students to work on the various online tools included in this lesson on their regular classroom computer or cluster, printing the products and sharing them in partner-reading or other activities with non-ESL/ELL students. Learning support students would also benefit from the comprehension strategies involved.
This site helps regular classroom, ELL, and ESL teachers prepare vocabulary review and game sheets by providing ready-made sets of pictures and flashcards. You must register, but registration is free and is simple. The many topics and options are a bit difficult to find because of all the forums and blogs on the page; just look for the tabs across the top of the opening page and also "See this Worksheet" when you enter a subject category page. Registrants can create their own combinations of the pictures provided and leave a copy of the worksheet at the site for others to use. The pictures themselves are fairly neutral and would work with all elementary levels. Warning: this site has several advertisements that can be rather distracting. Also, due to the forums and blogs, this is NOT a good site to send students to independently.
In the Classroom: This site is a time saver when you are looking for pictures around a certain theme for your ESL and ELL students. Select whatever pictures you like and create worksheets, games, and flash cards. Have students review the pictures and vocabulary with each other after you demonstrate the activity.
This site offers a list of short stories for ESL/ELL learners. Students can read the story, listen to the story, review the story, click on vocabulary words to access an online dictionary, and more. There is also a link to an online dictionary for other new words not featured in the vocabulary section at the top of the page. Many of the stories offer two listening speeds (slow and normal). Although the advertisements are a bit distracting, this website does offer a high number of ESL/ELL stories on a variety of topics. The subject matter of many stories is not appropriate for younger students. Preview! This site requires Windows Media. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: The reading and listening activities are easy for students to work on independently because of the listening option. Special ed teachers may also have students who will benefit from the listening practice. Don't forget to provide the headphones. Provide this link on your class website or newsletter, so the families of ESL/ELL students can read (or listen) to the stories together.
These teaching tips work well in an all ESL class, or a regular class with only a few ESL students. The tips provide ideas to help with preparing materials, making assessments, and modifying materials and expectations so that the ESL students can succeed. The file format is PDF.
In the Classroom: Keep these practical tips handy in your favorites as a reminder when you are struggling to meet the needs of ESL/ELL students in your regular class. If you serve as a teaching mentor, you may also want to share them with less-experienced teachers charged to your "care." Many of the same tips apply to learning support students, as well.
This site, intended for ESL/ELL students, has environmental education issues on six topics; Each topic is available in English, Hmong, Arabic and Somali. Students-- even those without special needs-- can listen to the very simple lesson while viewing a related picture online or they can opt for the print version and read the lesson themselves. English learners and special ed students would benefit from listening and following along with the written versions. Quizzes are available to check comprehension of the material presented. Topics include recycling, reuse, personal involvement in conservation, and hazardous waste disposal. The non-English language choices offered are less common, but this is an extremely useful site for adapting curriculum for ESL and special ed students.
In the Classroom: If you teach environmental issues or ESL, this is a good site to know about when planning a lessons. Make sure you have headphones available for students to listen without disturbing others. ESL and Special Ed teachers may want to make regular ed/science teachers aware of this site to include with their environmental units.
TeachersFirst provides these descriptions of ESL levels to help you think about what your student may be capable of doing in your class. These will also help in dialog with other teachers who work with this student. If you have an ESL/ELL specialist available for consultation, you may want to talk to him/her about where your students fit in this continuum.
This compilation of sites is a standard source for ESL and ELL teachers and contains links to whatever type of vocabulary enrichment activity you might be looking for. Although this site is “plain vanilla” and not high-tech, it has been around for a long time and offers a comprehensive list of sites to use with ESL and ELL students. English/language arts teachers will also find the vocabulary development options helpful for any student, especially those who may need extra learning support.
Be sure to check out "What's New" for recent additions. Go to "Main Page" and try the search box; it's a good place to try to find the links you remember from awhile back but have lost track of.
In the Classroom: Provide this link on your class website. Use this site for vocabulary ideas with your ESL and ELL students AND in your world language classes or mainstream language arts classes. The variety at this site offers something for every classroom learning English or another language.
Developed by Kenneth Beare of ESL at about.com, this site is a welcome addition to the ESL and ELL world. The site offers a wide variety of activities that focus on language learning using real tasks instead of text books and grammar exercises. The site has interactive listening and vocabulary activities. A current lecture podcast allows students to listen as much as they like before proceeding to a quiz or questions. There are new podcasts once every two weeks. Students can also write responses to the piece they heard. Other interesting activities include looking at photos and selecting the sentence which best describes the site, writing practice, lessons based on Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Splashcast episodes describing a new technological item.
Preview any podcasts and/or videos before sharing them with your class. Some topics may be inappropriate for younger grades. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Save this site on your favorites on your classroom computer or on your teacher web page for ESL and ELL students to access from anywhere. Remind them to check back often for new activities and lectures.
Have your ESL or ELL students create their own videos or podcasts about current events. Use a site like TeacherTube (explained here), to record and share your videos.
This site allows teachers to make their own practice worksheets in D'Nealian, Zaner-Bloser style, or cursive form. . Each prints out with the full word, a dotted word, and blank lines. Create your own word lists for children to practice or use some created and submitted by other teachers. The site also provides alphabet practice and a management tool for you to save your completed worksheets. This website is quick and simple to use. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at this website.
In the Classroom: Use the cursive option with even your advanced level ESL and ELL students, some of whom have only learned to write English by printing. With ESL and ELL students, combine writing practice with survival word lists, such as colors, numbers, days of the week, months of the year etc. Use this for extra practice for your students learning to print or learning cursive. Although this site was created for ESL and ELL students, it would be useful in any elementary classroom learning printing, cursive writing, or even spelling words. For kinesthetic practice with any students, project the worksheet on an interactive whiteboard for use with a finger as a “pencil.” Children with special needs will find this kinesthetic option very helpful and engaging.
This website provides a large collection of short stories selected for beginning and advanced beginning ESL students. The subject matter of many stories is not appropriate for younger students. Some include topics you would find in newspaper articles, and some deal with dating. Preview! The website allows you to read the story yourself or click on the speaker icon to hear the story read aloud. The site could also be used to provide extra reading and reading/listening for struggling readers. There are also an online dictionary, numerous follow-up activities to check comprehension, and crossword puzzles. The questions and other review activities provide immediate feedback. This website requires RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Share these activities with individual students as an assignment or independent practice on your classroom computer and as a link from your web site. The reading and activities are easy to work on independently because of the listening feature and the available dictionary. Don't forget to provide headphones. Provide this link for the families of ESL/ELL students to read (or listen) to the stories together.
This site offers grammar practice, exams and quizzes, worksheets, and more for learning ESL. Spellings and vocabulary are British. Drag the words to match a picture in the vocabulary exercises. Submit a request for new ESL exercises on the Wish List. NOTE: the ESL forums provide an opportunity for students to use new English knowledge, but they may not include topics you wish to make available in the classroom. PREVIEW first. Requires JAVA: Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use the listings on this site to find review and extra practice for your ESL students. Make the specific activities available on your classroom computer.
This complete unit gives ESL/ELL students get an opportunity to create (write and draw) a new comic character for the Grammarman comic series. (See TeachersFirst’s review of the broader Grammarman web site for other activities that may require less time). Students are able to research the history of comics, drawing, manga, super heroes, character development, and more. Throughout the webquest, students can check out what other students have created. After going through the 8 stages of the webquest, reading, writing, and drawing, your students can submit the finished product to the student pages so others can enjoy their creation. Notes for teachers summarize each of the 8 steps and make suggestions about how to use this webquest in a shorter time period. Eager comic creators who aren't ESL/ELL students will also enjoy a modified version of this quest. This website requires FLASH. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Share this webquest on laptops or a classroom computer cluster for students to accomplish the “quest.” Use this project in an ESL/ELL class as a cumulative review of each student's specific grammar problem. Pair ESL students with a native speaker to work on the research and drawing. This creative activity is sure to excite ESL/ELL students and native English speakers.
This is a handy compilation site for ESL activities arranged by subject and level. The Listening 1 and Pre-reading sites are especially helpful for low level ESL/ELL students. The site focuses on the needs of newly arrived English learners. Subjects covered include listening, reading, grammar, writing, and games.This site requires Flash, Shockwave, and a media player. Get Them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use this site with newly-arrived ESL/ELL students in your regular classes. The listening offerings in particular give them an alternative voice to hear and also allow them to become familiar with computer use. Make this link available on your classroom computer for use as an adapted activity during language arts time or as an on-demand activity for your ELL students. Be sure to make the link available from your teacher web page for others working with these students to access, as well.
ESL Podcards is a unique ESL site, offering downloadable MP3 audio files (for mp3 player, computer listening, or burning to CD)at two levels about locations in a variety of countries. Each lesson shows a pictures of a postcard from one of the featured regions. Users can select to listen, use an accompanying worksheet, read the tapescript, or download the material for later use. New locations appear frequently on the site. At the time of this writing, it contains mostly material in the UK and South Africa. The speaker has a British accent, but his voice is clear and understandable. There is a separate section on the site where students can listen to the pronunciation of irregular verbs. This site, if using the computer for listening, requires Quicktime or Windows Media PLayer to play the MP3 files. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use the advanced organizer questions to build listening comprehension and understanding of idioms as student listen for expressions with a specific meaning. Incorporate the listening activities as part of your study of the UK or Africa in world geography. Share this link on your classroom computer or cluster for extra listening practice for ESL students. Encourage students to create their own location mini-descriptions of spots from their town or country and record them as podcasts you can post on your class web page or wiki. Better yet, use these as a model for student-created "podcards" on places students research in geography class.
This site offers words and audio clips from songs helpful in teaching ESL. Categories include teaching conversational skills, teaching grammar, and teaching children through songs. Note: you will have to "learn" the song from the clip, a small portion of the entire song. You can download songs ( for a fee), but the clips should be enough to get you started. Links offer further song categories including alphabet songs, holidays and rap! The audio clips require the Quicktime plug in. Although the site has links to purchase books, this is not necessarily a negative feature for teachers who have been searching for ESL songbooks for their classroom.
In the Classroom: Use ESL songs from books written by ESL specialists! Use links provided for using songs in the regular classroom, too.
Follow the simple suggestions at the end of each set of lyrics for ways to do the activity with your students.
Read the national TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of other languages) standards for ESL. Of particular interest are the Sample Progress Indicators and scenarios that decribe differeing levels of proficiency for ESL/ELL students you may find in your classroom. THIS SITE OPENS SLOWLY Please be patient. TeachersFirst has more information on how you may want to use ESL/ELL levels and tips for working with these students.
This lesson plan provides a way to encourage cultural awareness and make your ESL students' knowledge of their home culture a classroom asset. The lesson can be done in an all-ESL/ELL class or in a regular class as part of an investigation of cultures, part of a unit on research, or as an art lesson. It can also be adapted for use in a high school level world cultures class.
This is a venerable (well, since 1995 anyway) online journal for ESL teachers. The various editions include articles, activities, and projects for ESL teachers and students. Importantly, back issues are archived on-line, creating an extensive resource for ESL teachers.
Nice collection of teacher-created interactive tests, quizzes, exercises and puzzles, spanning multiple skill levels and topics. Includes crossword puzzles to be done online for all ESL levels and by word-type or subject (Ex. Thanksgiving words).
This site is an excellent way to help ESL and ELL students improve reading and comprehension skills using short passages of different kinds of reading. The site includes signs, multiple choice, true-false for details, questions on getting the "gist" of a reading, matching questions, and gap (fill-in) questions. This site is excellent for reading comprehension in the regular classroom too! Students select a "set" which contains a short sampling of each kind of question. Once they answer, they get immediate feedback.
In the Classroom: Since the subtitle for this page is "Reading Comprehension and Test Preparation," recommend this site to ESL and ELL students preparing for standardized tests. Save it in your favorites on class computers and provide the link on your class website for students to access both in the classroom and out. The activities would also work well on interactive whiteboard.
Share the “Signs” link with your students. Challenge students to create their own signs, similar to those used at this site. Have cooperative learning groups create interactive posters featuring their signs using a tool such as (PicLits - explained here). Share the “PicLits” on an interactive whiteboard or projector.
This ESL and ELL site offers grammar review of over 50 topics, available with a quick glance at the opening page. Although the lessons are not visually interactive, audio is provided. The site is a good source for reviewing weaknesses and getting some extra practice. Many of the lessons have the title of the lesson in four other languages so the students will know quickly what they are studying.
Although this site was created for ESL and ELL students, much of the information would be useful in any classroom learning about pronouns, tenses, irregular verbs, and other grammar rules. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Save this site in your favorites for ESL and ELL students to use when they ask for grammar help or need a follow up on something in class. They will also find it useful when preparing for TOEFL and similar college entry tests. Special ed teachers may want to use this auditory approach to help their students with grammar, as well.
This site features podcasts on subject areas of interest to ESL and ELL students and their instructors. Since August 2007, all material is also available as videos. The material presented features teaching techniques, information on new available technologies that assist students with schoolwork and language learning, and grammar and other communication techniques. Although this site was created for ESL/ELL students, it would also be useful for any students learning grammar.. All podcasts include text of the spoken or video materials. The focus for these lessons is on acquiring more vocabulary and improving oral and reading comprehension. Some of the videos come from YouTube. If your school blocks YouTube, consider accessing this site and choosing videos at home, using a tool such as Vixy (explained here) to bring them in for class use.
This site does have several appropriate advertisements. There are also a few questionable links on the site (for example, “Uncensored English”), so be sure to supervise WELL. This site requires Quicktime, Adobe Acrobat, and Flash. Get them all from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: You will need headphones or speakers if you choose to assign students to listen to the podcasts individually. This site is excellent for enrichment or special topics. Include it on your teacher web page (with a disclaimer regarding content) for students to access both in and out of class.
Use this site with intermediate and advanced level ELL and ESL students to help them improve their knowledge of English slang and idioms. If you are into video, consider creating your own student vodcasts about idioms and sharing them via TeacherTube ( reviewed here) and on your class wiki.
This free practice link offers ESL and ELL students idioms, collocations, and phrasal verbs presented in context. The specific topics are “Day to Day,” “Workplace,” “Getting Personal,” and “Idiomania.” The latter, a special idioms-in-the-news section, would be useful for any language arts class, not just ELL. There is also one free topic available, a short reading with a variety of follow up exercises (see the Free Topic link). In addition to the "free" information, on the opening page ( English Gateway ) there is a daily article of current interest with interesting links to other information about the topic. Be sure to preview any material; some is not suitable for younger students. The website also includes a blog for ESL and ELL teachers. Be aware, some of the other material available on this website requires a fee.
In the Classroom: Mark this site in your Favorites for extra practice for your ESL and ELL students. Have them make similar collocations with idioms and phrasal verbs they encounter and compile them into an ESL and ELL idiom dictionary–-maybe on a wiki!
English for AllGrade 7 to 12
- US Department of Education- 8818
This multimedia online program allows teachers to set up English classes for ESL/ELL students from all language groups. The website includes online stories, accompanying print materials, videos, and optional videos and CDs for purchase. Teachers can set up this FREE program (including 20 lessons) for unlimited classes. Each lesson has vocabulary, a video, support work, listening requirements, grammar, and a test. Students go through a series of activities; results are reported back to the teacher. Videos are available as downloads or podcasts. Teacher guides are provided. This site requires Flash and Quicktime. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Be sure to take advantage of this FREE website to help your ESL/ELL students improve their English. For older students, this program can help them prepare for the world of work. Some parents of ESL/ELL students may even appreciate the resource for their own learning. ESL teachers may want to share the site at an open house or conferences as a non-invasive way of drawing parents into the process.
This ESL site uses cute graphics to illustrate a variety of feelings. Users can view them online or print them out as flash cards. Genki's commentary adds suggestions of how to use the cards. An accompanying song file (RIGHT-click and Save Target As to download onto your computer) and lyrics spice up the lesson. There are also illustrative photos of a Japanese elementary class using hand gestures to reinforce the lesson. A free online game allows users to click on graphics when they hear the description of a feeling, such as, "I'm sad." Although the page itself advertises products, enough of the offerings are free to make this a worthwhile beginning-level ESL/ELL, speech/language, or emotional support lesson. This site requires Shockwave. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share the activities on a computer cluster or interactive whiteboard with a group or a single computer with one or two students. Special Ed teachers may find the musical activity helps some students respond where they are usually more distant. For more lessons with illustrated gestures, flash cards, teaching suggestions, and songs for ESL students, scroll down to the bottom of this long page.
Originally written for ESL students to practice language skills, these interactive quizzes are very useful for allowing all levels of students to test their skills online in a nonthreatening way. These interactive quizzes seem to touch on all bases from business English to grammar to vocabulary (including idioms), making them great for either pretesting, practice or review. They also allow the teacher to individualize what students need from a variety of choices.
In the Classroom: Assign individual or mini-lesson practice on laptops or a computer cluster in your classroom after grading writing assignments or while studying grammar. Learning support and ESL teachers will also like the extra practice options to help students with grammar skills and idioms. Since there is no "scoring" function, you may want students to raise hands and SHOW you how they did as they complete activities.
This index to short ESL lessons and resources in three levels provides material for quick review of grammar, reading, and special-topic classroom activities. Some contain photographs that clarify the questions or provide conversational stimulation. HAndouts are in PDF format and are well prepared. Many have cloze passages or similar activities to reinforce vocabulary. Special ed teachers seeking materials to reinforce basics will find some activities helpful, as well. Note: At certain busy times of the day, this site opens slowly. Be patient.
In the Classroom: Find reinforcement and review activities quickly. For a multi-level classroom containing some ESL students, use these plans with your regular lessons to provide extra help.
This is an excellent, frequently updated collection of links especially appropriate for ESL/ELL learners and instructors. The site's creator is a teacher himself. We do not usually list "hotlists" of links, but these are quite helpful for ESL teachers or those with ESL students in their classroom. Check here if you're looking for help with a specific language learning need or some new way to present standard materials.
The teacher section include links categorized by native language so you can individualize your approach with different language learners.
In the Classroom: Mark this one in your Favorites as a valuable reference.
This bi-monthly magazine for ELL professionals in K – 12 is especially good for newer teachers; it contains classroom techniques as well as pertinent news. Past issues are archived. Format is straightforward: mainly text reading but content is academic and addresses the latest issues, concerns, techniques, and political/news events that affect ESL teaching.
In the Classroom: A professional resource for ESL/ELL instructors or those with ESL/ELL students.
Teaching ESL./ELL students in your regular classroom can be a challenge. You feel great empathy for the children who enter your room, bewildered, but you have the rest of the class to think of, too. TeachersFirst offers these Top Ten Tips for Teachers working with ESL/ELL students to help you find appropriate ways to differentiate instruction and make minor adjustments for the individual student and maximize the benefit of having these new students in the class.
This lesson plan provides prompts for collaborative student mystery writing at the high beginning ESL level. Options include individual writing of an original mystery and also illustrating the mystery with hand or computer assisted drawing. Links offer other exciting reading/writing opportunities that span the academic curriculum including decoding, invisible writing, and science treasure hunts.
In the Classroom: Although designed for ESL/ELL students, you could pair English-speaking students with ESL students to do this activity, forging positive relationships. You could also have students work with others in a different classroom or location using ideas from this site.
Adapt your existing lesson plans using these simple strategies to help ESL students. Click on the activity type you have planned and find suggestions and resources to help your ESL/ELL students be successful with the lesson. Some of the same strategies may help with students with IEPs for speech and language or learning support.
In the Classroom: Share this one with your colleagues who also have ESL/ELL students.
A story in 10 serial units for ESL students leads a newcomer to Canada and the English-speaking world through the agonies of arrival, acculturation, education in a new setting, and making friends. Text offers vocabulary definition through hyperlinks; audio version is available with a Shockwave plugin. (Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.) Besides the story, vocabulary, and pronunciation, sets of comprehension questions include work on word meanings and online reviews and quizzes which make use of standard reading attack skills. The stories are available in PDF downloads as well as on screen at the left. Audio files are available for MP3 downloads also.
In the Classroom: Use the stoies for ESl students to increase understanding or for your weak readers to develop reading strategies such as vocabulary development and comprehension. MP3 files offer the option of putting the stories on MP3 players for ESL students to listen to on the bus or at home.
This website, targeted for ESL and ELL students, offers extensive resources and activities. At the top is a great vocabulary section. Click on a topic to get words within the topic (such as weather, verbs, tools, everyday items, things with the letter “B,” and others). One click lets the student hear the word pronounced by a male, another click and a female voice will pronounce the same word. Many categories contain quizzes too. Other parts of the page include links to excellent sites such as online newspapers, the text and reading of Keats' The Snowy Day , web exercises, and many others. The links are roughly organized by categories such as grammar, listening, reading, general ESL, video, testing support, speaking, writing, etc. If there's been an ESL or ELL site you've used and lost, you can rediscover it here.
The site does have some advertisements, most of which relate to the topic and are not distracting from the content. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use the vocabulary section to reinforce very basic vocabulary with ELL and ELL students in your class. It's great for them to hear several people pronouncing each word. Share this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students work with a partner to try the activities (don’t forget the headsets).
This site converts text to speech. Students or teachers can choose which voice they'd like to hear read the text. As they listen to the oral version of whatever they've pasted into the box, keywords for the text appear in a box below the play button. Select to keep your new oral files private or make them public, using the podcast library option. Download files to an MP3 player or wav file. Students can also convert and listen to files in Spanish, French, and German, all with a variety of readers. Registration for the service is simple and free. A useful option for ESL and ELL students is the ability to control the speed of the speech being read.
This site requires registration (with an email address and user name). The registration page says that the site is available “by invitation only,” however our reviewers found that we were able to register. This site requires Windows Media Player. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this site to tape read-alongs for reluctant readers, ESL, or ELL students. This site is especially useful for ESL, ELL, speech, world language, and special education classrooms. Have your students use initials or assign logical pseudonyms (Ex. MsGper2-12, MsGper2-13, etc.) for their user names. Keep your own record of their user names and passwords for accountability in case there are any problems. Make this site available on classroom computers with ear phones for any time students want to hear something read.
This site features news stories and articles of general interest in simpler language. Text scripts of the news features appear on the screen as students open the page. Most of these news articles offer streaming audio for listening as students follow the text.The general interest articles range in topic from science and technology to global culture to studying in America. There are minor advertisements at this website. The news is available using RealAudio. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Ask intermediate to upper level ESL and ELL students to research, write, and record a podcast of similar news. Poll students to find out which words in the broadcast are difficult for them, and assign a few words to each student to look up and explain. Ask ESL and ELL students to share similar stories from their home cultures. Learning support teachers will want to share these easy-to-understand news stories for their students’ weekly current events “articles.”
This site offers audible everyday conversations with adult and children’s voices for ESL/ELL students. There are three levels of difficulty. Each story (conversation) includes before, during, and after listening information. Note: some content, such as “Dating Woes,” “The Ideal Woman,” and “Personal Problems" may not be appropriate for younger students. Preview! There are some small Google ads, but they are not objectionable. This site requires Windows Media Player or Real Media and Acrobat Reader. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Consider using some of the listening exercises to help all students learn to become better listeners or to discuss the concept of "main idea.” Turn up your speakers (and use a projector to display the "quiz script," if you wish) to share the stories and questions or assign stories for student listening in a center. Use the follow-up questions to assess listening skills.
Be sure to follow your school district’s guidelines for students posting information online if they will be responding to the blog feature on this site.
This dynamic site offers a blog-style newspaper for ESL/ELL students and could also be used in other academic areas. The daily entries follow the same basic format: "Quote of the Day," "This Day in History," "Article of the Day," "Comic Creators,” "Cooking State," "Match Up," “Museum Town,” and “Caption Central.” All change daily! “Today’s English Lesson” changes on weekdays. Like a newspaper, teachers and students can read a single feature or the entire sheet. Interspersed with the information are grammar reminders and practical applications. For foreign language students and beginning language learners, there is an option to translate the page into Korean, French, German, Italian, Portuguese,Spanish, Japanese, simplified Chinese and even Arabic!
In the Classroom: Project this on your whiteboard at the start of your lesson as students enter or to wrap up the final five minutes with interesting clips from history, quotes, ESL in music etc. Encourage your students to try a new vocabulary word each day on their own. If your students have Internet access outside of class (even in study hall), require a weekly current events response for writing practice--perhaps on a class blog?
This is an excellent, well-organized compilation site of links to the various language skills for ESL/ELL learners: grammar, listening comprehension, vocabulary, reading, general learning skills and tips. Many of the links are internal, that is, created by the Zozanga project. Others are carefully selected; the presentation indicates care in formatting and precision in meeting the needs of students. Many skills include an ESL/ELL level. A list of English grammar skills makes it easy to find the specific skill your student needs.
In the Classroom: Use this site to find extra practice for ESL/ELL students in the regular classroom, especially as specific needs show up in regaular assignments. Many of the language learning tips can be used by teachers of other languages, as well.
Visual ESLGrade 1 to 8
- Learn English Vocabulary Visually- 8752
Visual ESL has created quite a selection of engaging drag and drop vocabulary lessons and quizzes. For example, the "Basic Verb" lesson uses stick figures jumping, punching, running etc to illustrate the verbs. Users drag the correct label to a box beneath the figure. The offerings in the drag and drop section are much more interesting than the grammar section which is text only. There is a wide range of game selections. They include fill ins and grammar illustrated with cartoons. There are advertisements on the site (text links).
In the Classroom: This is a good site for ESL students who are more visual learners to practice concepts. Special Ed teachers may find some games helpful for vocabulary development and basic grammar, as well. Many of the drag and drops would work well on an interactive whiteboard or as a learning center on a single classroom computer.
firstfind.infoGrade 3 to 8
- Westchester Library System- 8660
This site offers a quick way to find basic information on many topics written in very simple English. There are 9 major topic areas which users can choose from and each area has a variety of inside divisions. Of particular interest to K-12 students would be Government, History, Travel (includes maps), and Health. Especially useful for ESL students are the online magazines written in simplified language and the dictionary link.
In the Classroom: Suggest this site to your students from other countries when they are assigned a research project. Keep this one in Favorites on your teacher web page or classroom computers for ESL students to use the Dictionary or find simplified information on your government, history and health lessons. Special Ed teachers with students of low reading ability can also find adapted resources here.
This site combines current-sounding songs, a chance to listen to music, lyrics in print, and choices to click on exactly what students hear. Scores show up immediately to reinforce correct answers. Students can try that selection again or go on to another song. Although consumers can purchase the songs for an MP3 player, the complete song plays from the site. ESL/ELL students enjoy song lyrics and show marked improvement in accent development and vocabulary enhancement, so this site is ideal.
In the Classroom: Refer your middle and high school ESL students to this site as a link from your home page or favorites. Pair one ESL student with a native speaker of English to select the correct words to the song.
This UK-produced site offers free reading materials at six levels from beginning through advanced ESL/ELL learners. The collection is not extensive, but it is useful. Each reading has a level rating as well as links to the original work if an adaptation. The readings are divided into categories such as ghost stories, comic stories, and adventures. Most readings have accompanying exercises and plenty of interesting illustrations to keep motivation high and promote previewing skills. An added bonus is a selection of readings about world football (known as soccer in America).The children's stories include some favorite fairy tales. The fastest way to find stories is to use the site map to browse the list of offerings.
In the Classroom: Some of these reading would work well for general comprehension activities, as well. Use the Before Reading and Glossary sections to introduce vocabulary. Share a story on an interactive whiteboard (or overhead transperancies if you do not have a whiteboard)to have your ESL/ELL or reading students use pens or whiteboard highlighting and annotations to show where they find important facts, new vocabulary, and main ideas. Use color coding!
This site has many games available for downloading including card games, board games, and Valentine’s Day bingo. Children learn vocabulary and have fun while manipulating the various versions of memory cards, Go Fish, and other traditional children’s past times. Downloads include colorfully illustrated cards and game parts as well as instructions. Links include more goodies: worksheets, songs, and flashcards. At certain times of the day this site can be slow in loading. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Download the games and laminate the materials or send them home for parents and children to do together. Speech and language teachers as well as ESL/ELL teachers will love the free games-to-go!
Designed especially for the limited English speaker, this easy-to-use dictionary contains definitions in simple language ESL learners can understand, and each word is used in a sentence. Other features include pronunciation, synonyms, part of speech, word of the day, and activities; browsing and advanced search options are also available.
In the Classroom: A great dictionary to bookmark for your ESL learners on your classroom computer for handy reference anytime.
Here's a site with resources specifically for ESL students. The concentration is on building fluency in English using a variety of conversational and reading strategies. There are also links to a number of other ESL resources. Some of the material is designed for adult learners, but could be adapted for secondary students.
This site features interactive ESL and ELL lessons to go with popular movies and TV commercials. The activity formats include matching and cloze passages. The lessons are divided by "Easier," "More Challenging," or "Most Challenging." Two types of lessons include vocabulary previews and "fill-in-the-blank cloze" of the movie dialog which appears while the movie or TV clip is playing. The site is growing, with more commercials and films appearing regularly.
There is also a supplementary section in WORD which contains discussion questions for the movies. Some of the clips require QuickTime and/or Flash. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this site (and the activities) on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Print the list of vocabulary words and have students keep the list with them at their seats while they view the video (or listen to the audio). ESL and ELL students will benefit from the ability to re-watch the video clips and hear the dialog several times. Learning support students will also benefit from the comprehension check and vocabulary development. Although all material appeared appropriate, you may want to preview any video or audio you plan to share, to avoid any “surprises.”
This site, created especially for children who need to understand information collected during the census, offers five main areas: State Facts for Students, Program Overview, Teaching Materials (K-adult), Reference Materials, and Highlights. The state pages include a generalized lesson plan and pertinent information for each state. The City map section under reference materials is especially interesting as it shows city growth from 1790 to 2000, although the information is a bit slow to load since it's in PDF format. The teaching materials section includes activities and downloadable, printable census kits for classroom use from kindergarten students to adults. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this page when studying various states; students can make a quick comparison between targeted states with the facts ready to read all on one or two pages. If you teach data anysis and graphing in your math class, this data provides real world information for students to use in math exercises, spreadsheets, and graphs. You could even use it in Google Docs spreadsheets (reviewed here
If you have ESL and ELL students, check out the special ESL pages found under the teaching materials section. The easy to read materials include glossaries, exercises, and excellent maps, perfect for geography lessons.
Modern LanguagesGrade 8 to 12
- Learning Space Open University- 9659
This site offers free courses with a great deal of depth on topics featuring modern European languages and English. It is a not a site for beginning language learners or low-level ESL and ELL students. Courses explore language topics, mostly with textual readings. Some of the featured units follow language textbooks. In addition to language topics, there are several offerings in business English. Students can choose what to study in a variety of ways: by topic, time of course, and course number or code.
You can put this in your RSS reader. Some of the activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Introduce your AP language and world culture students to the materials on this site. Gifted students or those seeking independent language study could also use these courses.Older ESL and ELL students interested in business careers may also find it useful.
This is an interesting set of scenarios, mostly written in murder mystery format, by ESL and ELL students in Taiwan. Very little editing was done to the scenarios, so you may notice some grammatical and spelling errors. Be sure to preview whichever of these scenarios you want to use to be sure they are appropriate for your students (although most of them are fine). Most of the scenarios are available in either WORD or PDF versions. If you need Adobe Acrobat, you can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: The murder mystery set-up is always a hit with students and provides both acting practice as well as revision skills since some of the writing needs work due to the nature of being written by ESL and ELL students. Have students prepare and perform the scenarios for each other, having the rest of the class act as the audience, guessing the answer to the mystery.
This clever, creative, and entertaining resource is a must for elementary science classroom! Click to enter the Room 26: Kids or the Teachers' Lounge. Kids from all over the world can learn oodles from this Canadian ecology site. Teachers will find a trove of information and instructional materials as well. You will appreciate the Earth Day activities and information. There are also numerous educational interactives highlighting the food chain, bugs, animal adaptations, acid rain, transportation, and other topics. Students can participate in interactive stories; play and learn with more than 50 ecology-based on-line games and activities; learn about a variety of topics including wildlife, energy, and environment issues; and print out word games or coloring sheets.
Be aware: recently, this site started to offer certain features of the Teacher's Lounge to "members only." Membership is FREE, but does require an email address. The link for students does NOT require membership to access the interactives, information, or printables. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: There is SO much to look at and explore, so browse through the offerings, create a plan for your students based on their age and ability level, then mark the site as a favorite on classroom computers. Upper elementary students can use it as an independent learning center. Younger children may need help with some of the text, so consider using an interactive whiteboard or projector and exploring the activities as a class. Click on “Downloads” on the bottom left to find printables, including coloring sheets of Canadian wildlife and various ecology-related worksheets and lesson plans. Click on the ‘games and activities’ tab and use the interactive whiteboard or projector for whole class eco-minded fun. ESL and ELL teachers, don’t miss the ‘teacher’ section for a cache of activities written for your ELL/ESL students.
Interested students will use this one for hours, so some directions will be important for classroom use.
ESL PodcastsGrade 5 to 12
- Internet TESL Journal- 9192
This site offers a continually updated variety of podcasts on news subjects at a level appropriate for ESL and ELL students. A short description tells the subject of the podcast as well as other extras like quizzes, speakers, and creators or originators. Students and teachers can listen from the Internet or download to an MP3 player or local computer. A "Read the Web Page" link takes viewers to the news article or other special feature mentioned in the broadcast. Be certain to preview the podcasts that you plan to use in your class. Some are not appropriate for elementary students and young adolescents. This website requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use this page to listen to current events news in simple English. Play them on your speakers for an entire class or provide headphones for individual listening. Have the students try to write the main points of the podcast they listen to and then check their listening against the webpage with the original article. Special education teachers may want to use this resource as an adapted way for students to read and submit weekly current events articles. Mark this site as a favorite on your classroom computer so students can use it during their free time with headphones. Share the link on your teacher web pages for parents and students to access quickly from home, but be sure to suggest that parents of younger students monitor the topics for appropriateness.
This “text to speech” service is a rare find and highly useful in ESL, ELL, and world language classrooms. This site is also ideal for students with limited hearing. The website offers two main options: Text to Speech and Text to Speech Translator. At the Text to Speech link, phrases or short stories can be typed into the text box. Space is limited, so the stories cannot be long. Then you can choose among countless avatar voices (in U.S., Australian, or British English accents). Turn up the volume, and listen to your text. At the Translator link, you are able to type in any phrase or story to translate the words from one language to another. This site offers a great variety of world languages (European and Asian) including English, Chinese, Greek, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Polish, and many others. You can even select from a variety of speakers for each language group so that different dialects and areas are covered. For example, Chinese is offered in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. a>
In the Classroom: Type or copy and paste what you'd like to hear into Oddcast's box. Listen to American and British English accents with your ESL and ELL students and ask them to note specific pronunciation differences. Use this as a survival translator when a non-English speaking student arrives in your classroom! Open the site, type in what you need to tell the student, and translate aloud to his/her language during those desperate moments when acting it out simply does not work! This site is also useful in nearly all world language classrooms Show students how to use the site, then share it as a link on your teacher web page for them to use when practicing at home or outside of class. Why not assign students to learn several “homework” phrases on their own each week, assuming they have access to computers at home or during study times at school. Mark this site on your teacher web page for your ESL/ELL students to hear something read or pronounced both in an outside of class.
This online dictionary claims to correct misspelled entries, so ESL and ELL students might want to try it. The spelling correction is a bit quirky, however, often suggesting an alternate word that is NOT the intended word. Students can download it to any web browser including those on cell phones. The dictionary itself is extensive; each item shows a series of definitions. Students can then click to see the word used in a sentence, synonyms, and related terms. There is also information on homonyms. Finally, definitions sometimes include a link to more information on the subject, including links to outside sources. The site can translate to and from German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Dutch. Note that there are Google ads on the page, so you will want to be sure that students know to avoid these. The necessary plug-ins for installation on other web browsers are included on the web page.
In the Classroom: Mark his site as a favorite on your classroom computer for ESL and ELL students who have problems looking up words in the dictionary. Make a game with this site: have students deliberately misspell words and see what they come up with. Give prizes to those who can find the worst guesses in the dictionary. Have them calculate how many times the dictionary actually finds the words they were looking for. This will help students understand how important context clues and contextual “does this make sense” strategies are. Students can also opt to sign up for "word of the second."
This teaching site has a variety of short readings at various levels that could be useful in an ESL, ELL, special education, or regular ed classroom. Some of the topics include sentences with grammar errors, students must figure out what is wrong with each sentence. This is excellent practice for any student learning proper grammar. True/ false comprehension questions follow the reading in most cases. Most of the answers are provided at the bottom of the website – so don’t scroll too quickly. Before the reading begins, students can study difficult vocabulary words presented in an attractive format. There are full units (with many mini-lessons): grammar, reading, vocabulary, listening, pronunciation, and writing. This site does have unobtrusive advertisements, but watch out for the audio announcements when you open the site. Some of the listening activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use this site if you want your students to do additional reading. Project the topic, story, and questions on an interactive whiteboard or projector for group discussion. Have your students make up their own questions to go with the site. Have your students write up a similar subject relevant to their own culture and present it, along with questions to check for comprehension. This is a fabulous site to list on your class website for students to use for at-home practice.
This English language site is great to use for in-context vocabulary acquisition for ELL and ESL students. The site has twenty-five general topics with banks of commonly used words and examples of how they are used in different situations, phrases, and idioms. Some of the topics include weather, telling the time, lies, cars, trips, letters, vacations, Christmas, and numerous others. Definitions and pronunciation (British) of some of the expressions are provided. There are also examples of the expressions used in a variety of sentences. After taking a look at the definition/pronunciation page, students can select a variety of checkups, including drag and drop, true/false, and fill in the blank. This site requires Media Player or Quicktime. You can get this plug-in from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Check this page to see if any of the general topics has relevance to your lessons. Students can work on their own to increase their vocabulary knowledge of specific expressions used containing the topic focus word. For example, at Christmas time, ESL and ELL students can add to their cultural knowledge as well as language usage by using the Christmas pages.
In this sequenced reading/writing activity, students choose one of three partial sentences to begin a story. After the page changes, they choose the next sentence part to keep the story going and to keep the sentence grammatically correct. When they make a correct choice, the story shows up in the box below. Many of the sentences in the finished stories are grammatically complex, so only upper intermediate and advanced level ESL or ELL students would benefit from this site. Fortunately, the stories indicate levels of difficulty. In addition to stories, there are Aesop's Fables, poems, and nursery rhymes.. Some activities which include alphabetization, learning days of the week, and using numbers still require reading skills.
In the Classroom: Refer your older, upper-level ESL and ELL students to this site for extra grammar practice that doesn't look like grammar! Use this site as a complement to reading stories using sentence strips. ESL and ELL students may find the "verbs which become irregular" section useful to review irregular verb forms.
Check this site for things you need to help for ESL/ELL students. You will find lesson plans, reference links, grammar practice, reading comprehension work, tests, word lists for specific tests, vocabulary offerings, professional articles, and more. The site is easy to searchand well organized, present exercises and tests in a consistent and easy to read format. The "question bank" offers difficult grammar points in a poll format, with results constantly renewed; some answers are obviously wrong, but grammar, too, has its debatable points! With free membership registration, teachers get access to even more activities, exercises, quizzes, games, a newsletter, and more. NOTE: There is a Forum (bulletin board) feature on this site. If your school does not permit students to use such tools, be sure to spell out the consequences as you tell students to avoid that area.
In the Classroom: Regular classroom teachers will want to use this site with ESL and ELL students fwhen they need a quick review on a specific grammar point. Use the professional articles for your own edification as well as links to other topics of interest.
Although it describes itself as being "preschool" site, Kindersay is a great web site for primary readers, ESL/ELL students and special education students working on speech and language. This site offers simple, easy-to-use activities such as letter recognition and vocabulary. Each letter and vocabulary word has a corresponding video with correct pronunciation. The Favorites tab provides an opportunity to create differentiated instruction for each child. Registration is free!
In the Classroom: Add the link to a classroom homepage for center-time or for parents and children to practice at home. Use a different activity category each day or week with ESL/ELL or special ed students to build vocabulary. Then use a digital camera to create some pictures and sound files of your own for new categories using PowerPoint slides or the online "My Family" area.
This page provides a rationale for using field trips, web quests, and virtual visits as language teaching that sticks. By learning the language in connection with a real world experience, ESL/ELL students are highly motivated to learn, remember, and use it. Follow-up activities, such as response letters and reaction papers help reinforce the new words and experiences. The article include links to may sources of virtual field trips that will bring the real world into your ESL classroom. Don’t forget to use the TeachersFirst keyword search to find many more virtual field trip options.
In the Classroom: Use the rationale in this article to gain permission to take your students on REAL field trips. You can also use the many virtual field trip ideas for sharing on your interactive whiteboard or projector when you must stay “in house.”
This site allows students to practice pronunciation in 10 languages, including English, European languages, and Mandarin Chinese. After a free registration, you can put in a search term for lessons. It's a bit difficult to guess search items, so looking at the entire list in any given language is a good way to start. Currently, English has 298 items. You are also able to contribute lessons.
One helpful document is the Chuala inventory which allows instructors to quiz ESL students on their pronunciation by having them pronounce 144 distinct items. They can then search the lessons for practice, recording, and making comparisons on these phonemes.
Some of the lessons take the whole language approach and appear as dialogs, discussions, or Q and A. Most, however, have students practice distinct sounds only, with no context. One advantage of the program is that you can select lessons by distinct language area. For example, American English students can hear examples of American English rather than British English. You can also request that other lessons be created. This site requires Flash and enabled Javascript. Get Flash and directions on enabling Javascript from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Set ESL/ELL or speech/language students up with this site on a classroom computer cluster or in a lab to practice phonemes they can't hear or pronounce (see safety notice below). You MUST have a microphone or use a computer that has one built in. Use the inventory to make initial ESL/ELL evaluations as well as periodic progress checks. Students may like the site so much they'll want to practice at home.
This website could be very useful to French, Spanish, and German teachers (or teachers of other world languages). Use this site to learn new vocabulary and improve pronunciation of world languages.
Safety concern: This site requires FREE membership to use the audio tools and access content. Membership includes social networking tools, such as "friends" and "messages," and requires an email address. You may want to set up a single class account for in-school use, entering your "extra" email address to avoid unsafe use of the site by your adventurous students. If you KNOW how they are logging in (with your account), you can remove any friends or other unauthorized contacts. The problem with this approach is that you will not know which student has done what. If you do permit individual user accounts (according to your school's policies, of course), have parents and students sign an agreement that spells out permissible behavior and consequences -- and get your principal's OK!
This is a wonderful new "labor of love" resource for second language learners and ESL teachers created by an English teacher living in Spain. It includes the typical grammar lessons, flash cards, worksheets, phrasal verb practice, and idioms, but also less typical links to many video lessons and a few audio mp3's. Many of the sections have unique applications; for example, the vocabulary section has both online interactive practice and printable materials for the same lesson. The puzzles and games section includes a variety of printable worksheets. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: This is a good overall site you can rely on for a variety of ESL purposes. Use it to find lessons and review activities for your ESL students.
This site offers a wide variety of listening activities specifically for ESL students. The site is updated weekly with new interviews, games, news, talking points, and songs, all available for free. A huge audio archive stores items from previous weeks, months, and years. "Mixers" include opinions of several people. Students can listen to these short sessions, answer a main idea question and also see the transcript of the piece. Another feature allows users to see the transcript of interviews as they listen. There are quiz questions available after each interview. Video links connect users to offsite videos from a variety of courses; these are available with some articles and interviews.
Note: Teachers should PREVIEW content before using it in class or assigning it. Some slang and topics are not appropriate for younger students, though most of it is excellent. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. Downloads for mp3 players are available for free.
In the Classroom: Share chosen activities from this site on laptops or computers with headphones to build ESL/ ELL student confidence and listening skills. Some activities are well-suited for speech/language students to improve listening comprehension skills, as well.
This site offers many readable stories; short, long, and classic stories are available in full by clicking on the links on the opening page. There are also tools for using current events selections. A reading tool allows students to copy and paste a puzzling text into a box and get definitions from words in that text by clicking on the unknown words. For teachers, there are many "teaching reading" hints and links to lesson plans. Although the site focuses on ESL students, the variety and number of short stories makes it useful to all aspiring readers.
In the Classroom: Use the selections from this page to teach specific reading skills on an interactive whiteboard or for students to practice reading and language skills independently at a computer center or on laptops. If you allow students to select their own stories (ages are noted to help them find the appropriate level), they may be more interested in the story, as well.
Body PartsGrade K to 2
- Birmingham Grid for Learning- 8261
This site is a simple drag-and-drop activity that matches words with pictures for various body parts. It would be especially useful for ESL, speech and language students, and primary students in general. Clicking on the words and pictures provide audio as well as visual clues to encourage language development. Available in the following languages: Bengali, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Mirpuri and Urdu. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: This site would work well with an interactive whiteboard with a small group or individually at a computer to informally assess student knowledge or to help ESL/ speech ad language students students learn the names of body parts. Note that the pronunciations are British, so American students will need to listen carefully at first.
This site provides a basic lesson plan (with a link to a more detailed lesson plan) for students to work in groups to locate cardboard eggs hidden throughout the classroom. This lesson was originally designed for ESL or ELL students, but could be used in any language arts or foreign language class. The objective of the lesson is for students to describe (both orally and in writing) the precise locations of the eggs.
In the Classroom: This lesson is perfect for the ESL, ELL, or foreign language classes. Have students work with a partner and try this activity.
Read about the value of humor as a teaching tool, especially for ESL/ELL students. Using joking frequently is a way to say the same thing in a slightly different way. Students want to learn what is funny in the U.S. Humor varies from culture to culture and your ESL students want to know why certain things are funny so they can join in with the fun.
This site has suggestions for ways to convert classroom games to ensure that they’re not only fun but also promote language learning. ESL teachers cna use the games to help develop skills within their classes, as well.
Humor is a valuable teaching tool.This site has plenty of suggestions about how to make learning more fun, increase student involvement in activities, and use humor as part of daily/weekly lesson plans when you have ESL students in your class.
Learn about gestures from other cultures and share the discussion through this lesson plan as part of your language class or as an activity to help students communicate with ESL/ELL peers. Gestures can have VERY differnet meanings in other cultures, so this site is a must before any foreign language trips abroad!
Use this explanation of how to form questions in English to help your ESL/ELL students with basic skille they need in class and elsewhere. Be sure to show them where to click for pages 2 and 3 so they can practice forming questions.
In the Classroom: Marke this one in the Favroites on your classroom computer. You may even want to make a special folder with your ESL/ELL student's name within the Favorites so he/she can find sites to help with grammar practice. Younger students might enjoy working on these sites with a study buddy.
This helpful tool for all teachers with ESL students provides a template that allows instructors to write quizzes which can be either printed or used from a web page for students to take there. The online quizzes are scored immediately so the students benefit from immediate feedback. Examples of quizzes written by other instructors give teachers ideas of how to set up their quizzes. No knowledge of html is required.
In the Classroom: Write quick quizzes to help students review. This is also a great way to help with terminology for ESL students in a content-area subject such as Social Studies or Science. Once you make the quizzes, you have them forever. Consider dividng up the task by delegating different chapters among teachers who teach the same subject.
Part of "Interesting Things for ESL Students," this unadorned site changes daily and provides common slang (near the top of the page), idioms, or proverbs and definitions plus daily grammar quizzes. It also features an audio broadcast of a simplified news release backed up with archives (Click on links below Listening). Also available is a multilingual translating dictionary and access to three top search engines.
In the Classroom: Use this to beef up vocabulary, to explore culture through idioms and proverbs, and for listening and discussion practice in response to news reports. Great to fill in 5 – 10 minutes at the beginning or end of classes!
For the regular classroom teacher, this may provide an alternate way for ESL students to "study" current events. Be sure to mark it in Favorites on your classroom computer for these students to access (or place a shortcut on the desktop). Note: you need speakers for the audio!
This impressive collection of free printable worksheets, flashcards, puzzles, and lesson plans offers ESL teachers at all levels so many options for teaching vocabulary, conversational skills, "survival" English, and culture. You may have to poke around a bit to find what you need, but this is definitely a resource to bookmark.
Originally designed by teacher Carol O. Burleson for ESL students, this site contains lessons that are suitable for all students reading Scott O’Dell’s book. The Chapter Study Guide contains questions and vocabulary to enhance the student’s daily reading assignments. Research links are offered on topics relevant to a final project in which students can create a Power Point presentation, a shoebox museum, or a virtual museum. Teachers will find students can independently this website.
This site has the PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards in the Core Content Areas. Particularly helpful for classroom teachers are sections within the pdf document listed at the bottom of the page [click on Preview: PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards in the Core Content Areas (PDF)] It would be most helpful for you to print these out.
Page 15 which describes the 5 levels of proficiency for ESL students in public and private schools from preschool through high school. It also describes “Grade Level Clusters” for such students, as well as defining standards for the students in school and academic fields.
Pages 20 and 21 which have a chart of appropriate student abilities by language domain (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) in the 5 levels of proficiency.
Standards for 16 states including Washington DC can be found beginning on page 22. This document requires Acrobat Reader. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Forvo offers word pronunciations in a whopping 213 languages, with more words recorded every day. Besides common languages, there are a host of unusual and even rare and old languages whose words students can hear on the site: Lithuanian, Latin, Tibetan, Franco-Provencal, Walloon, and many others. Speakers of other languages may wish to contribute their own pronunciations for unusual words; all of the speakers on the site are native speakers! Words are organized by languages and also in 6 very general categories which include people, music, countries, etc. The site also includes Google Maps of the areas where the languages are spoken. Files are downloadable to mp3's and other types of recorders. But you can also listen to them directly online without downloading. Native speakers can also dispute recorded pronunciations and request for new languages to be added. There is free membership, but this is only needed if you wish to rate recordings or participate as a contributor.
In the Classroom: World language and ESL/ELL classes (using a whole class account) or individual students (if a specific school permits students to join sites) can maintain their own word lists with pronunciations. They can submit words to hear them pronounced by native speakers or pronounce them themselves. A teacher could submit words or assign students to explore and find a list of personal words to learn each week. Students can also compare pronunciations of the same word by several different speakers coming from different countries (Mexican Spanish vs. Spanish from Spain etc.). ESL students will no doubt enjoy disputing the pronunciation of words from their native languages! This is a perfect collaboration of geography and world language classes. Share the maps on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This site could also be useful as a learning center, for students to practice pronunciation. (Don’t forget the headsets!) List this link on your class website for students to use for at-home practice!
Although this site is constructed for students who are learning English, the language and the writing, it is a great site for all students who need practice in such skills as writing paragraphs, listening skills, word choice, reading strategies for academic texts, and reading for thinking. Almost all of the links include interactive exercises which allow students to work independently, testing themselves as they go. The site includes tutorials, self-quizzes, and more. There are links to podcasts, videos, songs, “Grammar Safaris,” and many other English topics. If you go to Internet Resources (the link is found at the top of the page), you will find addition subject areas: Business English, Science and Technology, Reading, Art, and others. There is also a link to Primary Level. Go there to find interactive flashcards, online stories, and printable pages, and much more.
Be sure to check out the videos, which include commercials from the 1960s! Many of the video and audio features require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This site has so much to offer, the possibilities are endless. Obviously, this site is handy with ESL and ELL students. But there is SO much here to explore for teachers of elementary (social studies or language arts), AND secondary teachers trying to reinforce grammar skills, connect history and writing, and more.
Share portions of this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. With primary students, set up learning stations. Have cooperative learning groups explore the site together. Have groups investigate a specific area of this site and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class: wiki, blog entry, podcast, online book, or video. Need some “technology tips?” How about having students create a podcast using Podomatic (reviewed here). Share the "student-created" videos on a tool such as TeacherTube (explained here). Have students write online books using a tool such as Tikatok, reviewed here.
This site includes FREE lessons in English and Spanish. Prospective English or Spanish learners start lessons with free registration. Registration is not required to USE the site, but it is required to track progress. When registering, an email address is optional. After registration, students can choose a course at the appropriate level. There are 3 in English and 3 in Spanish. Students can then choose the specific lessons and follow its specific activities in order for each featured topic. Learning activities include videos, transcripts for the video text, questions, listening, stories, vocabulary practice, writing exercises, quizzes, and even voice recordings for pronunciation practice. Although registration is not absolutely necessary, doing so allows students to keep a record of the activities they have already completed. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: What a fabulous site for ESL, ELL, learning support, and students learning Spanish! Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Share this site with Spanish students who do well at working on learning independently. ESL and ELL students will also benefit from going through the lessons, individually or in pairs. Teachers can register independently from their students and keep track of learner progress and participation. As students learn new vocabulary words, challenge cooperative learning groups to create an online book sharing their newfound vocabulary. Use a tool such as Tikatok (reviewed here).
Internet Polyglot offers language lessons for many languages, available both with the translation from English and also from Spanish. The English lessons also include items for “regular” English classes, such as SAT words. A “widget” to embed lessons in your web site or wiki is also available. You can even share many of the lessons on mobile devices, such as cell phones. Some of the languages include Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, German, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, French, Latin, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and numerous others. You can choose lessons to translate to and from any language (for example, Hebrew to Dutch or Japanese to Russian). Everything on the site is free, and there are many lessons for each language, categorized by usage. Most of the lessons start by having students learn vocabulary words: seeing them frequently on online-style pictorial flash cards, hearing them spoken, and then completing review activities using them. In addition to traditional language categories, students can also collect and create their own lessons, modifying lessons of others, and sharing what their friends are using. The site offers a free registration and log in which allows you to keep score results and create and modify your own materials. This site does have some unobtrusive advertisements.
In the Classroom: Spanish speaking ESL or ELL and foreign language students will find this site useful as the language lessons proceed from a Spanish language base. Foreign language teachers can offer this site to their students as a way to review and learn new vocabulary on certain topics. This is a great site for ESL and ELL students to collect vocabulary that they need to remember, with registration. Check school policies on site memberships for students before allowing them to join. If you or your students are adventurous, you can create and embed activities on your class wiki or web page.
This site offers a pronouncing picture dictionary arranged alphabetically. Students can click on letters of the alphabet to see a selection of pictures and hear the words pronounced. They can also select "Index" which leads to an entire listing (34 total lists) of the words offered. The site continues to add new content, including videos for learning English!
In the Classroom: Share this link from your class website for ESL and ELL students to use the picture/pronouncing dictionary both in and out of the classroom. Try the videos on a classroom computer or projector with a small group. Teachers may enjoy using the print option for creating paper copies of the target word lists. ESL/ELL teachers can also assign specific lists to students so they can work individually on pronouncing and understanding the words.
WeatherGrade 1 to 4
- Manatee School District- 9547
This site provides a ready-to-go unit all about weather. There are six major topics: Wind, Temperature, Humidity, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Lightning. Each topic provides several sub-topics, pictures, diagrams, maps, definitions, unit quizzes, and more. Each paragraph of reference information includes a read button to hear an audio version of the information (great for non-readers, ESL, and ELL students).
At the time of this review, there were two links no longer active. However, since the material is so well done and nearly all links were working, the TeachersFirst editorial staff decided to include this gem in our reviewed sites. This site does require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this site during your science units on weather. Share the interactive quizzes, interactive demonstrations, and other information on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This information is ideal for research projects or for students to make up a lesson missed due to illness. Use the read feature with your non-readers and ESL or ELL students.
You Tube videos at this site are organized by English learning subject categories like fruits and vegetables, cars, culture, and also by level of English. Levels go from beginning elementary up through advanced. The opening page features several videos with a humorous twist (such as interviewing Japanese celebrities about the difference between “like” and “hate”). A section for teachers includes suggestions of how to use specific videos and also teacher training videos. Many of the featured videos are products of professional ESL/EFL services, so this site does a good job compiling and organizing them. Although this site was created as an ESL/ELL site, much of the material would be useful for any students learning grammar.
Teachers will need to set up videos to be used in class (and supervise WELL) to control student viewing. There are some questionable links on this site including "Uncensored English" and "Sick Videos." There are also advertisements on the top and right side of the website. This site is slow to load at times, so opening the site before you are ready to use it in class may save you some time. If your school blocks YouTube, consider accessing this site and choosing videos at home , using a tool such as Vixy (explained here) to bring them in for class use. The site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use specially previewed and selected videos to make vocabulary lessons come alive. Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share with the entire class. Be sure to preview and have the video before the class sees it. Encourage your students to make their own videos or vodcasts of items you are studying in class. If teachers are unsure of how to use the videos, check the for teachers section. Check this site frequently to see what's new. List this site on your class website (with a disclaimer regarding content), for ESL and ELL families to explore together at home.
This website offers a compilation links to about thirty interactive classic stories. Read Greek Myths, Alice in Wonderland, The Life of Buddha, The Golden Goose, Ramayana, Aesops Fables, Hans Christian Anderson, Grimms Fairy Tales, and numerous others. The color coded descriptors let you know if the story includes text, pictures, sounds, animations, and videos. Most of the interactive stories also include interactive phonics and grammar activities. The reading levels vary, so preview the stories before sharing them with your students. This is a MUST-SEE for primary language arts classes, special education classes, ESL and ELL classes, and others.
This website was created by Johnnie Wilson, a mentor math coach and former 5th grade teacher. Be aware, there are minor unobtrusive advertisements at this website. Nearly all of the interactive stories require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: What a fabulous way to share classic stories, fables, fairy tales, and myths! Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce your students to these wonderful stories. Use this website in your language arts classes, special education classes, with your ESL and ELL students to share these classic stories. Challenge your gifted students to create new "classics." Have students work in pairs to explore this website (provide headsets), and then share their classic story with the rest of the class. Explore the "less known" stories available at this site. Don't forget to provide this link in your class newsletter or on your class website, so students can practice their reading skills at home.
How about an interactive Scrabble game for some language arts fun? This website provides a cooperative Scrabble game. Students can log-in and play Scrabble together, against other students from around the world, or start a new game independently. The website log-in requires a registration with an email account. For safety purposes, you may want to create your own Gmail account with sub-accounts for students (by sub account code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. This site is ideal for language arts lessons (especially spelling and vocabulary practice), ESL and ELL students, gifted enrichment, or a Scrabble club or tournament.
In the Classroom: Why not create two user accounts, divide your class into two groups, and have a Scrabble tournament using spelling words, vocabulary words from science or social studies class, or whatever is applicable to your class. Use an interactive whiteboard or projection screen so the entire class can see (and join in on) the fun. If individual computers are available, pair students with a partner and have them create their own accounts and play against their partner. Use this site with your ESL and ELL students to practice English. Be sure to highlight this link on your class website so students (and their families) can enjoy the challenge at home.
Welcome to Adventure Island. At this interactive site students learn to read map symbols by learning how they are created from more complex drawings or photos. They also learn to read map keys. By listening to the questions the tour guide asks them, students can quickly answer and receive verbal feedback for answering well. This activity would work well with ESL, ELL, and special education students since it combines easy directions, pictures, and instant feedback. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: This activity would work well as a cooperative learning activity or on individual computers.. If individual computers aren’t available, this site would also be ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector.
Have students create their own map symbols and map key as they try their own hand at mapping. ESL and ELL students, as well as the general student body, will benefit from creating their own set of oral directions to read and have other students respond to.
Visual GeographyGrade 5 to 12
- Boris Kester and Nana Bjørnlund- 9279
This site offers rich geographical information visually: through photographs. Students select a continent to investigate. (Note: all continents except Antarctica are included.) After viewing pictures of one country on that continent, they can click for a more in-depth examination and more pictures, listen to the native language of that area, click on another country to make a comparison, and take a quiz on that information. They can also select certain categories to learn more about transportation, education, religion, people, etc.
In the Classroom: Use this site as an anticipatory set or “activator” to introduce a world cultures or geography unit or lesson on an interactive whiteboard or projector. This site offers a visual approach to studying and comparing other countries and interesting research information to use for independent projects. This site is also excellent for enrichment. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class. Use this site to introduce the countries your ESL and ELL students represent. Have your ESL and ELL students guide the interactive picture tour for the class. World language teachers can use this site as part of their cultural studies.
LingQ assists students in developing language fluency in any of 9 target languages including German, Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, and Chinese, Russian, and Portuguese. It tracks hours spent on listening and reading assignments, vocabulary development etc. An example lesson consists of listening to a text while reading through it, clicking on unknown words, seeing the definition in one's native language, saving the words in a list or as flashcards etc. Students can also download the audio files to an MP3 player. Students should have at least a beginning understanding of the language before attempting to use this site. They also need to be flexible learners since the learning/teaching style is based on immersion, not translation. Students may have up to 5 active "assignments" going to stay within the free level. Any completed work can be archived to make room for more assignments. There is a charge to have your work evaluated, graded, and critiqued. There is an option to save new vocabulary words in a list and print flashcards for these words. You will want to join and explore the site before assigning students to use it so you know how to navigate. The site requires a fast Internet connection to download large podcast (audio) files. The podcast files can be downloaded and played on your local computer or an mp3 player.
In the Classroom: Establishing membership requires an email account. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Assign specific "lessons" for your ESL or world language students, but be aware that the free version does not permit you to monitor progress on student accounts. You therefore will want to use this as a practice site more than a formal assessment tool. Demonstrate the navigation on your projector or interactive whiteboard before assigning students to work independently. If you have mp3 players available, you can load a listening assignment for students to "take out."
Be sure to include this site on your teacher web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Refer your ESL students to this page if they are impatient to become fluent quickly.
Students learn appropriate language to use when telephoning and also begin to understand voice mail messages at this site designed for ESL and ELL students. Since using the telephone is a big challenge when learning a new language, this site will be extremely helpful for newcomers. There are three levels of difficulty available.
In the Classroom: Have your students practice the language on this site in a simulated telephone conversation. Have them record the voice mail messages and then play them for other students to respond to. Share this site on your class website or in your class newsletter so ESL parents can benefit from understanding telephone conversation better, too. Teachers of world languages may wish to use this site as a model to create similar information for their students of French, German, Spanish, and other world languages. Special ed teachers working on life skills will find these phone skills helpful, as well.
Polite English offers practice with many frequently-used expressions by category. Students can select to see all offerings or just those at their level: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. All lists have a series of remarks, quick quizzes, and immediate evaluations of the students' work. The quiz types include drag and drop, true or false, and multiple choice. The drag and drop feature is a bit difficult to manage, just remember to click on the word first to make it “moveable.” The British English spellings may surprise some students. Unfortunately, there is not a pronunciation feature.
In the Classroom: Use this site for ESL and ELL students, or even basic grammar review in a regular language arts class. Help students learn “survival language,” such as greetings or saying thank you. Save this site as a favorite on your classroom computer(s) so ESL/ELL students can add new expressions to their present knowledge. Send this site home (or list it on your website) so your international families can benefit from it.
An exciting “text-to-speech" service offers voice readings of text you enter into the reader. In addition to having any text read, you can choose the type of voice you want (male or female) the language you want (American English, UK English, German, Spanish, French, etc..) and change its speed, tenor, and "effect." This great tool for ESL, ELL, special education, and limited-sight students does show some distortion if you choose the very lowest rate of speed, but the adjustments are helpful. New digital voices will be added, so be sure to check the selection frequently. Warning: much of this site is for a fee, including a software download that has a cost. The “free stuff” is in this Demos area. This site uses Quicktime. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Type or paste what you'd like to be read into Cepstral's demo box. Listen to American and British English accents with your ESL and ELL students and ask them to note specific pronunciation differences. This site would also be useful in foreign language classrooms. If you teach Spanish, Italian, French, or German; why not display the demo on an interactive whiteboard or projector and turn up your speakers. Show students how to use the site, then share it as a link on your teacher web page for them to use when practicing at home or outside of class. Why not assign students to learn several “homework” phrases on their own each week, assuming they have access to computers at home or during study times at school. Speech and language teachers will like offering a new way for students to play and replay good speech “models.” This tool will help your auditory learners and visual learners (being able to listen as they see the words).
This site provides extra practice with phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang for ESL and ELL students and any students learning about idioms. The thematically organized idioms and slang choices provide definitions, sentences, and comprehension exercises, all attractively packaged. The phrasal verb sections with "do," "come," and "go" provide practice and explanations of some of the most confusing verbs in English.
In the Classroom: Use this site on a projector or whiteboard when you have 5 minutes left or you want your students to do additional vocabulary work. Or provide it as a resource during your idiom lessons. ESL students have a very difficult time understanding idiomatic language and will benefit from the definitions and examples here. Ask them to share an example with your class of a similar idiom from their language. Often the translation of their idiom is funny enough to provoke classroom laughter but also explains why someone might say, "it is raining sheep and cows" instead of "cats and dogs.”
These up to date podcasts of high interest differ from other podcast sites: the language used and the speed of delivery are simpler and slower. ESL and ELL students will readily comprehend the podcasts and learn new vocabulary in context. Difficult vocabulary is explained. Summaries of each podcast on the opening webpage provide the main content and pedagogical focus. The podcasts on this site are free; students can listen to them directly from the web, download to a local computer, or place on an MP3 player. Each podcast does contain a brief advertisement for other purchasable features, including Learning Guides, complete transcripts, cultural information, and vocabulary assistance. Be sure to preview the podcasts before sharing them with your students to ensure age appropriateness. Topics are generally for older students or adults. If you download the podcasts to the computer, you will need Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Have your ESL and ELL students listen and write their own summaries in groups or independently. Or ask them to write comprehension questions and answers to check their own understanding and challenge classmates. Have them compare information from the podcast to information on the same subject from other sources. Challenge students to present a one-minute summary. Have them prepare their own podcasts using the same format on subjects of their choice.
This cartoon/graphic novel site offers free previews of many wordless comic books and short graphic novels. You can select the regular length or mini-books. Some examples of the stories include The Way Home, A Time to Be Brave, Bee Nice, and several others. There are twelve lesson plans available for free download at the Teaching link. Pre-readers, ESL and ELL students, and those learning foreign languages will delight in making up the words to go along with the very expressive pictures here. The lesson plans at this website require Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Ask students to dictate captions for these stories, write the captions on strips, and put them with the printed pictures. For students able to write, have them write their own captions. Have a caption-writing contest among pairs of students in the classroom. Have ESL and ELL students write simple captions and learn the words for items in the pictures at the same time. Students in foreign language classes can generate desciptions or dialog to go with the stories. Special ed teachers will appreciate the opportunity for students to “narrate” the comics -- and possibly place pages in sequence -- to develop vocabulary. Use printable versions for take-home work with parents, as well. Challenge students to create their own wordless books. Don’t forget to check out the twelve lesson plans available at the link that complement this website.
Open English WorldGrade 8 to 12
- David Rogers and Michael Huskins,- 9015
This site's free offerings include useful weekly idioms, business expressions to improve vocabulary, and listening activities on current topics. Translations of the listening sentences into the student's first language are optional and include French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese. Spoken utterances are always in English. Be aware there are some advertisements on this page, but nothing too distracting. Students can complete a free registration at this site, but it is not required. There is a Forum for discussion. See TeachersFirst’s safety and use tips for using this site in class under Classroom Use. The listening activities require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Mark this site as a Favorite on your classroom computer or on your teacher web page and assign ESL/ELL students to check it weekly for a new idiomatic expression. Newer ESL and ELL students may find the translation feature helpful. The foreign language options could be useful in a German, French, Spanish, or Chinese class. Check your school policies on allowing students to participate in the forum area, and obtain written parent permission before students log on. You may want to use the forum as a whole-class activity with a teacher account. Monitor the discussion boards for a week or two before deciding if they are appropriate for your school situation.
This very ambitious site reviews many traditional grammar rules/issues and attempts to link the grammar with lessons gleaned from lyrics to popular songs. The grammar is in the center of the page and lots of options for using music frames the page on both sides. There is a wide variety of content, for teachers willing to take the time to search. Lesson plans, information on hot topics, proverbs, sport features, and games are only some of the offerings which try to link grammar to music.
In the Classroom: Use this website to connect grammar rules and issues with songs that know. Share this site with learning support teachers or as extra help during a tough grammar lesson. Use music with ESL/ELL students as much as possible to reinforce pronunciation, listening, and memorization of grammar structures. These activities are ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector. Project the activity on the screen and have students work individually or in pairs to complete the challenge. These activities are appropriate for small group instruction in an ESL, ELL, or Special Education class - but they could also be used in a regular education class to reinforce grammar understanding.
These adapted radio scripts assist ESL/ELL students with learning how to use articles and grammar correctly, increase vocabulary, and improve reading comprehension. A highly motivating site, students can see photos of old movies and even enjoy clips from the movies as they work with the scripts. Vocabulary definitions appear when you mouse over difficult words. There are vocabulary and comprehension quizzes at the end of the scripts. Students can choose normal or interactive versions of the movie scripts. In the interactive version, students must input articles. The link Skip's Bits provides additional reading comprehension practice.
In the Classroom: This website is particularly useful if your ESL/ELL students want to perform a portion of a play. If your students are having difficulty with article usage, try a different approach to teaching the skill in the context of drama. If you have access to DVDs of the films used, you may want to play a few clips for the students.
This site pronounces English words and phrases. The British pronunciation is first, but if there is a difference in the American English pronunciation, the voice says, "Also, American:_____." Once entered and submitted, the word or phrase appears in pink, along with a list of words before and after it in alphabetical order display. This helps with similar spellings and cognates. The pronunciation plays right away and repeats on mouse-over. With 76870 words in the database at the moment, the odds are that students will find the word they're searching for. ESL students will find the speedy help with pronunciation very useful. There are some advertisements down the side, but they are not objectionable.
In the Classroom: Save this site in your Favorites on your classroom computer for a handy reference for ESL/ELL students. Speech and language students will also benefit from hearing and repeating the pronunciations.
Find engaging ways to teach vocabulary to elementary and middle school students--and their ESL/ELL classmates. The numerous games: picture matching, oral pronunciation, scrambled words, crosswords, quizzes, hangmouse(!), and word searches are available in varying levels. All the games start by choosing a word category. The site creators are constantly adding new words. At the time of this review, "there are now 219 topics and 10,353 words in the vocabulary database." SUbstitutes who find themesleves without lesson plans will also love this site. It requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: These activities are ideal for individual computer time on laptops, classroom computers, or computer clusters. Use the word topics for students to build spelling and vocabulary skills; individualize their lists by category choice or choose a topic that fits the science or social studies unit you are currently studying. Speech and language teachers will like the variety of ways to develop language skills, as well. ESL students will find the variety of spelling and word lists a refreshing way to add to their vocabularies.
Find the lyrics to favorite children's songs, ready for you to share in the classroom. Many also have MIDI audio files with them for you to sing along. The indexing is well done with songs organized alphabetically by the first word of the song. There is also a subject index helpful for planning a lesson on a certain theme. You can also search by phrase and more (see the explanation of phrase searching as well as substring matching. Some songs include a suggestion how it might be used: dance, fingerplay, etc. Information about song origin, adaptation, and copyright information is available as well.
In the Classroom: Turn up your speakers, then share this site with the school librarian and parents for great times using songs with fingerplays, dances, and other activities. Sing along as a center by finding a song to fit this week's classroom theme or invent your own class set of words to a familiar tune once your students know the original. Students can write verses, and the entire class create a chorus!
Use songs with elementary ESL/ELL students help perfect pronunciation, intonation, and memory of English phrases. Include this link on your teacher web page for parents to help speech or ESL/ELL students "sing along" at home.
LiteractiveGrade K to 2
- Entertainment and Information Industries, Ltd.- 8120
Billed as the world's first interactive literacy program available in electronic or printed format, this free site offers a fresh approach to guided reading. Leveled guided readers, interactive phonics activities, and printable worksheets make this an all-inclusive site for early reading practice. Just click on the options for poetry, nursery rhymes, guided reading short stories, spelling and ESL practice. Using and viewing the site does not require registration. However, if you want to download the programs and worksheets for off-line use, then a quick registration (free) is required.
In the Classroom: Individual or paired reading at computer stations or laptops would work well. If whiteboards are available, the interactive features open possibilities for whole class or small group guided reading. Several stories are available in Spanish for ESL students. Use the printables to go along with the lessons. One word of caution concerning the alphabet worksheets: the manuscript letters may not be conducive to your school's adopted format.
This ESL-focused site provides stories, activities, links, games, and plenty of opportunities for writing practice. Children can listen to the stories as they read them. Teachers can print flashcards for survival English vocabulary such as clothes, food, parts of the body, jobs etc.; accompanying activities provide reinforcement for vocabulary. Learn English Kids changes weekly, offering weekly activities, opinion polls, learning through songs, playground fun, and more. The read-aloud stories are a wonderful option for beginning readers and even non-readers. Both spelling and pronunciation are British.
Speech/language clinicians will join ESL and primary teachers in using the many activities on this site. It even has sorting activities such as fruits/vegetables (see "Food"). Although the interface is graphically appealing, by clicking on "Topics," users can find activities, songs, and games all organized by subject. There is also a large section for parents to help their child at home.
In the Classroom: Make a shortcut to an activity each day on your classroom computer (RIGHT-clicking in the middle of the page will give the option to Create shortcut). This will give students an easy way to open today's activity, especially if you RENAME it with the student's name or place it in a certain corner of the desktop.
Longer stories require the Real Player plug in. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page. In these stories, Students can double-click a word to find out its meaning!
This cleverly formatted ESL/speech and language activity provides review material for phrasal verbs found in The Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs published by Cambridge University Press. Students can select verbs that have the same particle, verbs in content categories, and also study one verb in all its particle manifestations (i.e. go on, go out, go away, etc.). This page is a must for all English language students preparing for standardized tests. Speech and manguage teachers working with elementary students will find it helpful, as well, if the students have basic reading skills. Requires Shockwave Plugin. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Suggest this site to your ESL students preparing for college entrance exams. You may want to mark it in Favorites on a classroom computer for students to practice independently once you have shown them how it works.
Search like a librarian using the hints on this page! This re-do of a Google search page helps searchers know exactly what they’re searching and what types of answers they can expect to receive without understanding the complexity of Boolean search terms, etc. Especially valuable are tips on how to search precisely and, at the same time, avoid certain results such as bookstores or pages with only commercial intent. Use of the wildcard search "*" is explained so that it seems easy and useful. Searching sentences, phrases, and other collocations is simple after looking at this page. There is also a link to the original Google search page. Not only ESL teachers, but also all instructors looking for specific types of info will find ways to make their searches more fruitful and economical.
In the Classroom: Show your high school students doing research how to use these search features to save time.
This site has games and activities appropriate for beginning ESL students. Since beginners have few language skills and know little vocabulary, any of these games would help their English and would also be fun for the students. Teachers of speech and language or special ed may also find this useful for their language-delayed students.
In the Classroom: A good site as an alternative for the student who may not be ready fora specific classroom activity or who may need a successful learning experience in the midst of a frustrating day. You may also want to suggest it for at-home use, if the student has internet access.
Designed with ESL students in mind, this dictionary allows students to type in phrases and questions. The dictionary comes up with lists of related words, definitions, and a link to other dictionaries. Although the list of definitions is extensive, the tool reminds the user that the first words found are the most useful.
In the Classroom: Customize search results to meet your classroom needs! Make this site available in your Favorites for ESL/ELL students to access as needed.
Virtual HouseGrade 1 to 5
- Birmingham Grid for Learning- 6612
Help ESL/ELL students build basic vocabulary skills with this multimedia site that focuses on objects found in and around a typical house. Students can navigate through the rooms and click on each item to hear an audio translation and see its English name. The site requires FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Access a huge array of copyright-free literature with this collection of more than 6000 texts, nearly 1100 accompanied by audio readings. Selections include everything from nursery rhymes, to philosophy, to poetry and short stories. Search by difficulty level, artist, or title. Headphones required.
In the Classroom: Use this online language lab with ESL students to strengthen word recognition and language skills.
This online quiz focuses on New Year's traditions in America, but tests knowledge of grammar and word choice. The quiz has about forty questions (all related to New Year's and grammar). This is a great activity for ESL and ELL students or elementary students practicing grammar skills. This site does require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use an interactive whiteboard or projector and take this quiz together. Or use this website as a learning station during your Language Arts or Social Studies class. In younger classes (or beginning ESL or ELL) allow students to work with a partner. Challenge students to create their own quiz on New Years (or another holiday) that incorporates grammar practice.
Chinese PhrasesGrade 5 to 12
- Haiwang Yuan with Remy Guo- 6910
Learn the basics of Chinese. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Chinese-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools.
Learn the basics of Japanese. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Japanese-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools. Requires Quicktime to play the pronunciations.
Learn the basics of Spanish. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Spanish-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools. Requires Quicktime to play pronunciations.
Practice recognizing and using common words from daily life with this interactive, illustrated activity designed for self-paced practice. After choosing a topic, students are presented with a series of pictures and must select the correct vocabulary word from a list of five. Perfect for ESL classes (but preview first – there are a few unusual translations you may need to clarify) or first-year French students.
This visual dictionary available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian is a gem of a site for ESL or world language students. Visitors can choose a topic, view the associated words and pictures, then test themselves using the activity links on the left side of the page. Interactive practice options include flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks, "stinky spelling" (fix the mistakes), and more.
This creative and extensive site designed for the ESL classroom is filled with games, songs, talking pages, and clever teaching ideas. There is quite a bit to explore, but be sure to check out the teacher and parent pages, before turning your students loose on the "Kids" link. Also available in Japanese.
Kids level Dictionary that translate English words into; French, Spanish, German & Portuguese. Limited word list. Also has an Information section from the word list that is more like a mini Encyclopedia. The picture dictionary is a valuable tool for ESL/ELL students trying to communicate in a regular classroom.
This site contains multiple resources for elementary learning about weather. Check out the daily forecast, the current temperatures, information about weather emergencies, weather games (interactive and printables), resources on careers in meteorology, a lesson plan bank (including science, math, language arts, and social studies), a weather encyclopedia, a glossary, weather preparation guides, and plenty of video clips illustrating weather phenomena. The site has a lot to explore.
There are unobtrusive advertisements at this site. It requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This site provides a good introduction to meteorology and weather science. Use it for a beginning class discussion on weather experiences or for developing vocabulary about weather for ESL/ speech/language or world language students. The video clips on this site are ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector. Take advantage of the FREE interactives, reference information, and lesson plans. With older students, have cooperative learning groups investigate various weather phenomena. Have the groups create a multimedia presentation: wiki, blog post, Power Point, or narrated image demonstrating their “phenomenon.” Use a tool such as Voicethread (reviewed here) to narrate an image (in English or in the language of study).
This site provides an engaging way to practice counting up to 5. Students are presented with a picture of various items; they must click on the correct number indicating how many items are presented. There are pictures provided for additional help to non-readers. The site also provides printable pictures, lesson ideas, and printable activities. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: List this link on your class website for students to practice in and out of the classroom. Share the site with students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students try the activities on their own or with a partner. Even non-readers can participate, thanks to the pictures. This site is also ideal for ESL, ELL, and special education students who are learning basic numbers and counting.
Mrs. P.comGrade K to 9
- Mrs. P Enterprises, LLC- 9687
You almost want to toast marshmallows on the open fire as you cyber-curl under Mrs. P’s feet by the fireplace. No need to bring a book; she has quite a selection. This interactive site will thrill your eager readers for hours. Actress Kathy Kinney tells delightful intro stories and expertly reads the books. Best viewed on a high speed Internet connection, it’s a breeze to navigate. On the homepage, click on the various items around the warm room to find intriguing, sometimes outlandish, stories about Mrs. P. Extend the learning by clicking on the book on the stand to find a loaded dictionary. Play the Title game as an amusing way to listen to one-liners about the stories at this site. And… the reason we all want to stay in Mrs. P’s library is the book stacks themselves. Click on the stack to find a healthy assortment of stories to listen and view. When you choose a book, click on ‘options’ to turn on or off ‘show the words.’ Each book is rated for age-appropriateness. (The rating of A, B, C, and D is a bit confusing as they refer to age-level rather than a “grade” rating.) Keep an eye on this site for future improvements and enhancements. Not only will you be able to listen to the stories, but soon you will be able to purchase them via convenient download, as well. They will always be free to listen to online!
Warning: This is a beta product. Expect some glitches here and there, however, it appears to be nearly glitch-free as is. If you do find a problem, send a bug report as seen at the top of the screen. There are some hints available for turning on and off some features to make the site operate more smoothly if your connection speed is super-fast. Do NOT even try this one on a slow connection! This site requires Flash. Get it here TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Teachers, check out the first link at the bottom on the homepage. Submit student stories and Mrs. P. may choose to read them on this site. Be sure to get parental consent before submitting any stories.
What a valuable tool for ESL and ELL students and teachers of emergent readers as students follow the words on the screen as Mrs. P. reads a story. Create a corner in your room to read stories the way Mrs. P. does! Use your first initial, let your imagination run wild, change your accent of course, and you can become another Mrs. P.
Be sure to share this treasure on your teacher web page for students (and parents) to access outside of class. You may find students become interested in some of those "old books" in the library!
This site is an index to languages of the world, including lesser known ones. There is also some reference information provided for most locations. Teachers and students can click on a map of the world to come up with a list of continents and then a list of countries. Each country, no matter how obscure, displays a list of its languages and dialects and a short description of the location where the language is spoken. For example, the tiny West African country of Liberia lists over 30 languages and dialects, many of which are spoken in no locations outside this country.
In the Classroom: Use this site when social studies students are doing reports on world cultures. Check out your own state (or country) and see what you can learn. ESL and ELL students may enjoy sharing the information displayed here about their individual countries and languages with American students who might have no idea of the cultural differences among members of the same country. Use this map as a discussion starter I your world cultures class about migration patterns and the power of a common language to encourage cross-cultural pollination.
This site offers short summaries of well-loved children's books. Students and teachers can search the site by title, author, or category. It also offers links to several articles about encouraging reading among children. More extensive summaries are linked to a commercial page because of the website's association with Amazon.com, although you can certainly read the tidbit about the book without buying the book. This site doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive site of books on any particular subject or inclusive of award winners; the author says she just chooses books she loves.
In the Classroom: Use this site to help students select independent reading similar to books they've enjoyed or in the same category. Students may want to try this model of a personal approach to book reviewing when they share books with their class. Suggest the site to ESL and ELL students or struggling readers who may be overwhelmed by looking for books on a larger site.
This site requires free registration for access to over 200 free songs: mostly classics and holiday favorites. The site includes some young children's classics, too. As with all karaoke, only the melody plays; the words are visible in a box on the website. The language of the song displays also when not English. Use these songs for younger children, special occasions, foreign language classes and ESL/ELL students. Play the songs on your classroom computer. Be sure to turn up the speakers!
Registration requires an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for membership. If you plan to have students register individually (which isn’t necessarily recommended), you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Don't allow students to browse this site, since some songs may not be appropriate for school use. Songs are mostly in English, but there are also selections in Spanish, German, and other European languages. Use for cultural enrichment when studying other cultures and also for pronunciation practice for other languages. Encourage students to bring in other folk songs to share from their background cultures. Share these songs on your interactive whiteboard or projector – turn up the volume!
PromptsGrade 2 to 12
- Creativity-Portal.com- 9652
This site offers writing prompts of many types, from written prompts to line drawings, to photographs, from story starters to articles on the imagination. With plenty of prompts available at your fingertips, teachers will find inspirational starters in a form which will appeal to all types of students.
There is a submission option at this site. You are able to submit articles or projects, suggest websites with FREE learning content, creativity journey blogs, or inspiring success stories. Before you submit any students’ work, be sure to check with your school’s Acceptable Use Policy and always get parental permission.
In the Classroom: Use these writing prompts with your ESL or ELL students to get them to incorporate new vocabulary into a written piece. Share the on your teacher web page for all students to use as starters for blog writing or journaling. Have students share their own ideas of writing prompts, drawings, and photos that they feel may help others start writing. Submit students’ work and ideas, after the proper precautions have been taken.
If you are looking for information about Grimm Fairy Tales, check out this interactive site. The site includes online stories, information about the brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm), links to interactive games (some relate to the Grimm Fairy Tales, others do not), and printable pages. The highlight of this website is the online stories. You may read the stories in text or interactive (Flash) format. The interactive (Flash) story provides audio, so even early readers and ESL or ELL students can participate (with headsets, of course). The audio can be turned OFF. The story includes some animated pictures.
Be aware that this site does include some advertisements. The site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share the fairy tales on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Turn down the volume (or turn it off), and have students take turns reading the pages to the class. Allow students to revisit the story as a center option on your classroom computer. Challenge your students to write new endings for the stories. Use the story to teach students about plot, characters, conflict, setting, and other key elements in a story. Use the site to teach about the history of the Brothers Grimm. This site also provides excellent research information about these famous writers.
This simple site provides an interactive story of "Faithful John." You may read the story in text or interactive (Flash) format. Although there is a link for a game, this site was under construction at the time of this review. The interactive (Flash) story provides audio, so even early readers and ESL or ELL students can participate in reading the story (with headsets, of course). The audio can be turned OFF. The story includes some animated pictures. Follow the arrows to go to the next page. There are also Play and Stop buttons.
Be aware that this site does include some advertisements. The site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this fairy tale on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Turn down the volume (or turn it off), and have students take turns reading the pages to the class. Challenge your students to write new endings for the story. Use the story to teach students about plot, characters, conflict, setting, and other key elements in a story. Create a story map on your interactive whiteboard, pausing to switch between the interactive version and your story map as the story plays aloud!
This simple site provides an interactive story of the "Real Princess." You may read the interactive story or play a simple game (the game is fun, but not educational). The story provides audio, so even early readers and ESL or ELL students can participate in reading the story (with headsets, of course). All of the text is written and available in audio, for both your visual and auditory learners. The audio can be turned OFF. The story includes some animated pictures.
Be aware that this site does include some appropriate advertisements. To avoid seeing the advertisements, you may click Full Screen to view the story. The site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this story on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Turn down the volume, and have students take turns reading the pages to the class. Challenge your students to write a new ending for the story. Create a story map on your interactive whiteboard, pausing to switch between the interactive version and your story map as the story plays aloud!
Starfall's ABC site provides letter-sound examples for students in a user-friendly manner. It focuses on each individual letter of the alphabet and breaks out the vowels sounds. Students can simply click on a letter and watch several examples of words, pictures, and sounds relating to each letter. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Combine the explicit instruction provided on the site with phonemic awareness instruction in kindergarten or with ESL and ELL students for better letter-sound relationships. Allow students to use this site during center time for reiteration of the lesson or for areas in which they are struggling. Be sure to have students check out the sign language tab for enrichment to the traditional spoken alphabet. Add this link to your class website so students can use this outside of class.
CLICK IMMEDIATELY on "Free Preview" for the only free portion of this site. This humorous preview section of a larger, paying, site has beginning level vocabulary. Students pick which activity they want to try after listening and seeing the basic vocabulary. Activities include dictation, writing vocabulary words in response to the pictures, hangman, matching, etc. Teachers or students are able to print some of the activities. This site also include beginner Spanish, French, Italian, and German – all perfect for beginning level world language classes. This site is also useful for ESL and ELL students. Click for a complete, 8-page list of all the vocabulary covered. Unit tests are also provided. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Send your Spanish, French, German, and Italian beginning level students to this site for review and practice. ESL and ELL students will benefit from the practice. Be sure to list this site in your class newsletter or on your class website, so students can practice at home.
At this site, students learn about each of the 50 states. They connect dots to create the outline of a state. Students can choose from an assorted number of "exam" questions; they can also choose whether to have questions on the name of the state, its capital, or its state name. The speed of the questions varies also. Students receive a score on the accuracy of their drawing with the mouse and the answer to the question about the state.
This site does have some minor advertisements. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this activity as practice with states state capitals, or state shapes. Your visual and kinesthetic learners will benefit from this different approach. This site is accessible to ESL and ELL students; provide them with a map of the states and they can use this activity to familiarize themselves with state names, pronunciation, shape, location, etc.
This site is “interactive whiteboard ready.” Try the activity as a class challenge (at the beginning of social studies class). Have students take turns “drawing” the state, and then use the “quiz” questions a class (or team) activity. Once students are familiar with this site, allow them to explore on their own. Have students create their own dot to dot state papers and quizzes to share with the class.
Listen and Write is a listening/dictation site that allows ESL and ELL students to click on their choice of oral transmissions and then write the words they hear in a box. Clicking the play button will repeat the sentence. There are also choices for hints or a version that provides a separate text box for each word, helping listeners to distinguish and separate the words they hear. When students write the correct sentence, a red "good" appears at the end of the line. Students can submit their own oral recordings as part of the bank of recorded items. Many of the items they can do dictation to come from VOA news. Students can also select other languages for dictation: Korean, Basque, Estonian, and Hebrew. Dictations are available at a total of 16 levels. Students must sign in and establish an account in order to save their scores, share and save audios, and collaborate with others on dictations or audio recordings.
In the Classroom: Check school policies about establishing a "class" log in with an official email address instead of having the students use their own. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here
is a blog post that tells how.
Refer students to improve their oral comprehension or applied spelling skills at this site. Teacers can also create or assign recordings for required listening and dictation, differentiating for each student’s level. There are some French recordings that could be used in a world language class, as well. Why not have your students create their own recordings to challenge their classmates?
Denver Public Library's Podcasts for Kids is a constantly-growing story resource from a variety of authors including Beatrix Potter. There are also folktales, fairy tales, interviews, songs, news, nursery rhymes, and story time favorites. Students can listen to them online or download them directly to mp3 players or the computer for listening later. There are also links for podcasting help and a kids’ page with reference information, games, homework help, and more. This site requires Quicktime. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Encourage beginning readers, ESL, ELL, and special ed students to read along with texts in hand as they listen to the stories and the pronunciation of possible new words. Check back with this site frequently to see new stories that have been added. Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as encouragement for extra reading. Save this site in your favorites and use it as an L.A. learning center (don’t forget the headsets). Play an audio story with the speakers turned up and lights turned off for a quiet listening activity.
This site offers applied vocabulary and grammar review in quiz format. Although this site was designed for ESL and ELL students, much of the material would be applicable in a regular education language arts class. Every quiz has a time limit (visible to students), and consists of six or more questions. Feedback on the quiz is immediate. The topics and difficulty level range from low intermediate to high. Topic examples include “Soccer vs Football,” “Adjectives and Adverbs,” and “Passive Tenses.” Students who need more practice on a certain area can click on "Related Pages" to review something similar but with a different format. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this with students who need to review their grammar but are impatient with “boring” grammar exercises. This site assumes students know some grammar and some vocabulary; it is a tool to check how accurate their understanding is. Save this site in your favorites, and check back often (new material is added monthly). List this site on your class website for students to use for at-home practice.
Max and Molly are on holiday (vacation) and writing notes to friends back home. Can you help them choose the correct pronouns to complete their sentences? This site offers three levels of difficulty. The easier levels include fewer blanks to fill in.
The website also features a "full screen" option, printable worksheets, engaging sound effects (which can be turned off by clicking "music OFF"), and animations. Although this site was created by the BBC, at the time of this review, all words included were used in both British English and American English. The site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Pronouns can be tricky! Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to share this website with your class. Use the three difficulty levels to differentiate for your students. This site is ideal to use with younger ESL and ELL students, and any class learning about pronouns. Create a learning center for students to use this website, or provide individual laptops or computers. Be sure to provide headsets. Why not print off the worksheet for additional practice or enrichment.
You may want to list this website in your class newsletter and on your class website so students can practice pronouns at home.
Kids NumbersGrade K to 5
- kidsknowitnetwork- 9392
This site provides math foundation activities for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. After students learn the basics, there are a number of review activities for them to try in each operation area. In addition, there are practice activities with flashcards, telling time, money, fractions, algebra, and geometry. All of the activities are educational, but some seem to focus more on entertainment than education.
This site includes a worksheet generator so teachers can prepare their own review work. There is a calculator one click away for those who need it. There are some minor advertisements at this website. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Display this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector to create an anticipatory set for a new concept in your elementary math class. Once students are familiar with the activities, allow them to explore this website if they finish early or for extra practice. Put this site in your classroom newsletter or on your class website so students can explore and learn at home.
ESL students will enjoy this site since it will help them learn the vocabulary for math operations in English, and it will also allow them to succeed at something in school. This site can also be used to differentiate for your learning support and/or gifted students based on their current level of math instruction.
Students can take an interactive tour (or quick picture tour) of three community sites: a park, a library, and city hall. Each location allows students to “click around” to learn more about the location. For example at the library, students learn what non-fiction, fiction, periodicals, and other library terms mean. There are also links on the bottom of the page for People, Places, and Things. The People link teaches students about volunteering, the homeless, and various careers. The Places link features safe places to play, field trip links, and more. Go to the Things link to Build a Community, go on a Scavenger Hunt, or play other interactive games. Much of this site requires Flash. Get Flash from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this during your unit about neighborhoods and community. Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then either set up a social studies computer station or have students explore on individual computers. If you plan to visit the library or town hall, preview it with a visit to this site. Have your students draw other community buildings and explain their functions by using a map or go floor by floor, as in the library visit. You could even create a class wiki “tour” using digital pictures. You might want to list this site in your class newsletter or on your class website for parents to share with their students.
ESL and ELL students learning names for community locations will appreciate this site for helping things come alive. Use this site to increase and strengthen vocabulary. Ask students to compare these locations with parallel offerings in their home communities.
Treat your students to this educational adventure with Clifford to practices letter sounds with a concentration game. Students are presented with eight cards. You click to flip the cards to find (and hear) words that have the same middle sounds. Audio is provided so students (even non-readers) can easily follow along. A word list is created for students to see their progress. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students take turns navigating the website. Then create a learning center using this website (or better yet, have students work on individual computers). Be sure to provide headsets! Use this site with your youngest ESL, ELL, and special education students to help them better understand the English language. List this link in your class newsletter or on your web page for students to use for additional practice at home.
YourDictionaryGrade K to 12
- LoveToKnow Corporation- 9344
A definitive authority on words, this free site gives you definitions, thesaurus entries, spellings, pronunciations, and etymology results. Add to that list an audio pronunciation system that allows you to hear the word as well. YourDictionary also provides resources to help you find foreign language translation sites. It even directs you to medical, computer, or electricians’ dictionaries, and many more. Haven’t you always wanted to say a tongue-twister in the Asante language? Words have never so much fun. This site does include some advertisements.
In the Classroom: Send students to this site to look up those difficult words. ESL and ELL students can use this site to practice the pronunciation of new words. Be sure to mark this site as a favorite or share on your teacher web page for easy access.
For a fairly in-depth look at the Punjabi culture within Pakistan, open the door to this Thinkquest site and learn about many aspects of culture. The most interesting are festivals, ceremonies, and dances. The information is fairly extensive, but the site is mostly just reading about the cultural phenomena.
Thinkquest sites are created as part of an international web competition, by teams of students at various levels or teacher education candidates. This entry dates back to 2007, and it won an Honorable Mention for the Pakistani creators (ages 11, 12, and 13). This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Keep this site in your reference list for students who are researching specific countries or as part of current events discussion about the middle east. ESL and ELL students may enjoy creating similar reports, either on paper or on a wiki, highlighting similar aspects of their countries' cultures. Share the various links and information using an interactive whiteboard or projector.
Spoken SkillsGrade 3 to 10
- InSpot Development- 9313
At this site, ESL and ELL (or speech/language) students can listen to spoken English, record their voices, and compare the two. Topics include basic vowel and consonant sounds, idioms and other fun topics, and variations on English for Special Purposes. An interesting component is the section on Oscar nominations and winners: students view videos of what other students have to say about movies. Students can then record their own videos and add to the site. Of course, you should have written permission to load video of students online, and make sure you are within your school policies! As of this review, the Oscars area is free.
Be aware: only the activities listed on the reviewed page are free. If you come to a link that requires a log in, this activity will require you to pay a fee. Although the student recordings of their own voices are not saved with the free part of the page, students can record voices and listen after they have heard the native speaker's pronunciation. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Share this website on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students listen to the words and phrases and repeat them together. Or allow students to do these activities on individual computers or with a partner, each student making suggestions for the other student's pronunciation improvement. Perhaps you want to create your own class podcast with an Oscar-type pronunciation game!
This wonderful, highly interactive ESL site includes survival topics, grammar, culture, and vocabulary at three levels for English learners. The BIG caveat is that the explanation for the teachers and students and a lot of the metalanguage is in Spanish. Click on menu, though, and all the topics come up in English. The intermediate and advanced levels are still under construction, but the highly interactive quality of the beginning sites offers a promise of continued excellent material. Click on the "P" on the left side of the interface to see printable reviews of many topics, especially grammar, all in English. The most in-depth portions are survival vocabulary and grammar.
Be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker so you can “see” all the site content. Although the pronunciation is in British English, this is a great, high-content site. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Save this site to your favorites so you (and your students) can easily find this site. Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as a reference and for engaging extra practice.
Come to Humane High School to learn all about animal protection, service projects to protect the animals, puppy mills, cruelty to animals, caring for pets, animals in entertainment, and other sensitive topics. This site features video clips (warning: preview before sharing, some are rather graphic), a FREE online course for students, student activity guides, printable PDF pages on HOT topics, and service learning ideas (in the areas of art, business/marketing, drama, language arts, health, physical education, life skills, math, music, science, social studies, technology, world languages, ESL, and ELL). There is also information about the legislative process of protecting animals. This site is geared towards grades 6 through 12. The link Mission: Humane provides even MORE ways to GET INVOLVED!
The Mission: Humane projects have recently won the prestigious Harris Wofford service award from Youth Service America. The projects are provided and easy to understand in a step-by-step format. Be aware: this site does include a Community link that has message boards, registration, and sign-in options (which are not required to use this site), and some other collaborative features. Be sure to watch students carefully if you allow them to navigate this site independently. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this eye opening site in any of the subject areas listed above. Share the videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to check out the activity guides, they are ready to go and very easy to follow. Present this site and an opposing one as part of a discussion of web sites and even or slanted presentation of information. Ask students to decide whether they see any “bias” on this site.
Use this site for research projects. Print off the list of service project ideas for students to use to earn credit in community service. Share the online course link with students that may be interested in pursuing this topic even further. Use the site as one of several sources for a class debate on animal rights or charge students to explore alternate points of view on animal issues, such as from the AKC or the meat industry. Then invite students to write a position paper with supporting facts.
If students ever wonder exactly what seashells they managed to collect at the beach last summer, this is the site to use. Clear photos click to an even larger and distinct picture of many varieties. Along with the larger picture are the common name, scientific name, region found, and maximum size. Links on the page include more information about identifying shells, cleaning, preserving, and using as decorations.
In the Classroom: Use this site as a kick-off when students return to write their "What I Did on my Summer Vacation" papers. If you're teaching research skills, this site is a good place to start, since it is highly visual but definitive. ESL and ELL students can independently use this site since the vocabulary is limited to names, regions, and sizes. Biology teachers can use this site as a reference when teaching about classification.
This language-rich website features podcasts spoken using British English. The podcasts review the previous episode, explain new English vocabulary, discuss the subject in English, and then present the Spanish language podcast. Be aware that clicking to play a podcast will start a long pause as the podcast downloads to your computer, and it may appear that noting is happening! The subjects are of high interest for students. The name is somewhat of a misnomer, though, since people with no knowledge of Spanish might be a bit overwhelmed by the language used. Unfortunately, accompanying worksheets with complete transcripts are not free, and there is no text available elsewhere. There are a few other free worksheets available under the About link (see resources). Listening options include listening on your computer, iPod, or mp3 player as podcasts.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This site includes tools for blog users to interact (in English or Spanish). Any visitor can comment on the posts and podcasts or participate in Forums. There is also a link to a sister blog on Spanish culture. Check your school policies on students posting comments, etc. to the web and whether they are permitted to do so anonymously and/or with name or initials.
In the Classroom: This site is a treasure trove for Spanish teachers. It also provides a way for your ESL and ELL students to share their language and culture as the focus of a lesson, perhaps as you study other cultures. Have the ESL or ELL students and native English speakers work on understanding podcasts together. They can discuss what they understood and what they did not. You might have your Spanish speakers write out the dialogue and vocabulary selections, but be sure to have a knowledgeable adult check the Spanish before using it with your students.
To alleviate safety concerns, you might want to create a simple class policy (e.g. initials only) and obtain parent permission before inviting your class to participate in the blog, since you will not be able to monitor their submissions. The site does moderate to prevent "bad" comments from appearing online, but you do not control this moderation. ALL blog comments require an email address (kept hidden). If safety and school policy concerns limit student access, use the site as a whole-class activity and selectively choose portions for students to use. You can assign DIRECT links to podcasts by right-clicking the "Audio: download" link and copying the URL that shows in "Properties," ex. http://media.libsyn.com/media/learnrealspanish/nisbeginners20_el_kindle.mp3. Students can RIGHT-click >Save target as to download and load podcast files to their mp3 players or simply keep to listen over and over at a computer.
This is a great site to use for in-context vocabulary acquisition for ELL and ESL students. The site has over twenty general topics with banks of words and examples of how they are used in different situations, phrases, and idioms. Some of the topics include Cars and Driving, Family and Relationships, Soccer, Personal Finance, The Body, Shopping, Air Travel, and several others. Definitions and pronunciation of some expressions as well as their definitions precede examples of the expressions in a variety of sentences. After taking a look at the definition/pronunciation page, students can select a variety of checkups, including drag and drop, true/false, and fill in the blank. This site requires Media Player. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Check this page to see if any of the general topics has relevance to your lessons. Students can work on their own to increase their vocabulary knowledge of specific expressions used containing the topic focus word.
Readers will enjoy clicking on sequential phrases as they build sentences and paragraphs while reading parts of a story. Students pick one phrase and, when it's correct, it appears in a box below the three choices. As students make choice after choice, the box fills up with the complete story which they can reread by scrolling up and down. Lots of comprehension checking, context clues, grammar review, punctuation, use of transitions, and paragraph organization work are wrapped up in this activity, all while students are anxious to find the next phrase to "make sense." Fiction, non-fiction, and humorous excerpts are available.
In the Classroom: High intermediate and advanced ESL and ELL students will enjoy the stories and review their grammar usage at the same time when using this site. Reading teachers looking for a way to practice with context clues will find this site a refreshing change. Use this site as a complement to reading stories using sentence strips. Have your students create their own story building activities following the format of this site.
Art JunctionGrade 2 to 10
- Universtiy of Florida- 9086
This is a colorful art education site that also speaks to non-art teachers. The site shares project ideas that incorporate self-expression. It also has lots of information about helping children learn to draw and paint. The site features a neat chart of the developmental stages of artistic output. In addition to art "projects," there are exercises to help children think more creatively and training exercises to look at things from multiple points of view and find unusual view of the everyday. There are also lesson plans, specific links and activities for kids and "Art Education 2.0" (for teachers who want to collaborate with other teachers). One project that's particularly appealing is "Community Stories." Schools share art projects and culture from around the world as they describe their schools and communities. Some of the activities require Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Find an art project to accompany your current unit or try the "Community Stories" link to reach out to communities you have learned about through the ESL students in your school or your world language studies.
This study tool and open content dictionary allows you to enter a web address (URL) and make all of the words on that page clickable for definitions and translation. A clicked word immediately displays its definition from the Lingro dictionary pages. The website looks visually the same within the LIngro window, but all words become clickable. You can also use Lingro to translate to and from English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Polish with more languages to be added. When students use the translation/definition tool, the site keeps a short-term record of their words and web pages, allowing them to study their own wordlists and to play games with these words. The wordlist and history feature only works short-term and at the SAME computer, unless you register for free to be able to take your personal history to any computer. With the translation capability, you can read websites in other languages. If you spell a word incorrectly, Lingro has a "best match" feature which finds likely definitions for your word of choice. There is also a tool to create electronic flash card type games from your saved wordlists.
Important technical note: Lingro cannot “see” words included in Flash interactives such as the “What’s New” rotating content on the TeachersFirst home page. If you RIGHT click on an area of text and see “About Adobe Flash Player…,” this means that the text is displayed in Flash and not “legible” to Lingro. Often pages offer a non-Flash version as an alternative.
In the Classroom: When your ESL/ELL, learning support, or weaker readersdo internet research on sites above their independent reading level, have them open Lingro first and then enter the URL(web address) they wish to read. Mark this site as a favorite on your classroom computer or on your teacher web page so that ESL/Ell, world language students, or weaker readers can use the definition and translation feature and benefit from instantly-created word lists. If your school permits individual student accounts on web tools, this is a good one. If not, create a single teacher account to compile class word lists.
This website shows how the solar system rotates as time passes. Click "Visible" Solar System to start the simulation. Use the date and time controls to manipulate “time.” You can also see the skies from the ground, view the sun in relation to the earth and other planets, and more. Students will marvel at the comet simulation and the comet and eclipse predictors. The website also features information on each separate planet and alternate historical views of the solar system, including the Copernican and the Jovian. The site requires JAVA. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to show students how the night sky changes as the hours pass. Since the print is small, have students use the whteboard pens to cirle things or point out special features of the "sky." There is a Notes for Teachers link that provides descriptions of each activity and some ideas to incorporate the activities into your class.
Use this website when teaching ESL/ELL students about space and the solar system since this website is highly visual and contains few words.
This highly motivating site has many interactive language review activities. Most of the review does presuppose quite a bit of language study in the target language. There are currently 36 languages to choose from. (From matching games to picture recognition to translation practice, the site offers fairly sophisticated word practice. A flag-country matching game is of general interest to all students, not just language learners. There are many advantages in using this site for ESL or ELL students. The main advantage is the capability to choose a different language for questions and answers, thus assuring specific understanding of specific words with the definitions in their first language. This site requires JAVA. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Mark this site in Favorites on your classroom computers for ESL and ELL students.. Provide information about this site to foreign language teachers in your school. This is a wonderful site to list in your class newsletter (if applicable) or on your class website.
This writing site encourages children to use their creativity to finish stories. Select the type of story to write or choose to complete a limerick from its first line. Seasonal story prompts include a variety of common holidays. There are also prompts for poetry writing. Some stories can be written on the computer and require FLASH.Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use simple story writing for beginning keyboarding or write a whole-class story on your interactive whiteboard. Have ESL students write their own stories to reinforce their writing, grammar, and reading development. Share the site on your teacher web page as an at-home activity during school breaks and snow days!
Children will enjoy these short interactive stories on a variety of high-interest subjects such as animals, magic, holidays, princesses etc. Some stories rhyme and soem have lovely, hand-made illustrations. To encourage children to write, a story tool called Adlib is available with hints about what the required parts of speech mean. Children who write using Adlib can see their stories instantly appear on the computer! Ignore the repeated mentions of "Kids Voyager" unless you want to pay for this read-aloud service. Unfortunately, the stories do not include reading levels. If you cannot tell, check them by simply copying the pasting the URL for the first page into this online reading level checker. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: ESL students and emergent readers will enjoy seeing the words of the stories as they hear the words read by a big buddy or other helper. Beginning readers would benefit from hearing slightly more advanced readers voice the stories; try a collaborative project with another grade. Try recording students as they read, as well. Make this story site a classroom center or computer cluster option for reluctant readers. Another option: share a story on an interactive whiteboard so students can highlight words with certain consonant clusters, etc.
LiteractiveGrade K to 3
- Entertainment & Information Industries Ltd - 8891
This site assists beginning readers by providing screen sized, illustrated stories with limited rhyming vocabulary. You are required to go through a free registration. You can play rhyming games with the newly-learned words. The site also has a sections of stories for ESL and ELL students, guided reading for kindergarten students, downloadable traditional picture books, e-poetry, and many learning activities! Some of the topics of the learning activities include Match the Sounds, Sequence Game, and several others. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Provide this link in your class newsletter and on your class website, so parents can reinforce the reading skills you are teaching their children in school. Share the activities link with your students on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have your students explore the activities with a partner on your classroom computer center or cluster.
This official website for author Meg Cabot is a tool to encourage journal writing. It has journal writing tips, downloadable journal pages, a bibliography of other journal selections, an opportunity to journal with the author, and more. This website requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use this site to encourage daily writing. Help students improve their sentence structure and use grammar painlessly through frequent personal writing. ESL and ELL students will enjoy journal-writing as a safe place to practice without corrections. Some journal-writing can also take place on classroom blogs, though you may want to keep uncorrected student blogs behind passwords until students are comfortable with the more public setting.
There are LOTS of word games here for all abilities and levels of understanding. The crossword puzzle sites are cool, and there are great ideas for kids like palindromes, writing your name in exotic alphabets, word oddities, and tongue twisters. There are even word games in other languages. Cautionary note: there is one area, "Online Games and Video Games," you might want to steer students away from. It is filled with games hints for other types of games, not related to words. ESL/ELL, world language, and learning support students will find these games helpful for building spelling and vocabulary.
In the Classroom: This would make a fantastic learning center, extra credit, or enrichment for the kid who finishes first. You can create your own worksheet using links from this site and have students do them like "cyber" stations right on the web. Have them check off each site as they have completed something there. They will be learning vocabulary, spelling, and more about words than they even realize.
This page provides lots of info and resources for using reader's theater in conjunction with plays, manuscripts, and folktales. Besides displaying Shephard's books for sale, click on Aaron's Extras to find scripts for plays and tales you can use in the classroom. Other offerings include worksheets, examples of scripting sheets you can use or learn to do it yourself, tips for using RT, and links to other references. You can search among the many materials available by genre, country, historical period, theme, etc.
In the Classroom: Use this website to find hints on how to dramatize the literature or folklore you're studying in the classroom. ESL students will find using Reader's Theater particularly helpful as they can read, speak, and listen to the materials and have more chances at comprehension. Similarly, students who are visual or oral learners will benefit from the multi-sensory presentations.
This site gives students a Latinized name and then quizzes them on the meanings of Latin words. THere are a three levels of difficulty, three "books," and 32 chapters of difficulty. Music accompanies the quizzes but can be turned off from the music speaker icon. Students can choose more than one answer if they make errors, but there is a short time limit. After the errors, the quiz shows the correct answer. A serious level of Latin is used in the higher chapters and books.
In the Classroom: Use this site for your Latin students to review what they're memorizing and when they're translating. ESL students might find learning some of the easier Latin roots valuable since so many English and European languages share the base forms.
This site offers an easy to use online tool to create a photo album in minutes. Choose a theme and customize with your photos. Print, email or save the brochure to print at a later date. Be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker so you can “see” all the site content. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This site would work well for an individual or pairs of students. Take digital pictures of a science experiment or other class activity, write captions for each picture and create an album page. Combine the pages into a class book. This would be a great way to "collect" nature specimens or document biodiversity in the school yard without disturbing any flora or fauna. Special ed, ESL, ELL, speech/language, or world language teachers teachers would also like the options for student-created or personalized, illustrated vocabulary guides. Create one together with your students or assign them to make one as an assessment. Elementary teachers will love the possibilities for Mother's Day gifts!
Alphabet OrganizerGrade K to 12
- Read Write Think (Iron Monkey Interactive)- 8664
This Alphabet Organizer makes learning words and terminology exciting-- and organized. All levels may use this--from primary students learning the alphabet to secondary students learning advanced vocabulary. On the interactive keypad, key in the beginning letter of a word. Key in the rest of the word on the blanks provided. You also have the option of typing in the word's meaning. When your list is entered, you may choose a booklet or a chart format for the presentation of your information. Studying content-area words or vocabulary meanings have never been so easy.
In the Classroom: Think outside the 'box' when considering this application. Teachers may opt to teach the elements of the story through entering character traits, setting, plot events, etc., then printing a chart to teach those concepts. Special Ed or ESL/ELL teachers and teachers will love using this organizer to help students organize new words they must learn. If students use a three-ring notebook, new words can be added over time. Mark this tool as a favorite on your classroom computer for students to access as needed.
LocationGrade K to 2
- National Grid for Learning (UK)- 8598
This interactive site teaches young children about location and position. Pictures of toys are used to demonstrate various locations or positions (i.e. above, to the left, or inside). There are three main lessons - all are easy to use, interactive and motivational. Note that the lessons require reading basic words. This website requires Flash, get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Use this website as a learning center. Speech/language teachers and ESL teachers can also use the activities to practice reading, saying, and understanding basic "position" words with students. If you have an interactive whiteboard, students will LOVE practicing the skills in small groups.
Beloved children's author Robert Munsch offers many of his stories/books here in audio format. All students, including ESL students, will enjoy hearing these stories as they read along. Users must have the capability of listening through an MP3 player.
In the Classroom: Set up these recordings as a center with the book at hand and headphones for the students (see download tips below). Or play them for the whole class with your speakers turned up after lunch or at the end of the day. Include the link on your teacher web page and newsletter for parents, as well.
You must first click that you agree to the terms of use, then DOWNLOAD the files (SAVE to your desktop for easy access and delete after use). The "Terms of Use" appear in a pop-up, so make sure your pop-up blockers is turned off. The files will play with Windows Media Player, iTunes, or Real Player, whichever you have.
Finally, a rich resource of proverbs to use for classroom bulletin boards, quotes of the day, and, most importantly: teaching figurative language and idioms. Find proverbs alphabetically, by topic, or by author. Click for the Spanish version of the site, as well. Spanish teachers will love this way of teaching the nuances of the language. If you teach about Ben Franklin, you could spend a full class on his proverbial sayings found here. ESL/ELL students will benefit from exposure to the idioms included in the proverbs, as well.
In the Classroom: Ask students to find three proverbs unknown to them and explain them visually on a PowerPoint slide (can easily be printed into a big book or poster). Feature a proverb a week in your classroom or on a bulletin board to build analogous thinking, cultural literacy, and inferencing skills as you ask students to explain what it means. This will gently ease your concrete thinkers into broader understanding.
Simple English Wikipedia is a new production of Wikipedia, focused on readers and learners with less vocabulary than native speakers of English. According to the producer, the pages featured here contain simpler words and shorter sentences than the regular Wiki pages. The number of pages is more limited as well, though this should grow with educators and learners contributing information. Another difference is that any slangs or idiomatic language is carefully explained to accommodate the ELL reader. The HELP pages explain how to write and submit articles for Simple English Wikipedia and have suggestions for simplifying English.
In the Classroom: Share this site with your school ESL teachers as well as classroom teachers who may have ESL students who are involved in researching and possibly even writing new articles. Bookmark this for your classroom computer. If you do recommend wikipedia as a source for research, be sure to have the discussion about its unknown authorship and usefulness as a general information tool but not as a "scholarly" resource.
As a challenge to your better writers, consider asking them to write entries that you can submit to this encyclopedia on classroom topics in simpler English. They will have to analyze their own language and writing style with far greater scrutiny than ever before. Or have the class create a two-version wiki glossary of your own on curriculum topics in any discipline, using this as a model for the "easy reading" side.
Teachers can generate their own personalized word wall worksheet, customized to the words they enter. This online tool allows you to generate word shape worksheets with the word list at the top of the page and the word shapes below. Students then fill in the appropriate word from their word list.
In the Classroom: Special education teachers, ESL teachers, or regular teachers with students who are dysgraphically- or dyslexically-challenged will find this a valuable tool. Any student who learns visually would find this helpful in learning their spelling words. This tool generates the worksheet quickly.
ESL students or foreign language learners (French, Spanish, or German) can learn and/or review names of body parts by playing interactive games on this UK-originated site. In addition to the four main games, there is an interactive dictionary which supplements the learning of parts of the body. There are also downloadable worksheets of body part activities. Simply click the Launch button to start the games. This site requires Adobe Acrobat for the pdf worksheets and also FLASH. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.. One caveat about the site is that the directions for the games are in the target language, so at times beginning the game is a bit confusing. There are standards on this site, but they are for the UK.
In the Classroom: Have your students review names for body parts and/or learn the language of directions. Include the link on your teacher web page for review or independent practice both in and out of school. Students must be able to SPELL and type the answers, so basic keyboarding is a must. Directions are in written form, so non-readers should use a different site for practice.
This Website is designed to meet the needs of schools that would like to offer foreign languages but have no language. It serves as an introductory-level course in French, German, or Spanish. Each 10-15 minute lesson presents many words, with emphasis on the spoken word rather than the written word. Teachers of gifted may have students who want to learn a language as independent study using this site. This site requires Adobe Acrobat Reader and Windows Media Player. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Share the videos as a whole-class lesson on a projector. You will need speakers for the audio portions of this site. Include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access as a reference. As you study different continents or cultures, include a little of the language to expose your students to the "sounds" of other places. If you have ESL students in your class, share a video for the native English speakers to better understand the experience of learning a new language.
This multi-level lesson plan for ESL students offers opportunities for vocabulary development, reading, writing, and cultural sharing by responding to stories and books about kites. Primary grade tecahers could also use it in a unit on weather or as an interdisciplinary science/language arts activity. Because of its high interest level, it motivates students to participate in understanding new words and in expressing their ideas about the books they read and the techniques and history of kite flying in their countries. Students also read and talk about kite safety rules and examine websites about kites. Writing opportunities include writing rules,original stories, cultural histories haiku, and diamante poems. Students also get to design, make, decorate and fly their own kites.
In the Classroom: Plan a kite day in the fall or spring and use all or part of these plans to learn new words, build kites, and even fly them before you write about them. This would be a terrific activity to include parents at school year's end.
Create a snowman on this interactive site by dragging the parts of the snowman to the appropriate area on the snowman. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: This site is ideal for an interactive whiteboard. Provide practice following oral directions or identifying specific items for speech, ESL and special education students.
The National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services has indexed a plethora of songs and midis in the belief that music is good for health! Enjoy the golden oldies, children's songs, holiday pieces, patriotic tunes, and everyone's favorites. Read the lyrics and sing along to the tune as it plays. Besides the genre categorization, the index also lists titles alphabetically. An additional feature is the "Guess this Tune" game. NIEHS carefully screens song selection so that teachers can be assured of the quality of the choices. This site requires Quick time. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: You might need headphones or speakers for this site. Songs are a wonderful tool to use with ESL students who often memorize songs more quickly than lists of vocabulary words. Singing helps improve accents as well. Primary grade teachers and those working with speech and language will also find this site useful. Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page for students to use independently.
Some of the songs would also be great background for a class skit or play in primary grades. Turn up your speakers and play a patriotic song as your students act out a patriotic skit in social studies class.
Download audio recording of books and poetry in the public domain (free from copyright issues). All books are read and recorded by volunteers for this site. You need Quicktime to listen on the computer. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.Several options are available for downloading, including podcasts. Hear selections read in other languages (Note that the public domain applies in the U.S. and may not in other languages/ countries). Users can search for works by category, genre, author, title, or reader. The site welcomes volunteer readers. The collection is constantly growing, so check back often.
In the Classroom: Use these for read-along listening, to help weaker readers or ESL/ELL students, or to practice listening and pronunciation. World language and literature teachers can play poetry or passages from lit texts in class or assign them as homework. Make sure you have headphones or speakers for your computer, if needed. High school club advisers might like to offer this as a service opportunity for students to become readers.
These online basic literacy exerciese include writing a check, reading a map, filling in a time sheet, and filling out a form. ESL students, transitional Special Ed students, and any student at a basic literacy level would benefit from these illustrated auditory instructions. There are also downloadable printed sheets of the same information.
In the Classroom: Let your students play and replay the modules (with headphones!) until they believe they understand, then try thr online or prinatble exercises for practice and comprehension check. You could also do the activities together with a class on a projector or interactive whiteboard.
This free site allows users to learn German, Spanish, or ESL (English) online by studying vocabulary and hearing it pronounced. Students can select English-Spanish or Spanish-English for example. In addition to learning word by word, viewers can select the conjugation approach and focus on verb forms. In this section, students must complete a sentence by inputting the correct verb tense in their selected language. Teacher-users can create their own lessons based on their needs, their previous results in the training, or their own ideas. A free login is required to participate in the lesson-creation section. This website will soon offer other languages, vocabulary and verb conjugations. There are some ads to ignore, but they are not obtrusive.
In the Classroom: Set up your own language reviews with this site. You can also encourage students to make their own lessons to review items they are having difficulty with. Ask each student group to create a challenge for the rest of the class and have a review day where groups try the others' challenges in a lab or on laptops. For safety reasons, it is best to have students use a single account created by the teacher.
This is an interactive spelling game with easy to follow directions for individual and partner play. Choose a topic and picture. Spell the word, dial the letters, and check the answer. The directions are all out loud, so even weaker readers can play. Flash is required. The site is entirely done in Flash, so make sure oyu have this plug-in. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: TURN UP your speakers, then bookmark this web site on a classroom computer or laptop (if available) for students to use as a center or extra practice. Assign partners of similar skill so one student does not always win, or don’t keep score and have the better speller help sound out the letters.
Speech and Language or ESL teachers will also love this site, as it give practice with basic vocabulary-- and it TALKS! Students can roll the mouse over pictures, hear the word, and try to spell it as they repeat it aloud.
This simple site provides an interactive story of the "Brementown Musicians." You may read the story in text or interactive (Flash) format, or play a simple game (the game is a memory/logic activity). The interactive (Flash) story provides audio, so even early readers and ESL or ELL students can participate in reading the story (with headsets, of course). The audio can be turned OFF. The story includes some animated pictures. Follow the arrows to go to the next page.
Be aware that this site does include some appropriate advertisements. The site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this fairy tale on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Turn down the volume (or turn it off), and have students take turns reading the pages to the class. Challenge your students to write new endings for the story. Use the story to teach students about plot, characters, conflict, setting, and other key elements in a story. Create a story map on your interactive whiteboard, pausing to switch between the interactive version and your story map as the story plays aloud!
This compilation site describes websites that use music to teach language skills. Not only useful for limited English speakers, this site offers ideas for elementary teachers, as well, with specific songs and suggestions for including music as part of a regular lesson. You will find that addressing musical/rhythmic intelligence may draw in students who otherwise struggle. And all of them will find the different approach a refreshing change.
In the Classroom: Make music a part of every day teaching by using some of these great sites and ideas! Your music teacher may even be willing to reinforce both his/her curriculum and your by singing some of the songs in music class. Why not ask?
This online language lab/library has made classic poems and other literature available for listeners to hear and read. It is searchable by genre, authors, and titles. For younger children, it has nursery rhymes and tongue twisters. Besides literature, it contains non-fiction writings, mostly by political figures as well as famous plays. Difficulty level is indicated for each recording, ranging from beginning to advanced. The audio player is downloadable at the site. Help your learning support students or challenged readers by letting them listen to texts. Recordings are made by volunteers. Your service club may want to help record some texts for fellow students, as well.
In the Classroom: Make sure you turn on your speakers or have headphones available. You can copy the exact URL or make a shortcut directly to a listening selection for your elementary or ESL students to listen in the lab or at a classroom center.
If your computers are "locked down" preventing downloads, you may have to request that tech help install the player.
For complete scripts of hundreds of movies, check here. Many have stage directions and producer/director notes as well as actual actor/actress parts. There is no charge for downloading, and the site works fairly quickly.Teach script-writing or use the scripts to help your ESL students understand films they will be watching.
In the Classroom: As part of your film-study class or a lit class, ask students to analyze the differences between dialog written in prose and in script form. What does the script do that a book passage cannot? If you do teach film, this site is a MUST link from your teacher web page.
Try this online simulation to teach about genetics, biodiversity, and disease resistance among tigers. This is a "hands-on" activity that forces students to think about the repercussions of environmental and genetic factors. You can turn off the sound, if it starts to get to you, but the animated simulation both displays and reads the text, a helpful touch for differentiating for ESL or learning support students.
In the Classroom: Let students navigate the activities themselves on lab or laptop computers. You could even assign it as homework if everyone has internet access. Be sure to follow up with some discussion or written activity to hold students accountable for more than click-madness.
Hear English pronunciation and read about exactly how the moouth forms the sounds on this very thorough site. This can help you with ESL students or English-speakers having difficulty with articulation. Requires Real Player to play the sound files.
Learn the basics of Polish. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Polish-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools.
Learn the basics of Russian. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Russian-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools.
Learn the basics of Portuguese. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Portuguese-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools.
Learn the basics of many languages, including may less-common ones. This could be very helpful for working with ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using these tools.
Long known to improve accents and intonations, singing with limited English speakers also provides cultural knowledge, fun, and a whole-language way to assist students to memorize English in meaningful chunks. Mainly an alphabetical index to many enjoyable songs, this site also gives suggestions about how to use the lyrics to help improve the students' English.
In the Classroom: Find lyrics to any song you want! Share this link with your students themselves, They may want to look up some songs they have heard and did not fully understand.
This lesson plan helps students appreciate poetry, learn sequence, understand rhyming words, practice summarizing and retelling the story, and develop appreciation of characters and humor in poetry. The steps in this lesson, which can be used with very beginning ESL students, can easily be adapted for use with other short literature and poems. Accompanying visuals include picture cards of the characters. The same lesson would be great for speech/language classes or pre-reading.
In the Classroom: Help students develop a love of poetry and memorization by using this circle story approach to a favorite poem! Add the music, if you know it.
ESL/ELL and other students learn vocabulary about hurricanes in this interactive lesson that mandates student performance on the artistic, oral, written, and recognition levels. Using a combination of written materials, videos, downloaded materials, and related experiences, students add to their active word list, their science knowledge, and emergency preparedness; a KWL activity ties the various parts of the lesson together and makes it interesting to them. The plan includes multi-level assessment tools in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
In the Classroom: Further weather lessons or emergency procedures could be a spinoff from this lesson design.
Read the tips on this web page or download a single sheet of suggestions to make reading together fun and funny for parents and kids together, while encouraging the skills to make a lifelong reader. Teachers can download the tips for third grade in NINE languages in addition to English to print out and send home with your ESL/ELL students. Their parents will appreciate the opportunity to participate in their learning, and everyone wins. Printables require Acrobat Reader.
In the Classroom: As students approach their first high-stakes testing, every little bit helps. Give these tips out at conferences, in backpacks, or as a link on your teacher web page.
Read this web page or download a single sheet of suggestions to make reading together fun and funny for parents and kids together, while encouraging the skills to make a lifelong reader. Teachers can download the tips for th in NINE languages in addition to English to print out and send home with your ESL/ELL students. Their parents will appreciate the opportunity to participate in their learning, and everyone wins. Printables require Acrobat Reader.
In the Classroom: Bring in the parents to help prepare children for third grade reading testing by getting them involved. Send home the printable, give it out at conferences, and/or include the link on your teacher web page. Everyone will win!
Read this web page or download a single sheet of suggestions to make reading together fun and funny for parents and kids together, while encouraging the skills to make a lifelong reader. Teachers can download the tips for first grade in NINE languages in addition to English to print out and send home with your ESL/ELL students. Their parents will appreciate the opportunity to participate in their learning, and everyone wins. Printables require Acrobat Reader.
In the Classroom: Send these home in the backpack parade or include the link from your teacher web page (or both).
Read this web page or download a single sheet of suggestions to make reading together fun and funny, while encouraging the skills to make a lifelong reader. Teachers can download the tips in NINE languages in addition to English to print out and send home with your ESL/ELL students. Their parents will appreciate the opportunity to participate in their learning, and everyone wins. Printable require Acrobat Reader.
In the Classroom: Send these home in the backpack parade or include the link from your teacher web page (or both).
Sounds of EnglishGrade K to 12
- Sharon Widmayer and Holly Gray- 6782
Based on the classic ESL textbook for pronunciation, this site offers pronunciation practice, illustrations of mouth and tongue placement for formation of English sounds as well as written explanations of the placement, activities, handouts, and tips for teachers concerned with correcting pronunciation. SOE uses Quick Time for video clips of the pronunciation of all basic sounds. A bonus feature is that this site includes many printable handouts, pronunciation guides, and games.
In the Classroom: Check out the Tips for Teachers section for fun ways to teach correct pronunciation; no special training is needed!! Sing, hum, and play your way to helping children with pronunciation issues.
This Google feature allows international or ESL/ELL students to search for specifically designated pages (i.e., newspapers) in their own languages (i.e., French or Swahili) produced in specific countries (Ivory Coast or Kenya). Options include setting the interface to any language, getting on-the-spot translation, and also viewing the home country Google interface (i.e., www.google.cg – Republique du Congo) without having to import language scripts for the computer.
In the Classroom: Could be used as an exciting tool in the foreign language classroom! You may have to talk to your network adiministrator on filtered school district networks, if they have blocked translation tools to prevent students from "doing" assignments via these tools. This is a challenging choice to make: enable cheating vs. enabling a valuable learning tool.
This lesson gives ESL and elementary students an opportunity to practice and memorize their new addresses and phone numbers, practice listening and speaking by "phoning" each other, learn the names of common occupations, and add to their list of survival skills by being able to ask for help if they get lost.
In the Classroom: Invite a policeman or school traffic control person to talk to the class about the importance of knowing addresses and phone numbers. Encouraging interaction between children and those in the helping professions will give the children and newcomers to the country confidence in asking questions if they need help!
The fast-loading picture dictionary feature of this page organizes words into commonly-taught language categories such as animals, occupations, and food; as a plus, it offers pronunciation for each word. The large-sized photographs of each term make the unknown word name easy to find. The site requires FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: A great site to bookmark on classroom computers for beginning language learners and slow readers. Speech and language clinicians may find it helpful in teaching vocabulary and categorization of concepts, as well. Make sure you have speakers or headphones attached to your computer.
This unique dictionary brings up the word and its definitions as you type. One word may have as many as ten different definitions. It also features other words with the same root so that users can see the noun, verb, and adjective forms, as well as other related terms. Learning support students might find this more helpful in figuring out correct spelling without the confusion of spell-check dictionaries that misunderstand their intent. Another bonus to this site is a translating dictionary from English to Japanese, highly useful for Japanese ESL students.
In the Classroom: A fun site when working on word form study. Keep this one in the Favorites on your classroom computer for anyone to determine spelling as they type, using trial and error to see their options.
This detailed lesson plans gives high beginning and intermediate ESL students or general social studies classes opportunities to learn about American New Year’s customs, share experiences about their cultures’ New Year’s practices, practice skimming for answers, practice asking questions and responding to other students’ oral descriptions. Although the plan can be easily adapted for students just beginning to learn about English and American culture, plenty of vocabulary and listening practice about a topic that’s interesting to every culture ensures everyone will learn something!
In the Classroom: Students can improve listening skills while learning about American holiday customs. Use this lesson as an opportunity for the class to find out about New Year customs in other cultures.
Fearless FriedaGrade 1 to 3
- Cognitive Concepts, Inc.- 6480
Improving spelling skills doesn't have to be a grueling process. Slip on the headphones, listen to the words Fearless Frieda yells, then correctly type them to keep Frieda on her feet. Users can listen to the sound of each letter as it is entered, making this an excellent activity for ESL or EFL students.
Play and LearnGrade 1 to 5
- Literacy Center Education Network- 6311
Practice basic skills in recognizing colors, shapes, numbers, upper/lower case letters, and simple vocabulary words with this interactive, multimedia site. Excellent for early elementary, ESL, and beginning foreign language students. Headphones required. Available in Spanish, German, and French. This site requires FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
This teacher-created WebQuest asks students to assume the role of an immigrant or immigration officer at Ellis Island. After collecting information from kid-friendly online sources, students must complete a series of diary entries using a downloadable template. Originally designed for ESL students, this activity uses click-and-drag vocabulary reviews, a downloadable worksheet to guide research, and an easy-to-understand student rubric.
Reinforce basic English language vocabulary with this collection of challenging interactive games. Students can investigate selected word topics (plurals, past tense, ordinal and cardinal numbers, etc.) using click-and-drag games, concentration-style matching activities, or speed-spelling challenges.
This collection of interactive matching games addresses general knowledge (including currency, animals, foods, and geography), phrasal verbs, synonyms, antonyms, and some challenging "mystery" topics that cover information vital for students who are learning the English language.
Students can practice the formation of adjectives and adverbs, check their answers, and keep track of right and wrong responses with this interactive quiz. Accurate keyboarding skills are a plus for this activity. Also useful for ESL students.
Although this on-line resource was designed for ESL students, many of the interactive quizzes are ideal for pretesting or reviewing at any level. Quiz topics include prepositions, contractions, error corrections, pronouns, verbs, and word choice. Levels range from easy to difficult. Project in the classroom for a quick warm-up activity, or make available as a learning station for grammar skills practice.
This simple yet engaging website challenges students to identify synonyms. Students enter Sam's Lab, where her dog is waiting to play along. Sam presents students with a word and two blank spaces. Students must identify two synonyms that describe the word that Sam has presented. There are arrows students click to display the choices. There are only three choices for each blank, and students can hear the audio readings of each word by clicking on the word. This simple assistance helps less fluent readers, special education students, ESL, and ELL students. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this as an anticipatory set for a lesson on synonyms. Display Sam's Lab on your interactive whiteboard or projector and have students play along at their seats. Have students take turns coming up and choosing the answers. Then use this site to create a learning center for students to practice synonyms. Allow students to explore this site during indoor recess or for reinforcement of understanding. Provide this link in your class newsletter or on your class website for at-home synonym practice.
This website offers a compilation of links to interactive stories designed in the categories of Beginning Readers, Classic Stories, and Older Readers. The site was created by Johnnie Wilson, a mentor math coach and former 5th grade teacher. He has found the "best of the best" interactive stories and activities on the web! The reading levels vary, so preview the stories before sharing them with your students. This site does require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: What a fabulous way to share classic stories, fables, fairy tales, and myths! Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce your students to these wonderful stories. Use this website in your language arts classes, special education classes, with your ESL and ELL students to share these classic stories, or the other topics provided. Challenge your gifted students to create new "classics." Have students investigate the sites on their own (using headsets). Save this site as a favorite on your classroom computers. With elementary students use this site during your language arts block, use this website as a learning center for students to explore independently. (Be sure to provide headsets). Don't forget to list this link in your class newsletter or on your class website, so students can practice their reading skills at home or maintain skills during vacations.
This children's site from the Mexican government introduces elementary students to Mexican history, culture, and customs. It is written as toward an audience of Mexican children (using "our country" to refer to Mexico). Originally written in Spanish, the English translation occasionally has unusual sentence structure. Some of the additional historical information could also be used for middle school studies of national histories. The site could also be used in conjunction with study of the American southwest. If you have bilingual or ESL/ELL classes (English/Spanish), this site has the convenient option of both English and Spanish versions. The button on the SPANISH site to access the English does not work, so start from the English side.
In the Classroom: Use the site for a web scavenger hunt to find answers to basic questions about Mexico and its history or assign students to work with partners to become experts on one aspect of Mexico. This is also a good reference site to include among sites about many countries of North America as you study the continents and assign research projects.
Learn the basics of Arabic. This could be very helpful for teachers working with Arabic-speaking ESL/ELL students or for your English-speaking students who are curious about other languages. Gifted students might enjoy comparing languages using this site and other tools.Requires Quicktime to hear pronunciations.
This site offers FREE audio episodes teaching numerous languages: Irish, Italian, Polish, Danish, Russian, Greek, French, and countless others! Featured shows have titles like "Coffee Break Spanish" and "One Minute French." Some of the programs require students to subscribe using a simple form, but most do not require any registration. They can then search the entire lesson content or just search by language. Focus languages include Spanish, French, German, Italian, English, and many other languages, primarily European, though Mandarin and Japanese podcasts are also available. Students will love being able to load the lessons on their Ipods, mobile phones, and computers! The "Guided Tour" section of the page allows students and teachers to learn how to use the site and focus on whatever their particular aims for study are. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this site, on your interactive whiteboard or projector, with world language students, particularly independent learners at whom the site is aimed. Students getting ready to take school-sponsored trips to European countries, for example, could benefit from the quick introduction and easy access this site provides to simple language lessons. ESL and ELL students will enjoy using the English podcasts as supplements to their in-school English instruction. Why not challenge students to create their own language podcasts using a site such as Podomatic (reviewed here).
Teacher's First Edge Review: For serious tech users. Create free comic strips from flickr pictures. Search tags in flickr or search by user to choose pictures then add words in the caption bubbles. If you use flickr reviewed here, you can set up your own tagged collection of images for students to use, as well. Quickly publish, email, or embed your comic strip. This site requires Flash. here.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Knowledge of use of tags and familiarity with flickr is required. Each picture is labeled with the title and the picture creator’s name.
How to use: Type in the name of a topic in the tag area or the name of a known flickr user. Entering information into both fields is not required. Pictures will appear in the top area. Choose a picture you wish to use by clicking on it. To add another picture, choose the options in "Add frames." Drag a caption bubble onto the picture and type in your caption. Easily delete pictures by clicking the “Delete” button at the bottom of the picture. When finished, click "Publish." Comics can be deleted afterward, and sharing gives the option for sending an email link or using an embed code to include within a website or blog.
Safety/Security: Clicking on "...or visit the archive" takes you to other users’ content. The archive of this site includes changing “featured” content contributed by the general public and may not be suitable for the classroom or may cause a distraction.
No login or password is required, but publishing requires a name to be entered. Be sure to know the rules and safety concerns of your district before entering any student names. Consider creating anonymous ways to enter names in order to track student contributions. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.
Possible uses: Use this site for students to take pictures of lab experiment steps and explain the experiment or the concepts behind the experiment. Students can create a story using pictures taken from home and uploaded to a class flickr account. Any school subject can easily use the comic strip generator to show knowledge learned in class. World language or ESL/ELL students can create dialog strips. Reinforce vocabulary by having students create strips with characters using the new words. Assess student understanding of concepts by providing a collection of tagged photos on Flickr and having the class create a Bubblr strip on the interactive whiteboard (collaborating for a whole-class or group grade). Share completed strips on your class web page or wiki.
Example created for review: embed code: or link: Angiosperms by Mrs. Maine
Everyone needs time savers. This site just made your life easier. Find pre-made flash cards using a search engine (powered by Google) from the best flash card sites on the web. Simply type in your topic in the search line and in seconds, you will have a list of flash card sites that feature your topic. Click on the links, and you have pre-made electronic flash cards at your fingertips. You do not need to be signed in with the flash card sites to enjoy the benefits. Some sites are easier to navigate than others. This tool may require some time “digging” for the best! Many of the sites require Flash and/or Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share the online vocabulary words on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Students can work in pairs at a computer to enhance the flashcard learning. GED and placement test learners will find this feature most useful. Foreign language learners will find all their flash card needs are met with this site. Share this site on your class website for students to use to practice both in and out of the classroom. Use this tool with ESL/ELL students. Use this site for students to practice new science vocabulary words. Imagine the possibilities!
Get an overview of any web search visually using Spezify. Spezify is a search engine that provides both visual and verbal results for the search terms you enter. It pulls in images from Flickr and anywhere on the web as well as print excerpts, and (coming soon) video. Click on the image or text box you wish to read just as you click on text in search results lists. Visually display the "big picture" on any topic. Searching "edison inventions" brings up pictures and articles for visual learners, ELL/ESL students, or non-readers to get the gist of the topic at a quick glance. Spezify also suggests possible additional search terms and related topics across the top of the page as white text within the narrow black stripe. If you click the plus sign (+) next to one of these terms, it will add that term to your search, narrowing the results. If you click on the word itself, Spezify will search that term instead (not adding it to your previous search). There does not appear to be any specific ranking (as Google has) or sorting of the results by reputation, popularity, etc. No "about" information is provided to explain how Spezify determines which results show first. The tool is still in beta and provides a way for you to provide feedback, as well. NOTE: as with any online image search, you should be careful what you enter as search terms, since Spezify will pull up images without any "filter."
In the Classroom: Use Spezify on an interactive whiteboard or projector as you introduce a new topic in science or social studies or when the class asks "What is ____?" . With very young students or non-readers, use Spezify to help them find information they can understand and to inspire them to try to read some of the short text excerpts alongside the images. Activate students' prior knowledge as they recognize the images and remark, "I didn't know Edison was the one who invented that!" Visually show the "big picture" on any topic. As you teach research skills, try a comparison of Spezify results with Google results for both functionality of the search engine and reputability of the results. NOTE: Preview any search terms you plan to display in class if the terms could possibly bring up inappropriate images. You may need to adjust your terms. Of course your students know what they are supposed to do if something inappropriate comes up when using a search themselves, right? If you have not discussed this, now is the time!
This math glossary shows math terms and definitions in English and another selected language such as Spanish or Russian. There are also graphics that illustrate the definition. The languages offered include Armenian, Arabic, Spanish, Khmer, Russian, Chinese, Hmong, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, Korean, Vietnamese, and Khmer. Students can type a word into the search box in English, or they can scan all math terms beginning with one letter. The word is read aloud when you click the sound box icon. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this with your ESL/ELL students whose languages are included at this site. Provide this link to all students on your class website so they can look up definitions both in math class and at home. If your class is learning about a specific topic, share the definition on your interactive whiteboard or projector. In world language classes, have students use this site to practice pronunciation. Math and world language teachers could even team teach a lesson using this site. Math lovers will find the translations of some math terms intriguing, indeed.
This site offers an interactive map that displays the population and ethnicity of the counties of the United States. Readers can select various ethnic groups and find out where they settled. A drop down menu has lists of immigrant groups. The color coded map of the U.S. displays settlement locations for specified groups. Separate countries available include many Asian and European countries. African countries are not listed separately, unfortunately. Another feature allows students to move the timeline marker to show immigration in different years. The timeline includes the 1880s through the 2000s. This interactive map does require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this map on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use with your ESL/ELL students to show the class where most settlers from their specific countries go. Talk about your American students' origins and check to see where their ancestors may have settled. Use this interactive map to teach about various kinds of map making and map keys. Use this site to reinforce your students’ understanding of timelines. Have cooperative learning groups investigate a specific decade. Challenge the groups to create multimedia presentations to share with the class: blog post from a settler during their “decade” or maybe an interactive timeline of a fictitious settler family using a tool such as TimeRime (explained here).
Woices (beta)Grade 4 to 12
- Woices Enterprise, S.L.- 10000
TeachersFirst Edge Review: for moderately adventurous technology users. This site, still in beta, offers a FREE service that allows you to create and share "echoes." Echoes are words (audio recordings), left by anyone at any place, and can be played over and over by any visitors who find them. Listeners will feel as if they are really there! Echoes can be anything from personal memories, personal messages to a class, history or art related annotations of a place, music to accompany that place, or any kind of audio you can connect to a location. The audio recordings are linked to geographic locations or real-world objects (in the place where they are located). Echoes could also be fictitious accounts "placed" somewhere in the world to tell a story. Woices states that the goal of the site is to "extend reality by creating a new layer of audio information, what we call the echosphere, that will make the world a more interesting place."
You can create your own "echo" or listen to various "echoes" created by others from around the world. Click Explore to hear the echoes of the world (in every language imaginable). You do not need to join to explore and listen to others' echoes. The site uses Google Maps to share the world. Echoes are also labeled with an "e-code" for easy access by URL and listening via mobile phone. Completed echoes can be shared as an embedded device in a wiki or web page, via email, or by URL link (click Share). Here is a sample echo created by the TF Edge team. The site also includes tools for comments, blogs, forums, and other "social" aspects. This site does require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Note: Future plans for Woices (remember, it is still in beta) include integrating it to work with GPS-enabled mobile phones, so you could "listen" to locations as you visit them without knowing or searching for the e-codes -- right on your mobile phone. Imagine touring the Gettysburg battlefields or a museum with an audio guide on your mobile phone, created by other Woices users.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: No special skills are needed to listen to echoes. Just click Explore. To create your own echoes, you must register. Registration does require an email address and activation via a link sent to your email. To create your own, visit the Create link and follow the detailed instructions. The instructions include three simple steps (Put it on the Map, Give it a Name, and Send It). Step one requires you to click your location on the map. Then click Proceed to go on to the next step. At Step Two you add the title, description, tags, your photo (optional), language, and then you RECORD. Simply use your computer's built-in microphone and the site's "record" button. You can record more elaborate mp3 files using other software for later upload as an echo. You have TEN minutes of FREE recording time. Finally, click to Send It, and your new echo is on the web. The link is visible in your computer's address bar or can be emailed by clicking Share. You can also combine echoes created by you or various members of a group to form a "walk" of related echoes. Completed echoes can also be shared as an embedded device in a wiki or web page.
Note that using music or sounds from other sources could be a copyright violation. TeachersFirst editors remind you to use copyright-free music or -- better yet -- record your own.
Safety/security concerns: This is a public site, so once an "echo" is created, any user can access the information. If you are considering having students create their own echoes, you will want to be certain to adhere to your school's Acceptable Use Policy and obtain parental permission. If you are having students register independently (which may not be the best option), why not consider creating a free Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. This will allow you to control the accounts. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
This site also includes various social features (Community section) and advertisements. This is a great opportunity to teach basic Internet Safety in the context of a productive lesson. If students are working independently, be sure to have clear expectations and consequences spelled out -- then monitor activities. And remember, anything that is posted on this site, is available to any visitor on the web. There is no way to make the "echo" private. Take advantage of the Comments feature for students to respond to each other's echoes or to invite parents and others to respond. For example, if students create a local history tour, share it with older adults in the community to comment with their memories about the sites.
Possible Uses: The possibilities at this website are endless! Even the youngest of students can use this site (with assistance). In world language classes, have students LOOK for echoes from other countries, and even make some to practice language as they narrate cultural highlights of countries where their language of study is spoken. Make echoes about places you study in geography or history class. Have students create an echo tour or your own hometown and the important local historical sites (be sure to protect the identify of yourself and your students). Make a fictional echo "story" in real settings, using a sequence of links to echoes for the events in the story. Create a teacher-made echo treasure hunt of important locations for cooperative learning groups to explore. Make echoes about environmental sites or issues. Make a literary "walk" of a poet's geographic area with readings of his/her poetry "placed" in the places they describe, such as Emerson's account of Lexington and Concord. Make a mapped, narrated "walk" of the botanical species or animal habitats in your area. Make echoes about landforms. Create whole-class "I wonder" echoes about places they begin to study, ex. narrating the pueblos and asking about the people who once dwelled there. Then add more echoes as you learn. Use this site to record directions, questions, or prompts about places they should research and links they should use; then have them access the echoes at learning stations or with a substitute. Create "Echo" audio newsletters to share on your class website, connecting to the various "places" your class has been studying. Teachers could also record echoes about locations on a map to teach about map reading skills or have ELL/ESL students record echoes about places where their primary language is spoken to share with classmates. Have the students make the echoes, of course. Have students create their own echoes as "electronic" gifts for family and close friends. Why not create one celebrating moms for Mother's Day? Use this site to celebrate dad, grandparents, and other care givers also! Be sure to list this link (and relevant safety concerns about the site) on your class website for students to use at home. Include it as long breaks approach so students can work with their families, creating echoes about places they visit during family vacations or reunions.
Pinky Dinky Doo is a vibrant cartoon character who teaches children the concepts of storytelling and problem solving while simultaneously introducing them to colorful vocabulary. Have students click on the Your Story Box option to create their own imaginative story with a beginning, middle and end. As the story is created, Pinky Dinky Doo reads the story aloud while students read along as the words are highlighted on the page. Additional audio snippets make the retelling fun and even more cartoon-like. Upon completion, students can submit their stories to the Pinky Dinky Doo pod cast so they can be read by others. There are also links to Printables that include coloring pages, crafts, and other activities. Visit the Videos link to view fifteen short video clips from the show. There are also links to podcasts, interactive “games,” and a Grown-Ups link. The Grown-Ups link has an “Educational Approach” section with several classroom ideas. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Note: If you have students create their own stories, be sure to reinforce basic Internet safety concepts about protecting their identity and to obtain parent permission to place their child’s work online. Share this colorful site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Download entertaining Pinky Dinky Doo podcasts to use in a listening center. Check out the Printables, perfect for reinforcing early literacy concepts such as retelling and sequencing. Speech/language or ESL/ELL teachers can use the retelling option for vocabulary development. Allow students to watch a storytelling episode on the classroom computer and retell it by creating a comic strip of the story. Be sure to list this link on your class website, so students can access both in and of the classroom.
Teacher's first Edge Review: For moderate technology users. Need a quick and easy site for creating and sharing a story? Use Storytop to instantly create stories that tell what students have learned. Storytop is a free and easy to use service that requires users to create an account in order to save any created stories. Login requires a username and password only (no email is required.) The clip art available is simple and not extensive, but this may be better than having students choose from an extensive collection. See a quick example of a StoryTop story here.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Teachers need to be able to help students in a storytelling process from the initial idea to the storyboard of the scenes they plan to create. Other skills include being able to navigate through the controls of the site which are very easy to understand. Managing comments or creations of groups are easy, though students should be aware of their responsibilities and consequences. To share stories, click "share" and copy the link provided when you say you want to email your story to a friend. You can paste this link anywhere, including in your class wiki or simply in a teacher's list of completed stories and their links. To share online, you need to know how to add links to your class blog, wiki, or website.
Basic directions: On the screen on the left, choose items to edit such as backgrounds, objects, people/animals, weather, and text boxes. Create your scene, add your information, and make multiple pages by using the green arrows. Teachers can create a group so students can comment on the creations made by other students. Share creations through web links. You can also take snapshots of scenes by using print screen (PrtSc) function in PC or snapshot (apple/shift/4) in Mac. These images of your story can then be saved and uploaded to a blog, wiki, or website. Click the help button to read FAQ helpful in using this tool.
Currently embed codes are not given for saved stories.
Safety/security: Groups are not listed, so public and groups can only be joined when the actual group name is known. If you want students to comment on other stories, create a specific group (with a meaningful name for YOUR class) and have your students join that group. Caution students to not share the group name. Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school’s Acceptable Use Policy. You will want to discuss these features in the context of Internet Safety. The only way students can see others’ projects is through joining a group or publishing the web link online. Students must have individual accounts, but an email address is not needed. You may want to create a word doc, Favorites folder, or other “collection” of the URLS to all your students’ projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Some teachers use a class wiki with links to all projects from there. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your younger students.
Possible uses: Telling what you learned can be boring. Make it more like a story to identify what students have learned about the topic. For example, after studying air pollution, students can create a story about the source, problems caused, and solution that changed a specific pollutant from causing harm. In Biology, create a story about members of a food chain or biome. In Language Arts or world language class, create an alternate ending to a story or create your own short story. Tell the story of a famous figure in history or a day in the life of an animal. Have your students create stories for their “little buddies” in a lower grade. With younger students, create a curriculum-connected story as a whole-class activity, using you interactive whiteboard. Be sure to share the link with parents! Learning support or ESL teachers may want to create visual stories for students to narrate aloud to build vocabulary and expressive language. Create stories about any topic relevant in your subject area/class. Share the stories on your interactive whiteboard or projector.
Flash cards made easy —- sounds cliché, but this isn’t your normal flash card! Create words and meanings, organizing them into sets. Once a set is created, you may edit, add, delete, or share with others. Registration is so quick; you can create flash cards within 30 seconds. This website stores your word sets, and an easy login allows you to use them instantly. As you answer the flash cards, Cramberry tracks which cards you answer correctly. It will only flash cards that are giving you problems. Coming soon: you will be able to study on the go with a Cramberry application for your iPod or iPhone! This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Be sure to save this site in your favorites. SAT tutors need to know about Cramberry. Sign up all your students (check with school safety policy regarding this). You may want to use a teacher email account and subaccounts for registration to establish the memberships by "number" and to provide complete monitoring of what students do. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Rotate the job of “card creator” throughout the school year and have the card creator share the word set with the rest of the class. Foreign language teachers will find this a must-have for teaching new words. This site could truly be useful in any subject area that teaches new vocabulary, dates, terms, formulas, and more: history, math, science, reading, etc. Of course, ESL, ELL, and special education students would benefit from the use of this site also.
This is a great source for a massive number of pictures on the web, especially recent pictures. Students and teachers can search for pictures, video, news photos, a specific topic etc. and have many pictures to choose from. The pictures are well organized and easy to search. They are displayed in Flash, however, so you cannot download them or use them elsewhere. You CAN link to a gallery of images or display it on a projector or computer screen. To get the link for a gallery, click share, choose “email” and copy the link that appears in the email that pops open.
Be aware: this site does include some unobtrusive advertisements. Some of the slideshows and videos require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Include this site in assignments students have to prepare for presentations. Look for photos of any recent news event, even events obscure enough not to be included in American newspapers. Share an image or gallery of images on your projector or interactive whiteboard in a world language class as you discuss it in the language and learn about the culture and news in far off places. Link to certain galleries from your class web page or from student presentations to show examples of concepts and life in other places. Save this site in your favorites, for students to easily access during research projects. Use the photos as a writing prompt in current events or writing classes. Or create a visual current events “quiz” by displaying a gallery of mages and asking students to explain the background of the story. Speech or ESL/ELL teachers can also share images and ask student to talk about or describe them. Let the students select the image they wish to discuss!
Participate in a virtual frog dissection! Use the Introduction to learn why one would dissect a frog, the dissection tools, and the general structure of the leopard frog. Identify the parts of the outside of the frog and listen to explanations of the characteristics and parts being represented. Follow the directions given by video to dissect the various parts of the frog. Use the tools to follow the procedure. This site requires Flash. Get it here.
In the Classroom: For students who do not want to handle a frog, this remains a great alternative to a conventional dissection. Use this virtual dissection for comparative anatomy especially if materials are not available for use in the classroom. The audio portions will help non-readers and ESL students understand concepts while navigating on their own. Share this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Or have students work with partners (or individually) and complete this virtual dissection. It is a great way to SAVE money for your classroom! This dissection and the “supplies” are FREE.
BefuddlrGrade K to 12
- Erik Kastner and Amy Hoy- 9922
Teachers First Edge Review: For moderate technology users. Add some fun to your pictures by making them into puzzles using this free site. This easy-to-use, free site offers choices of flickr picture groups to choose from, such as "Patterns," "Hello kitty," "Water drops," and many others. Choose a picture you wish to "befuddlr." Pieces of the original picture are moved around in a new order. Continue to choose a different combination, change the lines that divide segments of the picture, and even drag a button to your toolbar to "befuddlr" any picture. Once done, use the snapshot function of your computer to take a picture. In Mac, use apple-shift-four to take a snapshot. In PC, use the print screen (Prt Sc key) function to “copy” the picture and then paste it into a document or elsewhere. You are able to submit your own photos to the site (found on Flickr, of course). Learn more about flickr, a photo storage and sharing site, in the TeachersFirst review here.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: to use the pictures provided, simply chose a “group” title, such as water drops, and click to befuddlr it. If you wish to befuddlr your own pictures, you must first upload them to flickr, so you will need to learn that simple tool. Be sure to TAG your pictures so you can FIND them again! No membership or saving are available on befuddlr. Its is an on-the-spot tool.
Safety/Security: Be sure to use your own images or copyright free images and images that are available to be built upon. If students click to choose other pictures from flickr, they could encounter ANYTHING that someone has uploaded, so be sure to guide them to the pictures you want them to use and have a stated policy and consequence for those who wander off into inappropriate places. Flickr does have anti-porn policies, but girls in bikinis, for example, are still available!
Possible uses: Use snapshots of animals, numbers, letters, or other pictures and have students scramble the pieces. Befuddlr a picture on your interactive whiteboard to start a language lesson! Students can create their own and provide hints using a variety of constraints such as no more than 5 words, a poem, using adjectives only, etc. in order to help those guessing the original picture. In Art, create new patterns for analysis. Use befuddled pictures to practice new vocabulary for young ones or for ESL and world language students. Accompany student poetry with befuddled pictures
This site offers language lessons for 4 languages: Spanish, English, French and German. The site plans to add additional languages in the future. Joining for free allows students to learn vocabulary, dialog, writing, oral skills, comprehension, and more - in a highly interactive format. Support from native speakers is a regular feature of this site using the interactive video chat capability. The range of topics includes more than 100 commonly used language situations. The site saves errors for review, lists of lessons already studied, results of those lessons, etc. This project of UNESCO's International Year for Languages offers lessons in "What you really need to know!" This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Check school policies concerning both student memberships and interaction with outsiders. You will want a written set of rules which both students and parents agree to before allowing students to navigate on their own in the portions of the site that use video chat with outsiders. Younger students (under 13) should use a teacher or class account, rather than an individual one, to avoid conflict with COPPA (child online protection act in the U.S.).
Make this site available from your class web page or as a favorite on local machines for ESL, ELL, and world language students to use to reinforce their survival and vocabulary skills. World cultures classes might even want to “taste” a bit of a language as they learn about other countries. French, German, and Spanish language students will enjoy the opportunity to "chat" with native speakers in their target study languages. (Be sure you have parent permission for students to interact with outsiders!). You will need headphones or speakers for the audio portions of this site. This site is excellent for enrichment or personal learning. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class.
This visual dictionary is a Wiki which matches definitions of a target word with photos from Flickr, Google, and Yahoo (at the time of this review). Simple click the word you would like to search into the text box, and lists of definitions as well as MANY photos appear. As more words are searched, they simply are listed above the previous search. So a student could easily search several words together and visually see them all on the same screen. The definitions in the dictionary come from "WordNet." Within the definition, many words themselves are clickable; students can immediately find the definition of any of those words as well. Students learn about parts of speech, tenses, are given examples, and more. Note: Words and definitions available are from a "general public" dictionary and may include some words not appropriate for the classroom. Teachers concerned about students' accessing obscenities or body parts should test whether school filtering blocks such inquiries before allowing students to use the dictionary independently. Alternatively, use history to enforce school acceptable use policies, supervise usage, or use the visual dictionary as a whole-class activity.
In the Classroom: As with any dictionary, this reference book contains all sorts of words including words of a sexual nature. So be sure to preview your search and give students warnings about appropriate use!
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This is very helpful for all students. However, especially for ESL and ELL students, who might need a quick picture to help define a type of tree, plant, or food not familiar to them. Why not have students create their own wiki about your current science or social studies topic (or any other subjects). Have cooperative learning groups use vocabulary words, provide the definitions, AND find some photos to share. Not sure what a wiki is? Check out the TeacherFirst Wiki Walk-Through (reviewed here).
If you haven’t been to seminars, college classes, or professional development lately, you may feel a little rusty on innovative study guides and strategies that will enhance learning. This site explains with clear language and no-frills web pages hundreds of ways to help our learners, from online test taking, memorizing, to managing stress and so much more. Another perk from this site is that it is available in over 20 different languages, so even limited English speakers can learn these helpful techniques. From this web link, you enter the “visitors center” where you grasp the impact this site has had on education. Millions of visitors benefit from its resources each year. Click on “index” at the top to access the page full of study guides and strategies options.
Each content area has successful resources that you can use.
Content areas include Preparing, Learning, Studying, Learning with Others, Online Learning/Communicating, Classroom Participation, Project Management, Research, Reading Skills, Preparing for Test, Science and Technology, Math, Resources, Vocabulary/Spelling, Writing Styles, Writing Basics, and Taking Tests. There are over 100 individual topics to explore: Time Management, Avoiding Procrastination, Learning with ADHD, Effective Study Habits, Peer Mediation, Problem Based Learning, Netiquette, Public Speaking, Citing Websites, SQ3R, KWL, Overcoming Test Anxiety, Ten Tips for Terrific Test Taking, Prefixes and Root Words, Seven Stages of Writing, and countless others!
There are some basic advertisements at this site. Flash and Acrobat Reader are needed for some of the links and can be obtained here: TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: This site is one to save in your favorites! There is so much here, it is hard to know where to begin. The language offerings provide opportunities for ESL and ELL students to learn study skills in their native language. This site could also be used in world languages classes.
Why not highlight a “study skill” each week using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students TRY it. Most of the topics provide interactive learning or another assignment to help students practice the skill. Have students work individually or with a partner to explore the “topic of the week.” These life skills are so necessary, but hard to fit into the already crammed curriculum. This site does a nice job of integrating the study skills with curriculum content. Have students create their own multimedia projects about study skills using a current unit of study from your class.
This lesson plan set uses a Latino story teller whose stories to promote tolerance and embrace diversity. Short MP3 extracts are provided, which can be heard on Windows Media Player or your computer’s chosen audio program. At the time of this review, some of the MP3 tracks include “My Own Rhythms,” “Why Do You Want To Go To College,” “Bridge Between Worlds,” and many others. With a complete lesson plans accompanying the story sections, this resource is ready to use in a variety of situations. Other lesson plan topics on ths site include : Feathers of the Wind: A Jewish-American Story, A More Perfect Union, Hidden Memory: Japanese American Internment, and several others. New lesson plans and story excerpts appear often. This site requires Windows Media Player (or similar MP3 audio player) and Adobe Acrobat. You can get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Social studies and language arts teachers will enjoy this site when talking about diversity, second generation immigrants, living between two cultural worlds, etc. Use some of the story extracts when your school is celebrating holidays around the world. Share the audio clips. And be sure to TURN UP THE VOLUME. When studying folk literature and culture, have your students search through the extracts for evidence of underlying myths and universal tales. Have your ESL students from Hispania compare their experiences to those in the stories.
Teacher's First Edge Review for moderate technology users The title says it all: "Inspired Picture Writing!" Use this free drag and drop literacy tool to create great sentences inspired by beautiful pictures. Or add inspirational or humorous captions to pictures. "Learn It" provides learning opportunities and examples for creating captions, compound sentences, or paragraphs. Advanced lesson plans for teachers are viewed in the "Learn It" tab as well. "View the Gallery" to see already-created PicLits as well as comments and ratings. After selecting a picture (or using the one they provide) and dragging a word onto the screen, choose different forms of the word by using the drop-down menu next to the word. Move your words anywhere on the screen for creative writing. You can also click “freestyle” instead to type in your own words instead of choosing from their list. Word lists change, depending on the image selected. Note: Advertisements run alongside the PicLits screen. Caution students to ignore these. Here is an example: See the full PicLit at PicLits.com
In the Classroom: Skills Required: Join the site (requires email but does NOT require that you wait for confirming mail to arrive so jump right in!). Users of PicLits must be able to navigate tabs on sites, manage logins, and use URL's and embed codes to share results on websites and blogs. Play to learn the tools before or after joining. Help also provides a short-and-sweet text explanation of the tools.
Safety/Security concerns: Registering for a PicLits account requires the use of an email address. PicLits can be used without an account but users are unable to save or blog about their creation without an account. This site allows outsiders to comment on created PicLits.
Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check your school policy. Teach about proper “netiquette” and making appropriate comments as students use this site. Set specific written class rules and consequences for interacting with outsiders. If you wish each student to have an individual account, they need to create it with an email address. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. A class account can be created instead. However, it does not show which work is attributable to which student. You may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit. All work on the site can be seen without a login. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.
Management suggestions: You may want to create a word doc, Favorites folder, or other “collection” of the URLS to all your students’ projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Some teachers use a class wiki or blog with links to all projects from there. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for your
younger students or simply use a whole-class account.
Possible Uses: Share a PicLit on your interactive whiteboard at the start of a grammar or writing lesson to discuss word choice, figures of speech, or vocabulary. Use the visual picture prompt for journal or blog writing, allowing each student to compose a unique poem or haiku. Even science classes can write about concepts illustrated in the many nature photos. Emotional support teachers will love the chance to discuss feelings and how to describe facial expressions in the pictures. Make a collection of PicLits for a curriculum topic or as a literary magazine online. ESL students can create PicLits to learn new vocabulary. Have students create PicLits for special occasions and special people (mom, dad, grandparents, school nurse, or others). Use the embed code to place your creations on many other sites, including your class wiki or blogs. Share your PicLit by using a URL or code for an embedded widget.
Be sure to save this site in your favorites for your visual learners! As its name implies, this dictionary ‘defines’ the word a student types by providing a detailed, labeled graphic. In 15 category themes, there are over 6000 images and 20,000 definitions available. Use the index for easy access to the words you need locate. Once the image is seen, click on the audio button to hear the correct pronunciation. Scroll down the page to find words and phrases that relate to the word being investigated. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Science teachers will love this site. Most of the 15 categories revolve around science terminology that benefit from images. ESL and learning support students who have difficulty with verbal definitions will also find this resource helpful. Speech and Language teachers can use the Clothing and Articles categories to build student vocabulary. Use your whiteboard alongside your science text to clarify terms. Encourage students to study for tests by perusing this site.
This site, created especially for first grade students, includes several interactive grammar lessons. Topics include "Describing Words for Colors, Size, and Shape," "Names of Days, Months, and Holidays," "Troublesome Words," "Using I and Me," and others. The lessons include audio, so most non-readers can use the interactives independently. Shockwave is required. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this site as a class activity on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work with partners to explore certain topic areas together. Or use this site to create a Language Arts center. List this site in your class newsletter or on your class website for students to use both in and out of the classroom. Your learning support and ESL teachers may also want to use it for extra practice as you work on these concepts in class.
This series of free translating dictionaries allows students to search to/from English in these languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German. Once a definition comes up in English, there are links to other dictionary pages where the word appears in a sentence. You can click on the audio button to hear the word spoken in both languages. This feature is only available in more commonly used words
There are also immediate clicks to other languages, so a student could check the same word in Spanish and French very easily. In addition to the translation dictionaries, there are also “English Dictionaries” (non-interactive) available in Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic (coming soon). Many of the foreign language dictionaries will increase in volume as the site developers add more vocabulary.
Be aware: this site does include minor advertisements. There is a link to Language Forums. It is probably best to advise students to stay away from the forums.
In the Classroom: Save this site in your favorites on your classroom computers for use by ESL/ELL and foreign language students or for use when studying derivations and word families in English (compare the same word across several languages to see how close they can be!). Students can take an active role in vocabulary preview work by using this site in prior to reading. Be sure to list this site on your class webpage so students can access this information both in and out of the classroom.
If you are introducing new vocabulary words to your foreign language class. Have them use this site to find the appropriate translations. Then have the students work in cooperative learning groups to create online vocabulary guide books using a tool such at Tikatok (reviewed here). Have the groups share the online books on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to keep the links for future students to use the guides, as well.
Read the WordsGrade 1 to 12
- Educational Utilities- 9744
Read the Words is a site that allows students to download or upload any text material in order to HEAR it. The site will read the text aloud. Languages offered include English, Spanish, and French. Students can select the speed at which the text will be read. You can use a wide variety of formats including Microsoft Word, PDF, a website URL, anything copied and pasted, or from RSS feeds. Likewise, students can listen to the oral text online, download it to the desktop or MP3 players, post readings online in several forms, and even create podcasts with the selected material. Techie students can even modify the reading avatar's appearance by selecting from those available, both male and female.
The site requires users to register for a free login. Registration requires an email address. Rather than using personal email accounts consider creating a teacher Gmail account and set up subaccounts for up to 20 students to register (by code name or number). Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: ESL and ELL, and learning support students may wish to hear as well as read their online and written assignments to improve comprehension and get pronunciation. Weaker readers in a content area class will benefit from this adapted delivery method. Spanish and French language students will also enjoy hearing their target languages. Listening from this site would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. (Dont forget the headsets!) Students with sight problems and limitations will benefit greatly from using this site with assistance. Primary teachers may want to set up links to an audio version of a story for a listening comprehension station.
RefSeek is a different search tool (beta—new in Nov, 2008) for beginning researchers as well as those already knowledgeable about the process. Although this search engine appears "plain vanilla," it is a great option for research purposes. As they explain it, they “search the entire Web for freely available academic information, providing relevant results while filtering out most commercial content.” This is different from Google’s standard search. RefSeek looks through web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers for your chosen topic. With special search features, students can also limit searches to specific web pages, search two topics (either-or option) at once, and even include search words usually dismissed by academic searches (like "the" and "if"). After starting a search, click on Directory to limit searches to certain types of publications and resources, including quotations, almanacs and teacher resources.
In the Classroom: Use this site to compare the validity of various types of reference material sources. Compare results of searches to teach critical reading skills and 21st century information literacy. Compare info from sources on this site to those in print materials. Encourage your students to use this tool for individual as well as group projects. Encourage ESL and ELL students to find sources with lower reading levels that still give the necessary information.
Come along with Leo to practice spelling in various locations. There are twelve locations to choose from (i.e. a firehouse, restaurant, farm, aquarium, zoo, airport, and others). Once at the location, students are provided with audio instructions to drag and drop upper and lower case letters into a box. The challenge is to drag and drop the same letters that are in the word under the box. As students drag and drop the letters, audio encouragement and information is provided. For example, they say the letter aloud and the word aloud to help students make connections. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Share this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore it on individual computers. This site is ideal for emergent readers, since the letters and words are read aloud. Young ESL, ELL, and special education students would also benefit from the practice available at this site. Be sure to save this site in your favorites and list this link on your class website.
Art Pad Digital Canvas is a simple drawing website that can be a valuable tool in the classroom. The site provides a blank canvas for students to create drawings using the art tools. The options are very simple. Students can paint, add text, choose a frame, and even replay their creations. This tool would be a fantastic final step, and incentive, for story publishing.
There is an option to “view other paintings.” This might be a good way to model how to use the site. Be sure to preview before sharing with your class. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: You may want to demonstrate this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. With younger students, create the "artwork" as a whole-class project on the whiteboard. What a great way to make an alphabet book with students drawing using their fingers on the board! This site is ideal for an elementary or middle school art class working with basic design concepts. Use your teacher email account for any saving, etc. so you have complete control. Students can present their published works with illustrations created on Art Pad by clicking “save and send.” For older students, save the URLs from the “save and send” function and post them on student blogs or a class wiki “gallery.” Illustrations could be used for social studies reports and any other type of presentations. You can also use the “add to this painting” function for students to collaborate by having one student start a “picture story” and pass the link to the next student to add the next sentence! Since text can be added, an entire story - verbiage and illustrations - can be created within an Art Pad painting or series of paintings. ESL/ELL students could even make illustrated vocabulary "paintings" as they learn new words. Make sure to complete all editing prior to printing...it could use a lot of colored ink.
Better yet, avoid printing altogether by using the “save and share” link. As a safety precaution use the teacher’s email account as the sender and recipient of the email for “save and send.” Then simply copy/paste the URL the site provides for direct access to the painting. The “artist” can decide whether the painting is shared in the public gallery. Check school policies before posting there.
Looking for a way to teach real shopping lessons without actually going to a store? This blog post includes links to online grocery shopping from all over the U.S. Since the stores are in business to make money they will, of course, include advertisements on their sites. Teachers will want to discuss advertising links and why students should avoid them to stay on task.
In the Classroom: Use these virtual stores to teach real-world lessons in math, FCS, ESL, ELL, and economics lessons. Special Ed teachers may also want to use these sites to help students with life skills. Have students compare pricing in online venues vs. bricks-and-mortar stores. Use the pricing to teach unit pricing, comparison shopping, percent, and more.
Teacher's First Edge Review: for moderate to advanced technology users. Use Go Animate to create interesting and memorable cartoon type presentations. Students will have fun unleashing their imagination and delivering a message through creative animation. Flash is required. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Here is a very simple animation example:
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Create an account to login, but use the application right away (without waiting for an email confirmation). Video tutorials are available, and many functions are easy to figure out once you play with them. Choose from many templates or start with a blank screen. Create your cartoon using Saturday morning cartoon characters or a variety of other characters such as presidents, commercial characters, and many others. Add your images, such as faces or background pictures and customize additional characters, sounds, etc. Control length of sections, voices and sounds, and delete or add sections through the time line along the bottom. Save your creation easily and share to your favorite social or bookmark site; copy a link to share with others, or copy and paste the embed code into your wiki, blog, or website. Creations are saved in your account online and can be kept private or made public.
Safety/Security concerns: Some scenes may be inappropriate for all students but can be deleted easily. Caution: check student creations during the process. Students will need an email address to create an account. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Also check your district's policies on displaying and sharing student work. CAUTION! This site includes the ability for the general public to submit their own animations. Be sure to preview for content inappropriate for your classroom. You may want to limit use to whole-class activities or prohibit accessing the public portion of the site. The home page has loud music and links to many “public” animation projects, so firm policies and/or practices to avoid "exploring" these are vital.
Possible uses: Students can sum up debate ideas using animated characters or present simple concepts from researched material to introduce to the class. Students can tell book report stories, create fictitious stories or present ideas in a fun format. Challenge students to use this site to tell the history of political figures, historical figures, or historical areas. Use this site to teach about chemical properties, scientific figures or discoveries, or great moments in Science through animation. In language arts class, you can use this tool to apply concepts of narrative patterns or characterization. Teachers of gifted may want to assign students to create an entire animated series. ESL/ELL or world language students could create animations to practice their new vocabulary. Why not have students create a comic strip about their mom or dad for Mother's or Father's Day or honoring someone else special in their lives - - even the school custodian, nurse, or secretary!
View articles of the day, areas around the world, or animals students recognize to learn more about issues and information through interesting articles. Each piece of information has highlighted words. Clicking on these words brings up a dictionary definition and pronunciation. Answer the question of the week. Click on "Educators" at the bottom to view standards and lesson plans. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use the information on the site as background information for additional research. The glossary feature will allow students to create individual dictionaries of new vocabulary as they read! The pronunciations allow ESL students to learn new vocabulary as they follow current events. Students can divide into groups to take an area of the world and use the site to gather information about that region for presentation to the class. Have the groups create a multimedia presentation (video, PowerPoint, or blog) to share their findings. Use this site to determine issues that seem to be affecting more than one area of the world. Use the question of the week to research possible solutions and debate or vote as a class.
This site includes online stories, short downloadable books, a story for older children, and even a spot for young writers to create their own fables. One story, The Adventures of Sticky Burr, is a comic, with continually updated, new episodes. Readers can see fables that other children have contributed by clicking on "Create Your Own." ESL, ELL, and emergent readers may find reading the short illustrated segments offered at this site less of a challenge than reading a textbook or hard copy book. NOTE: the actual fonts used in some of the books may be difficult for some younger children to read. Preview with this thought in mind before assigning a fable to a student to read alone. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
In the Classroom: Offer young readers the option of doing "outside" reading online to encourage them to read in a variety of formats, including both the fables and downloadable books. Look at one of the fables with your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students take turns reading the story aloud to the class. Share models of the “student created” stories and then challenge your students to write their own fable (either to share with the class or submit to the site). Be sure to be aware of your school’s Acceptable Use Policy on sharing or submitting what the students have written to the website. Obtain parental permission before submitting any work.
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: For moderately adventurous technology users. Simplybox is an online space for collecting pieces of content from throughout the web: parts of web pages, images, recipes, passages of text, entire web pages, etc. Each “box” can hold and arrange a mixture of contents and can include comments from those creating the box and those who see it. Everything moves by simply selecting and drag/drop. You can also create “boxes” that are shared among many Simplybox member/users, with each being able to add content and comments. You can publicly share boxes and allow comments by sharing the URL. To access the comment area, click "view" and choose "list view."
See a sample, publicly shared box created by TeachersFirst Edge editors here. Leave us a comment by changing it to List View (under View menu at top left). This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Requires Internet Explorer 7 or Vista. Join the site (free). This requires email and must be validated by clicking on a link in the email. Once registered, be sure to watch the short video that explains Simplybox and its terminology and functionality. You can watch this while you wait for the email! You may need to check your junk mail folder to find the validation email. Do this in advance before using the tool in class! Our editors waited at least 30 minutes for the email to arrive. The email will provide a link to download and install the Simplybox toolbar. If your school machine is “locked down,” you may want to install it at home to create sample “boxes” to demonstrate to your tech folks why they should permit and/or install the toolbar. After you install, you will need to open Internet Explorer afresh for the toolbar to appear. Log in and add things to the “stuff” box they provide for you at the start. You may want to use separate tabs or windows for selecting items and arranging your “simplybox” so you can collect things quickly.
Tips: Open a web page, then use “box and save” on the toolbar to turn on the selection tool and ”grab” portions of a web page. Our editors found that pages with a frameset did not “box” very well. Box items inside the frame without the frame itself. Find the tools to arrange (view) the pieces, add comments (click on an item to edit it separately), delete an item, rename the “box” (edit menu), etc. The zoom control at the RIGHT is very important to obtain more space in the “box.” Items seem to display with the newest on “top” when overlapped, and you cannot rearrange the order.
Model and require ethical use of web content by showing students how you document the sources of the items within a “box.” Note that the link they show for the source is the home page of that site. To be more accurate, copy/paste the actual URL for the specific page into a comment, along with bibliography information. You can use comments to provide full documentation as you collect items or retrieve the data later by using the link from that item back to its original source. Since items retrieved in the past may link to a newer version of the web page, so it is wisest to collect source information as you go. The tools do record the date when you “boxed” the item.
Once you have created a box you like, Share it with others. If the others are members of Simplybox, they can edit and add to the box, too. If not, they can add comments on the items in the box you share by providing the URL.
Safety/security concerns: If you plan to have students use individual Simplybox accounts, check your school’s policy on accessing and sharing student email. Another option is to use your teacher Gmail account and set up subaccounts for up to 20 students to register (by code name or number). Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Possible Uses:
Share teacher-created collections of web resources using this visual tool. Even non-readers can click on an image to access the page and use it. Share a collection of sources on the same research topic for students to compare for bias, leaving their comments on which they would trust the most. Assign students (must be members) to create their own collection of information on a research topic, annotating each with comments. Imagine having each group present their “findings” on genetic engineering, including links, images, and commentary, making the “box” available during oral presentations on the interactive whiteboard and also sharing the link on the class wiki for others to comment. Allow individual students to “collect” a “box” of resources they would like to use for research on animals or cultures, commenting back to them about their choices. Learning support, ESL and ELL, or reading teachers can collect passages from various web pages for comprehension practice, placing questions in comments and asking students to respond in comments. If your students are members, assign each group a series of images that they must explain and re-order as they learn about the stages of insect development using the source pages of the images. Have student groups illustrate the sequence of urban development using a “simply box” and comments. Provide a digital “trunk show” of an era and ask students to research and write about what they learn, adding their own comments and reactions. Then ask them to create their own “trunk show." Art teachers can collect images to demonstrate design concepts, then assign students to make their own annotated collections of images with analogous color schemes or good examples of texture, etc. Have students turn in current events “boxes” showing and explaining different angles on a single event from different cultural perspectives. Have students collect snippits of language from many web pages illustrating figures of speech such as metaphors. Let them add images to show the metaphor. Have students create visual poems using text from a poetry page and the images it generates in their mind, explaining their choices in comments.
Cosmeo AtlasGrade 6 to 12
- Discovery education- 9621
This interactive world map shares information in video format about culture, government, history, or the natural world. To view the information you may either click on the location on the map, or use the Select a Location toolbar. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Students can be divided into groups and assigned a country. Each student can use the videos to create a snapshot of the country based upon the culture, government, history, and the natural world. Students can create their own videos outlining the information, a blog post to share with others, newsletters, or any other project that makes a comparison between cultures. Offer this as one of several resources for student research. Your learning support and ESL students will find it easier to follow this information in video than to use text-based resources.
This site creates Cloze tests from Wikipedia articles listed by category. Each test has a word order difficulty assessment as well as an indication of general difficulty. You are able to choose the topic by using the Search Box. Students click on word choices on the side to place words in order in the blanks. If they select the wrong word, it momentarily flashes in the correct place but will not remain until the correct choices are done in order. With a huge variety of articles to choose from, there are certainly tests suitable for students of every level and interest. There are background reading links to Wikipedia articles on similar subjects to those tested. Teachers can choose to have students do other cloze tests by clicking on links to related tests nearer the bottom of the page. As part of your discussion and use of this site, be sure to talk about the general-public authors of Wikipedia and the need to view it as a general resource, not an “authoritative” one. For purposes of teaching basic vocabulary in context, this is a terrific resource.
Be aware: ANY word can be used to search this site, and there are cloze tests for many words that you may not find appropriate to use in your classroom. So preview, preview, and preview!
In the Classroom: Use these tests to help ELL and ESL and learning support or speech/language students develop vocabulary in areas of interest or curriculum topics. Teach all students how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of any word or, in this case, the missing word. Or print the tests out and give them for homework or extra practice. Have students do background reading on their chosen subject from other sources besides Wikipedia.
Share this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector and have students take turns answering the question, or work along with you at their seats. Use the cloze paragraphs to enhance units in science, social studies, and other content areas. With the current economic crisis, have students research Herbert Hoover or the Great Depression to link yesterday, today, social studies, and language arts class. Nearly all topics are available. If you allow students to search for topics on their own (which the editing staff of TeachersFirst does not recommend) – be sure to watch students carefully!
When you arrive at the site, click Start to enter the world of Samson. There are four steps at this site: Learn Words, Build Words, Identify Words, and a Quiz. At the "Learn Words" step, the site includes 28 different lists of words for students to read at four levels. Mousing over the number of the list brings up the actual word list so it's easy to check if the student is working at the correct level. Students read, listen to the word, pronounce it, see the word spelled, and see the word used in a sentence. Step two has students spell the words themselves (after hearing them read audibly and being provided with several letters to choose among). Step three challenges students to click on the correct spelling of the word (several choices are presented). The final step is the quiz; students are presented with all letters and are asked to spell the word pronounced. The same list is used throughout all four steps of this activity. For example, if a student is working on list 1 of level 1, those same words will be repeated throughout all four “steps.” All steps provide immediate feedback on the students’ choices, and opportunities to try again. The Question/Answer steps have a Hear Again feature to repeat the word. The Resource center provides useful tools for teacher, including pdf files of the sight words used, lesson plans, and more. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Include this website on your class newsletter or on your class website so parents can encourage their students to enrich their spelling vocabulary and have fun at the same time. ESL and ELL students will benefit from having the opportunity to practice their listening and spelling skills simultaneously. This site is also useful in differentiating spelling lessons in a regular or special education classroom.
This site offers two interactive geography challenges. Choose either Build Planet Earth or Map Countries and Cities . Both activities require students to drag and drop various geographical locations onto a blank globe. Some of the “places” that students drag and drop onto the globe include the North Pole, South Pole, continents, bodies of water, countries, and cities. Although the placement is a bit tricky, the globe grabs the item when it is close to being in the correct position. If students choose to continue, they can opt for the easy or difficult level to add smaller bodies of water and mountain ranges. This is a great way to make geography come alive. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this when studying the various continents or as an introduction to world geography. For a variation, have students draw the continents, mountains, and bodies of water and make their own matching activities. Have the ESL and ELL students in your classroom show where they're from and let them talk about special geographic features.
This issue of Smith Magazine features an online graphic novel of the events of Hurricane Katrina and its effects on New Orleans and related communities. Since there are very few words, it's perfect for students of all ages and English ability levels. The drawings are in chronological order and include weather pictures and before and after pictures, as well as specific events of the hurricane.
Warning: Be sure to PREVIEW each section before you show it to the class since there is some profanity in the speech of some characters.
In the Classroom: In light of the increase of hurricane activity, this is a wonderful resource to introduce this weather topic. Use it also in art class, graphic design, and with ESL and ELL students learning to tell stories. Use this site to introduce the world of graphic novels to students who are reluctant readers. Have your class make their own graphic novel about another catastrophic or historical event, either in groups or individually. Check with your administration to be sure it's OK to use this site at student computers since there are spaces for students to respond and also to submit their own work. If that's a problem, use it with your classroom computer and project the novel on the whiteboard (avoiding scenes with questionable vocabulary). Extend the lesson by having students create their own collaborative graphic account of a local history event or fictional tale in small groups.
Teachers First Edge Review: for very slightly adventurous technology users. This free, beta site is a useful photo editing service. No registration or login is necessary. Edited pictures are saved on the computer and are not public for viewing. Use this site to create montaged images, resize photos for emailing or use on wikis, etc, or simply because your camera files are too big to store.
There are public comments on the main page. You may want to preview the comments before sharing the site with your students. At the time of this review, one of the comments did have an inappropriate word. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Know how to browse to find files saved on your computer and be willing to “play” with the tools and menus, if you are unfamiliar with photo-editors.
How to use: Click Jump In to access Photoshop-type tools. Select an image saved on your computer or your desktop or create a new one. Currently, pictures cannot be accessed from online photo storage sites. The top menu contains almost any option the average user would need to edit and manipulate pictures. The menu is easy to navigate and read. Help is minimal at this time. The site is easy to use, and users of other paint and editing applications will be at ease using this site. Students will love the filter options for altering pictures. Multiple images can be edited or “montaged.” When editing is complete, save the image by specifying an image name and file type (JPEG or PNG). Click "OK," and the file will be downloaded to your machine. The simple interface and fast site makes this a great editing application to try.
Classroom use: Use this site to add information to pictures for class and student projects and creations. Add attributions (copyright info and sources) directly to the photo. Add student responses to pictures of class experiments. Create artistic effects with student pictures. The ideas for picture taking, creating, and sharing are endless. Make this a link from your class wiki so students can cut down file sizes before uploading large photos or make edited composites to communicate their message visually. As you study propaganda, have students create propaganda images to share on a class wiki or classroom bulletin board. Art teachers will love the ability to teach photo montage without expensive software. Make creative bulletin board displays from multiple digital pictures of special events, adding text and captions right into the photo. ESL/ELL, language, and special ed teachers can ask students to label images with sentences including correct vocabulary and grammar. Have students in your reading class create visual idiom images using digital pictures.
Keep this tool handy as a link from your teacher web page for quick access any time!
HolidaysGrade 1 to 3
- Manatee School District- 9544
Need some information or class ideas about Christmas, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Yom Kipper, or New Years? Check out this interactive, easy to follow website. Each holiday has an individual page with several links to photos, historical information, vocabulary definitions, reference information, and more. There is also a Read feature available with each paragraph. This allows students to hear the paragraph read aloud (a great feature for non-readers and ESL or ELL students). Most holidays also include an online quiz.
At the time of the review, the link on the Yom Kipper page to Hear the Sound of a Shofar was being updated. All of the other many links and information worked perfectly. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Save this site in your favorites to share during the holiday seasons. Assign research groups to investigate the holidays listed at this site. Have students report their findings to the class. Create a class wiki for students to share holidays they celebrate and holiday traditions that they follow.
This amazing (and free) website offers individualized lessons for emergent readers. First 55, features the first 55 words that students learn to read. This site offers language arts activities for young students. The activities include audio, so even non-readers can participate. The site states that students should spend ten minutes per day on the activities, but this can be tailored to your L.A. class. If you want to get an idea if this website would work for your students, check out the demonstration video.
Once you register (which is free, but requires an email), you can go to the Teacher's Desk to add as many students as you wish (just names, no emails needed). This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Introduce this website to your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Signing up each of your students will only take a few minutes. You simply type in a name and choose a picture. For security, assign student numbers or initials rather than names. Set this site up as a learning station during your L.A. block. Don't forget your headsets. This site is also ideal for special education, ESL, and ELL students.
Be sure to list this site in your class newsletter or on your class website (especially if you aren't going to be using the site daily in class).
Weekly ReaderGrade 2 to 7
- Weekly Reader Corp.- 9511
This site offers free online Weekly Reader feature stories (click on the link on the blackboard), many of which can stand on their own without the actual printed “Readers” (which require a paid subscription). Difficult words link to an online glossary or “pop up” on mouse-over. The online reader also includes interactive elements, depending on the topic. There is also a “Word of the Day” accompanying the featured news story. Lesson plans in pdf format provide ideas for teaching many literacy topics. Archives of other news features are free, as well. The teen section focuses on celebrities and entertainment, but there is also a featured writer. There are also many paid items being advertised, so get to know your way around the site before sending students there. This site requires Flash and lesson plans require Acrobat Reader. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Incorporate current events into your lesson plans or use the feature stories for comprehension practice on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use these articles when teaching about how writing for a newspaper differs from essay or report writing. Check out the activity offerings, such as upcoming elections and other current events. The news pictures in the feature article's slideshow help make this site accessible for ESL and ELL students and weaker readers.
Animated English Idioms has a series of fairly high level English idioms explained. Each idiom is first illustrated with a cartoon video. Then the definition of the idiom appears. Students can replay it or return to the first screen to see another idiom illustrated. To return to the main page click on the English Idioms link at the top of the page. After watching the first two pages of idioms, students can select idiom activities: drag and drop review of idioms. Access the idioms activities (designated by letters) by simply clicking on the small number (1), (2), (3), or (4) at the bottom of the page. These exercises are. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Assign this site to your ESL and ELL or language arts students so they can learn one new idiom each day or as an assignment during your idioms unit. Or display the idioms on an interactive whiteboard or projector at the beginning of class. Challenge your students to figure out what the idiom means, before you share the definition available at the site. Have your students create their own idioms using pictures and words. Why not put them on an idiom wiki?
This is a simple, user-friendly, interactive web page for checking writing samples and readability levels. Type, or cut and paste, text into a specified location and watch the analysis begin. The analysis consists of several readability scores such as Flesch reading ease, Automated readability index, Flesch-Kincaid grade level, Coleman-Liau index, Gunning fog index, and SMOG index. The site also provides total counts for the following items: characters, non-space characters, letters/numbers, words, complex words, syllables, sentences, characters per word, syllables per word, and words per sentence.
In the Classroom: This site can be helpful in a variety of ways. Primary and secondary classroom teachers can check students’ work or have students check their personal work by placing their own text in the box. Reading specialists, classroom teachers, ESL and ELL teachers, and special education teachers can check readability levels of various books to find the right fit for each student. E-books and on-line literature is easy to check with the cut and paste option! Note: if the text is available as a complete web page, you can also use this tool. Student word processing can also be analyzed using the Grammar tools in Word (tools menu), but these two tools yield slightly different information.
IM or AIM on steroids? That is how MeGlobe describes itself. This site allows the user to instant message to people who speak many different languages. While they may be adding languages as the site builds, at the time of this review, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, German and Greek are supported. This is a BETA site, so forgive a few wording problems as it refines the languages. Sign-up is quick and free. Once registered, you can invite people from all over the world to chat with you in nearly instant response time. The world definitely comes to your classroom via MeGlobe.
In the Classroom: Classroom applications abound. Imagine your class chatting with pen pals in Crete or Amsterdam, and asking them current events questions. Imagine practicing foreign language skills using this tool. Send messages to experts in other countries as your class researches their culture. Travel around the world virtually, through discussions with other classrooms in foreign countries. Use two laptops and you and your ESL or ELL student can chat while learning each other’s language, since all translations are on screen. Caution: As with all instant messaging, you would want to only talk with pre-approved people. This is not a program you would want your students to use unsupervised. There are forums, a blog, and chats already set up (look in your “room drawer” after you log in). Preview these to select the best venue for your class’ purposes. Since the site requires a membership, you will most likely want to use a single class account so you can monitor how it is being used and avoid inappropriate contacts. If you do use student accounts, check your school policies on using student email to register and make sure classroom use is within approved school policy. This beta is constantly adding new features. Check the blog for the latest.
This site has free stories, mainly fairy tales and folk tales, indexed by topic. Highlights include various holidays, international stories of all types, free reader's theater pieces, and free online recorded stories (click “Stories on CD” to access free downloads). All stories are "kid-tested" and uplifting. Students are able to make comments (and read other viewers’ comments). They are able to search for stories by age (ranging from age 6-14), theme, type of story, and location.
Be aware: this site does include some advertising. This site requires Quicktime. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Check with your administrator about students submitting their own names or making comments about the stories. You may want to give the students a classroom name so their identities remain anonymous. Use this site to find stories that represent cultures of the students in your classroom, whether they are ESL or students with different ethnic backgrounds. Use this site also to find stories for various school holidays. Play a story aloud on your speakers, then allow students to record their own stories with musical backgrounds.
This site takes any quotation or poem and creates a "word clouds" (graphical display) of the words in a passage of text. Paste in any passage or the URL for any blog entry or web page (including newspapers online) to create a wordle of the text. If you make a Wordle, you can choose your own colors, type of display, and font. The most frequent words appear larger and darker. Students can view creations others have made (see warning above), or make their own with or without saving them to the database of clouds. You can also print creations, open them in a window without borders, or link to them from a home page (html code is provided for the link). This site requires Java. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Important note: Since the public can enter text and create their own Wordles, some of the examples that appear on the home page for "recent" Wordles might possibly include objectionable text. Teachers should preview immediately before sharing this site with a class or use the site as a teacher-only activity. TeachersFirst's review team has not witnessed any objectionable examples, but we have heard from some teachers that some do occasionally appear. Carefully weigh the value of this tool vs any risks you may take in using it with students. In today's world, a brief lesson or honest discussion on ignoring, clicking out of, or avoiding the inappropriate on the web might be worthwhile, depending on the age and maturity of your students.
In the Classroom: This is a terrific visual tool to share on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Paste in a passage or URL for a political speech to visualize the politician’s “message.” Analyze advertising propaganda by visualizing the language used in TV or print ads. Create wordles of historical texts of inauguration speeches as time capsules of the issues of the day. Use this site as a way to help students see and memorize text, especially visual learners. Use it also when writing poetry or reading passages of great literature to “see” themes and motifs of repeated words and images. Have students paste in their own writing to spot repeated (and monotonous) language when teaching lessons on word choice. Students will be surprised to see what words appear to be dominant. ESL and ELL students will eagerly use this site since word order will no longer be a problem for them. Have students work in groups to create word posters of vocabulary words with related meanings, such as different ways to say “walk” or “said” and decorate tour classroom with these visual reminders of the richness of language.
Another idea: use this site during the first week of school. Have students create “Wordles” about themselves and create a “Wordle” bulletin board introducing your students (and yourself). Remember that the most frequently appearing words will appear larger so plan accordingly.
MingovilleGrade 2 to 8
- Danish eLearning Center - 9464
Mingoville features a community of survival "Missions" designed to help English learners build vocabulary, practice, and share short stories. Topics include clothes, the body, food, sports, etc. Each topic has many layers of activities; listening and reading occur simultaneously. There are also extra activities, exercises, games, and songs. An online dictionary is also available.
Students may choose to use the site as a guest or register for free. There are several mentions of parents purchasing memberships, but the company has established free registration for U.S. students through a foundation grant. With registration, students are able to submit their own work in the "showroom" or "book" section. Registration requires an email address. Be sure to get parental permission before posting or submitting any student work. Note that you will also want to discuss safety issues, since the site provides a way for users to create a “profile.” Check school policies! This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Check with your administrator about allowing the students to register for this site using their own names. You may wish to set up a class registration instead of entering true data into the registration site. Another option is to create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Be sure to save this site in your favorites for your ESL and ELL students to use after setting clear rules about what they are allowed to do.
Need some extra safe, online reading for your students? Merpy stories await the eager reader. Engaging, with versatile vocabulary, the Merpy characters will delight your new readers. Make sure to check out the holiday episodes. These stories do not read the words for the students, but rather provide animation and fun sounds. For extended learning, paper dolls and other crafts add to the Merpy fun. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Merpy stories will be a wonderful addition to your computer literacy lab. Share the stories on an interactive whiteboard or projector and read the stories together as a class. Individual or paired reading would also work well. After reading several Merpy stories, students may be able to create their own 'Merpy-esque' stories using PowerPoint and animated clipart. For the Spanish learner or ESL/ELL student, check out the four Merpy Spanish versions.
Lit2GoGrade K to 12
- Florida Educational Technology Clearinghouse- 9461
Now you can listen to classics and poems through the generosity of this site’s creators. Download story files to your mp3 player or listen to the files on your computer. Don’t want to just listen to the classics and other stories? Then, view the text on a webpage or in a printable pdf. Easily browse the site by author or title to locate literature. You are also able to search by reading level; the levels are broken down by month (ranging from 0.0 - 12.0). Stories and poems are added frequently to this site, so check back often. This site requires Windows Media Player or Quicktime and Adobe Acrobat. You can get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Print out up to 25 pdf copies of stories and poems if you do not have print versions. Make your own books and leave blank sections to be illustrated for aiding comprehension. If you have iTunes installed on your computer, you can download many of the selections directly into your iTunes library. Use individual laptops for reading the stories online or as a download. Make sure your sight-impaired students know about this helpful site. Special ed teachers and ESL//ELL teachers will love the availability of audio files and text together.
Join your child guides, Zoe and Alex, as they travel to Animalia (an interesting world of talking animals). This CGI-animated series is based on the best-selling children's book by Graeme Base. At the Parents and Teachers link the site explains that Animalia teaches creativity, cooperation, persistence, world cultures, and language arts. Take a tour of Animalia, go to the Games and Activities link to find writing activities, art fun, creativity builders, and even mystery codes. There are also links to watch video clips! This interactive site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Use this site to spruce up language arts class! Take a tour of Animalia together on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work on individual computer to watch video clips and try the interactives. Have students write the story or "crack the code" at the Games and Activities link. Save this site in your favorites on your classroom computers so students can visit during language arts class or when work is complete. Use this site to help your ESL and ELL students further familiarize themselves with the English language. Gifted student respond well to this book. Consider extending your study of animals or writing by creating your own books modeled on Animalia.
This lesson uses a bilingual (Spanish-English) picture book to increase comprehension and reading skills in ESL students by having them retell the story in a variety of ways. Many non-ESL/ELL students would benefit from the same skills.They make vocabulary lists, make diagrams, retell the story, and rewrite the book using their own words. Teachers can generalize the knowledge gained after using this lesson plan to incorporating other bilingual books while teaching ESL students. This site requires Flash. Get it from the 