Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

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.

tag(s): gifted (66), russia (36), russian (26)

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.

tag(s): gifted (66), portuguese (22)

Learn the basics of French. This could be very helpful for teachers working with French-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.

tag(s): french (75), gifted (66)

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.

tag(s): gifted (66)

This lesson plan provides a way to encourage cultural awareness and make your ENL/ESL students' knowledge of their home culture a classroom asset. The lesson can be done in an all-ENL/ESL 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.

tag(s): holidays (187)

Try this article on using buddies as a helpful strategy for your ENL/ESL students. Specific suggestions about what kind of buddy to choose and what buddy responsibilitites 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.

tag(s): classroom management (120)

Your class is welcoming some ENL/ESL 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 ENL/ESL students.

tag(s): back to school (55), learning styles (18)

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.

tag(s): pronunciation (34), speech (69)

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.

tag(s): grammar (137)

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.

tag(s): grammar (137), worksheets (69)

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.

tag(s): search strategies (22)

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.

tag(s): lyrics (15)

A great source of primary documents covering many topics of interest to grade school children including the real stories some of the people killed on Sept. 11. Although this is usually a pay site ($9.95/yr), free membership is available for educators, schools, and libraries. Each feature article is divided into "Story Chapter Links" and highlighted vocabulary clicks to photographs, maps, artifacts, documents, audio-visual clips, and articles with more information about the word. Topics offered include history, culture, literature, disasters, and media. You can find passages on topics related to almost any student's interests and use the resources to teacher reading skills. In December, 2006, Awesome Stories announced free accounts for individuals, as well, but for a "limited time." If you would like your students to be abe to use it at home, consider setting up accounts for students, as well, while they are free.

tag(s): dinosaurs (43), disasters (37), literature (222), movies (54), space (222)

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.

tag(s): pronunciation (34), speech (69)

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.

tag(s): news (229), newspapers (93)

This translation site provides translations to and from English in 11 commonly spoken languages and offers both traditional and simplified Chinese. A useful site to bookmark on classroom computers for your students who need occasional translations of difficult words and concepts.

tag(s): asia (116), europe (84)

Find excellent multi-skill topical social studies lessons based on current news appropriate for limited English speakers, slow readers, and average students alike! This site offers a new comprehensive lesson plan about breaking news every three days or so. The site is rich with pre-reading and pre-listening activities, oral and written comprehension exercises, assignments, and best of all, the option of selecting the easy or more difficult session and accompanying activities. There are seven levels from which to chooseand use for differention.

tag(s): differentiation (84), listening (93), news (229), reading comprehension (149), reading strategies (96)

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.

tag(s): synonyms (15)

VOA offers audio and written radio scripts of a wide range of news stories in areas including science, agriculture, culture, health, and education. The language used is simple, and the stories are read more slowly than the average radio broadcast. The site includes its own dictionary ("Word Book") and pronunciation guide, as well as links to many other features. Contains RealAudio and MP3 downloadable audio files. If you have high speed internet, you can also use the streaming option.

tag(s): agriculture (49), news (229)

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.

tag(s): grammar (137), idioms (30), news (229), slang (15), verbs (26)