Technology Tools
websites for Building Background, Fluency, grammar & Vocabulary
Activities for ESL Students: grammar and vocabulary quizzes and puzzles to help new students learn English.
English Vocabulary Games with Pictures
ESL Flashcards-This site has hundreds of free prepared flashcards for ELL students.
ESL Tower: free printables for vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation practice.
Learning Chocolate: Free online resource allows students to learn and practice new vocabulary through a variety of activities such as matching, dictations, and fill-in-the-black exercises
Math Picture Dictionary-Site provides student-friendly definitions and visuals for many key math vocabulary terms.
Math Vocabulary Cards-CCSS math vocabulary cards that have been translated into Mandarin, French, Spanish, and Portugese.
Natural Reader-Tool allows teachers or students to enter any text to have it read aloud. Users can adjust the speed of the text to account for different proficiency levels.
Rewordify-Online tool for educators to simplify the language of text used in the classroom. Simply enter in complex text and this tool will automatically simplify for students.
Podcasts
For those new to podcasts, these are digital audio files replicating "radio shows" typically available as a series. Wonderful tools to practice active listening in both fiction and non-fiction.
Brains On!: Science lessons taught by "kid scientists"
But Why: A podcast for curious kids.
Sesame Street Production: Teaches lessons of friendship, reading, patience, and caring as seen in the classic TV series.
Short & Curly: podcast teaching kids about ethics
StoryNory: audio storybooks for classic fairy tales, poems, myths, and adventures.
Stories Podcast: contains stories for all ages.
The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
Tumble Science: Basically Radiolab for kids, has creative stories regarding non-fiction topics.
Technology tools for the classroom
Animoto: This is a tool you can use to upload pictures and add captions and music to create a video.
Blabberize: This is a fun tool that allows students or teachers to upload a photo, add a mouth, and record audio to create a mini-movie.
Bubbl.us: This is a tool you can use to create free online concept maps.
Discovery Education: Techbook series supports social studies, science, and math with a mixture of resources including project starters, interactive tools, hands-on labs, model lessons, and real-time student data.
Glogster: This is an online tool students and teachers can use to create multimedia posters with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments, and more.
Kahoot: This is a free online tool that can be used to create quick formative assessments that will allow you to instantly and anonymously assess student learning of new concepts.
Make Beliefs Comix: Create a comic strip tool
Mindmeister: This tool allows students and teachers to create mindmaps that others can view and add to.
Padlet: Teachers can create a virtual wall that students can post comments on.
Penzu: Create an online journal with images and time stamp. Entries can be emailed and printed.
Pixton: Create comics online.
Popplet: Create virtual word-webs.
Quizlet: Teachers and students can use to create virtual flashcards to practice vocabulary with. Has hundreds of pre-made flashcards.
Socrative: This is a tool teachers can use to assess student comprehension throughout a lesson. Teachers can create multiple-choice, true/false, and/or short answer questions that students can respond to online. The tool can then be used to generate excel reports that teachers can view to check student understanding.
Storybird: This is a tool that allows students and teachers to make, read, and share visual stories.
Storyjumper: Another tool that allows students and teachers to make, read, and share story books.
Studystack: Create and use interactive flashcards.
Szoter: Teachers can upload an image and then have students add annotations.
Thinglink: Upload photos and then add comments, links, video, and sounds.
Toon Doo: Allows students to choose from a wide variety of art to design completely original cartoons.
Tube Chop: Allows users to shorten youtube vidoes to focus on key pieces of the video segments.
Vocaroo: Students or teachers can easily record their voice. This would be a great tool for students to practice pronunciation and reading fluency.
Voki: This tool is great for student revision and editing. Students can create an avatar and then type in their writing assignments. The avatar will then read aloud the writing assignment so that the students can hear errors they have made.
VoiceThread: Digital storytelling tool you can use in the classroom.
See the READING COMPREHENSION page for a list of online resources to support literacy.