Internet and ipad Resources
Internet Resources
Here is the link to the West Hartford Public Library. There are many resources for West Hartford residents at this site. Did you know that the library has books in many languages? Also, you can visit local museums for free with the library's museum passes. If you click on the Children's section, you will see a calendar of events and links to fun web sites. Check the library's resources page, where you can try Bookflix, The World Almanac for Kids, and other online books.
KidsA-Z is a subscription-based web sites that we have purchased. Your ELL student has a KidsA-Z account through the ESOL Department, and the teacher username is jdorlb. In KidsA-Z, students can read books independently, listen to books read aloud, and take comprehension quizzes after reading/listening. I can track the students’ progress and make assignments. Reading A-Z is a teacher resource with thousands of printable leveled books, accompanying teaching guides and tons of teaching information. Let me know if you need books at a certain level.
Here are other web sites for free access to books: At Unite for Literacy, you can listen to books read aloud in several different langauges, including Chinese and Spanish. The International Digital Children's Library has stories from cultures all over the world, and the text is available in dozens of different languages (but you have to read it yourself, no read-aloud option). Global Storybooks also has picture books read aloud, sorted by country.
Here is another place to listen to books read aloud, by famous actors and actresses, for free: http://www.storylineonline.net/
Other great subscription sites for read alouds are Tumblebooks with a username of morleyct or bugbee and password reads; and Capstone, with a username of continue and password reading.
Brainpop and Brainpop, Jr. are subscription websites that are available to West Hartford students. These web sites have short, animated videos with likable characters. Each video teaches you about a topic, and there is a quiz after the video. The username is bugbee or morley and the password is learn.
Little Bird Tales is a free web site that allows you to create stories with audio and visual components. This site is designed for children to use and privacy protection is a priority. The author writes and types in the text of the story and then records him/herself reading the text. Pictures can be drawn within the program, or crayoned pictures can be scanned and uploaded. The finished product includes the author’s written words, pictures and voice.
Once a story is finished, a link to the story can be privately shared with anyone who has internet access, making this a great way to share with family in other countries. You can also purchase a hard copy and/or CD of the finished story. This site was designed for young children to create stories, but it could easily be used by older students for informational text as well as fiction.
A few more fun sites:
Learning Chocolate is a free vocabulary web site for lower English proficiency students or younger students. It has word lists in many categories (with pictures but no definitions), and several games to choose from. Once a student knows the definitions of the words, she/he could play the practice games independently.
Have fun with PBS Kids web site!
MakeBeliefs Comix is a free comic maker! Fun for a rainy afternoon at home.
VocabAhead is a free vocabulary web site. There are lists of vocabulary words for grades six through eleven. Each word has a video with an accompanying audio description supported by written text. This looks like an SAT-prep type site, but it could also be used as homework (one word per day), or as a time filler when there are five extra minutes during the day.
Grammar Bytes is a web site with English grammar lessons and exercises for older students.
Glogster is a subscription based web site that allows users to create glogs, basically digital posters with visuals, audio, video and text. Glogster is a great alternative way to present research or other information, with lots of choices for individualizing the look, and the ability to incorporate photos, graphs and videos. If you need an alternate assessment for one of your ELL students, I can help him/her create a glog to show what she/he knows. Glogs go well with Smartboards, because you can display the glog for everyone to view together. The Glogpedia has many great examples that you may be able to use for inspiration or for teaching.
Colorin Colorado is filled with excellent ESL information for families, teachers, librarians and administrators of English Language Learners. There are recommendations, frequently asked questions, information about assessment and the Common Core, book lists, and much, much more! Check it out!
Teaching for Change has a list of recommended anti-bias children's books, social justice articles and lesson plans, and much, much more.
I'm Your Neighbor Books has a curated list of picture books and novels reflecting immigration and refugee experiences of people from all around the world. You can search for books by community or by the book's setting!
FYI, there are several web sites for adults that have videos and accompanying transcripts or subtitles. An English language learner could watch these videos and match the spoken words with the written text. Some ELLs have more difficulty with understanding spoken English, while others can converse orally but have limited literacy skills, so either the video or the text could be the needed support. StoryCorps is an ever-growing collection of stories of a very diverse group of US residents. The purpose of the StoryCorps project is to provide people with the opportunity to “record, share and preserve the stories of our lives.” StoryCorps stories are broadcast weekly on NPR and are archived at the Library of Congress. The pieces are interviews usually done by a friend of family member. It is a truly amazing collection of stories. We Speak NYC is a series of video pieces created to help recent NYC immigrants learn English and learn about the resources available in the city. The subtitled videos cover typical situations such as speaking with a child’s teacher and the pace of the talk is slow to make it easier to understand. We Speak NYC provides other supports such as study guides for the episodes, conversation groups, and magazines to accompany the videos in several different languages. Real-english.com has meticulously subtitled videos of interviews of people on the street. The creator of this site wanted to help ELLs make the transition from “English class English” to “real English.” He uses only spontaneous interviews with real people, and then crafts lessons around those interviews. It’s fun to see regular people and unscripted conversations about topics relevant to immigrants. These sites would be appropriate for older middle/high school students and adults.
https://www.whps.org/curriculum-instruction-and-assessment/adult-education
West Hartford Continuing Education offers ESL and Citizenship courses with classes offered at various times and locations.
Apps for a tablet
Please let me know if you have a tablet at home. I can share games and lessons that your child has created on the ipad at school.
Tiny Tap is a game creation app. The simplest way to use it is to create games for vocabulary practice. You can create a drawing or insert a photo, and then record oral questions that the players answer by tapping on parts of the picture. One example would be taking a photo of a newcomer student's classroom, and having him/her create a game naming all the school-related vocabulary items in the photo. It is fun having students create their own games, and they get lots of vocabulary practice as they record their questions. Also it's very motivating for them to share their game with classmates and family. Tiny Tap has a free version and a subscription version.
Tapfun Math Word Problems is a free word problem app for Kindergartners and first graders.
Explain Everything is a teaching app. You can use it to make "videos" telling about any topic. You can insert a photo or a drawing, then record your voice telling about the visual. You can write on the picture as you speak. I have been using it to have students at different schools share their learning with each other, or to have an ELL student share learning with his/her regular class. The app records voices but not visual images of the students, so there is no concern about privacy. You can export a final product as an mp4 video so that anyone can watch it. Explain Everything has a free version and a subscription version.
Bitsboard is another great vocabulary app. You create (or choose from already published sets) a set of cards ("bits"), and then you can choose one of 19 different games to play (things like Bingo or memory). I like to have my students make their own cards, recording and typing in each word. It’s engaging for them to hear their own voices. Bitsboard has a free version and a subscription version.
Toontastic is a story creating app. The app leads you through the process of creating a story, allowing you to choose or create characters and a setting, then setting up the situation, then creating a conflict, climax and resolution.
At each stage, you animate the story with your voice and by moving the characters around on the screen. You also get to choose mood-setting music for each stage of the story. Completed stories can be shared publicly or privately. After a couple of introductory lessons, a second grader can use this app independently.
I also find the ipad’s video and still cameras to be very useful! When my language objectives focus on speaking skills, I video the students and they give themselves and their peers feedback. I usually do this after working with the students to create a rubric that defines what we will be looking for. Then they can use the rubric during the reflection/self-reflection video playback part. I use the still camera to communicate with classroom teachers and families. I can take a photo of a student during a lesson, and quickly email it to the classroom teacher or family with a short explanation. Back at home, the photo serves as a conversation starter, which provides review for the student, and the parent/classroom teacher will be able to support the learning at home.
