Become an ESL Superstar!
Facilitator: Dr. Bruce Ellis (@DrBruceEllis) | http://bit.ly/BecomeAnESLSuperstar
Pre-webinar audio from Clean Music for School 🏫 Best Songs for School.
Helpful articles and blogs
Thirteen Instructional Strategies for Supporting ELL Newcomers - Larry Ferlazzo shares great ideas, games, and resources to use with your ESL/ELL students.
17 ESL Teaching Tools to Help You Save Time & Energy - Emma shares a great list of websites that you will want to explore and use with your students!
10 Strategies That Support English Language Learners Across All Subjects - Edutopia provides some unique but engaging strategies that you will want to check out and try in your classroom with your students!
Great Online Tools & Strategies
Tips For When You Search Online
Limit Searches to Specific Site
If you want to search for Google Slides (docs, sheets, etc.) that other people have created that are on a topic of intertest to your and your students, then use the site: feature of Google's search engine to help. Enter your search criteria (in the sample below, you'll see we are searching for information on osmosis). Then add site:webaddress to limit to the specific address (in the sample below, we want to limit to Google Slide Decks which all begin with docs. google.com/presentation).
Find Line Drawings for Diagramming
If you want you students to diagram sketches, then see if there are some already available. Search for your information as you normally would. Then click on:
Images
Tools
Any Type --> Line Drawing
Scroll through the images and look for ones that do not have vocabulary already labeled on the various parts. Click on the image to have it focus on the right-hand side. Right-click on the image again and select Save Image As... or visit the website and save the image as indicated.
Chrome Extension Favorites
Link to Text Fragment - Highlight a portion of text on a website, right-click on the selected text and choose Copy Link to Selected Text. This extension will copy a URL that you can share with your students so when they click on it they will go to the site and the text will be highlighted for them!
Text-to-Speech Highlighter - Highlight the text you want read, right-click on the selected text and click on the extension command in the list. It will read the text aloud. You can also have it read it aloud in another language! To do so, click on the extension icon on the browser bar and toggle Translate Before Speech - you can also click on the Advanced Settings button and choose the speed and the language you want it read aloud in.
Language Learning with Netflix & YouTube™ - Freemium - If you happen to use videos on Netflix and/or YouTube, then this might be a GREAT addition to help your students with language acquisition. Too much to share here so watch the tutorial. 👀
Print Friendly & PDF - Add this extension to Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari or other browsers to make viewing more pleasant. Click on the icon to reveal a clutter-free page. You can then click on sections of the page to remove them from the fresh view. Save as PDF, print the fresh view, or share the fresh view with others via email. Increase focus by decreasing clutter!
Confetti Cannon! - Okay, this has nothing to do with accommodating instruction. It's just a fun extension that you might can use when doing whole group activities while projecting your screen.
Upload an mp3 audio file and the AI will analyze it and split into two tracks - one that is voice and one that is music. Now you can have your students create their own song to the music or listen (more easily) to the voice track. To download the mp3 of a YouTube video, insert fy after youtube in the link - this will take you to MP3FY and let you convert and download it. You can then use with Vocal Remover AI. Be aware of copyright issues.
Lexile-based non-fiction articles that you can easily share with students. Create a teacher login for more tools.
Paste text or a url and Rewordify will assist in rewording the text. You have several options that allow students to build vocabulary and comprehension skills. Click on Settings to edit the display, level, and highlighting features.
Google Slides Captioning
When using Google Slides (even if the slide deck is blank), you can enable captioning. It is recommended that you select large or extra large text and position it above the presentation. It does not put punctuation but does caption words that are heard via a microphone. Try it using Animals With Backbones.
Great resources at your fingertips including help with idioms. Enjoy a variety of areas including the Daily Grammar Lesson, This Day in History, Hangman, Grammar Quiz, Word Match Up, and more!
Easily record and share screencast videos to your students. Free version limits you to 5 minutes. After recording, you can save your video to your device, port it over to Google Drive for sharing, or link to it from Screencastify's site.
Free Images
Whether you are looking for photos or clipart, consider exploring these sites to get the images you need to use in your classroom and with your students. Be sure to check each site's copyright restrictions. Be sure to have Safe Search on if that option is available.
Record audio and easily share. No account required. You CANNOT download the mp3 audio file but you can embed it, share a link to it, and tweet out the recording. The account is free. No mention as to length limit.
Total Physical Response (TPR)
While best used with students with lower vocabulary skills, this technique requires students to create physical movement that they associate with vocabulary. TPR combines the speech (left hemisphere of the brain) with the physical movement (right hemisphere of the brain) to make language learning more effective. This is especially great to use when working with idioms!
Create a spinner wheel with images or one with text and use it for students to review idioms, expressions, vocabulary, and more!
Other wheels include the Picker Wheel, Team Picker Wheel, Yes/No Picker Wheel, Number Picker Wheel, and the Letter Picker Wheel.
