Ideas and resources for parents of ESL/ELL students

These reviewed resources offer information so share with parents of ESL/ELL students. Some are resources parents can use at home with children to reinforce language skills. Others include suggested activities ESL/ELL learners can begin in school and share with parents. Be sure to read the "In the Classroom" suggestions for ways these reviewed resources can build language skills both at home and at school.
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English With Jennifer - Jennifer Lebedev
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): grammar (157), video (249), vocabulary development (96), writing (294)
In the Classroom
Visit Jennifer's Blog to find ideas about how to use these lessons in the classroom and to find additional support. Jennifer frequently updates the offerings. Share these videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. FLIP your classroom and have students view the videos at home and discuss the next day in class. (This is a great option if YouTube is blocked in your school.) Use the videos to introduce a grammar or punctuation point you would like to make, and assign others in the series for homework. Look at the "Word of the Day" each morning when you begin your ESL/ELL lesson. Use the slang offerings in a similar manner. Be sure to provide this link on your class website for students (and their families) to access at home for additional English practice.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Online Voice Recorder - 123apps
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): fluency (18), preK (271), speech (78), spelling (113)
In the Classroom
Have students practice spelling words orally, record speeches, practice reading fluency, and much more using Online Voice Recorder. After recording, allow students to listen to the playback and reflect upon the quality of their work. Do before and after recordings of students to share with parents during conferences to demonstrate reading progress. Have students record weekly summaries for what has happened in your class to share on your class website or blog (you will have to upload the files). Record weekly or daily homework assignments and share as a voice recording on your website. Save file space by replacing old files with new ones. Online Voice Recorder would be an excellent resource for recording and sharing more complicated directions for projects and assignments (adding you voice intonation and cues!). Your weaker readers and ESL/ELL students may do better with a combination of written AND auditory directions. Provide the link on your class website for students to use at home for additional practice in spelling, reading, practicing reports, and more. Share this site with parents at Back to School Night. Have students write and record audio book reviews others can play on iPads in the school library. If you have gifted students in your classroom, this tool is simple enough for even the youngest to be able to record audio mini-dramas portraying a historic figure, poetry readings, and more. Be sure to show them how to NAME and download the files to the local computer! Anything they can say out loud can become a creative project recording. Don't forget about recording musical performances or practices.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Calkoo - Trinity Capital
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): addition (202), area (63), calculators (35), division (144), fractions (218), measurement (157), multiplication (182), percent (74), quadratics (28), subtraction (171), volume (44)
In the Classroom
Calkoo is a great free tool to replace expensive graphing calculators that many students may not have. Calkoo works well on computers, mobile devices, and interactive whiteboards. Use this site during a unit on careers, economics, or financial literacy. Include it as part of a measurement unit. Share during Family and Consumer Science units to explore the cost of living and have students put together a mythical "budget" for living in their chosen career. Have students send you on a vacation and include calculations for the currency converter, fuel cost calculator, sales tax for souvenirs, and more! This is a great site to support many experiments in science. Calculate acceleration, velocity, and time, or use the mathematics category to complete problems. Use this tool in social studies class for quickly calculating years or months from important timelines or when figuring out geographical distances. In English or L.A. classes, quickly figure out the life span of authors or how long ago a story took place. In health or science classes, use the BMI calculator or get other accurate measurements. Visit Calkoo and select a calculator to meet your needs! Include this site on your class web page for students and parents to access as a reference. The various languages make this tool very useful for ESL/ELL students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Rewordify - Neil M. Goldman
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): reading comprehension (123), vocabulary (249), vocabulary development (96)
In the Classroom
This site is a must for saving and bookmarking for classroom use! Start the school year out by posting the link to Rewordify on your class website and parent newsletter for student and parent access from home. Be sure to share with learning support and ESL/ELL teachers and students. Save a link to Rewordify on classroom computers for students to easily paste text from any website to read in a simpler format. Copy and paste any difficult text into Rewordify and display on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to enhance student understanding or show meaning in complex texts. Have students guess meanings from context clues in the more complex version, then share the "rewordified" view to test their guesses. Have students create a word cloud of difficult words identified using a tool such as Wordle, reviewed here, or WordItOut, reviewed here. Have students take a screen shot of passages that have been "rewordified" to share and discuss.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ESL Reader- Online Reading Help - ESLdesk.com
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): dictionaries (51), guided reading (38), thesaurus (21), vocabulary development (96)
In the Classroom
Provide a link to this site on classroom computers, and use it like a dictionary. Share this link with parents and students on your class web site to have as a resource any time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Learn American English Online - Learn American English Online
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): dictionaries (51), grammar (157), grammar review (35), listening (78), pronunciation (38)
In the Classroom
Check this site if you need a quick grammar review of any topic. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard/projector. Provide a link to this site on your class webpage. Many of these lessons would be useful with non-ESL/ELL students, as well. It is easy to scroll through the lessons in each color-coded level. Put a link to this site on classroom computers and send it home with ESL/ELL students in school newsletters to share with their parents.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ESL Games World - eslgamesworld.com
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): grammar (157), grammar review (35), verbs (31), vocabulary (249)
In the Classroom
Find ways to assist your ESL/ELL students in an engaging way! You can also use many of the games to reinforce basic skills with native speakers. Customize some of the activities for the content areas you are studying. Use as a whole class activity on your projector (or interactive whiteboard) to practice vocabulary, grammar, and content. Add as a resource for ESL/ELL learning or even struggling readers. Ideas and materials are gathered in one spot to help you reduce the time you need to meet your ESL/ELL students' differentiated needs. Add this link to your class website or share with parents as a resource.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Slidespeech - Slidespeech
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): digital storytelling (132), video (249)
In the Classroom
Use this tool to differentiate instruction for students in your classes. Students can watch the narrated show any time. Students can use this tool to record their own presentation ahead of time and upload to a site for viewing and grading later. Students with speech difficulties (or challenges with English fluency) will appreciate the opportunity to prerecord their presentations without an audience. High school students can also "narrate" a portfolio slide show for Art school applications or a show of accomplishments for college applications. Students can package book reviews or author reports to be shared in the media center. In primary grades, have students "narrate" their portion of a whole-class slide show, then share it with parents and grandparents by URL. They can practice oral reading as they share their story slides. Use for digital storytelling. Have students draw or upload pictures about a story they have written with the words in the Notes area, and have Slidespeech read the story out loud. Create simple narrated slideshows with questions in the notes area for ESL/ELL or speech/language students to practice on their own, such as slides with images of objects and a questions, "Is this a sock or a shoe?" Challenge students to create review aids for each other by writing questions on slides.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sound City Reading - Kathy Davis
Grades
K to 2tag(s): alphabet (59), independent reading (106), phonics (47), preK (271), spelling (113)
In the Classroom
Browse the site for materials to use along with your current classroom curriculum. Print books and sound pictures for students to take home for practice. Share a link to the site on your class website for parents to access additional reading materials. Use materials with ESL/ELL students for additional reading practice. Use with learning support students for extra support in reading.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Snapguide - Heavy Bits
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): computers (102), crafts (42), directions (15), fitness (53), makerspace (33), photography (140), sequencing (24), speeches (17)
In the Classroom
Share the ready-made snapguides in various classes: family and consumer science, music, art, photography, science, computer, and more! Create your own snapguides to share with your class on any subject matter. ESL/ELL and other special needs students will learn better seeing the photos along with the instructions. Use Snapguide to explain a lesson or a project that has multiple directions. Use Snapguide for directions for parents. Create a snapguide for your students when leaving plans for a substitute teacher. Students can also create their own snapguides to use as presentations and even for sequencing practice. These are the perfect prompts for writing and giving informative, how-to speeches. Students can explore the guides available and follow directions or even evaluate their effectiveness. Have cooperative learning groups create their own snapguides to share a new topic with the class. Encourage students to use Snapguide to illustrate their math solutions, discuss the completion and science behind a lab experiment, or show cause an effect.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Requires download/installation of software
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Vozme - Festival Speech Synthesis System Centre for Speech Technology
Grades
K to 12tag(s): speech (78), text to speech (17)
In the Classroom
Create a verbal classroom using speech in your email messages, blog, browser searches, and even class discussions, read alouds, and simple explanations. Lower elementary classes, ESL/ELL, or learning support classes can enjoy greater independence with both verbal and written text. Let students try making a blog post with synthesized speech. ELL students can hear written language to build listening skills and relate written English to the spoken sounds. Send an email with an anticipatory activity for a content lesson by polling, asking a question, or offering food for thought. At the end of the unit, have students create a review for content area subjects. Use in your writing class for students to listen to their own work read aloud. This allows for easier self-revisions. Share all written work on your class blog, allowing everyone to share (with parental permission, of course). Enjoy giving students writing prompts or homework assignments spoken aloud, playable as many times as each individual needs. Send a quick email to a sick or absent student, adding a more personal touch with them hearing your message. Use to read poetry or to illustrate inflection and emotion in your speech. Enjoy all the talking and listening you and your class will do!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spreaker - Spreaker Online Radio
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Enjoy a live radio show from your classroom! Publish written pieces of writing, science reports, social studies reports, and any other reports you would like to share. Create a New Book or Book Review podcast for the media center. Link to your podcast URL on your class website. Publish directions to projects, explanations for difficult concepts, or even a radio show of you reading your favorite books for your students. Have upper elementary students take turns reading aloud for a podcast aimed at little reading buddies in kindergarten. Allow students to podcast to "pen pals" in faraway places. Record your school choir, orchestra group, poetry club, or drama club doing their best work or dramatic readings of Shakespeare soliloquies. Take your school newspaper to a new level with recorded radio articles. Be sure to include interviews with students, teachers, principals, parents, authors, artists, and almost anyone. In younger grades, use to save an audio portfolio of reading fluency, expression, or to aid with running records or even include writing. Be sure do this regularly throughout the year to analyze growth. Have fun at Halloween with your Halloween station filled with favorite spooky stories! Welcome your students to a new school year by sending them your message. Create messages for classmates who move away. Bring your foreign language classes an extra resource of your pronunciations whenever they need more practice. ESL/ELL, special education classes can often benefit from the extra explanations, practice, and elaborated instructions given at their own pace. The possibilities are endless! The site itself is a "web 2.0," social networking style site, so some schools may have it blocked. Ask about unblocking just YOUR teacher account so you can have students access it while at school and under your supervision.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
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Sozo Exchange - Sozo Exchange
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): figurative language (14), idioms (37), listening (78), news (244), pronunciation (38), vocabulary development (96)
In the Classroom
This is a great find for independent ESL/ELL students who want to improve their oral comprehension and knowledge of vocabulary along with its idiomatic language and slang expressions. Keep the link to this program on your computers at school and on your web page for home use, too. Parents wanting to learn English could use this site too!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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noredink - Jeff Scheur
Grades
3 to 12So, what's fun about learning this type of grammar? noredink asks you to pick your interests from Sports, TV shows, Musicians, and Miscellaneous. You will also be asked if you want them to use your friends from Facebook. When you are practicing or are taking quizzes, the program will use your interests and friends, and generate the questions around your interests and friends. The hope is that the content will be more interesting by including sentences with favorite celebrities, hobbies, TV shows, or even personal friends. Be sure to watch the introductory video which is the only item on the site that requires Flash. The program works on iPads as well as your regular computer. There is a 90 second intro video at the bottom of the landing page.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): assessment (116), capitalization (11), classroom management (144), differentiation (52), grammar (157), homonyms (9), homophones (11), punctuation (29), quiz (64), quizzes (82), sentences (32), Teacher Utilities (100), verbs (31)
In the Classroom
Teachers sign up and create a class. You will receive a class code for your students to use (optional). With the class code you will be able to track student's progress, differentiate, assign quizzes and assignments, and see class trends. The program has color-coded "heat maps" to track progress easily. Your assignments and quizzes will be uniquely generated according to each student's interests. Also, students don't have to wait for you to give them an assignment. With their account, they can practice at any time. A student does NOT have to provide an email address to create an account. It will work without it! Since students are providing some personal information about interests, etc., we strongly advise parent permission.Challenge (and excel) your gifted students with the concepts practiced at this site. Since student assignments are at their own level, students can find great acceleration in practicing these necessary skills. ESL/ELL students will especially benefit from the practice using correct English, in their writing, over a continuous time period. Student assignments are at their own level. You can also create your own quizzes. Use this site as part of your rotation during learning stations. Put your class' URL on your website so students can practice at home, too.
Comments
Any website that doesn't let you try it before creating an account is instantly uninteresting to me.Kristi, , Grades: 0 - 12
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LearnClick: Create Gap-Filling Exercises - Learnclick
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
In the classroom, use as a review tool on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Assign as homework for a study aid. Create study aids for ELL/ESL, or learning support students to review and learn with a "techie twist." Let students take control! Have students create the tests, in order to find the main idea or quiz each other. Use in centers for a fun review of current vocabulary, concepts, or even mathematical practice. Divide the class into cooperative learning groups to cover all aspects of one topic. The subject areas are limitless. Use as a "Jeopardy" style competition. Post on your website as a resource for parents to help their students keep motivated to study in a fun way!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reading Bear - Watch, Know, Learn
Grades
K to 2In the Classroom
This is an excellent resource for use on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Choose from the different options when presenting letter sounds in your classroom to present letters in different formats. Create a link on classroom computers to use as a phonics center activity. Share this site with parents through your classroom website or newsletter as a wonderful way to practice and learn letter sounds at home. Use this site with ESL/ELL students. Speech pathologists and special education teachers may want to bookmark this excellent site, too.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Oxford Owl Reading - Oxford University Press
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
tag(s): independent reading (106), preK (271), reading lists (69), reading strategies (54)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce one of the free online books on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Then encourage students to use it individually or in pairs. Refer your ESL/ELL and learning support students to this site for extra, assisted reading practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Project Laundry List - Project Laundry List, Inc.
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earth day (76), ecology (120), environment (274), holidays (134)
In the Classroom
During environmental science units or Earth Day, use this to have students calculate what their own households spend to care for clothing. Have students consider different tips for reducing environmental impact and saving money. As a homework assignment, have students implement two changes for two weeks. Have parents sign off on a log form to verify student participation. (Parents will love the extra help and possible money savings!) Set up your own celebration of "National Hanging Out Day" by having teams of students prepare presentations (the website even provides one) to share with others students and the community.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CK-12 - CK-12 Foundation
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): atoms (51), cells (90), charts and graphs (183), decades (9), energy (182), equations (145), fractions (218), genetics (77), inequalities (25), landforms (41), measurement (157), oceans (157), organisms (20), periodic table (52), probability (123), pythagorean theorem (26), rocks (45), scientific method (64), seasons (33), solar energy (37), solar system (115), statistics (119), STEM (206), test prep (80), variables (17)
In the Classroom
Introduce CK-12 to your students (and parents) on your interactive whiteboard and demonstrate ways to use the site at home. Be sure to create a link to the site on your class website or blog for easy access at any time. Create an account and upload your own resources and activities to create your own flexbooks for use with students. CK-12 is available in many languages. Use this site with your ESL/ELL students as a supplement to classroom resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Learn English Kids - British Council
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): interactive stories (23), preK (271), songs (46), vocabulary development (96)
In the Classroom
Primary grade and preK teachers will find many useful interactives for basic skills like colors and phonics on this site, even though it is intended for learning English. Share the activities as a center or for extra practice for struggling students. Check with your administration about whether students can register individually for the site. Introduce this site to your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and have your ELL/ESL students use it as one of your learning stations. 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. 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. Short stories and other interactive features of the site would work well with special education students, too. Be sure to share this link with parents of your ELL students if they have Internet access at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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