Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents invites teens to join an on-going online book club. They read the selected book, contribute one question per book, and join the discussion set up in chat format. After the book chat, an opportunity to speak with the author is available in an "author chat" a few days later. Requires Userplane Webchat download.

tag(s): authors (108), literature (221)

Excellent compilation of games and fun activities whose target is the survival English phrases needed for traveling. From asking questions in an airport or at a travel counter to ordering in a restaurant, from talking to a doctor to dealing with banking, this site prevents necessary vocabulary in a variety of enjoyable activities.

tag(s): medicine (57)

This cleverly formatted ESL/speech and language activity provides review material for phrasal verbs found in The Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs published by Cambridge University Press. Students can select verbs that have the same particle, verbs in content categories, and also study one verb in all its particle manifestations (i.e. go on, go out, go away, etc.). This page is a must for all English language students preparing for standardized tests. Speech and manguage teachers working with elementary students will find it helpful, as well, if the students have basic reading skills. Requires Shockwave Plugin. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): grammar (138), verbs (25)

This site gives specific ideas for improving English for those students for whom English is a second language. It sets up the idea of a script and describes the lesson in detail, including how the author used the idea in her classroom.

BBC offers the news with vocabulary support, exercises, video and audio features with related testing, a serial story with viewer input, a special grammar and vocabulary section, and features just for students (Learner of the Day, a learning English blog, emailed newsletter, and message board.) This is a comprehensive site well worth your time. American speakers will find some "different" vocabulary, but this simply enriches the site. Some activities require Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): news (226)

Though this site is now archived, the links and information are still good. This is a true on-line digital library, with information about the books searched presented in a library-type (MARC) format; items include title, author, keyword, subjects, notes, content vocabulary etc. Links to the digitized texts are offered in both pdf and jpeg form at the bottom of the page. The collection covers children's literature from 1850 to 1950 and more, only those items found in the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida. While not a comprehensive library in the sense of offering the classics of children's literature, the approach is instructional and the offerings well presented. Items are searchable by keyword, author, and title.

tag(s): literature (221)

This 3-in-one online magazine for elementary to middle school kids has attractive graphics, sound, games, news, e-cards, etc. and serves as a companion to paper magazines at three levels: Chirp, Chickadee and Owl. The Owl magazine for upper elementary to middle school is includes an online calendar with moveable stickers, word searches, jokes, a mystery in graphic novel style, and features including international, gender, and environmental awareness. All three magazines promote reading and get children into the habit of "looking" at a magazine for fun, news, and information.

tag(s): puzzles (149)

With the current issue and extensive archives, this online magazine offers colorful articles and a variety of photographs of the countries our new English learners come from. The magazine includes interesting topics such as food, travel, globalization, international stories, movie reviews from the international perspective, biographies by international students and students of American ethnicities, and shopping tips. This is a great entry way into international culture. The variety of topics and photographs of real students and foreign ports make it interesting to everyone.

tag(s): biographies (95), cooking (33), grammar (138), movies (55)

This fairly extensive picture dictionary uses photographs, not drawings, to assist language learners to see the real thing! Besides defining the word the student selects to look up, other items in the photo are also labeled so that learning vocabulary can occur in chunks, thus making it more meaningful and comprehensive. Site users may add to an archive of quizzes on the dictionary's word list.

tag(s): speech (69), vocabulary (242)

Practice with a daily idiom and receive immediate feedback using this interactive quiz that explains the correct answers. This is useful for helping students gain exposure to and understanding of the many idioms they hear and see on a daily basis.

tag(s): idioms (30)

Read about the value of humor as a teaching tool, especially for ESL/ELL students. Using joking frequently is a way to say the same thing in a slightly different way. Students want to learn what is funny in the U.S. Humor varies from culture to culture and your ESL students want to know why certain things are funny so they can join in with the fun.

tag(s): humor (15)

Creating one's own flashcard sets, saving them, and accessing sets already available are only a few of the many options of this comprehensive site. Although there is a fee for full membership, many options are free on the site. To print out flash cards, participants must join, but studying online is a free option.

tag(s): flash cards (43)

By registering with an email address, you and your students are able to create their own newspaper with a choice of three options, a simple page layout, one with frames, or one with two windows which requires Java Script. Creators can also add images and/or links to images and other info. After selecting either "standard" (displays newspaper sections one at a time) or "quick paper" (shows all sections and selects the most popular items for the final paper), students can click to read their personalized news. Options allow students to hear the news also, using RealAudio. They can select news from local, national, or international papers. Instructions on the site are excellent and preparing the personalized newspaper just takes a few moments. Participants receive a link to their newspapers in an email message sent only to them. remember that the audio requires Real Player. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): news (226)

Just in time for Halloween, you can introduce your students to real ghost stories originating in the American South. Historical origin of the stories provided on the story pages makes the stories even more compelling. Stories can be read or listened to in streaming audio. If your students get interested, they can return to this site again and again since the stories change monthly. Message boards making comments about each story are available for further student participation. The audio fiules require Real Player. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): halloween (33)

This site has suggestions for ways to convert classroom games to ensure that they're not only fun but also promote language learning. ESL teachers cna use the games to help develop skills within their classes, as well.

tag(s): game based learning (207)

Students or teachers can create their own flash card files. Registration is required but free and allows users to search a public access flash card set database of over 1,400,000 items organized by subjects.

tag(s): flash cards (43)

Humor is a valuable teaching tool.This site has plenty of suggestions about how to make learning more fun, increase student involvement in activities, and use humor as part of daily/weekly lesson plans when you have ESL students in your class.

tag(s): humor (15)