In one of my other posts about resources, I mentioned books that are great for professional development and ongoing education for an ESL teacher. Today, I share a few of the online resources for ESL teachers. They are implementable and truly life-saving when it comes to planning. The best part, these are the sites and apps that you can use with your older students (middle and high school) as well
Teaching is an incredibly rewarding activity but at the same time, it is no easy feat. I know, I didn’t say anything new here. Teaching ESL (or English to speakers of other languages), on the other hand, brings the rewarding and complex parts of our honorable profession to a whole new level. In simplified terms, any teacher – math, language arts, science – evokes the idea of an adult in a classroom full of children who all speak the same language and are learning the same subject.
What does an ESL teacher do?
An ESL teacher, however, can mean so many things! They might have a self-contained classroom of students of roughly the same level of English proficiency. Or they might be someone in a one-on-one teaching situation. Some ESL teachers work with small groups at one or two schools. Still others travel between six schools and experience a mixture of classroom, small group, and one-on-one instruction in one day.
Most of the time, the level of English language proficiency of students varies greatly and you have to be quick and think on your feet to adapt any and all materials so that your students understand them. And chances are, you may be working with little kids, pre-teens, and teens all in the same day.
No matter what your situation, planning time for an ESL educator is at a premium, and quick resourcesare a must. In one of my other posts about resources, I mentioned books that are great for professional development and ongoing education for an ESL teacher. Today, I share a few of the resources that are implementable and truly life-saving when it comes to planning. The best part, these are the sites and apps that you can use with your older students (middle and high school) as well.
*This post may contain affiliate links for the products I love*
Online resources: Websites
islCollective
I came across this website by accident, when I was looking for some grammar worksheets because I noticed that my students could use a refresher on how to use comparative and superlative adjectives. As usual, and probably like many other teachers, I scoured Pinterest and several worksheets from islCollective popped up. It was great! You can pick a worksheet by what kind of grammar or vocabulary item you are looking for, by type of activity, student level and best of all, it is all free and at your fingertips. No need to create a separate account with a password you will forget five seconds after you’ve confirmed it. Just login with Facebook or Google and you’re good to go!
You may have known this as a resource for mainstream classrooms, but it also contains quite a large library of activities and ideas for ESL students. They have great infographics, too, which will not require you clicking through multiple pages trying to get to where you want to go but giving you implementable ideas on how to teach, say, idioms.
Newsela.com
Gone are the days when you’d find an interesting article but it would be either too difficult or too easy for your kiddos. Newsela to the rescue! This site is a gold mine for current news articles as well as those categorized by subjects and interests in general. You can pick a reading level for your students and then give them the quizzes that are provided on newsela.com or make up your own. You can also create your own classroom on the website, assign articles and follow progress. I have mostly used this site for vocabulary building, reading comprehension and discussions in the classroom.
NEW!
Lesson Planet
This website contains TONS of lesson plans that were reviewed by teachers and contains a large library of resources specifically for English learners. Trying it for free will give you a glimpse into the valuable resources it contains, and if you decide to become a member, it’s one of the most affordable membership sites out there – literally a couple of bucks a month.
Apps
What’s a modern teacher without an iPad?:) Although language learning apps are not all created equal and a lot of them are hit or miss (another idiom for your classroom!) but I have found two that have added value to my teaching.
The Speech Journal
This app allows you to upload a picture and talk about it and record yourself. Perfect for vocabulary development, speaking practice and truly builds motivation. Students sometimes are apprehensive about recording themselves and listening back to their own speech, especially those who are in the beginning stages of their language journey. On the other hand, The Speech Journal has not failed me once – even the most cautious ones open up and enjoy practicing.
Explain Everything
This is a very versatile app that allows you to create your own projects or upload existing pictures, PowerPoints or worksheets as well as create videos and manipulate them to best explain the material to students. I’ve explained geography of the USA with this app, as well as different parts of a human body. The possibilities are endless!
And there you have it! Resources that have been tried and verified. I am sure I will be updating this list in the future because let’s face it, a teacher’s job is never over and when we find something worth sharing, we totally do it:)
What are your favorite resources for teaching English learners?
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