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Breaking News English - Easier News Lessons

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Breaking News English Lessons - 3,369 FREE Easy News English lesson plans. EFL/ESL graded news lessons, news in 7 levels, current events.

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Voice of America - Learn American English with VOA Learning English

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Learn American English with English language lessons from Voice of America. VOA Learning English helps you learn English with vocabulary, listening and comprehension lessons through daily news and interactive English learning activities.

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edWeb: A professional online community for educators

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edWeb is a free online community for professional educators, offering networking, resource sharing, collaboration, and professional development webinars.

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An online book store where you can find titles in multiple languages!!

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New and Used Books from Thrift Books | Buy Cheap Books Online

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Cheap new and used books are available with free shipping within the USA on orders over $10 at Thriftbooks. Millions to choose from for the cheapest prices you will find on the web.

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Students are able to create stories in comic format. I would use this website as a way for students to write/tell the story of texts we are reading. This allows students to not only process what has been read but also imagine and picture what is happening in the text.

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Pixton Comic & Storyboard Builder for Education

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Educators! Learn how to use Pixton in the classroom. Set up your classroom and begin teaching any subject in minutes through the super-power of comics.

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This is a great tool for teachers to use in creating assessments. There are various categories to choose from which forced me as a teacher to really question what I was assessing exactly in terms of language and content.

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Thinking Skills tell us how we want students to think about the content. I use Bloom's Taxonomy. Make sure students are actually doing the thinking you want! For example, "create a list of odd numbers" is not high-level thinking, despite the word "create."

Content is the topic you're teaching! Click "click to edit" in the objective above to change it. You can differentiate your content by using Depth and Complexity below.

Resources are where students will get their information. You might lecture, give them a book to read, show them a video, etc. You'll want to get way more specific than these options.

The product is how students' show you their thinking. It should match the level of Bloom's that you aimed for. ⚠️ Products tend to be over-emphasized! A cool-looking product does not mean that there was high-level thinking.
Product list adapted from David Chung and The Flip Book, Too by Kaplan, Gould, Siegel
Beware the negative side of putting students in groups! Group work is vastly overused and will limit what students can produce.

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It's the Differentiator from Byrdseed! This bad boy will help you write differentiated lesson objectives with Depth and Complexity embedded!

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A way to give feedback to students!!

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Easy Management Quickly assign ten (or ten thousand) licenses from our admin console, or simply turn on domain-wide access. No matter the size of your school or district, you'll only need to manage one subscription.

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Help your students classify ideas and communicate more effectively with these free graphic organizer templates, available for download. They can be used to structure writing projects and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research, and brainstorming.

Printable Graphic Organizers

Select a blank graphic organizer from the following categories depending on your curriculum needs.

Sequence of Events

Main Topic and Key Details

Compare/Contrast

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Free Downloadable Graphic Organizer Templates

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Help your students classify ideas and communicate more effectively with these free graphic organizer templates, available for download. They can be used to structure writing projects and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research, and brainstorming. Select a blank graphic organizer from the following categories depending on your curriculum needs.

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Informal assessments (also called authentic or alternative) allow teachers to track the ongoing progress of their students regularly and often. While standardized tests measure students at a particular point in the year, ongoing assessments provide continual snapshots of where students are throughout the school year. By using informal assessments, teachers can target students' specific problem areas, adapt instruction, and intervene earlier rather than later.

Ongoing assessments are particularly important for English language learners (ELLs). Standardized tests in English do not usually reflect ELLs' true content knowledge or abilities. Yet informal assessments can provide a more well-rounded picture of their skills, abilities, and ongoing progress. Today's No Child Left Behind legislation requires that meticulous records be kept on the progress of ELLs. Having these records will make it easier when questions of program placement, special services, and grading arise.

There are two commonly used informal methods: performance-based assessment and portfolio assessment. Both methods utilize typical classroom activities to measure progress toward curricular goals and objectives. These activities can be monitored and recorded by teacher observation and student self-assessment.

Performance-based assessments

Performance-based assessments are based on classroom instruction and everyday tasks. You can use performance-based assessments to assess ELLs' language proficiency and academic achievement through oral reports, presentations, demonstrations, written assignments, and portfolios.

These assessments can include both processes (e.g., several drafts of a writing sample) and products (e.g., team projects). You can use scoring rubrics and observation checklists to evaluate and grade your students. These assessment tools can help document your ELLs' growth over a period of time.

Here is a sample language and academic assessment form that you can complete on a monthly basis to learn about the overall academic and English proficiency progress of your ELLs. If there is an ESL or resource teacher at school assisting your ELLs, you can share this assessment of the ELL's progress during the past month.

When using performance-based assessments, it is important to establish clear and fair criteria from the beginning. It might be helpful to develop these criteria in conjunction with other teachers or specialists at your school. Performance-based assessments promote a wide range of responses and do not typically produce one single, correct answer. Therefore, evaluation of student performances and products must be based on teacher judgment, using the criteria specified for each task. Here is a sample oral scoring rubric.

You can also develop assessment (and instructional) activities that are geared to your ELLs' current level of English proficiency. Performance-based assessment activities can concentrate on oral communication and/or reading. Here are examples of commonly-used activity types designed for assessing speaking or reading:

Reading with partners

Retelling stories

Role playing

Giving descriptions or instructions using visual or written prompts

Oral reporting to the whole class

Telling a story by using a sequence of three or more pictures

Completing dialogue or conversation through written prompts

Debating, either one-on-one or taking turns in small groups

Brainstorming

Completing incomplete stories

Playing games

When using performance-based assessments with beginner and intermediate English proficiency level ELLs, it is best to assess no more than three items at a time. For example, in one role play activity, you might assess ELLs' abilities to:

1. Respond to "what" and "where" questions

2. Ask for or respond to clarification

3. Read addresses or telephone numbers

Portfolio assessments

Portfolios are practical ways of assessing student work throughout the entire year. With this method, you can systematically collect descriptive records of a variety of student work over time that reflects growth toward the achievement of specific curricular objectives. Portfolios include information, sample work, and evaluations that serve as indicators for student performance. By documenting student performance over time, portfolios are a better way to crosscheck student progress than just one measure alone. Portfolios can include:

Samples of written student work, such as stories, completed forms, exercise sheets, and descriptions

Drawings representing student content knowledge and proficiencies

Tapes of oral work, such as role-playing, presentations, or an oral account of a trip

Teacher descriptions of student accomplishments, such as performance on oral tasks

Formal test data, checklists, and rating sheets

Checklists or summary sheets of tasks and performances in the student's portfolio can help you make instructional decisions and report consistently and reliably. Checklists can also help you collect the same kind of data for each student. In this way you can assess both the progress of one student and of the class as a whole. This sample math development checklist is an example of how you can organize your data collection for each ELL.

In addition, here are a few ways that your ELLs can have an active role in the portfolio process:

Students can select samples of their work and reflect on their own growth over time.

You can meet with ELLs to develop their goals and standards, such as with this sample writing criteria chart.

Together with students, you can set tangible, realistic improvement goals for future projects.

Students - as a class, in groups, or individually - can create their own rubrics.

Assessing content knowledge

ELLs need to learn grade level academic content even though they are still in the process of learning English. Even if ELLs are at the beginning or intermediate stages of English language development, you can still use their thinking ability and challenge them with content knowledge activities. ELLs need your help to exercise their critical thinking skills - such as knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation - in order to succeed in school during all stages of English language development.

It is possible to assess ELLs' understanding of math, science, social studies, and other content areas somewhat independently of their level of English proficiency. The following assessment techniques can help you adapt assessments to reduce English language difficulties while you assess ELLs' actual content knowledge. These techniques can be used separately or simultaneously as needed.

Scaffolding assessments allow ELLs to demonstrate their content knowledge through exhibits or projects, drawings, and graphic organizers. Consider giving ELLs extra time to complete these tasks, or to give short responses.

Differentiated scoring scores content knowledge separately from language proficiency. To score content knowledge, look at how well ELLs understand key concepts, how accurate their responses are, and how well they demonstrate the processes they use to come up with responses.

You can use a content area progress form with the above techniques to rate your ELLs' overall content achievement in class. You will need separate forms for math, science, and social studies performance.

It is important to note that if students are being instructed in content in one language (e.g., English), they should not be assessed on that content in another language, even if it is their native language.

For more information on assessing ELLs in general, visit the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (LAB) website.

Read about assessing fluency.

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Using Informal Assessments for English Language Learners

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Informal assessments (also called authentic or alternative) allow teachers to track the ongoing progress of their students regularly and often. While standardized tests measure students at a particular point in the year, ongoing assessments provide continual snapshots of where students are throughout the school year.

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The WIDA Can Do's are standards that measure all 4 domains (speaking, listening, reading, writing)

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A tool to help you meet students where they are in their language development

The Can Do Descriptors highlight what language learners can do at various stages of language development as they engage in the following contexts:

Bilingual and English-immersion early care and education programs

Bilingual, Spanish-immersion and English-immersion K-12 language programs

Bilingual, Spanish-immersion and English-immersion K-12 content-area classrooms

Similar to the WIDA English Language Development Standards Statements, the Can Do Descriptors describe what learners can do with language across different content areas. Although the Can Do Descriptors relate to the ELD Standards Statements, they don't replace them but are used to supplement the standards statements during instruction.

Educators and early childhood practitioners can use the Can Do Descriptors to

Better understand what students at different levels of language proficiency can do with language

Expand their understanding of what the process of language development can look like

Collaborate around scaffolding that students need to engage in content-area learning and develop language at the same time

Differentiate instruction and classroom assessment for language

Interpret ACCESS for ELLs test scores

The Can Do Descriptors have not yet been updated to reflect the 2020 Edition; however, they remain available as a valuable tool for communicating with stakeholders about what students can do at each language proficiency level. WIDA is monitoring educator use to help inform the timing for updating the materials.

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A tool to help you meet students where they are in their language developmentThe Can Do Descriptors highlight what language learners can do at various stages of language development as they engage in the following contexts:

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Kid Thesaurus - Search for kid friendly synonyms - Kid Thesaurus

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Kid thesaurus. Find synonms using this online kid thesaurus. A kid thesaurus is helpful for students to find kid friendly synonyms.

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A wide range of different activities for either newcomer or emergent bilinguals that are interactive! It includes games, videos, worksheet, and other activities!

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Fun English Games for Kids - Free Interactive Learning Activities Online

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Enjoy learning English with a wide range of fun, interactive games and activities for kids.

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A free resource to help students with letter sounds and sight word practice.

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Free Letters and Sounds resources

Whether you are a parent or teacher, you can use these free resources to help support the DfES Letters and Sounds phonics programme. If you're new to Letters and Sounds and want to find out what it's all about, visit What is Letters and Sounds to find out more.

I aim to provide lots of free resources for parents and teachers who are following the Letters and Sounds phonics programme. I've made a special effort to create themes which will engage all children. Looking around I have found plenty of resources on other sites with flowers, butterflies etc., which may have lots of appeal for some children, but not so much for others.

Because of this I have chosen colourful trucks as my first theme, which I hope will appeal to many children. I know I struggled to get one little boy interested in reading until I came up with the idea of sticking words onto cars, lorries and trains... pretty soon he was hooked!

In addition to printable letter and word cards, I will also be adding printable games, plus teaching ideas, activities and links to Letters and Sounds games which you can use on computers or on as interactive whiteboard activities.

For full details on the Letters and Sounds phonics teaching programme, visit the Standards Site's Letters and Sounds section. You can download or order a hard copy of the guidance for each phase. There are also some useful videos on using Letters and Sounds in the classroom, as well as a phoneme pronunciation guide.

Handwriting skills resources

If you would like to help your child to develop their handwriting skills, visit Linkpen school handwriting fonts. The site provides free handwriting worksheets and affordable fonts to match UK school handwriting styles which you can install on your own computer.

Free phonics programme

The tried and trusted Step by Step phonics programme by Mrs Mona McNee is now available online free of charge. It's straightforward, easy for parents and teachers to follow and suitable for all ages including adults: Phonics 4 Free.

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Whether you are a parent or teacher, you can use these free resources to help support the DfES Letters and Sounds phonics programme. If you're new to Letters and Sounds and want to find out what it's all about, visit What is Letters and Sounds to find out more.

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Instructional videos in Spanish.

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khan academy español química física matemática khanacademy

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Es nuestra misión acelerar el aprendizaje de estudiantes de todas las edades. Con esto en mente, queremos compartir nuestro contenido con todos aquellos que lo puedan encontrar útil. Los videos han sido categorizados en las listas de reproducción.

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A bilingual webpage that it's free that lets you learn either English, Spanish or French vocabulary.

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Vocapic, el libro de imágenes en línea gratuito

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Common Lit is very similar to Newsla.  It is a digital library that provides short stories, non-fiction text in English and in Spanish.

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Beginning of dialog window. It begins with a heading 3 called "Create Account". It has two buttons, one for educators that takes you to the educator sign up page and one for students that takes you to another modal which allows you to enter your class code for your enrolled class.

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a free online site that provides split screen bilingual (many languages are available) texts of a small number of public domain classic works.

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limited collection of materials that show content in English and in another language at the same time

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Free dictionary to help students learn new vocabulary.

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Free, online multilingual picture dictionary with interactive activities for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and ESL learners.

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Hello World has more than 800 games and activities in English, and in multiple languages all of which are completely FREE!!

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Inmersión total en la lengua, gran diversión* ¡pero en serio!

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Main index for hello-world: links to login and all of the languages

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This resource has printable worksheets and flashcards as well as online games and songs that can be used both at school and at home.

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grammar worksheets, vocabulary worksheets, handwriting and tracing worksheets, word search worksheets, text maze worksheets, crossword worksheets, grammar flashcards, vocabulary flashcards, grammar games, vocabulary games, esl phonics flashcards, song worksheets, video games, interactive flash games…

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A site that offers strategies for teaching ELL, including incorporating photography, storytelling, and blogging.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

Discover ways to optimize instruction to address the needs of students who are learning English.

Sort by:

In higher grades, multilingual students need to develop a grasp of academic English. Here's how to help them acquire the skills they need.

Five ways teachers can celebrate and extend the linguistic expertise of young students who speak two or more languages.

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Discover ways to optimize instruction to address the needs of students who are learning English.

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A great site with tools and resources for both educators and parents.

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A teacher Blog that provides different articles for teachers to read. It also has great tools and examples of co-teaching.

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A weekly ELL blog examining strategies for visible reading, lesson design, best practices and teacher collaboration. Strategies for language & content.

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This page has a lot of videos and resources to help and guide academic conversation in a classroom setting.

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Teaching resources to help teachers build lessons that meet students linguistic needs and to help build academic conversation.

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Understanding Language | Language, Literacy, and Learning in the Content Areas

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Understanding Language is devoted to improving education for English Language Learners in light of the new Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Based on the latest research, we provide resources to help teachers, administrators, and policy makers recognize the language demands in mathematics, science, and English language arts.

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This report conducted by Ed. Northwest talks about the role of the ELD and the content teacher to help teachers design instruction and support academic for all English Language Learners in their classrooms.