KEEP CALM AND WRITE

SITES TO HELP THE BEGINNING WRITERS IN YOUR ESL CLASS Fifteen Minutes of Fiction – Great for the busy writer. Fifteen Minutes of Fiction asks writers to sit down for 15 minutes and write something–a poem, a story, etc.–to post to the site. The Internet Writing Workshop Backspace, lots of articles and helpful information Bartleby.com, for many of the world’s greatest stories, all free Vocabulary Practice – A site with many exercise to stretch your vocabulary Rhyming Dictionary – For poetry and pleasure, find words to rhyme

TEACH ENGLISH WITH MUSIC

Tefltunes uses the principle that music is a great teaching tool in the ESL field and instructs students on English grammar at multiple skill levels. The full site operates on a subscription basis, but a handful of lessons are available for free so you can test out the concept as a part of your method. If you’ve ever had lyrics stuck in your head, you’ll understand how this approach works. Check the free version by clicking on the embedded link below http://www.tefltunes.com/search/searchall.aspx?name=public

THOUGHT BUBBLE

Though bubbles are amazing for ESL learners! You could assign them as homework and tell your students to use their imagination when filling in the speech/thought bubbles. The students are free to use any verb tense they wish as well as the vocabulary they know to complete them.

Use them as it will help in improving your students’ vocabulary, grammar, and imagination. Your students will thank you also for introducing an element of humour and creative thinking into the classroom.

Google Lit Trips

http://googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html

This site provides free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth.

BUILD YOUR ESL COMMUNITY WITH EDMODO

If you’re a teacher,  Edmodo could be something to consider for your class. Edmodo is regarded as a social networking site for teachers and students. It provides a free and secure social learning space for a class to connect and collaborate. Teachers and students can post messages, discuss topics, assign and grade class work, and share digital content such as links, pictures, videos, documents and presentations. I see Edmodo as a tool that can eliminate textbooks. As long as you use Standard stories, tried and true, you will have no issues. Edmodo does a great job of chunking and allowing the students to take better ownership of work and helps them organize as well.

FREE RESOURCES FOR BUSY TEACHERS LIKE YOU!

BusyTeacher is an extensive repository of affordable e-books, downloadable classroom posters, informative education articles for ESL/EFL teachers and over 10,000 free printable worksheets in dozens of categories. You can find innovative methods for coaching grammar and punctuation, new teaching ideas, timely lessons specific to the season and more. Free online tools at BusyTeacher include applications for creating word search, jumble and letter tile puzzles as well as a daily warmer that you can slip into your curriculum or use as inspiration for fun exercises of your own.

YouTube videos on this wonderful masterpiece by Indian writer R. K. Narayan bring forth the realities of colonial India and yet beautifully revives our childhood memories. English teachers can show these videos to the students before a classroom discussion.

Watch the first episode below

YouTube for schools!

https://www.youtube.com/schools

YouTube hosts a version dedicated to school appropriate academic videos. This school-friendly version has access to thousands of educational videos.

A crash course in English literature

John Green kicks off the Crash Course Literature mini series with a reasonable set of questions. Why do we read? What’s the point of reading critically. John will argue that reading is about effectively communicating with other people. Unlike a direct communication though, the writer has to communicate with a stranger, through time and space, with only “dry dead words on a page.” So how’s that going to work? Find out with Crash Course Literature! Also, readers are empowered during the open letter, so that’s pretty cool.

The Reading List!

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: http://dft.ba/-shakespearerj

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: http://dft.ba/-fitzgeraldgg

Catcher in the Rye: http://dft.ba/-catcher

Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson: http://dft.ba/-dickinson

(Source: CrashCourse)

FUN AND FREE ESL VIDEO QUIZZES

ESLvideo takes an innovative approach to educational technology and turns something students probably do already into an ESL/EFL learning experience. Users register for an account, choose a YouTube video and then create quizzes based on the video content, which learners can then watch, answer and rate. Quizzes are ranked by recommended level of skill at English and contain a comment section for students to practice their written English. The diverse content on the site has been created by over 1,400 registered teachers, and registration for the site is free.