EL Teaching and Learning Resources (Kian Tiong)

http://www.perfectyourenglish.com/index.htm

· Free resource!

· Great website covering different aspects of the English language ranging from reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary and grammar.

· Easy to navigate and understand, due to clear layout of website, but there are some ads on it (that’s why it’s free …)

· Lots of simple examples offered that we can adapt for students to try out.

http://www.fun-with-words.com/index.html

· Free resource as well.

· More for fun learning, if your school advocates it.

· Has rebus puzzles, anagrams, redundant / ambiguous sentences, tongue twisters.

· Can act as lesson fillers, triggers or even to teach grammar through noticing e.g. using the ambiguous sentences and getting students to notice the errors in it.

http://www.teachenglishinasia.net/efl-esl-games/adult-efl-esl-games

· This website has many suggestions for English language games. Suitable for learners who are uninterested or very weak (e.g. those foreign students from China) in the subject before moving straight into routine learning activities.

· Games are described clearly so the procedures can be easily followed or modified to suit different levels or learners.

· Games also categorized e.g. for adults, for high school, speaking games, vocabulary games etc.

EL Teaching and Learning Resources (Sharalee)

Free Rice

This altruistically-inclined website made it to Time.com's 50 Best Websites last year, and aims to do things simultaneously--improve students' English vocabulary, and feed the hungry at the same time. Students pick the answer they think corresponds to the vocab word, and for each correct answer, rice is donated to the United Nations World Food Program. It's simple, to-the-point, and can be a quick means of getting pupils to put a little into their word bank daily, as well as into the stomachs of the underprivileged. For teachers who are so inclined, other subject areas as diverse as Chemistry, Art and Geography are also available.





Time Online

One of my all-time favourites--this website carries up-to-the-minute news, and all the complete, international versions of the magazine online. Plenty of text related to pop culture, travel, current affairs, science and technology and everything in between that are perfect for adaptation for comprehension exercises. Also picture essays abounding that are useful for oral practice. Every single issue of the magazine ever published is also available on the online archive, so you can dig as far back as you need, or want to.




Youtube

This one's fairly obvious but a big help--especially for the we're-too-jaded-to-learn-anything set. At the Secondary Level, videos selected with a bit of care can yield gems for teaching text types, such as narratives (see local, award-winning short film 'The Trainee' by Craig Rosenthal for a perfect example of Intro-Rising Action-Climax-Resolution with humor) and persuasive text types (I used this informercial to introduce persuasive speech on a grubby, uninspiring afternoon in class to a fair amount of success).

EL Teaching and Learning Resources (Wan Ru)

Teacher Resources For Language Arts
http://www.teach-nology.com/subjects/langarts/

One of my favourite sites to go to whenever I'm stumped for ideas. There is a wide variety of resources available, and everything is neatly labeled. The resources not only help you with what you are planning, it also provides suggestions as to how to plan and stretch the lessons for maximum effect.

The Educator's Reference Desk
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Language_Arts

This site provides lesson plans according to the skill you ae planning to teach. They cover a varied range of skills,and even categorise them according to the age and education level so one can choose according to the student's level of ability. Although some of them may seem too simple for secondary school students, many of the suggestions can be utilised as trigger activities or even ideas for further development.

EL Teaching and Learning Resources (Jean)

1. Read - Write - Think (K-12)

A resourceful website for Language Arts and 'Language & Literature' approaches to EL. Provides a host of creative lesson plans and resources, such as worksheets and online tools and games, to do with language use in texts. Examples of elements explored in lesson plans: plot structure, vocabulary, APCC (Audience, Purpose, Context, Culture), personal responses to texts and stories, comics and narratives.

2. Inspirational Stories

Nothing like good tidbits of inspirational stories to keep your students going, both in terms of language and morale. Students love reading whatever is relevant to them, and a bite-size of text each lesson might do wonders to their reading and writing ability in the long run. And while we're at it, why not inspirational stories to keep their moods and esteems up in the very-draining classroom? (Wow, this sounds uncannily like an advert)

3. National Geographic Lesson Plans
Lesson plans and resources for higher-ability pupils to improve reading, analytical and argumentative skills. Useful and relevant since many comprehension passages deal with physical and social world issues.

EL Teaching and Learning Resources (Karen)

1) The exercises are simple enough to keep extremely weak students interested. For motivated students who will self-study

http://english-grammar.webpark.pl/diagnostic_grammar_1.htm

2) A variety of games to build vocabulary. There was once when I wanted to revise newly taught vocabulary with a class of average students and used a mixture of fill-in-the blanks complemented with a wordsearch puzzle. The wordsearch acted as a scaffold and retained interest. Small prizes like sweets to reward the most accurate and fastest student was effective.

http://www.learn-english-today.com/wordgames.html

Both are FREE!

1. BBC Learning English
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/

There are many news articles covering various topics like economics, geography etc. A podcast is provided for every article. Useful words and phrases are in bold, with the meanings and pronunciations in the same webpage.

I think it is useful for teachers to use in class to teach reading, oral, grammar. Moreover, these are authentic materials.

2. Free Rice
http://freerice.com/

The first page to appear would be English Vocabulary. Students pick the right synonym and for each correct answer, the sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

If you want to assess students' grammar skill, then click on Subjects at the top bar and select English Grammar. However, there is no specific section like Tense, Nouns etc.

I think this site can be used for students to work in groups and compete against each other. Students can listen for the pronunciation and write notes.

Learn + Fun + Charity!

EL Teaching and Learning Resources (Selin)

National Geographic

I like National Geographic (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/) because it can be an eye-opener to the students. A lot of the students in neighbourhood schools are not really exposed to the foreign countries or anything that is out of Singapore. I like to use some short articles as cloze passage and provide them with a picture so that they have a feel of the background and culture of these countries. National Geographic is well-rounded as there is space, animals, sea, anything under the sun… There are also video clips that are pretty relevant to topics taught in EL such animals and the environment.

It also has an Education sub-site (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/) whereby there are lesson plans and activities that can be conducted in the classrooms. I would recommend this as this has high educational values which are out of the textbooks.

Teaching English by British Council

I chanced upon this website (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/) and realize that there are a few resources or activities that can be tried in classes. Have yet to have a chance to try the activities from this site. But I hope to find suitable resources that can be used in the classroom. There are various sections in this website such as Try whereby there are various activities to be conducted in the classroom, Think for us to reflect on our teachings and Central that recommends activities that can be conducted in the classrooms weekly and by themes.