ESL WEBSITES FOR TEACHERS
This is run by Judie Haynes, an ESL educator who has presented at the TESOL conference for the past 18 years. There are lessons plans, hints, questions and answers and lots of helpful information. Click around and don’t miss out going to the “learn more” section about Judie. There are more great links there.
This is a section of the above website. This link has a “culture quiz” that would be great for doing at a teacher inservice.
This website is put together by Reading Rockets and the AFT. It is an excellent source of information about almost anything related to instruction ELLs, especially in reading.
This is the site of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. On the TESOLwebsite there is a wealth of information from organization information to current events and news.
This website has interesting proverbs from over 100 countries and many cultures from around the world. Country pages include flags, maps, and country information.
This website gives lists of multicultural literature for children. It is divided by various cultures.
This is a national resource center for migrant education. It has been in operation since 1986. The HELP kit available from them is excellent. This site is filled with useful information.
An online magazine for learners of English, this site is a place for ELLs to publish their written work and for teachers to share their ideas for class projects.
This site is not directly related to ESL issues, but has many global issues that might be of interest to children.
This site is accessible to most schools through their IU. You will need a password and username. Talk to your librarian or a district supervisor to get an access code. This is an EXCELLENT source of information about countries, cultures, day-to-day living, and gestures. There is a children’s section and a section for adults. This would be a great way for teachers to learn about their students’ homelands.
This site has some generic, but helpful tips about dealing with intercultural learners.
This site has research about English Language Learners and other helpful information and links.
This is the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs. This is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Language Services Association is the umbrella website for translations and for interpretation services. Interpretalk is part of Language Services Associates. School districts can access easy and hard to find languages.
Dave’s ESL Café Designed for teachers and students, this website has lesson plans, interactive games, and many links. You can also look for an ESL job while you are visiting.
This site is the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s ESL home page. It contains the Language Proficiency Standards for ELLs, professional development opportunities, important documents on topics such as exit criteria, a guidebook to planning English language learning programs, links to other resources, and information about Title III of No Child Left Behind and Annual Measurement Achievement Objectives (AMAOs).
This is the website of the National Association of Bilingual Education, a research and advocacy group that supports ELLs and teachers with programs that aim to “yield academic success, value native language, lead to English language proficiency, and respect cultural and linguistic diversity.”
Designed for elementary school teachers, this site offers links to specific lesson plans on everything from the use of environmental print to comic books for genre study, NCTE books on teaching ELLs, and NCTE/CCCC position papers on the role of English teachers in educating ELLs. The position papers also contain specific suggestions for teaching language skills, reading, and writing.
Geared towards secondary teachers of ELLs, this site contains a wealth of resources: specific lesson plans, NCTE position papers on English language learning, information on NCTE’s professional development program called Pathways for Supporting English Language Learners, and information about NCTE books, including the Teaching English Language Learners Kit.
This site, maintained by the National Writing Project, offers links to short articles on many aspects of teaching English language learners. Two particularly helpful guides are “Educating English Language Learners: Implementing Instructional Practices” (2007) and “Resources for Educators of English Language Learners: An Annotated Bibliography” (2007). Both can be downloaded as pdf files.
This site contains a wealth of information about contemporary Japanese culture, covering life and culture, science and technology, arts and entertainment, travel and history, nature and geography, and people and work. There is also a link to “Kids Web Japan,” which presents similar cultural information in a child-friendly format. Interestingly, the site can be viewed in several different languages!
This site provides information about a Scholastic-sponsored community action program which helps Latino children realize their potential as readers and learners by offering parent and community education programs from birth to age eight. A Community Resource Guide and a Family Fun Guide, both free, can be downloaded from this site.
Short for “Resources for Teaching about the Americas,” RetaNet advertises itself as a website for secondary educators who teach Latin America content. This site offers a database of multimedia resources, an online community of teachers, and a searchable database of lesson plans, which span a number of subject areas, including ESL, language arts, history, and Spanish.
An online magazine for learners of English, this site is aplace for ELLs to publish their written work and for teachers to share their ideas for class projects.
Maintained by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, this site lists general principles for working with ELLS and offers a sampling of teaching strategies for mainstream teachers of English language learners. The list of teaching strategies is full of practical, easily implemented ideas.
This is the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs. This is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
National Association for Multicultural Education. Non-profit organization started in 1990 to ensure that all students receive an equal, quality education. Conference dates, local chapters, summer institute dates and resources for teachers and students can be found here.
Education Law Center – This site provides legal advocacy services for all Pennsylvania children. There are sections relating to students with disabilities, ESL students, migrant workers, foster children, and other minorities.
The U.S. Department of Education is the umbrella for this site run by the Office of English Language Acquisition. Government initiatives and resources in both English and Spanish can be found.
This is a website that is provided for all school districts in Pennsylvania. It provides copies of many legal documents, forms, and generic letters that can be printed in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hmong, Russian, and Vietnamese. Administrators should have a password for this site.
The Center for Applied Linguistics site provides a wide range of tools and resources related to culture. It has much to offer in the areas of bilingual education, ESL, literacy, foreign language education, and much more.
List your own websites:
Compiled by:
Jennifer Barbusca
Meredith Fisher
Pat Goodstein
Lenetta Lee
Pat Verbovszky