<b> Technology and English Learners </b>

Technology and English Learners
An Internet Hotlist on Teaching English Learners

created by Laurie Smith
Santa Ana Unified School District

Introduction
Use the power of the Internet to teach English Learners. The links below will get you started.
Take advantage of the resources listed below.

The Internet Resources

Center for Applied Logistics - CAL is a private, non-profit organization: a group of scholars and educators who use the findings of linguistics and related sciences in identifying and addressing language-related problems. CAL carries out a wide range of activities including research, teacher education, analysis and dissemination of information, design and development of instructional materials, technical assistance, conference planning, program evaluation, and policy analysis.

Standards

California Department of Education EL Resources - Resources available to assist teaching English Learners.
West Ed Excellence in Research - Site contains a matrix aligning the California Content Standards with the California English Learner Standards

Jokes and Idioms for EL Learners

English Daily - Daily jokes and idioms available for daily enrichment.

Activities for EL Learners

English Learner Newsletter - Sign up for the weekly email newsletter. It is sent out every Monday and it contains three jokes, an idiom (with explanation of correct usage) and a test (with answers at the end).
Grammar Girl - Quick and dirty tricks for better writing delivered on the web and in a podcast.
Interactive Picture Dictionary for English Learners - So, what exactly is English School Club? English School Club is a club for English Language Schools, and its purpose is to allow students from schools from the world to communicate with each other. It also has other edutainment facilities, such as a Quiz & Tests section, from where the teachers can construct quizzes and tests which are afterwards available to all members of English School Club, a Jukebox section from where kids can listen to a great variety of songs, and much more.
Interesting Things for ESL Students - Interesting Things for ESL Students A fun study site for learners of English as a Second Language Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.
Randall's ESL Cyber Space Listening Lab - Practice English.
Reading Rockets - This article looks at how you can play to the strengths and shore up the weaknesses of English Language Learners in each of the Reading First content areas.
Rosetta Stone - Award-winning Software Learn a language naturally with Dynamic Immersion™.
Star Fall - The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service. We also provide writing journals and books at a very low cost that can be used with the website or separately. Teachers around the country are using Starfall materials as an inexpensive way to make the classroom more fun and to inspire a love of reading and writing.

Lessons for EL Learners

Equity Center - Educators throughout the Northwest and Pacific regions are gaining new tools and strategies to improve education for English language learners, thanks to Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) training offered by the Equity Center at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
My Hero - MY HERO is a not for profit educational web project that celebrates the best of humanity. Our mission is to enlighten and ispire people of all ages with an ever-growing internet archive of hero stories from around the world. MY HERO uses current web technologies to provide a unique educational experience that promotes literacy and cross cultural communication. My Hero has a spanish language link.
The Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) - Quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language (ESL)

Misc.

America Translating Services - 150 languages and dialects Layout, Web & Studio Service www.am-translating.com
Google Translations - Download the free Google Toolbar. Instant translations on the page. toolbar.google.com
International Reading Association - English learners are the fastest growing student population in the United States. Many of these students are placed in classrooms with teachers who lack the preparation to help diverse children excel.
Mac translations - The ideal localization vendor for MacOS X software publishers. www.localversion.com
Open Office - OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. To help build the community, join us.
Podcastles - Site describes how to make podcasts. A visual and auditory support for English Learners.
SAUSD Laurie Smith's webpage - This site has resources to support English Learners.
Virtual Pre-K - You're probably wondering how Virtual Pre-K™ works. Here's a tour of everything you need to help transform your preschooler's world into a virtual classroom! Virtual Pre-K™ has two parts- the video lessons the web site and is offered in two languages - English Spanish

Content by Laurie Smith, laureen.smith@sausd.us
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listenglishla2.html
Last revised Wed Oct 17 13:37:49 US/Pacific 2007