ESL: English as a Second Language

Source: Unsplash by Jon Tyson (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

 

Students use the Internet to find information about the meaning of their first names, write a paragraph with this information and reflect on the personal connotation of their names, and make an oral class presentation.

Source: Pixabay by Bayscholar (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

 

Students learn about the California state seal and national seals and then use PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Google Draw to design a personal seal with images or symbols that represent who they are, write a paragraph explaining the features of their seals, and make an oral presentation.

Source: Pixabay by PublicDomainPictures (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

 

Intermediate and advanced students or students in Citizenship classes learn about national symbols of the United States through jigsaw reading and follow up by writing a paragraph and/or making an oral presentation about national symbols of their native countries (or state/city symbols if the class is relatively homogeneous).

Source: Netlingo (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Ever wonder what some technology terms mean or what text shorthand represents in texts, tweets, or e-mails? Net Lingo seems to be a "one stop shop" for all tech terms and tech shorthand. You can browse their dictionary, you can look by category, they have a "word of the day" feature, and even an iPhone app for 99¢. Very useful tool in keeping up with technology for you and your students.

Source: Newsela homepage (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Newsela is a personalized reading service designed to help students master non-fiction literacy by providing daily news articles at multiple reading levels. Newsela makes it easy for an entire class to read the same article at their own reading level.

The teacher assigns an article(s) to the class. Many of the articles have quizzes available. "Write" is a feature that allows students to answer open-ended questions. The teacher can customize the prompt.

Newsela offers a free version and a premium for pay program called Newsela Pro. Pro includes many additional features including student tracking, annotation on articles, etc. June 30, 2023 Newsela offers Newsela Lite. Articles will still be available at multiple reading levels but each week four articles will be available to select from. The articles will be available for four weeks. Each week one will be replaced. When an article is selected the teacher will be able to see student actions and quiz results. It is free to any teacher. Review the new features.