ESL: English as a Second Language

The Web site has text, photos, and audio support for news stories from around the world. The "As It Is" section has news stories with the script and MP3 file that can be downloaded. The news is presented in English that is spoken clearly and slowly.

Have students introduce themselves to the class by making a personalized avatar with text to speech or with their own voices.

Students learn about the legislative branch of government in this activity. They learn the number of the House and Senate district where they live, the names of the senator and representative who represent their district, the votes of a senator or representative on current issues in the state legislature, and become familiar with the Vote Smart Web Site and how it can be used to obtain information.

WebMD has an extensive library of information on diseases and diagnoses. It is written at a 6th to 10th grade level. An individual or group project to research a particular disease can lead to learning new medical vocabulary that will be helpful when talking to the doctor.

Use WolframAlpha to create graphical information that can be used for pre-reading activities, jigsaw speaking activities, grammar explanations and practice, and writing. Using the Example search (above) which compares three of the largest cities in America, teachers can present comparative and superlative adjectives with information about the three cities or use local cities (such as those shown in Example Document-Example Activities for Reading & Writing Using WolframAlpha, above); the information can also be used to create an information gap activity by deleting some information to create an A and B sheet which has different information missing so that students need to ask questions in pairs to fill in the missing information; or the chart and information can be used for grammar and writing practice (New York City has the largest population. Chicago has higher taxes than Los Angeles. Chicago has the highest elevation). Students will get practice reading and understanding charts and graphical information, calculating, and comparing and contrasting.