Follow KANAAE on:

Helpful Links for English Teachers
posted by: Alix | March 07, 2012, 04:27 PM   

As we highlighted recently on the AAE blog, technology, social media, and texting are having an impact on students and the art of teaching proper English grammar. While educators debate the overall effect of technology on our language, it should be noted that technology can also be helpful in providing educators new online tools and resources.

Currently, there are thousands of websites devoted to engaging students in reading and writing. While the sheer number can be overwhelming, many are helpful in assisting language arts teachers create interactive and engaging lesson plans. Take a moment to review a few easy-to-use online tools:

English Club: This online forum focuses on English as a Second Language (ESL) resources and provides teachers with sample lesson plans, worksheets, and vocabulary boards. The website also features a collaborative forum where ESL teachers can interact and share best practices. Additionally, English Club has a robust YouTube presence where teachers can watch short videos featuring other teachers and their many interesting projects.

Book Adventure: This online reading program strives to get students excited about reading through interactive games and videos. Students can create booklists and take quizzes on books they've read. The site also offers tips for teachers and parents on tracking their kids' reading progress. A great resource for K-6 students, participants can even enter contests and win prizes for their reading success.

Pinterest
: While you may think of wedding planning or recipe exchanges when thinking of Pinterest, this fast-growing social media site allows users to build online bulletin boards around topics of interest. We've seen teachers create virtual bulletin boards for classroom ideas as well as students creating boards around books or fictional characters. This website is on the road to becoming the English diorama of yesteryear for high school student book reports.

Essay Map: This tool is a great resource for students who have trouble organizing their thoughts. An interactive online organizer, Essay Map offers students several ways to structure their writing through the use of a virtual outline. Students fill in the boxes with an introductory statement, main idea, thesis, etc., and the end result is a map of their piece that can be used to begin drafting.

Fun English Games: K-12 teachers can find an assortment of resources for language arts and English-language learner classes on this site. Content is updated regularly, and the worksheets and tongue-twister games help exercise students' knowledge on parts of speech and vocabulary words. Students can also work through word scrambles and use their creativity by writing movie reviews and captions based on cutting edge videos.

Are you an English teacher? Do you have any go-to resources to share?
Comment below.

Comments (0)Add Comment

Submit a comment
 (not published)
smaller | bigger

busy