Teacher Discussion Forums

[kisi]

ESL Sites for Teachers – ESL Lesson Planning

I'd like to share with you guys the websites that save ESL Teachers lesson planning time and also offer 100% FREE stuff for students learning English. Also the printable materials and free downloads are of the highest quality :
ESL Galaxy – www.esl-galaxy.com
has Top quality printable PDF worksheets covering grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation areas. This website is regularly updated. They now have a website search engine which makes it easier to find what you want. The resources are mostly in PDF , Word and Powerpoint formats.
ESL Kids Lab – www.english-4kids.com
If you teach English to kids and beginners, then you must visit this free site. They offer free flashcards, Video lessons, powerpoint, printable puzzles on grammar and vocabulary, Phonics, coloring worksheets, grammar exercises for kids materials and it is easy to access.
ESL Tower – www.esltower.com
This is a cool grammar and vocabulary portal for ESL Teachers and Students. They offer interactive exercises for English learners and printable worksheets for teachers. Though the resources are enormous, it is easy to access with the search engine on the site. It is also all Free and mostly in PDF and Flash Formats
English Media Lab – www.englishmedialab.com
This website is for English students. They have several videos and self-grading quizzes that cover grammar ,vocabulary, survival English, Business English and pronunciation. The materials are carefully classified under Beginner, Elementary , Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper and Advanced Levels Students. There are also independent sections like Pronunciation, Business English and Survival English sections.

[destinyawaits]

www.englishteachersdb.com

A new website for English Teachers and Students has just opened. It's offering free PDF texts - stories, games, exercises, dialogues, mini plays - at intermediate and advanced level. New texts will be added every month. It's completely free to use.

[marababbel]

hey -- I wanted to add Babbel.com to the list. I'm an ESL teacher in Germany but I also sometimes work for these guys -- the site is actually a lot of fun, interactive with lots of images and matching, especially good for young learners. Later in the year I think they're going to enable teachers to upload their own curricula into the multimedia format.
For learning English they've got interfaces in Spanish, French and German (that is, you learn English from the basis of those languages)

Users also can make profiles and hook up with native speakers and start a 'tandem' if they like.

Here's a link for ya:

http://babbel.com/start/learn

Hope that's not too much shameless plugging/spamming, it actually is one of the best, easiest to use online language learning sites I know. Would love to hear your feedbacks for improving the site!

[HeatherC]

Hey! I train teachers in Pakistan, and I've just indexed a bunch of my lesson plans and games that I use as examples in the training sessions. There are integrated lessons and games as well as lessons for grammar, speaking, writing, vocabulary, teacher training and more.

Free ESL and English Lesson Plans & Games
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1496096/free_esl_and_english_lesson_plans_and_pg2.html?cat=4

Here's a sample of one of the games based on "The Price is Right"

Objective: practicing numbers and discussion of products/prices

Time: 30+ minutes

Resources: Price is Right video clip, television + DVD player/computer to show clip, ten products or pictures of products along with product descriptions, students names written on slips of paper and placed
in a box

Note: The teacher must know the retail prices of the products chosen. This game would work best in a small class where everyone could have a chance to participate during the course of the game. You can easily get product details from sites like Amazon.com.

Warm Up

Say, "Does anyone here love shopping?" Hopefully at least 50% of the class will raise their hands.

Say, "Who thinks they are an expert in knowing the prices of products?"

Say, "Has anyone heard of the game show, The Price is Right?"

Explain that the game is based on contestants guessing the actual retail value of certain products.

Show a clip or photos from the game show if possible. If you have a computer and internet access, you can find videos on YouTube.

Show student how when contestants are chosen they get very excited and run down the aisles. Demonstrate having an excited expression.

Activity

You should have written down the names of the students and mixed them up in a box. Explain to students that all of their names are in the box, but you can only choose three contestants at any one time.

To continue reading this lesson plan, check out the full post at:

ESL Classroom Game: The Price is Right
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/911335/esl_classroom_game_the_price_is_right.html?cat=4

[yoda]

Another oldy but goody: Lanternfish ESL with a much expanded phonics worksheets and games section.

[splotgem]

This thread is pure gold!

Will get into teaching at a Middle School here in China this week! This thread has been incredibly helpful! Thanks to those who have posted all of the awesome information.

Jade

[meaghandawn]

I'm not a teacher, but I wanted to add in one since I love free stuff!

www.freeprintable.com

The site is perfect for teachers, it offers free lesson plans, and all sorts of other great stuff. Enjoy!

Meaghan

[BMJ]

I'd love to add mine to the list and encourage teachers to check it out and let me know what you think:

http://zachary-jones.com/english/

My site features authentic readings, realia, worksheets and activities to learn English for free online in an authentic context. The focus is on learning real, up-to-date things from the English-speaking world, through the use of music videos, movie posters, trailers, art puzzles, cloze activities and more.

I hope it's helpful to teachers looking for a way to engage their students!

[Adam123]

A site for EFL/ESL teachers which I have found to be very useful is www.EFL247.com. It is free to register and include a lot of themes (including some sound files), news activities and grammar exercises. Most resources are for students who passed beginner level... /Adam

[alawton]

You can add mine. It is free and it can help your more advanced students. It is http://drewseslfluencylessons.com.

Other ones I have used with my students are manythings.org (for working on specific grammatical skills) and randall's esl listening lab (listening comprehension). Both are great.


Andrew Lawton
http://drewseslfluencylessons.com

[PikiFriends]

My shameless plug, PikiFriends, a unique 'penpal' tool for jr/sr high schools:
www.pikifriends.net

and a site I found recently, it's absolutely amazing from what I've seen so far:
www.trworkbench.com

[todorok1]

Hi all

A great resource Ive been using over the years is breaking news English.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

It contains short lesson plans structured around a excerpt from a topical news article and the lessons are updated weekly. The lessons are free to download, and are accompanied by an MP3 wav file so students can listen and shadow read at home.

Also, I just discovered these excellent playing cards with English expressions:

www.expressiveenglish.com

They're great for getting students to practice everyday English expressions through card games. You can buy them directly from the site.

Hope that helps.

[lucy black]

Thanks, those are all great

[worldtravlr]

Hi everyone, just wanted to share some high quality ESL resources with this goup. My wife an I teach English in Ulsan, South Korea to middle school students and we only post our best lesson to the blog that have been “tested” by over 1,400 students. Hope you enjoy! Please let us know what you think about them and if you have any recommendations for improving:

http://valerieandgriffin.com/free_esl_resources/

Other great high quality ESL resources:
http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/category/esl-lessons/

Other resources:
http://waygook.org/

[anabanana]

Great websites guys! I used a lot of these websites when I was teaching English to young children. I always needed a lot of games to keep them interested!
Another good one is: www.genkienglish.com
They have tons of great songs, flashcards and games.

Also, here is a blog with games and tips on teaching English. Enjoy!
http://www.bridgetefl.com/tefl-blog/top-five-icebreakers-for-the-efl-classroom/