Since it was so helpful to my students, other educators, and me to develop my  Websites Of The Year lists, I’ve decided to try and develop a new list on a different topic each month.

This month I’ll be sharing a ranked list of what I think are the best sites that combine health information/literacy with English Language development.

On this list, I’m only listing sites that would be easy for students to access on their own.  For some excellent lesson plans and classroom teaching resources on health, you can go to Picture Stories For Adult ESL Health Literacy by Kate Singleton and Staying Healthy: An English Learners Guide to Health Care and Healthy Living,  an excellent health literacy curriculum from the Florida Literacy Coalition, to this list).

Here are The Best Health Sites For English Language Learners:

I’ve ranked The Language Guide as number four.  I think it’s the best basic English dictionary around, and its sections on The Body, The Body 2, and Medicine provide English Language Learners with necessary vocabulary.

I’ve put BrainPop Health Movies at number three.  BrainPop has made several of my lists, and it’s also the only one that isn’t free (though you can see sample movies at no cost).  You can access great animated movies in accessible English (closed-captioned, too) for a class-rate of a few hundred dollars.  I’ve found that it is well worth the cost.

Late addition:

REEPworld Family English is high on The Best Websites For Beginning Older Readers list. It’s a series of stories about recent immigrants and includes excellent online follow-up activities.  They’ve just expanded their English For Health section, and it provides excellent resources for English Language Learners.  I’m adding that section to this list.

Kids Health For Kids has lots of health-related resources that are accessible to English Language Learners.

Healthy Roads Media has quite a few multilingual resources related to health.

I think the best way to teach English is to find-out what people want to learn about, and then help them develop their language skills in the process of learning about that topic. This seems to be a pretty high-interest area to me. Even if it’s less personally relevant to teenage students, they can certainly answer the questions playing the role of their older parents.

This list, as with all the others I’ve made, is definitely a subjective one.  I’m certainly open to, and eager for, feedback and suggestions.

I hope people will find this list helpful.