Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Since I’m teaching a Government class this semester for Intermediate English Language Learners, I thought it would be helpful to identify accessible websites that might help students learn about the U.S. Presidential elections and the candidates. And, so, another “The Best…” list is born!

Here are the best ones I’ve found and used:

There’s no question in my mind that the National Mock Election Game is the best site for English Language Learners. It has a fair amount of audio support for text. Intermediate ELL’s should be able to play it.

There are a number of short online “quizzes” that users can complete to identify which candidate or political party is the best fit for them. The ones related to the candidates also includes ones that have dropped-out, but I still think the exercise is an educational one. The most accessible ones are the Political Party Predictor from Channel One and USA Today’s Candidate Match Game.

Here are a couple of sites that help you determine what kind of President you would be: PBS’ President For A Day and Are You Presidential Material? from Channel One.

All About Electing A President Of The United States is a very simple guide to the presidential election process. Ben’s Guide To The Election Of The President provides the same type of information, as does a summary from Enchanted Learning. Channel One’s Election Playbook provides a more detailed explanation accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

Time For Kids has a freely available Brainpop movie about Presidential elections.

English Page has some interactive vocabulary lessons related to presidential elections that would be helpful to English Language Learners.

After students develop some background knowledge about how the Presidential elections work, it might be useful to spend a little time on the electoral college. 270 To Win has a lot of information displayed graphically about previous Presidential elections and what polls are saying now about the upcoming election. In addition, The Washington Post has an Electoral College Prediction Map where users can predict what the 2008 results will look like and save their predictions for posting on a blog or online journal.

Lastly, I should at least mention an excellent online game developed by Cable In The Classroom called eElections. However, it’s probably only accessible to very advanced English Language Learners.

(Editor’s Note: I’m adding the Biography Channel’s Election Videos to this list. They provide good, and accessible, background materials on the candidates.)

(I’m also adding Scholastic News Online: Election 2008)

Here are some more late additions:

CNN has a nice comic-book-like interactive called Eight Steps To The White House. It’s an overview of the election process.

Ask A President is also from CNN. Four virtual presidents answer basic questions about the Presidental election process and how the U.S. Constitution works.

The New York Times has good interactive slideshows on the lives of Barack Obama and John McCain.

I’m also adding Glass Booth to this list.

Time Magazine has a slideshow on Joe Biden that should be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

Readers know that “Brainpop” has made many of my “The Best…” lists and is one of only two sites I recommend that is not free-of-charge. However, they’ve just made a collection of their movies available related to Election 08. They are free and don’t require any registration.

Time Magazine has an accessible slideshow on Sarah Palin.

Yahoo’s Political Dashboard is a very well-designed and accessible electoral map for this year’s U.S. Presidential elections. It has a number of neat features worth checking-out.

Inside The Issues is an excellent and very accessible resource from Time For Kids that describes various issue positions held by the two presidential candidates.

Please feel free to suggest additional sites.

If you’ve found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS