Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Food Champs has a lot different leveled activities related to food vocabulary and nutrition. Most, if not all, of the site is accessible to English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Food.

Renee Maufroid has created another one of her great activities for English Language Learners.  This one is called Prepositions For Beginners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Prepositions.

The British Council has two good resources for helping Beginning ELL’s learn the colors. They are:

I Can Sing A Rainbow, a song with audio and image support for the words.

Our Colorful World, a “talking story.”

I’ve placed links to both on my website under Colors.

Here are some new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Winter Season:

How snow forms is a neat interactive showing…how snow forms.

Snowmen Around the World is a slideshow from LIFE.

Snowball Fights: Around the World is another LIFE slideshow.

Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is a title of a series of images from The Big Picture about an incredible event in China.

Ice and Snow Sculptures is a slideshow from TIME Magazine about the same festival.

Winter Weather Sticks Around is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Cold Spell Wallops Europe, Asia is another slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Scientists create the world’s smallest ’snowman’ is the title of an article (and photo) of the….world’s smallest snowman.

Record Snow Across Asia is a TIME Magazine slideshow.

There are a lot of sites out there designed for spelling practice. I thought it would be helpful to create a “The Best…” list to narrow them down a bit.

For English Language Learners, and for others, the best spelling sites are ones that offer audio and also use the words in the context of sentences. Websites that offer both are the most highly-rated on my list. And, of course, they have to be free to be here, too.

You can also find links to the sites here, and to many other spelling related resources, on my website under Spelling.

Here are my ranked choices of The Best Spelling Sites (that are best for English Language Learners):

Number thirteen is Catch The Spelling. It’s a series of games specifically geared towards English Language Learners.

Number twelve is the Alpha-Bot game. It’s a nice game where you first listen to the word spoken and then have to find the correct letters to spell it. I probably should place it a little higher on the list, but I learned about this game after I completed this post, and was just too lazy to change the rankings .

Number eleven are spelling quizzes from The Interlink Language Center. They’re simple exercises, but there are a lot of them.

Number ten is Kidspell. There are a ton of spelling games, and you can also easily create ones using your own spelling lists. However, they’re not offered in context and there’s no audio pronunciation.

Number nine is Word Sort from Houghton Mifflin. In addition to providing audio, it has the added feature of challenging students to look for word patterns. However, the words are not used in sentences.

Number eight is Spellbee!,  a spelling game where, after you register, you choose a player to compete with in a spelling contest. Each player chooses from a variety of words and challenges their opponent online to correctly spell the word that is spoken to them in the context of a sentence.  It’s a pretty neat concept and, though the text-to-speech software it uses is definitely not top-tier, it’s still a game students would enjoy playing and would be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.  It’s quite easy for players to register very quickly. There’s also a slightly more complicated registration process that students and teachers can use in order for teachers to monitor student progress.

Number seven is Spin and Spell. It’s an excellent spelling and vocabulary-building exercise for ELL’s. Images and audio are provided, and players select the categories they want to use. It, too, however, doesn’t use the words in sentences.

Number six is Spellits, an excellent site from the BBC. It provides some direct instruction in spelling patterns — using audio and text — and has a number of games that provide the same level of support.

I don’t think that Spelling Bees different schools and communities sponsor are particularly healthy or educational for kids.  However, there are several online versions that I think would work well with ELL’s. I’m ranking Spelling Bee: The Game at number five.  It has lots of great features.  The only it’s missing, though, is that it appears like you can’t pick your level of difficulty.

There’s another free online version called Big IQ Bee that I’m ranking at number four (other similar “Spelling Bees” are coming up on this list, too).   Students have to register, which is very easy to do. Then they determine their difficulty level. Words are spoken in a computer-generated voice, and are also used in a sentence. Players then spell the word.  Players are rated in some kind of leader board, but they’re not actually playing against others in real-time.

Number three is the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee.  You don’t have to register to play, and it automatically adapts to your spelling ability. It remembers which words you got right and wrong and quizzes you periodically on words at your spelling level that you spelled incorrectly in the past. A human voice, and not a computerized one, says the words. Plus, it shows you a diagram of similar words.  It doesn’t give you a sentence example using the word, but I guess you can’t have everything…

Number two is The Spelling Bee from Annenberg Media. Not only does it let you pick your level of difficulty, provide audio support, and give the words in context, but the context is not just in a sentence — it tells you a story.

And, now, the number one Best Spelling Site is….Spelling City. It has all the features that one can ask for, and is plenty of fun. You can make your own word list, or create your own.

(I’ve posted about Tutpup several times, and must have had a “brain freeze” when I forgot to include it originally in this list. Thankfully, Steven Roberge kangirsuk reminded me about it. I’ll just quote how he described it, and you can also look at my previous posts on it:

Students must spell words that are spoken to them. The activity is a multi-player game. There are 5 levels of difficulty. Teachers can create class accounts, so they can monitor the progress and statistics of their students.)

As always, feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Learning Chocolate is a very good interactive vocabulary site for Beginning English Language Learners. The site is divided into categories, provides audio support for the text, and has numerous re-enforcing online games.

It’s unfortunate that, as far as I can see, they don’t show the words in the context of sentences, but it’s still one of the better vocabulary sites out there.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Vocabulary.

Project Third Edition is another new excellent site from Oxford University Press supporting one of their textbooks.

There’s a ton of different and engaging online activities there for Beginning through Intermediate English Language Learner students.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Vocabulary on my website, even though it also includes reading and listening exercises..

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has what best can be described as an I Spy Game with artwork. You’re provided several pieces of art, and lists of objects to find within each one of them.

These kinds of games, which I’ve written a lot about and have posted on my website, are good, fun ways for Beginning English Language Learners to begin to build vocabulary.

I’ve posted the link on my website under Music and Art.

By the way, once you’ve found all the objects in this particular game, there are some other activities you can also do that might be worth exploring.

Word Ahead is one of the best vocabulary-learning sites I’ve seen for advanced English Language Learners and mainstream students.  It uses SAT words, and shows the word and representative image, plus provides audio support for text showing the word being used in context.  It’s on The Best Sites Where ELL’s Can Learn Vocabulary list.

They just launched Word Ahead For Teachers. It has a number of features, including the ability to create personalized vocabulary lists.

Online quizzes of various types abound on the Web.  Many include content not appropriate for classroom use, or are on the same site with other quizzes that aren’t appropriate.   Some are on sites just too filled with ads.  Others are too complicated to be accessible to English Language Learners, or would just take too long to complete.  And many require registration, or charge in order to take the quiz.

I’ve found, though, that my English Language Learner students enjoy taking online quizzes that don’t fit into those above categories.  Many are just for fun, but include reading and vocabulary development opportunities.  Some, though, can offer useful information to students — for example, well-done career tests.

Here are my choices for The Best Online Personality, Career, & Just Plain Fun Quizzes (not in order of preference):

Career Path and Monster both have multiple job-related quizzes.

Queendom: The Land of Tests has a ton of quizzes on many different topics.

The BBC Human Body and Mind also has a number of different types of tests.

ABC in Australia has a fun little personality test.

The Central Intelligence Agency has a “tongue-in-cheek” CIA Personality Quiz.

Here’s a link to something called The Big Five Personality Test.

Channel One has a lot of online quizzes, including many personality ones.

Take a How Do You Learn? quiz to identify learning styles.

Proprofs Quiz School has several personality quizzes, and it’s an easy place for students to create their own, too.

The Pew Research Center Interactive has several very accessible political and community quizzes that would provide good grist for learning and discussion.

At 15 has a Pic-a-Pic personality quiz.

Similar Minds has a large collection of personality quizzes. Some of them are accessible to ELL’s.

The Constitution Center has a Which Founder Are You quiz. You answer a variety of personality-like questions, and then you’re told which of the “founding fathers” you are most like.

The Los Angeles Times uses technology from the company Visual DNA to have users take a News Match Quiz. It’s really pretty neat. You’re asked some simple questions and shown a variety of images you use to answer — What is your favorite kind of treat? What would spark a conversation with you?

Then, at the end, you’re given a report on your personality and a series of newspaper articles the program thinks you’d be interested in.

It’s useful for English Language Learners on a number of levels. I’ve seen the Visual DNA technology used in other sites, and have liked it, they those other sites have usually been dating-related or on other sites not appropriate for the classroom.

A somewhat similar quiz sit– though not nearly as good as Visual DNA’s application — is called ID Solution. It identifies your “cultural taste.” One thing I do like about it is that some the questions ask your preferences of various texts instead of images.

I’d certainly be interested in hearing other suggestions, so please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

All Systems Go is a “drag-and-drop” interactive designed to teach “inside” parts of the body (digestive system, brain, heart, etc.).

It’s a good second step after ELL students have learned the “outside” body parts (hands, arms, etc.).

I’ve placed the link on my website under Body.

Here’s another activity from McDougal Littell — Interactive Vocabulary Practice Games. They’re connected to stories in their textbooks, but they’re engaging and accessible to English Language Learners even outside of that context.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Vocabulary.

(You first have to click any state on the map you see)

The inventor of WordSift will be featured on a  September 24th Webinar titled “Using Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to Increase ELLs’ Math and Science Literacy” and hosted by National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Program.

WordSift is a new visual tool to learn vocabulary.  Mary Ann Zehr has written an excellent post describing it and its benefits for English Language Learners who need to learn “academic English.”

WordSift is on The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary.

Barry Fun English is a teacher-developed site with a lot of free and accessible activities. I especially like Fun Vocabulary, which provides great images and audio support for the text.

It’s definitely worth a look throughout the site, though. I think it has the potential to become one of the best resources out there for ESL/EFL teachers.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Vocabulary.

Jason Renshaw has posted an interesting three minute screencast sharing why he thinks it’s best to teach vocabulary words after English Language Learners have read a text. It’s definitely worth a visit (in fact, all his posts are worth reading!).

When I’m teaching Beginning ELL’s, I tend to teach vocabulary prior to reading. With any class above that level, including native English speakers, I use a technique I learned from Kelly Young of Pebble Creek Labs, who has designed the extraordinary curriculum we use in our mainstream classes.

It’s called a Word Splash.

Prior to beginning a unit, I’ll write about twenty words on large sheet of paper that’s in front of the class. I’ll put it there a few days prior to starting that unit so students have been exposed to the words for awhile. Then, I have students copy the words down and write what they think it means — guesses are fine. Students then go into small groups and share their definitions. Next, we have a class discussion.

In that discussion, I don’t tell students if they’re correct or not.

The point is to help students become aware of the key words they’ll need to know to understand important parts of the unit. During subsequent lessons, I’ll ask students to highlight words from the Word Splash that they see in various texts. At some point I might ask them to revisit their definitions, or have each student take a word and draw and define it in a poster.

This process certainly helps students see how much they have learned from the beginning of the a unit to a later time.

Please share your throughts — either here or at Jason’s blog — about how and when you think vocabulary is best taught.

Barry Bakin, an ESL teacher in Los Angeles,  has a good idea on how to teach new vocabulary — especially a vocabulary “list” — that he’s given me permission to reprint here:

“Try turning the lists into a scavenger hunt game. Throw the task back to the students. Assign 3 or 4 words to each student and tell them to research the terms (using the dictionary, Internet, and/or by interviewing working artists) and come back to the class with a role-play, conversation, or video of the term in use in the field. Doing the research process and then having to develop an authentic demonstration of the term will not only help them learn vocabulary, they’ll gain insight into a process….”

Another simple, and good, idea.

Learning how to tell time in English is a task every English Language Learner needs too accomplish.  I thought a “The Best…” list for that topic might be appropriate.

Most of the sites here include audio in their activities, since that feature is critical in order to maximize language-development.

You can find the sites on this list, and many more, on my website under Telling Time.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning How To Tell Time (not in order of preference):

This is a good activity for students to begin and gain familiarity with English-language time-telling vocabulary. Unfortunately, it’s not really very interactive.

Marshall Adult Education has a “drag-and-drop” where users have to match the clockface with the appropriately numbered time.

Oxford University Press has a fun little game where players hear the time and have to click on which “box” holds the time they just heard.

At Hello World English, users can move the dial to whatever time they want and hear it spoken.

The British Council, as usual, has come-up with a fun time-telling game.

A French teacher has developed a virtual “book” to help English Language Learners develop language skills around the concept of time.

Ma Hubbard’s Create-A-Reader has a graduated series of exercises to help teach time.

Clock Talk from TVOKids is another simple game students should enjoy.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

It’s summertime, which means it gets real hot in the Sacramento area.

The Sacramento Bee has put together a simple informative, entertaining and accessible interactive graphic titled “How Hot Is Too Hot?”

Did you know that grass stops growing at 95 degrees Fahrenheit?

Gaining vocabulary is obviously an essential part of a learning a language.  There are several important parts of this learning process, I think, including having visual support for the word meaning, seeing it used in context, hearing it spoken and, ideally, having the learner speak it and get feedback on the pronunciation (either by a listener or by having the learner hear him/herself via a recording).

Of course, there are tons of other reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities that are not explicitly designed for learning vocabulary, but that ends up being one of their major results anyway.

A number of studies state that you have to experience a new word between twelve-and-fifteen times in various ways before you really learn it, and experiencing these new words via a computer-based tool can be a good way to get some of those word “touches.”

I thought it would be useful for my students and readers of this blog if I developed a “The Best…” list highlighting web tools that include some or all of the important elements of vocabulary learning that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

However, I do want to make one important point about the sites on this list, and I’m not sure if I can do it clearly.

This “The Best…” list is sort of a companion to The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2008. That list, one of my personal favorites, includes (among other things) my choices for the best translation sites, dictionaries, and places to learn antonyms and synonyms.

This list will not include web tools in those categories. Instead, here I’ll be sharing applications that require more “active” participation by the user. In other words, the learner is “prompted” more by the application, or has to do something more than just type in a query. In the reference sites, the user seems to do more of the initiation. I don’t know if that explanation makes a whole lot of sense, but it’s the best I can do late at night

Another requirement I had for a site to be on this list was that registration was not required — all someone has to do is go the site and start learning.

Also, because the apps on this list all are pretty different, it was hard for me to rank them, as I usually do on this types of lists. So I’ve chosen to not list them in any order of preference.

(You might also find The Best Sites To Help ELL’s Learn Idioms & Slang and The Best “I Spy” (Hidden Object) Games For Vocabulary Development useful)

You can also find hundreds of other sites on my website in the Vocabulary section.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites Where ELL’s Can Learn Vocabulary:

Vocabsushi is a neat new — and free — vocabulary learning site. It includes assessments, audio, learning words in context, and games. The only thing it’s missing are photos and/or videos, but I guess you can’t always have everything. Joyce Valenza has written a post that describes the site in much greater detail. I’d encourage you to read that, and then try out Vocabsushi…

Kindersay is a new free site that offers an excellent multimedia experience where Beginning English Language Learners can learn about 500 basic words.  I wish the examples included sentences where the words were used in context, but, again, II guess you can’t have everything…

Word Ahead is one of the best vocabulary-learning sites I’ve seen for advanced English Language Learners and mainstream students.  It uses SAT words, and shows the word and representative image, plus provides audio support for text showing the word being used in context.

Word Carnival is a new good game from I Know That, which is on The Best Sites Where Students Can Work Independently & Let Teachers Check On Progress list (when you click on the Word Carnival link, you may be asked if you want to subscribe to I Know That — just click “maybe later” and you’ll be taken directly to the game).  I’ll quote from their announcement describing the game:

To play the game, your children try to fill in four hidden words by selecting letters they think are in the words…A definition accompanies each hidden word. When a word is filled in, it is spoken and an example sentence is presented. Click on the ‘Hear It’ button and the sentence is spoken aloud too.

It’s probably too advanced for Beginning English Language Learners, but any student above that level should be able to have a good time playing and learning with it.

Photo Munchr (their spelling, not mine) is a Pac-Man-type word game.  It shows a word and a bunch of different photos.  If you “munch” on the seven photos that correctly illustrate the word, you advance to the next level.  It’s a fun way for English Language Learners to build and reinforce vocabulary.

Starfall is the established site that is rivaled by no other in providing accessible literacy activities to Beginning English Language Learners.

U.S.A Learns is an incredible website to help users learn English that’s on several of my other “The Best…” lists.  Even though it’s primarily designed for older learners, it seems very accessible to all but the very youngest ELL’s.  It’s free to use. Students can register if they want to save their work and evaluate their progress, but it’s not required.  One of its great features is that learners can report and record words that they’re learning and listen to how they sound.

I like these simple exercises from Oxford University Press:

Happy Earth Vocabulary 1
Happy Earth Vocabulary 2

Stardust 1 Games
Stardust 2 Games
Stardust 3 Games

I also like these vocabulary games from Cambridge:

Interchange “What Do You See?” Introductory
Interchange “What Do You See?’ Book One
Interchange “What Do You See?” Book Two
Interchange “What Do You See?” Book Three

Splashr is an extraordinary application that students, particularly second-language learners, can use to easily create their own picture dictionary. Write in a word, choose from a ton of different presentation styles, and you get countless images representing that word. Even better — and this is really the reason for its placement on this list — you can email the link and create your own picture dictionary.

Sight Words With Samson is clearly one of the best websites out there to learn sight words — for English Language Learners or younger native-English speakers.  There’s audio support for text and a lot of interactive fun exercises. One of the best things about it is that it also shows sight words in the context of sentences — in both audio and text. In an ideal world it would also show an image illustrating the sentence, but, once again, you can’t always have everything.

I’m not a real fan of Word Searches, and view them more as “busy work.” However, Photo Soup is can be a fun word search game where users pick the category, and then photos from Flickr are shown as hints. It’s a good way to reinforce vocabulary when you have a few minutes to kill in the computer lab.

Other suggestions are always welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Colors In English is the latest of many fabulous exercises English teacher Renee Manfroid has created for Beginning English Language Learners.

You can see all of her interactives on her main site.

I first learned about Renee’s work at a site I’ve written about a lot — Ressources Pour Le College.

I’ve placed Renee’s latest exercise on my website under Colors.