The-Best-Resources

Another day, another end-of-year “The Best…” list…..

I’ll be adding this post to All My 2015 “Best” Lists In One Place.

You might also be interested in:

The Best Websites For English Language Learner Students In 2015 – So Far

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2014 – Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2014 – So Far

The “All-Time” Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of English Language Learners

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2013 – Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2013 – So Far

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2012 — Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2012 — Part One

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2011 — Part Two

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2011 — Part One

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s — 2010

The Best Sites For Teachers Of English Language Learners — 2009

Here are my choices for The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELL’s In 2015 – Part Two:

I’ve got to start off with All My NY Times Posts For English Language Learners – Linked With Descriptions.

I’ve written a guest post for Edutopia titled 5-Minute Film Festival: 8 Videos for ELL Classrooms.

Creativity in the English language classroom is a new Ebook from The British Council that looks very helpful. I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Advice On Helping Students Strengthen & Develop Their Creativity.

8 guaranteed ways to enhance teenage learner motivation in the language class is by ELL educator Adam Simpson and, if you’re a teacher of English Language Learners, it will really be one of the most useful posts you’ll read this year. In fact, it’s so good that I’m adding the link to The “All-Time” Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of English Language Learners.

Thanks to Tas Viglatzis, I learned about this Language Magazine article, Bilingualism Boosts U.S. Labor Market.

The article summarizes a new study from the Educational Testing Service which, surprisingly, is not behind a paywall. You can read Is There Really a Labor Market Advantage to Being Bilingual in the U.S.?

I haven’t had a chance to read the entire report, but here’s an excerpt from the Language Magazine summary:

Bilinguals-who-can-read

I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual Or Multilingual.

12 Fun Speaking Games for Language Learners is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

Video & Transcript Of Exceptional Speech By Pres. Obama At Naturalization Ceremony

The Fifteen Tech Tools & Non-Tech Resources I Use Most Often With My Students

How can film help you teach or learn English? is by Kieran Donaghy at the British Council. I’m adding it to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

Video for the English classroom is by James Keddie at the British Council. I’m adding it to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

Tips for Connecting With Non-English-Speaking Parents is By Anabel Gonzalez and appeared in Education Week.

Katie Hull Sypnieski and I have finished reviewing the “copy-edits” of our forthcoming book, Navigating The Common Core With English Language Learners (available for pre-order on Amazon). It will be out in March, 2016.

Using a Murder Mystery to Teach Grammar is about an ESL class, and is from The Atlantic.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember who shared Front Row on Twitter a few months ago. I finally got around to looking it over, and it seems like a useful site.It provides tons of English and Math activities for students, and the ability for teachers to create virtual classrooms and monitor student progress. Unfortunately, in the free version for English, teachers can only assign five activities each month — you have to pay for more. I’m not sure what the math restrictions are… I’m adding this info to both The Best Sites That Students Can Use Independently And Let Teachers Check On Progress and to The Best MATH Sites That Students Can Use Independently And Let Teachers Check On Progress.

Eight Ways to Support English Language Learners is an infographic from Where Learning Clicks. I’m adding it to The Best Infographics About Teaching & Learning English As A Second (or Third!) Language.

My ELL Gratitude Lesson – With Student Handout

Ekuwah Moses writes a great description of the Picture Word Inductive Model instructional strategy. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons.

Infographics about English is a nice collection from Pearson English. I’m adding it to The Best Infographics About Teaching & Learning English As A Second (or Third!) Language.

Creative strategies for encouraging English learners to talk about and apply their learning is from Education Northwest. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Use “3-2-1″ As An Instructional Strategy.

Reading & Writing About El Salvador With Salvadoran Refugees

The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2015 – Part Two

The Effects of Changing Test-Based Policies for Reclassifying English Learners is an important research paper on the dangers of reclassifying ELLs (in other words, not providing extra support any longer to them).

Coincidentally, The Council of Chief State School Officers (the organization behind the creation of the Common Core Standards) has released recommendations on how states and school districts should reclassify English-language learners. You can read all about it at Ed Week.

Adam Simpson has written a useful academic paper titled THE CHARACTERISTIC OF AN EXEMPLARY TEACHER: WHAT ARE THEY?

Very Important New Report On Looking At ELLs Through A Lens Of Assets & Not Deficits

The “All-Time” Best Resources On English Language Learners & The Common Core

Here’s another new online game from Russel Tarr’s ClassTools site: It’s called Connect Fours and is based on a BBC game show that I’ve posted about previously in “Only Connect” Is A Great Game For The Classroom. As I wrote then, the concept of the game was great was for English Language Learners, but the online BBC game itself was too advanced for them. I had suggested, though, that it would be easy for students and teachers to create their own versions with paper and pencil, and I’ve done that numerous times in my classes. Thankfully, though, Russel has now created a super-easy version that teachers and students can use to make their own online without having to register. In the game, there are sixteen squares with words on each one. The player needs to use the words to create four categories of four words each. It’s a great game that helps develop the higher-order thinking skill of categorization.

“Metacognition, Learning Strategies And Student Autonomy” Is My New British Council Post

Oral Reading In The Mainstream & ELL Classroom

ELL World History Video Project: The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Video & Student Hand-Out For A Fairly Creative ELL Geography Project

New Study Finds Interesting Twist: Repeating Words Helps, & Repeating Them To Someone Is Better

Video: ELL Geography Students Using Academic Language To Describe Climate In Their Home Countries

Examples Of Student Work From My ELL History Classes

Bill Eliminating CA High School Exit Exam Passes Legislature – Will Result In HUGE Increase In ELL Student Motivation

California’s Smarter Balanced Test Results Released – Not Good News For ELLs & Others

The New Voice Typing Feature In Google Docs Is Great – I Wonder If ELLs Can Use It For Pronunciation Practice?

A Writing & Speaking Activity For Welcoming Back ELLs

Video: “How Language Makes Your Brain Bigger”

Statistic Of The Day: How Long Does It Take To Learn English?

Links To The Joint Projects My ELL Geography Class Did With Classes Around The World – Want To Join Us This Year?

Jigsaw Puzzles As A Language-Learning Activity

Here’s How My ELL Beginner/Intermediate Class Evaluated Me

Here Are The Results Of Anonymous Class Evaluations From My English Language Learner History Class

Is There A Law Saying Every Government Report On Ed Has To Be Written In A Way That Nobody Wants To Read It?

34 experts offer their tips for English fluency is from Fluency MC (my tip is included).

Gif Lingua is now open for business! is from David Deubelbeiss.

Super quick motivating activities: ‘What do you know about…’ is by Adam Simpson.

15 Academic Vocabulary Resources is from TESOL. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary.

Correcting students’ errors is from French Teacher. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On ESL/EFL/ELL Error Correction.

The future of language is from the Washington Post, and it’s fascinating.

ESL Yes has lots, and I mean lots, of free resources accessible to English Language Learners, including short stories with follow-up interactives.

A new study came out about how people “navigate misunderstandings.” I think, with a little work and thought, ELL teachers can use it with our students. Many are often embarrassed to ask for clarification when they don’t at first understand what is said to them in English. I wonder if we could use this study to point out that even native English speakers don’t understand what others are saying – in English — all the time! Here are two useful articles about the study:

Language Correction Leads To Universal Words is from NPR.

What Did You Say? is from The Atlantic.

Here is Katherine Bilsborough on no-prep activities at this British Council post.

Great reading strategies: ‘First lines’ for developing comprehension is by Adam Simpson.

Free ebook – PARSNIPs in ELT: Stepping out of the Comfort Zone (vol. 1) is also by Adam Simpson. What does PARSNIPs stands for?

This is the lovely acronym for Politics, Alcohol, Religion, Sex, Narcotics, -Isms, and Pork. These are the DMZ of the ELT world, the no-go zones where coursebook publishers fear to tread (in case they lose customers)

I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On How To Teach “Controversial” Topics.

Here’s a great list of speaking activities from The British Council. I’m adding them to The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

Sentence Frames is a site for Portland (OR) teachers that seems to have a good amount of useful resources for ELLs.

Tools Of The Trade is a post from the Harvard School of Education and reviews free UDL (Universal Design For Learning) online tools that would be useful for English Language Learners and others.

English Worksheets Land has a lot of free decent worksheets suitable for English reinforcement. You don’t have to register before gaining access to them. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Free ESL/EFL Hand-Outs & Worksheets.

For teachers of English learners, Common Core means double the work is from The Hechinger Report.