THE
ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT

Teachers' Page

 

Last updated
08.06.05

This site belongs to
Barbara Dieu

EFL teacher
and coordinator of the
Foreign Language Department
Lycée Pasteur,
Curso Experimental Bilingue
São Paulo, Brazil

homebase for
This is Our Time Project
(French and Portuguese
Speaking Countries)

 


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We have listed here some sites with interesting material
we have worked on in class and others which can help you with the background and preparation at home
add some more excitement to your classes...

there are also some to introduce you to ICTs, update you on the most recent trends or give you some food for thought

Lesson plans and/or resources based on

Portals with free resources for teachers

Internet tools and generators

E-pals ,international projects online

Research and reference material

Virtual communities, collaborative environments, Chats and learning spaces

Journals and Online Articles

Professional Development

 

Lesson Plans based on

News

New York Times -daily interdisciplinary plans based on NYT articles

New York Times Learning Network - Web Explorer offers guided Web tours of sites related to the most important and relevant topics of the day! New Explorations are added each month.

Voice of America - Become familiar with American English as you learn about a variety of subjects...from American history to world news, and the latest in science & technology. The VOA News Internet site provides the latest news and information, updated minute by minute, 24 hours a day with English text, graphics and RealAudio.

Instant Lesson Plans lessons ready to photocopy for pre -intermediate, intermediate and upper intermediate stds Articles from Reuters (free samples, paid subscription) 

The Key - provides reading material for adults with limited reading skills. These include adults who have not completed their high school educations, those learning English and those with learning disabilities.

The Digital Journalist - monthly online magazine for visual journalism.

Breaking News English.com - Ready-to-use ESL/EFL current affairs lessons and plans. Graded news articles, listenings and communicative activities uploaded daily.

Exercises Online - my own page with reading comprehension exercises for upper intermediate and advanced levels

PBS Teachers' Sources -showcases the work of hundreds of diverse producers and local PBS stations, who in turn tap the creative minds of top thinkers from around the world to create education's best content.

CNN Learning Resources Each module includes the full text of each story and interactive activities to test   comprehension. The learner can choose to read the text, listen to the text, and view a short video clip of the story. Each module is designed for ease of use so the learner can use it independently. The instructor can also incorporate any story into class activities and lesson plans.

News Museum - The world's first interactive museum of news

News Quizzes -

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Music

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - stimulates stds interest by linking themes for discussion to lyrics of popular songs

British Council Songs and Lyrics - A new song each week. Find out about the singer or band, read the lyrics, see a video clip, and try some language practice activities.

Song Writing Activities - a number of lesson plans using John Lenon's songs

American Roots Music - A PBS series showcasing the pioneers of the musical forms that combined on American soil to become the most pervasive music throughout the world.

Worldwide Internet Music Resources - Individual Musicians (All Genres) and Popular Groups
Composers and Composition, Groups and Ensembles (Except Popular), Other Sites Related to Performance
Genres and Types of Music, Research and Study, Journals and Magazines, The Commercial World of Music
General and Miscellaneous

Art

The Case of Grandpa's Painting

Artquiz

Art Safari

NGA Classroom

The Artist's Toolkit

Beebloki - my own page for students

Video, Documentaries and Films

Tips for Teaching with Video - pdf file

Film Education - view, download or order free resources and study guides . Lots of links to film industry, educational links and interactive digital resources.

Real English - free interactive video online

Video Online - On-line videos with exercises for students classified by themes.

Teach with Movies learning Guides to each recommended film describe the benefits of the movie, possible problems, and helpful background.  Discussion questions, bridges to reading, projects and links to the internet are also provided. 

English Trailers - some selected trailers with a synopsis and vocabulary explanation.

Beyond Fire - a new online documentary about the real-life experiences of teenage refugees from seven war zones told through audio and Flash-animated movie. Each of these teens now lives in the U.S. The teen refugee transcripts and teacher resources are also available on the site.

Comics and Cartoons

Teacher Guide lesson plans for using the editorial cartoons as a teaching tool in Social Sciences, Art, Journalism and English at all levels.

Teaching with Comics -links to websites and articles which relate to teaching comics and cartooing as well as some lesser-known sites about comics in general.

Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricatures - library, archive, gallery, and registered museum dedicated to the history of British cartooning over the last two hundred years.

The Big Cartoon Database -A Searchable DataBase of Cartoon Information, Episode Guides and Crew Lists.

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Media

Media Awareness Network teaching units, student handouts, timely reports and background material for media education

Only a Matter of Opinion - introduces teachers, students and all interested to opinion pieces (editorials, columns and editorial cartoons) with the purpose of encouraging all to write and to draw their own opinion pieces after instruction and research.

Paper Online a resource for teachers and students in their work to analyse news and media as well as create their own.

The Meaning Behind the Logo - my own page of resources on advertising and branding.

The Information Cycle a flash tutorial which introduces students to the way information is created, distributed and eventually digested in the weeks, months and years following the occurrence of a newsworthy event.

Information Literacy and You - help students learn concepts and skills for using the Libraries' databases, collections and resources.

How Newspapers Work - Introduction to How A Newspaper Works/ What Did the Growth of TV News Mean to Newspapers?/What Exactly Is News and How Does It Work?/What Are the Editorial Pages All About?/How Is a Newspaper Produced?/How Are Newspapers Distributed?/Shop or Compare Prices

Glossary of Newspaper Terms

Vocabulary

Forum Education - global meeting-place for ESL / EFL teachers and students, providing online exercises and tests, materials and classroom management backing

Word Surfing -suggests a method that shows students how to get to know their new words by actually using them as soon as possible. Provides links to vocabulary practice and quizzes

ESL Flow Vocabulary Guide - list of links to tips and lesson plans

Eflnet Phrasal Verbs

EFLnet - Flash picture dictionnary with pronunciation and quizzes.

Colour Words - article and work that helps to understand , translate/interpret colour words as they are found in literary texts and ads.

Sustainable Development

Journey to Planet Earth - PBS website for middle school with a guide, a glossary and lesson plans to teach about the connections between global environmental change and the health concerns that affect our lives everyday.

Environmental Education - Each of the ten chapters in this volume focuses on a key environmental topic such as endangered animal species or rain forest depletion. Individual topics have been selected because of their global importance, as well as their interest and relevance to students of English as a foreign or second language around the world

Animations - Environment - Science & Tech - Renewables - Around the World - Space Exploration - History - Fun

Recycle More - the one-stop recycling information centre. You will find help and advice on all aspects of recycling at home, at school and in the workplace

E4S - Environmental Teaching Resources - lesson planning materials on the sustainable use of water, textiles and timber resources and issues surrounding waste management.

Recycle City and EPA - environmental resources, games and activities

Writing

Creative Writing Lesson Plans, Activities, Teachers' Guides

Plagiarism and How to Avoid it - a site for students and teachers to read and use by David Gardner from Hong Kong University. It gives you advice, a self-test and you can download material for personal use.

Purdue University Online Writing Lab Writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines

Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Site lots of material on English language and literature, media, reading and writing.

Description and Internet Skills - using the internet to teach description and description to teach internet skills.

Pizzaz - dedicated to providing simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable (yes, copyable!) handouts for use with students of all ages. Permission is given to use these resources for in-class, non-profit use only.

Writing Argumentative Essays - a unit of curriculum which aims to teach students how to write short argumentative essays of approximately 1000 words. by Bill Daly Victoria University of Technology,Melbourne, Australia.

Alphabet Superhighway Writing activity center the place to come for writing ideas!


Poetry

John Pereira's EFL Japan - A very creative site with poessays, critical thinking through poessays and writing comics, politeness and the American conversational usage, unique teaching and learning materials!

Poetry Express - tips and techniques on how to make,share, revise and publish poems

Poetry Teachers - Learn how to inspire a love of poetry in your students and teach kids how to write different types of poems.

Andreas Lund Pages grammar and poetry...learn grammar by creating poems,mazes...

Rhymezone - Type in a word and find its rhymes, synonyms, definitions


Reading

The Online Books Page

Questia - Questia is the first online library that provides 24/7 access to the world's largest online collection of books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences, plus magazine and newspaper articles

Reading Strategies for Web Activities

Literature Post - hundreds of classic books, plays, poems and stories

21st Century Literacies - tools for reading the world

Novel Guide - an educational supplement for better understanding of classic and contemporary literature through Chapter Summaries, Character Profiles, Metaphor Analysis, Theme Analyses, and Author Biographies. ..

Spark Notes - Literature study notes by Harvard students

Discovering Romeo and Juliet - the story, connections, Shakespeare's England, lesson plans

The Why Files - cover issues of science, health, environment and technology in plain English and offers an impressive selection of materials which can help you bring science to life for students.

Time for Kids - a magazine, a website, games and activities based on current news

Critical Reading shows you how to recognize what a text says, what a text does, and what a text means by analyzing choices of content, language, and structure. It shows you what to look for, and how to think about what you find.

Aesop's Fables browse through the 650+ fables and fairy tales - a support for looking at key themes

Mythologies -ancient myth and mythologies, mystery religions and the origin of modern myths

The Encyclopedia Mythica - an encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legend. It contains thousands of definitions of gods and goddesses, supernatural beings and legendary creatures and monsters from all over the world. 

Listening and Pronunciation

The English Web Lab - Lots of links to pronunciation, listening, grammar exercises and much more.

Randall's Listening Lab -General Listening Quizzes (basic, intermediate and advanced) and all sorts of oral quizzes for students. A gold mine!

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Holidays

Holidays on the Net - source for holiday celebrations on the World Wide Web . Each holiday celebration also offers a wealth of information about the holiday, including its history and holiday-related activities.

Holidays and Observances - Holidays all over the world provide a meaningful theme for student reading, writing, and researching. Students can share their own experiences and knowledge, and learn about other people, places, and customs. This unit is also an opportunity to address diversity and culture.

Halloween Interactive Exercises

Halloween a fun site with incredible design and wonderful links in English, French, German and Spanish (also has links for Valentine, Christmas and Easter)

Halloween Resources - my own page on Halloween - with links, exercises, quizzes, some information on witches and tolerance sites.

Thanksgiving Resources - my own page on Thanksgiving with links and clipart

Internet

Learn Online- Australian ABC Education Portal with loads of creative and interesting material

Internet Detective - an interactive, online tutorial which provides an introduction to the issues of information quality on the Internet and teaches the skills required to evaluate critically the quality of an Internet resource.

Marco Polo - highest quality internet content for the classroom

The Knowledge Loom - Good models of teaching and learning with technology

Springboard teacher resource that provides WWW-based links and activity suggestions, a forum to share teaching ideas with other colleagues who are using the course, and a convenient way to deliver photocopiable activities and other information

Internet Classroom Activities - scenarios the student becomes a part of and needs to find a solution to. There are questions to guide the student, and a suggested site at which to locate information to get the desired results.

Web Lesson Evaluation Form

Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum: this site contains both Internet and non-Internet based resources. The user will find sample lesson plans, student work, and resources for further reading/ research.

EFL/ESL Lessons Using Web Sites - Content-oriented Lessons in PDF Format

Quizzes and Games

ISketch - Join other people from around the world to play a fun game of online sketching!
The object of the game is simple. Each player gets a chance to draw a word or sentence which the other players will try to guess.

Icebreakers - a comprehensive list of links to icebreakers for all sorts of situations and moods.

Six Group Activities for Teaching ESL Children - Joanne Elliot's easy inspirational ideas to try or to adapt within your classroom.

Snakes and Ladders - a game to practice phrasal verbs

Picture Puzzle - another game to practice phrasal verbs

Tic Tac Toe - phrasal verbs two player game

Learning English Quizzes Multiple choice quizzes to test your English

D. Film Moviemaker - lets users create a short animated cartoon on a website and email it to their friends.

TEFL Games interactive games, classroom games, online quizzes, excerpts from articles and books on using games in language learning plus links to many other ESL game and activity resources online.

Boggle's World - resource site for teachers who teach elementary and middle school English, ESL and EFL to kids. Just click, print, and copy.

English Club ESL Games - fun way to practise vocabulary arranged from basic to advanced (opposites, synonyms, phrasal verbs, mystery matches, general knowledge)

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Portals with Free Resources and information for Teachers

Search English - is a news, information and networking tool for English language teaching professionals. It provides teachers with forums and ideas for exploiting authentic video, reports on using blogs, tips on how to improve your use of ICT for teaching as well as a whole range of documents and presentations from British Council seminars on citizenship and globalisation.

ESFLOW - created by Peter Snashall as a resource for researching ESL/EFL ideas and creating lessons/courses as quickly as possible.

Esol4All - created by Kevin O'Brien, ESOL/EFL teacher at Manchester University (UK), provides teachers and students with free material and resources online.

Eleaston - Materials for Teaching & Learning

Eric - Educational Resources Information Center - clearinghouse for language and linguistics

Video conferencing for Learning - a comprehensive look at videoconferencing for teachers, librarians, and students

Topical Links - a wealth of links and assignments on different holidays by the ESL department of the University College of Fraser Valley, Canada

The Virtual Language Centre - grammar, reading, games, pronunciation, vocabulary,and a jukebox for well-known songs

Teachit (teaching English online) - 2000+ pages of classroom materials for Primary, Secondary and F.E. English, Drama and Media Studies teachers

Multicultural Pavillion -Paul Gorski's resources and dialogues for educators, students and activists

Unesco Education Site

Blue n' WEb - an online library of 1800+ outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, & tools).

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators -a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning

Thirteen Ed Online - lesson plans, teachers' workshops, tips and resources

English Online - practice for PET, FCE, CPE exams and other resources for teachers

Teach-nology- a web portal for teachers with lesson plan generators and tools.

Explore More - Lesson plans, worksheets, handouts, and assessment tools you can download (reading online, viewing media, investigating an issue, analyzing a system, making a decision, experimenting and inquiring, comparing and contrasting, presenting an argument, solving a problem, video scripts, group presentations, webquests)

Fact Monster - interdisciplinary resources

One Stop English - MacMillan's site with free resources, professional support,travel, culture, books and authors, a magazine and games.

Education World where educators go to learn

Teachers First - Classroom, Professional and Site Resources

Business English - a goldmine full of resources offering unique service for students, teachers and lecturers of business, economics, accounting, leisure and recreation and travel and tourism.

Teachers'Work - 5000 reviewed websites for teachers, webquests, download free software

Self-Study Quizzes produced by ESL/EFL teachers around the world. Anyone who is interested in trying to write a few quizzes to add to the collection should feel free to participate

Free Worksheets school express offers worksheets covering different subjects

AskERIC Reading, English and Communication dedicated to providing educational materials, services, and coursework to everyone interested in the language arts 

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Tools and Generators

Hot Potatoes - includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web.

WWW4Teachers - the online space for integrating technology into the curriculum.

Teachers' Pet -free Text Tool and Resource Search Tool make the job of creating stimulating classroom exercises fast and fun. Features: multi- choice maker and multi- gap maker, word remover, sentence randomizer, comprehension tester, vowel remover, word randomizer, word remover and +

WebAuthor - A tool to make online exercises on the fly (true and false, interactive reading, multiple choice, sentences from scrambled words, speed reading, cloze and more)

Question Tools - an integrated suite of products that allows anyone to create online lessons, exercises, surveys, tests & exams, and automatically collect & analyse results…all without programming, scripting or HTML skills.

Filamentality - a fill-in-the-blank interactive Web site that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Web, gathering good Internet sites, and turning Web resources into learning activities.

Picsearch - a search engine for pictures and images

Teacher Tools -Online tutorials to assist you in using the tools and examples of the use of the specific tools within the context of the classroom and the curriculum.

My Poll and PollHost   - an  easy way to add customized, interactive polls to your web site. They are fast, easy, and FREE!

Tools - create your own poll,scrapbook, survey that you can embed in your pages.

Create Your Own Exercises and Quizzes - links to main exercise builders on the net

Flags of the World and quick maps

Spellmaster - Create your own Flash 5 Vocabulary Training Aids Online (FREE)

Personal Educational Press - turn your computer and printer into a printing press for free educational materials such as flashcards and game boards.

SURWEB allows people to create multimedia presentations in minutes using images, sounds & movies provided by SURWEB or other digital sources.

Rubrics Galore - setting up your expectations and objectives to students helps them to focus and perform better.Check out these links to assessment and evaluation

Survey Creators - different kinds of free survey creators suggested by Dafne Gonzales

Eclipse Crossword - fast, easy, free way to create crossword puzzles in minutes.

Web World Technology - links to all you might need to put up your page

KeeBook Creator and Online Library- create and publish your own KeeBooks with KeeBook Creator, and then gather and share them with KeeBook Online Library.

Puzzlemaker - Create and print customized word search, crossword and math puzzles using your word lists. Build your own maze or print our specialty hand-drawn mazes created around holidays and classroom topics.

Quizmaker QuizMaker 2.0 takes your quiz information  your questions and answers,  and  uses them to compile a quiz file and answer key file which are stored on the server. No knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is necessary.

Unesco Free Courseware Tools - claroline (classroom online);Fle3 Learning Environment; Ilias; Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL) and many more.

Research Program Map - Big six problem solving strategies

Brainstorming how to use this activity in the classroom

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Research/Reference Material

Links to ESP Material (English for Special Purposes)

The World Fact  Book information on countries: flag and map, people, geography, government, economy, transportation, ommunications and defense

E-Conflict™ World Encyclopedia Country information from around the world. World Countries, Current Weather, Country Flags National Anthems,Online Discussions

History Channel any topic any time by the world's leading historians

History links

Guide to museums and cultural resources

Alphabetical List of Nations

Research it  (language, geography, finance,shipping,internet)

Discovery Channel

National Geographic

Animal Resources

Nasa

BBC Learning Zone

Global Statistics - data on the population of regions, countries, provinces and cities and some statistics on economic factors like wealth, infrastructure.

Smithsonian Institution Site Index

The Probert Encyclopaedia - a comprehensive reference resource of over 90,000 entries (over 300,000 if you include the language dictionaries) and over 4,000 illustrations, addressing every aspect of life, from the ordinary to the obscure, supplying students, journalists and researchers with cross-referenced information they otherwise couldn't find in one place.

Project Bartleby - internet publisher of literature, reference and verse with unlimited access to books and information on the web.

The Children's Literature Web Guide - Internet resources by the University of Calgary, Ca related to books for children and young adults.

English Language Resources - electronic text center University of Virginia

Vance Stevens´Site with resources for Language Teachers

Expressions and Sayings common expressions and sayings along with explanations of their meanings and where they originated.

Worldwide School - collection, preservation and presentation of educational material

Office of English Language Programs - creates and implements high quality, targeted English language programs in specific regions and countries of the world and provides ESL/EFL teachers with content, material , exchange programs and grants. Also read The English Teaching Forum.

LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE: Citation Guides for Electronic Documents

Voice of the Shuttle  Web Page for Humanities Research 

Kristina Pfaff-Harris Linguistic Funland resources for language teaching and learning, linguistics study, and other miscellaneous resources.

FLTeach WWW Resources for Language Teachers - N.Y. University Cortland extensive page of links

ETHNOLOGUE - Languages of the World

The Internet Public Library - Reference Center

List of English Department Homepages (universities all over the world)

Linguasphere - the web of speech which children, women and men of all communities have created and woven around planet Earth since the beginnings of humankind, involving thousands of spoken languages and dialects, and the many derivatives of speech - including all forms of writing and printing, signing and electronic communication.

Volterre France -Resources to Learn & Teach English - Linda Thalman's extremely useful site with great links and resources 

Virtual Communities, Collaborative Environments, Chats and Learning Spaces

Collaborative Environments Sourcebook - all about online collaboration for learning.

Webheads in Action - Participants meet informally throughout the year but more formally between January and March to help each other learn about forming and maintaining robust online communities through hands-on practice with synchronous and non-synchronous text and multimedia CMC (computer mediated communication) tools.

Tappedin - online workplace of an international community of education professionals. K-12 teachers and librarians, professional development staff, teacher education faculty and students, and researchers engage in professional development programs and informal collaborative activities with colleagues.

Eun Community - Meet people with common interests, and collaborate online as part of an EUN Community. Join an existing community, or create your own!

Virtual School - created by teams of teachers from different countries that together create and collect different kinds of learning resources.

My Language Exchange

Dave's ESL Café

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Journals and Papers Online

The Internet ESL Journal (Articles, Research Papers, Lessons Plans, Classroom Handouts, Teaching Ideas & Links)

Technowlogia - International Journal of Technologies for the Advancement of knowledge and learning

Internet4Classrooms - online practice units and technology tutorials online for Explorer, Dreamweaver, Excel, Powerpoint, Inspiration, digital cameras and the lot.

Humanising Language Teaching - Pilgrim's online magazine with a variety of topics of interest to EFL teachers (editorial, ideas, lessons, etc...)

Electronic Journals in the Field of Education

English for Special Purposes - a web-based journal with articles and links to various domains

Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment

Mark Warschauer's Recent Papers - on topics covering The Internet and Society, Language, Literacy, and Technology, Technology and Indigenous Languages, Classroom Research, Technology and Language Learning.

Language Learning and Technology

English Teaching Forum online - a quarterly journal published by the U.S. Department of State for teachers of English as a foreign or second language

Language and Civil Society - This electronic journal is designed to aid the English as a foreign language instructor in the task of finding and working with relevant and authentic material. It provides instructors with content rich material and exercises for the EFL class that students will find interesting and that will help students not only to improve their English but also better understand their place in the world's society as well as improve their critical thinking and analytical skills.

Language and Life Sciences - provides language teachers with resources about breakthroughs in biotechnology and background in the topic to understand the implications this scientific field has for their lives and society's future. They also serve as a springboard for meaningful discussion about issues that confront all of us as this technology evolves.

Professional Development

ICT4all - 16 modules from basic to advanced on Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers.

InTime - contemporary technology, high quality conceptual models, online streaming videos, case studies and probing questions analysis to help educators learn the skills necessary for improving student learning.

Teaching Tips - a wonderful page full of information to keep as reference.

Developing Teachers - a web site for the developing language teacher. Tips & Newsletters are archived & there are lesson plans, activities, articles, jobs & teachers’ CVs. Teacher training by e-mail is also offered.

Classroom Action Research Overview - research designed to help a teacher find out what is happening in his or her classroom, and to use that information to make wise decisions for the future.

Tesol Career Development

Unesco Teacher Training Portal - resources, collaboration, articles and publications

Edutopia Online - The George Lucas Foundation website with examples of innovative practice, detailed articles, research summaries, and links to hundreds of relevant Web sites, books, organizations, and publications to help build on successes in education.

English School Watch - Features a free international EFL/ESL jobs board with over 600 jobs teaching English in over 40 countries.

And if you have not yet found what you were looking for you can always search for more information below

TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links
Browse: Links for Students, Links for Teachers or What's New

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