The 14 Words that Make All the Difference

These words make all the difference because they are supposed to contain the twenty most useful prefixes and the fourteen most important roots.

A list of ideas, activities, and suggestions for teaching. Most are fairly simple and can be used with a minimum of preparation.

Comprehensive portal with a wide range of resources for students and teachers.

Click on one of the five steps – prewriting, writing, revising, editing or publishing – and teachers or students will be given ideas to help with the writing process.

A great resource to help students analyse texts and structure their ideas before they begin writing.

An A-Z of useful links for teachers of English to speakers of other languages.

This site has a constantly growing collection of activities for ESL students.

Interactive high interest resources.

Traditional and modern versions of tales from Aesop illustrated and retold by art students of the University of Massachusetts.

Learn more about the processes involved in reading and writing. Develop a better understanding of problem areas and different compensation strategies.

The Web offers teacher-tested alphabet-related classroom activities, games, and printables; fun ways for kids to practise and extend their early literacy skills; and sites to help teachers integrate alphabet practice into other areas of the curriculum.

The AOL@School site organises links from other sites by subject and user and then redirects you to those pages. Select one of the four grade categories and then The Research a Topic page lets you search by subject and grade through the huge number of links they've gathered. A handy tool with a clean, easy to use interface.

Assessment tools for teaching and learning project.

Film teaching units for secondary school teachers.

Useful lesson plans to scaffold learning as students write, design, and produce a newspaper - in this case based on the Cinderella story.

Through the study of various versions of Cinderella beginner level ESOL students practise their reading, writing, oral, and technology skills.

New Zealand's own Asia 2000 also has a wealth of information on the region. It also has educational units and general information on the Asian themes and the region. For example, the upcoming Indian festival Diwali (in October) is featured in a unit - Hindu Festival - lest celebrate Diwali

You can post your questions and receive replies from experts around the world. This is the ESOL section. Take a few moments and read questions and answers posted by others.

The Author Yellow Pages is a searchable directory of author websites. You will find historical and contemporary authors on this data base. There is background information on their lives, works and publishers.

A collection of online, mainly non fiction stories grouped under Flicks, Famous Trials, Religion, Disasters, Biography, Inspiration and History. The site makes good use of web technologies to engage even the most reluctant reader.

Combine language skills with current events. The "Words in the News" section is particularly useful.

This is the official website of the New Zealand Government. It has news releases about current issues, newsletters, archives, ministerial speeches, and information about the prime minister, ministers, portfolios, and government business.

An online collection of poems from contemporary New Zealand poets.

From NZ Post Better Letters is an educational toolkit full of practical activities to help develop your students' letter writing skills. Included are annotated letter models. Links to the English curriculum. Useful for students doing ESOL unit standard 17370.

This useful site describes itself as a "bare bones guide to grammar" and lives up to its claim with simple, entertaining explanations and exercises to reinforce basic grammatical concepts, especially about sentence structure.

A clear outline for students of the steps in the research/information problem solving process.

000000 Web'n is an online library of more than 1800 outstanding educational sites categorised by subject and year level.

This is the ESOL section of the 000000 ribbon (000000 Web'n) website and you will find much to interest you here.

This website is maintained by four teachers, two in Korea and one in Canada and the United States. Boggle's World is a resource site for teachers who teach elementary English. The site hosts original materials that teachers download to supplement classroom activities. Worksheets include crosswords, word searches, worksheets, science activities, and lesson plans. There are also extensive flashcards exploring themes such as animal habitats and outer space. All materials have been teacher tested.

This web site puts you in touch with your favourite authors and their books.

The language of examinations and assessment tasks. The New South Wales Board of Studies has developed a glossary of key words to help provide a common language and consistent meaning in the New South Wales Higher School Certificate documents.

Brainpop features a number of "learning objects" for several subjects. Learning objects are short learning components which teachers /students can integrate flexibly into larger learning sequences. In this case the learning objects for English are animations explaining: similes and metaphors, parts of speech, types of sentences, subject and predicate, the writing process, business letters, dialogue and more.

An amusing allegory that clarifies the research process for students. Can be downloaded as a power point presentation.

Who can dispute the value of a good story? Biographies are the stuff that great classroom activities are made of -- history, honesty, and heroism. With the help of the Internet, every teacher can bring biographies into their classrooms!

Links to lots of information related to Burma.

This site includes access to the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs and Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms with. Students can access related worksheets. A very handy resource for all learners/users of English.

The "What would happen if..." prompts are useful for teaching the language of probability.

The national statistical office.

Useful for those schools who are delivering critical literacy and critical thinking skills. Teachers will find at this web site an excellent collection of strategies for teaching critical thinking skills within the classroom context.

This site offers a variety of templates teachers can customise to reward a student or celebrate an achievement. Save time and produce professional-looking certificates from your printer.

Click and change the way the character looks and then write a description online.

This site provides engaging on-line and off-line interactive activities, focusing on the areas of science, mathematics and literacy for preschool and primary-aged children.

Children's Storywriting guides students through the process of reflecting about ideas, vocabulary and sentence constructions as they write. Students can paste in their writing and have it analysed for grammatical structures and style. This site has evolved from a doctoral research project investigating the design of a computer tool that would help children write more effective narratives.

Learn about Chinese history, literature, calligraphy, paintings, culture and heritage. The text is in both English and Chinese. Links to maps and dictionaries.

Here's a collection of Chinese New Year fun from all over the web

Useful site. Make your own New Year poster.

This web page is designed to help elementary and intermediate learners of Chinese as a foreign language to learn characters more effectively by practising with various on-line exercises.

Students around the world have different experiences everyday and one obvious one is the daily experiences of their hometown and school. Classes are asked to submit a photo taken from somewhere in their school grounds showing the view and a brief blurb about their school.

Asking clever questions (based on Bloom's taxonomy) and then tools and processes to help students search the web for solutions.

Check out the more than 3,300 clichés indexed here.

Grammar and vocabulary exercises, as well as speaking or writing discussion questions for ESOL students that are based on the CNN weekly WorldView Broadcast.

Fables to help you to improve your reading comprehension of English.

Common idioms with simple definitions and example dialogues.

This site has been developed by Paul Brians, a professor of English at Washington State University. His site contains several hundred notes on common errors and confusions in the language. It has advice for speakers of other languages.

In this online exercise students are asked to type the correct spelling for each of the misspelt words.

Homonyms: Misused Words & Phrases. Affect or effect? Accept or except? Set or sit? Allusion or Illusion? Don't let these homonyms confuse you. They may sound the same, but their meanings are very different. This site will help you use the right words in the right context every time. Don't miss the links at the bottom of the page -- there are many more common errors in English to explore.

Paste a text you have written here to make a vocabulary profile of your writing - including the list of the most frequent 1000 word families, the list of the second 1000 word families, the Academic Word List, and the words that do not appear in any of the preceding lists.

This site has excellent up-to-date information on current issues in the Asia-Pacific region and provides a search engine to search the specialist sites on the region. It also gives access to some of the top Asian Journals.

Cornerstones is a technology-infused approach to literacy development designed for junior students who are deaf and hard of hearing (can be used with other students who learn well visually and struggle with literacy). Cornerstones lessons incorporate guided reading, shared reading, and independent reading.

How to be creative but follow a series of well planned out writing stages

A US Department of State funded site with online fact sheets on the history and culture of refugee groups such as Somalis, Iraqis and Iraqi Kurds.

All about refugees and their preparation for life in the United States.

This site will assist teachers to introduce safe, responsible and effective computer and internet use in the classroom. The section on research is worth looking at. The lessons and activities provide links to web sites as well as offline activities that complement the sites.

View and download a collection of picture books and a gallery of artwork suitable for all age groups.

There are many ESL sites on the Web but this is one of the best. It includes news updates, a great bookshop (in association with Amazon Books), a livechat room, forums for students and teachers, a graffiti wall, an ideas page for teachers, pages which deal with idioms, phrasal verbs and slang, a teacher's mailing list, an on-line help centre for students and much more.

Lots of ideas here for teaching and learning activities for NESB students - from twenty ways to get your students into groups to how to teach maths to your NESB students.

A case study using the "Nuclear Threat Initiative" website.

This resource examines the evolution over the past 150 years of the many political, cultural, economic, and religious tensions that are spread across the Middle East region. Subtitled appropriately 'Lines in the sand', this website has great summaries of the Middle East history. Teacher's resources are available as well.

Your guide to online encyclopaedias, crossword solvers and (more obscurely) a quote of the day and a dream analyser! With definitions in many languages, thesaurus and word of the day.

The words and phrases are explained clearly and examples are given.

Ideas for teaching activities that make use of digital photographs. The example shows the students clarifying the meaning of 'opposites'.

Students dig way back in time to investigate the world of dinosaurs! Levels 1 - 4 English curriculum. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

A puzzle generation tool – visit this site to create your own puzzles that recycle the vocabulary you have been teaching.

Worried about your students being sucked in by pop culture and advertisements? Media literacy education can help students build critical thinking and analytic skills, become more discriminating in the use of mass media, distinguish between reality and fantasy and consider whether media values are their values. Activities are intended for L1 students ages 9-11, but can be adapted for ESOL students. Based on the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Sections for parents and for teachers.

Looking at e-learning for yourself and your school? This site is full of explanations, "how to" articles, templates and ideas. Begin with the article e-Learning Alphabet Soup.

Today's students believe that e-mail is a medium unfettered by the rules that govern letter writing. Most classroom teachers, however, believe that e-mail should adhere to the same rules of grammar and style as snail mail. Who's right? Here are some of the ABCs of e-mail etiquette.

The New Zealand government site that provides advice, support and information about early childhood education and parenting to parents, early childhood centres, playgroups, and the wider community.

Find holidays by country, religion or date.

A noisy, Flash-based site that aims to educate children about the environment. Through cartoons, music, videos, games and activities they try to show how ordinary people, both children and adults, can safeguard the Earth and make it a better place. For junior primary school.

Education World Techtorials are step-by-step instructions on using some aspect of technology in the regular classroom. Short, practical, and educationally sound.

A wide range of resources here.

Teaching materials from hundreds of websites, categorised by maths and science subject area.

This dictionary not only provides clear definitions and pronunciation guides but users can also hear the pronunciation of the chosen word.

Enchanted Learning produces children's educational web sites and games which are designed to capture the imagination while maximising creativity, learning, and enjoyment.

An excellent site, with high quality interactive learning games for the students. Suitable for younger (as well as older) students.

Interactive lesson for students to use when planning to write a narrative -in two parts. In Write a Story 1, students look at how to identify the audience, how to choose the right kind of topic and appropriate language for that audience and how to create believable characters. In Write a Story 2, students explore how to choose what type of story to write, how to give their story a basic structure and how to choose the way they want to tell their story.

Rong-Chang Li's English as a Second Language site is a great up-to-date entry-point for finding ESL resources. The sidebar carries many links under subject headings such as Listening, Reading, Pronunciation, Writing, Grammar, Methods, Lesson Plans, Games and more.

Lots of reading comprehension exercises based on current media and short stories. Upper intermediate and advanced.

Find out all about it here.

Exercises in vocabulary and grammar, identified by topic and difficulty level, that can be downloaded or completed online.

Grammar, reading, vocabulary and puzzles. Graded and appropriate for primary - secondary students. The more advanced levels include lesson sequences based on a theme.

A very good data base of a wide array of links to help with the teaching and learning of English. The site includes links to ESL sites, etymology, pronunciation, online courses, teaching methods and much more.

This web site, by the periodical of the same name, is designed for ESL and EFL teachers who want ideas and activities for teaching conversation, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Stressing practical classroom applications, they provide tips, lesson ideas, and photocopiable activities.

Offers free lesson plans based on international news stories from Reuters. New lessons are added every week. A subscription is needed to access the database.

download, games, songs, links to newspapers, dictionaries – in short, a wide ranging site.

Traditional activities.

The New Zealand EEO Trust helps employers adapt to and embrace the diversity of the workforce through the use of EEO principles and best practice.

Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine E. Snow, describe what teachers need to know about language and how teachers can use that knowledge to support language and literacy development in their classes.

The online Help! Kit is a comprehensive resource guide for mainstream teachers of ESOL students. It provides practical, research-based advice on how teachers can more effectively teach, evaluate, and nurture their ESOL students. The strategies promoted are ones that are characteristic of good teaching and will benefit all students, not just English language learners. The site is run by the State University of New York at Oneonta – a national resource center dedicated to improving the educational opportunities for migrant children.

The resources on this site are designed for beginning/emerging English language learners. Resources include listening activities, vocabulary, games, reading practice, grammar, and useful other links.

Kathy Chareonsup's ESL Center is another wide collection of links.

A large collection of links to resources for teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages students organised under Listening, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Writing, Reading, Grammar, Fun and Games.

Kent Trickel has designed a number of lesson plans for ESL students oriented around class debates. There's also a comprehensive essay/lesson plan on using multimedia computers in ESL classrooms.

Marty Levine's ESL Lesson Plans and Resources page is another large annotated listing.

Graded activities. Includes work sheets that can be downloaded and board games too.

This site teaches you how to use Internet resources to teach ESOL and how to make basic web pages.

Hundreds of pages of graded ESL materials for students and teachers alike. The language is not embedded in a context. Teachers may be interested in the textbook recommendations and job openings.

New Zealand's community-based support service that meets the English language and social needs of adult New Zealanders from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Adult volunteers of all ages share their time and skills to assist non-English speaking New Zealanders to settle in and take part in their new communities. Read the New Zealand research on refugee re-settlement issues and language learning. Order the "Now You're Talking" cards that include language and cultural notes, classroom phrases and pronunciation guides.

eThemes is an extensive database of content-rich, age-appropriate resources organized around specific themes. These resources are created for educators to use in their classrooms. The search function allows anyone to search by keyword, grade.

Organised by month you will find the dates of feast days, religious observances, anniversaries and other dates of significance to many of New Zealand's ethnic communities

Ethnic Link is a newsletter, produced quarterly by the Office of Ethnic affairs in New Zealand for everyone interested in ethnic affairs issues. It is available online and in print. It covers news, issues and services of interest to ethnic people and communities.

Information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and other related issues pertinent to the health care of recent immigrants, many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world.

When brand new English language learners first enter your school, it can be overwhelming for the teachers responsible for their instruction. It's hard to know what to do first. Here are some activity-based tips to get you started. A great site.

This site, created by The Learning Channel, can be used as both a resource and as a 'jumping off place' for assignments in subject areas such as writing and reading. For example, students can read survival stories from around the world and then write and share their own story. This site presents interesting and engaging accounts of escape and survival. Students can also have fun with a 'survival' quiz.

Fabula is a free software package for making bilingual multimedia stories with children. Using Fabula, teachers, parents and children can combine texts in two languages, images and sounds to make fun-to-use interactive learning resources. Funded by the European Commission.

Educational site links visitors to the World Factbook with information on almost every country.

An online almanac, atlas, dictionary, and encyclopedia for kids. Includes a homework centre, games and quizzes, and tons of other stuff too!

The Internet is a rich source of information -- and a prolific dispenser of misinformation. Help your students learn to tell the difference!

A comprehensive list of titles including the classics, fairy tales, stories and rhymes. The stories and fables are from around the world.

Structure and language of different types of text forms.

Are you looking for a fun and effective way of promoting the spirit of cooperation in your classroom? Here are three favourite folktales that will get kids thinking and talking about the importance of cooperation!

Online pronunciation for a variety of derivations of the Queen's English, including American, Australian, Canadian nuances and inflections.

If you are looking for free software, lessons, or links to good ESL web sites, then this site will provide you with an excellent resource. Send off for the free CDs and make use of the resources available here.

An online traditional grammar. Explanations and exercises.

This is a page on which teachers can share games and activities that they have found useful in the classroom.

Literacy and numeracy games for all ages. Web Tools for Learning is a project of the Division of Computer Studies at City University of Hong Kong.

The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) lets you search or browse thousands of high quality educational materials, including lesson plans, activities, and projects from over 320 of the 438 GEM Consortium members. You can browse lists organized by subject or keywords; search by subject, keyword, title, or grade level; and limit search results to materials that are free. A project of the U.S. Department of Education, and located at the Information Institute of Syracuse at Syracuse University.

From the UK National Literacy Strategy, a series of modules for teachers to update or consolidate their basic grammatical knowledge. Modules available: grammatical overview, word classes, clauses and word order, sentences and punctuation.

Check out this site for its variety of graphic organisers.

Many graphics, including animations, organised thematically (seasons, animals, school, website backgrounds etc) and presented as copyright free. All they ask is that if you use them, you link back to the site.

Folk and fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. Read and hear interactive, narrated, animated stories.

For the serious student. Maintained by Professor of English, Charles Darling, this is an extensive collection of grammar, writing exercises and quizzes. The user can select the word and sentence level, ask questions about grammar, select PowerPoint presentations and a wide range of other useful online tools.

Averil Coxhead's word list – essential learning for students wanting to be successful at university.

These are the skills that every educator needs to develop in his or her teaching every day! Click on each of the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and get some ideas for asking better questions and preparing better lessons.

This classic poem by Alfred Noyes is reviewed and investigated to see what writing tools and strategies the author has used to make this such a powerful and memorable poem. The use of the alliteration, metaphor, personification, simile and strategically used words all combine to make this a truly unique poem. Ideal for advanced students.

Having trouble with spelling? Use this site to brush up on homophones. Standard American pronunciation.

A wonderful site. You can create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for non-profit educational users who make their pages available on the web. Enter your data and the programme will create the web pages for you. You can even include feedback that leads the students who are having difficulty to the correct answers.

Rudyard Kipling's delightful story is told in text accompanied by appealing photographs and images of animals and localities.

This site assists students writing a book report.

An Australian website with comprehensive, easily accessible information on the good use of ICT in schools. You will enjoy the section on the integration of ICT into the curriculum, and the student tasks.

Make no bones about this site where you can discover the origins of sayings like "knee-jerk" and "no room to swing a cat." This site is worth its salt and catalogues heaps of everyday words and phrases.

This is the site if you have questions about IELTS. Although designed principally for candidates, the site has a lot of useful information for teachers. You can scroll through the IELTS handbook on line and there is a search facility for centres.

New Zealand students and teachers will find loads of information on immigration throughout the site, and activities to do in the investigations section. The site focuses on level 5 social studies, in particular the strand Place and Environment at level 5: "Why people move between places and the consequences of this for the people and the places". Teachers working on any level, or on other strands, will find useful ideas here too.

Designed for students in Australia; but applicable to any place. Water Conservation starts at home! In this project, you have two tasks: 1. Track water usage in your household and 2. Identify areas in your home where water can be saved and to plan a strategy for your family to use water wisely. Includes worksheets and other tools for completing the tasks.
Year Level: 7 - 12.

A reading experience for Years 6 - 11.An interactive walk through an African forest. Your trip to the village of Epulu takes a detour when your jeep experiences mechanical failure. You are forced to walk through the Ituri Forest in central Africa accompanied by four youths from different local cultures. Along the way, you'll make choices and learn about plants, animals, and survival. A Forest Factbook serves as a glossary. Flash-driven.

This site provides links to a large number of downloadable or printable English resources but teachers may find access to downloadable certificates, awards, posters and freeware equally useful.

Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.

More than 300 online books in a variety of languages. The mission of the ICDL is to select, collect, digitize, and organize children's materials in their original languages and to create appropriate technologies for access and use by children 3-13 years old.

These links are of interest to mainstream and ESOL teachers

The Internet Picture Dictionary is a free, online multilingual picture dictionary designed especially for ESL students and beginning English and other language learners of all ages. Includes activities for the students.

A monthly web journal with a mountain of useful articles, lessons and activities. Low on graphics, so it's quick and easy to access. Includes sections such as: Jokes for the ESL Classroom, Games and Activities for the ESL Classroom, Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students, Web Site Guides for ESL Students.

A database of services for migrants to New Zealand, currently being translated into 15 different languages. Service providers to migrants can add their service to the list. An Auckland New Ventures Trust project funded by NZIS.

Teachers will find loads of ideas and printable materials that focus on key grammatical challenges for ESOL students, discussion forums, and employment opportunities.

Kid Wizard is for kids ages 6-12 years old. There are spells, potions, crossword puzzles, crisscross, mazes, riddles, mysteries, logic puzzles, and an interactive stories with science at the foundation of most of them. According to the site: Kids will enjoy disgusting their friends with our potent potions and playing the different games. We agree! Also includes a glossary with pictures of various mythological creatures.

An exciting site for young readers. Lots of fun stories to read online.

A project to foster literacy and cultural understanding among students from around the world. Aimed at elementary aged school children. All the material here is written by students for sharing with their peers all over the world.

Kiz Club provides educational activities in language arts suitable for years 1-3 students. The 'Stories' section offers 3 levels that are read aloud to students. Available in both English and Korean.

From the UK, this is a tutorial in grammar for teachers of English at Years 7, 8 and 9. It explains all technical ideas and terms, and makes some suggestions for using them in teaching, and especially in the teaching of writing.

Word2Word provides an extensive collection of links to web sites that offer either dictionaries on translators for many languages. The links provided are free resources.

From the UK's Dept for Education and Employment, an alphabetical glossary of language terms - from abbreviation to verb.

Guided practice for written and oral language at the word, sentence, paragraph and longer text level. Focus on grammar as well. Straightforward, useful site for year 7 onwards.

This website provides current news stories to students with reading levels that are not high enough to read and understand standard newspaper articles. Interactive learning activities help reinforce what is presented on the screen. This material is intended for adult literacy educational purposes, but is useful for senior/advanced ESOL students.

This activity is designed to teach students about homonyms (or homophones) by means of cooperative learning. For the advanced student.

English words derived from Latin and Greek elements, with images and explanations for greater comprehension.

From the California Distance Learning Project. Created for lifelong learners to explore information about family, community and work resources through interactive activities. These activities include reading exercises and comprehension lessons.

A rich source of Internet based resources, journals, software, study options and networking for ESOL teachers and students.

A great site for poetry writing. Partner your ESOL student with a buddy to listen to and then write their own poems rapper style, or join the Saurus and write wonderful Wonderwords that make poems come alive.

Lots of links to useful sites here from Ohio ESL.

Technology lends itself to helping teachers gain easy access to resources that they can use in their instruction. This page aims to help teachers find literacy development tools more easily.

Online or downloadable exercises in a wide variety of basic English literacy skills.

This site is designed for adult literacy has readings with a large font and pronunciation hints. Other online activities include hangman and drop-down menu spelling tests.

If you are looking for background information on any of the Middle Eastern and Asian countries then this work from the University of Texas provides an excellent, reasonably unbiased view of the politics, economy, history and lifestyles of these countries.

Promote the love of reading with online books. Books can be read aloud or the sound can be turned off for independent reading. Students will find interactive vocabulary games and puzzles. There is a special area for parents and teachers.

Information for schools from the Ministry of Education.

Links to "The Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students", "Homestay Guidelines" publications research and statistics and professional development initiatives.

This site shows teachers how to create online research modules for their students. The research model suggested here aims to "challenge your students to make up their own minds while supplying them with rich information to support such thinking" and the guidance includes advice on asking good questions, scaffolding the assignment to direct student efforts, and setting up the online module in stages. In Module Maker, Jamie McKenzie, publisher of the From Now On Educational Technology Journal, includes examples and templates to help teachers get started with their own online research modules.

NZIS Settlement Customer Services' web site that aims to assist migrants to access information on business migration, employment and life in New Zealand.

Practical suggestions for assisting mainstream students to value diversity.

Al-Muslim.Org
Muslim Women's League
IslamZine.Com

Three informative sites offering a range of information about Muslims, the roles and rights of women within Islam, and references/news.

Designed for both teachers and students, on this extensive site you will find a vast array of resources and links to dictionaries, encyclopaedias, grammar support, libraries, museums and newspapers. There is an excellent practice section dealing with many of the grammatical issues associated with learning English.

A large American site promoting excellence in early childhood education.

A site where kids can explore the world, find out interesting facts and chat about world issues. Includes jokes, games and quizzes.

A great site, although not specifically for ESOL students, with an interactive learning museum and many activities and lesson plans.

View online images from photos and art works to newspapers and oral history interviews. You can print images for personal use or use the online instructions to order high quality reproductions.

This is a treasure trove of New Zealand art and music resources, supporting New Zealand teachers and students of visual arts, music, social studies, technology (design), English (visual language strand) and history. Discover holds many items of cultural significance to Maori. It contains photographs, drawings, prints, paintings, posters, essays, as well as video and sound clips that reflect our unique New Zealand heritage.

NZSTI is a nationally representative body of translators and interpreters that provides a networking forum for its members, represents members' interests, and promotes continued professional development, quality standards and awareness of the profession within government agencies and the wider community.

The Newseum is a virtual interactive online museum that highlights the history behind the news. This museum provides an historical overview of the development of "the news".

A referral and information service for ethnic communities in New Zealand. Also provides policy advice to government.

This site has links to the Berenstain Bears' story books, games and activities related to Berenstain Bears. With a plug-in students can view a short video about the authors and clips of the bear family.

Original NZ material here on this language school site. The site contains lessons, games, and activities for both students and teachers of ESOL, but of particular interest will be the photo dictionaries and the academic material in the IELTS section. You will need to become a member to access much of the site.

Fables, fairy tales, folktales, legends, myths, and tall tales - six literary genres that engage student interest - can be used in the classroom to inspire creative thinking and writing.

A practical and extensive set of plans, games, resources and links for ESOL teachers.

An online dictionary. This web site is a search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, type it in. If you don't know how to spell the word, help is available here.

Try searching for meanings of words at this site and you will be searching a database of over 6 million words from over 950 different dictionaries. Ideal for advanced students.

Macmillan Publishers' site. Plenty of lesson plans with worksheets, games, professional readings and more.

The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education and the Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics have created this extensive online directory of ESOL resources aimed at both teachers and students.

World newspapers. These are divided by world regions, You can search alphabetically through thousands of online options.

New Zealand newspapers. This site can get you access to anything from the Ashburton Guardian to the Wairoa Star.

This excellent site has links to relevant, up-to-date readings and online journals for ESOL teachers. It is also a student resource with a large collection of activities for students.

can develop their literacy skills reading about themselves. It has original writing, and links to other Pacific web sites. For teachers it has book reviews and brief teaching ideas and hopes to encourage discussion about literacy, teaching and culture.

on the Internet focusing on the Pacific Islands. Select a country from the map and away you go.

This site offers hundreds of the most popular online texts broken down into single web pages containing single chapters so they're easier to read online.

This web site takes users through the steps of writing a basic paragraph. This is an excellent online tutorial dealing with an essential element of written language.

Great beginning literacy activities.

Websequitur is a shareware program for windows that lets you create reading exercises on the web where students have to figure out which phrase comes first and next in a reading passage. These language exercises teach both reading and writing kills as students figure out how to read in context. Phil Shapiro has set up a web page to help others learn what websequitur can do.

Meanings and Origins of Phrases, sayings, cliches and quotes.

Visit this site to read stories about ghosts, hot air balloons, an elephant-headed god, the sorcerer's apprentice, prehistoric astronauts, dragons, volcanoes, kites and more.

Simple, creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable handouts for use with students of all ages.

This lesson on plagiarism is designed to give high school students an introduction to the issue of plagiarism, an overview of copyright laws and fair-use provisions, and a demonstration of the use of paraphrasing and quoting as methods of avoiding plagiarism.

Twin sisters Pearl and Flora lost their friends in the bubble machine. Students can help them get their friends out by choosing the correct plural form of the given word.

As well as plenty of somewhat random "favourite poems" there are also poetry lesson plans and poetry links. Ideal for advanced students.

The following lists were supplied to the New Zealand Schoollib discussion list in response to a question about popular titles posted by a school librarian.

This part of the Houghton Mifflin website provides interactive exercises in proofreading for Years 3-9. The exercise uses Shockwave, and takes some time to load, but once loaded all the required activities are available. Students can choose their level and select from a list of very short stories. Each story focuses on an aspect of grammar.

To create a word search, follow the simple steps on this site.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. Learn all about Ramadan here.

Text-to speech software - some of it free.

This site from the International Reading Association and NCTE presents a fantastic collection of free, high-quality resources for teachers of English.

30 books, at different reading levels, with accompanying graphics, for you to download and print. The teacher notes are excellent. There are worksheets too.

The reading comprehension strategies of previewing and predicting, skimming, scanning, and reading between the lines are outlined clearly and simply on this site. Useful for both teachers and students.

Lots of links to useful sites here from Ohio ESL.

You can find here over 5000 full text audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, debates and interviews as well as 200 short audio clips of famous speeches including movie speeches. This web site is an excellent database for any oral language study. The site also contains a directory of links to high-quality online newspapers, magazines, search engines, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other research tools.

Online world of books for primary aged students. Developed by Reading is Fundamental, Inc, RIFis a children's literacy nonprofit organization. It includes interactive reading games, writing activities, book reviews, author interviews, and more. This site is vibrant and colourful with child friendly graphics.

Lists and activities

Doll-house lets you explore room by room with short, interactive popup windows that inform on injury prevention, carbon monoxide, fires, poisons, and lead poisoning dangers within each room. Related links embedded in some of the popup windows leads to more info. From the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Early Chinese writing used pictograms - symbols that stand for a word or idea instead of words. Try your hand at matching pictograms with their corresponding meaning with this fun game.

These great readings - visual and written text - come from Ohio university, ESL section.

Science NetLinks is part of the MarcoPolo Education Foundation. ScienceNetLinks' role is to provide a wealth of resources for primary - secondary science educators, including lesson plans and reviewed internet resources. All site content is organised around benchmarks for science literacy.

Read about BICS and CALPS and other Cummins research.

An annotated list of novels, non-fiction text and films used by NZ secondary school English teachers - divided into junior and senior secondary.

Transactional writing templates with a focus on cohesive links. From the University of Glasgow English as a Foreign Language Unit

Teaching materials and online resources from the world's largest museum complex.

State of Victoria, Department of Education ESL Unit initiative. A wide variety of information, including progammes, curriculum and texts, as well as links to their multicultural site.

Research about the value of using music in the classroom. There are tips to get you going and even songs to help you teach reading skills.

Lots of links to useful sites here from Ohio ESL.

This site has dictionaries and glossaries of specialised words in curriculum areas such as accounting, art, biology, chemistry, geography, history, maths and physics.

Spellbinder supports and reflects the important principle that spelling is primarily a skill that is best mastered within the context of learning to write. From wickED on TKI.

Click on the word that is spelt wrongly and the kangaroo will hop.

Stories, legends and folktales from Africa.

Stories, legends and folktales from China.

Stories, legends and folktales from Egypt.

Stories, legends and folktales from India.

SuperThinkers features a set of original interactive mysteries designed to foster literacy and problem-solving. Created by children's book author & illustrator/educator Peter H. Reynolds and his creative team at Emmy Award-winning FableVision and funded by Verizon. This site takes a creative approach in order to engage every type of learner, using sound, animation, words, images, and interactivity. The mysteries are not something that can be done quickly and might be easier in pairs or very small groups. Suitable for advanced students, years. The mysteries are totally Flash-driven.

By talking with our kids early and often about the stories and images they are exposed to by the news and other media, we can help them better understand the world around them. This web site deals with process of talking through the issues associated with what children see on "the News".

This site contains a wide range of lesson plans and activities, organised by subject area, for primary, intermediate and junior secondary school students.

An amazing directory for teachers. Contains a huge database of resources sorted by curriculum area, links to libraries and newspapers around the world and has a focus on literacy links.

British Council site with professional development readings, lesson plans, e-learning for students and much more.

Grammar is best taught in context, but the more fun we can have with grammar -- and the more varied approaches we can use to teach it -- the more likely our students are to 'get it.'

A structured approach to running book reading groups in the classroom. A great site with very useful graphic organiser templates that help scaffold the students' responses to the text.

Teaching with the Web is a compilation of ideas for using WWW resources as a language teaching tool. It also offers links to sites that have pedagogical information.

Yes the magazine is online.

Based on Bloom's taxonomy this tutorial will help students carrying out research to develop higher order thinking accessing the internet. Suitable for students with advanced English reading skills.

From Hong Kong University, an ESOL resource site organised by skill, language focus, topic and level which also includes a section on ESOL theory. It's graphic heavy so you will need patience and you do need to register here but it is worth it.

Suitable for secondary school students, these stories are short and funny. They can be used orally or in written form. These stories are housed on the Internet TESL Journal's lesson pages.

It is all here – from worthwhile articles to lesson plans to teaching tips to web links.

Three of the world's major religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - share a common Jewish history and many similarities. This web site provides excellent background to the evolution of these major religious groups.

Learners of English can express their ideas and opinions on topics of interest.

A site to help ESOL students and teachers quickly find useful places on the Internet to practise English. You'll find about 300 interesting web sites in 34 different categories. The Tower is easy to use. Each site has a Read Your Turn - a related activity for the students. Some of these activities can be done at home, and some can be done in your classroom

For those with an interest in literacy globally, this site introduces the UN's Literacy Decade and includes literacy statistics, best practice by region as well as other resources and readings.

Highly interactive site for children. UptoTen is available in 6 languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, and Korean. It includes a collection of interactive games, coloring, cards, and animated stories and songs.

A Reuters site with well designed English language lessons based on current events/topics. One-offs, but the language is recycled with a variety of activities, including pre-reading activities for each topic. There is a new, free lesson each week, although a subscription is needed to access the database.

Three tales are introduced, Puss in Boots, Jack and the Beanstalk, and a Tibetan tale, From the Elephant Pit. Included are suggested tips for managing an ethics debate in the classroom. Visit the Absolutely Whootie Web site to share other favourite folktales that will get kids thinking and talking.

Using graphic organizers, students create definitions of a variety of story types.

The University of Arizona Centre for Insect Science and Education Outreach has put together this printable collection of twenty integrated lessons with science and math activities that use live insects. The lessons have a health focus. There is a focus on vocabulary in the 'additions' section of each lesson. A great teaching resource.

Tramline's virtual field trips were developed with the goal of making the best use of the web in the classroom. These annotated trips take students to some of the best web sites on each trip subject. You will find virtual field trips on science, literature, social studies, and other topics.

Type in a word in the text box, click "look it up," and you'll be rewarded with an interactive map showing the meaning of your word.

Lots of links to useful sites here from Ohio ESL.

Tom Cobb has adapted Nation's levels tests and put all of the levels online. There is a "Learn Words" page too.

Did you know that on average, just 12 words account for a quarter of all reading? Read all about it here.

First words that students need to learn – with some hints to aid memory.

A great source of links: lesson plans, classroom activities, WebQuests, videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles.

A directory of useful webquest sites.

This website from the BBC provides detailed information on the use of the Internet. Sections include 'Basics', a glossary of Internet related terms and frequently asked questions. 'Basics' includes connecting, navigating, searching, safety, and email.

Fairytales, folk tales, and play scripts - all with positive messages for students. Stories illustrated by students. Great site.

Great site for reading texts. Short, high interest, great graphics.

Click on the links to play 'wicked' interactives, solve online crosswords and explore amazing web links. N Z Ministry of Education site.

All the word lists are here - 500, 1000, 2000, academic lists, Paul Nation's lists.

At this web site students can custom-build word search games. They supply the site with a list of words which are then hidden within the puzzle. They can select a level that is appropriate and the puzzle can be printed out on paper. There is a selection of puzzles already created with a range of levels students can select from.

If teachers are looking for international examples of good literature then this web site can supply of wide range of excellent samples. Teachers and students will find here examples of poetry from the Middle East, China and South America as well as both fiction and non-fiction works from the Korean peninsula, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and many other countries. Ideal for year levels 10-12.

All sorts of work sheets here including using context clues, similes and metaphors and other figures of speech, punctuation, prepositions, suffixes and prefixes, clauses and complex sentences. Organised according to year levels.

This site from the CIA has summary economic and political information on every country of the world. It includes an excellent geopolitical map set and flags for every country.

A site where kids and books come together. Book reviews by kids for kids, wired books and other web sites devoted to kids, to encourage reading and writing.

An extensive site from World News.com.

Lots of links to useful sites here from Ohio ESL.

This is not just a fast and easy-to-use dictionary/thesaurus but also a gateway to language dictionaries, speciality dictionaries, word games, language tools Your Dictionary.com and more.