ESL Conversation Class Topics from Eastside Literacy Council

Are you looking for topics for conversation with the ESL students you tutor? You can find a large variety of "Talk Time" lesson plans on the Adult Education Tutor Support site of  Hopelink Adult Education.

Free Online Courses for Instructors Teaching Citizenship

Check out these three free online courses for instructors teaching citizenship.

Literacy Network's Bookmarks

Check out these bookmarks, started by Literacy Network in Wisconsin. It shares numerous websites on everything from phonics to job seeking to health literacy. (Look at the Tags on the right side of the page for various topics.)

Florida Literacy Coalition Shares Its Teacher/Tutor Resource Site

I put out a request on Twitter for lesson plans for tutors working with adult literacy learners and I received a link from the Florida Literacy Coalition for their Teacher/Tutor Resource Site. Let us know what you found really valuable on this site.

ESL Resources

Kitsap Literacy provides a page of ESL Resources.

ESOL Online Resources

This Computers in Action website is for Integrating Computer Technology into the ESOL Curriculum.

English for All is a free site to help adults learn English.

What website do you like to use with your ESOL learners?

Lesson Writer

Have you seen this? If you register with LessonWriter you can use it to create entire lessons for you. The link below has a video of how you can use this site.
http://www.lessonwriter.com/default.aspx

Online Resources

http://distancewebsites.wikispaces.com/ - This awesome website provides links to numerous topics pertaining to adult literacy.  It was put together by the Distance Learning Project.


http://www.clese.org/brightideas_eslcurric.htm - This site provides a 16 unit ESL Civics Curriculum designed for very beginning ESL learners.

http://www.esldiscussions.com/  - ESL Discussions, 650 conversations from which to choose and 13,000 conversation questions. Use in lessons, to practice speaking, etc.

ESL/ESOL Adult Learning Videos  - A variety of professional development videos can be found at this site.

ESL Adult Learner and Tutor Resources

The following link is to a page on the City of Littleton's Immigrant Resources Center site entitled Resources for Citizenship Mentors. While a few of the listed links are broken, most of them will provide useful information for those of you working with ESL learners.
http://www.connectingimmigrants.org/Resources%20for%20Citizenship%20Mentors.htm

What is your favorite ESL site? Please share it by posting a comment.

NIFL and LINCS

The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) has a resource collection which is part of their Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS). Currently featured is a Workforce Competitiveness collection which has "resources applicable to workforce basic skills education, English language acquisition, and/or technology".

Also available is a Career Pathways Instructional Materials Library and numerous other wonderful resources. Follow this link http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/resourcecollections/RC_workforce.html to find these resources and more.

Struggling with Tutoring an ESL Learner?

I just came across this site that was developed specifically for beginning ESL Learners, including those who may be pre-literate in their native language. On the home page of the site is a link for tutors and teachers to follow before using it with ESL learners; after that the site is designed specifically for use by learners. Topics include: a computer tutorial, preliteracy, alphabet, numbers, personal information and greetings.

This is a great site for a variety of topics! Let us know what you used and how well it worked.

http://home.earthlink.net/~brekkmail/index.html

A Tutor Support Site

Hopelink's adult education tutor support site has FAQs, lesson plans, and further resources. It includes sections for ESL, basic literacy, and lifelong learning. Check it out and let us know what you think.

http://www.eastsideliteracy.org/tutorsupport/

Looking for Curricula to Use with an Adult ESL Learner?

Check out the curricula available from Arlington Education and Employment Program (REEP).
http://www.apsva.us/15401081182015517/lib/15401081182015517/reepcurriculum/index.html
You will find sections on Instructional Planning, Curriculum Content, Learner Assessment, Resources, Technology Integration, and References.

British Website for Adult Learners and Tutors

This website http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/ has sections for adult readers on words and numbers and a section for tutors. You can find fact sheets, worksheets, and games to improve skills, there are adult learner stories to watch and listen to, quizzes to test progress, and a Tutor Centre (it is a British site!) with lesson plans and tracking sheets. There is a link to a site called "raw" in the bottom right corner - a website that helps adults develop skills for everyday life. In the Tutor Centre you will also find a link to this site, http://www.skillsworkshop.org/workshee.htm, which is full of free worksheets and handouts for adult basic skills students. The Tutor Centre also has a link to ESOL resources - your options are endless!

What do you like about this site? What did you use with your learner that you found helpful? Please share in the comments section of this post.

Check out this site for ESL learners and tutors

The ESL Gold website http://www.eslgold.com/ was noted in the PAACE News fall edition, under the Top Five ESL Links. It was chosen as one of the top five because of the extensive free content complete with student and teacher (tutor) sections organized by level and skill area.

Please share your experiences with this site in the comments below. Do you have a favorite ESL site? Please share that as well.

Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE and ESOL Classroom: Curriculum Guide

This curriculum is a free download and it is a ready-to-use flexible curriculum designed to help adult educators - that includes tutors! - incorporate career awareness and planning into their instructional and counseling activities. The lessons and handouts can be adapted for a range of students and skill levels.

The download is available at this link: http://collegetransition.org/careerawareness.html

Lake County Adult Learning Connection

This website has an extensive list of internet sites for ESL learners.  Please comment on your favorite ones and add others!
http://adultlearningconnection.org/stuESL.htm