ABE/GED: Starategies for Better Reading

http://www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/reading.cfm?str=reading&num=11&act=1
TV411

TV411 has some wonderful sites, including this one for reading strategies. For students struggling with understanding content and inferences, this site gives them short (just a few sentences) vignettes and asks them a question. Excellent for low level readers.

ESL/ ABE/GED: International Classroom and School Virtual Visit

http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/icvv

The International Classroom and School Virtual Visit (Virtual School)
project is beginning its eighth year, linking classrooms across the
world to enable students to meet each other virtually, share
information about their cultures, their classrooms, and their
communities, and to build cultural understanding. Classes can include
English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL/ESL), Adult Basic
Education (ABE, GED), elementary or secondary education, or family
literacy. Students can be from age seven to adult.
As in past years, we hope classes will engage in lively written
discussion, and possibly choose a film, book or current event to
discuss. This year we have set up a free wiki, so classes don't have
to create their own web pages, and we will help teachers to use free
Internet telephony so their classes can talk to each other if they
can find a time that works to do that.
If you would like to participate in this year's project,
1. Sign up on the I.C.V.V. e-list by going to:
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/icvv
Scroll down the page to choose an ID and password. That's it,
easy and free.
2. Once you receive confirmation that you are on the I.C.V.V. e-list,
send an e-mail to:
icvv@lists.literacytent.org
indicating your interest in participating this year. Be sure to
describe your class, when it will begin, and what age group or
nationality you would prefer to partner with.
If you would like to look at classroom virtual visit projects from
previous years go to:
http://www.otan.us/webfarm/emailproject/school.htm
and then choose
http://www.otan.us/webfarm/emailproject/school2003.htm

ESL: Tips for Teaching ESL to the Elderly

http://www.clese.org/index.htm Tips for Teaching ESL to the Elderly

Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly
53 West Jackson, Suite 1301
Chicago, IL 60604
312-461-0812
312-461-1466 (fax)
clese@juno.com

An excellent resource of ideas for teaching ESL to the Elderly, and can be used for teaching any limited proficiency students as well. Above is the address of the main organization, located in Chicago.

ESL Civics: Beginning/Elderly Learners

http://www.clese.org/ESL_Curriculum.htm Civics for Very Beginning ESL/Elderly Learners

"ESL-Civics Curriculum Designed for Very Beginning ESL Learners
The Bright Ideas curriculum was designed for elderly learners participating in community-based ESL programs. The curriculum focuses on developing oral English communication skills and providing opportunities for learners to use these skills inside the classroom and outside in the community. The units reflect the interests of the learners as they emerged from conversations with students, focus groups, and needs assessments. Each unit contains step-by-step instructions for the teacher, lessons for the students, and visual support materials to facilitate learning for students who have few literacy skills in English and in the native language. The units may be taught in any sequence. (All units are in MS Word format; you may modify them to meet your needs.)"

Unit 1: Introductions and Greetings (84 KB)
Unit 2: People and Places (97 KB)
Unit 3: Field Trips (79 KB)
Unit 4: Numbers (110 KB)
Unit 5: Fruits and Vegetables (433 KB)
Unit 6: Weather and Clothing (674 KB)
Unit 7: Homes (69 KB)
Unit 8: Coming to America (101 KB)
Unit 9: Colors, Feelings and Art (49 KB)
Unit 10: News (47 KB)
Unit 11: Healthy Life (89 KB)
Unit 12: Meet Students in Other Classrooms (59 KB)
Unit 13: Favorite Foods (346 KB)
Unit 14: I've Got a Problem Video (385 KB)
Unit 15: (part 1) Civics and Community (645 KB)
Unit 15: (part 2) Buildings (262 KB)

ESL Civics

http://www.civiced.org/ Center for Civic Education

Developed for K-12 and native speakers, these resources can also be adapted to adult education level Civics students, including:

Lesson Plans Lesson plans for teachers.
Civic Education Resources Selected curricular materials available from the Center for Civic Education.
Internet Resources Links to internet resources.

Sites Found While Searching the Web

I spend a lot of time searching for good academic Websites, and often, while searching for one topic, I find links to other sites that are as good or better than the original search sites. Here are a few interesting Websites, blogs and wikis that I came across while searching for other things. I hope they won't mind that I have shamelessly copied their words as to their function, but I did not want to misrepresent their organizations. The new global world of education means that your 'colleagues' can span the globe, and you can share their information and knowledge without ever leaving your office. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee and see what others have to say. Their words are in italics.

http://educationbridges.org/ "Education Bridges is an experiment in a new means for bringing together educators and nonprofit, business and government leaders to voice their concerns and opinions on the role philanthropy can play in addressing issues that will enhance the quality of conversation about education in communities we live. We invite you to listen to the show, participate in the conversation in the forum, blogs and comment area. Educationbridges is supported with funding from The Nord Family Foundation."

http://nlcommunities.com/communities/three_blind_mice/default.aspx: "Three Blind Mice: This site was designed to advance teaching and learning in the global classroom." I found this while searching for information on wikibooks, and spent a while getting their perspective of tech ed.

http://www.netsquared.org/ Netsquared: Home "Our mission is to help non-profit organizations understand, use and expand the social web.There's a whole new generation of online tools available – tools that make it easier than ever before to collaborate, share information and mobilize support. These tools include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasting, and more. Some people describe them as "Web 2.0"; we call them the social web, because their power comes from the relationships they enable.
How we Net2
We work with you in three ways:
The NetSquared.org online community, focused around this web site, is a venue for learning skills, sharing experiences and developing expertise.
New to the social web? Here are three ways to get started right now
Subscribe to our interview series with this RSS feed. You'll get the very latest interviews with leaders and innovators working at the intersection of technology and the non-profit world.
Tell us what you need from technology here. Our wishlist lets a growing community of developers know where their efforts can make the biggest difference for non-profits.
Find out more about specific tools and strategies at Net2Learn. The Net2 community has built a resource center filled with tutorials, tips and links to get you up and running with tools from blogs to podcasts, and challenges like online fundraising and managing virtual teams.
Find out more about how you can participate
Comfortable with the social web? Here are three ways you can start contributing to Net2.
Answer our four questions about the social web, and what it means to you. Encourage your colleagues to chime in.
Start your own Net2 blog, and join the conversation. Or, if you run your own blog, tag any post as "net2" to have it picked up by our aggregators.
Start a resource center at Net2Learn, or add your knowledge to one of the resource center's that are already there.
Net2 is created by TechSoup, a project of CompuMentor. "

ESL: Lesson Plans: The Brain, The Key To A Fruitful EFL Classroom

(Click on title above to take you to the article. You can see it in either pdf or html format)

THE BRAIN, THE KEY TO A FRUITFUL EFL CLASSROOM
Mr. Jody Marshall and Mrs. Qi Wenhui
Foreign Language Department, Yichun University,
People’s Republic of China

This is a well done article with excellent and unique lesson plans for ESL. It is indeed interesting to see how ESL is taught in other countries. It's amazing what one can find posted on the Internet while in search of other things. Let me know by adding a comment to this post if you try any of these lessons in your classes, or if it inspires you to create something similar.