Language and Teaching Resources

Over the last two decades of teaching, there are several resources that have proven to be helpful in my language classroom. Some of the resources are specific to languages and others lend themselves to teachers across a broad spectrum. Below are some trusted language and teaching resources websites.

General Teaching Resources

What I like about Socrative is that it allows students to answer questions anonymously and share them with the group. This gives you an honest understanding about what students do and do not understand. It also informs other students what their peers “get”.

I love how Playposit (used to be Educanon) incorporates various modes of learning for the language learner. Teachers insert various types of questions (T/F, multiple choice, CLOZE, fill in the blank) at specific points of a video. At this point the video stops and the student has to answer the question on their device. Once that question is answered, the video continues. On the teacher side, correct and incorrect answers are shown.

A question flashes across the front of the classroom giving students ten seconds to synthesize the question and soon four bright colored shapes (circle, square, triangle, and diamond) appear on a screen in front of the classroom. Students press the shape and color shape on their device. Students that answer correctly before their classmates earn more points. Kahoot is web based so students simply enter your classroom specific code to enter and play.

Plickers is different. Students receive a card unique from their classmates. Each card has a QR code with the letters A, B, C, and D written in small print. When students see a question, they raise their card with the correct letter facing the ceiling. The teacher with a smartphone or tablet scans the classroom. Immediately, the device informs you of correct and incorrect answers with a green or red dot magically appearing above their card. Plickers provides several options to share student answers anonymously. This one does not require students to have a device.

Simply put, Quizlet are flashcards for the 21st century learner. Instead of paper, students quiz themselves on their device. They can pull vocabulary, theme, or translations from other users too. In addition to Flashcards, there are seven other methods to review the materials. Quizlet is a great way for differentiation in the classroom.

An image says a thousand words. An image looking at the inside of the Sistine Chapel that reveals the ceiling, floor, and 360 degrees around you makes learning fun and real. 360Cities hosts 360 degree photos from anywhere in the world.

“When I walked across one of the widest streets in the world, Avenida 9 de julio, it was so great. If you just close your eyes and use your imagination, you can just see it vividly class.” Now substitute your study abroad trip with students digitally sitting in the middle of Avenida 9 de Julio with Google Earth, they have a better understanding and piqued interest in visiting Buenos Aires.

Star Wars creator George Lucas simply wants to help students and educators. Edutopia provides applicable examples of best practices backed by research in all facets of education. Need ideas about classroom management in the elementary classroom, you will find one there and many more.

Project Based Learning (PBL) is the focus at the Buck Institute for Education. BIE supplies research, examples, and support with Project based learning. This is a great place to get started. The book Project Based Learning by Thom Markham is another great read to get an educator started with student-centered, inquiry based learning that incorporates projects.

Flipgrid is another simple platform where teachers and students can safely upload and share videos. If you have a speaking component to your assignment, students can record their spoken answer or presentation on Flipgrid.

Many times students need to record their voices and many platforms may not support a certain program on a phone or computer. Vocaroo is a simple workaround. It’s web based. Once you’ve recorded and save online, they provide a url to share with the teacher.

General Language Teaching Resources

Duolingo was founded on the premise of making language learning fun and accessible for anyone with the desire to learn a language at their own speed. Over the years, Duolingo has created a community around the world of language learners helping each other with digital translations and interactions. I have used this as a student led support of their language learning in the classroom.

WordReference is a great online dictionary for 18 languages. This is my go to in class as it not only provides definitions, there are also verb conjugations, forums to have your lexical questions answered, and idiomatic expressions. Spanishdict.com is another good one specifically for Spanish.

Differentiation is important for learners as well all learn at different rates. NewsELA is an excellent resource that provides written articles at varied reading levels in both Spanish and English. Online quizzes check comprehension. Educators can also create their own questions within the reading to support reading and language comprehension.

If your elementary kid uses a graded reader, why shouldn’t the language learner acquire learning with one as well? Their language level starts out the same. Readers with Reading A-Z begins with level A readers and ends with ZZ. Each level has different subjects for reading and this provides student choice. Reading A-Z comes in English, Spanish, French, Polish, and Ukrainian.

Conjuguemos is a simply drill and kill website for verb conjugation. This is an easy way for students to get repetitive practice perfecting their verb conjugations. Conjuguemos isn’t just for Spanish as provides practice for seven languages.

Epals provides a secure network to match your students with students from around the world and provide them the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other.

Spanish and French Language Teaching Resources

For me personally as a Spanish teacher, Zachary Jones is the gold standard for Spanish language resources. Zachary Jones has always been my go to for authentic, engaging Spanish language learning resources from all over the Spanish speaking world. If there was only one resource from this page that I could use in my classroom, it would be this one. His goal is to incorporate language, music, t.v., media, and culture into language acquisition. All of his activities are based on themes, grammar, or types of activities that he and his wife have created over the years. In my opinion, these activities are a perfect mixture of popular culture and language.

Every month, ThinkSpanish creates a new digital magazine full of insights covering a range of topics in Latin America and Spain. What I like about this is the support provided along the side with a running vocabulary list corresponding with the article. In addition, there is a recording of the article so the learner can hear a native speaker while following the reading.

Think of ThinkFrench as the fancier sister of ThinkSpanish language. ThinkFrench offers the same support but in French.

Professional Language Teaching and International School Organizations

The largest proponent of language study in the United States is ACTFL. They have been behind many initiatives for language learning and acquisition in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions. They host an the ACTFL Annual Conference every November.

AATSP promotes the “study and teaching of the Spanish and Portuguese languages and their corresponding Hispanic, Luso-Brazilian, and other related literatures and cultures at all levels of education.” This is another community where teachers can meet and share best practices.

AATF’s mission is to “promote throughout North America the teaching and learning of the French language and French-speaking cultures and civilizations.”

International School Teaching

International Schools are growing in popularity and enrollment around the world. I personally am a big fan of international schools in that this learning environment brings together students and faculty from around the world with varied points of view and life experiences. Here are some of the recruiting organizations that match international schools with teachers looking to teach abroad. Several organizations will represent some of the same international schools, but in general, international schools tend to mainly recruit with one recruiting organization.

ISS-Schrole used to simply be ISS, but recently combined with Australian Schrole. This is one of the largest recruiting companies with a large database of schools and jobs. Nadine and I found our first international position with Cayman International School at a job fair in San Francisco with ISS. There is an easy to use online search engine that identifies jobs you qualify for and allows you to make contact directly with those schools. The cost is $75 a year.

Search Associates is the other large recruiting agency for educators and administrators for international schools. ISS-Schrole and Search Associates are very similar but I believe Search has more schools they recruit with in Europe. The majority of the international schools in the world recruit with these two agencies. Some recruit through both of them. Search provides the same easy access, information, and contact with schools as ISS-Schrole. The registration fee with Search is $225 and is valid for three years or up to the point that you receive a teaching position.

TIE Online is another recruiting agency but this one is completely based online. They don’t offer recruiting fairs, but they do provide lists of schools and their needs for the following school year. TIE Online provides school information, salary, benefits, and pertinent information. TIE Online costs $35 a year.

AASSA

In addition of just being fun to say, it’s also another useful organization. When I mentioned I was presenting at the The Association of American Schools in South America 2016 conference, peers would get a quizzical look on their face and say, “Excuse me. Come again.” AASSA focuses on matching teachers with schools mostly in South America, but also includes Central America and the Caribbean. The services of this non-profit parallel other organizations, but they also host conferences for teachers, administrators, and directors of schools yearly in a different location.

What Language and Teaching Resources Do You Use In Your Classroom?