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Everything ESL

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Overview:: This website is a collection of lesson plans, teaching tips, and resources for teaching English language learners. There is also a discussion board entitled, “Ask Judie”. The website could be used by an elementary ESL or EFL teacher when creating lesson plans and activities. It could also be used by classroom teachers who are learning to adapt teaching strategies and materials for ELLs. In addition, Everything ESL could be used in a teacher training program for students to discuss and explore resources. There is no cost to use this website or to download/use the resources.
Type of Material:: Reference material
Recommended Uses:: The site would be appropriate for classroom teachers, ESL teachers, preschool teachers and program planners.
Technical Requirements:: The web site requires flash player to display properly.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: • The user will learn tips on how to optimize teaching strategies for ELLs • The user will be able to explore various resources pertaining to ESL/EFL instruction. • The user will be able to ask questions and/or contribute to a discussion about issues in ESL education.
Target Student Population:: • Elementary classroom and ESL/EFL teachers • Students in teacher training programs, especially ESL and elementary
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: No prerequisites are needed. Some knowledge of English Language Learners would be helpful.

Rating:
Strengths:: • Free resources within lesson plans are useful. They included Sequencing and cloze activities, question/answer, vocabulary cards to match with definitions, charts, graphic organizers. Some of the lesson plans are more clearly developed than others. Each lesson plan has resources listed to provide easy access to any prerequisite knowledge and to provide follow-up instruction in the area • Integrated content from math, social studies, science, and ELA and a wide variety of topics were explored • Target groups, many lessons were differentiated according to language learning level and grade level • The section entitled Teaching Tips is excellent. Judie has fantastic tips for teachers who have ELLs in their classroom.
Concerns:: • Under “Ask Judie”: When you click on a thread for discussion, nothing happens. • Many of the links to outside resources, especially those referencing books were not functioning and resulted an error message. There were many occurrences of “page not found” and warnings from my computer security system that I was going to a risky site. Specifically: Under Resource Picks: the link to Dave’s Snowflake and Under “Ask Judie” there was a Spam link: Lodge cialis rx online without prescription Canada

Rating:
Strengths:: • There are a total of 70 lesson plans offered which include ready-made resources. • The “Tips for Teachers” would be very useful for an elementary pre-service teacher training program or teachers who are new to teaching ELLs in a content area or general classroom.
Concerns:: • Learning objectives are not explicitly stated in the lesson plans. • Tools to measure students learning outcomes are not a part of the lesson plans.

Rating:
Strengths:: The site is very easy to navigate. There are multiple headings at the top of the site to give quick access to lesson plans, teaching tips, blogs and other resources. The links in some of these pages can lead to off site connections. The site is clearly designed with teachers in mind. The headings are those that teachers looking for assistance would quickly identify with.
Concerns:: • Many of the links to resources are broken. • The visual appeal is limited. • The lesson plan links and “Ask Judie” section needs to be updated.

Other Issues and Comments:: The links should be researched by the creator of the site. If they are not meant to be links, they should not be highlighted as links. If they are indeed links, they should be updated. People will not use a site that suggests connections that are needed to complement the lessons, only to find that the resource links are dead ends.
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