Great Game for Learning American Idioms

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Using Youtube to Improve Your English

One great way that I have found to improve your English Listening skills is to watch TV or Movies in English.  Theatres with Version Original movies in Madrid are not the norm as a matter of fact ironically there are not that many with all the interest there is in learning English you would think there would be more.  Considering all my students claim that countries that don't voice over their media speak a lot more English than Spain, yet when I assign them to watch at least :30 minutes in V.O. they moan and groan because the subtitles available are in Spanish.

So I tried to find other venues where my students could watch original version series with English subtitles.  I
found that many Youtube videos of American TV series have the option for subtitles, others have the text available and yet others are available with Closed Caption.  You have to be careful with the Closed Caption because sometimes the translation is way off, but a lot of them are pretty accurate.

Do a search for their favorite American series on Youtube like "Big Bang Theory with subtitles in English" the search will list some with the following: CC for Closed Captions, but others will have subtitles and not have the CC icon.  The other option some of these videos have is Interactive Transcript which has all the story text in a small window.

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Best of Youtube for ELL classes

My adult students had been asking me for more resources to practice their listening skills.  I found some but they were for more advanced students.  So in my research I found that many Youtube videos of American TV series have the option for subtitles, others have the text available and yet others are available with Closed Caption.  You have to be careful with the Closed Caption because sometimes the translation is way off, but a lot of them are pretty accurate, you just have to see the episode before you use it.

Teach your students to do a search for their favorite American series on Youtube like "Big Bang Theory with subtitles in English" the search will list some with the following: CC for Closed Captions, but others will have subtitles and not have the CC icon.  The other option some of these videos have is Interactive Transcript which has all the story text in a small window.

I use choose some videos to show with my class that have the different options so that they can see what is available.  I then can assign them as homework.  The day I assign them a video as homework I front-load the vocabulary by giving them a list of words and definitions that they might not understand in the video.  If there are any idioms or phrases I think they might have trouble with I include those also and I have a small quiz the next time we meet.  In this way they are able to enjoy an English video with less frustration and more success and some students start watching these on their own.

For those videos that have the Interactive Transcript, I provide my students with the transcript and ask to look for phrases, idioms or grammar we have been working in class.  These are some of the ways I use Youtube subtitled videos I would love to hear if you have any other ideas.

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Read Write Think-Excellent Young English Learner Site

I am always looking for ways to use online resources to teach English to kids. I discovered the Read Write Think website when I was teaching my 3rd grade English learners.  The first section I started using was their Letter generator because learning the parts of a friendly letter was a 3rd grade standard in California.

Read Write Think has many such online activities that are easy for kids learning english to practice their English language skills. One that I have also used effectively with my ELL's is the Comic Generator to practice Dialogue.  My students also used it to practice different grammar exercises.  For example we used it to practice have to, must and have got to.  When they finish kids can print their comic strips to share with the class or save them as a PDF’s and email them to you.  These are just two of the many interactives that are available in this site.

For teachers teaching English the site also has Lesson Plans and a wonderful section for Professional Development with Guides for Persuasive Writing, Choral Reading, Making Connections and many more.  Additionally the site has webinars and E-workshops for many strategies.

Check it out it is a wonderful resource for teaching English to kids and come back and share some of the ways that you or Young Learners have used it.

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Practice English Listening Skills Online

I discovered Storyline Online a few years ago when I was teaching Young English language learners in 3rd grade. I was trying to find English books online that were read aloud to improve their reading, listening and pronunciation skills.  My Young Learners loved it because they were popular books they had seen before and they liked seeing the famous actors reading these books.

Storyline Online, is an on-line streaming video program featuring SAG members reading childrens books aloud!   Each book includes accompanying activities and lesson ideas.  Actors read popular Young learner picture books like "Rainbow Fish", "Stellaluna" and many more. You have the option of having captions on or off which help Young English learners practice listening skills, while being supported by the subtitles.  These books have beautiful animated illustrations directly from the book. The Lessons and comprehension activities are great to evaluate students understanding of English and their listening skills.

I have used these videos with Young Learners as well as Adults and have had great success with them.

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Raz Kids Online Reading

I've been using Raz Kids with my students for a few years now with nothing but positive results.  I have now started using it with my adult ESL students with great results also.  At first I was not sure if the adults would like the stories because they are targeted to children, but up to now none of them seem to mind.  They love the fact that they can read at their level.  The other feature of Raz Kids that my ELL students love is being able to listen to the stories while they read them.  Since listening skills are what most of my students have difficulty with Raz Kids gives them excellent practice on this.  It is also an excellent way of practicing the correct pronunciation of words.

Words are highlighted in red as they are read out loud.

COMPREHENSION
The comprehension part of Raz Kids is also a great feature, because it makes students responsible for what they are reading.  It tests vocabulary, recall, inference, details and more.  Students have to get 100% on the quizzes in order to move up to the next reading level.  The non-fiction comprehension tests are pretty challenging.

LEVELED BOOKS
The differentiated reading instruction of Raz Kids animated leveled books is invaluable.  The levels available start from AA through Z level.  AA level is for beginning readers and the Z level is for fluent readers with higher comprehension skills (5th grade native English speakers)  Each level has about ten books both fiction and non-fiction.  Students can: Listen to books for modeled fluency.  Read books with pronunciation and vocabulary support.  Words that may be higher than the students level are clickable and Raz Kids can either read the word out loud or in higher levels give them a definition of the word.

RECORD STUDENTS
Students can also record their reading and the teacher can listen to the recordings to evaluate the reading.  You can also use this as a measurement of their reading or pronunciation improvement.

Try it out and let me know how it goes with your students.

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Starfall.com

Starfall is a great online free software that allows kids to learn to read in English with phonics in a fun way.  It has great graphics and activities. The animations and sounds are wonderful.  One of the features is the English alphabet where students can learn both the name of the letter and it's sound as well as pictures of words that have that sound in them and even simple games to test what they have learned.

As children learn the different letters they can progress through learning English words with other phonics sounds. For children that are emergent English readers Starfall has simple stories that children can read on their own and for words they can't read or pronounce it gives them the opportunity to click and have the words read to them. Starfall has different sections which children can progress through or can start on depending on their English level. The more advanced section has plays, nonfiction reading, comics and more.  The best thing about Starfall is that children enjoy it and if they are having fun they are learning.

My daughter began to use Starfall when she was two when the only language she knew was Spanish.  Starfall helped her develop her English vocabulary.  By the time she was 6 years old she was reading at 4th grade level (in part thanks to Starfall.)  She loved listening to the phonics songs and listening to the phonics books.  She still enjoys going to Starfall for its poems and activities. 

I used Starfall with my 1st grader English Learners who where having a difficulty with reading and they love it.  It gave them a chance to learn new English words and practice reading the words they new how to read while supporting them with those they didn't know.  They also loved the animations and the games.

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