Resources for virtual instruction and online learning

Resources for Virtual Instruction and Online Learning from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a curated collection designed to support teachers who are working in online or blended learning environments. Rather than being a single tool or platform, it is an organized hub of materials and ideas to help educators teach effectively in digital spaces.

The page brings together a wide range of resources, including professional books published by NCTE on writing instruction and virtual teaching practices, blog posts with practical classroom suggestions, articles from educational journals about integrating digital tools into literacy instruction, and ready-to-use activities from platforms such as ReadWriteThink. These materials aim to strengthen reading and writing instruction in online settings while offering thoughtful guidance grounded in research and professional experience.

The content is organized so that teachers can easily find what they need, whether they are looking for strategies for different grade levels, practical lesson ideas, or broader pedagogical approaches to remote learning. It also includes contributions from partner educational organizations, expanding the range of perspectives and tools available to support virtual instruction.

https://ncte.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Resources-for-Virtual-Instruction-and-Online-Learning.pdf

Heart Words in Spanish

The page “Heart Words in Spanish” on ReallyGreatReading introduces a resource of videos that review high-frequency English words, explained in Spanish. 

The idea is to help students with words that are hard to read or irregular: by showing how they are spelled, highlighting the tricky parts, and then providing follow-up practice activities. Teachers can use these videos before doing the exercises.

The site is part of Really Great Reading, which offers tools and methods for helping with reading instruction, especially for students who struggle with decoding.

https://www.reallygreatreading.com/heart-words-spanish

​A Parent’s Guide to Supporting Children in Language Acquisition

​A Parent’s Guide to Supporting Children in Language Acquisition is a podcast episode produced by Project Education, released on December 13, 2024. In this episode, host Kathy Ward speaks with Zizi Asfour, owner of Ztastic Solutions LLC, and Jill Lowe, Director of Program Management for Project Education. 

They discuss practical tips and valuable resources to help parents support their children in learning English. The conversation covers effective language learning strategies and recommends educational materials to make the language acquisition journey both enriching and enjoyable. 

EasyLang AI

EasyLang AI is an application developed by MyLens that leverages artificial intelligence to facilitate language learning in an engaging and personalized manner. It transforms your preferred topics or content into concise visual lessons tailored to your native language, allowing your interests to guide your language acquisition process. 

The platform supports various input formats, including CSV/Excel files, PDFs, images, YouTube links, web addresses, and extended text. This flexibility enables users to learn from content that genuinely interests them, enhancing the learning experience.

By converting complex information into easily digestible visuals, EasyLang AI aims to make language learning both enjoyable and effective. The application's approach ensures that learners remain engaged and can grasp new concepts with greater ease.

https://mylens.ai/apps/easylang

EnglishClub

EnglishClub is a free website to help you learn and teach English. You can:

• Make your own English page with blogs, photos, videos, music, groups and friends
• Test your level in English and get help with English grammar
• Study English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation
• Play English games and do English quizzes online
• Chat in English with other students and teachers
• Find schools where you can learn English at home or abroad

EnglishClub was founded and is owned by London-born Josef Essberger, who has taught English in Europe and Asia. He founded EnglishClub for ESL learners and teachers in 1997.

https://www.englishclub.com/

Comprehensive English Language Development (ELD)

Padlet with resources created by the California Regional English Learner Specialists.

https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/t3/coeleadscontactlist13.asp

Remote Learning, EdTech & COVID-19

This page attempts to curate useful resources and publish related documents collected and prepared by the World Bank's edtech team in support of national dialogues with policymakers around the world. 

Find these resources on:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/edutech/brief/edtech-covid-19 

PDF (List updated April 10th , 2020) 

https://epale.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/remote-learning-distance-education-and-online-learning-during-the-covid19-pandemic-a-resource-list-by-the-world-banks-edtech-team.pdf 

Knowt. Converting your notes into review quizzes

Knowt is an app that helps you study by converting your notes into review quizzes using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

You can access all your notes in your notebook and edit them as you please. Knowt also supports Google Drive importing.

On App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knowt-quizzes-from-your-notes/id1462368057

On GooglePlay:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getknowt.knowt.android

https://getknowt.com/

OASIS Database

OASIS summaries are one-page descriptions of research articles on language learning, language teaching, and multilingualism that have been published in peer-reviewed journals listed on the Social Science Citation Index.

https://oasis-database.org/

What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?

Universal design for learning is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.

Recognizing that the way individuals learn can be unique, the UDL framework, first defined by David H. Rose, Ed.D. of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Center for Applied Special Technology in the 1990s, calls for creating curriculum from the outset that provides:

- Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,

- Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and

- Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.

Visit.
http://www.cast.org/our-work/research-development#.W_sCdThKiM8

Vocabulix.com

Vocabulix is a language learning platform that focuses on vocabulary, verbs, grammar and reading. It can be a good resource for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish language learners. Vocabulix has a smart system that guides through the entire language learning process until the students reach their certificate. 

Its drills include audio and visual support. It has a "Find friends" section where users interact with each other. Each account has a personal trainer that analyzes the progress and gives tips on how to learn better.

It is a paid service. Only the trial is free.

Vocabulix is based in Switzerland and it is in the market since 2005. Since then it has served over 100,000 active students and has received 50 million visits on its web.

Visit Vocabulix.com on:

https://www.vocabulix.com/

On Twitter: @Vocabulix

Digital Icebreakers

Don't miss Shelly Terrell's blog post "Digital Activities & Icebreakers for Gen Y" on

http://www.techlearning.com/blogentry/9614

Get Them Learning with Digital Icebreakers from Shelly Sanchez Terrell

ESL Partyland

ESL Partyland, founded by Karin M. Citron, a US-based English teacher in 1999, provides students and teachers with content and tools necessary to learn online, and materials and teaching ideas for every type of classroom and learner.

It offers resources to teach ESL through music, film, video and the Internet. You can also find materials and lesson plans to use when teaching or learning conversation, grammar, listening and speaking skills.

Visit:

https://www.eslpartyland.com/

The Best Language Learning Apps for 2015

The Best Language Learning Apps For 2015

View more lists from Terry Heick

English Club ESL Learning Centre

In this website you'll find lessons and resources to help you learn English.

http://www.englishclub.com/

If you're an ESL or EFL student, you'll find English lessons useful to learn or revise all aspects of English. You can also use the interactive pages like ESL Forums or ESL Games to have fun and learn English at the same time. If you have a question about English grammar, check out ESL Help for answers. In the special interest pages you'll find resources for Business English, Young Learners and other areas of English.

http://www.englishclub.com/learn-english.htm

ESL or EFL teachers, too, can find material in these pages of use while teaching English.

http://www.englishclub.com/teach-english.htm

Englisch Hilfen. Learning English Online

On this site you can learn English words, practise grammar with hundreds of interactive online exercises, look at some basic rules, prepare for exams, do tests or just have fun playing games. You can also download printable worksheets (pdf files) or join their English Forum to discuss special questions about the English language.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/

American English

American English is a resource center for teaching and learning about American English language and culture. This website provides a variety of engaging materials and resources for teachers' professional development and for students in the classroom (classroom activities, audiobooks, MP3s, videos and pedagogical material to assist in learning English as a second language). Resources include popular American classics, in-house publications and links to U.S. government websites and podcasts 

Both teachers and students will find ways to practice English and learn more about the United States. 

 Visit:: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources

engVid

engVid brings you more than 300 video lessons by experienced native-speaker teachers. New classes are added three times a week, covering grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, TOEFL, and more. Lessons by topic and level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

engVid on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/learn.english.free

On Twitter: @engVid

Home: http://www.engvid.com/

English mania

Aprender inglés en YouTube

YouTube ofrece multitud de recursos para el aprendizaje de inglés. Existen canales que recogen vídeos sobre muy diversos aspectos de la lengua. He mencionado ya alguno en anteriores posts. En esta ocasión os hablaré de tres nuevos ejemplos que os pueden ayudar como complemento de vuestro aprendizaje a través de otros medios:

Bizpod: http://www.youtube.com/user/bizpod Se centra sobre todo en inglés para fines específicos (TIC y mundo de los negocios) aunque también contiene vídeos sobre aspectos generales de gramática. Pueden localizarse también muy interesantes recursos en la página web de Business English Pod http://www.businessenglishpod.com/

English with Jennifer: http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL Este canal trabaja con elementos básicos de gramática y vocabulario sobre todo, de forma exhaustiva. Su autora ofrece también recursos en otras páginas como http://english.ohmynews.com/ (noticias) y http://www.ecpod.com/ (red social, vídeos, fotos, blogs)

Private English Portal: http://www.youtube.com/user/PrivateEnglishPortal El canal del profesor Steve Ford incluye vídeos sobre aspectos básicos de gramática, vocabulario, inglés comercial y para los negocios, preparación de pruebas, respuestas a dudas, etc. Más recursos en http://privateenglishportal.com/