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BRLC Information

 Blue Ridge
Literacy Council
P.O. Box 1728
Hendersonville,
NC 28793
(828) 696-3811
info@litcouncil.org

 

Tutor Links

 

Census information to share:

  • Lesson Plan: Here’s a great teaching opportunity! Below is a link to a lesson plan on the U.S. Census developed by Linda-Marie Koza, The 2-part plan will help your students understand the importance of the census and how to fill out the form. Good for beginning and intermediate ESL students.

    http://sites.google.com/site/lindaslinks/home/census

 

•   Thinkfinity Literacy Network                                                                     

http://literacynetwork.verizon.org/TLN/

One of the best sites for literacy volunteers. Supported by the Verizon Foundation, Thinkfinity Literacy Network offers all kinds of literacy resources. Take short on-line courses on topics such as “Writing Without Fear” or “Succeeding as an On-Line Learner.” Or look for lesson plans, interactive guides, activities, and more to supplement your student's curriculum.

 

•   Introduction to Computers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/computertutor/computertutorone/index.shtml
This site is perfect for the student who has little or no computer experience. It has the basics for using a mouse and keyboard.

 

  • "Trigger" Words

Does your student have a problem with “trigger words?” Trigger words are ones that most often cause confusion and disorientation when reading, writing or communicating. They are confusing because:

    • a person doesn’t have a mental image of what the word means or represents
    • they usually have multiple meanings
    • the meanings can change depending on the context in which the words are being used.

Check out www.symbolmastery.com for a list of trigger words and teaching techniques to master them.

 

•   Vowel Sounds

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/picturematch/

This site has vowel sounds you can listen to and a list of example words.

 

• Adult Education ESL Teacher’s Guide              

http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/teacher/teacherguidemain.html

Lesson plans and teaching modules online.

 

 

• Dave’s ESL Café                                                           

http://www.eslcafe.com/

A basic source of ESL information and activities. See the Idea Cookbook table of contents on this site.

 

• English Language Centre

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/index.htm

Site from the University of Victoria, Canada. A great site to use with your student. Grammar, reading comprehension and vocabulary lessons and exercises in 5 levels of difficulty. (Some of the material, such as money vocabulary, is specific to Canada.)

 

• ESL Flow
http://www.eslflow.com
Great website that contains links to information ranging from maps to food to grammar and conversation.

 

• ESL Tower

http://www.esltower.com/vocabulary.html

Simple printable exercises for building vocabulary; covers a multitude of topics ranging from telling time to occupations.

• Interactive Geography
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/owlmouse.htm#maps
Teaching Geography? This is a visual resource for learning geography. Simple, interactive.

• HyperGrammar

http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/grammar.html

A course from the University of Ottawa which is a good source for basic grammar (e.g. parts of speech, punctuation, using verbs, etc.).

• Interesting Things for ESL Students
http://www.manythings.org
Contains a variety of exercises to help students with listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. Fun, interactive activities including crossword puzzles.

 

• John’s ESL                                                                  

http://www.johnsesl.com/

A must-visit online community for students and tutors. It has many templates for tutors; lots of grammar, 1000 most used words; sentence practice; flash cards; games; listening activities and much, much more. Many sections are organized by level (Beginning, Intermediate, etc.).

 

• Learning Vocabulary Can be Fun                                                                 

http://vocabulary.co.il/

This site is a great collection of vocabulary activities including word search, crossword, hangman, match game, quizzes, and jumbles. There's an audio component so ESL students can use the games to learn to pronouce words. Many of the games use categories of words, such as animals, money, at the mall, etc.

 

• Mohawk Valley Library System                       

http://www.mvls.info/literacy/index.html

Good general ESL resource for tutors. The “Learn English on the Net” section has many links to useful sites and resources.

 

• Real English
http://www.real-english.com/
Site contains 43 videos of brief “person on the street” interviews with accompanying lessons and quizzes on listening, vocabulary, and grammar. Student can simply listen or add captions. Great for listening to conversation and improving pronunciation skills.

 

• Tools for Educators
http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
Would you like a place to create customized games and practice worksheets? This site has templates you can customize to make 11 types of color printable games and practice worksheets, such as bingo. Choose any of 45 categories such as body parts, feelings, and shapes and colors.

 

• USALearns

http://www.USALearns.org

Free Online English Portal for adults who want to learn or improve their English skills. Includes Beginning and Intermediate lessons arranged around a wide variety of topics from body parts to family, employment, legal and consumer issues. Good use of audio visuals to present oral skills, reading, writing and grammar components. From the US Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education.

GED Information

 

• GED Prep Info                                                       
www.gedprepinfo.com

An excellent source of information about what the GED is and the scoring process; includes good descriptions of each test and the skills needed to pass it. Each description contains sample questions for practice. The answer key includes information on the skills necessary to have answered correctly.

• GED Exam        
www.ket.org/ged2002

This site from the Kentucky Department of Adult Education and Literacy gives detailed information on GED 2002. It explains all aspects of the tests and what students need to know how to do. Sample questions and instructions to tutors make teaching GED easy.

 

• GED Practice                                                       
http://www.gedpractice.com/

A free service of Steck-Vaughn (the official publisher of the test). It gives students a chance to practice with instant feedback of right or wrong—and why!

Math Resources

•   Math for the Workplace

http://adulted.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readiowa.org%2Fworkplacemath%2Fcontents.html

Explanations and worksheets covering addition and subtraction of whole numbers and fractions, measuring, scale drawing and metric conversions.

 

• The Math Forum Teacher’s Place                  
http://mathforum.org/teachers/

Large site with lots of resources; includes sample tests.

 

• The World of Math Online             
www.math.com

Math resources for all levels

 

Informational

 

• AltaVista’s Babel Fish Translation Service  

http://babel.altavista.com / tr

You can enter 150 blocks of text for translation. Web sites can be translated. You need to be careful with this one because the translations are literal!

 

• America’s Literacy Directory                      
http://www.literacydirectory.org/

Find a literacy program anywhere in the U.S. Search by type and location.

 

• The Change Agent

http://www.nelrc.org/changeagent/classroom.htm

Classroom activities from the New England Literacy Resource Center. Has lesson plans and activities for 3 topics: Economic Security; Immigration; The Media and You. Many of the components can be done on line.

 

• US Citizenship and Immigration Services                                         
http://www.uscis.gov

This is the official INS site. It contains a wealth of information about applying for citizenship, instructions, forms and practice tests. Because this site can be hard to navigate, use the following address to get to the links for study materials (study questions, sample sentences, flash cards, self test, etc.) http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/require.htm

 

• Common Errors in English Usage

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

Ever wonder if you put a shirt on" backward" or "backwards"? Do you know when to use "bring" and when to use "take"? Check it out on this site.

 

• Henderson County Public Library               
http://www.henderson.lib.nc.us/

A significant local resource for tutors and students.

 

• Hendersonville Times-News                

http://www.hendersonvillenews.com

An on-line source on events and activities in Henderson County and the surrounding area.

• Image Resource
http://images.google.com
Are you creating your own worksheets, or need a picture? This is an excellent resource for tutors to quickly find a visual aid for vocabulary they are trying to teach.

• Internet Picture Dictionary
http://pdictionary.com/
Online pictures and vocabulary organized into 15 categories and also by letter, along with five types of quizzes. Useful for learning simple vocabulary; has activities and a picture dictionary.

 

•   Literacy Information and Communication System ( LINCS)
http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/

Site sponsored by the National Institute for Literacy. It is a comprehensive resource for the literacy community to access a huge collection of family and adult basic skills research, teaching/ learning and training resources. It is so massive that we have a training disk at BRLC to show you how to use the site if you need help.

 

• National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
http://ncsall. gse.harvard.edu/

Source of research studies rather than ‘how to’ information.  Most information is for the specialist rather than the average tutor but has good links to basic sources. Also has searchable archives for the quarterly publication “Focus on Basics” which contains hands-on suggestions for teaching activities.

 

• National Institute for Literacy                                  
http://www.nifl.gov/

A comprehensive site featuring literacy facts, current events, on-line discussion groups covering a variety of literacy topics, literacy forums, links, NIFL publications, etc.

 

• ProLiteracy Worldwide                                           
http://www.proliteracy.org/

This web site for our national adult literacy organization contains general information on adult literacy, ESL, and links to other literacy sites.

 

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab

http://owl.english.purdue.edu

Great resource for all kinds of exercises. For example, check out the phrasal verb list at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/esl/eslphrasal.html.

 

• RHL School

www.rhlschool.com

This web site has great worksheets for grammar, comprehension, math, using a dictionary and more. Very user-friendly!

 

•   UNC-TV                               

http://www.unctv.org /literacy/resources.html

Link to NC Educative Place – a good source for teachers generally.

Learning Disabilities

 

• Bridges to Practice                              
http://www.floridatechnet.org/bridges/

Information on this site can help tutors understand more about their students with learning disabilities.

 

 

Lesson Planning

• AskERIC       

http://eduref.org

Excellent link to adult literacy; education database; search for lesson plans from among 25,000; “ask an expert”. Almost anything you’ll need is available on or through ERIC.

Writing Practice Resources

• PIZZAZ!                                
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html

Creative writing and storytelling ideas for beginner through advanced ESL students; lesson plans and templates for writing poems and fiction.