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Resources for Tutors
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Blue
Ridge
Literacy Council
P.O. Box 1728
Hendersonville,
NC 28793
(828) 696-3811
info@litcouncil.org
Tutor Links
• 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.
Resources for ESL
• Adult Education ESL Teacher’s Guide
http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/teacher/teacherguidemain.html
Lesson plans and teaching modules online.
• Boggle's World for ESL
Lesson plans, worksheets, role plays and conversation topics.
• Conversation Topics
http://www.intlcenter.org/archives.htm
Good lists of conversations on various topics for student practice and instruction.
• Dave’s ESL Café
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.)
• English Grammar: Explanations and Exercises
http://www.hikeb.juarez-undernet.org/grammar/gramdex.html
An online grammar book with searchable index and table of contents; All essential points of English grammar clearly explained and illustrated by examples; A summary of uses and formaiton of Enlish verb tenses for easy reference. Grammatically determined ruels for spelling, pronunciaiton, and punctuation.
• 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.).
• John’s ESL
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
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.
• Practioner Toolkit: Working with Adult English Language Learners
http://www.famlit.org/Publications/Practitioner-Toolkit-ELL.cfm
Provides variety of materials to help practitioners begin to meet the language and literacy development needs of ESL students through the following components: responses to Frequently Asked Questions, a first-day orientation guide, lesson plans and activities.
GED Information
• GED Exam
www.ket.org/ged2002This 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
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.
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.govThis 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.
• Eastern LINCS Health and Literacy
http://www.worlded.org/us/health/lincs/Medline plus online audio/visual interactive health (and human body) tutorials.
• Henderson County Public Library
http://www.henderson.lib.nc.us/A significant local resource for tutors and students.
http://www.hendersonvillenews.com
An on-line source on events and activities in Henderson County and the surrounding area.
• 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
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
This web site has great worksheets for grammar, comprehension, math, using a dictionary and more. Very user-friendly!
• Southern LINCS (see LINCS above)
http://slincs.coe.utk.edu/Southern LINCS is a regional site for LINCS , a national electronic information and communication system for adult literacy. This site is a focal point for the southern region with links to state, regional, and national information.
• UNC-TV:ORPGM
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
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.htmlCreative writing and storytelling ideas for beginner through advanced ESL students; lesson plans and templates for writing poems and fiction.