Teaching Tools
  • ESL Gold: Lesson plans, quizzes, and other materials organized by skill and level for quick and easy access.
  • Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab: Audio and video resources with corresponding activities for ESL learners of all levels.
  • Purdue OWL CWEST ESL Materials: "Provides information about a number of ESL writing issues LARA instructors have identified as important. Here you will find information on and exercises for the following: Combining sentences, Prepositions, Pronouns, Punctuation, Paraphrasing and summarizing."
Free Web 2.0 Tools
  • Storybird: "Artful Storytelling" a global community of writers, readers and artists focused on visual storytelling. Teachers can signup for free and quickly create students accounts (without emails). Students can read stories by Storybird authors and get inspired to write their own stories by browsing the website's collection of stunning illustrations. (Supports Reading and Writing: Levels 1-5)
  • VoiceThread: A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Waltham Public School teachers can register for a free account by using their WPS username and password (NOT WPS email). Click on the VoiceThread link to signup now! (Supports Reading, Writing, Listening, & Speaking: Levels 1-5 )
  • Padlet: Padlet gives you a blank page or wall where you can put anything you like...words, videos, audio. Padlet can be used a a powerful brainstorming tool or for jigsaw lessons, or even to review and assess vocab. (Supports Writing: Levels 1-2)
  • Screenr: A web-based screen recorder that allows you to create and share screencasts across the web. Just click the record button, capture your screen and voice, and share the link! (Supports Speaking: Levels 1-3)
Apps
  • Book Creator: Book Creator allows students to create interactive books with text, images, video, mustic and narration. The Book Creator app is installed on all iPads in the library's Innovation Lab.
Online Databases​
  • Culture Grams: The CultureGrams Online Database is a leading reference for concise, reliable, and up-to-date cultural information on countries across the globe. Some features include, a photo gallery with thousands of images, downloadable slideshows, downloadable and streaming videos build-your-own sortable data tables and graphs, interviews with native children and adults from countries around the world, five recipes for each country, short biographies of five to ten famous people for each country, and printable detail and outline maps. (Supports Reading, Writing, Listening: Levels 1-3)
  • Grolier: The Grolier databases include: New Book of Knowledge, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Americana, Amazing Animals of the World, America the Beautiful, Lands and Peoples, The New Book of Popular Science, La Nueva Enciclopedia Cumbre. Use the Lands and Peoples database to access newspapers from around the world and compare statistical data about each country (i.e. culture cross). (Supports Reading, Writing, Listening: Levels 1-3)
  • World Book Advanced, World Book Student, and Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos:The World Book Web is a suite of online research tools that includes encyclopedia articles, primary source collections, educator tools, student activities, pictures, audio, and video, complemented by current periodicals and related Web sites. (Supports Reading, Writing, Listening: Levels 1-3)
Recommended Websites
  • Google Cultural Institute: With a team of dedicated engineers, Google is building tools that make it simple to tell the stories of our diverse cultural heritage and make them accessible worldwide. Google has created this site to provide a visually rich and interactive online experience for telling cultural stories in new ways. Discover exhibits by expert curators, find artifacts, view photographs, read original manuscripts, watch videos, and more.
eBooks & Audiobooks
  • WHS Library eBooks and Audiobooks: Download eBooks and audiobooks to your Kindle, Nook, smartphone, iPad, and computer for free! Visit the How to Use eBooks and Audiobooks page for information on how to access the collection and download the books to your device.