English News and Easy Articles for Students of English

News in Levels - Website

https://www.newsinlevels.com/

About Us

We write news for students of English. We help students to learn and understand English. Our easy English news can help everybody who wants to understand better.

We started in March 2011. We want to help students understand more and have a chance to practise English. We want to give them some easy reading for their level of English.

We prepare short news articles every working day. Everybody can use them. All students can use them. All teachers can use them. We believe that these articles will help you have better English and understand more.

Take a look at their website for short news articles, a couple books, some videos, and more!

https://www.newsinlevels.com/

Worksheets for reading, writing, and language arts

 This website is a great website with many free resources.

Take a look at the author's write-up below

ereadingworksheets.com

Ereading Worksheets provides teachers, parents, and motivated students with high-quality reading worksheets, activities, and resources aligned with Common Core State Standards. This website uses a skill-focused approach where each activity targets a specific skill set, but you can also browse the reading worksheets by grade level.
The resources on this website cover a broad range of reading, writing, and language arts skills. This site has a growing collection of online reading activities. Everything on here is free for home and classroom use. I am committed to expanding and improving the content on this site and making it easy to access for learners around the world. Subscribe now to receive emails about new content and big updates to this site. 

Teaching Kids Website

Great website for teaching kids
http://www.esl-kids.com/

Using newspapers in the ESL classroom

A great site with lots of newspaper ideas to teach both reading and writing


http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-materials/teaching-materials-using-newspapers-in-the-classroom-1/146510.article




Another great website with newspaper articles :
 Breaking News English - 2,316 Free English Lessons in 7 Levels

- Read the article, multiple choice, gap fill, re-order the sentences, writing, etc.

- Plus - you can download the PDF copy!

 

Newspaper and story lesson plans link

 http://www.eslflow.com/Newspaperstorylessonplans.html

Free Books!!

At this website you can get over 46,000 free e-books.  Read their page info below and then click on the link to read your choice of books!  No overweight shipping on these books!

Project Gutenberg offers over 46,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online.

We carry high quality ebooks: All our ebooks were previously published by bona fidepublishers. We digitized and diligently proofread them with the help of thousands of volunteers.

No fee or registration is required, but if you find Project Gutenberg useful, we kindly ask you to donate a small amount.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Online ESL books for all levels 

http://esl-bits.net/


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Online reading for all levels
- They also have many children books & stories

http://www.rong-chang.com/

Simplify difficult English

A very interesting website - students can paste in difficult English to see a simplified version- & teachers can paste in English text that they want to simplify for students use.

The writing below is from their website:

Rewordify.com simplifies difficult English. Paste in difficult sentences, paragraphs, or whole chapters full of hard words into the yellow box at the top of the page. (You can also enter a web site URL.) Click Rewordify text and you'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding. The reworded words are highlighted— click them to hear and learn the original harder word. Our amazing Rewordifying Engine is what makes it all possible, and no other web site has it.

Resources for skits and theatre in the classroom

 Using scripts in the ESL classroom will help students improve their English level

3 Links below

1.  Here is a link to the "Readers Theater". 
http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

Readers Theater is a dramatic presentation of a written work in a script form.  Readers read from a "script" and reading parts are divided among the readers. No memorization, costumes, blocking, or special lighting is needed. Presentations can easily be done in a k-3 classroom.  Scripts are held by the readers. Lines are not memorized. The focus is on reading the text with expressive voices and gestures. Making comprehending the text meaningful and fun for the student! Once you start Reader's Theater in your classroom you and your students will be loving it!!!


2.  And, a link to Drama Notebook - with 400+ free plays for kids and teens.
 https://www.dramanotebook.com/plays-for-kids/    


3.  And a link to:

Classroom Lesson Plan Ideas

"Welcome to a part of the Freedrama website that has ideas for using these plays in the classroom."

 http://freedrama.net/teach.html 

 

BBC Link - listening, ESL exercises, reading, etc.

This BBC link is amazing!  Listening in British English, vocabulary building, news items, writing, reading, etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/ 

Weird Poems to Test Your Knowledge of English!!

Jabberwocky

By Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

 ************************************************

The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo

George Orwell

On the Coast of Coromandel,
Where the early pumpkins blow,
In the middle of the woods
Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
Two old chairs, and half a candle
One old jug without a handle
These were all his worldly goods:
In the middle of the woods,
These were all the worldly goods
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

****************************************************

The Faulty Bagnose

John Lennon

The Mungle pilgriffs far awoy

Religeorge too thee worled.

Sam fells on the waysock-side

And somforbe on a gurled,

With all her faulty bagnose!

************************************************

Anglo-Saxon Verse of polar-opposites

One bright morning in the middle of the night,

Two dead boys got up to fight.

Back-to-back they faced one another,

Drew their swords and shot each other.

One was blind and the other couldn't see,

So they chose a dummy for a referee.

A blind man went to see fair play,

A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"

A deaf policeman heard the noise,

And came and killed those two dead boys.

A paralyzed donkey walking by,

Kicked the copper in the eye,

Sent him through a nine inch wall,

Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.

(If you don't believe this lie is true,

Ask the blind man -- he saw it too!) 

Further lesson ideas - cruise, Burgoyne Woods, etc.

Activity: Princess Cruise

Reading: Pamphlets, other historical information, fine details/ boat, routes, general water system

Writing: Post-cruise – journal/diary

Speaking: what should they know before going? Money, time, travel details, etc.

Listening: Teacher gives a mini-lecture on the history of the Great Lakes
            ▪ Fishing history          
            ▪ military issues
            ▪ size
            ▪ uses
            ▪problems

            Students to complete a quiz on the information given

Activity: Niagara Falls

Writing: ▪brainstorming, what do you already know?

                ▪ compare with an attraction in their country (paragraph),

                ▪ caption contest for photos, write a brochure or ad (bonus marks)
                ▪ journal
                ▪ Restaurant review

Speaking:
Pre
▪ prepare questions to ask people, work on greetings, phrases and introductions
▪ group work, use brochures to create “dream itinerary

Post
▪short speech (bonus presentation) talk about what they saw
▪interview classmates for rating trip. What did you like? Ect. (could also be done before to get expectations from pamphlet).

Reading:
▪Brochure reading

Activity: Toronto

Listening:
▪ video

Speaking:
▪ itinerary, schedule, present.

Writing:
▪ write what they already know about that place

Reading/speaking: Provide a lot of information (maps) of locations/activities that they can do in Toronto.
▪CN tower: skim/scan for information based on tourist attraction

Grammar:
▪Sentences with structures (context: Toronto)

Possible visits:
▪ waterfront activities (islands ect.)
▪ CN tower
▪ museums
▪ show (i.e. Phantom, etc).

Activity: Sports

Reading:
▪ News Paper clips, Brock teams/Canadian teams and athletes
▪ History of sport: Canadian

Writing:
▪ write about sporting event (after watching or participating)
▪ create a sport (new rules)
▪ Describe/compare sports

Listening:
▪Listen to hockey commentators
▪Sports news broadcast

Speaking:
▪ Create a sportscast
▪ Describe sports experience to class
▪ Talk about favorite sport/athlete with partner

Grammar:
▪ Use as exercise content
▪ Describe a sport using modals

Activity: Burgoyne Woods

Writing:
▪ write a paragraph about their experience of picnicking
▪ write a post card about the picnic
▪ show students pictures from the picnic and have them create a story description

Speaking:
▪ discussion
▪ cultural sharing conversations
▪ class chart/song

Reading:
▪ find material from website/Jackie A. have them read about the activities that will be available
▪ funny stories (picnic disorders)

Listening:
▪ U-tube picnic disasters (Comprehension, predicting)
▪ teacher reads a story

Grammar:
▪ Expansion exercise (any of the above).

Lesson ideas - Toronto

Possible classroom activities for the Toronto trip

Reading

-        scanning using the map/ quiz on the information in the map

-        in pairs or groups, Ss will do some research (information, statistics, history, etc ) on the places on the tour using the Internet, and present to the class

Speaking

-        in groups of three or four, Ss will prepare a tour (an ideal tour, or imaginary tour plan) of Toronto and present it to the class (listing places, how to get there, which subway line they need to take, which restaurant to try, which stores are good for what? etc)                                  

                  - Prize for the best possible tour (students decide who wins)

-        practice giving locations and directions using the Toronto map

-        present a short speech about the trip after the actual trip

Listening

-        After the trip, T will give a quiz on the information from the tour (to check how much they comprehended and remembered)

Writing

-        write about the trip

-        write recommendations to tourists or friends/family of place(s) in Toronto