Computer Activities for

Beginning and Low Literacy ESOL Learners

Rebecca Pomerantz

Fall 2006

Everyday Applications

Around Which You Can Create Learning Activities

Word – see Keystrokes to Literacy by Antonia Stone

PowerPoint -- contact IIB to learn to do this yourself

Online chat -- see free downloadable program LAN Chat below

I also use Paint, Solitaire, Excel. Publisher, and Calculator 

Good Online Activities for Low Level Learners

ESL: Colorful Clothesline -- Testing Clothes and Their Colors

http://hub1.worlded.org/docs/clothing/

Funbrain Games

Word Turtle Word Search Game -- Vegetables, Fruit, Drinks, Food

Cookie Dough -- Spelling and reading numbers

2Bee or Nottoobee -- Choose the verb TO BE

Double fun match memory game -- Clocks & Time

Math -- many easy exercises

http://www.funbrain.com/detect/

Quia Matching Games – Choose Early Learning, then a topic, then Matching

http://www.quia.com/shared

Interesting Things for ESL Students  -- Interactive quizzes, vocabulary games, songs

http://www.manythings.org/

RebeccaÕs EZ Page –Health & Legal Info for Adults – click to illustrate a difficult word

http://sabes.org/boston/tcboston/ezpage/

Internet for International Communication -- Visual introduction to the Internet

http://www2.gol.com/users/billp/course/contents.html

LEARN THE NET: The Animated Internet

http://learnthenet.com/english/animate/animate.htm

Daisymaths (see details below) 

Activities for ESL Students

http://a4esl.org

Educational Programs On-Line (free download)

Daisymaths

Exercises to improve primary school math skills.  Many levels from clocks and adding one to long division.  Filling in solutions provides basic mouse and keyboard practice. 

http://www.daisymaths.com/au

Word Detective Word Search Game -- Make your own word searches

http://www.funbrain.com/detect

Hot Potatoes

Create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/

LANChat Pro

Chat across a local area network – i.e. within your lab.  Click ŌToolsÕ to change text color, font, or student name.   http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Network_and_Inter

net/Text_Chat_Clients/LANChat_Pro.html

Multilingual Job Application Tutor

A four-page job application with instructions and help on each section, help comes in Somali, Vietnamese, and Bosnian as well as English.  Designed for refugee adults.

http://www.jvs-boston.org/rw/mjat/

Roxie's ABC Fish

Play "go fish" with talking cat Roxie. Upper or lower case letters or numbers 1-9 or 1-99

http://www.latticeworksw.com/roxabc.htm

Applications On-Line (free download)

AntiVir Personal Edition – anti-virus software package

http://www.free-av.com/

Netscape Composer -- Web page editor that comes with NetscapeÕs free browser

http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/

Real Player -- Listen to sound and watch video (Real Media files) on web pages

http://www.real.com/

Websites of interest to students

Google search engine -- http://google.com/

Maps and directions -- http://maps.yahoo.com/


Addresses and phone numbers -- http://people.yahoo.com/

Weather -- http://people.yahoo.com/

 
Internet Public Library On-Line -- Newspapers from around the world

http://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/reading/news.out.pl

CIA -- The World Factbook – Information about any country in the world

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook

Merriam-Webster Dictionary & Thesaurus (with pronunciation & some illustrations)

http://www.m-w.com/

E-Square Resources for Learners and Teachers

http://alri.org/esquare/

Babblefish -- An International Language Translation Portal

http://babblefish.com/babblefish/freetranslation.htm

Voycabulary

Online web dictionary & thesaurus word linking lookup reference tool -- Makes the words on any web page into links so you can look them up with just a click

http://www.voycabulary.com/

More On-line Tools for Teachers

Integrating Technology in the Adult Literacy Education

http://www.alri.org/harness.html

Email Projects Home Page -- Susan Gaer

http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm

Literacy Assistance Center: Resources / Curricula & Lesson Plans

http://www.lacnyc.org/resources/curricula.htm

Literacy Tent – site of many adult ed oriented websites and collaborations

http://literacytent.org/

Commercial Software (accessibility to low level varies)

         For more details and web links, see the online version of this

Photo Elements (Adobe)  (comes free with many imaging peripherals)

Graph Club (Tom Snyder Inc.) $80

Improving Your Accent (Clear Speech Works)

Kidspiration (Tom Snyder Inc.) $65

Lexia Learning Systems Reading SOS -- Strategies for Older Students $1250/5-pack

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing $20                                         

National Geographic Maps

Neighborhood Map Machine (Tom Snyder Inc.) $80

New Oxford Picture Dictionary $70

Puzzle Power $50

Start to Read (School Zone Interactive) $20

Typing Quick & Easy $40

U.S. Atlas and World Atlas

WinWay Resume $40

Write: Outloud (Don Johnston Inc.) $100

            Easy-to-use talking word processor with talking spell checker and dictionary.  Program reads and checks spelling as you write, repeats words, sentences or paragraphs as often as you like.  Dictionary lists phonetically similar substitutions for incorrectly spelled words, with short definitions to help learners distinguish among homonyms.

http://donjohnston.com/catalog/catalog.htm

 

Resources for Software Acquisition

Software Express -- educational software distributor IÕve had good experience with

http://www.swexpress.com/home.nsf

Non-profits can receive certain software & licenses through CompumentorÕs Tech Soup

http://www.techsoup.org/DiscounTech

Non-profits can receive certain software & licenses through Gifts in Kind or United Way

http://www.giftsinkind.org/newhome/directory.asp

Order cheap educational software for $5.95 shipping and handling

http://www.smart-estore.com