Showing posts with label ESL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESL. Show all posts

Monday, March 14, 2022

Readlee - Know How Your Students Read Online Assignments

Every once in a while a new edtech service comes along that as soon as I try it I know that it’s going to be a hit. That’s exactly how I felt when I tried Readlee for the first time last month.

Readlee is a new service that lets you create online reading assignments for your students to complete in your classroom or at home. That’s not what makes it great. What makes it great is found in how your students complete assignments and how you can view their assignment completion.

The Readlee Concept
The basic concept of Readlee is that you give students a reading assignment and they complete it by reading it aloud to their computers. Readlee then uses AI to analyze how well your students read the assignment. That analysis is provided for you in a short report displayed next to all of your students’ submitted assignments.

The student reading analysis that Readlee provides to you includes time spent reading, total words read, unique words read, reading speed, and how much of the assignment was read. Additionally, Readlee provides a written transcript of the words students spoke compared to the words written in the assignment. Last, but not least, you can hear a recording of your students reading aloud. The analysis, transcript, and recording is available for all assignments regardless of length, reading complexity, or content.

Watch this thirty second video to see a little bit of Readlee in action. My longer video overview is included at the end of this post.

How to Start Using Readlee
Getting started with Readlee takes just a few minutes. The first thing you need to do is sign-up for a free account. You can do that with your Google account, with your Clever account, or with an email address. After registering you’ll create a classroom within Readlee. It’s in your classroom that you’ll create assignments for your students (if you need multiple classrooms, you can create more than one).

To get your students into your Readlee classroom you have two options. The easiest option is to sync a Google Classroom or Clever roster to your Readlee account. The other option is to give your students a class invitation link that Readlee generates for you. They’ll then enter the class code to join your class. Either way that you create your Readlee classroom, students can use Readlee with or without an email address.

Once your Readlee classroom is created it’s time to create your first assignment. There are a handful of ways to create an assignment for your class. You can import a PDF, you can copy and paste a passage of text, you can import an article from the web, or you can use one of the articles, poems, or books available in Readlee’s library. There’s also an option to create an independent reading assignment in which your students can read aloud anything of their choice.

Readlee’s library of books, poems, and short stories offers a convenient way to create a reading assignment without having to source the material elsewhere. Simply select an item from the library and then choose which page(s) you want to include in your assignment.

After selecting or importing the item that you want your students to read aloud, you can then add some written instructions for your students. For example, when I created an independent reading assignment I added an instructional note that read “please read two pages from your March independent reading book.” The last step is to then give the reading assignment to the whole class or to individual students within the class.

The Student Side of Readlee
Students access their assigned reading by signing into Readlee and then selecting the assignment they would like to complete. As soon as they do that a new screen will appear with the text they need to read. Students then just click on the microphone icon at the bottom of the screen and start reading aloud. When they’re done they stop the recording and click “turn in assignment.” I should note that students can pause the recording in progress if needed and resume it to complete the assignment. In fact, I did that while testing out the student perspective because I had a little tickle in my throat and took a sip of black cherry seltzer to clear it out.

In addition to the assignment list, in their Readlee classrooms students will find a running tally of the number of words they’ve read aloud, their time spent reading, their average reading speed, and the total unique words they’ve read.

Readlee Benefits for Teachers, Students, and Parents
If you’ve made it this far in the post without clicking away to create your Readlee account, here are a few benefits of using Readlee worth noting.
  • Readlee gives you an easy way to consistently measure your students’ reading fluency and progress.
  • Readlee is a time-saver compared to manually checking reading journals or logs.
  • Readlee shows students their progress in a way that is easy for them and their parents to understand.
Try Readlee Today!
In this post I focused on the features of Readlee that are free and open to all teachers to use for as long as they like. There are additional premium features that can be purchased. I’d start out by trying the free version. Watch my tutorial video embedded below to see everything you and your students need to know to get started using Readlee today.



Disclosure: Readlee is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Coming Soon to PowerPoint - Real-time Captions and Translations

Earlier this year Google added automatic captioning to Google Slides. This week, via The Verge, I learned that Microsoft is adding automatic captioning and translation to  PowerPoint starting in January. The automatic captioning will work when you are displaying your slides in presentation mode. You will have a choice of languages in which to display captions.


Applications for Education
One huge advantage of PowerPoint's automatic captioning service over Google Slide's automatic captions is that PowerPoint's support multiple languages and real-time translation display. This could be a fantastic resource for ELL/ESL classrooms. If you can't wait to give PowerPoint's automatic captioning a try, you can still use Microsoft Translator for Education.

Monday, January 29, 2018

LinguaPracticaVR - Learn English in Virtual Reality

Update August 2019: This app is no longer available. 

As I walked around the BETT Show last week there seemed to be a vendor selling a virtual reality product at every turn. LinguaPracticaVR is one of those VR products that I tested.

LinguaPracticaVR offers free English lessons in a virtual reality context. LinguaPracticaVR builds short lessons into virtual reality images of places in Ireland and the United Kingdom. For example, in the screenshot below you will see an image of the Powerscourt Waterfall. Within that image there are three short lessons about the words used to describe what is seen in the image.

Applications for Education
LinguaPracticaVR is a still in the early phases of its development, but there is excellent potential for its use as an instructional tool. One thing to note is that it seems to be built with high school age or older ELL/ ESL learners. I say that because one of the tours includes a visit to a pub.

Friday, January 26, 2018

The Coolest Thing I Saw at BETT Today!

Today at the BETT Show in London I met with Mike Tholfsen to learn about some of the free products that Microsoft is making for schools. He shared some more details on the announcements that Microsoft made earlier in the week, but I was absolutely blown away when he demonstrated Microsoft Translator!

Microsoft Translator does what its name implies, it translates your text in real-time. It support translations for sixty languages. But that's not what impressed me. What blew me away about Microsoft Translator is that members of your group or assembled audience can choose the language they want your words translated into. For example, I could be writing or speaking in English and have two people reading my words in Spanish, one in French, and another in Japanese.

Microsoft Translator will translate your spoken or typed words in real-time. To get started just head to the Microsoft Translator website then choose "start conversation." From there your translation room is launched. Your audience can join your conversation by either entering using a join link or by scanning a QR code. Microsoft Translator has dedicated mobile apps. It can also be used in any modern web browser on a laptop.

Microsoft Translator isn't a one-way street. People who have joined your conversation can reply in their chosen languages and their messages will be instantly translated into your chosen language. So just like in the listening example that I gave, I could have two people speaking Spanish, one speaking French, and another speaking Japanese and all of their messages will appear to me in English.

In addition to the stand-alone website and mobile apps, Microsoft Translator is available as a PowerPoint add-in. When installed into PowerPoint Microsoft Translator will automatically subtitle your slides as you speak. More than 60 languages are available in the Microsoft Translator PowerPoint add-in.

If you work with an ESL/ ELL population, you need to try Microsoft Translator.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Phrasal Verbs Friends - Fun Phrasal Verb Videos

One of the challenges that ELL students face is understanding the meanings of phrasal verbs. In the past I have featured a couple of apps that are designed to help students understand phrasal verbs. A newer resource worth bookmarking is the YouTube channel Phrasal Verbs Friends.

Phrasal Verbs Friends videos are cartoons featuring cats explaining the various meanings of common phrasal verbs.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Next Vista Launches New Selection of ELL Videos

Next Vista for Learning is a video sharing that I've featured dozens of times over the years. Next Vista for Learning is different from other educational video sharing sites because all videos are reviewed before publication and all videos have to teach some kind of short lesson. Students and teachers can submit videos for publication on Next Vista for Learning.

The latest project on Next Vista for Learning is dedicated to publishing videos for English language learners. The project is called the English Language Project. The goal of the project is to create the world's largest library of videos for ELL. Teachers and students can contribute to the English Language Project by choosing a topic and then creating a set of videos about the vocabulary words related to the topic. Take a look at the English Language Project videos to see some examples of what you and your students could add.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

ABCD Wordie Analyzes Text and Creates Vocabulary Lists

ABCD Wordie is a handy tool for evaluating the level of the vocabulary in a passage of text. To use ABCD Wordie you simply paste a chunk of text into the ABCD Wordie site and then choose one of nine levels that describe the reading skills of your students. Once that selection is made ABCD Wordie will create a list of vocabulary words pulled from the text provided. You can customize the list by selecting words to delete from the list. All vocabulary lists can be printed.

Applications for Education
ABCD Wordie could be a good tool for creating vocabulary study lists based on texts that your students will be reading in your classroom.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Turn-o-Phrase - A Fun Way to Learn Colloquial Phrases

Turn-O-Phrase is a simple game of identifying colloquial phrases from a set of two pictures. Depending upon which level you try there may or may not be some words to help you along. Further you advance, the more challenging the activity becomes. Take a look at one of the easier phrases below.

If you want to challenge your friends or students, you can create your own Turn-O-Phrase games after creating an account on the site.

Applications for Education
The one drawback to Turn-O-Phrase is that you have to sign in with a Facebook or Twitter account after you have tried a few challenges. That aside, Turn-O-Phrase could be a nice little activity for ESL/ ELL students. You could also create your own offline version of the game with a collection of pictures cut out of a magazine or printed from an online source.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Two Good Apps for Learning Phrasal Verbs

Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog, iPadApps4School.com.

One of the true challenges for English language learners is understanding the meanings of phrasal verbs. The following apps are designed to help students build an understanding of phrasal verbs.

The Phrasal Verbs Machine, developed by Cambridge University, is a free iPad app that aims to help ELL students learn the meanings of phrasal verbs. The Phrasal Verbs Machine provides students with short animations that illustrate the meanings of many common phrasal verbs. There is a written definition below each animation. Students can view the animations and definitions as many times as they like before trying their hands at the practice identification exercises. The Phrasal Verbs Machine provides definition translations in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, and Portuguese.

Phrasalstein, developed at Cambridge University, is a great iPad app and Android app designed to help students learn the meanings of phrasal verbs. The app has a practice mode and a quiz mode. In the practice mode students select a verb and a preposition combination then see a short animation demonstration of the meaning of the chosen phrase. In the quiz mode students see an animation then have to select the matching phrase. Translations of the meanings are available in Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and French.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Lingua.ly Releases an Updated Chrome Extension for Learning a Language Online

Lingua.ly is a free service designed to help people learn a new language while browsing the web. Today, Lingua.ly released an update to their Chrome extension. Lingua.ly's updated Chrome extension enables you to highlight any word on a webpage then double-click on it to find its definition and hear it read aloud to you. You can also add the word to a list of words to review in your free Lingua.ly online account. And for every word that you look up using the extension a flashcard is created and added to your free Lingualy online account.

Applications for Education
Lingua.ly's Chrome extension could be a good tool for students to use for support while reading webpages in the languages that they are trying to learn. For example, if I have a student who is trying to learn French and is reading a French newspaper online, he could benefit from using Lingua.ly when he encounters a word that is new to him.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Lingua.ly Launches an iOS App for Learning a Language on the Go

Lingua.ly is a free service that is designed to help its users learn a new language while browsing the web. The service initially launched as a Chrome app then added an Android app. Now Lingua.ly is available as an iOS app.

The Lingua.ly iOS app creates flashcard activities based on the words that you select from a dictionary or from articles that you read through app. To get started select the language that you're studying (Lingua.ly's iOS app supports English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Hebrew) then enter words by typing them or pasting them into your account. After entering your words Lingua.ly creates flashcards with pictures. The app will read the words to you. After studying your flashcards you can use the app to search for web articles that utilize the words you're learning.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Namez Helps You Learn the Pronunciation of a Person's Name

Namez is a new service that is designed to help people learn how to pronounce names. The service has two main aspects, to help you pronounce the names of other people and to help you help others pronounce your name.

To help others learn how to pronounce your name Namez provides a recording tool. You can record the pronunciation of your name then embed the recording into a blog or add it to the signature of an email.

To help you learn to pronounce the names of other people Namez offers a gallery of recordings through which you can listen to pronunciations. Namez is still in beta and the gallery of recordings is fairly limited at this point. Hopefully, the gallery will grow quickly.

Applications for Education
Namez could be a good service to use if you have a name that people often mispronounce. When you send out a "welcome back to school" email or blog post at the beginning of the school year, use Namez to help students and their parents learn how to pronounce your name. Pronouncing my surname, Byrne, is tricky for some students.

H/T to The Next Web

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Check Out the New Courses and New Features of Duolingo

Duolingo is a fantastic free service designed to help students learn Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. The service can be used in your web browser, as an iOS app, or as an Android app. Earlier today Larry Ferlazzo made me aware of some new course options in Duolingo. Duolingo now offers courses for speakers of Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, and Hindi to learn to speak English. The courses are not yet featured on the Duolingo homepage. To find the new courses you need to go to the Duolingo Incubator page which is where all new courses are beta tested.

After looking at the new course offerings on the Duolingo Incubator page I spent some time looking at the Duolingo blog to see if there were other updates that I've missed. Since the last time that I looked at Duolingo a new "language coach" and virtual shop had been added to the Duolingo iOS app. The Duolingo Language Coach is a feature that will tell you how many points you need in order to move to the next level in your lesson. The points that you earn not only move you along to the next level, they can also be redeemed for prizes in the virtual shop. The prizes are costumes and accessories for your Duolingo avatar.

If you haven't see Duolingo before, watch the video below for a short overview.

Monday, March 10, 2014

5 Good Apps for ESL / ELL Students

There are plenty of flashcard services on the web that students can use for rote practice of vocabulary words. The following five apps offer a little bit more than flashcards by providing some larger context for the words and phrases that students can study through them.

English Monstruo is a free app (iPad and Android versions available) containing eight games designed to help students learn verb conjugation. English Monstruo was developed by researchers at Cambridge University who examined the results of 200,000 exams to determine the words that give Spanish speakers the most difficulty when taking an English exam. The games in the English Monstruo app contain activities ranging from fill-in-the-blank to sorting words to replacing incorrect words with correct words. Each game has a series of levels to work through to earn points and unlock increasingly more difficult levels. To access all eight games a player needs to first earn the maximum points in the first six games in the app. This app is no longer available - August 2019

Phrasalstein, developed at Cambridge University, is a great iPad app and Android app designed to help students learn the meanings of phrasal verbs. The app has a practice mode and a quiz mode. In the practice mode students select a verb and a preposition combination then see a short animation demonstration of the meaning of the chosen phrase. In the quiz mode students see an animation then have to select the matching phrase. Translations of the meanings are available in Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and French. Update: as of August 2019 this app is only available in Android.

Duolingo is a free service that aims to help you learn Spanish, French, German, or Portuguese. Duolingo offers mobile apps that allow you to practice a new language anywhere you go. The Duolingo mobile apps and website provide a variety of translation activities to help learn to you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. The activities include looking at pictures that are representative of words and phrases. After reviewing a couple of pictures students are asked to type translations. The app gives immediate feedback to students.

Lingualy is a free Google Chrome extension designed to help you learn a new language while browsing the web. With Lingualy installed anytime that you come across a new word you can double-click on it to hear it pronounced, read a translation, and read a definition. The words that you double-click are added to your Lingualy account where you can review them in a quiz format. Update August 2019: This app is no longer available.

Forvo  is not an app, but it is a website worth mentioning on this list. It can best be described as an audio wiki for word pronunciations. One of the problems with learning to speak a language that is not phonetic is trying to figure out how to pronounce the words. Forvo hosts hundreds of recordings of word pronunciations by native speakers. Along with word pronunciations, Forvo provides some basic demographic information about each language. Forvo's content is user-supported and user-generated. New pronunciations are added on a regular basis.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

English Monstruo - Apps & Games for Learning Verb Conjugation

English Monstruo is a free app (iPad and Android versions available) containing eight games designed to help students learn verb conjugation. English Monstruo was developed by researchers at Cambridge University who examined the results of 200,000 exams to determine the words that give Spanish speakers the most difficulty when taking an English exam.

The games in the English Monstruo app contain activities ranging from fill-in-the-blank to sorting words to replacing incorrect words with correct words. Each game has a series of levels to work through to earn points and unlock increasingly more difficult levels. To access all eight games a player needs to first earn the maximum points in the first six games in the app.

Applications for Education
I found myself sucked into a couple of the games in English Monstruo and I think that students will get sucked into them too. The games provide a fun way to practice recognizing correct spellings and verb conjugations. The games are designed for intermediate level ELL students.

Click here for the Android version. Click here for the iPad version.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Phrasalstein - A Fun App for Learning Phrasal Verbs

Phrasalstein, developed at Cambridge University, is a great iPad app and Android app designed to help students learn the meanings of phrasal verbs. The app has a practice mode and a quiz mode. In the practice mode students select a verb and a preposition combination then see a short animation demonstration of the meaning of the chosen phrase. In the quiz mode students see an animation then have to select the matching phrase. Translations of the meanings are available in Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and French.

Applications for Education
Understanding the nuances of phrasal verbs can be quite the challenge in learning English as a second language. Phrasalstein provides a fun and engaging experience to help students the meanings of common phrasal verbs.

Click here for the iPad version. Click here for the Android version.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Turn-O-Phrase Helps Students Learn About Colloquial Phrases

Turn-O-Phrase is a simple game of identifying colloquial phrases from a set of two pictures. Depending upon which level you try there may or may not be some words to help you along. Further you advance, the more challenging the activity becomes. Take a look at one of the easier phrases below.

If you want to challenge your friends or students, you can create your own Turn-O-Phrase games after creating an account on the site.

Applications for Education
The one drawback to Turn-O-Phrase is that you have to sign in with a Facebook or Twitter account after you have tried a few challenges. That aside, Turn-O-Phrase could be a nice little activity for ESL/ ELL students. You could also create your own offline version of the game with a collection of pictures cut out of a magazine or printed from an online source.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Kids Wordsmyth - An Illustrated Dictionary for Kids

Kids Wordsmyth is a great visual dictionary that I learned about through Kelly Tenkely's excellent blog, iLearnTechnology. On Kids Wordsmyth students can search for words, hear them pronounced, read definitions, and see illustrations of words. Students can search for words or simply browse through the Kids Wordsmyth online dictionary. The dictionary is arranged in a virtual book format with tabs for each letter of the alphabet.

Applications for Education
Kids Wordsmyth is the type of resource that I like to link to and feature prominently on classroom blogs / websites. When a words of a definition aren't adequate, the picture could help students grasp the definition of a new word.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Plural Words, A Silent "B," and the History of English

English is a tricky language. Silent letters and quirky rules about plural and possessive words will trip up native speakers as well as ESL students. TED-Ed and The Open University offer short lessons on the evolution of English and some of its trickier rules.

A Brief History of Plural Words - complete lesson.



Why is there a "b" in doubt? - complete lesson.


The History of English in Ten Minutes.

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Playground of Mathematics - Math Practice in 13 Languages

There is certainly no shortage of mathematics practice sites available on the web. The Playground of Mathematics is one of those sites that I would have lumped into the category of "just another practice site" if it didn't support thirteen languages. On The Playground of Mathematics students can practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills in their choice of thirteen languages. Students can use the site without registering. The Playground of Mathematics keeps track of the problems that students have answered correctly during their visits to the site.

Applications for Education
The activities on The Playground of Mathematics don't contain any fancy graphics or any kind of feedback other than correct or incorrect. That said, if you're looking for math practice activities that students can use on their own in their native languages then The Playground of Mathematics is worth a look.