Top Tech Tools for Supporting ELLs

Greg's Top Tech Tools for Supporting ELLs!

Communication & Translation

Creating Presentations

Accessibility

Interactivity

Hover over the icons and click on the titles to access the resource.Note: This graphic is regularly updated/adjusted/improved! The HV RBERN does not endorse any technology.

Questions?gbailey@swboces.orgGreg BaileyTechnology SpecialistHudson Valley RBERN

Before using technology in your classroom, consider the following:

• Does this tool significantly improve my students learning experience?
• Does this technology engage my students in active learning?
• Choose 1-3 and use them well. "Don't overtech."
• Ensure Ed Law 2D and Part 121 compliance before use. Speak with your technology director!

Prezi Prezi gives you a limitless zoomable canvas and the ability to show relationships between the big picture and fine details. You can easily scaffold your lessons in the interactive field to make them more engaging for ELL students.

Pear Deck Pear Deck provides an interactive platform for your presentations. Within the presentation, you can have interactive and engaging elements to keep students engaged and provide ELLs scaffolds for success.

Genial.ly Genially is an excellent interactive image, presentation, and overall education tool to help all students access content more efficiently.

Venngage Venngage is a fun and unique way to display data, timelines, and other information. By using the features found in Venngage, you can make sure that your content is accessible to all students.

Talking Points Talking Points is a texting tool to use with students and parents to keep them updated on the latest in your classroom. Teachers, students, and parents can interact in their preferred languages.

ImTranslator ImTranslator allows you to quickly translate text on the Internet in Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex, and other programs. This is a great tool for comparing the accuracy of translation!

We Speak NYC We Speak NYC uses videos of real-life conversations in order to teach English to ELLs.

Edpuzzle Edpuzzle allows you to take a video, whether it's existing or one that you've created, and add callouts and questions to make it more engaging for students. This is a great tool for scaffolding language learning for students in videos!

Rewordify Rewordify allows you to quickly take complicated text and "rewordify" it to make it more accessible and leveled for ELLs. The website also allows you to create quizzes and other worksheets to use with students.

Quill Quill is a tool that students can use to help assess their grammar and understanding of the English language. Teachers can assign activities, monitor progress, and identify areas of need.

Epic! eBooks Epic is free for educators and provides thousands of ebooks available for grades 6 and under. Many books are in other languages or translated and can be used to teach topics across the curriculum.

Read Ahead Read Ahead exposes students to difficult concepts and words before reading a large text to allow them to activate prior knowledge for success.

Lyrics Gaps Lyrics gaps is a tool that allows students to listen to music, learn the lyrics, and then fill in gaps in the lyrics based on what they've learned. This is available in multiple languages!

Nearpod Nearpod is another tool that can make your lessons and content more interactive and engaging for ELLs and all students.

Online Doc Translator Online Doc Translator allows you to take any type of file type any translate it into hundreds of languages WHILE maintaining formatting. This is very helpful in the remote environment.

Skype Translate Skype, combined with Skype Translate, allows you to have synchronous TRANSLATED conversations with parents and students in the Skype app.

Remind Remind is a messaging tool to keep students and parents informed in their native language.

Rememberry Rememberry is an extension intended to be able to allow students fast and quick translation of words on a website. More importantly, the extension allows students to see definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and so forth.

Grammarly Grammarly is a great way for all students, including ELLs, parents, and adults, to be able to check their writing in real-time. By the way, I typed "real time" and Grammarly told me to put a hyphen in the middle! UPDATE APRIL 2021: They've added new types of writing feedback to help multilingual speakers write more fluently and naturally in English. Set your primary language in your Grammarly settings to get suggestions tailored to your language background.

DeepL DeepL is a translation website that has very accurate translations available in multiple languages.

Microsoft Translator Microsoft Translator is (in my opinion) the best translation tool out there. You can translate speech, images, and conversations; however, you can also host chat rooms with live translation.

Google Translate Google Translate is one of the standards in the translation industry. Translate text, images, voice, and more.

Pronunciation Checker This tool helps all students learn how to better pronounce words. The system will listen to your speech pattern and let you know if what you wanted to say is what it hear based on % values.

Yandex Yandex is a fun tool to allow you to not only translate text but also translate static images!

Screencastify Screencastify is an excellent tool to create short screencasts for your students. You can also have students create their own screencasts to share with you, as well. There's a 5-minute free screencast limit.

Newsela Newsela provides thousands of articles dealing with news and content you'll probably be teaching about at some point. Many articles have a translation into other languages and can be adjusted based on Lexile level.

The Times in Plain English The Times in Plain English provides multiple articles that have been adjusted to be able to read at a lower Lexile level.

Breaking News English Breaking News English is a tool that allows teachers and students to access scaffolded and leveled articles about multiple topics.

Read&Write Read&Write is an add-on to Google Docs that allows you to scaffold content.

Understanding YouTube There are many features in YouTube that you may not know about. Watch the video to learn more!

CommonLit CommonLit is a free resource very similar to Newsela that allows you to find, assign, and translate articles pertaining to the curriculum. There are also questions, related activities, Lexiled text, and parent activities.

Readsy Readsy allows you to take large chunks of text and scaffold each word individually.

Kaizena Kaizena allows teachers to provide instant feedback in Google Docs in a way that streamlines the process for both educators and students.

Lyrics Training Lyrics training also allows students to be able to fill in the words based on the lyrics they hear in the video. Lots of fun for students and a great way to learn other languages!

Photomath Photomath is an app that shows students how to solve equations in multiple languages.

StoryWeaver StoryWeaver allows students to read, create, draw, and translate thousands of books from around the world.

Arts & Culture NOTE: This video is for Google Expeditions, but that is being discontinued in June 2021. It's being replaced by Google Arts & Culture, which will have a similar interface and features available. This app allows you to take students on field trips around the world without ever having to leave home.

Flipgrid Flipgrid is an interactive video website. Teachers can pose questions, ideas, projects, etc. and students can respond using the recording feature on the website. This is excellent for ELLs to practice language skills while also providing a tool that is fun and "trendy" for students.

Freerice Free is a great tool for students to practice vocabulary in English, Spanish, French, and other languages words while also donating to the World Food Program!

AR Flashcards AR Flashcards is a series of apps that allow students to use cards to display augmented reality creatures, math equations, science activities, and more.

Shadow Puppet Shadow Puppet is an excellent tool for ELLs to be able to tell stories through photographs. This app is only available for iOS devices.

Google Maps This isn't just Google Maps, this is using Google Forms to be able to map items on Google Maps! Check out the video to learn how to do this!

Toontastic3D Toontastic is an excellent app for ELLs to be able to tell stories through the use of cartoons.

Quiver Quiver allows parents and/or students to print out free coloring pages, color them, and turn them into lifelike models using the app. Useful for science learning!

Mentimeter Mentimeter allows you to create presentations but more importantly, interactive questions, to use with your students online.

Microsoft Translator Microsoft Translator translates in-person conversations in real-time, with up to 100 participants using their own smartphone, tablet, or computer. Speak in nine different languages or write in more than fifty.

Easelly Easelly is similar to Genially and allows you to create posters and graphics that can be made interactive.