READING COMPREHENSION, ARTICLES AND TEXTS ONLINE. WHERE?

Searching online for information, news, articles, and texts is not easy and accessible for everyone, but sometimes it requires time, maybe a long time. As teachers, we always try to find additional material that we can use in our classrooms because we know that authentic material is a good way to bring reality into the classroom. But sometimes the online research is time-consuming. So this is why I have my "favorite sites" for quick research and quick use. I have to say that this has saved me some time over the years. 

Where can we find age and level appropriate reading comprehension, news articles and texts for our students?

Here are a few sites that I have used and still use for my sources.

My TOP CHOICES:

BREAKING NEWS ENGLISH

This is a very useful site where you can find different types of news. Each article is presented with different versions and different levels of English. There also exercises related to the article and the chance to listen to the audio file of the article ( different audio files at different speed).

NEWS IN LEVELS

Very good site for English learners. News are presented according to categories and levels of English. 

NEWS FLASH ENGLISH

Very good site with different news articles made into ready-to-download ( and free) lessons for teaching English. Not really updated recently, but still a very good site. 

READWORKS

Wonderful site with different reading comprehension. You can choose the grade ( level), the number of words, the type of product and the text type. Each text comes with audio file, vocabulary exercises ( in English) and comprehension questions. This site is for educators only and it is free of charge. This site is not specifically for esl/efl and can also be used to secondary school students. 

NEWSELA

Very useful news search site for teachers. It has a pro version which is not free but by logging in with a free account the main features of the sites are still possible. There are different news divided into categories and topics. The search bar at the top is very useful as you can type any kind of keyword and the site easily directs you to the news about that word. The pro account gives you the chance to assign the articles to your students and check their progress.

COMMON LIT

You will need an official educator email to log in this site. I highly recommend it as it has a wide online library with reading passages divided by books, genres, level, literary device and theme. It is not specifically for esl/efl learners but all texts can easily be used and adapted. It can be used for all age levels and all language levels. 

Better for CHILDREN of PRIMARY SCHOOL

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS

This site is for sport related articles. It is not a site specifically for esl/efl,  therefore some articles may need to be adapted. The interesting thing is that some articles are even written by kids.

DOGO NEWS

A news site for children. News are divided into categories. Not specifically for esl/efl learners so articles may need to be simplified. Very good site. 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR KIDS

Use the search bar and type a topic to find information about it.

LEARNODO

Better for SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS AND/OR ADULTS

HuffPost UK

Various news articles, not specifically for esl/efl and better suitable for secondary school students or adults. 

INTERNET ARCHIVE

Amazing internet archive which also works as a search engine and connects you to different sites. You can specify your research by clicking the boxes on the left and choosing the type of text, the year, the topic and the language. 

PROJECT GUTENBERG

This is the best way to find free ebooks. Thousands of books are available for free use. 

STORY CORPS
Real life stories, told by the protagonists. Not specifically esl/efl site, but very interesting stories, especially for adults since this is authentic material. 

READER'S DIGEST
Real life news. Not specifically esl/efl site, but very interesting site, especially for adults since this is authentic material. 

PUBLIC DOMAIN ESSAYS
Ready to use essays on different topics, divided by categories. 


MANY THINGS
Many articles divided by topics, some with audio files. 

FOR THE TEACHER
Leveled Reading articles with very interesting lesson plans that might need to be adapted as the site is not specifically for esl/efl. 

Hope you will find these links as useful as I do. Try them and please let me know if you find others by commenting here or writing to me. Save these links as favorites for easy future access. Trust me, it will save you some precious time!

Thank you, 
Miss Alex

AIESEC EDUCHANGE 2017/2018: IN THE RIGHT HANDS

What happens when Australia meets California.... 

in Italy?

Well, we know what happens, it's MAGIC!

School main hall ready to welcome our 2018 AIESEC volunteers

For the 2017-2018 AIESEC educhange project we were assigned two female volunteers coming from Australia and from California: Amra Polutak and Tatiana Oropel.

The two girls had a hard time at the beginning getting adjusted to the Italian cold weather ( it was January when they arrived) and we could not blame them because they both came from hot countries. We do have to say that in spite of this difficulties the girls showed a very high level of spirit of adaptation. They were ready and enthusiastic about this project from day one and the project could not have started any better. 

All classes were involved, from the first year of primary school to the last year of secondary school and Tatiana and Amra were very flexible and easily adapted to the different ages. 

The first two weeks were dedicated to getting to know the volunteers and their country of origin.  

These are works done by the 4th and 5th year primary school

These are works done by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd year primary school

After these first two weeks the project focused on the chosen theme: CHILDREN'S RIGHTS.

Each class worked on specific rights:

- the 1st  and 2nd year PRIMARY SCHOOL worked on the right to have a NAME, an IDENTITY.

- the 3rd year primary school worked on the right to have a HOME, a  FAMILY and to receive LOVE AND CARE

- the 4th year primary school worked on the right to have WATER

-the 5th year primary school worked on the right to have FOOD and a HEALTHY LIFE

-the 1st year secondary school worked on the right not to be discriminated by a DISABILITY

- the 2nd year secondary school worked on the right of FREE EXPRESSION

-the 3rd year secondary school worked on the right to EDUCATION, on the right not to be EXPLOITED FOR WORK or FOR WAR

Teachers, volunteers, students, families and other school operators ( our headmaster, the president of our school, the administration office) worked together throughout this project and contributed to its success. 

On the final day, the primary school had the chance to know information about the other rights children have, whereas the secondary school worked on a booklet that put together information, worksheets and activities about all rights.

The project ended with two final very special moments: a farewell party in the morning with the students and a meeting with the families in the evening so that all parents had the chance to see and understand what had been done during the previous six weeks. 

Thank you to the people that made this possible, for the second year!

Thank you, 

Miss Alex

AIESEC EDUCHANGE 2016/2017: RIAMBIENTIAMOCI

         

This is the title of our AIESEC EDUCHANGE project for the school year 2016-2017. The title is the expression of the hope that we had and the goal that we wanted to reach with this project, that means to learn and study about the environment and about natural disasters and to go back to the natural world with a  more conscious and more careful approach.

The project was co-taught by the AIESEC volunteers with the help from the teachers of my school. The language of the project was English, so sometimes teachers needed to help the students to understand and manage the content of the lessons, even though the material prepared for the lessons had been chosen according to the students' level of English. Our volunteers for this project came from Sri Lanka and were two wonderful newly graduated teachers called Rishini and Dilshani.

The students and the teachers got to know them and got to love them during those six weeks. The first two weeks of their stay were dedicated to getting to know them and their county of origin: Sri Lanka

                                   

                                                   

In these pictures students are trying to find information cards and pictures about Sri Lanka. Those pictures had been spread along the school corridors. The younger chìldren of primary school worked on a little booklet about Sri Lanka. 

Blended learning combined traditional teaching techniques and the use of technology in the classroom. 

These are some of the students' works after the first two weeks. 

From the 3rd to 6th week each class worked on a specific natural disaster: tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunami, pollution, volcanoes, animals in danger, climate change, rainforests, wildfires, flooding. Having Rishini and Dilshani in the classrooms explaining and teaching all this added an extra human value to these topics. I remember when Dilshani told our third year secondary school students about the Tsunami she experienced in Sri Lanka. I remember the silence and the attention that all the students were paying to her. It was such a touching moment. 

At the end of the 6th week we organised a final moment in the main hall. All the classes had the chance to explain what they had been working on. It was a precious moment in which all the work done by single classes made sense to form the bigger picture. 
The Aiesec Educhange project contributed to improve the English language communication but it also gave us a wonderful opportunity to get to know the culture of a country which seems so far away from us, but in reality it is not that far or that different from us. Strong ties were born during this experience: families invited Rishini and Dilshani over their houses for dinners, teachers went out with them, students invited them to hang out during the afternoon and, I was able to meet them again in the summer 2017 when I went to Sri Lanka with my husband! Those two girls were only Aiesec volunteers at the beginning of the project, but they became our special friends by the end of it! 

Thank you, 
Miss Alex