Literacy Nassau


	All Literacy Nassau tutors and students are welcome to visit our on-site library and computer lab. The library and lab are typically open during office hours, but please call first to be sure the facilities are available.
	Web Resources for Students Web Resources for Tutors Periodicals

	LITERACY NASSAU LIBRARY - In Office–Library Book List The LN library is open and ready for business. Use this link to see what type of books we have in our library and where those books are located. The books have been organized and cataloged by our librarian Herb Aldrich.

	WEB RESOURCES - For Students [Note: These sites can be used independently by students or with assistance. Students may first need guidance in getting started. Tutors may also find many of these sites useful in preparing lesson materials.]
	The Key www.keynews.org An online newspaper for new readers. This site includes the top news headlines in areas such as: World News, Health, US, State, Education, Money & Jobs, Sports and Leisure. Students can download articles or print them out and take them on the go as if it were The New York Times. It also translates very easily with TraduceloAhora. Merriam-Webster Online www.m-w.com This site allows you took to look up ANY word imaginable. The site offers various definitions along with pronunciation, function, usage, and etymology. There is also a thesaurus and a Spanish-English translator. Merriam-Webster offers word games, spelling bees and a Word of the Day which are a fun way to practice or expand your knowledge. The English Club www.englishclub.com Offers grammar and vocabulary activities, English lessons, word games, pen pal listings and a question-and-answer service. TraduceloAhora! www.traduceloahora.org Access to this web page and email translation site has been made possible through the generosity of IBM. Registered users are able to translate any website simply by knowing the website address. TraduceloAhora! also translates English emails into Spanish and Spanish emails into English. To register, please contact the Literacy Nassau office. Activities for ESL http://a4esl.org Site offers on-line quizzes in grammar and vocabulary which may be translated into over 30 languages, including Spanish, Chinese and Japanese! The quizzes are broken down by topic and difficulty level and are graded immediately. In addition, translation between languages is just a click away. The site is easy to navigate and is very simple and basic. Teachers can also create their own quizzes on this site. OWL http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/ This easy to navigate online writing lab is a great source for quizzes and exercises. OWL focuses on the grammar, punctuation and spelling. Tutors can easily print out handouts for their students as activities or study guides. Students can do the same for themselves. Power Point presentations are also available for tutors and students. Tutors may find this presentation program helpful when presenting a particular lesson. ESL Party Land www.eslpartyland.com Teachers may individually use the Teachers link or may work along with students on the Student link of this site. The Teachers Page offers ideas tutors can use with their own students. There are discussion boards where teachers can ask for advice or share their successes with other ESL Teachers. Under Cool Stuff tutors can order books to help students with idioms, slang, and phrasal verbs. There is also a picture dictionary available which may prove helpful to students who are more visual learners. The Student’s Page offers different and fun topics where you can practice language and literacy skills. There are areas such as Dating and Relationships, Food, Music, Media, Travel, and Movies. These topics will spark an interest in students and continue their learning in an enjoyable way. Dave’s ESL Café http://www.eslcafe.com The café is a great source for lesson plans which may be found in the Idea Cookbook. Tutors and Students can work together on slang, idioms, phrasal verbs, and pronunciation. Dave’s ESL Café also offers a Teacher’s Forum where tutors can talk with other teachers and discuss methods they have found useful. The site also offers information on International jobs which may be available to any tutors interested in teaching abroad! Students can also easily navigate this site alone. There is a Student Forum available for students to talk with others about their successes and experiences in learning. ESL Desk www.esldesk.com This site is useful to students who wish to learn English on-line. There are DVDs, software, books, and dictionaries available for purchase. ESL Desk is also a good source for quizzes and hand-outs which tutors may use for one on one learning situations. The site is easy to navigate and offers much information in the areas of spelling, grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and reading. Many links are posted to other sites for those wishing to learn ESL as well as a link on Student Loans! Student Johnny G. recommends: Adult Learning Activities http://www.cdlponline.org This site assists students in expanding their learning skills and makes use of topics that they are already familiar with, or areas that they would like to learn about. Topics include working, law and government, family, school, health and safety, housing, money, science and technology, services, travel and nature. Students can click on the topic of their choice and become better acquainted with it through stories and videos. Quizzes are provided to test understanding. Star fall www.starfall.com This site has an elementary vibe to it. It is very animated and geared toward childrens’ learning. The site is broken down into 4 levels which focus on different skill sets. Students must pass one level before moving on to the next. Level One - Let’s Get Ready to Read introduces letter sounds. Level Two - Learn to Read is for the early beginning reader. Level Three - It’s Fun to Read is for the intermediate beginning reader. Level Four - I’m Reading is for the beginning reader to advanced reader. The final level allows the student to read plays, nonfiction stories and comics. This site has many games and provides a more interactive experience for both tutor and student. The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com This site offers much more than your ordinary dictionary. Users can find the Word of the Day, Article of the Day and news headlines. There are also games such as Hangman, Spelling Bees, Match Ups, Quotation of the Day, Daily Horoscopes, and Famous Birthdays. It is a fun way for students to practice reading and offers different activities than other websites. This site also offers Financial, Legal, Computing and Medical Dictionaries. Students can even look up the weather! And, IT’S FREE! Cambridge English Readers www.cambridge.org/elt/readers/placement_test/placement_test.htm This is a placement test students can take to see what reading level they are on! Students: Once you click on the Cambridge Logo, you can choose which level you wish to begin your testing at. At the end of the test, your results will tell you if you should move back a level, stay at your current level, or move forward. After the results are given, a list of books at your level will become available. These books are all on the reading level you have scored on and can be purchased through the website. This site also offers some free resources for tutors. Lesson plans, worksheets, articles, and teaching tips are available! The site has a great deal of visual learning and comprehension, however when doing the literacy placement it does not translate to Spanish with TraduceloAhora. The Word Play Website http://www.fun-with-words.com This site offers numerous learning activities and games such as Boggle and Hangman. Students can use this site with or without their tutor. Other games work with students’ word usage, spelling and comprehension. One feature link gives the world’s longest word with it’s definition, tongue twisters, and other fun ways to practice reading and language skills. The website is a very good tool in which to practice English through the use of games. It is considered a fun workshop and may be used as a relief mechanism for students. Babel Fish Translation http://babelfish.altavista.com Students and Tutors can either translate a block of text or an entire website. There is no registration required. There are over 30 ways to translate here, whether it is from Spanish to English or Dutch to French! Merriam-Webster Word Central http://www.wordcentral.com This is an animated activity-based online dictionary. It is helpful for students who are trying to read on their own and provides a dictionary at the same time. Students can look up words quickly, build their own dictionary or try to stump their tutors with the “Daily Buzzword”. By clicking on the Word Central door students enter the Dictionary “Hallway” where they can move through “rooms”, creating their own poems and dictionaries. There is a simple search bar available if one gets lost between floors. [Note: This website translates through TraduceloAhora.]
	COMPUTER SKILLS - For Tutors and Students
	Mouseaerobics www.ckls.org/~crippel/computerlab/tutorials/mouse/page1.html A tutorial on those mysterious buttons on your mouse and how to use them.
	WEB RESOURCES - For Tutors
	Discovery School http://school.discovery.com Puzzle Maker allows the teacher to create their own puzzles which they can then print out and give to their students during sessions or give as review work they can do on their own. Brain Booster offers quizzes in various subjects of Language Arts and Reading. After quizzes are taken, the student can check over their own answers at the bottom of the page or they can be reviewed with their tutor. Study Starters is a quick paragraph on a subject (the topics are very broad). Students or teachers can then order the study guide if it is an area that sparks an interest in the student. *This page also offers lesson plans that tutors may find helpful if a student works best in a particular area or on a certain topic. They can be found under Teaching Tools.* The tutor is given the chance to make and store any lesson plans that they create. They can also grade quizzes easily on the site and can even create customized worksheets to give out as review or take-home work to their student. The steps are VERY simple to follow. Copiague Library http://copiaguelibrary.org/literacy/newsletters.htm The Literacy Builder – An incredibly comprehensive resource for lesson planning. About.com http://esl.about.com This search engine offers a variety of information to anyone interested in ESL. There are links to other helpful ESL sites. Vocabulary resources, quizzes and online courses are offered. The site is broken down into what the site believes to be Essentials, ESL Offers, and Topics. Topics on this site include Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced English. There are lesson plans, grammar, vocabulary exercises, listening, writing and reading skills as well as tests and quizzes that are available to both tutors and students. It is a simple website and easy to navigate! U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services www.uscis.gov Site offers up-to-date information and materials on citizenship and immigration. A resource to obtain the “100 questions” on flashcards and in booklet form (Click on “education & resources”, and then on “resources for new immigrants”). Students and tutors can check here after personal files have been denied or approved and can check out the important alerts concerning citizenship and immigration. Nat’l Institute for Literacy www.nifl.gov This is a helpful site for tutors to assess their methods of teaching and for program directors to assess their work overall. Under Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles, tutors are able to enter scores for their students in comprehension, fluency, etc. Those scores are matched with a profile which offers suggestions for better teacher and student improvement. Word Meaning - Test enables tutors to print out tests directly from the site and use in one-on-one situations or with multiple students. The Mini Course provides specific steps for tutors to follow to obtain the best results from their students. It gives an outline of reading components, phonemes, spelling, etc. This is helpful for any tutor and student at any level. Just about everything on this site is printer friendly! J Verizon Thinkfinity www.thinkfinity.org Offers free online courses and a self assessment tool. The free courses are designed for both tutors and students. Students have a source where they may improve their literacy skills and tutors can identify areas in which to focus. The Verizon Literacy Program Self Assessment Tool (VLP-SAT) is designed for all members in a literacy program from the newest student to the Board Director. It will assist in highlighting certain aspects of a program or lesson which requires more or less of the student’s attention. ProLiteracy Worldwide www.proliteracy.org ProLiteracy Worldwide is represented in 45 developing countries and the U.S. and serves more than 350,000 adult new learners around the world each year. It’s purpose is to sponsor educational programs and services that empower adults and their families by assisting them in acquiring the literacy practices and skills they need to function more effectively in their daily lives. This site is a great research tool. Tutors can find information on other programs available, how to get involved, how to donate, and the latest news concerning Literacy. This is also a great source for students who wish to find more programs in their areas or in other areas to share with family and friends! Nassau Library System www.nassaulibrary.org This is the main site linking all of Nassau Counties Libraries. Tutors and Students can access their local libraries by clicking the ‘Visit Your Library’ link. Users can search their library’s databases and catalogs. There is a special link for parents, teens and seniors featuring interests by age group such as help with book reports for teens, parenting tips and numerous sites for senior citizens on health, fitness and retirement.
	PERIODICALS:
	News for You – An easy reading adult newspaper that is available by subscription. Literacy Nassau has a subscription and copies are in our library for your reference. www.news-for-you.com Hands-on English – A publication with hands-on teaching ideas, hints and tips available by subscription. Literacy Nassau has a subscription. Copies are in our library for your reference or can be accessed online at www.handsonenglish.com Easy English News – A monthly newspaper for readers whose native language is not English and is available by subscription. Samples can be found on the web site www.elizabethclaire.com Newcomer’s Almanac - a monthly newsletter published by Brookhaven National Lab. It is full of information and has a focus on American culture. To view online or to order hard copies go to http://www.bnl.gov/esol/newsletter.asp