Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom

Icebreakers ESL Flow

Using Pictures for conversation activities: 

• A treasured possession
• Your favourite hobby
• Why you love your ...
• A famous person you admire
• Something that gets on your nerves
• A favourite dish / a recipe
• A favourite painting and why you like it
• A film review or recommendation
• The best place for a relaxing holiday
• Explaining emotions on people’s faces
• A local news story
• An opinion on a global news story
• Sell yourself (I would be the right person for this job)
• Your room and why you like it
• Your house, flat, home town
• Sell something (a gadget, a house etc)
• Your favourite view
• The story behind a photo    Creating : Talking photographs for inspiring discussion

•  http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/Avatars
• http://eflclassroom.ning.com/Wpage/page/show?id=826870%3APage%3A72221
• Create Avatars

• http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/VoiceThread    
• http://eflclassroom.ning.com/Wpage/page/show?id=826870%3APage%3A65387 
• http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/  
• http://www.classroom20.com/main/search/search?q=VoiceThread&page=7 
• http://www.classroom20.com/video/video/search?q=voicethread
  

texts Provides links to resources/texts to integrate into LES tasks.

	Images UVic's Language Teaching Clipart Library edupics.com Pics4Learning Graphics/Clipart lists http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/graphics.htm ARG! Cartoon Animation Awesome Clip Art for Kids Clip art for kids and teachers Clipart ETC 35,000 free clipart images and growing. DK Clip Art Photographs to support class and homework activities Educational Clipart Clipart organized by subjects from Teacher.com  Free Fever Copyright free clipart Graphic Maps Free clipart includes continents, flags, globes, outline maps, USA and world images Kitty Roach's Graphics and Sounds Original, animated graphics and sounds Microsoft Office Many graphics; searchable database Northumberland Clipart Graphics created by teachers #1 Free Clip Art Categorized clipart WP Clipart Public domain clipart kidsturncentral.com/clipart.htm office.microsoft.com clipart Photo images http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/graphics.htm AICT Art Images for College Teaching provides free-use educational resources of historical photos AMG Media Works Royalty free photos to use as long as credit is given to the photographer: Ernest von Rosen, www.amgmedia.com American Memory Collections An extensive collection of historic photographs, maps, motion pictures, manuscripts, etc. Behold CC Search access to high quality images that are openly available online Calisphere Historical images collections for educators Cepholinia Photo 1013 Royalty free photos of animals, nature and countries Digital History Original works for which copyright permission has expired, works reprinted with permission or works that are fair use protection of the copyright laws EduPic Free photographs and graphic for educators EdTechTeacher An extensive list of Internet sources containing public domain images 5-14 Curriculum Illustrations and photographs that are free for any kind of educational use Flickr Images with Creative Common license Flickr Storm Image search of collections photographs with a similar theme  FreeFoto Many free photographs arranged by subject  Free Photos Bank Free photographs for non-commercial use FreePixels Many free photographs arranged by subject Free Public Domain Images Free images include photographs of historical events and people as well as advice for safely using images and content on the web  Image After Free photo collection Images of American Political History Collection of images from government holdings and from published works with expired copyrights to support teaching Kitzu Free, educational, copyright-friendly media resources LIFE Photo Archive Millions of photographs from the 1750s to today.  Most were never published and are now available through the joint work of LIFE and Google.  Photos are free to print and use for not-for-profit organizations.  MorgueFile Provides the public and creative community with free, high resolution photo materials NASA Graphics Space and flight images National Archives Exhibits Hall Historical photographs and documents National Image Library A collection of free photographs maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Natural Resources Conservation Service Contains natural resource and conservation related photos from across the USA NOAA Photo Library Free photos in the public domain with more than 20,000 photographs of weather events, animals, coastlines, the Antarctic, and more Open Photo A collection of photographs for free noncommercial use PD Photo Large collection of public domain photos, unless something is clearly marked as being copyrighted Photos in the News National Geographic photographs of current events for classroom use Photo Laboratory Awesome collection of colorful photographs; requires a free registration Pics4Learning Large collection of thematic digital images Smithsonian Images Images from the Collections of the Office of Imaging and Photographic Services  U.S. Government Graphics and Photos This site functions as a portal to other government sites offering images with most items in the collection in the public domain Yellowstone Digital Slide File Large variety of nature themed photographs   Free images for teachers Visuwords: This dictionary is graphically based, making it easy to see what concepts or ideas are represented. KartOO: another visual search engine, providing results laid out in a networked chart that makes it easy to see how topics relate.
	Written Texts Elementary http://kidsworld.webdbx.com/pages/page_1.asp http://www.cricketmag.com/kids_home.asp Resources and links from eduscapes.com Berenstain Bear Country http://www.berenstainbears.com Learn about these famous bears Clifford's Interactive Storybooks from Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/ Resources for children and teachers Dr. Seuss's Seussville http://www.seussville.com/seussville/ Lots of fun activities for children Find a Grave http://www.findagrave.com/ Locate the grave of a famous person Giggle Poetry http://gigglepoetry.com Fun poetry examples, contests, and projects Information Please Almanac: Biography http://www.infoplease.com/people.html Basic information about people Language Arts Games for K-8 from FunBrain http://www.funbrain.com/teachers/subj_lang.html A wide range of online games for practice and thinking Little Critter by Mercer Mayer http://www.littlecritter.com/ Explore materials and activities to go with the Mercer Mayer characters PBS Kids from PBS http://pbskids.org/ Explore adventures in learning and reading with the following programs and others. Arthur http://pbskids.org/arthur/ Clifford http://pbskids.org/clifford/ Between the Lions http://pbskids.org/lions/ Dragon Tales http://pbskids.org/dragontales/ Reading Rainbow http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/ Stories to Grow By http://www.storiestogrowby.com/ Online stories on a variety of topics Story Hour http://www.ipl.org/youth/StoryHour/ Stories for young children America Reads http://www.ed.gov/americareads/ A grassroots national campaign challenging every American to help all our children learn to read; site provides information and resources for helping children to learn to read. Bedtime Stories http://www.bedtime-story.com/bedtime-story/ Online studies for young children Children's Literature Web Guide (CLWG) by D.K. Brown http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ Attempt to gather together and categorize the growing number of Internet resources related to books for Children and Young Adults. Word Central http://www.wordcentral.com/ Information, resources, and ideas for words and vocabulary Biography Maker http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm Help for kids learning about biographies Find a Grave http://www.findagrave.com/ Locate the grave of a famous person Information Please Almanac: Biography http://www.infoplease.com/people.html Basic information about people Academy of American Poets http://www.poets.org/ Founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry, this is the largest organization in the country dedicated to the art of poetry.   Secondary Classics and off copyright books from authors such as:   Agatha Christie Charles Dickens Edgar Allan Poe George Orwell Jane Austen Louisa May Alcott Mark Twain O Henry Oscar Wilde Robert Frost William Shakespeare Free Online Magazines •Science http://www.magatopia.com/magazines/Discover.html ?page=index.html •Sports http://www.magatopia.com/magazines/Sports_Illustrated.html ?page=index.html •Cars http://www.magatopia.com/magazines/Motor_Trend.html ?page=index.html •Newsweek http://www.magatopia.com/magazines/Newsweek.html ?page=index.html •Teenagers http://www.fazeteen.com/main.htm http://www.whatmagnet.com/Site/Home_Page.asp •Girls Stuff http://www.magatopia.com/magazines/ym.html ?page=index.html http://www.teenink.com/ http://www.teenmag.com/ http://www.teentoday.co.uk/
	Resources and links from eduscapes.com Background information and links to quality websites, activities, webquests, and teaching materials 42explore Projects http://42explore.com advertising American Sign Language (ASL) calligraphy Charles Dickens debate fantasy and science fiction figurative language Harlem Renaissance journal writing mystery mythology oral history poetry for kids William Shakespeare skits, plays, and scripts skimming and scanning storytelling tall tales television Mark Twain writing Books from the Internet Public Library http://ipl.si.umich.edu/div/books/ Locate online books by keyword search Books and Literature from ThinkQuest http://thinkquest.org/library/cat_show.html?cat_id=2&cid=1 Explore a wide range of projects created by children and young adults for kids and teens BrainPop http://www.brainpop.com/english/seeall.weml Short animation movies on English topics Building Language for Literacy from Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/index.htm Resources for children and teachers E-Server http://eserver.org/ Starting point for all areas of English English from BBC Learning http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/library/english.shtml Links to quality resources, reference materials, and learning activities English from Blue Web'N http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/fr_English.html Locate reviewed tools, lessons, hotlist, resource, tutorial, webquests, and projects by content areas and grade levels English from the High School Hub http://highschoolhub.org/hub/english.cfm Links to quality resources, reference materials, and learning activities including spelling, vocabulary, grammar, writing, poetry, research, and literature. English & Language Arts from HomeWorkSpot Organized, annotated links Elementary School http://homeworkspot.com/elementary/language/ Middle School http://homeworkspot.com/middle/english/ High School http://homeworkspot.com/high/english/ English Zone http://www.english-zone.com/ Great English starting point Journalism Resources http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/journalism/ Great list of resources Language Arts from the KidsHub http://kidshub.org/kids/english.cfm Links to quality resources, reference materials, and learning activities including word games, spelling, writing, and poetry Language Arts from the Multnomah County Library http://www.multcolib.org/homework/langhc.html Information by category Language Arts from Yahooligans http://www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell/Language_Arts/ Links to resources for children and young adults Languages and Language Arts from ThinkQuest http://thinkquest.org/library/cat_show.html?cat_id=8&cid=1 Explore a wide range of projects created by children and young adults for kids and teens Literature from Blue Web'N http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/content/Cat_1_Scat_3.html Locate reviewed tools, lessons, hotlist, resource, tutorial, webquests, and projects by content areas and grade levels Literature & Authors from the Multnomah County Library http://www.multcolib.org/homework/lithc.html Information by category Literature and Language Arts from Discovery School's Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/arts/artlit.html Quality links and descriptions Literature Ladders from Eduscapes http://www.eduscapes.com/ladders/ Provides ideas for connecting books and Internet resources. Matrix of WebQuest Examples http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix.html Explore webquests in English and language arts for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, or adults Mythology and Folklore from Yahooligans http://www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell/Social_Studies/Mythology_and_Folklore/ Links to resources for children and young adults Mythology from the Multnomah County Library http://www.multcolib.org/homework/mythhc.html Information by category Mythology from ThinkQuest http://thinkquest.org/library/cat_show.html?cat_id=76&cid=1 Explore a wide range of projects created by children and young adults for kids and teens Annie's Rhyme Time from Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/annie/index.asp Resources for children and teachers Arts & Literature from PBS' TeacherSource http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm Lessons for K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Books and Writing from Multnomah County Library http://www.multcolib.org/outer/books.html Links to good resources Carol Hurst’s Children Lit http://www.carolhurst.com/ Lots of great resources, lessons, and ideas English Language from Chico High School LIbrary http://dewey.chs.chico.k12.ca.us/engl.html Lots of great links Literature from Discovery School Lesson Plans Library http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/lit.html Lesson for K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Literature from Family Education Network's Teacher Vision http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-5817.html Lessons, assessments, printables, and themes organized by Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Writing with Writers from Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/ Resources for children and teachers Writing Workshop from Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/ Resources for children and teachers Web English Teacher*** http://www.webenglishteacher.com/ Presents K-12 English/Language Arts teaching resources: lesson plans, WebQuests, videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles, and classroom activities.   Resources for Young Adults A+ Research http://www.ipl.org/teen/aplus/ Many resources for students doing research About: Poetry http://poetry.about.com/ Great poetry links Academy of American Poets http://www.poets.org/ Read and listen to poetry. Also, learn about poets ACQWEB's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/bookrev.html Tons of book review links All Readers http://www.allreaders.com/ Helps you find a good book American and English Literature Internet Resources http://library.scsu.ctstateu.edu/litbib.html Links to lots of resources American Verse Project from University of Michigan http://www.hti.umich.edu/a/amverse/ Explore American verse Bartleby: Great Books Online http://www.bartleby.com/ Online publisher of literature, reference, and poetry providing access to books and information, free of charge.   Bibliomania http://www.bibliomania.com/ Great reasons on reading and literature Electronic Literature Directory http://directory.wordcircuits.com/ Directory to location electronic literature Teen Reads http://www.teenreads.com/ Read reviews and learn about books Biographies   Additional biography sites: biographies of folksingers biographies of the Harlem Renaissance biographies of the Industrial Revolution biographies of jazz musicians biographies of the Nuclear Age biographies of peacemakers biographies of the Renaissance biographies of World War II explorers - A to Z Native American biographies - A to Z people of the Old West Presidents of the United States Revolutionary War biographies rock 'n Roll biographies scientists / inventors in electricity World War I biographies Biographies also included at: Charles Dickens Lewis and Clark expedition Mark Twain Martin Luther King Jr. William Shakespeare Biography sections found within: Classical Music fantasy & science fiction flight inventors and inventions Women's Suffrage Movement Biographies from the Multnomah Country Library http://www.multcolib.org/homework/biohc.html Organized, annotated links People and Places from ThinkQuest http://thinkquest.org/library/cat_show.html?cat_id=10&cid=1 Explore a wide range of projects created by children and young adults for kids and teens Resources for Young Adults ABCNEWS.com: Newsmaker Bios http://abcnews.go.com/reference/newsmakers/newsmakers_index.html People in the news American History 102: Who's Who http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/bios/names.html People from US history Biography.com http://www.biography.com/search/ Based on TV program with short bios Biography Dictionary http://www.s9.com/biography/ Short descriptions Born in Slavery from the Library of Congress http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html Oral history project Congressional Directory from US http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong016.html People in Congress Conversations with History from UC Berkeley http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/ Well-known and lesser known people with audio and video Distinguished Women of Past and Present http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/ Explore biographies of women First Person Narratives of the American South from the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncuhtml/fpnashome.html Oral history project Inventor Archives http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/archive.html Learn about inventors Lives, the Biography Resource http://amillionlives.com/ Lots of biographies Oral History Online http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/ohonline/ Oral history project Oyez: Current Supreme Court Justices http://oyez.nwu.edu/justices/justices.cgi Information about justices Political Graveyard http://politicalgraveyard.com/ Information about politicans Portrait Gallery from University of Texas http://www.lib.utexas.edu/photodraw/portraits/ Biographies Presidents of the United States http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ Information about US presidents World of Science Biography http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/ Biographies of famous scientists Rulers http://www.rulers.org/ Information about rulers from around the world   Guide to Grammar and Writing by C. Darling at Capital Community College http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ Online help site Related Website: Principles of Compostion http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/composition.htm   National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) http://www.famlit.org/ NCFL is recognized internationally as the leader in the field of family literacy, an innovative approach to meeting the educational needs of both children and their parents. By providing training for educators, researching effective practices, and raising public awareness, NCFL works to expand the learning opportunities for all families nationwide.
	Multi-Media texts
	Media Literacy (explains and suggests activities CA) Listening resources
	http://www.elllo.org/index.htm
	Listening Links
	CBS News - 60 minutes audio subscription in MP3 format

 

Music Public Domain Music,  The Best Online Karaoke Sites For English Language Learners VKaraoke vanBasco's Karaoke Player 2.53 i a free MIDI Karaoke Player for Windows coming with full-screen lyrics display.  image -click to listen> mid Search for other Karaoke songs ... Rihanna     Celine Dion     Free Karaoke.com Songs For Teaching English ESL Through Music ESL Lounge -- Songs for English Teaching English Teaching Songs The ESL Song Directory Free Worksheets For Songs Yahoo Lyrics Deezer Dizzler Lyrics Mode Songza Grooveshark Lite Searchhacker Lyrics Lyrics On Call Soundflavor Lyrics Fly Mix Turtle

Read aloud resources

Browsealoud will read websites out to you and highlight words as they are read out. LibriVox: This site provides free audio books in the public domain. History and Politics Out Loud:  Speeches, historical information and more in an audio format. http://readthewords.com/Features.aspx

Audio Books

Audible: This subscription site allows visitors to download from thousands of audio books, both best sellers and classics making it easy to find what you need for class. Project Gutenburg: Books that are no longer under US copyright can be found here and there is a special section for audio books, both read by computers and by humans. Free Books.org: If your class is reading an older text you may be able to find a free version of it to listen to on this site.

Podcasts

iTunes Free software for Mac and Windows. The interface will be familiar to most K-12 students from music downloads. Search for podcasts of interest to you. iTunesU iTunesU is used by universities and K-12 schools to publish (and locate) educational podcasts including many podcasts on podcasting! There are over 15,000 different podcasts here!

	Education Podcast Network Podcasts for teachers by teachers. Search by content, hear student projects by grade level.
	Find Podcast A directory where you can search in categories much like the site above, but a nice addition is "kids and teens." Check out new podcasts, rated podcasts, or popular podcasts.
	FireAnt Discover, watch and subscribe to podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts).
	Learn Out Loud Some for sale, some free.
	Podcast Alley Pick a podcast genre, and you'll receive a list of podcasts. Genres include, but aren't limited to: business, cultural/political, environment, movies/films, sports, technology, comedy, travel.
	Podcast Pickle Search by tag, topic, category or see and hear the top-rated podcasts
	Podanza Search by category, see featured podcasts in each category, or search by content and keyword
	HornBook Podcast Conversations with writers, illustrators, and editors, chats about current trends, and insider takes on reviewing and publishing.
	Karen's Mashups Excerpts from popular educational podcasts combined into a new "mashup." "Most shows will have a theme, such as math, science, student productions, professional development, museum productions, or technology news. Some shows will be focused on podcasts for administrators and teachers, while other shows will highlight podcasts for students or parents." Show 10 samples professional development podcasts; show 15 features audio books; show 12 has podcasts for parents; show 3 is about podcasts for libraries.
	Lit2Go free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3. Search by title or author or search the database. Print the text to read along! Listen or download. Subscribe through iTunes, too.
	EdTechTalk Several great podcasts can be found on this site. WOW2 (Women of Web 2.0) focuses on using new web tools in teaching and learning and is broadcast live every Tuesday night and archived for you to listen to anytime. Show #65 featured Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza discussion school libraries that work and the future of school library media centers.
	20 iTunes Feeds for the 2.0 Teacher A list of great free podcasts for teachers and library media specialists.
	Audible Kids Listen to stories, rate them, see what others are listening to, download them (fee based)
	Just One More Book Podcasts featuring children's books and authors.
	Library of Congress Podcasts including podcasts with authors and poets from the National Book Festival
	MyBabyMonsters Original stories become podcasts for kids
	NPR Classics for Kids Introducing students to classical music
	Open Culture: Audio & Podcast Collections
	PortablePD A site created by two classroom teachers to share, support and celebrate the use of blogs, podcasts and other technologies in the classroom.
	Portable Radio Podcasts created by Grade 5/6 students in Ottawa, Canada
	SLJ Podcasts Items of interest to school library media specialists.
	StoryNory Free podcasts for kids
	TourCaster Audio tours of cities
	Podcast.net: Podcast.net provides a huge listing of podcasts from all over the Web. You’ll be able to find just about anything you need in an easy, audio format.
	Educational Podcast Network: Narrow your search for podcasts down to those dedicated to education. You can learn about everything from math to dance right on your iPod.
	Podcasting For ELT Podcasting Presentation Introduction to Podcasting Yahoo Podcasts Assignment: Podcast Podcasting in the Classroom Another Introduction to Podcasting Englishcaster Yackpack Audacity Tutorial Evoca Gcast REMC11 Odiogo Podcast People

 

 

 

Videos resources for inspiration, cognitive conflict, examples, tutorials and more.
 

	ITunes  Adobe ITunes see Podcasts These links > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 ESL-Pod
	ESL Video  add your own questions to a chosen video.
	CNN AUDIO & VIDEO PODCASTS
	The English Learner Movie Guide
	Teach With Movies
	Student News feed
	PBS NewsHour Online Video Index    News Hour Online Index
	TeacherTube Videos produced and/or uploaded by educators to be shared with educators
	Google Video Note: Google announced on 1/16/09 that it is ending support for Google Video. Old videos will remain but new ones cannot be uploaded.
	Diigo List
	Yahoo! Video
	PhotoBucket Can be remixed with photos
	AFI ScreenNation A learning space from the American Film Institute. View instructional videos, browse short videos from others; students can submit their own for critique by experts.
	Brain Pop MOVIES
	LEARN  offers educationally chosen and supported videos Films For Change with NFB
	SchoolWAX TV   was designed with schools, students, teachers, and parents in mind. You will only find educator approved videos on SchoolWAX TV so everyone can learn in a safe and comfortable environment. SchoolWAX TV is the perfect resource for students who are working on their homework or just need a little extra help on any given subject. Teachers can use the animations and videos to capture their students’ attention and enrich classroom lessons!
	s'Cool TV is a thirty minute current events television programme written and hosted by students in various schools across the province of Quebec.

 

	Video Banks Grics Videos, YouTube   One of the pillars of Web 2.0 and a source for a variety of resources - TeacherTube a YouTube for teachers & students ZOOM  Quebec's own pedagogical video shorts CNN Student News National Geographic Archives News Hour Online Index Nature Video Database PBS NewsHour Online Video Index NASA Space Multimedia Open Source Music Archive Movies of Historical Interest Child Labour - Scholastic Books Open Video Project British Council Themes Amnesty International How Stuff Works Greenpeace Archive Videos PBS Anniversary Archive Videos CBC Archives CBS 48 Hours Archive The History Channel American National Photographic Archive   Video search engines Blinkx  -An online video search engine FireAnt Discover, watch and subscribe to Internet TV, podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts. MetaTube Search over 100 video sharing sites SearchforVideo Another video search engine. Includes searches of sites like Newsweek, Forbes, and SpikeTV as well as video sharing sites SnagFilms provides access to short documentaries for you to watch and "snag" for your website with a commercial message up front. Video Fetcher A newer search engine for video.
	Introducing / Predicting and summarizing Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them. Present a view of a text, review the impact and focus of a text, and many more possibilities. Tag Clouds / Word Clouds / Tag Cloud Generator another Creating Word clouds | Teaching English Wordle: using word clouds in a lesson How to Create Word Clouds
	Take Note of facts, characters, impressions and understanding
	MyNoteIT: This great tool allows students to take and store their notes online, edit them with the help of classmates, look up words or terms you don’t understand and keep track of things you need to do. Google Docs: With this program from Google you can take notes online, save them, and even send them to your peers for collaboration. Notely: Keep your class notes, to-do lists and more organized and easy to access with this site. NoteMesh: This site allows students from the same class to share notes by creating a wiki, making it easy and practical to work together. Stu.dicio.us: Here, students are able to actively organize their class materials, take and store notes, share information and even link to online reference sites. ShortText: This is a very simple tool for taking notes online. Simply enter your text, hit save, and you’ve got an online note you can revisit anytime you like. YourDraft: Take notes with this rich text editor and share and save them online. Stickkit: Get an intelligent sticky note with this great online program. It looks at the text on your notes and can recognize important dates, bookmarks, emails and more, organizing them for you and making it easy to stay on top of everything. SyncNotes: If you use a PDA this can be a great way to keep your notes accessible on both your main computer and your portable device. JotCloud: If you’re the type that loves to put sticky notes all over everything then you’ll enjoy this online note taking tool. It allows you to create clouds of stickies anywhere you need them. NoteCentric: Store and share your classroom notes with this innovative site. It keeps your notes organized so you can reference them later and you can easily access it through a Facebook account.

represent understanding from the texts / Organize and present information

	Gliffy: Gliffy makes it easy to lay out ideas in flow charts and diagrams or to create floor plans and technical drawings to help you better visually understand information.
	FlowChart: Create great flow charts for your classes using this online tool, which comes complete with drawing tools and objects as well as collaborative tools.
	DrawAnywhere: This online program allows you to create diagrams and flow charts to represent all kinds of information. Best of all, you can log in from anywhere to get access to your diagrams.
	AjaxSketch: This web-based drawing tool makes it easy to not only create flow charts and diagrams but to do freehand drawing as well and you can use it right from Firefox.
	XML/SWF Charts: Those familiar with XML will be able to turn their data into colorful and useful charts with this downloadable tool.
	yEd: Is a very powerful graph editor and creation tool that can be used to quickly and effectively generate drawings and to create easily read and laid out graphs and diagrams.
	Graphviz: If you’ve got a lot of information about the structure of a website or anything else for that matter, this tool can help you to easy map it out into a graph or network.
	Kivio: Kivio easy to use diagramming and flowcharting application that is part of the KOffice suite of programs. It comes with features to network diagrams, create organization charts, build flowcharts and more.
	Project Draw: This program is a feature-rich web-based vector drawing application that will allow you to create diagrams and graphs of any kind of information as well as making a variety of other kinds of drawings.
	Best 4C: This Web-based tool allows you to create and share charts from anywhere, making it easier than ever to diagram and draw your ideas.
	LovelyCharts: Charts created through this tool really can be lovely with full color capabilities and loads of graphics.

 

Read and LISTEN

	Read Please: Cut and paste text or type it directly into the input form on this site and the program will read it to you. It can be a very useful tool for making sure essays and projects are written correctly.
	Text Reader: Here you’ll find a tool that will give you audio for any text you feed into it.
	Expressivo: This simple text reader will give you a variety of audio readings when you paste or type text into the entry form.
	ItCanSay: This site has a great online text reader and can also give you some help pronouncing difficult words that aren’t said like they’re spelt.
	Midomi: While not quite a text reader, this tool couldn’t be left out of this list. It’s a search engine that is based on sound rather than text. It can be a more intuitive way to find things if you respond better to sounds.