This site provides listings of links to online news sources from all over the world. Just type the country you're looking for in the search box or use the front page links. The news sources for each country are labeled either broadcast news, Internet news sites, magazines, newspapers, or press agencies.

This series of video segments explains the importance of academic vocabulary in the common core curriculum. The video segments included highlight the three tiers of vocabulary [1:35], the role of vocabulary in the common core curriculum standards [2:06], and the three stages of vocabulary instruction [4:49]

These video segments examine the integration of domain-specific vocabulary in technical education course, a construction core class. The teacher demonstrates how to introduce the new vocabulary in the first segment via a complex course text [7:22], and the second segment shows the teacher's use of graphic organizers to enhance the students' understanding the text's vocabulary. L.9-10.6 Vocabulary, L.11-12. 6 Vocabulary CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.6, L.11-12. 6 Vocabulary

This video [5:06] provides research related to the Common Core approach to vocabulary, footage of classroom teachers engaging students in vocabulary instruction, and sample vocabulary assessments.

This video [14:33] shows a demonstration of academic vocabulary instruction through the context of a complex work, a poem. The teacher demonstrates how to access the literal meaning of new vocabulary and then infer the deeper meaning. Includes downloadable assessment handouts.

In this lesson students use a structured format (an adaptation of Think-Pair-Share) to discuss and deconstruct complex text. The new core standards emphasize the importance of developing students' speaking and listening skills as well as helping them access complex text through reading, re-reading, re-thinking, and re-examining.The purpose of this lesson is to get the students to focus and stay on topic while they talk. As a result, students are required to think more extensively about a topic by repeatedly reading and discussing with others.

This lesson teaches elementary students new vocabulary terms through book discussion groups. Students use context clues, prior knowledge, and print and online resources for vocabulary understanding in their discussion.

Journalists are inundated with acronyms. This site contains 240,000 of them and their meanings. Search tool allows you to enter the exact acronym or the first letter. You can even enter a keyword and look for acronyms that include it. L.9-10.6 Vocabulary CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.6, L.11-12. 6 Vocabulary

This tutorial focuses on active listening including what it is and how to become an active listener; a slide show provides the five basic elements of listening. It also offers a video of Alice Walker reading Soujourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" [3:13] for students to use to practice active listening. It ends with ways to improve listening skills.

This online activity gives two definitions and asks what word, that begins with "F," fits both. Clicking the box gives the answer. There are twenty-three questions.

Vast array of quizzes and self-study exercises based on idioms and idiomatic expressions, categorized in a variety of ways (beginning with A, B, etc., by keyword, or by association with other groupings). Great practice for the ELL/ESL student.

There are a number of current informal reading inventories - each has its strengths, limitations, and unique characteristics, which should be considered in order to best fit a teacher's needs.

All written work should be assessed using a rubric. Using a set of criteria linked to standards not only allows for uniform evaluation, but helps students understand what is important about an assignment and encourages them to reflect on their work.

Being able to speak English fluently does not guarantee that a student will be able to use language effectively in academic settings. Fluency must be combined with higher order thinking skills to create an "academic language," which allows students to effectively present their ideas in a way that others will take seriously. The author, an ELL teacher, describes her use of "protocols" (a cheat sheet of sentence starters) to build students' cognitive academic language proficiency.

Learn how technology tools can support struggling students and those with learning disabilities to acquire background knowledge and vocabulary, improve their reading comprehension, and increase their motivation for learning.

What can afterschool programs offer that the regular school day can't? To build literacy skills and school achievement, think outside the classroom.

Many students are used to writing narratives - stories, description, even poetry, but have little experience with analytical writing. This article is an introduction to six analytical text structures, useful across content areas. See also Analytical Writing in the Content Areas.

Because writing is thinking, the organization of students' writing reflects both the structure of their thinking and the depth of their understanding. Students should be writing in all their classes, explaining what they know and how they know it. Thus, it's essential for content-area teachers to give students meaningful analytical writing assignments. Read An Introduction to Analytical Text Structures for more information and graphic organizers to help with writing instruction. L.11-12.3 Language Functions/Style

Learn about assistive technology tools - from audiobooks to variable-speed tape recorders - that help students with reading.

What does research tell us about effective teaching techniques to help adolescents develop their writing skills? This article summarizes Writing Next, a 2007 study of adolescent writing instruction.