Wikibooks — Foreign Language Resources

Wikibooks is a collaborative, open content project. Authors around the world participate in creating books in many different languages and genres. For example,  there are thousands of pages written in English, French, Italian etc.

and hundreds of pages in languages such as Arabic,  Farsi, Norsk, Simple English, Tagalog and Turkish.

While there are several other sub projects of note (Wikijunior — books for children, Simple English — materials on various topics) because of the uneven level of coverage at this point, the Wikibooks is most useful for the foreign language resources.  

 

Streaming Video — “Streaming” by Discovery Education

Video on demand is a very powerful way to introduce

Streaming through Wayne RESA

new concepts, to reinforce learning objectives and to differentiate instruction. Often it is critical for learners, especially visually oriented learners or ELL, to simply experience a place, a new idea or just to see how something works. Discovery Education’s “Streaming” product allows educators at all levels K-12 to select entire videos or segments (some less than one minute long) to deliver just-in-time, relevant instruction. This is a subscription service often made available through the local ISD, in our case, Wayne RESA.

Videos may be browsed according to appropriate state standards via a search interface on the main page (bottom, left) or by subjects or grade.  For Michigan, there are options to select from Curriculum Framework, Grade Level  or Extended Grade Content Expectations for K-12.  Videos may be previewed using the “play” option (which is live streaming), but for classroom use, I recommend downloading it in advance to minimize glitches. 

Advanced Search

Using the advanced search option allows users to locate materials by keyword, subject, grade level, media type as well as features such as closed captions or “editable” titles which are great for including in presentations. Often supporting materials such as blackline masters and teachers’ guides are available as a hyperlinked document.

Additional content is available such as speeches and other sound files, lesson plans, images and quizzes.

 

Egypt Video

Teachers may share ideas, questions and best practices by joining the DEN (Discovery Educator Newtork (free)). One hour training webinars are reguarly scheduled as well as the EdTech connect series which features movers and shakers in the ed. tech. sphere (exciting!).

 

Of special interest is the “Teacher Center”  which has classroom tools such as “assignment builder, “classroom manager” and “writing prompts,” curriculum resources, for planning such as the “lesson plan library” and “thematic focus.” Have questions? join the DEN teacher community.

Discovery Atlas -- Iraq

Much deserving of a special mention, is one of the resources available (“curriculum resources”) in the teacher center is the “Discovery education Atlas.” The interactive resource organizes country study video segments in four areas: culture, government, history and the natural world. Fun and effective!

Digital Libraries for Schools — ICDL

The International Children’s Digital Library is a wonderful collection of over 2600+ digital books (ebooks) in almost 50 languages including Arabic, French, Spanish, English, Farsi and Mongolian.  The mission of the ICDL “is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community – who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge.”

Through an advanced search, the continuously growin collection may be located by various attributes such as language, audience, subject, genre or appearance (e.g. “cover colors”). Some of the books, such as “Black Ear… Blonde Ear” are bilingual

Arabic/English Bilingual

An interesting and very useful feature is the ability to switch the language of the interface so that the library may be searched in a user’s primary language. Books are easily browsable for reading and it is possible to print pages as well. Students really like to use this resource and their feedback and ideas are solicited and welcomed 🙂 Teachers like it too because new and different foreign language materials are often hard to locate. In addition, there is a helpful “Teachers’ Manual.”