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A collection of resources for all areas of English language learning from grammar to writing, spoken language to spelling and covering all levels. They should be taken in conjunction with resources found on individual Language pages, particularly in the Literature areas.
For secondary schooling there may also be resources available from the English subject page for tertiary students.
A separate page on the History of The English Language allows us to develop understanding of how we arrived at the present language structure and makeup.
Remember many sites are not Australian. Check carefully to be sure they conform to Australian requirements before use, e.g. spelling, Mathematical formatting, terminology, … .
Listed individual resources are suitable for teacher use with all education levels unless specifically indicated otherwise.
Australian Sites
- Australian Independent Schools Literacy Website
Information, aims, links, news, highlights, glossary, software checks. Look at English to find these. - Christo’s Lucky Dip
English Teacher Resources. ‘Web-bag full of useful ideas for secondary teachers of English.’ Links grouped for years 9, 10, 11 [2 sections] and 12 [2 sections]. Originating in Victoria, but adaptable in other Australian settings. - Elect Spelling, Writing and Reading Programs
‘Cost effective, revolutionary and proven solution to raising the literacy skills of any age group … through our complete phonic based, multi-sensory video programs.’ Fee-based programs.
Teachers, Parents - e:lit
‘Teaching resources including books, articles, journals, etc, that may assist teachers in professional development and classroom practice.’
Teachers - FergHSC
‘HSC English Resources designed to reflect the HSC outcomes established by the NSW Board of Studies. It is a website that offers online tutoring for every aspect of HSC English’. Fee-based.
Previously listed as Interactive English. - Foniks
Learn how to read and spell with phonics. Audio work with phonic units that are moused over. -
Hardie Grant - Books
‘We excel at making books that capture imaginations and encourage reluctant readers. We are the largest Australian owned children's publisher, and pride ourselves on publishing first and foremost for kids’. - MyRead
‘Supports teachers of underperforming students in the middle years [Years 4 – 9].’ Beliefs, the who, what and how of the process, explicit teaching practices, monitoring, assessment, classroom organisation, specific professional development, further readings. Excellent resources.
Teachers - ReadMe®
‘Literacy enhancement tool, designed for Australian school students from upper Primary to lower Secondary. Comes with almost thirty lessons, related Flash Games.
Fee-based. - Ship or Sheep
English pronunciation using minimal pairs of sounds. Also usable with ESL. - Spelling Worlds
Two programs in the basics of language, Spelling Worlds and Reading Code Breaker. Developed by an Australian teacher. Information about these and other aspects on this site.
Primary - Spoken English
‘Free online talking grammar for learners.’ Also usable with ESL. - Tales from the Billabong
Games, stories. Games include Shockwave and Flash activities. Also a quiz, colouring sheets.
Primary - Useful Links
Links collected by AIS.
Other Sites
- 103 Things to Do Before/During/After Reading
‘Interactive activities that help kids become more involved in the stories they read.’ Suggestions from pantomimes to debates - things for every age. - ABCs of the Writing Process
‘Universal Process for Any Writing Task. The purpose is to provide a user friendly online resource, for students or teachers, no matter what they are being challenged to write.’ Alberta, Canada.
Primary - A Hotlist on Teaching English
Annotated links to research, other resources under headings including phonetics, classroom activities, multimedia, teaching techniques, reading strategies.
Teachers
Alphabet/Pre-Writing Activities
- Alphabet/Pre-Writing
Annotated links to activities, units, more.
Preschool - Preschool Language & Literacy Development
Writing. ‘Free preschool pre-writing and tracing activities and worksheets for parents and teachers who want to prepare their children for future success in school.’
Teachers, Parents - Preschool Tracing Activities
Downloadable tracing book to develop pre-writing skills. Fee-based but cheap.
Preschool
- Audiblox2000
‘A system of cognitive exercises, aimed at the development of foundational learning skills.’ Information, designer, learning principles, waccess in Australia, testimonials, case studies, research, video clips, more. Worth viewing the program for students for whom little else works. - BBC Magic Key
‘Adventures’ about language from full stops to words that make sounds. - BBC Schools, Words & Pictures
Phonics activities, games, teacher information/resources, same for parents.
Primary - Bitesize [Games]
BBC site. “Bitesize” literacy games for children. - Clifford’s Interactive Storybooks
Listen to stories, completion activities, reading games,.
Primary -
Communication Skills Zone
‘Free resources to help young people, teachers and parents with speaking and listening skills. These range from DVDs and online activities to books and downloadable guides’. From BT Better World in the UK. - Doucette Index
‘Books and websites that contain useful teaching suggestions related to books for children and young adults, the creators of those books.’ K-12 Literature-based Teaching Ideas.
Teachers - Earlyreading.info
‘Designed to help classroom teachers find resources for pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade in five reading components. First time visitors to earlyreading.info will benefit from the Browse feature; select a grade, reading component, type of resource.’ US-based. - Eduref Language Arts Lessons
Educators Reference Desk. Topics from Alphabet to Journalism and beyond. Each has a list of lessons, with every detail from title to assessment. Listed by title and grade level. - ELT Resource Bank
‘Downloadable collection of just about every English Banana.com worksheet and book that we’ve ever produced - over 1 000 worksheets and all 6 books !’
Very slow to load at present - English Toolbox [David Appleyard]
‘Here you’ll find some key English learning points and recommended references in easily manageable, interlinked compartments. Part of a network of sites pieced together to present English in its cultural context.’
Excellent ! - Fiction Writing
Activities for teaching creative writing.
Secondary - Free Games and Activities
‘Interactive games, activities to help young learners practise grammar and skills. Display on a monitor or a screen. Each game is a zipped file.’ PC only. One Stop English. - Grammar at Teacher’s Net
Everything from capitalisation to citing electronic sources, all rules and concepts in between. - Grammar Gorillas
Online game to develop correct grammar skills.
Primary - Harry Potter Teaching Resources
Activities, ideas developed to use the phenomena to aid language and reading development and enjoyment. - Just One More Book ! !
Podcast about the children’s books we love and why we love them - recorded in our favourite coffee shop. Listing, archived material, author list. - Kids on the Net
‘One of the first websites on the internet to invite children to submit their writing. We want children all over the world to send us your writing - poems, stories, articles, reports, opinions, writing about yourselves - whether you write it at school, at home, in a library or club, or anywhere else.’ - Kidz Book Zone - Welcome !
By a New South Wales school. Choosing books for children, suitable books in various categories, provides puzzles, gives advice and information for teachers.
Infants, Primary - Language Arts Lesson Plans and Resources
‘Lesson plans and resources for teaching reading, spelling, writing, journalism, communication, debate, drama. Resources and lesson plans for poetry as well as children’s and adolescent literature have been relocated to separate sites, but are accessible from the site index.’
Language Software
Commercial software. For Freeware, check the Education Software page.
- CAST Universal Design for Learning Book Builder
‘Create, read, share engaging digital books that build reading skills for students.’ You need to create an account, but this appears to be Free. - Eduss English IMTA
- Extra Language Resources
- I Love Spelling
- Jump Start Phonics
- Learning Ladder Pre-School
- Phonics Alive 1, 2
- PM Reading Software
- Reading software through Broderbund®.
- Reading Blaster
- Tell Me More English
- Word Explore Deluxe
- Word Race
‘Fun, educational spelling game.’
- Launching K-3 Readers
Ideas, resources to aid development of student reading skills. Reading assessment, other aspects of reading.
Infants, Primary - Learn to Read
Learn-to-read activities. Matching activities, missing letters, stories, audio files, … . One section of the larger Starfall site, which has several Reading sections.
Infants, Primary - Letter P.A.L.S.
‘Free online K-2nd grade school-to-home reading program created to provide a dynamic way to help teachers, parents, guardians motivate children to become strong readers.’ US based. Covers an eighteen week period from the end of October. - Letters and Sounds
Department for Children, Schools & Families, UK. Development of Phonics in the early years. 6 phases with notes for guidance. Each level has multiple videos plus transcripts in Word format. - LiteracyCenter.Net
‘More than a million Free literacy lessons a month to children in 141 countries. Safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. All lessons are Free of advertising and Free of charge.’ Several languages.
Primary - Literature Learning Ladders
‘Make the connection between theory and practice by exploring online resources related to literacy, themes, literature circles, technology, learning.’ Multiple sections. Each section worth visiting.
Fascinating ! - Literacy Reading [Teaching Ideas]
UK based. Activities, in two main levels to age 11, toys & games, books, other links. - Literature Websites
Author sites, great literature websites, Finding units with trade books. US-based. - LitLinks
‘After reading a great story, poem, play, essay, or critical article, you may want to know more. We’ve compiled LitLinks - annotated to show you what information about a work, its author, or period you’ll find on each site.’ - Merriam-Webster Language Info Zone
Language resources, including a dictionary that speaks the words you are after. - Mrs Alphabet
‘Teaching the alphabet, phonics, reading. There is something for everyone !’ -
My Online Reading
‘Practice reading skills with these interactive online reading books, specifically written for children and early readers. All stories are composed of words suitable for young readers and use many common sight words, necesary for developing early reading vocabulary’. Best of all they are Free ! - Myths and Legends
‘Stories from around the East Anglia region. Also stories from other parts of England and from around the world.’ Listen to them, print them out. There are ‘myths’ made up by students and others. You can create your own using The Story Creator. - Nessy Tales
‘A fun new way to improve children’s reading, vocabulary and listening skills at home. Interact with these virtual books as a stepping stone to paper-based books. Reading ability 5-7 years. Age appropriate content up to 12 years.’ - Online Resources for Writers
Annotated links to sections as varied as Analytical Writing, Sentence Sense, dictionaries. - OzSpeller
Free online Spelling tutor/game for K-12. Spoken words, prompts, hints, large word base. There is a Keyboard Tutor which can also be accessed online. - Phonics & Word Study
Online activities on aspects of language, broken into grade groupings. A Teacher Centre and a Family Centre with further information.
Primary - PIZZAZ
People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling. ‘Simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable handouts for use with students of all ages. Permission is given to use these resources for in-class, non-profit use only.’ Each provides sample works, methodology. - Power Proofreading
Primary and Middle School years. Interactive exercises to develop proofreading skills. Requires Shockwave Player -
Publications
‘The National Institute for Literacy develops publications for families and educators of learners across the lifespan’. US articles and information. Most of the parent publications on this page are for the early childhood years.
- Reading A-Z Program
Free reading booklets, worksheets, clipart, associated activities. Read the information carefully.
Infants - Reading Rockets
Strategies, Techniques, books, authors, articles, five streaming videos on areas related to reading and literacy. Research based.
Teachers, Parents - ReadTheWords
‘Free, web based service that assists people with written material. We do this by using Text To Speech Technology. Users can generate a clear sounding audio file from almost any written material.’
Requires Free Registration. - Read, Write, Think
‘Access the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction.’ Lessons, standards, web resources, student materials. Section for Summer Activities. Sample pages include the following.
- Comic Creator
Create your own comic style stories. - Genre Study : A Collaborative Approach
‘In a genre study, students have the opportunity to expand their models of effective writing while identifying the writer’s craft often used within genres typically studied in late primary grades.’ A complete lesson procedure is provided ranging from objectives to assessment.
- Repeat After Us
‘Created by a high school student. An award-winning online library with the best collection of copyright-free English texts and scripted recordings. Our Free audio clips provide an excellent resource for students and literature lovers of all ages.’ Multiple search options for finding specific content. - Resources, Handouts & Exercises
Originally intended for the ESL area, but they contain information, exercises, handouts on most aspects of grammar and other areas such as capitalisation.
Essentially Secondary - Score Language Arts
Schools of California Online Resources for Education. Phonics, activity bank including rubrics, organisers, journals, etc., education framework from California Education, Cyber Guides in grades. These link to specific books and provide activities, further links to resources, assessment, more. Many books remain applicable, especially for the senior years. - Sight Words [Dolch List]
Online activities, in groups from Pre-Primer to Grade 3. Multiple activities, with audio, supportive reactions for correctness, visual cues. Activities use the Dolch words which constitute ‘approximately 50 to 70 percent of any given general, non-technical text.’
Preschool, Infants, Primary - Skool.ie
Junior Cycle English. ‘Interactive, multimedia lessons provide an exciting, new approach to English. These will help you understand how language works in poetry and how writing and grammar help you appreciate literature and the media. Improving your English will help you with your other subjects as well !’ Irish site. - SpellingCity
‘Online Free site that makes learning to spell fun ! Students can practise spelling words using fun online word games.’ Register to gain access.
Primary, Secondary, Teachers - Stella
‘Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia provides a detailed picture of accomplished English/Literacy teaching.’ - Story Arts Online
Storytelling tutorial material, resources.
Primary - StoryPlace
The Children’s Digital Library. ‘Spanish & English versions. Listen to interactive children’s stories, play with on-line activities, print out take-home activities, reading list, more.’
Infants, Primary - Teachers.Net Language Arts and Lesson Plans
Lesson plans on language from Introduction of Word Processing to Symbolism and Allegory. American, but easily adapted. - Teaching English
‘Brings together everything busy teachers need for the classroom and the staffroom - lesson plans, worksheets, teaching tips, articles, information about professional development, training, conferences, qualifications. Materials designed for non-native speaker teachers of English working predominantly in secondary education in state schools around the world. All content and material on the site is Free to access’.
Teachers
Well presented ! - Teachit
UK. Claims 1 800+ pages on English, Drama, Media Studies. Worksheets, schemes of work, lesson plans.
Especially Senior Secondary - The Guide to Grammar and Writing
‘Definitions, suggestions, over 170 computer-graded quizzes, a way to submit queries regarding grammar and usage.’ US based college.
Secondary, Teachers - The Interactive Phonics and Word Study Centre
Sadlier-Oxford Educational Publishing. Student, teacher, family centres with stacks of reading activities especially for younger children.
Primary - The Reading Matrix
‘Interactive online reading activities from around the Web.’ Links listed under headings from Analyzing Text to Vocabulary, including Reading Comprehension at various levels. - Time4Writing
‘Online Primary, Middle and High School Writing Courses. 8 Week Teacher-Led Sentence, Paragraph, Essay Courses.’ Fee-based courses developed in the US. Costs are not prohibitive. - Virtual Presentation Assistant
Tips on making a great presentation. Now in the Web Archive. - Web English Teacher
Section on ESL/EFL which is good. Strong on language, with directories from phonics to Shakespeare. - Writer’s Handbook
Secondary, even tertiary students. Fact sheets that develop writing skills for different purposes.