29 Resources for ESL Educators

Teaching English as a second language comes with both rewards and challenges. To address these, ESL educators often seek resources that enhance lesson engagement and improve teaching effectiveness. Fortunately, insights from experienced ESL teachers can provide valuable guidance in this quest.

This post highlights a selection of highly recommended resources, curated by fellow educators who understand the unique needs of ELL (English Language Learner) students. These tools range from interactive lesson plans and inventive classroom activities to innovative technology solutions. They are designed to support and inspire teachers while helping students achieve their full potential.

Boggles World ESL
Alphabet/phonics-based worksheets and activities grouped by skill and grade. Useful resource and helps me conceptualize creating worksheets and activities of my own. (Samuel B, K-5)

Brain POP
The site has a lot of animated short clips which you can use in your content areas. The clips are categorized by subject and topics, so you can choose a subject-related clip without worrying about having adult content in it. It is also divided by the important moments. (Seunghye P, K-5)

BrainPop Esp
This site is beneficial in teaching many subject areas. The videos are in Spanish for my students and are appropriate for them. The visual is essential for my multilingual students, and they love Mobi the robot. (Alice G, K-5)

Breaking News English
Good resource for teachers to use current events articles to target various English Proficiency Levels. (Betty A, 6-8)

BusyTeacher
This website has helped me by showing me how I can teach certain topics. An example of when it has helped me was when I found a guide of how to teach the present simple tense. (Kenneth O, 9-12)

Colorín Colorado
The most comprehensive site for all things related to teaching multilingual learners. It includes toolkits, research, guides, and resources for both ESL teachers and those working in the content areas with ESL students. (Juliane B, 6-8)

Dave's ESL Café
It has suggestions for teaching ELLs and activities like grammar, idioms, and slang. (Ericka M, 6-8; K-5; 9-12)

Diffit
On this site, I search for, drop in texts (or links to texts), or upload texts that I want to differentiate. (Rakeisha W, 9-12)

Doing What Works: How to Build a Positive Classroom Environment
This site shows how to reduce behavior problems in the classroom to modify and offer a positive environment. (Aidee A, K-5)

Education World
This site offers tips on how to manage classrooms, know your students, and communicate with parents. (Aidee A, K-5)

Education.com
Has a lot of free resources for modifying lessons for ELs. Includes high-quality worksheets, readings, and interactive modules across all grades. (Juliane B, 6-8)

edWeb
The benefits of the site are that you can find great professional development sources. (Andrea S, 6-8)

English Club
This website helps in all aspects of English. It has diverse tools to cover different aspects of English. (Carlos L, 6-8)

English Grammar
It helps in all aspects of grammar to improve English. (Carlos L, 6-8)

Equipping ELLS
All about ELLs! Resources, curriculum... (Ruby M, K-5)

ESL Games
Ready-to-go games and worksheets for ELL students. (Ericka M, 6-8; K-5; 9-12)

Esol Courses
This site has various activities and materials for ELLs. For example, Vocabulary building, Grammar, also hundreds of topics covered. I especially like the songs and lyrics. There are gap exercises where during listening to a song, students must write in words. (Dovile F, 9-12)

Live Worksheets
This website has helped with getting students more engaged since it is not a regular worksheet that you just fill in an answer. They can drag and drop word answers to questions, and sometimes those answers are pictures. (Kenneth O, 9-12)

National Geographic "Life" or "Lift"
We have just got samples of digital material- great for ESL students, Reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities are included. A lot of benefits who are transferring to ELA with text analysis. (Dovile F, 9-12)

Newsela
Newsela allows the user to choose articles or stories and adapt them to different reading levels. This is important in an ESL class because my students all have quite different capabilities, and this site allows me to meet their needs while challenging them at the same time. (Matthew W, 9-12)

Quizizz
This site aids in reviewing materials and serves as a great way to assess the students. The platform allows you to create different types of online assessments that provide instant feedback on how well your students understand a topic. This is especially useful for me when I get over vocabulary or grammar topics. (Matthew W, 9-12)

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
It has great listening activities, including idioms, gap-fill exercises, quizzes, games, and mixed-up sentence exercises. (Rachel K, 9-12)

Reading A - Z
The sites contain so many printable resources by literacy curriculum, leveled texts, foundational skills, etc. It has very useful tools for both ELA and English Learners. (Seunghye P, 9-12)

StudySync
This website gives readings, videos, and assignments to students. I use this for the ELL and ELA lessons. (Kenneth O, 9-12)

Teachers Pay Teachers
A platform where teachers can share class materials such as lesson plans, worksheets, assignments, slides, and posters. Anything you may need as a teacher that another teacher has already done and is willing to share or sell. (Karol N, 6-8)

The ESL Educator
This site is particularly a favorite of mine because I receive emails especially her "Two-Tip Tuesday" emails with tips and tricks for my ML students. It gives my ideas for introducing certain topics. (Alice G, K-5)

The Literacy Cookbook
It has a lot of resources to help my students prepare for standardized testing. Also, a great resource to strengthen reading and writing skills. (Rakeisha W, 9-12)

Using English
Tools for teachers and students alike looking for grammar and vocabulary practice. (Betty A, 6-8)

YouTube
YouTube is an amazing resource that I was afraid to use at first because I wasn't sure if it was too informal for the classroom. But the truth is, there are amazing educators on YouTube who share amazing content that is very useful and entertaining for students. One of my favorites is the Jack Hartmann channel. He makes fun educational videos with music. I used one to review sight words last week, and my students are still singing it! (Karol N, 6-8)

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