Credit ESL Online Educational Resources (OER): Reading/Vocabulary

Includes pictures, videos, comprehension and discussion questions.

Includes pictures, vocabulary and writing questions.

This resource covers the majority of focus areas for a vocabulary and reading course. Inlcuded with the readings are exercises that test comprehension and recall, distinguishing main ideas from details, dictionary use (parts of speech, word families, etc.) predicting, skimming, and scanning. Numerous supplemental materials available. Geared toward international students.

There are 6 units offering L/S (including recordings) and G/W. Some useful videos can be found here. Not all are applicable to our courses.

Textbook is divided into eight sections for improving reading skills:
Vocabulary in Context
Finding the Main Idea
Identifying Supportive Sentences
Implied Main Idea
Making Inferences
Reading Infographics
Patterns of Organization
Purpose and Tone
Excellent Vocabulary Building: The key vocabulary comes from the Academic Word List (AWL). Each section begins with a list of key words and requires dictionary skills to find the word, identify the part of speech, copy the definition, and write an original sentence using the words. This is followed by further practice in a word puzzle and a crossword puzzle. The vocabulary is then presented in context of essays, poems, or articles and reinforced throughout the section.
Excellent Reading Skills Practice: The eight reading skills are presented clearly with engaging exercises, comprehension questions, and pair work activities.
The readings are academic and cover topics in politics, history, current events, and social issues. I found the readings interesting and relevant. Some examples of topics are conformity VS groupthink, bias in the news, the differences between the two major political parties in the US, stereotypes, racism, understanding graphs.
There is a teacher text with an answer key and a link to a free online learner’s dictionary. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xJ_3jUwpK3ssCSVEsy91LAKHbtdzc979/view

There is a slide show for each of the eight sections which help reinforce the ideas and provide additional practice and exercises. There are videos within the slides which support the theme of the section. One that I found particularly interesting was the video for section eight, purpose and tone. Students watch a set of movie previews and determine the purpose and tone of each preview.

"This book is the famous A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, slightly abridged to fulfill the needs of advanced English learners. The story is divided into four major Parts with each Part subdivided into different sections incorporating different exercises for comprehension, discussion, and analysis. Part I contains three scenes for students to practice roleplay. Vocabulary exercises are limited, but every new word is attached to its meaning in the footnote. In the online version you can hover the cursor over the hyperlink to view the meaning of each new word, or click back and forth between the footnote and the new word in the text without having to scan the text looking for a specific word. An innovative format used in this version is having “Stop and Check” plus “Discussion” questions in the middle of the text after every few paragraphs. The analyze questions at the end of each four major part is a good section for students to practice comprehension, implications, details, tone, and paraphrasing. Following the Analyze section, there are independent exercises in Parts two, three, and four for more discussion to personalize the text for the reader.
One drawback is the lack of close or multiple choice questions. Another downside is not having more vocabulary exercises. Finally, another flaw is the absence of an answer key.

Textbook has 8 units.
Vocabulary in Context; Finding the Main Idea; Identifying Supporting Details; Implied Main Ideas; Making Inferences; Reading Infographics; Patterns of Organization; Purpose and Tone