Teaching English: Online Reading & Resources

English teachers are a privileged lot. Of course, there is the poetry, the novels, the discussion, debate, philosophy, the odd spelling, the plays, the spell-binding craft of writing and the essential power of reading. Well, not only all that stuff – we also have some great online resources and bloggers. This compilation is an updated collection of websites for the busy but brilliant English teacher:

 

Useful English Language and Literature related websites:

#TeamEnglish has proven an indispensable hashtag on Twitter to help English teachers share resources, seek out answers and much more. Do have a scan. There is an account too: @Team_English1 

– Geoff Barton‘s website is a treasure trove of resources here.

The National Theatre website has some great packs for English teachers here.

The RSC online has some great Shakespeare-related resources here.

Lit Genius is a clever little website that presents lots of usable annotations of literature here.

Grammarly blog is a very useful website for all things – yes, grammar – see here.

Chomp Chomp is a well designed little grammar website full of a range of useful features here.

Litrefs Quotes is really handy in sourcing a range of academic quotes on literary terms – here.

Virtualsalt is ideal for a list of rhetorical devices literary terms and word roots and prefixes.

– The NATE website has lots of free resources here and is a highly valued organization.

Poetry by Heart has some useful resources here and is a valuable initiative.

Merriam Webster, purveyors of American dictionaries have some great articles and more here.

EyewitnessHistory presents a really useful range of 20th century texts here.

– The English and Media Centre blog is an excellent resource with great articles – see here.

Interesting Literature is a library of interestingness that lives up to the title – here.

– A range of exceedingly good English teachers have gathered a vast array of debating topics here in ‘The Debate Bazaar‘.

– The same group have also helpfully collated essay titles in this huge ‘Essay Emporium‘.

 

English examination boards:

In direct competition, the English exam boards do appear to be getting better at communicating and sharing useful resources. You can find them all here: AQA, OCR, Edexcel and WJEC. Also, #teameduqas is a handy follow for those teachers whose schools follow that specification.

 

Recommended English-specific blogs:

There are a huge number of blogs that I would recommend for general teaching and learning, but here is just a small selection of more English-specific blogs that are regularly updated and focus on matters of teaching English:

Andy Tharby‘s ReflectingEnglish blog is an superbly written resource for fellow English teachers.

Chris CurtisLearningfrommymistakes blog is unadulterated English blogging goodness.

Sarah Barker‘s excellent blog, The Stable Oyster is worth cracking open to pick out pearls (sorry).

Rebecca Foster‘s The Learning Profession has accrued a wealth of good English blogs.

Jamie Thom‘s new blog Teacher Gratitude is a handy new blog.

Rob Ward‘s blog – Rob Ward’s Resources has really cracking resources that I’ve shared.

Mark Robert‘s blog Mark Roberts Teach produces some of the blogs I regularly share.

Douglas Wise‘s douglaswise.co.uk has some really good blogs, especially the literacy shorts.

– Freya Odell‘s anewhoffod is a blog with a wealth of linked resource you can tap into.

David Didau‘s LearningSpy blog is stuffed full of English, literacy and much more.

Larry Ferlazzo‘s Websites of the Day is an immensely vast site from an ace US blogger.

Mr Hanson‘s site Mr Hanson’s English has lots of literary insights for English teachers.

Mr Pink – obviosuly a Twitter handle has the website All Ears which takes a witty slant on English.

Mrs C Spalding‘s Teacher’s Notes blog has a great page on teaching & learning with useful ideas.

Jo Facer‘s Reading All The Books is an enlivening source of passionate blogs on English & reading.

– Carl Hendrick is an English teacher with a great blog Chronotope with an fancy title.

Jonathan Peel‘s English Teaching Resources blog is another site with lots of usable resources.

There are so many good blogs I simply didn’t have the space to include – this is simply a sample (apologies if I have missed any obvious blogs). Any other suggestions are welcome in the comments section. Remember, you can chat to some of these lovely people on a Monday might at 8pm using the hashtag #Engchatuk.

 

Interesting Video Nuggets:

– This animation on the ‘History of the English Language‘ is a really handy resource to use in English at all levels.

Stephen Pinker has a range of intriguing videos on language on the Big Think Channel – including how language proves a window to understanding the brain.

James Geary has produced an interesting talk on the magic of metaphor in his ‘Metaphorically Speaking‘.

Click Revision is a general revision website that covers a range of popular texts – see here.

David Crystal – likely the expert on the English language – has a range of superb videos on YouTube, but here he talks about spelling with ‘Spell It Out‘.

Dominic Salles has a huge amount of English related videos and is worth a look – see here.

 

 

Hopefully you find the rest of my blog readable and useful, alongside my book on teaching English, ‘Teach Now! Becoming a Great English Teacher‘, too. Of course, after you have sunk hours into all that reading, have a great year ahead!

8 thoughts on “Teaching English: Online Reading & Resources”

  1. Pingback: Teaching English: Online Reading & Resources | art + education + museums

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  3. Pingback: Links to great English sites | Driffield School and Sixth Form Teaching and Learning Blog

  4. Maria Dolors, from Barcelona

    I love your site. Incredibly enriching for teachers. Thanks for sharing your precious knowledge and tips.

  5. Pingback: Lusapucahy | Pearltrees

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