Chris Spackman ESOL Resources

Resources for English to Speakers of Other Languages teachers and students, and sometimes others.

News and Updates

Added Javascript pages to Educator Resources. These are small html pages, with fairly simple javascript, that might be helpful for students and teachers. The first is a simple vocabulary quiz.

Added A Young Lady's LLM Primer — a brief opinion article about Large Language Models as tutors for K-12 students. Young Lady's LLM: I also wrote a short story about LLM / AI agents for students.

Added very, very rough draft of my new book Basics of Working with English Learners (PDF only) in Educator Resources.

Accessibility — posters on how to design for students with various challenges.
Diagnostics — A few diagnostics I've developed for incoming students.
Enhanced Readings — readings to help students build background knowledge before (or in some cases, in place of) grade-level readings.
Javascript pages — small html pages, with fairly simple javascript, that might be helpful for students and teachers.
Know Your Rights — information to help teachers and families understand what schools are required to do to support students. Mostly about English Learner students at the moment.
Professional Development — Some resources from PD that I've lead.

Every Teacher's Guide to Technology^* — is my book about ways that educators can more effectively use technology in their jobs. It is not about ed-tech in the sense of sites that teachers might use with students or have students use in or out of class.
Every Sentient Beings' Guide to Password Security*sentient: Yes, sentient technically refers to the ability to feel, not think. But, most people don't use it that way, and most people, I think, are more familiar with sentient than with sapient. — is about passwords specifically, but also computer security more generally. Good resource for people who want to know more about what they can do to stay secure. Given the huge increases in ransomware attacks, educators should at least (IMHO) know to use a password manager and strong passwords.