How to Review a Website

Critique Example and Questions
In-Depth Website Review.docx (160.023 Kb)
Remember you DO NOT have to address all the questions in a 
question/answer format; this is just a guide for your review. 

Who is the target audience? 
What level of ESL students can use this site? 
Is the site interactive? 
What specific content does the site have? 
What happens when you use it? 
Did you change your impression of it once you tried it? 
What skills does it focus on? 
How will you use this as a teacher? 
How will students benefit from using this site? 
How would you integrate such a site into your lesson plan? 
Why do you like some of the activities? Is the site updated often? 
Are there any concerns, you might have in regards to using the site? 

Website for Review for Class  

The follow websites are recommended resources for adult ESL.

Poets.org (from the Academy of American Poets)
http://www.poets.org
This is searchable database of poems and information about famous American poets. It can be used as a resource for teachers to find texts, but also has audiocasts that change every week that can be used as teaching resources. There is also a link to poetry events in cities across the country. A rich and interesting resource!

NYPIRG
http://www.nypirg.org 
The New York Public Interest Research Group has databases of information and maps with census data, demographic information, about New York City. The searchable maps are useful teaching tools.

Adult Literacy at CUNY 
http://www.literacy.cuny.edu/
This site is an overview aimed at students that provides resources and information on free CUNY-based adult ESL programs. This could be used as a resource to help students search the web for practical information and scanning for numbers, addresses, etc.

Family Literacy Program Locator
http://208.109.98.44/LACweb/Search.aspx 
This is an interactive site that provides students with a way to search for programs with different profiles. It is practical and can be used as a means to help students practice navigating databases on the web and finding information.

Wikispaces -- Wikis for Everyone
http://www.wikispaces.com/ 
A simple and free way for students to practice making their own web pages. Linked to Wikipedia, this site provides a free public forum for students to publish

Funbrain
http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html
Simple practical fun on-line games to help students practice spelling, math, and reading. Good, simple fun.

Awesome Stories: Movies
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/
A resource that is dense and a bit overwhelming, but can be useful with selected use, contains background information, historical overviews, and story outlines about popular movies that can then be used in instruction.

KidsVid
http://kidsvid.altec.org/
This video production tool site contains resources useful for any classroom involved in creating video projects, including storyboarding, editing, video production tips. Not for the faint of heart, but useful.

Arcademic Skill Builders
http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/
These single and multiplayer games require Flash Player but are simple and straightforward and give students practice in math and vocabulary as well as building reading fluency. Free and easy.

Grammar
http://www.dailygrammar.com/
A simple website not designed for ESL students but that provides grammar practice. Daily activities change and are easily accessible.

Greeting Cards: Jacque Lawson
http://www.jacquielawson.com/
One of many free or low-cost services that allow students to create and send their own greeting cards. Good practice for students to learn about holidays, cultural practices, and use simple writing skills.

Channel Thirteen
http://www.thirteen.org
Enables students to search for resources and background information on a variety of programs on public television. A very rich website, with text, audio and video resources.

Discovery School
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/
An almost overwhelming amount of information with resources for educators. Puzzlemakers, lesson plans, methodology, you name it, you can find it on this site.

For Teacher PD: Captured Wisdom
http://www.ncrtec.org/pd/cw/adultlit.htm
More for teacher professional development than for students, this resource provides excellent examples of uses of technology in project-based settings in adult education settings. Videos, teacher lesson plans, and interviews with teachers about each of the projects make for good resources for teachers to use some of the same ideas in their own classroom

In-Depth review (critique)

Poets.org is an authentic website updated daily, developed by the Academy of American Poets, designed with a native English-speaking audience in mind, hence it is not an instructional website. Nonetheless, as a site with authentic language and useful culturally-based texts from English-speaking countries, poets.org is a valuable instructional tool.

Included in Poets.org are sections with texts, resources, audience and references.  In the Poets & Poetry section are subsections with extensive biographical and historical information on poets (going back as far as Virgil and and recent as Billy Collins), a listing of "currently most popular poets," essays, audio, etc.  There is also a subsection on writing, "donate" (about membership and publications, about us, for educators (with tips on teaching writing and poetry) and a "poetry near you" section that includes information on poets from each state in the US. The homepage also includes a searchable database (by poet or poem), a featured book of poetry (the current book at the time of this writing is Poems about the Underworld (as relates to Halloween), and a featured quote.

The site is extremely rich with resources that, if used well, can help students explore a poet, a theme, or reinforce reading, speaking, listening and writing.  Students can not only read poems by certain poets, but can hear audio where poets read their own poems, a powerful classroom tool to build reading and listening comprehension. This provides for a variety of accents, voices, and historical reference points.


As a teacher, I would approach this site in two ways -- one to use poems as writing prompts to get my own students to approach writing and poetry with some inspiration. They can read and hear poems and react to them with free writes.  I would choose poems with specific themes that we will introduce in class with some pre-reading and pre-writing activities, and then have students read and hear poems, react to them, and then write their own.  I would add to the technology use of this site by selecting audio files of simple poems and asking students to memorize them and recite them (this was a powerful tool for me when I was learning German and Spanish).  A second approach would be to study a specific poet and read about his/her life, place of birth, historical period, and poetry ( e.g. Langston Hughes, Harlem Renaissance, etc.) and use the site for resources.

Too often the texts we use with students are dry and textbook-based. Poets.org provides emotive, powerful language that is complex but not always syntax-bound. It helps students explore how English is used in creative ways, provides cultural background on some of the most important figures in American literature, and ....

On this site, an advanced search results in poems classified, by theme (mothers, love, death, love and passion) or by media type, poet, keyword.  This enables students to be able to conduct their own guided searches and do some research.

My concerns with this site are that the teacher be well-prepared and select poems with themes and language accessible to students, and that it be a bridge to students' own writing. I’m not entirely sure that a teacher who is not already a literature love will be able to navigate around this, but I believe that with the theme-based searching even poet-o-phobes would be able to find poetry that is fun and accessible and useful for incorporation into many thematic units. This site could be overwhelming, but with the resources on pedagogy, history, and practice, it would seem that almost any teacher could start and any point and come up with some good ideas and useful resources.

My greatest hope for this site would be that it will expose students to authentic literature in ways that are inspiring and accessible, and help classroom teachers move beyond tradebooks and worksheets. The use of web and audio technology can be great scaffolds for students and supports in listening, and likely inspire students new to technology.