Mote for Multilingual Learners - Recorded Webinar

Recently I had the privilege to offer a free online session for the Teacher Innovation Network "EdTech Playground" where the theme was ways technology can support multilingual learners.

For my portion of the session I presented about the Chrome extension Mote and how it can be used in the multilingual classroom. Here is a description of my session:

Marvelous Mote Activities for Schools

Mote is a free Chrome extension that lets you and your students record your voices and insert the audio into most all Google tools. In Docs this can be used to provide recorded directions, add personalized feedback, and practice fluency. In Slides this is the simplest way to embed audio in your presentations. In Forms you can use Mote to add audio to your questions, but also for students to record and submit their answers. Mote can also be used in Classroom, Gmail, and much more. Learn how you and your students can use this awesome extension to enhance teaching and learning with audio

The other presenter was Brian Lopez who covered using Flip for multilingual learners.

The Teacher Innovation Network was kind enough to make the recorded video available for people to view if they were not able to attend the live session. See below to watch the recording, as well as access the resources I shared in the session.

Self-Checking Translation Quiz in Google Sheets

I have always wanted to improve my proficiency in other languages. Back in high school (many, many years ago) I took four years of French. I can still say "I have a red pencil" … "J'ai un crayon rouge" … but not a whole lot more.

Thankfully Google has a lot of great translation tools that can help you when learning a new language, from the Google Translate website, to the Google Translate extension, to the Google Translate mobile app (Android or iOS), and on and on.

However, I was wanting to find a tool that could be used as a self-checking translation quiz when practicing a different language. I ended up creating this tool with Google Sheets. This sheet allows you to test yourself on translating words or sentences into a different language, and gives you hints as needed if you get stuck.

This could be helpful for an English Language Learner to enter words in their language and then practice translating into English, or for an English-speaking student to test themselves on a language they are learning in school, or for anyone to practice any other language.

See below to get your own free copy of this self-checking translation quiz template, as well as a short 9-minute video tutorial on how to use it, and some written directions.

Google Tools for English Language Learners

Parlez vous Google? More and more it is becoming common for schools to serve students who do not speak English as their primary language. Thankfully there are many technology tools that can help bridge that gap and help increase communication and understanding.

These resources can include:

• Translation tools
• Speech-to-text tools
• Text-to-speech tools
• Dictionary tools
• Summarization tools
• Screencasting tools
• And more!

Below you will find an overview of several tools to consider using with English Language Learners, or ELL students. I will continue to add new ideas to this list overtime, and would also love to hear suggestions from you. If you know of tools that have been helpful for ELL students, please consider sharing them in the comments at the bottom of this post.