Yesterday, I made a wonderful discovery that I expect will dramatically reduce some of my lesson prep. time. It turns out that a few of my favorite online ESL materials for intermediate and advanced learners have selectable text that can be easily copied and pasted into a Braille or word processing program to make Braille or large print.
If the materials are downloaded as a .pdf file, you'll need to look for a text selection button like the one pictured on the right. If you don't see such a button, try downloading the following free program to give you more options with .pdf files.
Foxit PDF Reader for Windows:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
Then visit some of my favorite online ESL materials and try cutting and pasting the text into your Braille program or into a word processing program to increase the font size. If you have other favorite online resources, please post them in the comments section to share with others.
Online Resources with Selectable Text
- These short, simplified news stories are followed by a variety of listening, conversation, vocabulary, and comprehension activities. Some also include audio of the stories (in a British accent).
- Topics Magazine is a compilation of ESL students' writing. These are good examples of description and opinion essays, appropriate for intermediate and advanced learners.
- This is a great food and nutrition curriculum for Beginning to Advanced ESL students. It includes detailed teacher lesson plans and simple student worksheets.
