Because the news videos are short, sweet, and designed for children, I think that they would be great for ELL's to practice listening and writing skills. I would ask my students to listen to one news podcast from this website per week and turn in a 7-10 sentence written response summarizing and discussing what they learned. Students could ask questions about the news and write about what surprised them or what they learned. Because reading/writing and listening/speaking usually go together, I think that using these podcasts to create a listening/writing ESL and social studies exercise is a great way to change things up.
SWBAT listen to the news with the purpose of relaying current events to others.
SWBAT ask questions about current events.
SWBAT summarize what they have heard in writing.
What is especially nice about this site is that you know the content is appropriate. Sometimes it is hard to work your way through news sites and make sure there is nothing that can be deemed inappropriate for your age group. We get the local newspaper delivered for a reading program once a week and there are things on the front page some weeks that I am not sure some parents of 6th graders would want them reading. This is nice in that way.
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