Websites For Working With Older Students

I am always asked for ideas, materials, and resources for working with older students.  It can be challenging to find activities that keep them motivated.  How many times can you work on curriculum vocabulary and practice test questions?  Sometimes you need to change it up!

I was fortunate to have a Smart Board when I have worked with Middle & High School students.  Below is a list of websites I used often with them.  Do you need a Smart Board?  Not at all!  I have also had students sit around a desk top computer or brought students into the computer lab/library so they could each have their own computers for some of these activities.  These websites are not specifically designed for speech & language but can be easily adapted to meet your needs!

ePals:
You can link up with another class of students from around the country/world.  You can even find another speech group to have "pen pals."  Some want to Skype  some want to just email.  You can work on social skills, writing, and so much more!

WebQuests:
You can easily make your own or search through these ready made internet scavenger hunts.  It teaches students how to use the internet and locate specific information.  There are TONS available if you Google "webquests"!

Language Arts Games for Grades 7-12
This website contains a ton of interactive games ready to go to work on a variety of skills such as multiple meaning words, suffixes, irregular verbs and punctuation.

Discovery Channel Young Scientists
This website has great video clips that your students will find interesting.  You can work on auditory comprehension, vocabulary, cause/effect, and more while learning some fun science facts!

eField Trips
This site seems to be down at the moment but hopefully it will be up and running again soon.  This website is great for pretending to go on field trips that could never really happen.  You can work in preparing for the field trips (what will you need, what they think they will see/learn, etc.).  You can also work on sequencing, creative thinking/imagination, auditory comprehension, building vocabulary, and life skills.

National Geographic Kids
Have fun learning new information with your students.  You can work on vocabulary/context clues, higher level questioning, predicting, and so much more!  You can even elicit conversation based on information learned!

Science Review Games
I recommend this one more with high school students working on answering academic test questions.  The various type of science courses are provided with fun games.  Not going to lie, my students had so much trouble answering these questions and I had a hard time helping them.  But we had fun trying work on identifying key words in the questions to help them locate answers in their class notes.  The fun interactive game piece was motivating enough.  They kept asking to play this game over and over!  There is an option to "create your own game" by clicking HERE.  I have yet to try it but hope to in the future!  This website is a great one to recommend in a workshop to classroom teachers!

Time for Kids
Work on understanding and learning current events with this child-friendly news site.

Monster Exchange
Work on reading, writing, visualization, creativity, and social skills with this fun program!  Classrooms can be paired together and students design their own monsters.  "The students must then write a description of the monster. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail and the Internet. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture. The true challenge involves creating a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster."  Your students will LOVE this one!! Don't want to be apart of the exchange? You can view some student creations, read the descriptions to your students and see if they can draw the closest picture to the image provided by a student.  Your students will love it because the picture and written descriptions are from other students and not teachers!

I hope you find this list helpful as you plan for a brand new school year!!  My older students LOVED these websites and I know yours will too!!  Did I forget any other great websites?!  Feel free to comment below so we can all share!!