Finding good reading material for English language learners, especially for mid to lower level adult learners, can be quite difficult. The other day, Michael Griffin introduced us to Neil Millington, the co-creator of Dreamreader. I took a look over the website and I am impressed with what I have seen so far. It is still in the early stages of creation, but there is plenty of content and more still to come.
I thought I would take some time here to give you all an overview of the site and what it has to offer you as a teacher and also your students on their own.
At the top of the page, you have five options to choose from, including easy and academic English. Each lesson has a large image, an audio playback of the written questions, and interactive, multiple-choice questions. There are also a number of downloadable items such as printable versions of the page with answers and a separate audio file.
After doing the quiz, a button appears below the quiz that takes you to the score and answers.
Your answers and score then appear in a new window.
The printable handouts look a great deal like the page, but with the answers found along the bottom of the page.
Some lessons also incorporate a reading section and/or a video to watch.
For the academic English section, you will also find a vocabulary handout included with the lesson.
Overall, I think this is a good site for English language learners to practice their reading skills. In time, the site may evolve and add more components, but for now, I am already pretty impressed.
Nathan Hall 