Simplifying Tools
Simple Wikipedia
This helpful trick is useful for anyone who wants a quick, simple overview of any subject. You can go to www.simple.wikipedia.org, or you can just replace the "en" on any wikipedia article to "simple", and the page will be condensed for quick, easy reading. It takes complicated subjects and pares them down to one or two topic sentences--a great trick for ESL students.
Text Compactor
A great tool for taking large chunks of information and cutting it down to the essentials. I used this in my own studies to take giant articles and condense them to a few sentences for easy consumption. You can choose if you want one sentence or a couple paragraphs and this website is incredibly intuitive at knowing what is important and what is not.
LexTutor Vocab Profile
If you enter text into this program it will tell instruct you as to the level of your text. It will pick out higher level words and give you an overall rating as to the reading level of your text. This is effective if you wish to simplify your text and don't know what words might be challenging. It can also help you decide if a text is at an appropriate level for your students.
Breaking News English
This website takes current events and simplifies them so that they can be easily understood by ESL students. It allows you to take an article and change the reading level so anyone is able to read it. This is great if you wish to keep your ESL students up on current events but do not want to lose them with complex vocabulary.