TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Aug 9, 2020
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to go to the Featured Sites Archive
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Camp BOOK IT! - Pizza Hut
Grades
K to 6
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Camp BOOK IT! is a summer home reading program where students in grades K-6 earn monthly rewards for achieving reading goals. After enrolling in the program, parents use the digital...more
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Camp BOOK IT! is a summer home reading program where students in grades K-6 earn monthly rewards for achieving reading goals. After enrolling in the program, parents use the digital dashboard to track their student's reading progress during June, July, and August. Move the slider to certify completion of the preset goal to receive a certificate to redeem at Pizza Hut for a personal pan pizza. Other features found on this site include a series of ongoing articles with activities and book recommendations along with activity kits and calendars to track reading.
tag(s): independent reading (115)
In the Classroom
Share Camp BOOK IT! with parents to encourage reading over the summer months. Use this program as an opportunity to collaborate with parents to engage students in reading by providing a reading list for students that includes books that appeal to your students. Use Padlet, reviewed here, to share suggested titles of books for students, and use the stream feature to organize the titles into different categories. Encourage students to add comments to your Padlet, sharing their book reviews. Enhance your students' summer reading experience by creating a topic using FlipGrid, reviewed here, and ask students to contribute video book talks discussing their reading. Another idea is to create a Summer Bingo topic. Attach a Bingo form to your Flipgrid topic with different squares to complete. Ideas might be reading a biography, starting a new book series, or sharing a book with a friend.
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Clever Crazes for Kids - Building Healthy Lives Foundation
Grades
K to 8
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Clever Crazes for Kids is a kid-friendly website devoted to sharing education enrichment resources aligned to state and Common Core Standards. This site features game-based learning...more
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Clever Crazes for Kids is a kid-friendly website devoted to sharing education enrichment resources aligned to state and Common Core Standards. This site features game-based learning activities based upon STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) concepts and content. Additional activities provide foundations in English language learning skills for ELL/ESL students. Play games as a guest or create a free account to save favorites and earn points. Download the Toolkit for Educators (PDF) to find an overview of the site's offerings and suggested curriculum uses.
tag(s): game based learning (157), preK (288), STEM (219)
In the Classroom
Add games found on Clever Crazes for Kids to others shared on classroom computers. Encourage students to participate in games by earning points. Have students document and extend their learning by sharing screenshots of accomplishments and by screen recording student reading sessions to demonstrate progress. Use Seesaw, reviewed here, as a digital portfolio to document progress and share student learning with parents.
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Book Club for Kids - Kitty Felde
Grades
5 to 9
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Book Club for Kids is a free, weekly 20-minute podcast for middle school students. Each podcast includes a discussion of a favorite book along with an author interview and celebrity...more
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Book Club for Kids is a free, weekly 20-minute podcast for middle school students. Each podcast includes a discussion of a favorite book along with an author interview and celebrity reading. In addition to the podcasts, this site offers a variety of information for students and educators, and parents. Select the link for librarians, teachers, and parents to find curriculum guides for several books. Choose the sections with "Writers on Writing" to discover in-depth conversations with several authors. Podcasts are available on most popular podcasting sites.
tag(s): authors (119), book lists (135), book reports (34), literature (258), podcasts (62)
In the Classroom
This tremendous resource is a must-have for all middle school classrooms and libraries! Share the podcasts with students not only to learn about the latest books but also to learn how to improve public speaking skills, learn about the author's techniques and tips, and discover how to share informative book reports. Subscribe to the podcast and have students listen to weekly presentations during center times or as a class. Share the "Books We Love" portion of the site on your class webpage for students to use when looking for reading material. Ask your school librarian to share these podcasts in the media center and look into ordering books of interest to your students. As students learn from these podcasts, ask them to use what they learned to create their podcasts to share with classmates and your school. Have students use organizers found on ReadWriteThink, reviewed here, to organize and plan for their podcasts and book reviews. Help students visualize their written work by creating word clouds with Wordsift, reviewed here, to focus on commonly-used terms within their text and evaluate their usefulness. As a final project, help your students create and produce ongoing podcasts sharing their book reviews with peers. Buzzsprout, reviewed here, and Anchor, reviewed here, both provide free podcasting tools.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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BeeLine Reader Collection - Reading is Fundamental
Grades
K to 12
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Improve reading and comprehension skills for all students and adults with this BeeLine Reader Collection on Literacy Central. Find over 100 books and stories as downloadable PDFs, all...more
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Improve reading and comprehension skills for all students and adults with this BeeLine Reader Collection on Literacy Central. Find over 100 books and stories as downloadable PDFs, all using BeeLine Reader technology to highlight and wrap text to improve focusing and tracking while reading. Use the leveled reading passages within Reading is Fundamental for multiple grade levels and books. Find additional support materials for each book, including author interviews, lesson plans, crosswords, and word searches all as downloadable PDFs. Though Beeline Reader is not usually a free tool, Literacy Central is providing it to its members for free through these PDFs. You do not need to create a free membership to use these materials, only to save them as a favorite. Learn more about the Beeline Reader tool and how it improves reading comprehension by watching the YouTube video introduction on this page.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (174), independent reading (115), reading comprehension (134), reading strategies (65), Special Needs (44)
In the Classroom
These BeeLine Reader PDFs are an excellent addition to the already valuable reading materials found at Reading is Fundamental - Literacy Central, reviewed here. Be sure to bookmark this site to find leveled reading passages with the enhanced function of BeeLine Reader. These PDFs are wonderful to share with ESL/ELL and Special Education specialists to use with their students. Remember, all teachers are reading teachers. Share this tool with your science, social studies, and math teachers, too!
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Read Ahead - Full Tilt Ahead, LLC
Grades
3 to 12
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Transform any text into a guided reading activity presentation using vocabulary, keywords, and phrases with Read Ahead. Create a presentation highlighting critical components of a text...more
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Transform any text into a guided reading activity presentation using vocabulary, keywords, and phrases with Read Ahead. Create a presentation highlighting critical components of a text passage by choosing keywords or phrases, add your vocabulary list, or use the Smart Skimmer to select items automatically. When complete, your presentation shares featured words and terms with readers before beginning to read the text. Share with students using the created link or through social media links.
tag(s): literacy (111), reading comprehension (134), vocabulary (292), vocabulary development (110)
In the Classroom
Include Read Ahead with your other resources for teaching vocabulary. Read Ahead is perfect for introducing any reading passage to struggling readers, special education students, and ESL/ELL learners. Create presentations for articles found in science or social studies materials to prepare students for difficult vocabulary and phrases. Take advantage of this site to use reading material with your students that might otherwise be above their reading level. Instead of asking students to use vocabulary in sentences to demonstrate understanding, ask them to use the words to create digital stories using an online tool like Book Creator, reviewed here. Book Creator can be used for a variety of assignments in any classroom that is integrating technology as an enhancement, modification, or transformation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Edji - Will Stewart
Grades
6 to 12
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Edji is a collaborative classroom reading tool that offers options for you to interact with text. Use this site to share text, then have readers highlight and add written and ...more
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Edji is a collaborative classroom reading tool that offers options for you to interact with text. Use this site to share text, then have readers highlight and add written and audio comments to portions of text. Also, use Edji to allow readers to add comments within pictures, even selecting a specific part of an image to share a response. Create your account to start a new reading using your email or Google account. Use security features to make readings public or private and choose from grade level options. Type or paste text and use options to insert images or PDF's. Create a group for sharing, and Edji provides a URL and code for students to access your work. Use the Heat Vision feature to view the finished product with highlights and comments shared by all readers.
tag(s): reading comprehension (134), reading strategies (65), writing (357)
In the Classroom
Be sure to check out the Guide link, at the bottom of the page, on Edji to see lesson ideas and tips for using Edji in the classroom. Create an Edji with an introductory passage for a new unit and share with students. Ask them to highlight, comment, and ask questions about the information and use as a pre-assessment tool. Use Edji to create quick and easy writing prompts and starters - upload an image and ask students to share adjectives and interesting verbs to use in their writing. Use Edji to create peer response tools when sharing student writing.Edge Features:
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Reading Strategies Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12
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This curated list of reviewed resources includes teaching ideas and sites to promote proven reading strategies of effective readers. Find engaging texts to use as your class focuses...more
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This curated list of reviewed resources includes teaching ideas and sites to promote proven reading strategies of effective readers. Find engaging texts to use as your class focuses on a particular strategy as well as professional resources to improve your own understanding of this research-based approach to building literacy skills. Don't miss "In the classroom" ideas for specific projects or ideas for before, during, and after reading.
tag(s): reading comprehension (134), reading strategies (65)
In the Classroom
Find new tools and reading strategies to share with your students. Share this list on your class website for families to use at home. This list includes resources for young readers and secondary students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Twitter Chat: Strategies and Resources for Early Reading - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12
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This archived Twitter chat is from May 2017 and will open in Wakelet. The topic of this chat is Strategies and Resources for Early Reading. If you teach emergent readers ...more
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This archived Twitter chat is from May 2017 and will open in Wakelet. The topic of this chat is Strategies and Resources for Early Reading. If you teach emergent readers or beginning readers, view this archive. Browse the strategies offered by the chat moderators and participants.
tag(s): professional development (248), reading strategies (65), twitterchatarchive (89)
In the Classroom
Do you teach beginner readers? Check out this archived chat for tools and tips to use in your classroom. Share this tool with your colleagues interested in learning more tips and tools to use in emergent reading lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Booklist: Adventures in Summer - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12
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This collection of books is all about summer! Summertime brings many adventures: vacations, camp, wild weather, fireworks, and more! Travel aboard a cruise ship, explore a mysterious...more
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This collection of books is all about summer! Summertime brings many adventures: vacations, camp, wild weather, fireworks, and more! Travel aboard a cruise ship, explore a mysterious island, learn about summer weather, meet some tiny creatures living in hotels, and make this a summer reading adventure to remember. This collection of books offers both fiction and information texts. CurriConnects thematic book lists include ISBN numbers for ordering or searching, interest grade levels, ESL levels and Lexiles'''® to match student independent reading levels to challenge, not frustrate. For more on text complexity and Lexiles'''®, see this information from the Lexile Framework. Don't miss other CurriConnects themes being added regularly. If your library does not have the books, try interlibrary loan!
tag(s): book lists (135), independent reading (115), summer (10)
In the Classroom
This collection is perfect to share with students (and families) prior to the summer break. Keep minds fresh during the summer. Allow students (or partners) to choose their own book. If you want to "spice" up your final month of school, allow students to start summer (in their minds). These books provide experience with both fiction and nonfiction informational texts. They often require students to draw inferences about the "facts." Allow students (or partners) to choose their own book. Share this list with your school library/media specialist or public library, as well, for them to "pull" books in support of your end of school-year reading. Extend the experience by having students create visual presentations of the concepts they learn. Challenge students to create a presentation using Prezi (reviewed here) or Zoho Show (similar to Powerpoint, but easier and free) - reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Story Shares - Louise Baigelman and Gary Herman
Grades
6 to 12
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Story Share is the perfect solution for finding relevant and readable content for older students unable to read above the elementary level. Digital content provides interesting material...more
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Story Share is the perfect solution for finding relevant and readable content for older students unable to read above the elementary level. Digital content provides interesting material that doesn't condescend to teen readers. Browse through titles or choose from the different genres to find available material. Login isn't required to read books. However, it allows you to add books to a reading list and to bookmark the stopping point while reading books.
tag(s): book lists (135), differentiation (56), digital storytelling (148), ebooks (35), reading comprehension (134)
In the Classroom
Introduce this site to your reluctant or struggling readers on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups to find interesting reading material. Be sure to provide a link to Story Share on your class website or blog for students to explore at home. Use this site to differentiate for students of all levels and for use with special education or ESL/ELL students. Have students write their own comprehension questions and answers based on the podcast to check their own comprehension and to exchange with classmates.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Just Free Books - justfreebooks.info
Grades
2 to 12
4 Favorites
0 Comments
This site is an aggregator for most of the known digital libraries including Gutenberg, Google Books, Wikibooks, and archive.org. Entering search terms like "children's books," for...more
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This site is an aggregator for most of the known digital libraries including Gutenberg, Google Books, Wikibooks, and archive.org. Entering search terms like "children's books," for example, leads to a list of links that offer free online reads. Other features include books in other formats including those that upload to many different players including PDF, TXT, MS Reader, MS Word and ODT, RTF, Palm Reader eBooks, Html, Epub, Kindle, Mobipocket, Isilo, Audio books, Plucker, and more. Besides searching in "only English," you can also select Spanish, French, and/or Portuguese to search for books in those languages. In addition to the digital collection, there are also featured, donated books.
tag(s): book lists (135), literature (258)
In the Classroom
Offer this site to students who wish to use digital devices to read. Keep in mind that many of the selections are older, in the public domain due to the expiration of copyright. ESL/ELL and SPED students may benefit from being able to hear or see books in a different way. Use these texts as language to analyze or manipulate on your interactive whiteboard to teach reading comprehension skills, parts of speech, transition words, vocabulary study, and writing style. Allow students to copy/paste text into the whiteboard software so they can "work with words" from literary works instead of worksheets.
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Bookshare: Books without Barriers - Bookshare
Grades
2 to 12
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This site allows FREE access to a number of books, newspapers, and magazines, all using adaptive technology. After a free registration (available to participants with documented limited...more
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This site allows FREE access to a number of books, newspapers, and magazines, all using adaptive technology. After a free registration (available to participants with documented limited vision), members can download books, textbooks, and newspapers in a compressed, encrypted file. They then read the material using adaptive technology, typically software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen, or Braille access devices, such as refreshable Braille displays. The advantage to this site is that it offers newer books and other written materials than many other online digital libraries. Besides written items, a number of videos are available which assist or focus on typical Bookshare users, many featuring them as success stories. A special page of information for teachers with limited vision students includes information such as other resources, reading lists, and handouts.
tag(s): disabilities (24), vision (78)
In the Classroom
If you have students with limited vision or certain specific qualifying learning disabilities in your class, be sure to save this useful resource in your favorites. List this link on your class website or wiki or email it to parents of these children. If possible, share this site with those teachers working with students with limited vision and qualifying disabilities.
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Kids Press - Kid Reporters' Notebook - Scholastic, Inc.
Grades
1 to 8
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Find news articles, written by kids, for elementary students (perfect for practicing reading and understanding informational text). Kids Press offers news on current events nationwide...more
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Find news articles, written by kids, for elementary students (perfect for practicing reading and understanding informational text). Kids Press offers news on current events nationwide and in the writer's hometown. This site features easy-to-read news articles and articles of general interest. In addition, you and your interested students can apply to become a Kid Reporter. Since 10 to 14-year-old children write many of the stories, they offer a unique perspective on current events.
tag(s): news (259)
In the Classroom
Put a link on your teacher web page for parents and students to access Kids Press at home or in study times at school. Preview the site to determine which news stories best suit your curriculum and the age of your students. Younger classes may need help reading some of the articles: use a projector so the news story can be read aloud as students follow along. Have younger students create a simple word cloud using Word Cloud for Kids, reviewed here, and older students create an infographic sharing their "new" news knowledge using Venngage, reviewed here. Enhance learning by having students practice writing their own "News for Kids by Kids" for a classroom publication using Ourboox, reviewed here. Ourboox creates beautiful page-flipping digital books in minutes, and you can embed video, music, animation, games, maps, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TogetheRead - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12
5 Favorites
1 Comments
Share family reading and activities around a monthly theme using this outstanding series by our partner site, TogetherForLearning. Interwoven into each TogetheRead theme are questions...more
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Share family reading and activities around a monthly theme using this outstanding series by our partner site, TogetherForLearning. Interwoven into each TogetheRead theme are questions and activities based on reading strategies for effective readers. Parents and children of all ages can select books from the annotated lists, read together, and do related free or low-cost activities. Written in language understandable to parents and without education "jargon" so familiar to teachers, these themes will help any child become a better reader and enjoy sharing family time. Books are grouped into age bands: preschool/picture books, early elementary, upper elementary to middle school, upper middle school to young adult, and mature teen to adult books. Activities accompany each age group, and participants can contribute their own activity suggestions, as well.
tag(s): independent reading (115), parents (58)
In the Classroom
Share this link on your teacher web page or in a newsletter. You might even talk to your parent organization about promoting TogetheRead as a whole-school activity. Maybe even host a TogetheRead family evening in the gym or library.Comments
Such a terrific site for everything from thematic material to ideas for comprehension and extensions. Reflection embedded here, too!Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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