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Literature-Map - Marek Gibney
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): authors (105), literature (218), movies (51)
In the Classroom
While this is a free site, in order to participate in all its functions, each student will need to sign up for a "flork" account which is open to worldwide use and discussion forums. Teachers may want to limit student use to the content that does not require membership or use a whole-class account created by the teacher. This site could be used with an interactive whiteboard or projector to illustrate how author selection works and show relationships between similar authors. Students may search individually for new authors. In higher level literature classes, ask students to explain why certain authors are shown as similar. What similarities do they see? Have students use this question as a prompt for a blog post or full expository writing piece.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Literature Project - Literature Project
Grades
5 to 12The project states that they are currently working on literature forums, which may be useful for students in discussing literature once it becomes available.
tag(s): literature (218), speech (66)
In the Classroom
Use this site to assign reading of classic texts and stories. Students will benefit since they do not have to access actual books. As the site boasts, it is more "environmentally friendly"! Students may want to use the topic sites to research for class reports, glogs or other projects. Use classic texts from this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Either copy/paste for some quick electronic text or simply open the actual web page. Use the passages to annotate and explore literary devices, examine sentence/paragraph structure, or analyze writing style or context clues for vocabulary, having students use whiteboard tools to explain their analysis or present their own thoughts about the literature. This site is also a great place to "grab" passages of text and paste them into a graphic word cloud-maker such as WordClouds, reviewed here. With electronic text, you can easily compare the writing style of two or more authors or poets in a snap. Invite students to create visual interpretations of text passages, illustrating themes or motifs using a tool such as Canva, reviewed here.Electronic text can also be "read aloud" by text-to-speech software on your computer, assisting those who may have weaker reading skills.
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Microbes - Microbes.info
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
During discussion of the Kingdom Monera, learn more about bacteria and our health with these articles which many will find informative and interesting. Consider creating blog posts or newsletter articles that can be shared between classes. Identify the common misconceptions of the role of bacteria in our lives. Create a class bacteria wiki. Learn more about wikis at the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through. These text articles can also be copied easily to your interactive whiteboard software for practice with science notetaking, main idea, summarizing, and more as part of content area reading practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Visual Thesaurus Vocab Grabber - Thinkmap,Inc.
Grades
3 to 12There are additional features if you choose to subscribe, particularly the Visual Thesaurus interactive word maps, which can be saved and printed, and an online edition in multiple languages for English-speaking students learning other languages and ESL/ELL students.
tag(s): maps (207), reading comprehension (142), synonyms (17), vocabulary (236), writing (317)
In the Classroom
Teachers and students can use the VocabGrabber on an interactive whiteboard, projector, or individual computers to highlight vocabulary specific to a literary work or curricular subject area, to improve reading comprehension by choosing key concepts and literary terms, and to build background knowledge for a given text. As an added benefit, have students click on the VocabGrabber when typing their own assignments such as a poem or an essay, to avoid repeating the same word. They simply type in a word and generate a list of synonyms and more descriptive words. VocabGrabber enables students to see how words are used in context, instead of memorizing word lists. Additionally, VocabGrabber is extremely helpful for students preparing for standardized tests. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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LearnEnglish Kids - British Council
Grades
3 to 12The categories on the site include "Play a game," "Print some activities to do," "Listen to a song," "Read a story," "Practice your writing," and "Find lots more activities." AND, each one of these categories is multi-leveled.
In the Classroom
This extensive site will make the life of the ESL, ELL, or remedial reading teacher so much easier! Though intended for ESL/ELL teachers, this site can be used by any teacher who is teaching elementary reading and writing. It would also be good for remedial readers. In some parts, i.e. the interactives, you may want to pair up a proficient reader with the ESL/ELL student or remedial reader. The reading of the stories could be done with a projector or interactive whiteboard for a small group or the whole class, and then small groups of students could brainstorm the writing prompts at the end on an interactive white board. Share some of the activities with parents, as well, for at home practice with ESL/ELL students and their family members. Be sure to include this link on your class website.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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21st Century Information Fluency - 21CIF
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): copyright (45), digital citizenship (90), plagiarism (34)
In the Classroom
This site is deep and robust and should be explored thoroughly before using it with students. As you approach a research project, plan to include some of these lessons as part of that project. Ideally, team with other teachers at your school/level to require consistent standards of research as taught through this site, but be sure you know which teachers and classes will help the students master them first! This is one to save in your favorites for repeat visits. Be sure to review the Bad Apple game with your class on a whiteboard or with an overhead projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Magazines Online - James Hubbs
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): blogs (65), news (229), newspapers (91)
In the Classroom
For ESL/ELL students, use magazines at this site to teach vocabulary and American culture. For current events classes, display the latest news online on your projector or interactive whiteboard, finding it quickly with just a few clicks. Have groups explore current news headlines and compare coverage or create their own videos (news or infomercials) using a site such as Teachers.TV reviewed here. This may also be a link that you would want to list on your class website for both students and parents to use at home. If you require current events article summaries each week, your students can use this site to find the latest at no cost. Reading teachers can easily find passages to use for comprehension skills such as main idea, summarizing, inferencing and more, all from current articles and ready to project on your interactive whiteboard for underlining, highlighting and discussion.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Memorize Now - Brad Haugaard
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): vocabulary (236)
In the Classroom
This site does far more than aid memorization. Reading teachers can also use it to teach comprehension skills, such as using context clues to determine meaning in a paragraph. Paste in the paragraph (perhaps a passage from a non-fiction science or social studies article) and use this tool on your interactive whiteboard for students to "figure out" the missing words. Do the same with world language texts to reverse match using subject verb agreement and to analyze missing content using inflected endings. In science class, use this site to remove clues from a paragraph explaining a concepts or terms, subtracting information and having students fill it back in as they review for test and quizzes. Learning support teachers will love this option! Enter passage students write that include new vocabulary words, letting students challenge each other by subtracting portions. Speech and language teachers can use this tool to provide practice with expressive language.For work with memorization, use this site with popular song lyrics in class. Listen to the song first and give the students the lyrics to be memorized. Or, go to YouLyrics (if district policy allows) to get the song and see a video of it and then have the students use this site to help them memorize the lyrics. ESL, ELL, and students of other languages will enjoy memorizing songs which helps them improve their vocabulary and accent. Use this site in a group by projecting the screen on a whiteboard or projector and systematically show fewer and fewer words on the screen. Have teams of students compete against each other by writing the text as quickly as possible on two boards in the classroom. Share this link on your class website for students to use both in and out of the class to memorize new information. Share it as a personal study skills tool, as well.
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DLTK's Custom Chore Chart - DLTK
Grades
K to 6tag(s): behavior (43), charts and graphs (169), preK (258)
In the Classroom
Create charts for a variety of needs. Charts always come in handy for students who struggle to stay on task or to complete assignments. Charts are a fun and tactile way for students to monitor their success and stay on target with responsibilities. Use a chart system to teach organization and self monitoring for things such as homework, chores or daily jobs, morning or end of day tasks and behavior, backpack organization, reading books, math skills, and whatever else you or your students can "chart." Use this tool in the beginning of a new school year to help with expectations or recording. Special ed and gifted teachers will want to have students create their own charts to take ownership for individual goals. This is also a great tool for students to use to record their success for specific New Year's resolutions. This is definitely a link you want to list on your class website for parents to use at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Project wet - projectwet.org
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): environment (238), sustainability (43), water (101)
In the Classroom
Assign students to groups where various water issues can be identified and reported upon to the rest of the class. Use the water issue to find where it exists around the world and the common water problems facing communities and cultures today. Use the interactive water games to reinforce concepts about the water cycle and more. Note that games require some reading, so partner emergent readers with a buddy to help. Have students use a mapping tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here, to create maps of the "wet" locations they research or learn about (with audio stories and pictures included)! Be sure to identify water issues that may also be present in your own area. Students can create a multimedia or conventional display that showcases information learned. Students may decide to create a community awareness project to showcase their information. Read case studies to view project activities around the world.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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New York Times Science Lesson Plans - New York Times
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): cross cultural understanding (155), main idea (8), news (229)
In the Classroom
Scan the lessons. Choose topics appropriate to your content, and then incorporate into your classroom at will. Break lessons apart into both classroom and online discussions for students. A little disclaimer: some of these cutting edge science topics can be controversial so make sure to adequately prepare your students before embarking on these learning adventures.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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New York Times Mathematics Lesson Plans - New York Times
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (169), statistics (116)
In the Classroom
Use the lessons found on this page to enhance mathematics class curriculum. Have students work on activities independently on laptops in class. If computer access is limited, print out activities and have students work in groups on calculations and guide them using the interactive whiteboard or projector. This also provides the automatic connection between real life and the math strategies and concepts. Take advantage of these timely topics. Be sure to save this site in your favorites and check back often for some fresh ideas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Blabberize - Mobouy Inc.
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): animation (62), back to school (63), communication (133), firstday (22), images (257), photography (118)
In the Classroom
If your students have never tried to make a Blabber, select Browse to share the an introduction blab on the home page on a projector or interactive whiteboard. You may want to create one of your own to share, and then have the class create one, all projected on your whiteboard. Browse a few examples first to get ideas on how to make a mouth on your photo to move and "talk." Be sure to turn up your sound! Have a student demonstrate uploading an image from a safe and legal source. You may want to use a single, whole-class account you create with your "extra" email account. Be sure to spell out consequences of inappropriate use/content of blabs. Have students enter the site through the "Make" page link provided in this review to steer clear of the "latest" blabs. You may want your students to make their blabs "private" so they do not show on the public areas, depending on school policies. If you are implementing technology in your classroom, this is an augmentation tool.Blab the homework directions on your teacher web page. Have your students use photos or digital drawings to "blab"! Have students draw in a paint program, save the file, and then make it "speak." Spice up research projects about historic figures or important scientists. Have literary characters tell about themselves. This tool is great for gifted students to go above and beyond the basics with an independent project. Create entire conversation sequences of blabs between people in world language or ENL/ESL classes (with students speaking in the language, of course), then embed them in a wiki. Have speech/language students make blabs to practice articulation and document progress over time. Promote oral reading fluency with student-read blabs. Create book "commercials." Have students blab what the author may have been thinking as he/she wrote a poem or literary selection or as an artist painted. Blab politicians' major platform planks during campaigns for current events. Blab the steps to math problem solving. Even primary students can make an animal blab about his habitat if you set up the blab as a center. Make visual vocabulary/terminology sentences with an appropriate character using the term in context (a beaker explaining how it is different from a flask?) Students could also take pictures of themselves doing a lab and then blab the pictures to explain the concepts. This would be a great first day project (introducing yourself and breaking the ice). Share the class blabs on your class web page or wiki! Give directions to your class (for when a substitute is there). Use at back to school night to grab parents' attention for important information.
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Great Debates in American History - Peter Pappas
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): bill of rights (28), constitution (88), foreign policy (12), immigration (63), migration (44)
In the Classroom
Teachers do not need to start from scratch to develop the themes, nor do they need to be using Boorstin's book to use these activities. Use these handouts and themes to prompt traditional debates or challenge student teams to prepare position videos or multimedia presentations using resource images and texts both from these files and from public domain files and other resources from the Library of Congress. Invite your students to choose from the many multimedia tools on the web to present their position. See the TeachersFirst Edge for reviewed suggestions including Image Annotator, SchoolTube. or TeacherTube for videos, or podomatic for audio-only arguments. Embed the products on your class blog or wiki and let classes vote on the debate "winners."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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350.org - 350.org
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): climate (81), climate change (88), earth (184), earth day (60), environment (238)
In the Classroom
View resources from around the world to look at the organized events conducted. Use these ideas to create a local event or identify the ways others have created communities around global climate action. Use information on the site to create Public Service Announcements, newsletters, or blog posts. Invite students to research sites on both sides of the issue, analyze them, and check information for accuracy. Create a blogging challenge or pledge for students to follow for forty days as a way to create change one family at a time. How about creating a 40 day class wiki about 350 and other global climate action? Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries - check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reading is Fundamental - Parent Literacy Resources - Reading is Fundamental (RIF)
Grades
K to 8tag(s): audio books (23), authors (105), literacy (110), summer (30)
In the Classroom
Provide this link to parents in support of your in-school reading program. Be sure to share this link before school breaks so parents can support literacy at home to prevent "summer slide."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reading is Fundamental - Literacy Central Educators - Reading is Fundamental (RIF)
Grades
K to 5tag(s): literacy (110), literature (218)
In the Classroom
Explore this site in conjunction with the student options on RIF's Beeline Reader Collection, reviewed here. As you plan new literacy centers, be sure to explore the options here. You may also want to share the link to the parent area of the RIF site on your class web page so parents can promote literacy at home. Not sure if the home has Internet access? Send the monthly literacy calendars home via backpack express and offer Reading Reward points for completed activities students bring in to share with the class. Reading Rewards points can be good for a free book or extra time on the classroom computer exploring (what else?) RIF activities! Reading specialists, principals, teachers, and literacy coaches will be interested in sharing some of the articles with other professionals and paraprofessionals.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Global Issues - Global Issues
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): cross cultural understanding (155), cultures (132), news (229)
In the Classroom
Use this site to raise awareness of global issues or as material to teach critical research or expository writing. Students can research other sources for information to verify or debunk the material in the article. Students can analyze information from various sources for bias and use of facts. Have students use this as one of several sources for support in persuasive essays or letters to the editor. Use the articles to practice important reading skills, such as main idea or summarizing, marking up the article on interactive whiteboard. Students can also post findings, viewpoints, and solutions onto a personal or class blog. Have cooperative learning groups choose a topic to research and become "experts" about. Have the groups create multimedia presentations to share with the rest of the class. Have students create a multimedia presentation using ThingLink, reviewed here. Challenge students to find a related photo (legally permitted to be reproduced), and then narrate the photo as if it is a news report. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Vecteezy, reviewed here. Have students use a mapping tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here, to create a map (with audio) where the global issues are taking place. Another option, have students create videos and share them on a tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Life and Voyages of Henry Hudson - Ian Chadwick
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Have the students make a cumulative map of all Hudson's voyages together in order for them to get a chance to become intimately familiar with the map making process. Try a site such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. Zeemaps allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location on a map where each story takes place. Have each cooperative learning group focus on a different exploration. Compare their creations with the online map which has all four voyages combined. Assign students in a group each a few pages of an imagined journal Henry might have written on each voyage. The most interesting part will be to imagine what happened to him after people no longer heard from him! Use this site as the starting point for individual research papers. Encourage students to find other resources that contribute to their knowledge of Henry Hudson. Have students write a talk Hudson might give if he suddenly woke up today (like Rip Van Winkle). Or make it more Web 2.0 and have students write blog entries. The text passages on this site are also ideal for reading comprehension practice. Project them on an interactive whiteboard for practice in main idea, summarizing, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Nik's Daily English Activities - Nik Peachey
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): blogs (65), listening (73), pronunciation (33)
In the Classroom
Put this link on your class website for those ambitious ESL/ELL students desirous of more practice. Set up a point system for students to earn individual credit for their work. Make a handout about the blog and send it home with your students at the end of the school year for summer use. Check out the "Links for Teachers" section which offers suggestions about how to incorporate second language learning into your classroom using technology.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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