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Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon
Grades
4 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Newspaper Blackout is a clever way to unlock the secret poetry hidden within any printed page. This Tumblr site shares examples (unmoderated, so preview before sharing in a classroom!)....more
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Newspaper Blackout is a clever way to unlock the secret poetry hidden within any printed page. This Tumblr site shares examples (unmoderated, so preview before sharing in a classroom!). Poetry no longer needs to be a gray area; this activity makes it black and white! There are no gimmicks, no magic pens, and no camouflage paper, but this is certainly a tricky way to write a poem! All you need are newspapers and black markers. Hunt for and select a few words from each of the lines as you read a newspaper or magazine article. Remember to start with the title. Instead of the typical bottom-up approach to writing a poem by starting with a blank page and filling it with words, try this fresh, top down approach by starting with a page already crowded with words. Then use permanent markers to blacken out all the trivial words in each line until the poem appears. (Put something under your page so the ink does not bleed through on furniture!) Click Share your poem to learn how to upload your work to the site.
tag(s): creative writing (119), poetry (190)
In the Classroom
This poetry activity (aka Found Poetry) opens the doors to so many learning objectives. In a social studies or history classroom, you could direct your students to search for newspaper or magazine articles on topics that you have been studying, or current events. Suddenly you have social studies poetry! In an English language arts lesson, you might instruct students to blacken out all the words that are not nouns or verbs, or select other parts of speech. You could change the task to eliminate any word that is not part of the simple subject or predicate, and simultaneously teach or reinforce main idea. For classrooms with individual computers, students could access articles online. Copy the text into a document. Then, Instead of blackening out words with markers, they could get the same effect by highlighting over them with black, or changing the font color of the text to white, and printing them or saving a screenshot image. Another option is for students to email their Newspaper Blackout poems to the teacher. Each poem could then be put into a Power Point slide show for the class to see on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site to offer your students a new twist on Poetry Month (April). Enhance classroom technology use and take your new poetry collection to the world by uploading the PowerPoint to Voxer, reviewed here, and have each student record a reading in his/her own voice. Make poetry a participatory experience, no matter what the subject. If your school permits, have students take photos of their paper poems -- or screenshots of ones done on the computer --and share them on Voxer. You may want students to start saving their work in a digital portfolio. Suggestions are Mahara, reviewed here, for high school students, and Seesaw, reviewed here, for younger students.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Poetry Read-a-Thon - Academy of American Poets
Grades
5 to 12
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The goal of the Poetry Read-a-Thon is to have students read and write about poetry. Students are asked to choose a poem and then write a 75-100 word response to ...more
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The goal of the Poetry Read-a-Thon is to have students read and write about poetry. Students are asked to choose a poem and then write a 75-100 word response to the poem. The response should focus on one or two of the following categories: images of the poem, sounds of the poem, subject(s) of the poem, emotional effect(s) of the poem, the poem's meaning(s), questions about the poem, or questions the student would like to ask, if he/she could speak to the poet.
tag(s): creative writing (119), poetry (190), writing (317)
In the Classroom
This is a great way to introduce a poetry unit to a class. It is also ideal for Poetry Month (April). This read-a-thon can also be used throughout the entire semester. A teacher guide is included as well as a student log. If used throughout the semester, teachers can start out each lesson period with one or two students sharing their responses with the class. Teachers can also choose a poem and assign students a particular response focus. Students can then compare and contrast each other's responses to the same poem. Have cooperative learning groups share their poems on a podcast using PodOmatic (reviewed here).
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The Poetry Archive - The Poetry Archive Panel
Grades
K to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
The Poetry Archive is a comprehensive place for bringing poetry to life in your classroom. This resource provides lesson plans and activities for all key stages, built around authentic...more
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The Poetry Archive is a comprehensive place for bringing poetry to life in your classroom. This resource provides lesson plans and activities for all key stages, built around authentic recordings that offer lively, engaging ways of unraveling the mystery of poetry. There are numerous internet sites that provide audio versions of poems; however this site provides access to the actual voice of the poets as they read their poems the way they intended them to be heard. Find out what they say about their own writing and the importance of hearing poems aloud. Browse all poems by title, poet's name, poetic forms, or themes. A full glossary of poetic terms is provided. There are various featured poets in residence, and there is even a link to a Children's Archive with favorite poems for younger students. The Poetry Archive includes a wide range of resources designed to help students learn background information on the poets and understand the context for their work.
tag(s): poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Enrich and enliven your poetry lessons with recordings and videos of some of the world's best loved poets. One of teachers many frustrations, when trying to inspire students to fall in love with poetry, is not being able to call up the voices of earlier poets. Listening to the poet himself has a magical effect in the classroom and makes the very experience that it describes come alive. Start by projecting the poem on your white board while listening to the recording and then ask students to pick out, highlight, and display words or phrases that appealed to them. Introduce various poetic forms and demonstrate how the sound of a poem is as crucial to its meaning as the printed words on the page. Explore, connect, and make new discoveries for themes you are studying. Have students respond to the power and energy of poetic language and appreciate the beauty of the sounds and images, then move towards an analysis of the underlying meaning. Challenge students to try some creative writing that goes beyond the literal meaning and resonates their "voice." Not studying poetry during April (Poetry Month)? Play a quick Poetry Break from this site as a class starter or bonus moment after finishing a quiz. Make your own class poetry archive by having students create PowerPoint images of their own poems and read them aloud with PowerPoint Online, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Poems = Word Comics - Austin Kleon
Grades
6 to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
Poems = Word Comics is the perfect venue to view poetry in an entirely new way and hook your students into creating poems. You won't hear any more moans and ...more
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Poems = Word Comics is the perfect venue to view poetry in an entirely new way and hook your students into creating poems. You won't hear any more moans and groans when you mention poetry workshop time. Many poems are like word comics, in that they jump from one image to another in a short amount of lines. Transform your poets into cartoonists by creating a comic strip of images on a page and using the artwork to propel text to convey a message. After all, communication is an art. Be careful, it may become addicting!
tag(s): creative writing (119), poetry (190), writing (317)
In the Classroom
Visual thinkers sometimes experience difficulty expressing their thoughts in words and when asked to write a poem, they literally fall apart. Poetry has images inherent in its form; therefore, spark your students' creativity by enabling them to think of a line in a poem as a frame in a cartoon. By jumping from image to image, the poem takes on a comic-like element, where the words and images are dependent upon each other. Rather than getting jammed up on words that rhyme, this approach offers a clever and amazing way to "write a poem." This activity would work well for pairing visual learners or artistically inclined students with the stronger writers in the class, or by using individual computers and modifying technology use to combine the Poems = Word Comics concept with Make Beliefs Comix, reviewed here, to create professional looking poetic comics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WordItOut - Worditout.com
Grades
2 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Create impressive word clouds from any text! What is a word cloud? Word clouds show not only the words in the text sample, but also display the frequency of the ...more
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Create impressive word clouds from any text! What is a word cloud? Word clouds show not only the words in the text sample, but also display the frequency of the words by showing often used words in a larger font. No login or registration required. Click "Create a word cloud," enter or paste your text and then click "word it out." View your word cloud, drag the arrows on the sides of the screen to make larger or smaller, and change the colors and specifics of the word cloud in the space below. Click "Save" to save as either public or private (an email address is required to save.)
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tag(s): visualizations (11), vocabulary (236), word choice (14), word clouds (13), word study (58)
In the Classroom
You need to know how to copy/paste text passages (ctrl or command + C, then ctrl or command + V to paste. Think Velcro to stick it there!). If you wish to Save, you must join the site (email required). Alternately, capture the image using screen capture (apple/shift/4 on a Mac or Print Screen on a PC.)Use a word cloud in virtually any class. With emergent readers, enter multiple words with the same consonant cluster or vowel sound, so they can SEE a visual grouping of that sound on your interactive whiteboard and guess the sound. Project a teacher-created word cloud at the start of a new lesson or unit and have students determine what the lesson will be about. Have students use word clouds to proof their own essays or stories. Use word clouds for students to identify the subject and frequently used words to check if they are on target with their intended message. Have students find overused words in their own writing as part of lessons on word choice. Teachers could create and save a word cloud then share it as a visual prompt for students to work individually or in groups to identify words they know (and the definitions) as well as the words they are unfamiliar with. Create word clouds of passages or stories and allow students to guess the author, title, subject, or meaning of the story. Underscore motifs in literature by creating clouds of passages, especially poetry. Have students work together to make clouds of alternative ways to say "said" or "went" in story-writing to post in your classroom as a reference. Create word clouds of opinion passages to determine the bias of the author and possible reasons for that specific opinion. Make word cloud posters on health topics such as the potential health risks of smoking. Make word clouds of different food groups. Create higher order thinking activities by approaching text in a unique way.
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Big Huge Thesaurus - Big Huge Labs
Grades
1 to 12
6 Favorites
0 Comments
This simple-looking online thesaurus is actually MUCH more than a quick-look-up. You can find synonyms, antonyms, similar words, and rhymes for any word you enter. A click on any of...more
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This simple-looking online thesaurus is actually MUCH more than a quick-look-up. You can find synonyms, antonyms, similar words, and rhymes for any word you enter. A click on any of the words offered provides the same information for THAT word, sending you on word-paths through the English language. Innocent-looking links at the top of the page also provide hundreds of prompts for blog posts and stories, with enough choices to inspire any writer. Don't let the boring white background and plain-text presentation fool you. This tool has magic powers to make words interesting to almost anyone. The database of words used to generate this thesaurus comes from "the Princeton University WordNet database, the Carnegie Mellon Pronouncing Dictionary, and suggestions from thousands of people on the internet just like you." See a special note to teachers below regarding student behavior!
tag(s): rhymes (21), thesaurus (22), vocabulary (236), word study (58), writing (317), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
Keep this link handy among the resources on your class web page or wiki, and be sure to bring it up on your screen or interactive whiteboard to remind students of the rich tools it offers as you teach grammar, revision, poetry, essay-writing, or even letter and resume writing. With primary grades, share the rhyming words to help teach spelling and phonics! As students share in revising a passage or writing a poem on the interactive whiteboard, have this thesaurus available on another window to model their search for just the right word. Encourage students to look up any new vocabulary or terminology at the start of new science or social studies units so they can gain a broader "sense" of the words themselves through a constellation of synonyms and related words. Help students refine vocabulary by having them rank the various synonyms offered for a certain word, deciding which has the most positive or negative connotations. Offer the writing prompts for student journal or blog posts or creative stories. ESL/ELL students can explore new words with this tool, even practicing the rhyming sounds and noticing their varied spellings. Check out the Big Huge Labs educator account. Easily pre-register students to avoid creating logins, view and download their creations, and view the site advertisement free. You will find information about the Educator Account here.NOTE: If students enter an inappropriate word, they WILL find classroom-inappropriate terms. As with use of any reference, your students need to know your classroom's consequences of such activity. The options are no different from students looking up body parts or pornographic terms in a print dictionary or on Google.
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The Olympic Games - Enchanted Learning
Grades
K to 5
1 Favorites
0 Comments
This site was originally created for the Summer Olympics, but many of the activities are useful for the Winter Olympics as well. Although some of the printables are available to ...more
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This site was originally created for the Summer Olympics, but many of the activities are useful for the Winter Olympics as well. Although some of the printables are available to members only, this site does includes some excellent FREE information on the history of the Olympics, maps, flags, Greek alphabet, writing activities, graphic organizers, "Invent a New Olympic Sport" challenge, and more. If nothing else, the printables offer some great ideas to implement in your classroom (for example, "Write a Sentence for Each Sports-Related Word").
tag(s): olympics (38), poetry (190), puzzles (143), sports (77)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the ideas presented at this site (if you are a member or not). Share certain maps or handouts on your interactive whiteboard. Use this site to teach your students more about the history of the games.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Festisite - IntenCT
Grades
4 to 12
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This site contains a plethora of user-generated poems, tools for making poetry writing simple, opportunities to make comments on the poetry of others and also to submit one's own poetry....more
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This site contains a plethora of user-generated poems, tools for making poetry writing simple, opportunities to make comments on the poetry of others and also to submit one's own poetry. Students and teachers can search for poems by looking at those that have come in most recently, or by searching by categories, called "Tags." To search using this option, you must click on the "poems" tab at the top of the site. Be sure to know your school's policy on having students submit their work before allowing your students to share their poetry. Avid poetry lovers can also subscribe to poetry feeds using this site.
In the Classroom
Use this site to show your students that anyone can become a poet when they balk at reading poetry. Share some of the poetry on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Read some of your required poems and then look at the "Tags" and ask your students to decide where poetry written by others should be placed. Go on to ask them if they can think of other Tags to add. Since many of the poems here have holiday themes, use this as a quick activity before a holiday or to encourage students to reflect on family holiday traditions. ESL/ELL students will not have to worry so much about their grammar when embarking on poetry writing! They'll love to be thought creative. If you are permitted to "publish" your students' poetry, why not go one step further and have them narrate a picture using the words from their poem at a site such as ThingLink reviewed here. Or have students share their poems using a podcasting site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Write Rhymes - Matthew Healy
Grades
1 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Need a rhyming word for those lyrics or poems? Simply type in your poem at this site. When a rhyme is needed, hold the Alt or Option (MAC) key over ...more
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Need a rhyming word for those lyrics or poems? Simply type in your poem at this site. When a rhyme is needed, hold the Alt or Option (MAC) key over the word and click on the specific word that you want to rhyme, and a window of rhyme possibilities appears. Students may print their poetry, or, they may opt to save their typed creations to their own Word files. The site is simple, but it sure beats digging through a rhyming dictionary. Some of the words are difficult to read due to the background graphics.
tag(s): poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Demonstrate this site having volunteers share their poetry on your interactive whiteboard or projector. For advanced poets studying meter, discussing the multiple syllable options makes the task easier. You can also use this site as you teach common letter combinations and sounds with beginning readers. Enter a simple word such as "fish" or "bat" and Alt-click or Option-click for dozens of rhyming words to read aloud with a small group at your interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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BusSongs.com - Keith Mander
Grades
K to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
Nursery rhymes and other children's songs have been passed down through the centuries carrying various messages within them. BusSongs.com offers the lyrics and downloadable music...more
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Nursery rhymes and other children's songs have been passed down through the centuries carrying various messages within them. BusSongs.com offers the lyrics and downloadable music for over 2,000 nursery rhymes and children's songs. The songs are arranged by genre or easily searched for by title. The list contains songs for such categories as camp fire tunes, traditional and multicultural songs, holiday songs, learning songs, and much more. Don't forget to turn up your speakers!
tag(s): lyrics (15), nursery rhymes (9), rhymes (21), songs (44)
In the Classroom
Use these silly songs in primary grades for those early readers who benefit greatly from rhyme time. For the elementary level, these songs would be helpful when introducing poetry and alliteration. Teach the historical, political and cultural connections that go hand-in-hand with many of these tunes and rhymes. Middle school students will be quite surprised with some of the hidden meanings of the songs such as Ring-Around-The-Rosy. For fun, choose a couple of tunes to sing as a group during the long bus ride to a class fieldtrip location! Have cooperative learning groups explore songs and create a video explaining (and singing) the songs. Or have them write and video record their own lyrics about a historic event or science concept, accompanied by the audio recording of the tune (available for some songs). Have students share the videos using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here.
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Read Print - Read Print Publishing
Grades
5 to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
This online library includes books and literary works in the public domain from a large variety of authors: Victor Hugo, Samuel Johnson, Karl Marx, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass,...more
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This online library includes books and literary works in the public domain from a large variety of authors: Victor Hugo, Samuel Johnson, Karl Marx, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, and countless others. The genres include essays, fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, single quotations, and short stories. To find desired works, you can search by author or by specific title.
tag(s): authors (105), literature (218), poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Display favorite literary passages to compare writing styles, vocabulary level, and to do identification quizzes! Use for teaching reading skills such as main idea, looking for transitional and clue words, using context to figure out word meanings, etc. Teach grammar, parts of speech, and use of quotation marks by viewing actual literature using the interactive whiteboard or projector. Read the classics without spending a penny!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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It's Fun To Read - Poetry - Starfall Education
Grades
K to 2
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Beginning readers will be delighted to read these four adorable poems entitled "If I Could Touch the Sky," "My Hiding Place," "My Shadow," and "Who Has Seen the Wind?" Every ...more
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Beginning readers will be delighted to read these four adorable poems entitled "If I Could Touch the Sky," "My Hiding Place," "My Shadow," and "Who Has Seen the Wind?" Every student will find something to relate to within these poems. Students can differentiate the activity by either reading the poem independently or clicking on the sound icon (ear) to have the poem read to them. Each poem provides a list of high frequency words or "unique" words at the bottom of the web page as well as a writing extension page.
tag(s): poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Share the poetry on your projector or interactive whiteboard. If individual computers are available, even better! Just be sure to remember the headsets! Maybe consider creating a "Poetry Station" using this site on a computer cluster.Review corresponding high frequency words with students prior to reading the poems. Have students search for those words throughout the poem. Incorporate some of the words onto the classroom word wall or point out existing words on the wall as a connection activity to the literature. Students can complete the extension print out activity as a center assignment and proceed to publish it with illustrations.
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Shmoop Poetry Study Guides - Shmoop University Inc.
Grades
6 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
As a companion piece to the Shmoop literature site, reviewed here, this is a wonderful addition if you teach poetry. Shmoop provides students (and...more
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As a companion piece to the Shmoop literature site, reviewed here, this is a wonderful addition if you teach poetry. Shmoop provides students (and teachers) with so much more than summaries. This is a great site with a unique voice. It is written by Ph.D. and Masters students at top universities (such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc.). While the list of poems is always growing, it includes many of the poems and/or poets commonly studied in high school. These include some of Shakespeare's sonnets, Whitman, Coleridge, Shelley, Dickinson, Browning, Rich, Yeats, and others. Especially appealing are the "Intro" sections, which tell the background of the poem. These should interest students as it places a very human "face" on the poem and sets it in context for them. From the menu on the left find summaries, techniques, quotes, and study questions, this site also gives a "did you know?" page. It includes random trivia about the poet, poem, or topic, as well as a "sex rating" ("Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is rated "G"). This in itself will amuse students-- and amused students are likely to stay focused!
In addition to the literary content, some poems also have a photo slideshow that accompanies the poem and their authors. The slideshows would be great for readers who may need some assistance in comprehension or may just need something to sell the content and heighten their interest. While actually signing up (which is free) gives you the ability to "clip" files and keep them in a folder, you can access the majority of the information without signing up. Registration does require an email address. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
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In addition to the literary content, some poems also have a photo slideshow that accompanies the poem and their authors. The slideshows would be great for readers who may need some assistance in comprehension or may just need something to sell the content and heighten their interest. While actually signing up (which is free) gives you the ability to "clip" files and keep them in a folder, you can access the majority of the information without signing up. Registration does require an email address. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
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tag(s): poetry (190)
In the Classroom
There are many possibilities at this website. Use it for reference, share the highlights on your interactive whiteboard or projector, or talk about the constructive use of a site like this without plagiarizing. One activity after reviewing a poem through Shmoop's process might be to have students use a poem not included on Shmoop and make their own entry for it, following the Shmoop template as an example. Try augmenting classroom technology use by using a simple slideshow tool like Slides, reviewed here and use voice narration and images. Why not make your own wiki to include some of the same features for other poems? Not comfortable with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through. Note: one popular poem on Shmoop is Poe's "The Raven." Be sure to have students explore TeachersFirst's interactive Raven as yet another rich way to experience the poem along with Shmoop.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Language Arts for Dummies - John Wiley & Sons
Grades
7 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Filled with a variety of essential language art skills, this site is a super teaching opportunity to be followed by students working on their own. With 42 lessons ranging from ...more
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Filled with a variety of essential language art skills, this site is a super teaching opportunity to be followed by students working on their own. With 42 lessons ranging from "Differentiating between who/whom" to "Writing Sonnets" to "Crafting Your Character's Dialogue in Your Screenplay," there is plenty to suit your particular class needs. You are able to write replies (comments), however an email address is required. Registration is not required for any other part of this site.
This site does offer the option of signing up for RSS feeds. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at the site.
This site does offer the option of signing up for RSS feeds. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at the site.
tag(s): grammar (133), poetry (190), root words (10), writing (317)
In the Classroom
These lessons give great examples as well as "pop quizzes" as you go through them. It would be great to do these on a projector or interactive whiteboard, having students comment as you go; then you can assign their own writing to follow up. Of particular interest is the lesson on "note taking on a computer." As essential as computers are to writing these days, it may be the best place to begin. This might also be a good site to link from your class website. It is very easy for students to explore on their own and get extra help where needed. Or have small groups investigate a specific area together and then create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Have the groups create a podcast to share using a tool such as Podomatic (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Cinco de Mayo - abcteach
Grades
2 to 6
0 Favorites
0 Comments
Celebrate with this collection of activities that includes an informational essay with reading comprehension questions, a coloring page, and printable worksheets for poetry and creative...more
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Celebrate with this collection of activities that includes an informational essay with reading comprehension questions, a coloring page, and printable worksheets for poetry and creative writing tasks inspired by the Mexican holiday. Many of the printables require Adobe Acrobat.
tag(s): cinco de mayo (10), mexico (29)
In the Classroom
Share this informative site with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have cooperative learning groups explore this site together. Why not challenge students to create a news broadcast highlighting the holiday. Tape the broadcasts and share them on a site such as Teachers.TV (explained here).
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Language is a Virus - Unknown
Grades
6 to 12
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In spite of the annoying ads, the rich choices of writing ideas, prompts, exercises, and "widgets" on this site are well worth the time to digest and wade through. There's ...more
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In spite of the annoying ads, the rich choices of writing ideas, prompts, exercises, and "widgets" on this site are well worth the time to digest and wade through. There's so much! There are 17 "widgets" for curing writer's block: Electronic Poetry, Haiku-a-Tron, Character Name, Text Collage, Creative Writing Prompts, Random Line Generator, and MANY others. There are also 7 links to post your fiction and poetry, 2 sections on creative writing and prompts (including 60+ writing experiments by Charles Bernstein), poetry links, visual inspiration, and a long list of authors you can click on to read articles or see questions answered, plus more articles and extras.
To post any stories or poems at Language is a Virus you must be registered. The log-in process does require an email address. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Before having students post anything on this site, check your school's Acceptable Use Policy and BE CERTAIN to obtain parental permission. Be aware this site has several advertisements and includes Twitter Buttons, Badges, Backgrounds, and Images. Be sure to provide students with specific instructions of where they MAY and may NOT go. Or make this site a whole-class activity (too bad, though, since writing is so individual).
To post any stories or poems at Language is a Virus you must be registered. The log-in process does require an email address. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Before having students post anything on this site, check your school's Acceptable Use Policy and BE CERTAIN to obtain parental permission. Be aware this site has several advertisements and includes Twitter Buttons, Badges, Backgrounds, and Images. Be sure to provide students with specific instructions of where they MAY and may NOT go. Or make this site a whole-class activity (too bad, though, since writing is so individual).
tag(s): poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Just using the "Widgets to Cure Writer's Block" section makes writing fun. From Mad-lib poems to a random line generator this offers lots of laughs as well as creativity nudging for students. The "66 Writing Experiments of Charles Bernstein" offers a variety of activities for students from sentence combining to poetry to transcription to chronology.Share the prompts and activities on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work on individual computers to use these activities to cure their writer's block. Just be sure to give instructions of where they can and can't visit! Keep your pop-up blocker turned ON to avoid at least some of the annoying advertising.
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Toasted Cheese - Stephanie
Grades
8 to 12
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This is a useful site that makes life a little easier for writing teachers. BUT USE CAUTION! Looking for different daily prompts to address different kinds of writing and ...more
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This is a useful site that makes life a little easier for writing teachers. BUT USE CAUTION! Looking for different daily prompts to address different kinds of writing and issues? This site has current and past calendars that offer everything from first lines to assorted kinds of poetry. It has writing articles by both amateur and professional writers, writing exercises called "A Pen in Each Hand," links to other writing prompt sites, as well as chats and forums. The "Pen in Each Hand" link provides archived writing activities. BE CERTAIN to preview whatever you are using and do NOT permit students to surf this site. There are some inappropriate topics for use in school. Obviously the chat/forum option should be closely monitored or avoided entirely.
tag(s): creative writing (119), writing (317), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
This site is worth it if only for the variety of the daily prompts; however, there is a lot here to engage students. The story examples (such as the "Pushcart Prize Nominations"), the online literary journal, and the assortment of writing exercises give teachers a smorgasbord of activities to choose from. Just be sure to preview whatever material you wish to use in class and do so on a teacher-controlled machine. Or avoid recommending the site itself and find ideas you can use by projecting a writing prompt alone on your interactive whiteboard or projector, having students brainstorm ideas and write on their own to avoid potential "public" content here. Introduce blogging using one of these prompts. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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From Prejudice to Pride: An African American Journey - Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
Grades
5 to 10
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Celebrate great African-Americans from this complete link. Research those famous in medicine, politics, arts & entertainment, armed forces, and sports. This site is actually a downloadable...more
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Celebrate great African-Americans from this complete link. Research those famous in medicine, politics, arts & entertainment, armed forces, and sports. This site is actually a downloadable PDF file of a Teacher's Guide with standards, objectives, printables, discussion questions, and specific activity ideas. The PDF file links to a site that provides a timeline of "prejudice to pride." Examples of activities include analyzing photos or poetry, research presentations, and writing exercises. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): africa (139), black history (128)
In the Classroom
Use this site for research projects about amazing African-Americans. Most of the activity suggestions are more traditional projects and writing assignments. If you want to add some technology touches, why not enhance student learning by replacing pen and paper and have students create a fictitious blog from one of the heroes highlighted at this site, or a cross-time dialog via email or text message between a slave from the 1800s and Barack Obama, or enhance learning by creating an interactive, multimedia infographic resume about the man (or woman) they researched. Use Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Shmoop Literature - Ellen Siminoff, et. al.
Grades
9 to 12
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Move over, Sparknotes! Shmoop provides students (and teachers) with so much more than summaries and character lists. This is a great site with a unique voice. Written by Ph.D....more
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Move over, Sparknotes! Shmoop provides students (and teachers) with so much more than summaries and character lists. This is a great site with a unique voice. Written by Ph.D. and Masters students at top universities (such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc.), the book resources include such things as Booker's 7 plot analyses, "What's Up with the Title?" and directed links to pictures, movies, and other material on the web(some for a fee). They have a very good page on plagiarism, and this is a growing site. There are also History and Poetry sections to this site.
While actually signing up (which is free) gives you the ability to "clip" files and keep them in a folder, you can access the majority of the information without signing up. Registration does require an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships.If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
While actually signing up (which is free) gives you the ability to "clip" files and keep them in a folder, you can access the majority of the information without signing up. Registration does require an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships.If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
tag(s): literature (218), poetry (190)
In the Classroom
Because the style of writing is informal, this is a great site to use for those difficult to explain qualities such as tone and writing style with students. Visit the site together and discuss some of the "brain snacks," experience some of the short video clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector, or talk about the constructive use of a site like this without plagiarizing.Share one of the slide shows on a projector or interactive whiteboard as you introduce a unit or allow students to use portions of the slide shows as part of their own presentations on a specific author or literature topic.
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New Year Traditions - Australian Media Pty. Ltd.
Grades
4 to 6
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Learn about New Year's celebrations around the world. Click on the name of a country to read a brief synopsis of its customs and traditions. Includes links to New Year's-inspired ...more
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Learn about New Year's celebrations around the world. Click on the name of a country to read a brief synopsis of its customs and traditions. Includes links to New Year's-inspired recipes, poetry, and songs. The songs provide lyrics only
In the Classroom
Look for one of the New Year's songs on one of the free music sites reviewed here on TeachersFirst. Play one of the New Year's songs in the background while your students use this site for research about specific countries.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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