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Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker - Colorado State University's Center for the New Energy Economy
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): debate (42), energy (131), environment (246), persuasive writing (58), politics (117), solar energy (34)
In the Classroom
Use this resource in an Energy or Environmental unit or as an applied way to study civics and government. Students can search their State and compare to other States. Discuss the different bills being proposed and how they would affect consumers or businesses. As a project idea, assign student groups the task of creating a bill that they would like to see adopted by their State. Challenge students to share their bill and ideas by using Prezi (reviewed here) to create a presentation. Consider making this an authentic experience in civics by having students compose persuasive letters with their suggestions (with the link to their presentation) to send to legislators. The many bills shared on this site would also provide excellent topics for debate or persuasive writing in English classes.Newsela - Matthew Gross
Grades
2 to 12Incase you're wondering - Newsela features current events stories tailor-made for classroom use. Click "Products" on the top menu and slide down to browse content in subject areas (social studies, science, etc.). Stories are student-friendly and can be accessed in different formats by reading level. Use Newsela to differentiate nonfiction reading. Newspaper writers rewrite a story four times for a total of five Lexile levels per story. All articles have embedded Common Core-aligned quizzes that conform to the reading levels for checking comprehension, customizable assignments, writing prompts, and annotations. An account is required to use Newsela, both for teachers and for students, but students sign up using a teacher or parent-provided code rather than an email address. Click the Resources tab at the top to find guides and short webinars. Teachers can create classes and assign reading-level specific articles to individual students or download printable PDF copies of the article in any of its reading-level versions. There is no outside advertising.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (146), differentiation (82), guided reading (33), independent reading (83), news (228), reading comprehension (149), remote learning (54)
In the Classroom
Achieve two goals here: help students improve their reading comprehension and keep them current with what is happening in our nation and the world. When assigning articles, choose to have the class read at one reading level, or choose individuals and set the reading level for them. There are five categories from which to choose. You may want to set up different articles at different learning stations on the computers in your room. Have the students rotate daily through the stations, completing one or two a day until they have completed all five articles. Since Newsela is cloud based, even absent students can complete the missed work easily. If you and your students are teaching and learning remotely, or you have a blended classroom, Newsela will work perfectly for those! Teachers of gifted students can use this site to accelerate or enrich reading for students. Find each student's individual levels for reading nonfiction. Teachers of Learning Support and ENL//ESL students will love this alternate way for their students to meet nonfiction/current events requirements.Comments
This is an excellent article. Thanks for sharing this information. Please keep sharing content like this.Cassandra, IL, Grades: 0 - 12
This is an excellent site and allows differentiation while everyone is reading the same text.Renee, NC, Grades: 0 - 5
Climate Commons - Earth Journalism Network
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): climate (82), climate change (94)
In the Classroom
Use the data and geotagged stories to understand more about climate change. Create multimedia (podcast, video, blog, wiki, etc.) or conventional products (poster or bulletin board) to explain the basics of climate change. Click on different dots on the map to view specific stories that are being published there. Compare the tone and substance of the different articles found in each of the areas. Are there certain regions that are more skeptical (or less) about this issue? Have students select a story to research in terms of its local implications at that location, such as a story about fracking in the Marcellus Shale region. Civics/government classes can use this site to trace political issues, news, and related policy initiatives related to climate change.Nulu - nulu.com
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Encourage ESL/ELL students and Spanish learners to increase their fluency by selecting news articles that appear interesting. Have one student prepare a story each week by having him or her preview the reading, prepare the flash cards, and also write additional comprehension questions. If permitted by your administration, students can log in with Facebook (or email) and make comments about the site and/or the stories there. Be sure to review good Netiquette about online commenting.Newspaper Map - newspapermap.com
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): arabic (13), cross cultural understanding (172), french (75), german (49), japanese (47), media literacy (107), newspapers (92), portuguese (22), russian (25), spanish (108)
In the Classroom
Newspaper Map is a great resource for locating news and culture from around the world. Share with your students to show them different perspectives on world events. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast coverage between two newspapers. After reading and comparing many different articles, have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Acast, Animatron, Renderforest, and Presentious. Explore this site during Newspaper in Education week or as part of a unit on the basics of journalistic writing. World language teachers can use newspapers to teach about both language and culture. Have world cultures or social studies students learn about local culture through advertisements and articles and share their findings using a screencast (or screenshots) of the newspaper and talking about their discoveries. A free tool like Screencast-o-matic, reviewed here, or Screencastify (Chrome app), reviewed here, works well for screencasts.Problem-Attic - EducAide Software
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): assessment (143), Teacher Utilities (183), test prep (69)
In the Classroom
Save this site as an excellent practice for end of year testing, state tests, and national tests. Use Problem-Attic to personalize learning for students. Share this tool on your class website for students to use both in and out of the classroom to prepare for state testing. Challenge your students to create (and print) practice tests for other students. Coaches for academic competitions can use this site for team practice. Teachers of gifted can use it for students to practice for out-of-level testing used to screen students for special gifted opportunities.ESL Discussions - Sean Banville
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to use anytime you want to develop and promote discussion skills in your classroom. After students have completed their discussion questions, have them present their findings to the class then create a quick poll using using Poll Everywhere, reviewed here. Share with ESL/ELL and Special Education teachers as a resource for promoting discussion and speaking skills with their students. Use this site for teacher-selected topics in debate club, speech class, and more. Some of the topics could even make good blog prompts.Freebook Sifter - FreebookSifter
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (166), independent reading (83)
In the Classroom
This site is a helpful classroom reference tool. Save this link on your classroom computers. Find books to use at learning stations, especially if you are a BYOD (Bring your own Device) school. Be sure to provide this link on your class website for students to use at home. The books available include all those in the public domain and titles whose authors have granted permission for free dispersal.Simple English News - simpleenglishnews
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share the video clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Check with this site to see if it has a feature on a grammar or vocabulary lesson you are preparing. Check with your administration about the feasibility of students registering to participate in polls and make comments on news articles. Refer students to the article about five special apps for learning English.LIFE photo archive - Google
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): black history (130), images (260), local history (14), photography (121), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (160)
In the Classroom
Use the many images and caption of various events to bring the history alive. View Black History events and many other landmark events to life that simple passages in a textbook cannot. Use a specific image to share with the class and have them journal what they see in the picture, what they think is going on, and questions that they have about the image. Use their thoughts to begin discussion about the historical significance of the image. Use other images and research to develop a full understanding of the event. Students can parallel that event with other similar events through history and present their findings to the class. Virtually any recent (1860s through the present day) historical or news topic might be augmented by an accompanying photo on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to click to open the largest version of the image! Students might generate their own "collections" of related photographs to illustrate a topic or theme, or create a photo montage to capture a time period. Art teachers can also use these masterpieces in teaching design concepts and composition. Under Fair Use, your students can certainly use these photos in class projects, but our editors would not suggest copying and posting them on the web in blogs or wikis, since this could be seen as making unlimited copies. You can easily include them as linked images, however, to appear seamlessly on the blog or wiki page. What a great way to teach about giving proper credit as your students create annotated, thematic collections on a historical or literary topic.Good.is - GOOD Worldwide, LLC
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): enrichment (12), news (228), newspapers (92), politics (117), writing prompts (61)
In the Classroom
Good.is is perfect for enrichment, research, or a current events class. Include it on your class web page (if you are comfortable with the description: a community of people who give a d---) for students to access both in and out of class. Have students try out this site on individual computers, or as a learning center. For students who enjoy current events, Good.is is a terrific source of up-to-the-minute positive stories from across the web. There is advertising, but it is not too intrusive. Use this site as one of several current event options when asking students to find real world connections to curriculum topics. You can always send students directly to the full articles on their original sites to avoid displaying the Good.is frame at the top. Use articles as writing prompts for blog posts or practice writing informational texts or persuasive writing.Comments
Great reading resource on current events!Ladisha, VA, Grades: 9 - 12
Population Pyramid - Martin DeWulf
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (170), population (50)
In the Classroom
At a very simple level, this site is great for teaching about reading charts and graphs or math lessons about how to display data. In social studies or science, view and compare the demographics of various countries. Discuss the religious, economic, and health reasons for the shape of the population pyramids. Discuss demographic transitions, developed vs. developing countries, and emerging issues. Use the information when preparing presentations about health and welfare, world cultures, and biological issues concerning the environments and population demographics. Hypothesize reasons for differences, then have students research to test their hypotheses. Research and discuss the issue of population by searching articles from different countries that show a different perspective from ours.Longform - longform.org
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): expository writing (31), independent reading (83), poetry (192), reading lists (77), writing prompts (61)
In the Classroom
Create a classroom account and save articles to use with classroom topics or for independent student reading. Find informational texts to use for Common Core practice. Share this site with students to create their own account to find articles to read. This is definitely a site that you want to list on your class wiki, blog, or website. Teachers of writing can use these articles as examples of different writing styles and of writing with audience and voice in mind. Select more controversial articles to use as writing prompts.Outbreaks - globalincidentmap.com
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Use the various types of diseases to learn more about bacteria, viruses, and epidemiology. Students can create a presentation to teach others about a various disease. Create a multimedia presentation or create a blog or wiki post that shows information as well as current outbreaks around the world. Have students research how the disease is transmitted and factors that lead to outbreaks in certain places. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, Vevox, Animatron, Renderforest, and Canva Inforgraphic Maker.Learn English Teens - British Council
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): creative writing (124), grammar (137), test prep (69), video (264), vocabulary development (94)
In the Classroom
Introduce this site to your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and have your ELL/ESL students use it as one of your learning stations. Short stories and other interactive features of the site would work well with weaker readers and learning support students, too. Encourage your ESL/ELL students to share their writings on Learn English Teens (if allowed by school policy).Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks - RichBlocksPoorBlocks
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Propose reasons for the differences in median income in a particular area or state. Research industry, agriculture, level of education, and other factors to determine the reasons. Investigate at the nearby ports and natural resources. Why do certain parts of the country have higher incomes and/or costs of living? How is income connected to education level? Students can identify patterns that exist among the data. They can form hypotheses about why. Create a campaign to bridge the wage gap by suggesting ideas to increase salaries in areas. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Snappa, reviewed here. Teachers of gifted will find "rich" possibilities for discussion from this site.True Tube - TrueTube
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): architecture (74), digital citizenship (85), diseases (67), environment (246), media literacy (107), mental health (32), persuasive writing (58), poetry (192), religions (90), sexuality (15), social skills (22), sustainability (45), writing prompts (61)
In the Classroom
Share specific videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use a video to introduce a debate topic or as a prompt for persuasive writing. As a media literacy exercise, ask students to find another video (perhaps on YouTube) that presents an opposing viewpoint on the same topic as one here. Then challenge cooperative learning groups to create their own videos on this or another controversial topic being discussed in class. Share the videos using a tool such as TeacherTube reviewed here.The Brown Bookshelf - Paula Chase-Hyman
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): african american (110), black history (130), book lists (166), civil rights (201), cultures (172), literature (220), preK (269)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year, not just during Black History Month. Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore and find books for reading. Share this link on your class website or blog for students to use at home. Showcase books found on this site for classroom read aloud. Librarians will find this site helpful for creating displays in their library or for presentations in classrooms. Enhance student learning by having students create commercials for books found on this site using a tool like PowToon, or Adobe Express Video Maker, and share them using a tool such as School Tube.CurriConnects Booklist: Living Green - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (166), environment (246)
In the Classroom
This is a great match during units on the environment, current events, or world issues. As students select and read from this list, they will have many opportunities to interact and find meaning from informational texts. This list is ideal during April for Earth Day or as you study the environment--or even geography and human impact on our planet.Futurity - Futurity.org
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): earth (184), environment (246), medicine (56), nutrition (137), scientific method (48)
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