August 26, 2018 |
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Enjoy Reading? Then Grab a Book!
Bookworms and literature lovers: rejoice this month! September 6 rings in National Read a Book Day followed by International Literacy Day on September 8. And September also happens to be Library Card Sign-Up month as well. In light of these biblio-themed observances, we've spotlighted book lists, audio books, reading lists, and more.
Grades K-6
The Scoop on Current Events
Fall is the perfect time to start to bring current events into your classroom. This article offers kid-friendly resources to use and some suggestions and tools for how to implement current events in ways that are meaningful and safe for your students.
Grades K-12
CurriConnects Book List - Books for Tough Situations
Help students cope with difficult situations by suggesting reading selections to help. Find books about death, divorce, an absent or deployed parent, moving, a lost pet, difficulty making friends, bullying, failure, eating disorders, weight, and more.
Grades K-12
TeachersFirst's Audio Books with Text
Peruse this collection of audio books, all including accompanying text so that all students, including weaker readers and ESL/ELL learners, can experience literature and other reading selections. Find additional activities to reinforce literacy skills.
Grades K-12
Reading Suggestions
Explore the curated reading lists for students in all grades (K-12). Simply click on the grade level that you wish to explore and a book list will be provided. Most books offer a short description and some link to other titles by the same author.
Reach All Readers
Proven reading strategies. Summarized texts. And personalized dictation. Use this trio of tools to further inspire or assist students with reading and writing-related assignments!
Grades K-12
Reading Strategies Resources
This collection 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.
Grades 5-12
SummarizeThis
Help students to summarize and digest large chunks of text. Simply copy any section of text from online, PDFs, word documents, or other options and paste it into SummarizeThis. Click the link to summarize, and read your results. Share with your students!
Grades K-12
Immersive Reader
This tool does it all! It will dictate the text and offers several options for personalization. You can use the options to adjust the playback speed, highlight text during the audio reading, color-code by part of speech, and adjust text size and spacing.
Create Books & Literacy Lessons
Have students create books or interactive stories while you build literary lessons (for all ages) using the tools below!
Grades K-5
WriteReader - Children as Creators
This cool tool enables kids to create their own books, including text, pictures, and voice recordings. Bonus: Teachers also have a space on the page to write comments and make corrections. Click to "add a class" and follow the prompts to begin.
Grades 2-12
StoryLab
StoryLab allows you to write a story and create interactive choose-your-own-adventure games. Begin a story with the start page. Add links to items in your story to direct your readers. View the tutorials to learn more about using this tool in class.
Grades 7-12
Wordsliive
This lesson building tool combines anchor texts with literary concepts and matching popular music videos. Follow the steps to build a lesson to include teaching notes, slides, and standards-aligned assessments. Find titles or authors using the search.
This Week at TeachersFirst
Those in search of good reads should check out our K12 blog, Infusing Technology, for insightful contributions and classroom inspiration. And if you're teaching in a blended environment, don't miss our new blended learning curated list! Lastly, our weekly poll asks about reading activities at school.
Topics for Professional GrowthInfusing Technology BlogRecent blog posts focus on ways to help students with goals--setting and tracking long and short term goals; helping with global goals; and an interpersonal goal, civility. Our tool of the month can be used to narrow choices as students discuss goals. |
Special TopicsBlended LearningDon't miss this curated list of resources to start blending your class! A blended class offers students more control over the time, pace, path or place of instruction by delivering some content digitally while attending a "brick-and-mortar" school. |
Reading MattersWeekly PollWhat type of reading occurs the most in your classroom? Do you read to your class or do students read independently? Or do partners (or groups) of students read together? |
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About TeachersFirst
TeachersFirst is a collection of curated, classroom-ready content and ideas — including teacher-authored reviews of thousands of web resources. Built-in guidance from seasoned professionals makes effective classroom technology use trouble-free. TeachersFirst is made available free to K12 teachers by The Source for Learning, Inc., a nonprofit that has been providing educational resources for more than 40 years.