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ABC News - ABC news
Grades
6 to 12
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This nationally published news source makes for an excellent resource for a teacher or student looking for current events. There's information ranging from politics, global news, business,...more
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This nationally published news source makes for an excellent resource for a teacher or student looking for current events. There's information ranging from politics, global news, business, technology - even pop culture. This would be useful in any classroom where a knowledge of the now was focused on.
tag(s): newspapers (86), news (221)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for current events projects - assign students various weeks throughout the semester in which they are to be the class news reporter, keeping their peers up to date and informed. Have students research what's going on via this news site and present a small presentation at the beginning of class every day during their week. Students can either orally present, or for the technologically inclined, create a short video summarizing the same information. Have students create news briefs and share them using a tool such as SchoolTube.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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What Makes A Compound Word? - Education Development Center
Grades
5 to 8
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This interactive tutorial introduces compound words and strategies for revealing their meanings. Includes an instructive slide show followed by some completion, click-and-drag, and...more
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This interactive tutorial introduces compound words and strategies for revealing their meanings. Includes an instructive slide show followed by some completion, click-and-drag, and reading comprehension activities. Preview content and difficulty level before turning your students loose on this one.
tag(s): word study (58)
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Kidspired Frostytales - Patricia Knox and Susan Silverman
Grades
K to 2
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Teachers from around the country participated in this online collaborative project and share their ideas and Kidspiration templates on this site. The activities are based on children's...more
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Teachers from around the country participated in this online collaborative project and share their ideas and Kidspiration templates on this site. The activities are based on children's literature with a winter theme. Kidspiration is required. Get a free demo from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page (click on Inspiration).
tag(s): writing (301), concept mapping (16)
In the Classroom
Pick your favorite winter book from the student sample section and download the template on to a classroom computer. Be sure to follow district policies for downloading information from the Internet. You need the software to make the template work. The demo versions are good for 30 days only, but doing a project using a demo is a great way to demonstrate to budget committees why they might consider purchasing the software for your school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Stormboard - Edistorm.com
Grades
6 to 12
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Take brainstorming to a whole new level with easy collaboration. Use Stormboard to place sticky notes, photos, and videos on a shared whiteboard. As you enter information on your sticky...more
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Take brainstorming to a whole new level with easy collaboration. Use Stormboard to place sticky notes, photos, and videos on a shared whiteboard. As you enter information on your sticky note, new suggestions pop up along the bottom. Use this phenomenal aspect of Stormboard, as suggestions by their "Idea Bots" may take you closer to your goal. Revisit "storms" as they are saved, which adds more perspectives when viewing later. Let others' ideas incubate a bit and return to see what they have added. Free accounts allow up to 5 users, 1 administrator, and view-only access with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Drive. Begin by entering your storm's name, choosing privacy options, adding a description, and inviting users to join (Stormboard members or via email). Type on the stickies. Drag them to arrange. Stormboard will suggest possible new stickies along the bottom. The center sticky on your screen will drive the "smart" suggestions. If Stormboard's suggestions take you away from your goal in your description, move another sticky into the center spot or close the suggestions area. Use the viewfinder to see where all your stickies are located. Group related ideas by aligning or color-coding them. Contributors can drag an "idea vote" to mark the ideas that they like best. Click on the tab "Top Ideas" to view those with the most votes. Click on "All Unrated" to view all, including those with no votes (a great option if you may have missed one).
tag(s): creative fluency (3), organizational skills (93), brainstorming (16), collaboration (146)
In the Classroom
Consider creating a classroom account for use with your students. Require them to initial their stickies in order to know which idea is whose. Use for any decision-making activity such as "What kind of pet should I buy?" Also use to generate related vocabulary words for a topic by entering its first word and letting the "Idea Bots" suggest stickies at the bottom. This is especially useful if students need to find information for a presentation or learn about a particular theme or topic. Share this site with your gifted students to use for organization, brainstorming, or collaboration with others outside their class. Social studies classes could brainstorm on how they might travel back in time to solve a political crisis or avoid a war. Lit classes could "storm" better outcomes for a novel or play based on evidence from the first portion of the text (for example, what if Romeo and Juliet had used Stormboard first?). Many issue-based or ethics-based problems in Science and Health can also be organized, debated, and discussed in this space. Why are some ideas "Top rated" over others?Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
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Everyday Edits - Education World
Grades
3 to 6
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Keep polishing those writing skills with this collection of paragraphs, riddled with errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. Students are challenged to find the...more
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Keep polishing those writing skills with this collection of paragraphs, riddled with errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. Students are challenged to find the ten errors in each sample. Project on an interactive white board for a whole-class activity, or print and distribute as an independent activity. Answer keys are included.Be patient. This one is slow to open.
tag(s): editing (97), grammar (143), punctuation (23)
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Raise a Reader - Illinois Reading Council
Grades
K to 4
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The Illinois Reading Council has selected 12 favorite children's books and created many activities to go with the books. Many of the books may be ones you include in ...more
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The Illinois Reading Council has selected 12 favorite children's books and created many activities to go with the books. Many of the books may be ones you include in your classroom or find in your literature series. These activities include books and newspapers as well as reading and writing. The activities are designed to be used within families but most would be appropriate for classroom use. Besides the twelve featured books, there are more extensive bibliographies divided by grade level.
tag(s): family (53)
In the Classroom
Suggest this site to parents to help their children with reading by including the link on your teacher web page or in a newsletter sent home. You might want to share the list with your school librarian in case children ask for the books.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Dummies.com - John Wiley & Sons
Grades
6 to 12
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Everyone knows the "for Dummies" books, but did you know there is an entire web site? This site, created by the same publisher, has text-based and video "How To" information ...more
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Everyone knows the "for Dummies" books, but did you know there is an entire web site? This site, created by the same publisher, has text-based and video "How To" information on thousands of topics, organized into general categories. It is also searchable. The education/languages area has both obvious and more obscure topics than you might expect, from How to Write a Sonnet to How to Build a Bill (in the U.S. Congress). These text- based articles are great for those who follow verbal information well and often include simple diagrams. The more consumer-oriented areas of the site include videos from setting up your wireless network to carving a turkey. Click on "all videos" under the Featured video to see the video categories. Each book featured provides sample articles about whatever topic is featured in the book. Not all articles contained in the books are available.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): sequencing (22), writing (301)
In the Classroom
Be sure to tell your students that they are NOT the "dummies" referred to in this site! Then go beyond the obvious use of this site as a reference to use it to teach informational writing, reading comprehension, or any curriculum content. Share text-based articles on a projector or interactive whiteboard and have students analyze the keywords and structure of sequential direction-writing or informational writing before they try it on their own. Use the pens and highlighters to note transitions and other ways of organizing directions, including formatting. Use articles to teach basic comprehension skills by copy/pasting sections and having students drag them into the correct sequence on the whiteboard to form logical directions. In science or social studies classes, enhance learning by having students view models on this site, then work in groups to write their own how-to wiki on curriculum topics such as "How to tell a fungus from a bacterium," "How to solve simultaneous equations," or "How to form a government." Use FlexClip, . If you have access to video equipment, have students write scripts and produce video versions of their how-to instructions and post them on a site such as TeacherTube.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kidspired Tales: A Collaborative Project - Patricia Knox and Susan Silverman
Grades
K to 3
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Kidspired is a collection of classroom projects, graphic organizers, and lesson ideas created with Kidspiration, the visual learning software designed for elementary students. Teachers...more
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Kidspired is a collection of classroom projects, graphic organizers, and lesson ideas created with Kidspiration, the visual learning software designed for elementary students. Teachers can browse examples that integrate concept mapping, writing, reading, science, social studies, and other curriculum areas while exploring how graphic organizers support brainstorming, organizing ideas, and demonstrating understanding. The site also includes downloadable templates, tutorials, and classroom project samples to help educators get started with visual learning activities. Most resources require Kidspiration software to open and edit, and a 30-day trial is available via the provided links. TeachersFirst is not recommending the purchase of this software and is not affiliated with Inspiration Software, Inc.
tag(s): concept mapping (16)
In the Classroom
Choose a book and template that fits your curriculum. Load Kidspiration on a classroom computer for students to complete when they have time. As always, follow your district's policies on loading software onto district computers. Many of these activities are easily adaptable to Inspiration, the "older" version of the concept-mapping program.Note: This site is on a school server and gets busier during the school day. Be patient waiting for it to open!
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LIFE photo archive - Google
Grades
6 to 12
3 Favorites
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Use this tool to search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most of these photographs were never published and are now available...more
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Use this tool to search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most of these photographs were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. The original photographs were hard copies that have been scanned by Google. These images can be used for personal or research purposes (though at this time, images contain a Time Warner stamp that seems to limit its fair use.) Images are organized by decade and category but can be searched by name, date, subject, location, and even by photographer. View different channels of history: news, celebrity, travel, animals, and sports. The archive can be accessed through this website, or by simply adding the phrase "source: life" to any Google image search.
tag(s): images (274), photography (134), black history (132), local history (12), world war 1 (88), world war 2 (168)
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.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TheatreHistory.com - TheatreHistory.com
Grades
9 to 12
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If you teach theatre, acting, or history, this site is a smorgasbord of information. The home page features "today in theatre history" and a featured topic. The index of topics ...more
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If you teach theatre, acting, or history, this site is a smorgasbord of information. The home page features "today in theatre history" and a featured topic. The index of topics shows origins of theatre, ancient and medieval theatre, and then theatre by country (American, Irish, Russian, French, etc.). Clicking on one of those takes you to a page with category choices-- Plays and Playwrights, or Actors-- and a list of links to specific articles that are academic, but interesting and very readable.
One of the nicest features on the site is the "Script Archive," which gives access to full-length plays, one-act plays, 10-minute plays, and monologues. This is a fabulous source for theatre and speech teachers alike.
Be aware: this is a commercial site, so there are links to purchase books, but it is more subtle than most sites, and all the links are freely given without a need to register. There are also advertisements, preview for appropriateness before sharing with your class, as these ads change without notice.
One of the nicest features on the site is the "Script Archive," which gives access to full-length plays, one-act plays, 10-minute plays, and monologues. This is a fabulous source for theatre and speech teachers alike.
Be aware: this is a commercial site, so there are links to purchase books, but it is more subtle than most sites, and all the links are freely given without a need to register. There are also advertisements, preview for appropriateness before sharing with your class, as these ads change without notice.
tag(s): plays (31)
In the Classroom
As theatre is inextricably linked to the history of a country, divide categories among a class of students and have them research on the site, creating humanity links between the theatre and culture of the time. Have them report their findings to the class in a panel discussion, PowerPoint, a video (share the video using Teachers.tv (reviewed here), or an online book using tool such as Bookemon (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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King Lear - Study questions
Grades
9 to 12
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from the Shakespeare Classroom. ...more
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from the Shakespeare Classroom.
tag(s): king lear (3), shakespeare (98)
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Adopt-an-Author - Steve Alten
Grades
7 to 12
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Choosing a book, especially for reluctant readers, can be a challenge. Working online with some of these materials would certainly offer a different look for savvy teenagers and give...more
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Choosing a book, especially for reluctant readers, can be a challenge. Working online with some of these materials would certainly offer a different look for savvy teenagers and give them new ideas for reading. Initiated by author Steve Alten, this website uses this author's (and others') books to excite reluctant readers with good stories, incorporating technology with planning. While this site offers a complete program for sale, you can register for free and use most of the materials without buying anything. It offers five books by Alten as well as several other fiction and nonfiction titles by different authors. Each book includes materials such as a PowerPoint of the curriculum, a chapter to peruse, activities, quizzes, etc. The variety of books offered is interesting, including an autobiography of Gerda Weissman Klein, a Holocaust survivor, and a finance nonfiction book to help teens prepare for their futures. This site does have sponsors and minor advertising.
tag(s): independent reading (85), holocaust (41), authors (116)
In the Classroom
Allowing students to choose among these books may encourage them to read. Having students "teach" their book to the rest of the class after they have finished it might be an activity that would urge other students to pick up those books, too. Extend learning by having students share their books creatively: write a blog post as a character using Telescope, make a video using Adobe Express Video Maker, to post on TeacherTube or SchoolTube, or make a podcast "interview" of the main character, played by a classmate using Acast. Bring reading into the 21st century reality of your students and watch the two worlds "mash" together.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Full-Bodied Romeo - Folger Library
Grades
9 to 12
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A lesson which lets students use body movements to help understand Romeo's character. Released by the Folger Library in spring, 1999. ...more
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A lesson which lets students use body movements to help understand Romeo's character. Released by the Folger Library in spring, 1999.
tag(s): shakespeare (98), romeo & juliet (8)
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Diigo - Education - Diigo, Inc. 2010
Grades
1 to 12
9 Favorites
0 Comments
This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research curation tool, knowledge-sharing community, website...more
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This interactive social bookmarking and collaboration tool does so much more than any ordinary bookmarking tool. It is a research curation tool, knowledge-sharing community, website annotation tool, and social information network all rolled into one "cloud" package. To get started, check out the About link. You will find information and videos on the uses of Diigo. Set up an account, being sure to click the FREE education edition upgrade. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly. At this time Diigo is experiencing issues with the "Top 10 Tags" from the menu on the left.
This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
This site includes advertising.
This tool can be used as a basic bookmarking tool, simply allowing YOU to save, sort, and access your own bookmarks from ANY computer or mobile device (once you are logged in). You have the choice whether your bookmarks are public or private. You can gradually ease into more advanced and interactive features: highlight parts of sites and save or share those annotations, add sticky notes to parts of websites, pictures, screen-shots, documents, audio, and more. Do group collaborative research. Organize your bookmarks by tags. Unlike sorting bookmarks into file folders, adding tags permits you to put multiple tags or "labels" on one site. The same site you tag for book reports could also be tagged for biographies, for example. Additional Diigo features include groups (a way to share and exchange bookmarks with a certain group of Diigo users), messaging, and search features. You can search all the public bookmarks made by others and discover other people with similar interests, already bookmarked and ready for you to mark as your own. There are many groups you can join, such as those with a specific teaching interest or hobby. See "Tools" for many helpful options, including bookmarklets to make bookmarking instant on multiple devices. Bookmarklets drag directly to the toolbars on your computer and are well worth it. It goes beyond simple bookmarking and adds options like highlight, capture, send, read later, comment, search bar and Diigo message options. You decide your own level of use and desired tools to be shown on the bar. If choosing not to install the toolbar, then there is an applet called Diigolet that will be used in its place. It is not as strong a tool as the toolbar, but will work well if the toolbar installation is not possible. Check our sample group. You can also install a widget on your blog (or class web page) that will show your bookmarks there.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): study aid (171), DAT device agnostic tool (135), social networking (54), collaboration (146), curation (26), forum (2), bookmarks (33), organizational skills (93)
In the Classroom
Teachers even in very early grades can use Diigo simply to share links with students and parents. To get more ideas on the potential education uses of this site, see this SlideShare powerpoint here. Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.Assign students a research topic and allow them to use Diigo collaboratively to collect and share resources. Share teacher-selected options (complete with comments or directions) easily using Diigo. The research and conversations created through highlighting and annotating what they read can greatly enhance both their research skills and their online interaction on academic level skills. Or use Diigo to post discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles using the highlighting tool. Find a relevant article for your subject, highlight the part that you want students to read. (If students are younger, keep it short to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids.) Attach a sticky note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as a homework assignment. If you are fortunate enough to have all students with computer access in your class and at home, such as in one to one laptop program schools, you can organize many assignments using Diigo. Use this site to help all of your students stay organized. Share this resource with your (not so organized) gifted students to help them manage projects and not "lose" the information they "found somewhere." Post assignments, readings, online interactive labs, and more. The site even allows students to submit responses by adding a comment. Of course others will see what they said, so you may not want the comments to be the only thing they do! If you assign gifted students to do projects beyond the regular curriculum, consider having them curate and annotate a collection of resources on a higher level topic. For example, extend your study of World War II by having them collect web-based primary sources showing the propaganda leading up to the war, political cartoons during the war, and advertisements from the time. Have them annotate the collection explaining each artifact and how it reflects the sentiments and biases of certain groups. That same collection could provide other students a class opportunity to interact with "objects" from the time. If you have contact with other teachers of gifted students, they could collaborate across different schools or classrooms.
Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
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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Deluxe Paralaughs - Mr. Nussbaum
Grades
3 to 8
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This mad-lib-type exercise will build better understanding of grammar. Students start by choosing a story category. They then review parts of speech by "writing" the story. They insert...more
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This mad-lib-type exercise will build better understanding of grammar. Students start by choosing a story category. They then review parts of speech by "writing" the story. They insert a noun, a plural noun, a verb etc. When finished inserting the required parts of speech, they see the new story on the screen. The results are hilarious! students will be motivated to think of many examples of each part of speech in order to make their stories funnier, thus building a better understanding of the concepts of "noun," "verb," etc.
tag(s): parts of speech (38), speech (65)
In the Classroom
Use this site to reinforce the parts of speech with humor. Include it on your teacher web page for practice outside of class. Let your students copy and paste the funniest stories into decorative word processing documents and highlight the parts of speech in different colors as further reinforcement---then print and post them in your classroom! Now you have an instant grammar bulletin board, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Children's Choice Reading List - International Reading Association
Grades
1 to 9
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This site lists approximately 100 recently published children's books, chosen by children and sorted by reading level. Endorsed by the children themselves, these books are meant to...more
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This site lists approximately 100 recently published children's books, chosen by children and sorted by reading level. Endorsed by the children themselves, these books are meant to encourage reading among children ages 5 to 14.
tag(s): reading lists (79)
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The Futures Channel: Real World Movies - The Futures Channel
Grades
4 to 12
1 Favorites
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Looking to show math, science, and STEM in real life? Look no further! This site has real world applications in video form. The clips tend to be five minutes or ...more
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Looking to show math, science, and STEM in real life? Look no further! This site has real world applications in video form. The clips tend to be five minutes or less. Videos are arranged into topic areas such as architecture, sports and many others. Learn about bicycle design, wind sails, recycling, creating an advertising team, and MUCH more. It is a good collection of video clips focused on the real math and science behind jobs that people do in real life.
tag(s): agriculture (52), architecture (80), business (51), environment (248), sports (107), transportation (31), STEM (387)
In the Classroom
The clips are brief which makes them ideal for introductions to math lessons or science lessons utilizing the interactive whiteboard or projector. Also, a lesson could be developed in math showing students what a clip of math in a real world movie looks like, and then have students use research to create their own short video clips. Share the videos using a tool such as Teachers.TV reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon
Grades
4 to 12
3 Favorites
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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!)....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 (121), poetry (195)
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, 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, for high school students, and Seesaw, for younger students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Reading - Wireless Generations and hundreds of teacher contributors
Grades
K to 1
3 Favorites
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Free-reading supplies oodles of lesson plans and activities to teach reading to Kindergarten and first grade students. It's a wiki-site: anyone using the free materials at this site...more
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Free-reading supplies oodles of lesson plans and activities to teach reading to Kindergarten and first grade students. It's a wiki-site: anyone using the free materials at this site is also invited to add his/her own lesson plans, adjust existing plans, or simply begin a discussion about particular plans. The reading instruction is based upon researched methodology, phonetically based. For an intensive program, follow the 40-week Intervention A, complete with lessons, activities, and materials. Students will enjoy the lively games, songs, and activities that accompany the lesson plans.
In the Classroom
Read the research section closely to make sure it aligns with your school system's reading program. Most of activities are conducive to small-group instruction. Entire site is user-friendly. Allow lots of exploration time.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Cube Creator - Read Write Think
Grades
2 to 12
4 Favorites
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The Cube Creator offers four different options for creating and personalizing a printable cube for summarizing or story-telling: Bio Cube, Mystery Cube, Story Cube, or Create your Own...more
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The Cube Creator offers four different options for creating and personalizing a printable cube for summarizing or story-telling: Bio Cube, Mystery Cube, Story Cube, or Create your Own Cube. Follow prompts to create the cube. The planning sheets help you collect information before making the actual printable cube. Once you have entered all your information, print and follow directions to assemble the paper cube. Follow links to find lessons that use this interactive as well as suggestions for other uses. There are lessons for grades 3-4 up through grades 11-12. Note: Read Write Think has added the capability for students to save their work to continue later. In the last paragraph of the Overview, there is a link to watch the video: Saving Work With the Student Interactives.
tag(s): study aid (171), printables (36), firstday (27), word study (58), biographies (102), mysteries (30), summarizing (30), back to school (57)
In the Classroom
Use the Cube Creator for virtually any lesson or activity as a substitute for a paper and pen project. Try printing on heavier card stock so cubes are durable. Create a cube to practice math problems, describe habitats, outline important story events, and much more. Have students create a cube and share with other students to practice retelling, summarizing, adding synonyms, or review for tests. Have each of your students create an All About Me cube for parents to view at Open House or to get to know each other during the first week of school. Have others guess which cube belongs to which classmate. Create a cube review game where others must answer the question that comes up when you "roll" the cube. The possibilities are endless. Challenge your gifted student(s) to create a "Who Am I?" cube about a famous person they research. Use the Bio Cube option with one variation: DO NOT include the person's real name. Share the cube as a game for the rest of the class to guess (and then create their own similar cubes). Your gifted students may also come up with new ways to Create Your Own Cube that could become a class game! Invite them to try their creativity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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