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Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything - Assessment & Rubrics - discoveryschool.com
Grades
K to 12
1 Favorites
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If you want to learn more about rubrics, find the perfect "ready to go" rubric for almost any subject or project, or create your own original rubric - you will ...more
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If you want to learn more about rubrics, find the perfect "ready to go" rubric for almost any subject or project, or create your own original rubric - you will find everything at this one-stop shop. Find the best rubrics "out there" on the web. The general topics of this website include: Student Web Page Rubrics, Subject-Specific and General Rubrics, Multimedia Rubrics, Rubric Builders, Generators, and Support, Educator Technology Skills and Rubrics, and other areas of interest. There are also articles of interest to explain what a rubric is, why they are helpful in the classroom, and other pertinent information.
tag(s): assessment (145), rubrics (39)
In the Classroom
Although this website is plain vanilla (basically a list of resources). The list is phenomenal and includes an eclectic mix of many types of rubrics and assessments.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Rubric Maker - Recipes4Success
Grades
K to 12
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This handy online tool allows you to create customized rubrics "on the fly" for any subject or project. You can print the rubrics directly from the website. You choose the ...more
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This handy online tool allows you to create customized rubrics "on the fly" for any subject or project. You can print the rubrics directly from the website. You choose the age level (primary, elementary, middle, or high school) and input the name of your rubric. Then a blank rubric appears for you to fill in the details. The blank rubric includes space for the criteria, as well as a range to rate the quality of students' work (gradations). There are also ready-made rubrics you can print out. The website provides explicit directions about how to use the website (they are in PDF).
tag(s): assessment (145)
In the Classroom
Use these free rubrics with any grade level and any subject area. Note that in the free version you LOSE your work when you close the page, so make sure you have printed first!
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Quizlet: The End of Flashcards - Brainflare: Andrew Sutherland
Grades
3 to 12
5 Favorites
0 Comments
This easy-to-understand web and mobile app tool allows you or your students to enter vocabulary terms and definitions to create electronic flashcards and quizzes to enhance word study...more
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This easy-to-understand web and mobile app tool allows you or your students to enter vocabulary terms and definitions to create electronic flashcards and quizzes to enhance word study in any language or content area. Students may choose to create study sets, electronic tests, or a networking page, which allows them to interact and learn with others who share the same interests. Teachers or students can create groups to share word lists. Use this tool from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. The iOS and Android app practice tests can include multiple-choice, true/false, or written questions. Turn on "Instant Feedback" (new feature for the apps) that will give real-time feedback on right/wrong answers as you go, or wait and get your score at the end. As wonderful as this technology is, the most remarkable thing about Quizlet might be in its history--its creator was a high school student who tells his inspiring story and shares his blog through links at this site.
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This site includes advertising.
tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (129), flash cards (44), Formative Assessment (47), quiz (62), spelling (93), vocabulary (251), word study (58)
In the Classroom
Membership asks for an email. Email allows you to notify others that you want to share a word list or activity with them. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of Gmail subaccounts, explained here. This tells how to configure Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This would provide anonymous interaction within your class. KEEP A LIST of students' usernames (non-identifying) and passwords, in case they forget them! If you already use Google Classroom with your students, it only takes a few minutes to get them set up with a Quizlet Class.Quizlet has a very thorough "Help Center" to get the idea of how the site works. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be entirely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." The new version of "study sets" allows you to scan your notes with your phone or tablet and create study sets designed for your specific needs. You can now highlight main ideas, underline key concepts and bold important study terms to create custom content. Create your own groups for each class or subject. Be sure to note the fact that you can upload vocabulary lists by copying/pasting from various formats--- a time saver! Use this tool easily in your BYOD classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.
Content and English teachers may set up their personal network of users. Pretest your gifted students and allow them to "test out" of material they already know. Learning support teachers will want their students to create their own Quizlet sets and help learn them in the process! Teachers may create their own sets of words, or let students do the work for themselves and each other. Use the interactive whiteboard for quick flashcards or electronic testing using your sets. World language and ESL/ELL teachers will find many word sets already built and ready to use at this site. If you team teach with others at your grade level, take turns making the online Quizlets to accompany your science or social studies chapters. Be SURE to share this tool on your teacher's web page for students to use at home.
Be sure to see the classroom quiz game for groups, Quizlet Live (from the creator of Quizlet), reviewed here.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Project Based Learning Checklists - ALTEC: Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortia
Grades
1 to 12
6 Favorites
0 Comments
This online tool creates checklists for your class projects. Oral presentations, writing, multimedia, or science projects will become a cinch to grade when you have exact guidelines...more
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This online tool creates checklists for your class projects. Oral presentations, writing, multimedia, or science projects will become a cinch to grade when you have exact guidelines generated by this site. Not only will it be easier for you to assess, but it gives students exact knowledge on what is needed. Just choose a grade level, then choose from a list of project guidelines (or add your own), and make a checklist with the touch of a button. You may even personalize your checklist to your own specific criteria.
tag(s): assessment (145), Project Based Learning (28), rubrics (39)
In the Classroom
If you do not want to figure out the math and relative weights of a scored rubric, these checklists share project expectations in a simple list form. You must save the web page URL for your checklist in order to view it later. Include a completed project checklist link on your teacher web page for students and parents to refer to as they work on projects at home. Note: There is no database of other teacher-generated checklists. With very young students, you will want to use the "add your own" option to write very simple text for a checklist that they can read.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Centuries - Memorial Hall Museum Online
Grades
4 to 12
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There is so much to explore on this site, you will need to place limitations on it! Digital Collections of everything from clothing to chronology, turns of the century exhibits, ...more
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There is so much to explore on this site, you will need to place limitations on it! Digital Collections of everything from clothing to chronology, turns of the century exhibits, in the classroom activities, curricula, New England architecture and tools, manuscripts from people who lived in the time-- this site is truly a museum on the web made student-friendly. The activities section is full of ways to involve students with real objects from history. Students can actually hear some of the artists and writers reading their own words -- which is remarkable. If you teach American literature or history or are interested in artifacts from the past, this is a great site. If you choose, you or your students can create a login and save to "my collection."
tag(s): colonial america (97), england (51), slavery (79)
In the Classroom
Browse the collection for images and descriptions of specific artifacts. Explore themes like Shay's Rebellion, the lives of African-Americans in early rural New England, or the Civil War era in New England. Interactive activities allow you to look at Early American tools, examine artifacts using a 360 degree view or see what clothing was worn (down to the underwear!) by people of the time. If you plan to share objects as part of a lesson "collect" them in a personal collection so you can pull them up easily. Challenge secondary students to use the activity labeled "Create a chronology" to group artifacts from the collections to illustrate a concept, such as slavery, clothing, or background of an author, artist, or historical event. With younger students, use one or more of the activities on an interactive whiteboard or projector or design a simple scavenger hunt within YOUR collection of objects for students to find out about colonial life and times. If you turn them loose on the entire site, you will never get them back.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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World News - WN Network
Grades
4 to 12
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This is a wonderful compilation site of news from all over the world. Users can read the home page or search news of a specific geographic region. An ...more
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This is a wonderful compilation site of news from all over the world. Users can read the home page or search news of a specific geographic region. An excellent plus here is the ability to choose to read the news in a variety of languages. World Photos today, multimedia, global weather, and sports are just a few of the many attractive sections that add to this site's appeal.
tag(s): news (223)
In the Classroom
Share this site with your school's foreign language teachers. Have students do comparisons between English and foreign language versions of the news. If you teach writing, you can find controversial topics as writing prompts for persuasive writing among the articles, as well, and have students find facts to support their positions. Make this site available from your teacher web page for current events assignments. Reading teachers will want to use the articles on an interactive whiteboard to teach main idea and summarizing: highlight key words to use in a main idea or summary sentence you write together below the article.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Hyper History Online - The World History Project
Grades
6 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
This comprehensive history/culture resource is the mother of all timelines with over 3000 years of history available in "synchronoptic" form, that is, in parallel timelines. Users...more
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This comprehensive history/culture resource is the mother of all timelines with over 3000 years of history available in "synchronoptic" form, that is, in parallel timelines. Users can view by searching year, event, people, stories, subjects, events, political movements, and maps. Constant updates to the events section and additional "people" lines ensure the timeliness of this amazing site. (The site does NOT include people who are still alive). The span of the timelines and people, events, and cultures is extensive. Timeline elements are clickable for more information. We recommend the site for grades 6 and up purely because of the level of exposure necessary to appreciate all the information and because of the reading level.
tag(s): biographies (96), politics (124)
In the Classroom
Use this site for context regarding what was going on all over the world at any given time, especially as you launch class discussion of a new topic or time period. Help students see relationships between what they know and what else was occurring at the same time. Use it to pose questions about how events and people may be related, as well. This site will work very well on a projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fun Icebreaker Ideas & Activities - icebreakers.ws
Grades
K to 12
22 Favorites
0 Comments
Start the first day of school or a new marking period with a getting-to-know-you activity from this great, searchable collection. The activities are designed for all ages, so some will...more
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Start the first day of school or a new marking period with a getting-to-know-you activity from this great, searchable collection. The activities are designed for all ages, so some will not work well with very young ones (such as writing things on slips of paper). The site is easy to navigate and sorts ideas by group size and activity level for easy retrieval. There are also activity suggestions for Zoom if you use distance and remote learning. You are invited to submit your own ideas. Since the site is designed for general use, not for schools, some ideas may be impractical in a classroom setting but could be easily adapted. Substitutes - check out some of these icebreakers, the kids will love them....and you! Warning: By clicking the "Download Templates - Free" you will go out of the Icebreaker website to the Shift website that has templates (unrelated to icebreakers) for free.
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tag(s): back to school (50), firstday (20), newbies (9), remote learning (32), substitutes (25)
In the Classroom
New or veteran teachers who want students to get to know each other as they enter a new school (starting middle school, for example), want to observe them so YOU get to know them, or need to build better team skills with a challenging class or club, will find ideas to try. Mark this one as a Favorite so you can find it again, since "first day" activities tend to get lost in the flurry -- and in the fading memory -- during the year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mem Fox: Teaching, Learning, Living - Mem Fox
Grades
K to 7
4 Favorites
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This author page offers plenty of ideas for helping kids enjoy reading and includes many stories. Hear Mem Fox reading her own stories. She advises on how to read ...more
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This author page offers plenty of ideas for helping kids enjoy reading and includes many stories. Hear Mem Fox reading her own stories. She advises on how to read to children and gives excellent examples. This author page has many good suggestions for promoting literacy and love of reading. There is also a section of advice on writing your own picture book for children.
In the Classroom
Create a shortcut to Mem reading aloud on your classroom computer for a center activity for primary grades, and place a copy of Mem's book there for students to follow along. Print Mem's suggestions for reading aloud to give to parents at conferences, or share this site on your teacher home page so parents and students can access it from home. For older students, this site is an excellent resource for planning cross-grade reading activities for Read Across America or other special times, including having middle school students write picture books for young students, then share them at an in-person visit or on a podcast recording using Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Use PowerPoint Online, Microsoft PowerPoint Online, reviewed here since slides are an easy way to "create" and share large-format picture books electronically.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kids Book Club Book - Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp
Grades
2 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
This site, a companion to a print book, focuses on ideas and activities for book clubs, including short summaries of books, recipes, and activities paired up with featured books. ...more
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This site, a companion to a print book, focuses on ideas and activities for book clubs, including short summaries of books, recipes, and activities paired up with featured books. Books included are of many levels and genres, all of high interest for children. Children's authors write some of the book reviews; book club members are welcome to list their book club, book descriptions, and activities on the site as well. Links include an author section with a comprehensive list of authors who will speak to your book clubs by phone and authors and illustrators willing to visit your school.
In the Classroom
Find food ideas and activities to promote reading on this site! Mention this site to your school librarian for use with school book clubs. FCS teachers may want to coordinate some of the recipes with books featured in language arts class. Parents would appreciate the link on your teacher web page or newsletter so they can encourage reading at home. Your school parent organization can find great ideas, as well. Make this link part of your family literacy treasury.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Video Teleconference Survey - Gerry Del Monico
Grades
7 to 10
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Geared to upper middle- lower high school classes, this site offers you a template for students to collect research on a topic ("Violence in the Media and How It Affects ...more
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Geared to upper middle- lower high school classes, this site offers you a template for students to collect research on a topic ("Violence in the Media and How It Affects Teenagers"). Using Internet search engines, they compose survey questions that they invite classes in other schools to answer. Students invite classes that respond to the survey to participate in a CU-SeeMe video teleconference on the survey topic.
In the Classroom
The contemporary topic and the hands-on experience of making and doing a survey is quite appealing to students. This site, which does include lesson plans, maps out how to do this step-by-step with students and have the culminating project actually be interactive with students somewhere else. This is a great site to get your feet wet is you have not done either surveys or video-conferencing before.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Proverbia.net - Vicent Jorda
Grades
3 to 12
6 Favorites
0 Comments
Finally, a rich resource of proverbs to use for classroom bulletin boards, quotes of the day, and, most importantly: teaching figurative language and idioms. Find proverbs alphabetically,...more
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Finally, a rich resource of proverbs to use for classroom bulletin boards, quotes of the day, and, most importantly: teaching figurative language and idioms. Find proverbs alphabetically, by topic, or by author. Click for the Spanish version of the site, as well. Spanish teachers will love this way of teaching the nuances of the language. If you teach about Ben Franklin, you could spend a full class on his proverbial sayings found here. ESL/ELL students will benefit from exposure to the idioms included in the proverbs, as well.
tag(s): figurative language (19), franklin (12), idioms (29), spanish (112)
In the Classroom
Ask students to find three proverbs unknown to them and explain them visually on a PowerPoint slide (can easily be printed into a big book or poster). Feature a proverb a week in your classroom or on a bulletin board to build analogous thinking, cultural literacy, and inferencing skills as you ask students to explain what it means. This will gently ease your concrete thinkers into broader understanding.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Activities: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 8
2 Favorites
0 Comments
TeachersFirst offers a chapter-by-chapter set of activities for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Designed to be used after each chapter, the activities include science searches,...more
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TeachersFirst offers a chapter-by-chapter set of activities for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Designed to be used after each chapter, the activities include science searches, writing, and art projects suitable for individual or group use. The ideas and activities ask you to respond, extend, discuss, create, and more. There is simply no better way to try new "After Reading" strategies. Don't miss this great collection as a way to encourage anyone to get the most from reading and re-reading a new favorite. Find links to two other sets of Harry Potter book activities on the Intro page.
tag(s): harry potter (9)
In the Classroom
Share this link on your teacher web page or in a parent newsletter, if you don't have time to do all the activities at school. Ask students to design their own activities to accompany other Harry Potter books.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ESL Lessons and Help - Karin M. Cintron
Grades
4 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Originally written for ESL students to practice language skills, these interactive quizzes are very useful for allowing all levels of students to test their skills online in a nonthreatening...more
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Originally written for ESL students to practice language skills, these interactive quizzes are very useful for allowing all levels of students to test their skills online in a nonthreatening way. These interactive quizzes seem to touch on all bases from business English to grammar to vocabulary (including idioms), making them great for either pretesting, practice or review. They also allow the teacher to individualize what students need from a variety of choices.
In the Classroom
Assign individual or mini-lesson practice on laptops or a computer cluster in your classroom after grading writing assignments or while studying grammar. Learning support and ESL teachers will also like the extra practice options to help students with grammar skills and idioms. Since there is no "scoring" function, you may want students to raise hands and SHOW you how they did as they complete activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Radio Days: A Webquest - Tori Kenel
Grades
6 to 10
4 Favorites
0 Comments
This is a simple webquest to introduce students to many of the techniques used in radio that are still used in film production today. It also familiarizes students with the ...more
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This is a simple webquest to introduce students to many of the techniques used in radio that are still used in film production today. It also familiarizes students with the era of radio -- an important experience for those trying to understand history of the first half of the twentieth century. The webquest is almost deceptively simple. The age of your students and the sophistication with which they approach the task can determine the level you want to teach. It includes the elements of typical webquests from introduction through evaluation in an easy, step-by-step manner.
tag(s): 1930s (40), 1940s (70), decades (7), radio (16), writing (308)
In the Classroom
Although this was written for 6-8th graders, it is a lesson easily adaptable to older students. The list of resources is very good, and the kinds of embellishments you can make on the tasks are limitless. It is a great project for students to work on in small groups, allowing students of all abilities an opportunity for success.If you ever considered podcasting, this webquest is the perfect lead-in. Your social studies(or language arts) students will love actually producing their scripts for "broadcast" on the web. Bring the 1930s to life in your classroom!
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Newpapers in Education - Capital Newspapers
Grades
2 to 12
1 Favorites
0 Comments
This wonderful collection of lesson plans and activities using e-newspapers offers a wide variety of motivating plans including how to use different sections of the newspaper for educational...more
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This wonderful collection of lesson plans and activities using e-newspapers offers a wide variety of motivating plans including how to use different sections of the newspaper for educational purposes and how to match curricular content an levels with various newspaper activities. A Special Report section offers timely, short-term projects that correspond with STEM and current hot topics.
tag(s): comics and cartoons (61), fashion (13), news (223), newspapers (88), sports (88)
In the Classroom
All of the lessons described here require online versions of newspapers, but you may be able to find any article in a hard copy newspaper as well. You could also use online newspapers from this resource to find online papers and conduct some of the same lessons. In the course of the discussion, or possible read the article from a different point of view, a topic of basic information literacy in the 21st century.
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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Braingle: Brain Teasers, Puzzles, Riddles and More - Braingle
Grades
3 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Exercise your gray matter by solving one of the 12,000 'braingles' at this site. It purports to be the largest collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, etc, on the ...more
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Exercise your gray matter by solving one of the 12,000 'braingles' at this site. It purports to be the largest collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, etc, on the Internet. Once you explore the site, you trust their word. The site is mobile phone and wii-friendly. Don't miss the section with SAT vocab (in Mentalrobics). There are articles on study skills and strategies such as clearing your mind before studying, "chunking" when reading, or various strategies to memorize material. Engage students into math and reading exercises through the endless riddles and puzzles at this site. They won't even be aware they are 'reading' or 'solving math.'
tag(s): brain (58), puzzles (163), riddles (15), vocabulary (251)
In the Classroom
Start class with a "warm-up" brain teaser. Or include this link on your teacher web page (with a caution about parental supervision for younger ones). Site creators claim the entire site is family-friendly, safe for classroom use. Portions of the site require membership, and the membership level that displays ads is free. You may want to set up a CLASS account and use it under controlled circumstances since there are forums and chat rooms, however. Or ask your tech folks to block the portion of the site that includes "community" in the URL (http://www.braingle.com/community/) to avoid having to deal with forums, chat rooms, etc.(If you are lucky enough to have such helpful tech support, make them cookies once in awhile!)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bibme - team exibeans
Grades
6 to 12
0 Favorites
0 Comments
BibMe is a one-stop source for all kinds of bibliography needs. It is a great online tool for bibliographies--and more. It even has a function for those students who ...more
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BibMe is a one-stop source for all kinds of bibliography needs. It is a great online tool for bibliographies--and more. It even has a function for those students who don't remember all the information for the source you cited. BibMe allows you to search from a database of millions of entries to find your source and autofill in the information. If you have the source in front of you, you can enter your entries manually. BibMe also offers resources to help you cite your work properly in the 'Citation Guide' section. It offers examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago formatting, making it useful for a wide variety of schools. Set up a free account for yourself so you can "save" bibliographies.
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tag(s): citations (34), noregistration (75)
In the Classroom
This is a great tool for students who are both learning to cite correctly and as a helpful tool for those who forget some of the "little" things that count when writing a bibliography. It offers a great example, too, of the difference between what is in a "Works Cited" page and what actually appears in the text as a citation. Teachers can use this on a Smartboard or simply through a computer lab or projector to demonstrate the correct way to cite as well as mistakes to avoid. Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page for students finishing reports in the wee hours of the morning on the due date. Set up a free account for yourself so you can "save" example bibliographies. If you assign independent projects to your gifted students (or any student), be sure to make Bibme part of your instructions so they learn to organize their sources early on. If students are allowed to set up individual accounts, this tool is worth the time! They must be 13 or have parent permission.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Simple English Wikipedia - Wikipedia Foundation
Grades
3 to 10
0 Favorites
0 Comments
Simple English Wikipedia is a new production of Wikipedia, focused on readers and learners with less vocabulary than native speakers of English. According to the producer, the pages...more
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Simple English Wikipedia is a new production of Wikipedia, focused on readers and learners with less vocabulary than native speakers of English. According to the producer, the pages featured here contain simpler words and shorter sentences than the regular Wiki pages. The number of pages is more limited as well, though this should grow with educators and learners contributing information. Another difference is that any slangs or idiomatic language is carefully explained to accommodate the ELL reader. The HELP pages explain how to write and submit articles for Simple English Wikipedia and have suggestions for simplifying English.
tag(s): writing (308)
In the Classroom
Share this site with your school ESL teachers as well as classroom teachers who may have ESL students who are involved in researching and possibly even writing new articles. Bookmark this for your classroom computer. If you do recommend wikipedia as a source for research, be sure to have the discussion about its unknown authorship and usefulness as a general information tool but not as a "scholarly" resource. As a challenge to your better writers, consider asking them to write entries that you can submit to this encyclopedia on classroom topics in simpler English. They will have to analyze their own language and writing style with far greater scrutiny than ever before. Or have the class create a two-version wiki glossary of your own on curriculum topics in any discipline, using this as a model for the "easy reading" side.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Poetryfoundation.org - Poetry Foundation
Grades
3 to 12
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If poetry is your interest, this is the site for you. This is a vast site that takes some mining to find what you want simply because there is so ...more
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If poetry is your interest, this is the site for you. This is a vast site that takes some mining to find what you want simply because there is so much of it. From a poetry search to poetry news, blogs, and podcasts, there is something here for any poetry lover. A smorgasbord of rhyme, about rhyme, and for rhyme, take a look for poem wealth. The Jack Prelutsky audio was especially interesting: hearing the poet reading his own poetry is something special. For older students, podcasts will hold a lot of appeal and can generate great class discussion.
In the Classroom
A caution: the site does contain links to poems that some schools or grade levels may find inappropriate (lesbian poetry, for example). However, the audio portions are excellent so sticking to what is geared specifically for your interests is easy and totally safe. Remember to connect speakers or headphones. Why not try making a poetry podcast with your class after you hear these?
This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.
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