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Media Literacy - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Today's messages come in many forms and literacy can no longer refer simply to the ability to read and write. Prepare your students to be literate citizens with this collection. Many are ideal for whole-group instruction, while others would work best on individual devices. Read the reviews to find classroom use ideas with each review. Although the list of tools is mainly geared towards grades 4-8, there are a few resources for the primary grades.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Media Literacy Clearinghouse - Frank W Baker
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site as an excellent resource for planning for and teaching about media literacy. Include information from the Clearinghouse using lessons created with Actively Learn , reviewed here. Actively Learn offers tools for creating interactive, critical thinking lessons using materials found on their site and your own while providing you feedback on student responses and learning. As you continue with lessons on media literacy, collaborate with students on how to interpret online information using Fiskkit, reviewed here. Use Fiskkit to replace paper and pencil by sharing the URL of online articles and have students highlight and comment on any areas. Use this in lessons asking students to identify false or misleading information or to highlight areas that provide facts and information to support a claim. As students become familiar with online cues for understanding media, ask them to use Free Online Screen Recorder, reviewed here, to modify classroom technology use by creating a short video tutorial of their own sharing insights and information from an online article.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Media Smarts - Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to explore and use with lessons related to digital and media literacy. Share articles on gender and body image with students. Engage students by having them create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. Enhance learning by having students find examples on T.V. and use an online poster creator, such as PicLits, reviewed here to demonstrate examples. Give students a choice and have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Venngage, reviewed here, instead of the poster.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mental Floss - Felix Dennis
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share Mental Floss on your class web page in any science, history, health, or reading class in middle school and up. Use it as a place for students to discover research topics related to your subject or as prompts for blog posts to get kids writing about something that interests them. Make a regular extra credit offering for students to write a blog post responding to something they learn here. If you have trouble getting students to read informational text, use these factoids as introductions to draw their interest before offering a longer article. Use these articles as starters for information literacy activities. Have partners research to find a corroborating (or debunking) source for the trivia offered here. English teachers will love some of the quick articles on misused or frequently misspelled words. Invite your students in any subject to find an article related to your subject and to create a poster version of that tip or tale using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here).Comments
Awesome for so many topics. Blog post ideas! Love the layout and diversity.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Microsoft Bing - FUN - Microsoft
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Include Bing Fun as a link on your classroom computers and share the link on your class webpage. Have students try their skill on Sudoku and other logic puzzles to increase problem solving skills. Use the current news questions as a starting point for discussions in social studies classes. Ask students to choose one of the questions as a starting point for digging deeper into the topic. Have students share weekly podcasts discussing current topics and background information. Spotify for Podcasters, reviewed here, provides free podcasting tools.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Middle East - BBC
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Include this link on your teacher page for middle and high school students to use as a reference and build better understanding of this tumultuous region. It will help even younger students understand the region, but parts of this website are not appropriate for elementary students. Preview before you take your elementary class on a virtual field trip to the Middle East.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Miles of Ice Collapsing Into the Sea - New York Times
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Include these animations and text with any lessons on climate change, oceans, or weather. Enhance learning and build student understanding for your weaker readers and ENL students by creating and sharing a guided reading activity with Read Ahead, reviewed here, prior to reading. Share the locations using Google Earth, reviewed here, and have students research other locations experiencing the effects of climate change.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mind Over Media - Media Education Lab
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Discover the many ready-to-go free lesson ideas to include with classroom discussions of propaganda and persuasive advertising techniques. Share the Learn section with students as part of a flipped lesson, then have students provide examples of propaganda they find on TV or the Internet. Ask students to find advertising demonstrating two opposing points of view, then, with younger or less technically experienced students, use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here to compare and contrast information found. With older or more technically experienced students, use a tool such as Whimsical Mind Maps, reviewed here to create charts or a mind map to make the comparison.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mind42 - IRIAN Solutions Vienna
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
This free organizational tool can be used in classrooms at every level. Teachers can use this tool to help organize learning units and share the orgnanization on screen so students see how pieces fit together. Share the unit map with other teachers, students, or parents, to highlight goals, objectives, learning tasks, assessments, and resources. Share before your unit and expectations become very clear. Use as a yearly overview for parents showing units with resources at the beginning of the year at Open House. Let parents see the multiple ways their child will be assessed through the year. Students can use this tool for direction in problem based learning situations. Use this tool in science for collecting data, experiments, or science fair outlines. Use the tool in writing class to make writing guides for narrative or expository writing. In reading, use for predictions, sequencing of stories, inferences, or organizing genres of books each student has read. Have students map multiple ways to solve a single problem in math class. Have students keep daily requirements or schedules with readily available resources as links. Let students enjoy taking notes from content based classes. Have a student scribe create the notes each day and share with the class. Have student groups map the current unit before the test as a review activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Moment Zero - Pilot
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
There is a learning curve to using this site, be sure to take some time to explore the options on how to find different areas and information that is available. Consider choosing a couple of "tech-savvy" students to become experts on using the site. Ask them to use Free Screen Recorder Online, reviewed here, to record instructions about finding information, share these tutorials on your class website for student use. As students gather information and statistics from the site, use this as part of a larger activity as you learn about earthquakes. Create a class account for Google My Maps, reviewed here, and enhance student learning by recording earthquake activity around the world as they occur. Have students add images, videos, and vital statistics to this ongoing project.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mount St. Helen's Teacher's Corner - National Park Service
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Science teachers will love all the summary tables and resources offered on this site. In teaching about Mt St. Helens, many of the summary tables can actually be cleared and printed to allow students to use them as a graphic organizer to follow along a lecture. This site is also great for refreshing the events of that day as well as the volcanic history of the mountain. Save this site as a favorite on your classroom computer for easy reference.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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MSN Kids - MSN Worldwide
Grades
K to 8In the Classroom
Set the home page on classroom computers to MSN Kids for students to explore and learn about current events around the world. Have students choose an article and use it as a basis for a research project. Challenge students to create an infographic using Canva, reviewed here, to share information learned from the site. After researching information using MSN Kids, ask students to create an explainer video using Typito, reviewed here, to provide facts, background information, and discuss any topic.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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MSNBC
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for current events projects - assign students various weeks through out the semester in which they are to be the class news reporter, keeping their peers up to date and informed. Have students research whats 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 sharAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover at Namib Dune (360 view) - NASA
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share this video (or the images) with students using your projector or an interactive whiteboard as you explore the surface of Mars together. Have students use Twitter Fictional Account Template, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Twitter about an astronaut traveling to Mars. Challenge student to modify their learning and create a newspaper using a site such as Printing Press, reviewed here, with all the latest news on the exploration of Mars. Be sure to check out the NASA YouTube channel for additional videos from Mars and the Curiosity Rover.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Forensic League - National Forensic League
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use the downloadable PDF documents as a resource for students who are developing their public speaking or debate skills, learning to analyze literary characters, understanding the use of humor in speech, or similar topics. Recommend this site to students who may be entering speech competitions, or who may be preparing to give a formal presentation. If you are trying to stage a debate on any topic for your classroom, consider the resources on how formal debate is organized and evaluated.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Geographic 101 - National Geographic
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the share feature included with each video to share a link or embed videos on your class website or student computers. These videos provide a wonderful opportunity for students to explore a variety of science topics that aren't always included in the science curriculum. As students find a topic of interest on the site enhance learning by asking them to research additional information, and then use Canva, reviewed here, and to modify their technology use by creating posters or infographics sharing their findings with their peers. Include student-created posters or infographics as part of an overall presentation using a portfolio-building site like about.me, reviewed here. Use About.me for students to create a portfolio as their future self as a scientist sharing their research that includes posters, written work, cited research, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Geographic and the Common Core - National Geographic
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this National Geographic site to find high quality, high interest, non-fiction reading material for your students. Ask students to visit sites found through your search. Challenge students to share what they learned by creating multimedia presentations using one of many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Use this site as an anticipatory set to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Geographic Education - National Geographic
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and include the National Geographic site with your resources for planning social studies and science lessons. Share resources from the site on your interactive whiteboard then include a link on classroom computers for students to explore independently. There are many interesting articles and activities for students. Have them choose one; then, replace paper and pen by having them use an online notetaking tool like Webnote, reviewed here, to take notes or write questions as they research information online. Replace paper pen by asking students to write blogs sharing information learned using a site like edublog, reviewed here. edublog offers tools for creating class and individual blogs.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Geographic Education - National Geographic Education
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a resource to supplement your current curriculum. Share interactives and videos with students by bookmarking them on classroom computers or using a curation tool such as Symbaloo, reviewed here when sharing several resources. Enhance student learning when watching videos using Playposit, reviewed here to add questions, text, and additional media. Upon completing your unit, ask students to share their understanding of the content by creating concept maps using a visual organization tool such as Circlyapp, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Geographic Education - National Geographic
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Be sure to bookmark (or favorite) this site for use throughout the year to find real-world resources for classroom use. Don't forget to look for materials on National Geographic for use with Earth Day and Arbor Day activities! Differentiate easily using the multiple levels of materials found within National Geographic. Some text portions are challenging, so you should pair weaker readers with a partner as they research on this site. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Venngage, reviewed here. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. If you use Apple products in your classroom, be sure to download the interactive iBooks for use in classroom centers or independent reading.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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