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Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers - Michael A. Caulfield
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Include this ebook with your resources when teaching online safety to students. Share a link on your class website or newsletter for parents. The short chapters work well with providing a lesson of the week with different techniques for determining the validity of web content. Share portions of the book on your interactive whiteboard or projector during classroom discussion. Use your smart board tools to highlight important content as you take a look at online information together as a class. No smart board? No problem! Use your projector and eMargin, reviewed here, to highlight and annotate as a class. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast different versions of an online article. When finished, enhance learning by having students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools to share their research into online information. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Visme, Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, and Clipchamp.As an ongoing activity have students create blogs sharing online safety tips using Telegra.ph, here. There is no registration with Telegra.ph, and you'll get a unique URL for sharing. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links.
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Weird Road Signs - TODAY; Paul A. Eisenstein
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
These signs can spark writing, geography, and visual communication lessons. Project selected signs on the interactive whiteboard as ideas for students to use for creative writing pieces. Have the students create a fictional scavenger hunt of several signs around the world. Have students use a mapping tool such as MapHub, reviewed here, to create a map showing the sign locations (with stories and pictures about what happened when people encountered the sign)! Use the locations offered in some of the descriptions for geography lessons to integrate geography with writing. Use the images on a bulletin board and have students write captions for the signs. Have student editors find grammatical errors on the signs. Students could create an annotated image including text boxes with captions and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Have students upload a sign image and add voice bubbles with narration using a tool such as Phrase.it, reviewed here. Use the signs for ESL/ELL students to teach about the nuances of text translation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like? - PageTutor
Grades
4 to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for demonstrating place value and exponents of 10 on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Ask students to draw each amount as they would visualize it before revealing the actual size from the site. Challenge students to change the representation used ($100 bill) to something different (popsicle sticks, bricks, etc.) to find how proportion changes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What has the United Nations ever done for you? - The Guardian
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to explore on their own. Social studies teachers will want to bookmark this interactive for use throughout the year as students learn about different countries and cultures. Instead of paper notecards enhance student learning by having them use Simplenote, reviewed here, to take digital notes; tell students to be sure to save the URL to share their notes and questions with you and their peers. updates across all devices Then, modify technology use by challenging students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, to explain what they learned from this site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What is Ebola? - KidsHealth
Grades
3 to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Discuss together when you are answering children's questions regarding the Ebola virus. This site is perfect for use with weaker readers and ESL/ELL learners. Allow them to listen to the article on classroom computers or read in Spanish. Share this link on your classroom website for parents to use when discussing Ebola with their child. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site using a tool such as WordItOut, reviewed here. Have students create true/false quizzes using information from this site. Use an online poster creator, such as Padlet, reviewed here. Challenge older students to share what they know about Ebola before reading this article then research information on misconceptions using Snopes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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When the Personal Becomes Presidential - New York Times Learning Network
Grades
6 to 12The lesson plan starts with the familiar "read the story and discuss" format, but there are a number of good essential questions and extension activities provided that could be tailored into a strong classroom plan. The lesson plans have cross-curricular suggestions, and are tied to standards.
In the Classroom
Be sure help your weaker readers and ELL students by sharing the listed vocabulary words prior to reading, either on a handout or by projecting on an interactive whiteboard and highlighting them in the text as you come to them.Use this lesson to discuss current events in politics (which changes daily). Have students discuss and debate the current issues. Have the students write a wiki about a current event in politics (for example, Governor Palin being the first woman VP on the GOP ticket).
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When Tragedy Hits - NewseumEd
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Read all materials before presenting this simulation to the class. You may decide participation may be too difficult for some students - those with a personal connection to this or similar tragedies. Make a copy of Setting the Scene and Scenarios for each student. Project the PDFs with the projector and ask students to volunteer for a read-aloud - read-around with all listening to one person and then another. Use the accompanying discussion questions. Consider giving all students a chance to voice their opinions (even the shyest and quiet ones) by using a tool like Backchannel Chat, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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White House Briefing Room - US Government
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 share them using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here. This would be great for a US government class!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? - PBS - Frontline
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Students are often fascinated by conspiracy theories, and the mystery of whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone or was part of a larger plot to kill the President represents one of US history's most enduring. Certainly the site will be useful in a discussion of the event itself. However, it can be used more generally as a springboard for discussion of conspiracy theories themselves. See the lesson ideas in the Teachers Guide section. What evidence do we require to decide if something is true or not? Who can be trusted to tell the story of an emotional event? Is "seeing" always "believing"? How can resolve the fact that eyewitnesses do not all have the same recollection of the event? Have your gifted and highly able students do a special project investigating conspiracy theories in history and sharing them as a role play or video for the rest of the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Who Was Nelson Mandela? - BBC
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson for Black History Month or about heroes in Civil Rights. As you discuss Martin Luther King, Jr, include discussion of major Civil Rights leaders from other countries. Enhance student learning by having them choose one of the following projects. Have students create an annotated image of Nelson Mandela including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use it: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. Have students collaborate to create maps of Mandela's journeys using Maphub, reviewed here. Students can add icons, text, images, and location stops! Have students create timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Who, Me? Biased? - New York Times
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share videos with students either with a projector, an interactive whiteboard, or use the link or embed codes on your class website to view at home. Have students view from home and enhance learning using Acclaim, reviewed here where you can stop the video and ask questions about the parts where students may need clarification right on the video! Have cooperative learning groups extend their learning by creating podcasts sharing their insight into biases and racism along with suggestions on ways to address each problem. Use a site such as podOmatic, reviewed here. Share this site with your school's counselor for use with ongoing lessons in tolerance and diversity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Who's Who in Post-War Iraq - BBC
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a learning center or station during a unit on the War on Terror and the fighting in the Middle East. Because there is a lot of information on this site, this activity works best with a follow-along or guide to highlight for students what's most important. For help creating easy graphic organizers, we recommend using Graphic Organizer Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wimp - wimp.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Bookmark Wimp as a resource for finding videos for lessons and activities. Share the direct link to individual videos on your class website or blog. To remove the distracting advertisements on video sharing sites and more, use a tool such as Clipchamp, reviewed here, or Watchkin, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Winter Olympics: South Korean President hopes Winter Games bring 'inter-Korean' Peace - CNN
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Although this article is short, it has many possibilities for use to introduce debate and discussion about the role of the Olympics in international politics. Share the article with students to read at home or independently at school before the start of the Olympics. Gather student comments and reactions to the article using an online bulletin board like Lino, reviewed here. As the winter Olympics progress, ask students to share articles reinforcing or reputing the president's view on a blogging site such as Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. This blog creator requires no registration. Use Flip, reviewed here, to record student video discussions of interactions between Olympic nations and predictions on how those interactions may or may not lead to long-lasting peace. As a final presentation, ask students to use Odyssey, reviewed here, to analyze events and stories from the Olympic games. Odyssey allows you to create stories using the power of maps and geography.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Winter Olympics: Sport by Sport - ESPN
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site with students to provide an overview of Winter Olympic sports, the history, and some of the key figures in each event. Have groups of students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Venngage reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wordless News - Maria Fabrizio
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Encourage students to connect with current events by sharing the daily post (or one per week) on your projector or interactive whiteboard as students enter homeroom or settle in for the start of class. If you teach reading, this is the perfect way to entice students to READ informational texts with a visual image in mind, adding a purpose to their reading of non-fiction. This is a very creative way to practice close reading, as students look for the reasons behind the illustrator's choices. Extend the activity by challenging students in reading OR social studies classes to create their own Wordless News illustrations to reflect a news story they find on their own. Share the challenges on a class wiki for other students to "guess" and include the links to the stories. Art teachers can use this blog as an example of the many ways artists find inspiration in everyday life. Even the very young can "draw" a news story they read. ESL/ELL teachers can use these illustrations to build speaking vocabulary as students discuss and guess the news stories and practice their language skills reading the actual text. Use this blog in social studies class to inspire historic " wordless news" stories with accompanying articles written by students (or primary source stories from the time). What would the illustration and article be like for the Emancipation Proclamation?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World Affairs Council - Washington, DC - World Affairs Council - Washington, DC
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Thanks to instantaneous news shows and social media, the students of the 21st Century are very aware of global issues. That is not to say they understand them. Start a current events program in your class, you may want to look at Newsela, reviewed here, TweenTribune, reviewed here, or Flocabulary, reviewed here. Then turn to the World Affairs Council and their YouTube channel to get explanations about global issues. The topics are extensive; some are specific and some are more general like global warming (or climate change) and the failure of the global economy. All are current, and all will give your students a different perspective on the topic. With older students, each week you could put a different small group in charge of featuring a current event and ask them to research its history, and see if they can also find the topic on the WAC YouTube channel. Have those students create an annotated, narrated image including text boxes and related links using a multimedia tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here, to present to the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World Flag Database - Graham Bartram
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
This is an easy-to-use fast reference tool for students. The site also sells flags, but you can ignore the sales portion. If your students do country reports, this is a one-stop site for them to find their country's flag. Perhaps they can use these ideas to design a flag for their own mythical country as part of a unit on government.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World Government Data - The Guardian
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Find data belonging to a specific country through its own data portal page. Collect similar data and data sets from more than one country at the same time to compare and contrast and identify trends. For example, view categories such as Agriculture, Crime, Culture, Economy, Education, Energy, and more. Enter keywords to find data matching your needs. Use this site to look at data and determine reasons for difference. Encourage students to find articles written in these various countries to explain culture differences. Students can also make infographics (data visualizations) to display comparisons and contrasts. Make connections with educators in these countries to encourage discussions between the different classes either through multimedia or blogs. Resources such as Classchats or Skype in Schools can get you started.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World News - WN Network
Grades
4 to 12In 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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