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Shakespeare's Staging - Regents University of California
Grades
11 to 12In the Classroom
The ideas presented on this site offer imaginative teachers great scope. Using the short videos and/or the albums as jumping off points, students can create their own videos of their own productions. Enhance student learning by using a video tool such as Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here. Share the videos on YouTube or another tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.One of the central topics can be the ease or difficulty in staging some of the scenes. Since there are several of the videos where actors describe the experiences playing certain characters as well as short documentaries showing authentic Elizabethan music, dance, etc., students can incorporate their own ideas in making their own scenes more genuine.
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Literary Webquest: Shakespeare's Othello - Russ McDonald
Grades
10 to 12Note: the first link relating to how to write a report is not working and neither is the Horizon Magazine, but all of the other article links and MLA source links are fine.
In the Classroom
This is a great activity to meld literature and social studies or humanities-based curriculum. Students can choose different areas to search for information and this can be tailored to the students in a given class. Using the information found will spark new interpretation as students then read the play Othello. As a writing activity, have students write a blog post as one of the investigators, reflecting on what he/she has learned!Since the webquest was made, 3 of the links have ceased working, so teachers need to be sure to take the time to test all of them and find replacements if need be.
In regards to the final product, consider using a tool such as Google Docs,reviewed here, to have students digitally share the end product, vs having a stack of papers on your desk at the end of the day.
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After the Deluge - Smith Magazine
Grades
6 to 12Warning: Be sure to PREVIEW each section before you show it to the class since there is some profanity in the speech of some characters.
In the Classroom
In light of the increase of hurricane activity, this is a wonderful resource to introduce this weather topic. Use it also in art class, graphic design, and with ESL and ELL students learning to tell stories. Use this site to introduce the world of graphic novels to students who are reluctant readers. Have your class make their own graphic novel about another catastrophic or historical event, either in groups or individually. Check with your administration to be sure it's OK to use this site at student computers since there are spaces for students to respond and also to submit their own work. If that's a problem, use it with your classroom computer and project the novel on the whiteboard (avoiding scenes with questionable vocabulary). Extend the lesson by having students create their own collaborative graphic account of a local history event or fictional tale in small groups.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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English Fail Blog - Englishfailblog.com
Grades
9 to 12Caution: This is an open blog. While students may submit their own pictures, you should preview what you want to show them and supervise site use while in the classroom. Some of the topics or images are questionable (i.e. Erotic Cat Food). There are plenty to share without crossing the line, but teachers MUST control the sharing to avoid the occasional inappropriate choice.
In the Classroom
This is a great way to get students involved in proofreading and looking at the ambiguities of inexact language. Share one or two at the start of class on a projector/whiteboard as grammar check-ups. You might create a FAIL wall in your classroom, allowing students to post pictures they find in your community (give exrta credit for thier analyiss and suggested corrections to the errors). This would also work well as a class wiki. Invite English classes from other schools to join your class in adding to the wiki (and thus avoid the more questionable content of a "public" version). Share the wiki address via your professional network or groups such as NCTE for teachers to request access. The advantage of a wiki: start it this school year and keep adding from year to year. Your former students will return to see the latest or contribute to such a humorous endeavor.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Daily Writing Tips - Daniel Scocco, et. al.
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Focus on the topics that repeatedly occur in a student's writing by sharing a link to the topic they need most right now. The Misused Words and Expressions sections are especially helpful for explaining how to correct for cliches, etc. As always, the timing of seeing the tip matters most. Share it when you see the problem. Encourage students doing peer editing or collaborative revision to use this site and find the tip to help a classmate when something "sounds funny." That way every writer in your class can become an expert in supporting other writers, not just you, the writing guru/teacher! While learning centers are generally considered an elementary tool, they can be exciting and valuable for secondary students as well. Use sections of this site as the focus for different writing centers. The links from this site can help students move through areas where they are having difficulty and enjoy the process of interaction as well. Have them create a clever writing tip video or a quick podcast about the tip that resonated with them personally. Try Spreaker, reviewed here. Collect links to the tip videos or podcasts on a class writing wiki. Teachers will also find this reference useful as a writer of graduate papers or newsletters for parents.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Persuasion Map - IRA/NCTE
Grades
6 to 10In the Classroom
This tool is very useful in getting reluctant writers to consider using persuasive language. Demonstrate/model first as a cooperative exercise on your interactive whiteboard or projector. It is easy to see the arguments when laid out in the map, and students will enjoy using the computer to construct their arguments. It is handy that the map can be printed and is then available for the student while writing the actual essay.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events - D. Campbell
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Students could use this as a starter for more specific comparisons, including specific regions or states. Use this site as an example for students to create a similar timeline for literature and art from other countries or other cultural areas, such as dance or theatre.Be sure to share the music and sounds from the time periods. Have students analyze what they think is the meaning behind the songs. What historical names do they hear? Then have students create their own songs or video clips about the literature and/or culture of that time period. Record and share the video clips on TeacherTube (explained here).
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SchoolTube - Lightspeed Technologies
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
If you wish to upload your own SchoolTube video, you must register as a user at the site. Registration is free. Create and save your edited videos where you can find them on your computer. (Windows Movie Maker or iMovie are great, free tools for video). Then upload to SchoolTube. You can share the video via link or by embedding it in another web page. See our editor's SchooTube video here. If the teacher is the one uploading, the only potential concerns include posting videos with identifiable information or images about your students, school, or class. Check your school policies about posting pictures of your school. If you post student videos, obtain written parent permission to post student work, again within school policies. Any student visible in a video should also have parent permission in accordance with school policies. Students can use SchoolTube to share videos with sister schools, or to broadcast weekly news from their school or classroom. Students can also produce project videos on any curriculum topic. Try making "You Are There" videos about different events in history! Teachers may want to use this site to share ideas and lesson plans with other teachers across the nation. Make "how to" videos to share with parents and friends. Embed SchoolTube's video player into your school's website and encourage parents to view school news or clips from events they were not able to attend.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Sounds - Creative Commons License
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
During creative writing, play a 'soundbyte' or a sequence of sounds to inspire a story and activate creativity. You can download a "Sound of the Week" to be used as a task changer alert. (Ringing the bell meets technology.) As you study sound in science class, use examples from this site to talk about sound characteristics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Remember The Milk - Remember the Milk.com
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Read the Blog at this site to learn many cool ways to interact with your personal computer an devices using RTM. Learning support teachers and teachers of disorganized gifted students may want to "model" using such an online tool to help middle and high school students learn better personal organization. Make a demo account for a "mythical" student and organize him/her together so students can see how it works. You will have to check school policies and access to some of the messaging tools, however, since some may be prohibited in your school. Learning support and gifted teachers will welcome this online tool as an engaging way for students to become better-organized. Give students a tech tool, and they just might try it!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Biography Rubric - Scholastic
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Make sure you give this rubric to your class before they create their biographies so they will know your basis for grading.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Web Poster Wizard - 4Teachers.org
Grades
K to 12Plan to spend some time reading through the directions and trying out this tool before you assign it to students. Teachers and students must register and login each time they use this tool. Students can share the URL for their posters with grandparents or parents to show off their good work!
Students will need to know how to locate and upload a file for an image (such as a digital picture) to place it in their poster. If you allow them to use images from the web, the tool asks them to give information on their image source, as well (hooray for ethical use of the Internet!). If you use digital pictures of students, be SURE that you do NOT use full names on the site. You should get parent permission for uploading any student images, even if anonymous.
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Some uses for this simple tool: book reports (take a digital photo of the book cover), biographical posters of famous people (images from the web), "all about me" posters, posters about community members such as veterans of World War II whom students interview and photograph, author posters, fictitious character studies, science posters on processes or terms with accompanying digital pictures to illustrate, etc. The possibilities are endless. Once students know the tool, they can use it over and over.Teachers, make sure you select the archive option to keep student projects live online for more than a month. Use the Teacher Feature option to create one web page of your class' archived projects. You will want to put your created web page link prominently on your class homepage.
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Think Tank - ALTEC at the University of Kansas
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
Share this site with your students before a new research project is assigned. Have students explore the site on individual computers while you model how to navigate the site on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site to help students narrow down their research topic.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Pics4Learning - Tech4Learning,Inc.
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use images from this site with any classroom activities including research papers, blogs, and multimedia presentations. Have students create a simple infographic using images from this site using Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, or Venngage,reviewed here. Include images from Pics4Learning when creating screencast explanations. Use a tool like Free Screen Recorder Online, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Writing for Business and Pleasure - Stephen Wilbers
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
For a quick review as a class or as a supplemental practice for an individual student, this site is a good one. You might even use the short revision exercises on the home page as class starters to get students writing immediately at the beginning of class. To introduce or reinforce the concept, use your interactive white board and tools with these examples to color code the parallel structures so students can "see" the difference. Have STUDENTS highlight the parallel elements in colors so they see the color patterns and repetition. Make a class wiki page where groups create their own examples and use similar highlighting to SHOW the parallel patterns.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Picasso - Maryland Electronic Fieldtrips - Thinkport
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Start out at the "for educators" link for some great ideas to create an interdisciplinary lesson using Picasso in art, social studies, language arts, or math class. Use this site for research projects. In art class, use your interactive whiteboard or projector to show students an up close look at several of Picasso's paintings. Analyze and notate the paintings' composition using the whiteboard tools!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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In Town - Linguascope.com
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Send your Spanish, French, German, and Italian beginning level students to this site for review and practice. ESL and ELL students will benefit from the practice. Be sure to list this site in your class newsletter or on your class website, so students can practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Humane Society Careers - Humane Society Youth
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this eye opening site in many subject areas. Share the issues on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Present this site and an opposing one as part of a discussion of web sites and even or slanted presentation of information. Ask students to decide whether they see any "bias" on this site. Use this site for research projects. Show students the list of protection issues and suggest they choose one as a service project to earn credit in community service. Use the site as one of several sources for a class debate on animal rights or charge students to explore alternate points of view on animal issues, such as from the AKC or the meat industry. Then invite students to create a multimedia "position" infographic of both sides with supporting facts to share with their peers. Suggested easy infographic creatation tools are Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, and Genially, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Plurk - Plurk
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
This site is not difficult to navigate. Left click on the timeline to drag it to earlier posts. Unread plurks and replies appear as a number beside each plurk and in the timeline. Along the top of the timeline are user controls. "My profile" contains your contact information and details. Upload a photo, customize the colors of your outline, or add a widget to your blog or site that contains your plurks. Use "My friends" to invite friends, create cliques that allow you to segregate who sees certain plurks, and blocking other users. "Alerts" contain friend requests sent to you. Click on "Interesting plurkers" to see plurks from everywhere which you can customize to gender, age, city, state, or country. Use "My account" to change privacy settings and set up instant messaging. Create your plurks below the timeline and use the dropdown to change your verb from "is" to "says," wishes," "feels," and many others. Hover over a person's picture or name to send a private plurk. Plurk messages can be edited but replies cannot. Pictures, images, and links can be added as well. Also below the timeline are tabs to see plurks from you and your friends, your plurks alone, and private plurks. View your Karma -- which increases with plurks and friends and unlocks new features. Use "Embed your Plurk widget" easily to your blog by simply entering your login information.Create a written and signed classroom policy that outlines necessary privacy settings and actions that would be considered misuse. Check these regularly and take appropriate actions to enforce rules when needed. Students need to be guided in how to safely blog and share information. Students may come across questionable content if reading through the "interesting plurkers" tab. As with all social networking sites, students need to be aware of proper ways to communicate at school and at home. Teachers should be a part of all student groups to monitor use.
Students can use Plurk to discuss group work on a project, create study groups, ask for help, or communicate with those who can mentor their class or subject they are learning. Many students will find success with sending bits of information at a time and letting the conversations evolve from there. Literature teachers may want to require students to plurk their thoughts within small groups as they read chapters or acts of longer works for homework, generating discussion and active reading. Social studies teachers could assign a similar task as students read about history. Math teachers may want to encourage "plurking" as students work on longer, more complex problems. Those writing lab reports for science class may find that plurking will help them collaborate in interpreting data. Consider setting up a regular class "plurk time" in the evening on certain nights of the week or for snow days.
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CyberBullying - Bill Belsey
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
This is a great site for computer teachers (and regular education teachers using computers in their classrooms) to share with their students and parents. Please review the "What Can Be Done" section with students. Cut and paste, then laminate the rules into small posters to be hung near all computers. Create a notebook of cyberbullying facts, and include the fact sheets at this site. Be sure to share the link with parents and your PTO/PTA, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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