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Authors and Illustrators on the Web - Children's Literature Web Guide
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Share this on your teacher web page for students doing book reports or research on authors. When your students have completed creative writing book projects, have them create a mock-up site about themselves as authors! they can use PowerPoint or create an offline web page, depending on the resources available in your school. If you use PowerPoint, be sure to set it on a computer running automaically for parents waiting at conference time. If you display the student books on a nearby table, parents can learn "about the authors"!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Voki - Oddcast
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Access to a microphone is required to record a voice. There is an option to use text to voice (however, it does not have great sound.) Import audio from a file or use a cell phone instead to capture audio. Only one minute of audio can be recorded so be brief. Students need to carefully think of their narrative before recording. Users must be able to copy and paste html code for use in an external site.Use the controls to create your character's style, click customization to further refine your character, change your background, and add your voice. Keep in mind that animated backgrounds may take longer to load on your site. When done, click publish to view and copy the embed code which can then be used on a blog, wiki, or web pages.
Monitor all aspects of student production and use for appropriateness and copyright. If concerned about using student email, consider creating a class account for students to use. Be sure that students understand not to change the Voki of other students if using a class account. Check your school district policy about using emails or identifying student information on the Internet.
Introduce and share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this free site to record a greeting for students that can be seen on the start page of your blog, wiki, or website. Record online assignment information that is spoken by the Voki (always more pleasing to look at than the teacher!). Use this to share homework assignments, a message from you (via a substitute), and more. Use a character that is interesting or matches the assignment you may be leaving. Use Voki to record two different opinions or viewpoints and create a poll of students to view reactions. Use the Voki in Math by posing possible solutions to problems and create a class discussion or poll to determine which one is the actual answer. As students are working on projects, create a Voki that provides hints and tips for students. Allow students to use Voki to provide peer assessment to others. Consider using Voki in place of other assignments such as "What I did this summer vacation..." or "Here is information about me..." Use in any language class to record narratives or translations. Students can create a variety of Voki recordings over time which can show their learning of a language over time. Create classroom newscasts using student(s) on a rotating basis. Use Voki for vocabulary exercises which can be created by students or the teacher. The possibilities for this tool are endless. The quick and engaging nature of this tool offers unlimited uses.
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ESL Writing Wizard - Nick Ramsay
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Use the cursive option with even your advanced level ESL and ELL students, some of whom have only learned to write English by printing. With ESL and ELL students, combine writing practice with survival word lists, such as colors, numbers, days of the week, months of the year etc. Use this for extra practice for your students learning to print or learning cursive. Although this site was created for ESL and ELL students, it would be useful in any elementary classroom learning printing, cursive writing, or even spelling words. For kinesthetic practice with any students, project the worksheet on an interactive whiteboard for use with a finger as a "pencil." Children with special needs will find this kinesthetic option very helpful and engaging.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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E.ggTimer.com - David LeMieux and Ben Lew
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
What a fabulous alternative to a traditional egg timer. Project the time on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector while students take a test, solve a drag and drop, practice speeches, rotate between learning centers, or during cooperative learning groups. Be sure to turn up the volume for the "time's-up" alert! As you teach basic concepts of time in primary grades, use this timer for students to understand the real concepts of one minute or ten seconds. Show the relationships between minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, etc. You can even use it to teach counting backward from 60!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Better At English - betteratenglish.com
Grades
3 to 12This site does have several appropriate advertisements. There are also a few questionable links on the site (for example, "Uncensored English"), so be sure to supervise WELL.
In the Classroom
You will need headphones or speakers if you choose to assign students to listen to the podcasts individually. This site is excellent for enrichment or special topics. Include it on your teacher web page (with a disclaimer regarding content) for students to access both in and out of class. Use this site with intermediate and advanced level ELL and ESL students to help them improve their knowledge of English slang and idioms. If you are into video, consider creating your own student vodcasts about idioms and sharing them via TeacherTube ( reviewed here) and on your class wiki.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Finding the Rhythm of Blues in Children's Poetry, Art, and Music - Yale University
Grades
1 to 4Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Paragraph Punch - Merit Software
Grades
4 to 6Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Listening Doll - Joyce Payne
Grades
K to 4In the Classroom
Some arts & crafts materials are needed for these lessons. This would be a great option to accompany the study of Native Americans in an elementary classroom, drawing in your language arts time for story writing and telling.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Story Jumper - storyjumper.com
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Although the sentences and graphics available appear juvenile, the fact that writers can delete the text and add their own original text, photos, and drawings makes this site flexible enough to use with older students, as well. This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. Ask your students to visit the site and create an online book with their original writings, drawings, and photos. ENL and ELL students will be able to use the site easily, and will learn appropriate sentence structure and add to their vocabulary by selecting new items to put into the graphic. Older students can also create "little buddy" books for younger students to read and share.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Little House Books - Harper Collins
Grades
1 to 5In the Classroom
Teachers, mark this site as a favorite to use when you plan your Little House or pioneer unit. If you need a quick quiz for any of the Little House books, you will find one already prepared for you. Directions to make your own autograph album, scrapbook, "Little House" recipes, and more are located in the Teachers section. The classroom activity guide features 17 pages of ideas!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mr. Nussbaum's Language Arts - Greg Nussbaum
Grades
1 to 6In the Classroom
Make this site available on your classroom computer or cluster for practice and reinforcement. Many of the activities would also work well as whole-class lessons on a projector or whiteboard, followed by individual practice. Don't forget to put the link on your teacher web page, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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This Day in History - Timelines, Inc.
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
To add events to the site, locate the "add event" found at the bottom of the Timelines.com homepage. Follow the very clear (with samples) directions to insert your own event. Viewing the timelines is simple. Click to watch videos, view the maps, click "Like" or "Dislike" or make comments by clicking on the words.Monitor what students are viewing in the premade timelines. Also, teach students appropriate events to include and check their work before having them submit work so that they are more accurate.
Use the timelines on the site in science class to help students understand the history behind discoveries that they take for granted, such as the the space race. Today's students have never lived in a world where traveling to the moon was not possible, and understanding the history of the event could be very helpful in understanding the magnitude of such an event. This site would also be useful in art or music class. Have students investigate the history of their favorite group or type of music and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. How about a video (including music, of course). Use a tool such as Moovly, reviewed here, and then share the videos on a site such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.
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ESL Holidays Lessons - Sean Banville
Grades
1 to 8In the Classroom
Use this site to help ESL/ELL students improve listening, reading, writing, and cultural knowledge. Invite an ESL/ELL student to present a holiday from their home country to the class using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Many of the review activities would also work well as reading comprehension practice on interactive whiteboard, especially if students use highlighters and pens to mark up the text passage to locate key terms, etc.Have students create online holiday posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here or PicLits, reviewed here. Share this site with families of your ESL/ELL students to learn more about American holidays.
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Owly Comics - Andy Runton
Grades
K to 4In the Classroom
Ask students to dictate captions for these stories, write the captions on strips, and put them with the printed pictures. For students able to write, have them write their own captions. Have a caption-writing contest among pairs of students in the classroom. Have ESL and ELL students write simple captions and learn the words for items in the pictures at the same time. Students in foreign language classes can generate desciptions or dialog to go with the stories. Special ed teachers will appreciate the opportunity for students to "narrate" the comics -- and possibly place pages in sequence -- to develop vocabulary. Use printable versions for take-home work with parents, as well. Challenge students to create their own wordless books. Don't forget to check out the twelve lesson plans available at theAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Book Cover Creator - ReadWriteThink
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Have students write and illustrate a book for younger students, then create a full dust jacket to give the book a professional look. Share the stories during a meet the author/book signing event with a younger class. Present the books to the younger class library so they can be enjoyed over and over. OR use the full dust cover as a book report template. As always, preview and create a sample cover to decide what options you want your students to use. NOTE: Make sure you allow enough time to create and print the cover in one session, as there is no way to save work.Comments
I love this one. The art teacher and I worked together on this month's book reports (sixth grade) . I talked in my class about finding symbolic objects within the stories the students read, and the art teacher taught them how to design book covers that used these ideas to make a meaningful book cover for the books. Then the students wrote in my class about how the object was important to the themes of their book.Thinking, PA, Grades: 5 - 10
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American Library Association Newbery Medal Page - Amer. Library Assoc.
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Use this list to help your students choose some new literature to read. Provide this link on your class website for students and parents to use to find quality literature. Consider starting your own class wiki with student-made interactive book posters on favorite Newbery winners and honor books using a tool like Canva, reviewd here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Eye on Idioms - Read Write Think
Grades
4 to 9In the Classroom
Save this site in your favorites or make it available on your class web page for your students to use for review. After students have gone through the exercises here, encourage them to make their own idiom pages and exercises using this format as a model. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create online books including a variety of idioms. Use a tool such as Bookemon reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Diffen - Diffen
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
The options are endless. Search the differences between two types of soils, mitosis and meiosis, presidents or those running for office, of geometric figures, artists or musicians, places to visit. As a way to build higher order thinking skills, this site is ideal, since comparison of attributes requires analysis.Try creating some lists of your own as a class after using the ready-made ones here. This activity would be easy to do on an interactive whiteboard, with students hand writing the characteristics and dragging them into Similarities and Differences columns before entering them into Diffen. This site could be used in nearly every subject area. Share this site on your class blog or website, for students to access both in and out of the classroom. This is definitely one to save in your favorites.
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BusSongs.com - Keith Mander
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use these silly songs in primary grades for those early readers who benefit greatly from rhyme time. For the elementary level, these songs would be helpful when introducing poetry and alliteration. Teach the historical, political and cultural connections that go hand-in-hand with many of these tunes and rhymes. Middle school students will be quite surprised with some of the hidden meanings of the songs such as Ring-Around-The-Rosy. For fun, choose a couple of tunes to sing as a group during the long bus ride to a class fieldtrip location! Have cooperative learning groups explore songs and create a video explaining (and singing) the songs. Or have them write and video record their own lyrics about a historic event or science concept, accompanied by the audio recording of the tune (available for some songs). Have students share the videos using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fun 4 the Brain - Natasha Oliver
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Share the games on your interactive whiteboard or projector. If individual computers aren't available, set up a computer cluster for students to explore this site. Allow students to practice skills for mastery, remediation, and reinforcement using the variety of games offered on the site. This is definitely a site to list on your class web page for students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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