Adolescent Literacy
Books R4
Teens features reviews and teaching ideas for the most recently published books
in young adult literature. Each review contains a brief summary of the book,
information about the author, reading level, genre, and major themes of the
novel. In addition, online resources and media connections have been included,
along with practical suggestions for using each book to enhance learning.
Approximately sixty percent of the titles represent multicultural voices.
This
site provides lots of resources for improving the teaching of literature.
Early Readers
This site
is for early emergent readers. There are interactive books, movies and videos.
It's a fun site.
Animated
letters make up a picture of an animal.
This site
has money, phonics, spelling and much more. Shockwave is required for
this site
This site,
which seems to have been developed primarily for parents, is also a great
resource for early childhood educators. Included are links for pattern
books for language play, stepping into characters, information books, talking
over books, and resource links. Recommended books are highlighted for
each topic, as are videos that show toddlers being read to and interacting with
books
Building
Language for Literacy
This
colorful site uses interesting creatures to help little ones build their
vocabularies and develop sound symbol identification.
Books read
to kids online
Animations
of upper and lower case letters
JILetters
is a free, open-source downloadable program for children who are learning their
letters. When an onscreen letter is pressed another window pops up with a
picture of an object/animal and then the letter and object is read out (make
sure that you have your sound turned up). Some screens also present the
letters in cursive format. Don't be put off by the initial page - this is
not a big, commercial program, and the developer talks to you as though you
were the nerd next door - but the program looks pretty good.
This site provides an overview of phonics, lessons plans for teaching phonics, printable worksheets, strategies for teaching, an A-Z glossary, and d a blog on phonics.
Evidence Based Instruction
This
website is a Tool Belt of resources for all
content area teachers. Create unit lesson plans using the Understanding by
Design backward lesson plan model by Wiggins & McTighe focusing on the big
ideas we want our students to know. This website provides various links to
resources, infecting educators at every level in all content areas to integrate
thinking strategies and develop literacy skills (phonics, phonemic awareness,
fluency, vocabulary and comprehension) into all units of study.
This site,
developed by two Syracuse City Schools teachers, introduces a number of great
websites that provide information about the five critical building blocks of
literacy and how teachers can use them to increase student success.
This site
provides practice in phonemic awareness and phonic analysis. Some pages
will be confusing without adult mediation.
This site
extends the PBS show by the same name, providing strategies to help kids who
struggle, techniques for teaching reading, suggestions for great kids books and
authors, pod and webcasts, reading research, free reading guides and reading
resources, and special sections for teachers, other professionals, and
families. The site can also be viewed in Spanish.
This site
provides exercises in English grammar. Some are in British English and so
not useful in an American classroom, but others are in US English, including
games and puzzles. There is also a section of review for the TOESL.
Games for Increasing Reading
Visit the
new Skillswise games page to find over 50 games to help adults and older
students improve their reading, writing and number skills. This site
is also appropriate for school age children.
From the
Earobics Company, this site helps develop phonemic awareness and phonics
skills.
This site
provides games and exciting exercises involving interactive math and literacy
lessons to boost a child's success in school. The site claims that just 15
minutes a day with Dositey programs or worksheets makes children eager to
learn.
General
Resources
Book
Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8.
Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take
multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes
for their literary successes.
Learning
Planet's focus is on creating learning activities in reading and math, as well
as tools that empower teachers.
This site
provides educators and students access to the highest quality practices and
resources in reading and language arts instruction.
Type in the
name and/or author of the last book you read that intrigued you. This site
comes back with several suggestions of books by the same author, the same
subject or genre, or other similarity. This site works from picture books
through deep intellectual tomes. The suggestions will be in the same genre and
general reading level, by the same author or one with a similar style, et
cetera. Links to booksellers accompany each recommendation.
Encouraging
active learning through book-technology links
The
Connected Thesaurus allows you to search for relationships between words,
concepts, and people. It combines the functions of a thesaurus, rhyming
dictionary, pun generator, and concept navigator. Use it to find words that fit
the needs of whatever writing endeavor you've undertaken, or just to browse concept
space.
Plug in a
quotation, find out who the author is/was.
The mission
of this site is to transform boys into lifelong readers. The site owners
are an organization of parents, educators, librarians, mentors, authors, and
booksellers. Periodically, the site will feature an Extraordinary Author on the
home page. Also included is an introduction to Tribes, which are boys’
reading circles
Two
tutorials on this site looked pretty good to me – one is on being a better
reading partner as an adult working with a child and the other is on the role
of the Teaching Assistant.This wiki site is primarily used by people from the
UK, so some of the spellings are different (programme for program, for
instance), and some information may not be relevant due to differences in laws,
but Because this is a wiki, the user can add to existing materials
or create and add his or her own new information. Another sort of fun
link from the wiki goes to pictures of classroom exhibits.
This
absolutely charming website features animated Silverstein characters, a
kids-only page with activities including games, printables, and ecards to send
friends. There's also a page for teachers and parents, as well as a page
that features animated excerpts of new books.
Grammar
This site
provides exercises in English grammar. Some are in British English and so
not useful in an American classroom, but others are in US English, including
games and puzzles. There is also a section of review for the TOESL
Lots
and lots of games to practice grammar rules, provided by the British Council.
A bare
bones guide to English, this site helps the writer with things like
subject-verb agreement, comma splices, and prepositions.
Heteronyms
are words that are spelled identically but have different meanings when you
pronounce them differently (think about “lead” – pronounced “leed”, it means to
guide, and pronounced “led”, it means a metallic element).
Homonyms
are one of two or more words that are spelled the same but have different
meanings; homophones are two or more words that are pronounced the same way,
but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling.
This knock
off of AdLibs provides an opportunity for a fun way to practice parts of
speech.
Handwriting
Handwriting
Worksheet Generator
This site will develop
worksheets for handwriting practice in manuscript or cursive, using your input
to determine the letters and words practiced.
This
site provides a number of different options for worksheets to practice
manuscript and cursive handwriting; it is also available in Spanish.
Responsiveness
to Intervention (RtI)
Jim Wright’s
Response to Intervention site
Jim Wright
has collected a terrific set of free information and resources for schools that
want to implement response to intervention.
This
article, from the Reading Rockets website, is a user-friendly, short, and
accurate description of the responsiveness to instruction/intervention model.
Spelling
Everyday
Spelling Reference Room
This site
provides spelling strategies for grades 1 - 8
Frequently
misspelled words, word lists, other
Study basic
skills with unlimited interactive practice, explanations and examples,
challenge games, and hundreds of pages of activities.
Spell It
Right – Learn to Spell Confidently
This site,
developed by an experienced English teacher, provides free printable
worksheets, help, and advice to parents who are concerned about helping their
kids become better spellers, adults who find spelling difficult and want to
improve, and teachers who need some spelling worksheets to supplement their own
materials.
Word Work
This site
provides lots of activities for learning Dolch words, including student booklets
with black line illustrations, and a record keeping structure for the teacher
who uses the activities.
This
website is about phrases and alphabet in many languages. The site
contains more than 101 phrases covering many aspects such as greetings phrases,
getting directions phrases, and other sentences of everyday needs; it also
provides help in how to pronounce several words and expressions.
This
Writing (Composition) & Short Stories
WritingFix
is purposely organized around the 6 traits of writing. The 6-Trait model
is an analytic way of thinking about writing skills. It helps give developing
writers a vocabulary so they can identify and talk about their personal
strengths as writers. It also helps them develop a vocabulary for talking
about where their writing might benefit from some further rethinking and
revision. The website is dedicated to
giving students and teachers a better ability to use 6-Trait language in the
classroom.
This site
provides online writing activities from the Utah Education Network
This site
has links to several online journaling sites, including some that are how-to
sites.
This site
encourages young writers to post their work and receive constructive comments
while helping other writers improve their own work, read guides and play games
to expand your literary talents, discuss everything from plot and politics to
writers' block and current events with other writers their own age.
NoteStar
Application for Research Paper Creation
An internet application designed to help teachers and
students prepare research papers. NoteStar is a tool for both teachers and
students. Teachers can create and assign projects, monitor progress, help
organize notes, and check the authenticity of sources. Students create, track,
and organize notes, assign subtopics among a group, and create a printable
bibliography. NoteStar even provides a NoteCard browser bookmarklet to make
note-taking easier.
Sheppard
has links to many, many stories, including fables, myths, short stories, et
cetera.
This site
provides online stories with links for teachers that allow them to go to study
room where they can create custom word lists and quiz-based games as well
as access study questions and activities for used with short stories on the
site; take advantage of games to build vocabulary and comprehension, and check
word definitions and pronunciation guides.