Sponsorised links
This year
BSD: Biography Maker
by knann
& 2 others
(via)
Great site to enabling students to write a great biography using the following steps:To create an exciting biography,
you will now follow these steps:
1. Questioning | 2. Learning | 3. Synthesis | 4. Story-Telling
Six Traits of Effective Writing
2008
Super Action Comic Maker
by knann
Easy to use Comic Creator to inspire story-telling.
Choose the background for your Action hero. Use the slider to choose the pose. Add speech bubbles and text. Click next top add up to six frames.
BigUniverse.com
by knann
Read & Create Children's Picture Books Online - Great authoring tool for creating your own books. Use the library of pictures or upload your own.
Writing Fun by Jenny Eather- helping kids write using text organizers.
by knann
Excellent site for different genre examples and organizers. Takes time to get familar with site but worth it. Nice for smartboard as there is a write online feature.
On the Tip of My Tongue
by knann
Index of Idiomatic expressions, spanish and french equivalents, some cartoon examples, audiory samples, contextual examples
VIRTUAL LIBRARY OF INSTRUCTIONAL UNITS
by knann
Welcome to the Virtual Library of Conceptual Units. The Virtual Libray includes conceptual teaching units for middle and high school English/Language Arts classes. These units have been designed by preservice and practicing teachers at The University of Georgia. The units follow principles of curriculum and instruction developed by George Hillocks, Jr., (see, e.g., Dynamics of English Instruction, Grades 7-12, by Hillocks, McCabe, and McCampbell; Random House, 1971). The process for designing these units is described in Peter Smagorinsky's Teaching English through Principled Practice (Merrill/Prentice-Hall, 2002) and Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units (Heinemann, 2008; an online Instructor's Guide is available for this book as well).The units are designed to cover 4-6 weeks (assuming daily class periods of 45-55 minutes). Each is organized around a concept such as a theme (e.g., Coming of Age), genre (e.g., satire), strategy (e.g., understanding irony), literary period (e.g., Victorian Age), movement (e.g., Transcendantalism), region (e.g., Authors of Georgia), or author (e.g., the works of Emily Dickinson).
Hypertextopia
by knann
& 1 other
(via)
Hypertextopia is a space where you can read and write stories for the internet. On the surface, it looks like a mind-map, but it embeds a word-processor, and allows you to publish your stories like a blog.
It's designed to facilitate the writing of axial hypertexts by making a distinction between the fragments (essential elements) and the shards (minor, but enriching elements) of a story. You write in Hypertextopia by dragging the fragment arrow (the large one) or the shard arrow (the small one) and dropping them onto other fragments and shards, or onto empty space.
Wordle: using word clouds in a lesson
by knann
Nice example of how to use wordle in the classroom as a pre-reading strategy.
Sponsorised links
2007
Historic Tale Construction Kit
by knann
& 4 others
(via)
Online writing tool with picture and text tools to complement the study of medieval themes
Myths and Legends from E2BN
by knann
Welcome to Myths and Legends. This site is for pupils, teachers and all those who enjoy stories and storytelling. The British Isles is rich in myths, folktales and legends. Almost every town, city and village in Britain has its own special story, be it a Celtic legend, Dark Age mystery, strange happening or fable.
Our Jury System at Play
by knann
Our Jury System at Play
The jury has reached a verdict! Justice by the People is a powerful new way to build your students’ language arts skills and understanding of civics. This national standards–based program, created by the Foundation of the American Board of Trial Advocates and Scholastic Inc., underscores the importance of the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to students in grades 5–8. This is an oustanding resource with all resources, including the interactive simulation, can be used online or downloaded.
eWord Game
by knann
Companion to textbook Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary but still useful for grades 1-6. Hover over the word or definition to hear it read aloud.
Using Apostrophes Tutorial
by knann
Interactive tutorial for use of possessive and contracted apostrophes
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Elements of Language
by knann
& 1 other
The Model Bank is a collection of over fifty model papers that illustrate each type of writing in the Elements of Languageprogram. Each Writer's Model is a fully interactive model paper, complete with hyperlinked annotations and writing tips. Each model is also accompanied by a step-by-step Writer's Guide that students can print out and use as a reference when writing their own papers. Word Watch and Fab Vocab or interactive vocabulary tools.
Classic Short Stories
by knann
& 6 others
This Web site is dedicated to the short story and to those interested in reading light prose. (In web page format, so it is easy to use with a text reader.)
Fewer and fewer people these days read short stories. This is unfortunate--so few will ever experience the joy that reading such fine work can give. The goal of this site is to give a nice cross section of short stories in the hope that these short stories will excite these people into rediscovering this excellent source of entertainment.
MapMyWord Graphic Dictionary & Thesaurus - The Free Vocabulary Builder Tool
by knann
(via)
MapMyWord is an interactive graphic dictionary and thesaurus, which dynamically draws color-coded representation of words, relationships (16 types), and meanings in radial clickable graphs. The g, s, t superscripts denote words suitable for GRE, SAT, and TOEFL levels, respectively. Special editable features include Pronunciation, Wordlist Difficulty Setting, Next Word Randomization, Spelling Suggestions, Sample Usage mini-Messages, and Clickable Nodes and Words.
Where can I use MapMyWord?
BBC - English Skillswise
by knann
Excellent site for older students to manage English/Language arts skills.
2006
Grammar Games for MS and HS
by knann
Interactive games for middle,hs,and ESL students. Covers lots of specific grammar topics that are often confusing for students.
Chehalem Valley Middle School Classroom Blogs
by knann
A grade 7 classroom blog with a variety of posts to stimulate reading, writing, and learning. The teacher and each student has their own blog. This front page must be a feed of all the most recent posts from the blogroll. This is an easy way for keeping track of who is doing what.
Transitional Devices (Connecting Words)
by knann
& 2 others
Transitional devices are like bridges between parts of your paper. They are cues that help the reader to interpret ideas in the way that you, as a writer, want them to understand. Transitional devices help you carry over a thought from one sentence to another, from one idea to another, or from one paragraph to another with words or phrases. And finally, transitional devices link your sentences and paragraphs together smoothly so that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between ideas.
Flocabulary Hip-Hop Music for the Classroom
by knann
(via)
Learn 26 high powered vocabulary words in this one song! Download to to your ipod! Download lyrics and definitions too!
(Only one song is actually free)
Word Chess
by knann
You must try to change a given word into another word by changing ONE letter at a time.
Example: Change DRY to WET in 6 moves.
Every time you change a letter, the new word you make must also make sense!
There are hints available both for the position of the letter to change and the definition.
This is a solid word play game and appropriate for gr5 and up
