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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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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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Teacher Training Videos - Russell Stannard
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use the links on the left hand side to find videos on how to use some of the most popular and useful classroom sites around. Find something of use in the vast array available for viewing. The screencasts of the web 2.0 sites offer step by step instructions to help novice and intermediate users in their use in the classroom. Videos are organized into topics with multiple tools showcased in the segment. Find quick videos at the bottom of the page which highlight just one tool. Even teachers of very young students will find many of the tools explained helpful for their own use in creating learning materials, centers, etc.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kids on the Net - kidsonthenet.com
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Select a theme you are studying in science or social studies or a setting from a literature piece you have studied, and make an Adventure Island as a group project. You must register(free), but the process is simple. The teacher informaiton is thorough and helpful. Check out some of the examples first. Be sure to have written parent permission before sharing student work on the web, even anonymously.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Rhyme Zone
Grades
4 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Study Skills Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Make learning how to learn part of your class routine at any grade level and in any subject. Feature one or more new study strategy each month and share this entire list as a link from your class web page for students and parents to access both in and out of school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Monster Mash - Cara Bafile
Grades
3 to 12Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Skype - Skype Technologies S.A.
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Download and install the Skype software. If you are not allowed to install software on school computers, ask to have a single laptop available that is Skype-capable so you can borrow it or else explain to your principal that you are planning a series of Skype visits in your classroom so your techies will install it in your classroom. You will need a computer with built-in or separate microphone and speakers and optional webcam. If you plan to use a webcam, you must know how to start it. A single teacher-controlled Skype account will work in most school settings.If you prefer written directions go to More >> Get Help, and then slide to Skype Support to get started. Or ask a student to show you (without seeing your password). You will need to explore the tools in Skype to locate where to enter the SKYPE name of the person you wish to call, start the call, and answer calls. Do NOT set your copy of Skype to "remember me" on a school computer! If students are to participate in the Skype call, you may want to have a "hot seat" at the Skyping computer so they can sit at a mike so their questions will pick up better for the person at the other end.
Be sure to set Skype so it does not open every time you start up the computer. Manually start the program when needed and do not leave an obvious Skype icon on the desktop for "clever" students to find. Protect your password -- do not post it on the computer. A teacher-controlled account is best for Skype classroom use to prevent unauthorized calls by students. Your user name will show on the screen for students to see, so be aware of that when you create your account.
Anything you can do by telephone or video call you can do on a projector with your entire class. Connect the Skyping computer to a projector or whiteboard for the entire class to see if you are using video. (The video may be fuzzy, but good enough to follow a person's face.) Use Skype to talk to authors (check out their web sites or this blog for contact information). Have students write questions in advance. Use your contacts, web page "contact us" emails, and parent contacts to find others willing to Skype into your classroom. Interview scientists or government officials, deployed military personnel, or classes far away in a different culture or language. Younger students can compare weather, family life, community events, and more.
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Flashcard Exchange - Tuolumne Technology Group,
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Allow groups of students to create card sets for the class to study for tests (using your free account). With just one classroom computer, you can allow students to take turns practicing with the card set. Have a contest or rotate the chance to make the study cards for each quiz or test. This will build study skills for all. If you haev access to an interactive whiteboard, have students do a review session using your student-made or another premade card set on the board.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Learning Chocolate - learningchocolate.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Save/bookmark this site on your classroom computers to serve as a vocabulary resource for ESL/ELL and also world language students. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Share this site with Chinese, Japanese and Spanish teachers as well as with special needs professionals for help with vocabulary development and articulation. You could also have students create their own narrations of photos (similar to this site) using a site 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: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here.Comments
This is one of my favorite resources! Works great with ESL students from 4-104!Marina, VA, Grades: 0 - 12
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Classroom Jeopardy - superteachtools.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this great resource to create Jeopardy games for any content area. This resource is perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard or projector with a student emcee. Use for vocabulary/terms, identifying parts of anything, and reviewing for any curriculum topic. Use as an opener to a unit to determine what students already know. Play as a review game to assist learning for all students. Encourage students to create the clues and answers to their own Jeopardy review games as a creative way to review and reinforce. Learning support teachers may want to have students create review games together.You or your students can copy and paste the HTML code for any game on your web page, wiki, or blog for easy access to any Flash Jeopardy Game.
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Search - Children's Book Council - Children's Book Council
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Be sure to include this site on your teacher web page for students and parents to access to learn more about recommended reading lists. Use the site as a starting point for crafting summer reading lists or to design a reading challenge for your class. *Link*Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Class Divided - Frontline/PBS-WGBH Educational Foundation
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Help your students understand why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and raise their awareness of discrimination and the struggle for civil rights by involving them in active viewing of A Class Divided projected on your classroom interactive whiteboard or projector. You can view the film in its entirety, or in separate chapters followed by the Discussion Questions. You may want to give students a specific task to do during the film. For example, you might ask them to listen for a particular issue or the answers to a set of questions, or take notes in preparation for one of the post-viewing activities. As a way to accomplish this and enhance learning in your classroom use playposit, reviewed here. Replay the video or pause for discussion whenever you choose with playposit for focused, in depth exploration. Depending on your students' background knowledge and grade level, you may want to review or introduce some of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution that provide the legal grounding for equality and protection of individual rights. Explain that there are examples in American history when individuals' rights were denied and that many civil rights activists were arrested for either challenging, demonstrating, or breaking rules that they thought were unfair. Pose some of the questions for written assignments and discussion. This is a perfect lesson for Black History Month! Divide the class into groups to brainstorm situations that exist today within our own communities, and how they would feel and deal with it if they were the subjects. Students can easily create mind maps, replacing paper and pen, by using free tools from Teachersfirst, such as TUZZit, reviewed here. Have students choose words from songs to explore themes of freedom and equality, using Stories Behind the Songs, reviewed here. High school students could extend this to a reading and study of the final chapter of "One America in the 21st Century," the 1998 report of President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race, which lists 10 things that every American should do to promote racial reconciliation. Ask students to add anything they think is missing and make a commitment to continue the crusade to end discrimination.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Detective Fiction: Focus on Critical Thinking - Yale University
Grades
5 to 7In the Classroom
Lesson Plan Four has complete directions for writing a detective fiction. Have students create a storyboard to help make the story creation go smoothly. Replace paper and pencil using a digital storyboard like the Story Map, reviewed here, or SuperNotecard, reviewed here. Then have students use Book Creator, reviewed here, to share their stories with peers and family. Remember to put student stories on your wiki or teacher website!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Livebinders - Livebinders, Inc.
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Once an account is created, add the bookmarklet to your browser bar for quick access. Check with your IT department to have the ability to download bookmarklets on your computer. Knowledge of embed codes are required to manage Livebinders in other sites. To get a better idea of Livebinder basics, watch the 90 second video tour before you "play."Click on "start a blank binder," enter a description, tags, category, and mark it private or public. Click yes to "use Google search to fill a binder" to find plenty of information fast. Your new binder will instantly be filled with a new tab for each site matching your search term. After entering "climate change," a new Livebinder was created with tabs that matched research I had previously spent a lot of time to find. Now it can be instantly shared. Click on "edit menu" in the upper right of your binder to change description, title, etc. as well as fonts, tabs, and other details. To share, click on share this binder along the bottom right to share by email, Facebook, Twitter, or embedding via link or embed code. Embed your Livebinder in a blog, wiki, or other site or provide the link for access by others.
Safety/Security: Users must be 13 years of age to create an account. Teachers can create an account and share Livebinders for student use at any age. Create a class account with a global login and password. Students use the same login to access the Livebinder and create tabs on various topics. As each collaborator would not be known, ask students to add initials to tabs they create so you know the source. Check your school policies on whether student work may be displayed online and what information is permitted, then enforce that policy with your students.
Create a Livebinder to assemble information and requirements for a student project. Make the Livebinder the actual ASSIGNMENT sheet. Use a new tab in the binder for each type of resource or topic of information. In English classes, use to offer spelling, writing, or grammar hints for students. Create a binder for specific sports teams that showcase team accolades, resources for increasing skills, or to create snack lists and travel information. Create a Livebinder for groups of students to plan or report on vacation plans, learn about cultures or countries, or maintain information for student projects. Students can use Livebinders to assemble information for group projects that can be discussed with the teacher to track progress. Consider creating a binder for assignments for students that focus on the use of information versus just the searching for the information. Any content or subject area can be easily managed by creating a Livebinder for student learning. Create an art or music gallery easily with a Livebinder. Use each tab of a Livebinder for each cell part necessary for the functioning of a cell. Create tabs in a binder for each battle or campaign in a specific war. Create a tab for each candidate in a specific election. Have students or student groups (13 and over) create Livebinder "tours" or annotated collections on a topic such as the pros and cons of organic foods, a cultural tour of a country, or applications of geometry in architecture. Of course their student-written annotations and commentary will be key to make these collections into meaningful products. They might even create tasks and questions for other students to try to learn about the topic.
If you are simply looking for a way to share technology-infused project assignments with students from grade 2 and up, a teacher-made Livebinder is an easy way to do it, and you can share the assignment with parents and learning support teachers by simply providing the URL.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
Comments
I've used LIveBinder successfully at the 3rd/4th grade level to share web pages with students on specific subjects and topics. My students went back to the binders to read more, even when that unit was finished. I also create and fill binders as I am planning and gathering webpages as I plan my units.Linda, IL, Grades: 3 - 4
Takes some getting used to, instructions not as clear as they could be, but very helpful for sharing lots of resources that share a common theme.Frances, CT, Grades: 6 - 8
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Free Kids Music - Torn Bread Network
Grades
K to 8In the Classroom
Turn up your speakers and incorporate the lyrics and songs into your reading program. Singing lyrics is a great way to motivate the struggling reader. Use an interactive whiteboard or projector to display them.Note: This site is for personal listening only, which means you should not download for intentions of selling or distributing or playing before a large audience. They cannot, for example, be used as background for your class podcast!
Comments
I went through your webpage of Kid's Music. I think it is wonderful. Music is a wonderful way to keep children engaged. I use it almost everyday in my classes. Thank you, and keep those songs coming. Ray Rust Music TeacherRaymond, CA, Grades: 7 - 8
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