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Vocabulary Web Games - Sheppard Software

Grades
2 to 12
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Enjoy language arts interactives suited for elementary students through adult learners at Vocabulary Web Games. Elementary activities offer review of grammar and punctuation...more
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Enjoy language arts interactives suited for elementary students through adult learners at Vocabulary Web Games. Elementary activities offer review of grammar and punctuation concepts. Activities include Magical Capitals, Comma Chameleon, Adjective Adventure, and more. More advanced (secondary+) activities include practice SAT and GRE prep vocabulary, medical vocabulary, and computer vocabulary using a flash card format. Play word games such as word scramble and hangman by using the other interactive games on this site.
This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Create links to games and practice vocabulary on classroom computers for students to practice language arts skills. Have students preparing for the SAT/ACT or GRE take vocabulary quizzes to find unknown words. Complement this site by creating your own vocabulary flash cards using an online flashcard maker, like Flashcard Stash, reviewed here.

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Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek - John Branch, New York Times

Grades
8 to 12
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Experience the true story of a deadly avalanche and its aftermath through this 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning multimedia feature article. Rich with metaphors and imagery interwoven with...more
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Experience the true story of a deadly avalanche and its aftermath through this 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning multimedia feature article. Rich with metaphors and imagery interwoven with the narrative, the online article includes interactive maps, videos, and photographs. Discover the science behind avalanches in this exquisite example of informational text and narrative. The article sidebars share related slideshows and more. The story is long but well worth the time to fully experience.
This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Include this story (or portions of it) during your science study of motion, gravity, or weather with secondary students. (Our check of reading level found it to be approximately 8th grade). Experience the text on a projector or interactive whiteboard to annotate figures of speech that tell us even more than some of the images. Read and analyze it as an informational text in English class. (it's viewable on tablets, too!). Discuss how the author uses media as part of the writing instead of as an add-on. For journalism and other writing classes, you may want to have your students read the accompanying article How We Made Snow Fall to analyze how the interactive and graphics departments at the New York Times worked with the text of the story to make the graphics and video a seamless part of the "reading". Challenge student groups to investigate a true story of a weather event or other actual occurrence through a combination of media and writing, explaining the science concepts along the way. Share their projects using one of the multimedia tools available from the TeachersFirst Edge. Expecting a snow day? Share this on your class web page for your literature or science class as a productive way to spend the day. Teachers of gifted can share this as an example of a project that can draw on a student's interests in science, art, and writing. Challenge students to try one. If you teach journalism, you could make the two articles an entire unit as you discuss the changing role of print vs. web-based writing in the 21st century.

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Zoho Show - ZOHO Corporation

Grades
K to 12
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Zoho Show is an online presentation and document creator tool. This program is somewhat simpler than PowerPoint, but runs on a similar format. Use this tool as you would PowerPoint...more
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Zoho Show is an online presentation and document creator tool. This program is somewhat simpler than PowerPoint, but runs on a similar format. Use this tool as you would PowerPoint with your students. It is very advantageous if you have assigned a project and students do not have access to PowerPoint at home. This can be accessed anywhere with no cost to the student, the parent, or you. Sharing and collaborating is also simple. Upload, edit, and save your documents easily.

In the Classroom

To use this site, you will need to create an account. You will need to navigate using onscreen instructions. There is a video tour of the features if you would like to view it, but it is just as fun and easy to play with the tool. Slide themes are limited, but the tools are simple and it is easy to publish to a URL that can be shared with everyone.

Use this tool to create presentations when students will need more than class time to finish. Have students make individual presentations. Instead of presenting on projector, have them share to the class wiki or within their zoho group to promote discussion and peer review. Assign a round-robin peer review so everyone gets some feedback.

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Rubrics for Assessment - Joan Vandervelde

Grades
K to 12
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This site provides many rubrics for assessing portfolios, cooperative projects, oral presentations, and much more. Quick links lead to different categories such as web 2.0 and content...more
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This site provides many rubrics for assessing portfolios, cooperative projects, oral presentations, and much more. Quick links lead to different categories such as web 2.0 and content areas of math, art, and science. Each rubric is in a table form with criteria listed vertically and rating categories are horizontal, all contain well-defined expectations and explanations of each category of scoring. Be sure to check out the section with rubrics for primary grades including a kindergarten writing rubric and rubrics for teamwork. Print any of the rubrics using the PDF link located near the top of the page.

In the Classroom

Bookmark (or mark as a favorite) and save this site as a resource for assessment of class projects. Give a copy of the rubric to students before beginning projects to define expectations.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Witty Comics - WittyComics.com

Grades
K to 12
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Use this tool to design a comic with dialogue between two characters. Use the pre-drawn backgrounds and characters. Add a title for each scene/page and add dialogue between the two...more
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Use this tool to design a comic with dialogue between two characters. Use the pre-drawn backgrounds and characters. Add a title for each scene/page and add dialogue between the two characters. These are quick and easy three page comics. You can create without an account. However, if you want to SAVE, you must register for a free account (email required).

In the Classroom

Create dialogues that introduce new content topics in your classroom. Students can use this "witty" tool to introduce topics from research or to practice a speech to be given in class. Use comics to create a dialogue discussing misconceptions in the content and a discussion of the actual facts to dispel the misunderstandings. To view more comic creator tools and ideas view this collection. Some suggested comic creators are Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here, ToonyTool, reviewed here, Make Beliefs Comix, reviewed here.

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The Readability Test Tool - David Simpson

Grades
1 to 12
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Test any website's readability using The Readability Test Tool. Test readability by URL or direct text input from any source (such as copy/paste of student writing). Simply enter...more
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Test any website's readability using The Readability Test Tool. Test readability by URL or direct text input from any source (such as copy/paste of student writing). Simply enter the web address (URL) and get the readability of the site on several scales. You can also check your own webpages by using the "referer" section. You will get a score for the most used readability indicators: Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease and Grade Level, Gunning Fog Score, Coleman Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index (ARI). These tell much more than a simple "grade level." View sentence info such as total characters, number of words, average word length, percentage of short and long sentences, and more. View word usage of types of verbs, conjunctions, and other parts of speech as well as type of words used to begin sentences. Click the link provided to view an explanation of each type of score.
This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this tool to offer differentiated resources for the different reading levels in your class. At the beginning of the year, as you learn your students' capabilities, use this tool to find reading at the appropriate level to eliminate frustration. This is perfect for finding the "just right" level for your highly advanced/gifted students and those needing extra remediation. If you do discover that a website you want to use is over your students' independent reading level, you can still use it, just use Read Ahead, reviewed here as a guided reading activity for younger students. Read Ahead is perfect for introducing any reading passage to struggling readers, special education students, and ENL/ESL learners. View readability levels of websites before sharing with students to find appropriate reading levels for differentiation. On an interactive whiteboard or with a projector, test passages of public domain texts from sites like Project Gutenberg, reviewed here, by famous authors to see how their writing ranks when discussing their writing style.

Why not have students put in the URL for their blog or wiki (or simply paste in a writing sample) to see the level at which they are writing? This is one way to encourage writing as a craft and challenge students to include more varied vocabulary and sentence structure in their writing.

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Meg Cabot - Meggin Cabot

Grades
6 to 12
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This official website for author Meg Cabot is a tool to encourage journal writing. It has journal writing tips, downloadable journal pages, a bibliography of other journal selections,...more
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This official website for author Meg Cabot is a tool to encourage journal writing. It has journal writing tips, downloadable journal pages, a bibliography of other journal selections, an opportunity to journal with the author, and more. This website requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

In the Classroom

Use this site to encourage daily writing. Help students improve their sentence structure and use grammar painlessly through frequent personal writing. ESL and ELL students will enjoy journal-writing as a safe place to practice without corrections. Some journal-writing can also take place on classroom blogs, though you may want to keep uncorrected student blogs behind passwords until students are comfortable with the more public setting.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Evernote - Evernote

Grades
9 to 12
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Use this fantastic application for note-taking and idea collecting from ANY device. Think of Evernote as a ubiquitous set of notebooks ready for you to add and read from ANY ...more
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Use this fantastic application for note-taking and idea collecting from ANY device. Think of Evernote as a ubiquitous set of notebooks ready for you to add and read from ANY computer or web-connected device. Evernote is available on the web, but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly. Take snapshots of whiteboards, products, or whatever you like and upload them to Evernote. Search your uploads through the search function which will also search handwritten or printed text sections in photos and images. Sync everything through Evernote across all the platforms. Use Evernote to create notes and to-do lists and even clip entire Web pages. Use to manage passwords or even record audio. Everything added to Evernote is automatically synchronized across platforms and devices and made searchable. Evernote offers a free account as well as a premium paid version. If you use it a LOT, you may max out the free allotments for data, but try it to see! The free account offer 60 MB of new uploads per MONTH, and syncing across 2 devices. Categorize and organize information using tags, note titles, and notebooks. Keep track of several projects with the "Notebooks" feature. Use the web version or downloadable version of Evernote to share read-only notebooks with others. Download Evernote to add an extension to your browser to do web clipping with a click of a button. Click "New" to create a new document in your notebook. Use the search function at the top and even save searches for later use. Safety/security tip: If you have sensitive information (such as passwords, etc.) on your Evernote notebook but want to share other parts? Simply highlight and right click to choose "Encrypt Selected Text" to remove from the page to be shared.

In the Classroom

Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Consider creating a class account that can be used by all students. Spell out the use of the site and what is allowed, not allowed, and the penalties. Even though all students have the same login, create different notebooks for different tasks that students can use to upload information that can be shared by all. Create separate notebooks for student groups who can then share their notebook with other groups. Use Evernote to snapshot and share links, documents, files, and pictures for any group project or class work. Whole class accounts can be used by a class scribe during class and accessed from home for review, etc. If your students are permitted individual accounts, they can collect notes in Evernote and share their research notebooks with you as evidence of completion of that phase of long term projects. Encourage creativity with your gifted students (or any students) by having them set up individual Evernote notebooks to use as "idea bins." Idea bins are a place to collect quotes, snippets of writing or poems they have started, questions and thoughts, artistic project ideas, images they like, or even voice memos to remember creative inspirations. It is important for students to know that idea bins (by whatever name) are an important part of the creative process, even for engineers!

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Creativity Resource - Denver Art Museum

Grades
K to 12
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This site from the Denver Art Museum is just the ticket for arts-related lesson plans and ideas for your language arts, social studies, or visual art classes. Search lesson plans ...more
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This site from the Denver Art Museum is just the ticket for arts-related lesson plans and ideas for your language arts, social studies, or visual art classes. Search lesson plans by age level, resource type, and more. Colorado standards are included. Or browse by image to find related lesson plans. Search artworks by country/culture, medium, period and region. Each of these categories has a drop down list with multiple items. There are highly motivating lesson plans to go with each piece of art. For example, "A Face to Remember - Mummy Case" looks at Ancient Egypt for grades 6 -12. "(Students) will research information about the ancient Egyptians and explore how their findings are visually represented on the DAM's mummy case. Students ...design a mummy case that reflects their personal values and beliefs." During this lesson students are introduced to two column notes for recording their research. The Early Childhood lesson entitled "Bubbles" has students look closely at a work of art using bubbles!

In the Classroom

Use a projector or interactive whiteboard so everyone can view the art work at once. Small groups can write down their observations about the art and then share with the whole class. From there the lesson plans can take over with loads of ideas for how to proceed. Don't forget to have students navigate and annotate artworks on interactive whiteboards. It is the ideal tool for annotating images. Older students can also annotate them using an online tool such as Annotely, reviewed here, to annotate images.

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Literature Board Games - Gary Brooks

Grades
7 to 12
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This site is a practical explanation of how to create board games based on literature students have read. It gives the list of supplies needed and suggestions on how to ...more
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This site is a practical explanation of how to create board games based on literature students have read. It gives the list of supplies needed and suggestions on how to encourage students to be original.

In the Classroom

Using this idea as a "final" evaluation of text is a good way for students to remember. A more technologically advanced idea is for students to create a PowerPoint game or other multimedia presentation. Have the students share their projects on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Board games are also a more innovative way to have students do individual book reports, particularly if several students in the class are reading the same book.

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Outline of the Five Paragraph Essay - Maria DeSoto

Grades
8 to 12
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Are you looking for a simple site to teach or review the structure of the five paragraph essay? This is the site for you. It walks students through each of ...more
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Are you looking for a simple site to teach or review the structure of the five paragraph essay? This is the site for you. It walks students through each of the steps, giving examples. While this is a very simple site, it is a good activity to do as a class since the examples offered are easily understandable.

In the Classroom

Follow this exercise together as a class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have the class create their own essays with this structure as you walk through the example. Peer editing at the end of the lesson the interactive whiteboard is a good reinforcement for this exercise. Ask students to find and highlight the essential elements of the essay in the student example (shared anonymously, of course). Use a consistent color-coding system for each of the elements, so you can ask students to label their own drafts in the same manner.

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Common Core State Standards - Common Core State Standards Initiative Team

Grades
K to 12
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The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a nationwide effort led by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to establish a common set...more
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The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a nationwide effort led by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to establish a common set of educational standards which aligns benchmarks and expectations across state lines. This system builds on what states are already doing by providing an opportunity to share experiences, best practices, and lessons, while maintaining high expectations that insure the quality of education across America to enable our students to maintain a competitive edge in the global economy.

Visit this website to find out exactly what the national K-12 standards are for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science and technology, as well as mathematics, and to find out if your state is one many states (at the time of this review) that have already committed to adopt the Common Core State Standards. Watch videos and the recorded webinar, and read about the key points and rigorous curriculum standards, including the content and skills related to the use of media and technology for critical analysis and production.

In the Classroom

Take a look at exemplars and sample performance tasks and students' writing to consider how you can integrate these ideas into your own planning to prepare students for the growing challenges of today's world. You can also sign up to receive updates via email. For more information about the Common Core and implementing it in your classes, see TeachersFirst's Common Core: The Fuss Over Non-Fiction, a Q/A article for elementary teachers, and TeachersFirst's resources tagged Common Core for many helpful sites.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Toasted Cheese - Stephanie

Grades
8 to 12
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This is a useful site that makes life a little easier for writing teachers. BUT USE CAUTION! Looking for different daily prompts to address different kinds of writing and ...more
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This is a useful site that makes life a little easier for writing teachers. BUT USE CAUTION! Looking for different daily prompts to address different kinds of writing and issues? This site has current and past calendars that offer everything from first lines to assorted kinds of poetry. It has writing articles by both amateur and professional writers, writing exercises called "A Pen in Each Hand," links to other writing prompt sites, as well as chats and forums. The "Pen in Each Hand" link provides archived writing activities. BE CERTAIN to preview whatever you are using and do NOT permit students to surf this site. There are some inappropriate topics for use in school. Obviously the chat/forum option should be closely monitored or avoided entirely.

In the Classroom

This site is worth it if only for the variety of the daily prompts; however, there is a lot here to engage students. The story examples (such as the "Pushcart Prize Nominations"), the online literary journal, and the assortment of writing exercises give teachers a smorgasbord of activities to choose from. Just be sure to preview whatever material you wish to use in class and do so on a teacher-controlled machine. Or avoid recommending the site itself and find ideas you can use by projecting a writing prompt alone on your interactive whiteboard or projector, having students brainstorm ideas and write on their own to avoid potential "public" content here. Introduce blogging using one of these prompts. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration!

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Room Escape Maker - doctorfou.com

Grades
8 to 12
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Room Escape Maker takes the popular room escape adventures online. The only way to escape is to solve a series of puzzles using hints and strategies as you find your ...more
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Room Escape Maker takes the popular room escape adventures online. The only way to escape is to solve a series of puzzles using hints and strategies as you find your way out of the locked room. Browse through the selection of games created by others to find ideas on how to use this site. When ready, choose "Create Game" to start. Begin with your chosen canvas or background and follow prompts to add items and clues to your escape room.
This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Increase student engagement in any subject through this form of gameplay! Create games to introduce main concepts within the escape room. Ask students to create a game using the information they have learned to share with fellow students. Before creating a game, have students map out information and strategies they will include in a blog format using a tool like edublogs, reviewed here. Ask fellow students to share comments describing their problem-solving process as they try to escape the room.

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English literature: Lord of the Flies - BBC

Grades
9 to 12
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Though this site is archived, the links still work. This site gives us context, plot, characters, themes, and a model essay question and answer for the novel Lord of the ...more
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Though this site is archived, the links still work. This site gives us context, plot, characters, themes, and a model essay question and answer for the novel Lord of the Flies. While the context is quite short (Golding's biography is all of 4 sentences!), it gives insight into some of the meaning that Golding himself took from war and his own time as a teacher. The brief plot summaries are just enough to remind students of what each chapter is about-- all the detail is in the novel. Characters and themes are presented with interactive questions and self-quizzes that students can use to review or quiz themselves. One language note: to "revise" material in the UK is the same as to "review" it in the U.S. One "revises" before a test.

In the Classroom

This is a great supplementary site for pre-reading or for reviewing. An especially nice extra is the inclusion of a sample essay question and answer. It sets up the question to be answered in a five-paragraph theme and offers possible topic sentences as an outline for writing that theme. Using the sample on a projector or interactive whiteboard is a good way to help students learn how to structure their own essay answers. Have students share and critique essays on the projector or interactive whiteboard.

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Citation Style Guides - Seattle Central Community College

Grades
8 to 12
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Provide students with a resource that can answer all of their questions when working on a bibliography for a class project or paper. This site conveniently features MLA, Turabian, APA,...more
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Provide students with a resource that can answer all of their questions when working on a bibliography for a class project or paper. This site conveniently features MLA, Turabian, APA, and AAA styles, presents examples of specific citations, and provides links to other helpful Web sources. Developed by the Seattle Central Community College Library.

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Draw A Stickman - drawastickman.com

Grades
1 to 10
14 Favorites 2  Comments
 
Draw A Stickman is a delightful, entertaining site that encourages creativity and fun! This is a mini interactive story that has students reading and following directions, solving...more
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Draw A Stickman is a delightful, entertaining site that encourages creativity and fun! This is a mini interactive story that has students reading and following directions, solving mysteries, thinking creatively, and solving problems. Start by selecting an episode, then begin the adventure, you draw a simple stick figure and then bring him or her to life. Your figure is faced with several challenges; you must follow directions and draw several props for your stick figure to use. You will love the hero of the story (the character you created) and the villain (a dragon). Finished stories can be replayed or shared on Facebook or email. There is also an online gallery for students to explore and view others' creations.

In the Classroom

Aside from just fun practice at following instructions, Draw a Stickman would be a great fictional story prompt. Students have the bones of a story and can fill in details, vivid verbs, adjectives, etc. to tell the story. This would be a good practice activity with writing sequences of "first, then, and next." Students can elaborate on their hero, the plot of the story, the details, the setting, etc. Students can write a moral for a story to add in the customized ending. These stories would be fun to share as a class...how wide a variety can come from the same basics? Share finished stories with a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can "read" the story. Use a site such as Blabberize, reviewed here. Teach story mapping easily with this activity: On an interactive whiteboard (or projector), students can go through the stick figure story together, labeling the different parts of the story (beginning, problem, climax, resolution, ending). This interactive can help students identify story elements, including setting, characters and plot. This site would also be perfect for multilingual students for practice in reading and following directions or for speech/language students to practice retelling a story from the visual prompts. Another idea: use this activity for verb/vocabulary practice in a world language class.

Comments

This will be a great fill-in activity when my students finish their assignments. I can't wait to use it! Beverly, TX, Grades: 6 - 12
Love this! So creative. I know the kids will love it too and I think the learning activities sound very promising too. Jeannie, MI, Grades: 0 - 5

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Creating Fictional Characters - Jayne Karsten

Grades
9 to 12
3 Favorites 0  Comments
  
In this lesson, students explore various methods authors use to create effective characters. Students consider what makes a character believable and create their own characterizations....more
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In this lesson, students explore various methods authors use to create effective characters. Students consider what makes a character believable and create their own characterizations. They also write a short script using the characters they created and act out the script. An amazingly adaptable set of lesson plans (roughly 4 lessons of 45-minutes)in which students will:
--gain insight into various methods authors use to build characterization.
--experience the creative process of developing a character.
--broaden understanding of the role of minor characters.
--explore the inferential power of images and literary allusions to enhance characterization.
--understand ways the text mirrors attitudes, values, fashions, manners, and mores of the time period.
--experience growth in the writing process, oral skills, skills of research, contextual analysis, and collaboration. Then, Students will apply methods of characterization with two quick writes.

In the Classroom

Intersperse these ideas while you are reading a piece of literature so your students are both writers and readers.

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Show my street - showmystreet.com

Grades
2 to 12
5 Favorites 0  Comments
Use this easy site to find any address on satellite view. Show My Street uses Google Street View. Type in an address. As you type, street views that begin to ...more
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Use this easy site to find any address on satellite view. Show My Street uses Google Street View. Type in an address. As you type, street views that begin to match the address will appear. As you continue to type, the street views continue to change. (This is actually a really great way to see other places.) Zoom in on your address using the same tools found in Google Maps. Share the location by clicking on the Twitter, Facebook, or link icons.
This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Have students choose any place, then post the link to it on a blog, wiki, or website, and write a description of it. Describe what they would see out of their window, create a story about what they hear or see, or describe their family and what's inside of the house. Research the history of the area to determine how it may have been different in the past. Of course you will went to avoid posting personal information on the web, but students could write fictional stories or keep personal information out of their writings. Describe the wildlife (plant or animal) that exists in their area. Describe the community of people in the area or an important neighbor and why they are important. Create a persuasive essay why their house (or school) is the best, friendliest, etc. in the area. Use tools to determine the distance between houses or to local historical places, places of interest, etc. Use the image as a powerful tool for writing.

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Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers - Holt

Grades
2 to 12
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Interactive Graphic Organizers help to gather thoughts, visualize, understand, or organize. Find interactive graphic organizers from categories such as identifying/organizing details,...more
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Interactive Graphic Organizers help to gather thoughts, visualize, understand, or organize. Find interactive graphic organizers from categories such as identifying/organizing details, order and sequence, cause and effect, process diagrams, persuasive position support, vocabulary, and many others. The selected organizer will download in PDF format. The features of the form are: interactive form fields, highlighting, adding mark-up, commenting, and saving it all. Find accompanying teaching notes for each organizer by clicking on the link in the paragraph at the top of the page. The teacher guide has detailed lessons and suggested uses.

In the Classroom

Mark this site on your class web page, put it on your task bar, and add to all student computers. Demonstrate by using and creating your customized graphic organizer. Turn it into PDF format and save or print. Get students in the habit of using graphic organizers to improve achievement, organization, and details.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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