Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Reading Comprehension Lesson Links

Education World: Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension.
From the Sarasota (Florida) school systems, Reading Strategies that assist content area reading, some graphic organizers:
Anticipation Guide graphic organizer.
Flow Chart graphic organizer.
KWL graphic organizer.
Basic Story Frame graphic organizer.
Double Entry Journal graphic organizer.
Two Column Notes graphic organizer. Lots of uses for this: main Idea/Details, Problem/Solution, Stated/Inferred, Opinion/Proof, Fact/Opinion, Text/Self, Prediction/Evidence.
Text Study graphic organizer. Good for use with Non-fiction, especially textbooks.
The classic Venn Diagram.
Continue with Sarasota's page: Teaching Reading.

Lesson Plan Links

From Small Planet Communications. Here is Small Planet's home page.

Content Area Lesson Plans:
Scholastic: Prepare to Read Non-fiction, grades 1-3.
Survival in Abel's Island (by William Steig), a lesson plan focusing on survival, from UNC School of Education. For grade 5.
Children's Literature and US History, from the Carol Hurst site.
World War II as seen through Children's Literature, by Laura Pringleton from Yale/New Haven Teacher's Institute. This alone could take an entire year! Probably more 6th grade level.

Reader's Theater links

Scholastic article: The Power of Reader's Theater by Jennifer O. Prescott (2003)
Also: Reader's Theater Tips.
Implementing Reader's Theater.
Reader's Theater Basics.
Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays for K-3 from Teaching Heart.
Aaron Shepherd's site. Teachers: Read this first.
More scripts from Web English Teacher.
Read Write Think link.
Here's one for Jan Brett's Hedgie's Surprise.
Asian Folktales from Education World (includes Listening Comprehension questions).
Tacky the Penguin (grades K-5), also from Education World.
Science: Around the Water Cycle
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss (grades 1-2).
Ruby the Copycat.
Fleishman's The Whipping Boy.
Columbus Day for grades 4-5.
[Credit for the above sites goes to Edmund J. Sass, Ed.D.]

Lesson Plans for Reading

The beginning: a page here. I've looked at several links in particular:

Educator's Reference Desk
- subjects and grade level

LP for K-12 Classrooms from TeAchnology.

Reading Plans from The Teacher's Desk.

Read-Write-Think

Teachers.Net

Teaching Resources from PBS's Raising Readers Lots of games here to teach Letter Knowledge and Phonological Awareness.

More lesson plans for teaching phonics, then a section on Comprehension:

EdHelper- Starts out with printable texts (not authentic) but keep scrolling through this page.


Interesting page from Los Angeles County Office of Education:
Patti's Teacher's Corner- lots of reading comprehension info here using four strategies: Summarizing, Questioning, Clarifying and Predicting.

KWL Lesson from Educator's Reference Desk.

Then a section on Literature-based reading lessons (there's a thought!):
Garden of Praise- Twenty 2nd-grade lessons using REAL BOOKS!!! Thank goodness.

Literature Based Reading Activities for grades 2, 3 and 4 from Educator's Reference Desk.

Elementary economics lessons using children's literature from the James Madison University site.

Word Identification Strategy lesson using If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (1st grade) from Educator's Reference Desk.

Embracing the Child


Embracing the Child: Literature for Learning and Shared Reading, Investing in the Whole Child.
Check out the Book Categories on the left-hand side of the home page. A whole section on Baseball books! Lots of other categories too: by award, by age, by topic, links to curriculum, and MUCH more. Be sure to check out the Education Resources section. TONS of information, including lesson plans!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Bookmaking with Kids

Bookmaking with Kids: For the Love of Reading, Writing and Art
A great source of ideas for writing with elementary students. Includes "Catagories", which are divided into grades, ideas, resources, templates, and more.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

New York Times: The Medium is the Medium

The power of summer reading. Is the Internet harmful or helpful to kids' academic success? Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows, in which he argues that the Internet is creating a generation of "short-term attention span" kids and culture. Of course, his arguement has been challenged. It probably will be debated for years to come, as more people use the Internet and for longer periods of time. Is this the same debate that surrounded the introduction of the book 500 years ago?
Two different mediums, 2 different types of learning and eventually, two different types of environments/cultures.

Follow it up with this interesting piece: Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11digi.html?_r=1