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!

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.

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

Elementary Library Routines

Wow! This is an absolute treasure trove! Created by Elementary Librarians, this wiki was born from a short Twitter conversation and the "admiration of the work of Harry Wong (see below), you are invited to join and add your expertise to the wiki. I love what they say: "No need to reinvent the wheel."
There is a Routine section which includes: storytime, materials, book care, check in and out, entering the library, computers and laptops, partner and individual work, even bathroom procedures!
There's an Administration section, covering beginning of the year, bulletin boards, end of year, and parent contact, along with other hot topics.
The one I'm most excited about is the Curriculum section: library curriculum, preschool library curriculum, and storytime resources.
There's also a Library Wiki section, which includes "Must-see wikis" and wiki tips for elementary.
There is just so much here, it's hard to list. Check it out.
http://elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com/

Down Cut Shin Creek by Kathi Appelt

Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer, Harper Collins, 2001, ISBN 0-06-029135-4
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created by President FD Roosevelt in 1935 to get people back on their feet during the Great Depression. One of the more "innovative" programs was this one, in which young women went into the backwoods of Kentucky, laden with books, in order to bring "the hope of a wider world to people in the crooks and hollows of Kentucky."

Fay School

Fay School in Southborough, MA has a fabulous website for their school library. I have used the Website evaluation lesson with my REAL time class. There's also a great Summer Reading list, a research toolkit, and a special section for teachers.

Perfectly Preschool

Perfectly Preschool: Preschool Activities
This site not only has great lesson plans for the little bitties, it also lists books, crafts, math and science connections, songs, and "extra" activities to go with each lesson. Includes lessons on leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, family, farms, pets, friends, as well as themes for each month. For instance, January is "Blustery Days" month: hibernation, snow, penguins, and arctic animals. March is "My Community": community helpers, my community, long long time ago, and transportation. This deserves a long look!

Books for Keeps

Books for Keeps: the Children's Book Magazine online
Articles, reviews, authors and illustrators, news, forums, Wow! An incredible search feature on the "review" page, allowing you to search by title, content, age range and date (of book). A British publication, but hopefully many of the books are available across the pond.

Literacy Connections

Literacy Connections "promotes literacy and a love of reading." All kinds of useful information here: comprehension, writing instruction, vocabulary, reader's theater, reading aloud, ESL, to name a few. Links to Reading Aloud tips for parents and teachers, Reading Comprehension strategies, links especially for reading teachers.

Teaching English with Picture Books

An English teacher shares her activity-based approach, which uses REAL picture books to teach lessons. She describes activities that she has used with any given picture book. She links to the RealBooks website (an English, as in Great Britain, website) which is for those helping children "enjoy learning English as a foreign or additional language."

Transforming American Education

A draft of the new 114-page report on the National Education Technology Plan (dated March 5, 2010), put out by the Office of Educational Technology, US Dept. of Education, entitled: Transforming American Education: Powered by Technology. Find it here.
A look at the table of contents (p. 2) shows chapters on Learning, assessment, connected teaching, infrastructure, infrastructure, and productivity.

Articles: School library/librarians key to Reading Success

Milwalkee Journal Sentinel, April 10, 2010: School Librarians Key to Reading

This from Canada. A new document to support school libraries in Ontario.

The Picnic Basket

The Picnic Basket, a blog created by Deborah Sloan, offers book reviews by book-lovers from all over the place! Check it out for all the latest!

Website of the Week

Goddess of YA is Teri Lesesne's website. She covers not only YA but Tween literature as well. She's the author of Naked Reading and has another book out there: Making the Match: The Right Book for the Right Reader at the Right Time, grades 4-12. Both books are available at Stenhouse.. She also has a blog: Live Journal, or The Goddess of YA Literature, which has a huge section on picture books.

Website of the Week

Awesome Library"organizes the web". Has over 37,000 resources. Catagories include Teachers, Kids, Teen, Parents, Librarians, and College. Subjects include The Arts, English, math, geography, literature, social studies, technology, reference, news and k-12 lessons. Go to the "Librarians" tab, then under that, another "Librarians" tab. Lots of interesting stuff here. The search box for the site has "Hot Topics" listed underneath, and the site is available in English, Spanish, French, German, and a "Talking" version (has to be downloaded).

Free Technology for Teachers: Google guide

Free Technology for Teachers. The title provides a link to a guide to using Google search, docs, books, news, and maps in the classroom.
The site bills itself as "A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them.Ideas for Technology Integration in Education." It includes Google Tools Tutorials, Projects with Web Tools, Video creation Resources, Creating Blogs and Websites, and even some resources to help you develop you online "personal, professional learning network." Wow! Can't wait to spend, like, years on this site!

Father-Daughter Read Aloud

This New York Times article relays the story of a father and daughter who read aloud every night for NINE years. In a row. They referred to it as "The Streak". I envy them both.