ThinkCERCA is an online program designed to support individualized instruction in critical thinking for students in grades 4-12. The CERCA acronym (Claims, Evidence, Reasoning, Counterarguments, Audience) represents the site's structured approach to teaching critical thinking and argumentation. While reading one of the program's numerous text selections, students can make claims about what they're reading.

Publishing a real book for free, that people will buy! A great way to motivate kids and give them a world-wide audience...

A way kids/teachers could make money from their writing...more info at the site A new initiative from Amazon called Kindle Worlds, introduced yesterday, is offering fanfic authors a cut of the sales when their works are published through the program. Amazon's first partner in this project is Alloy Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros TV Group, which is providing the licenses to the franchises Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries. (All three are book series that have been turned into TV shows.) Amazon promises that more licensed worlds are on the way, from "movies, comics, music, and games" as well as books and TV shows

more at the article.... The Common Core standards don't just suggest novel technology use as a way to "engage students," but rather requires learners to make complex decisions about how, when, and why to use technology-something educators must do as well. In the past, tech use-whether limited or gratuitous-has been more a matter of preference or available resources than a must-do requirement. With the Common Core, such use is now a matter of law. Takeaways for Teachers: For teachers, the takeaway is simple: technology is no longer a feel-good way to develop buzz and honor authenticity, but rather a matter of academic merit and fidelity-which is awesome for several reasons: -No longer must progressive educators defend the reasoning behind twitter, YouTube, iPads, or blogging in their classroom. -Teachers will now have access to district, state, and federal resources to more meaningfully integrate technology. This means funding, training, school and district programs, and formal and informal professional development. -Social media professional learning networks (PLN) from linkedin to twitter, facebook to even pinterest, can be dominated by education technology discussion rather than broader concerns of how people learn, likely because those educators tending towards technology are on these digital networks to begin with. Now that said technology integration is required, it has the chance to bring the "old guard" of educators (perhaps kicking and screaming) into the world of #edtech. -This should also mean better resources for all teachers in the future. Digital "stuff" is easier to share than yellowing worksheets in an old file cabinet. As more learning becomes digital, sharing should increase as a result.

Here's how it works: Teachers choose or produce the beginning to a story, then challenge students to continue writing the story. Each student submits the next chapter, and then they vote on which entry is the best. (Students can't vote for their own submission, and they don't know whose chapter they're voting for.) The winning chapter is then added to the story, and the process continues. Co-created by a teacher and the CEO of a technology company, BoomWriter is a free, easy-to-use group writing website that challenges students to produce their best work-and makes them published authors at the end of the process. Students earn BoomDollars for voting and for having their entries chosen, and they can use this currency to buy accessories for their site avatar. The teacher determines the total number of chapters to be completed, and when the story is finished, it's published as a book that students and their families can own. Students are captivated by this unique approach to writing, and it's extremely easy for teachers to incorporate into their curriculum.

Using TED Talks videos to help teach: Collaboration Communication Critical Thinking Creativity As a Language Arts teacher, I get the honor of encouraging any content area as a topic since my focus is on communication of that topic. I say "honor" because it means I get to learn from them. However, with the Common Core standards, and the four Cs, which are peppered throughout them, stressing the importance of communication is no longer limited to English class. All classes must find a way to use these skills to communicate subject matter expertise. This year, I have decided that I don't call my class Language Arts. I instead refer to what happens in my room as The Art of Using Language. This unit, therefore, focuses on as many aspects of using language and communicating as I could think of: Creating a website Designing an infographic Recording a podcast Developing a Powerpoint or Prezi more......

"Tell us how you are going to explore content formats that already exist on Twitter - short story in tweets, a Twitter chat, live-tweeting - or, even better, how you'll create a new one," says the call for ideas. "How will you work with our real-time global platform, where anyone can contribute to your story at any moment? The proposal must fit into the time window of our five-day festival - but that means that a project could run for the length of the festival, or just for an hour."