Content Literacy

If you are looking for materials to support new ELA standards, here is a series from NY. this particular video addresses Shift 4: text based answers. 

Some template information and uses for spreadsheet in k-12 classrooms.

This applet allows the user to represent data about the states using colors. The state with the highest data value is darkest; other states are shaded proportionally. Investigate any of the data provided-or enter data of your own!

Great resource for math teachers to help them represent data.

I think Google Earth is an underutilized tool to use with students. I can imagine all kinds of projects to use it with, and with this spreadsheet applet, it's now incredibly easy to use. If you know of any English teachers teaching Shakespears encourage them to have their students create timelines of events during that period.

I love Google Earth and here is a simple way to create projects about places, create timelines of events, or just have fun remembering a vacation. It's interactive, easy to use, can be educational, what more could you ask for!

Nice resource for accessing picture books in the classroom or publishing picture books online. You may have seen it or some sites like it.

Not all books are free, but a great way to integrate picture books using the LCD projector or Smartboard and a tool to allow students to publish their own picture books

Great opportunity to have students create some expression of their thinking about the topic, "What I wish for in the world". Google is getting some free pub, but what a great way of doing it!

Want a reason to have your students doodle, then this is for you. The best thing is that this lets them doodle around a positive theme. I hope you will share with your art teachers, world civ, or current issues teachers. Heck share with your environmental science teachers too. We can all use a little thinking about "What I wish for the world" in our classrooms.

This is a great presentation. If you want to see how the best thinkers in the world are presenting their data, then take a look at this presentation by Hans Rosling. I think this presents a challenge to math teachers to have students look at data differently than we are now. I think the data on the income and child mortality rate is incredible. Such a powerful data set and it's a linear relationship!!

Powerful topic, poverty and patterns in data relationships over time, WOW. Hans Rosling uses some incredible statistical software to present the data, but the idea can be mimicked using some PP type technologies and creating graphs. The topic of poverty is explored in a very easy understandable way; I think high school students would understand the topic and love the idea. Make sure you listen to his use of the databases, and remember he is one of the premier statisticians in the world. He is changing how he presents data, and I think we need to listen to his message on this topic.

Some prmising findings, worth sharing with others.

I like the idea of this post. Find four or five sources of information, invite students to read, and reflect critically on what they read. I like the idea that it promotes the use of individual writers, allows the teacher to select the sources, gives the students some choice, and includes a very strong use of technology.

I think a great way of getting students involved in a discussion about a topic. I like the premise of this idea. I wonder about using this with SS or ELA or Humanities content areas.

Several lessons designed around the election, while it's a hot topic, all levels elementary, middle and high.

Video lectures from universities across the country. Lecture is not the most engaging format, but a great resource for those interested in exploring topics in more depth on their own, but not a great model for engaging presetation for 60-90 minutes.

Great set of resources that might be interesting to people who want to explore some topics on their own, or want to include some aspects of the lectures in their classes. I think there is a HUGE potential for using this content some how.

Simple example of a blog post that has lots of power. This is the kind of blog post that I think we can do at CTL as an on-going piece of our work. It captures the ideas that we generate all the time, applies them to the work we are doing, provides a systemic way of producing new material that we can later turn into finished pieces of work. If we begin now, capturing these kinds of thoughts in a library, we can launch a CTL blog with a catalog of ideas that we can turn into posts. If the authors need some help clarifying/fine tuning that is where the system comes into play. By the way this is a fantastic post about the potential of something that is already in many students hands, but repackaged for use in an educational way. I imagine this as part of any distance network that we create, especially with Africa.

skills to solve equations, explanations of events from a Civil War Battle, aspects of an ecosystem, fill in the blank.

An idea that can be used to contribute to professional learning or for use with your students- Create a collaborative book online. The topic in this case is another way to explore/discover uses for twitter in education. Learn to take advantage of the things students are doing, teach them how to do things responsibly online, share your content, etc.

A wonderful example of a teacher who gets it. This teacher has a system established for how and why he is doing what he is doing. I'm not sure I agree with all of his approaches, but that's the great thing, it works for him, but I do love the structure that he has developed here. I encourage you to look at his Quadratic review lesson on the 11th of February (it might be the 12th) because it uses the tech, to support the work his sub has to do while he's out. Great idea.

A blog about the use of the Smartboard in the classroom. So not only a good place for generic ideas, but as in this post specific ideas to incorporate into the classroom in specific courses, i.e. Algebra II.

Great example that social networking is not just playing.

Another example that conceptualizing the network helped draw her to the engineering field.

Want to thank Michelle Desilva for finding this site. Great resource and full of practical ideas and important processes/structures to think about if implementing with a class of students.

Webquests from the National Portrait Gallery, United Kingdom. Some Webquests designed with specific age/content groups in mind. Worth a look if you like using Webquests with your students.

Webquests from the National Portrait Gallery, United Kingdom. Some Webquests designed with specific age/content groups in mind. Worth a look if you like using Webquests with your students.

I've been an advocate for Wikipedia for a long time, yet more information saying it is a valid source (as with all sources we need to teach students to find corroborating sources before using the source). Not without error, but does go to show that even more trusted sites have errors, so don't hold Wikipedia to a different standard! Finally, what makes Wikipedia a better source is a shear volume of information on the site as compared to other 'encyclopedias'.

I've been an advocate for Wikipedia for a long time, yet more information saying it is a valid source (as with all sources we need to teach students to find corroborating sources before using the source). Not without error, but does go to show that even more trusted sites have errors, so don't hold Wikipedia to a different standard! Finally, what makes Wikipedia a better source is a shear volume of information on the site as compared to other 'encyclopedias'.

Great opportunity to have students showcase their skills, their learning, and for teachers to maximize an engagement opportunity. I would love to collaborate with someone interested in making this a class assignment. Looking for someone to help provide guidance, let me know!