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Michele Brown

Pixton | World's Best Way to Make & Share Comics - 70 views

shared by Michele Brown on 21 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Unleash your creativity! Fun, quick and easy to use.
    Tell your story your way.

  • Unleash your creativity! Fun, quick and easy to use
  • Create real comic layouts. Edit the shape and position of each comic panel. Express yourself. Unlimited range of expression. Move your characters into any pose. Style your words. Give text and speech bubbles personality in any language. Add your own images. Upload photos and personalize with your own art. Make your own art. Group objects to create original characters, props and backgrounds. Show your personality. Design characters of any age — people and other animals. Fast and easy. Kickstart your creativity with presets, shortcuts and templates. Make 'em laugh! Share instantly with friends, family, classmates and colleagues.  
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    Comic strip generator. Requires login
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    Pixton is a widely used comic strip maker. The personal account is free. So many options and the click and drag editing is really easy to use. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools
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    Create comics
Tracy Tuten

Tech Learning TL Advisor Blog and Ed Tech Ticker Blogs from TL Blog Staff - TechLearnin... - 60 views

  • Mixbook (or Mixbook for Educators) is a photo-based creation platform that offers hundreds of layouts and backgrounds to choose from along with customizable frames and text to make your book beautiful. Just pick a layout, drag-and-drop your photos into the photo slots, and edit to your heart's content.
  • Though the site's examples suggest using the books to gather wedding, travel, and baby albums, this program can absolutely used to create stories around historic photographs and artifacts, original art, to produce a class yearbook, to share an oral or personal history or journey, to tell the story of a field trip.  Mixbook for Educators now offers a secure collaborative environment for sharing their ebooks, as well as discounts on printed products, should you choose to print.  (A similar option is Scrapblog.)
  • Storybird, a collaborative storybook building space designed for ages 3-13, inspires young writers to create text around the work of professional artists and the collection of art is growing. Two (or more) people create a Storybird in a round robin fashion by writing their own text and inserting pictures. They then have the option of sharing their Storybird privately or publicly on the network. The final product can be printed (soon), watched on screen, played with like a toy, or shared through a worldwide library. Storybird is also a simple publishing platform for writers and artists that allows them to experiment, publish their stories, and connect with their fans.
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  • Myth and Legend Creator 2 shares a collection of traditional stories from England and around the world to hear and read. The site offers historical context for each story, story time lines and maps, ideas for use of the story in the classroom, and student work inspired by the story.  The Story Creator--with its libraries of backgrounds, characters, props, text bubbles, sound and video recording tools, and options to upload--provides students easy opportunities to create their own versions of traditional stories.
  • The Historic Tale Construction Kit is similar in that it helps students construct stories around a theme, in this case stories set in the middle ages with movable, scalable beasts, folks, braves, buildings. and old-style text.
  • Tikatok is a platform devoted to kid book publishing at a variety of levels.  Children have the option of exploring a collection of interactive story templates called StorySparks prompts, personalizing an existing book with their own names in Books2Go, with their own names, or starting from scratch in Create Your Own Book. Tikatok’s Classroom Program allows teachers to share lesson plans, view and edit students' work online, encourage collaboration, and track writing progress.
  • Big Universe is both an online library and a publishing and sharing community for grades K through 8.  Using Big Universe Author, students may create, research, and collaborate on books using a library of more than 7000 images and interactive tools.
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    Digital publishing tools for creating story books
Todd Campion

Great Expectations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Miss Havisham and her family Miss Havisham, wealthy spinster who takes Pip on as a companion and whom Pip suspects is his benefactor. Miss Havisham does not discourage this as it fits into her own spiteful plans. She later apologizes to him as she's overtaken by guilt. He accepts her apology and she is badly burnt when her dress catches aflame from a spark which leapt from the fire. Pip saves her, but she later dies from her injuries. Estella (Havisham), Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, whom Pip pursues romantically throughout the novel. She is secretly the daughter of Molly, Jaggers' housekeeper, and Abel Magwitch, Pip's convict, but was given up to Miss Havisham after a murder trial. Estella represents the life of wealth and culture for which Pip strives. Since her ability to love has been ruined by Miss Havisham, she is unable to return Pip's passion. She warns Pip of this repeatedly, but he is unwilling or unable to believe her. At one point, Estella is walking up some iron stairs representing how she is of a higher class than Pip when in fact she is of the same class. Arthur (Havisham), Miss Havisham's half-brother, who felt he was shortchanged in his inheritance by their father's preference for his daughter. He joined with Compeyson in the scheme to cheat Miss Havisham of large sums of money by gaining Miss Havisham's trust through promise of marriage to Compeyson. Arthur is haunted by the memory of the scheme and sickens and dies in a delirium, imagining that the still-living Miss Havisham is in his room, coming to kill him. Arthur has died before the beginning of the novel and gambled heavily, being drunk quite often. Matthew Pocket, a cousin of Miss Havisham's. He is the patriarch of the Pocket family, but unlike others of her relatives he is not greedy for Havisham's wealth. Matthew Pocket has a family of nine children, two nurses, a housekeeper, a cook, and a pretty but useless wife (named Belinda). He also tutors young gentlemen, such as Bentley Drummle, Startop, Pip, and his own son Herbert, who live on his estate. Herbert Pocket, a member of the Pocket family, Miss Havisham's presumed heirs, whom Pip first meets as a "pale young gentleman" who challenges Pip to a fist fight at Miss Havisham's house when both are children. He is the son of Matthew Pocket, Pip's tutor in the "gentlemanly" arts, and shares his apartment with Pip in London, becoming Pip's fast friend who is there to share Pip's happiness as well as his troubles. He is in love with a girl called Clara. Herbert keeps it secret because he knows his mother would say she is below his "station". Camilla, an ageing, talkative relative of Miss Havisham who does not care much for Miss Havisham and only wants her money. She is one of the many relatives who hang around Miss Havisham "like flies" for her wealth. Cousin Raymond, another ageing relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money. He is married to Camilla. Georgiana, an ageing relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money. Sarah Pocket, "a dry, brown corrugated old woman, with a small face that might have been made out of walnut shells, and a large mouth like a cat's without the whiskers." Another ageing relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money
  • Characters from Pip's youth The Convict, an escapee from a prison ship, whom Pip treats kindly, and who turns out to be his benefactor, at which time his real name is revealed to be Abel Magwitch, but who is also known as Provis and Mr. Campbell in parts of the story to protect his identity. Pip also covers him as his uncle in order that no one recognizes him as a convict sent to Australia years before. Abel Magwitch, the convict's given name, who is also Pip's benefactor. Provis, a name that Abel Magwitch uses when he returns to London, to conceal his identity. Pip also says that "Provis" is his uncle visiting from out of town. Mr. Campbell, a name that Abel Magwitch uses after he is discovered in London by his enemy. Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, simple folk who think they are more important than they really are. They live in Pip's village. Mr. Wopsle, the clerk of the church in Pip's village. He later gives up the church work and moves to London to pursue his ambition to be an actor, even though he is not very good. Mr. Waldengarver, the stage name that Mr. Wopsle adopts as an actor in London. Biddy, Mr. Wopsle's second cousin; she runs an evening school from her home in Pip's village and becomes Pip's teacher. A kind and intelligent but poor young woman, she is, like Pip and Estella, an orphan. She is the opposite of Estella. Pip ignores her obvious love for him as he fruitlessly pursues Estella. After he realizes the error of his life choices, he returns to claim Biddy as his bride, only to find out she has married Joe Gargery. Biddy and Joe later have two children, one named after Pip whom Estella mistakes as Pip's child in the original ending. Orlick was attracted to her, but his affection was unreciprocated
Martin Leicht

Distracted Minds: 3 Ways to Get Their Attention in Class - 11 views

  • Attention is reciprocal.
  • The more distracted I am in my interactions with you, the less likely you are to give me your full attention.
  • importance of having students share their strengths and values with you at the beginning of a semester
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - Everyone is their own individual and bring a lot to your class. The more you know about them, the better chance you can find out how to motivate them.
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  • Recognize their individuality
  • The researchers also asked students whether it mattered to them that the instructors knew their names, and more than 85 percent of them said it did
  • because making good use of the full physical space of a classroom is one of the most straightforward ways to keep both professor and students attentive.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - I taught from the back. We showed a lot of videos and did demonstrations. So, it was easy to "teach" from the back. ON ZOOM - how do you teach from the back of the class?
  • One advantage of the Zoom classes that many of us are teaching right now is that the names are all right there on the screen
  • Speak to all corners of the room
  • They bring their unique life stories and experiences, which can help provide new perspectives on familiar questions and challenges.
  • Tell you about an important value
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - Maybe it doesn't need to be all writing? Maybe it can be images and audio or video recordings to accompany them.
  • Tell you about a unique perspective or life experience
  • Describe their greatest academic strength
  • The obvious solution here is to break that barrier
  • Use their names regularly.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - Notoriety means power or maybe at least the power to capture their attention.
  • She encourages children first to recognize and write their own names and then to compare the letters and syllables in their own names with those of the other names on the grid
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - Author's previous post about CLOSE READING. Really spend some time on the name.
  • What is most deserving of our attention in the classroom, of course, are the other human beings in our presence
NTHS Library

20000-NAMES.COM: 20,000+ Names from Around the World--baby names, pet, pets, sim, story... - 0 views

shared by NTHS Library on 05 Nov 12 - Cached
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    A lot of names.
Dan Robinson

What Facebook Users Share: Lower Grades - TIME - 4 views

  • What Facebook Users Share: Lower Grades By Anita Hamilton Tuesday, Apr. 14, 2009 Print var artId= "1891111"; var chn = "bizTech"; var contType = "article"; Email Reprints Digg Facebook time:http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1891111,00.html Twitter MORE Add to my: del.icio.us Technorati reddit Google Bookmarks Mixx StumbleUpon Blog this on: TypePad LiveJournal Blogger WordPress MySpace var ad = adFactory.getAd(88, 31); ad.setPosition(8) ad.write(); Forget the widely unloved redesign. Facebook has committed a greater offense. According to a new study by doctoral candidate Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State University and her co-author Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University
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    Finally someone has admitted it, Facebook makes you dumber.
Kari Beery

Tech Savvy Kids - 86 views

  • To the psychologists, sociologists, and generational and media experts who study them, their digital gear sets this new group (yet unnamed by any powers that be) apart, even from their tech-savvy Millennial elders. They want to be constantly connected and available in a way even their older siblings don't quite get. These differences may appear slight, but they signal an all-encompassing sensibility that some say marks the dawning of a new generation.
  •  PARENTING & KIDS' HEALTH NEWS: ONLY ON USA TODAYNew daditude: Today's fathers are hands-on, pressure offTV: Impairs speech | Leads to earlier sexBaby names: What's popular? Whatever's unusualMore parents share workload when mom learns to let goAre kids becoming too narcissistic? | Take the quizChemicals: What you need to know about BPA | Carcinogens found in kids' bath products | Lead poisonings persist'Momnesia,' spanking, tweens and toddlers fullCoverage='Close  X Todders: Parents' fear factor? A short toddle into the danger zoneTweens: Cooler than ever, but is childhood lost?
  • The difference is that these younger kids "don't remember a time without the constant connectivity to the world that these technologies bring," she says. "They're growing up with expectations of always being present in a social way — always being available to peers wherever you are."
Jeremy Brueck

Playing by the Book: What eBooks Do Best » Kidscreen - 66 views

  • what are the things that interactive eBooks do especially well?
  • Simultaneously highlighting text with recorded audio, creating thoughtful tap-on support for both words in the text and elements in illustrations, and providing options to support different reading abilities are all wonderful ways to foster emergent reading skills.
  • One of the most intriguing opportunities in eBooks is the ability to show different characters’ points of view
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  • When you think about it, this is something that’s incredibly hard to do in any other format.
  • Making the reader an active part of the story experience is where story and game can really combine in interesting ways
  • hearing your name spoken by the pigeon in Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App give the user an agency and a presence in the story that’s engaging in a totally different way than reading a book aloud or watching a movie on a movie screen.
  • Interacting with the story in an active way, a way that is immediate, visible, and makes an impact is exactly the sort of agency that is unique to an interactive experience.
Martin Burrett

Oneword - Writing stimulus - 46 views

    • Andy Whiteway
       
      Fantastic. Share with those who are struggling to get started in their creative writing. Use as a starter in an English lesson.
    • Dimitris Tzouris
       
      Very interesting!
    • Patrick Higgins
       
      My question is how this differs from using your Writer's Notebook?  
    • Sarah Schaller Welsh
       
      I am looking for cool ideas for a creative writing course...I feel like this could be a very useful tool.
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    A great way for children to learn the art of story openings. They have 1 minute to write from a one word stimulus. The site asks for a name & email. I usually just cut and paste the work into Word instead. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
Mika Lathrop

AnxietyBC™ Brochures | Anxiety BC - 22 views

  • Resource Documents Links to Other Sites What is CBT Self Help - Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Personal Stories Seek Help
    • Mika Lathrop
       
      PDF handouts and worksheets for coping with anxiety.
    • Mika Lathrop
       
      Links to videos and other resources for practicing calming strategies.
Peter Beens

Education Week Teacher: Teaching Secrets: Communicating With Parents - 1 views

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    Teaching Secrets: Communicating With Parents By Gail Tillery Premium article access courtesy of TeacherMagazine.org. You will face many challenging tasks as a new teacher. Dealing with parents is probably among the most intimidating, especially if you are young and in your first career. While communicating with parents can be tricky, a little preparation will help you to treat parents as partners and to be calmer when problems arise. Here's the first rule to live by: Your students' parents are not your enemies. Ultimately, they want the same thing you want, which is the best for their children. By maintaining respectful and productive communication, you can work together to help students succeed. Second, whenever problems arise, remember that parents are probably just as nervous about contacting you as you are about returning the contact-and maybe more so. I'll confess: Even after 26 years of teaching, I still get a little frisson of fear in my belly when I see an e-mail or hear a voicemail from a parent. But I have seen time and again that parents are often more nervous than the teacher is-especially if their child doesn't want them to contact the teacher. Indeed, some parents may even fear that if they raise concerns, their child will face some kind of retaliation. Remember that parents' tones or words may reflect such fears. In your response, try to establish that everyone involved wants to help the child. Here are some practical tips for communicating effectively with parents: Contact every parent at the beginning of the year. Do some "recon." Telephone calls are best for this initial contact, since they are more personal than e-mail. Ask the parent to tell you about his or her child's strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc. Make sure to ask, "What is the best thing I can do to help your child succeed?" Remember to take notes! Once you've gathered the information you need, set a boundary with parents by saying, "Well, Ms. Smith, I have 25 more parent
Lisa C. Hurst

Inside the School Silicon Valley Thinks Will Save Education | WIRED - 9 views

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    "AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat
Jason Finley

Diigo in Education - 108 views

Marie, my primary use and focus with Diigo is the social networking aspect that you mentioned. There is definitely truth to the statement that "Chance favors the connected mind." I've created a g...

Diigo

Dallas McPheeters

Job Bank - 32 views

  • Are you verbal/linguistic? Then you make sense out of the world through language and can use words effectively either speaking or in writing. When you make puns and tell stories, you exhibit this intelligence.Learning strategies: read material before going to lectures; take notes of what you hear and read; describe what you have learned to others; listen to what others have learned;write out the steps/instructions to a procedure or experiment;use crossword puzzles, puns and imaginary conversations as memory devices;use your verbal/linguistic knowledge to help you study. For example, if you are taking a course in music, make up a story based on what you hear.
    • Dallas McPheeters
       
      Learning strategies for multiple intelligences. Nice list that can easily be used to create learning activities that span all learning styles in the classroom.
  • rank different items of information in order of their importance
  • predict outcomes
jnet0124

Can Mary Shelley's Frankenstein be read as an early research ethics text? | Medical Hum... - 7 views

shared by jnet0124 on 13 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Can Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein be read as an early research ethics text?
    • jnet0124
       
      SEE HEAR
  • Frankenstein is an early and balanced text on the ethics of research upon human subjects and that it provides insights that are as valid today as when the novel was written.
  • Mary Shelley conceived the idea for and started writing Frankenstein in 1816 and it was first published in 1818.1 In its historical context, the earlier 17th and 18th centuries had seen the early signs of the rise of science and experimentation. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) had laid the theoretical foundations in his “Great Insauration”2 and scientists such as Boyle, Newton, and Hooke developed the experimental methods. Sir Robert Talbor, a 17th century apothecary and one of the key figures in developing the use of quinine to treat fevers, underlined this: “the most plausible reasons unless backed by some demonstrable experiments seem but suppositions or conjectures”.3
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  • The 18th century saw the continued construction of foundations upon which all subsequent medical experimentation has been built.
  • Lady Mary Montagu promoted smallpox vaccination; its proponents experimented on prisoners to study its efficacy, and James Jurin, the secretary of the Royal Society, developed mathematical proof of this in the face of ecclesiastical opposition.4 Many of the modern concepts of therapeutic trials were described although not widely accepted. Empirical observation through experimentation was starting to be recognised as the tool that allowed ascertainment of fact and truth. An account of Dr Bianchini’s experiments on “Le Medicin Electrique”, reported to the Royal Society explains that “The experiments were made by Dr Bianchini assisted by several curious and learned men … who not being able to separate what was true … determined to be guided by their own experiments and it was by this most troublesome though of all the others the most sure way, that they have learned to reject a great number of what have been published as facts.”5
  • Similarly, Henry Baker’s report to the Royal Society, describing Abbe Nollet’s experiments, outlined the need for comparative studies and that “treatment should not be condemned without a fair trial”6 and a Belgian doctor, Professor Lambergen, describing the use of deadly nightshade for the treatment of breast cancer wrote “Administration of this plant certainly merits the attention of the medical profession; and surely one may add entitles the medicine to future trials … nevertheless the most efficacious medicines are such if its efficacy by repeated trials be approved.”7 In the mid 18th century James Lind conducted the first controlled trial to establish a cure for scurvy and his Treatise on the Scurvy contains what could be seen in modern terminology as the first “review of the current literature” prior to a clinical trial.8
  • Her motives for writing Frankenstein are more difficult to define. In her introduction to the 1831 edition she writes that she wanted her work to … speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round. If I did not accomplish these things, my ghost story would be unworthy of its name … (p 7, p 8)
  • The 1818 preface, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, indicates a deeper purpose. He wrote that the story recommends itself as it “…affords a point of view on the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield…” (p 11) and that “…I am by no means indifferent to the manner in which ... moral tendencies (that) exist in the sentiments of characters shall affect the reader…”(p 12).
Josh Flores

Annotating the Model Content Frameworks for ELA/Literacy by PARCC - 9 views

    • Josh Flores
       
      Quarterly Modules - but could be adjusted for your school's purposes.
    • Josh Flores
       
      Ingredients!
  • shape the content within the modules in any way that suit their desired purposes
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  • re-order
  • order in which the four modules may be used is not critical
  • ocus and emphasis on the types of texts
  • What changes
  • is the
  • analytic reading
  • examining its meaning
  • read and reread deliberately.
  • understand the central ideas
  • supporting details
  • entails the careful gathering of observations
  • overall understanding and judgment
  • omparison and synthesis of ideas
  • drawing on relevant prior knowledge
  • suggests that educators select a minimum number of grade-level-appropriate short texts
  • as well as one extended text
  • in lower grades, chosen texts should include content from across the disciplines.
  • upper grades, content-area teachers are encouraged to consider how best to implement informational reading across the disciplines
    • Josh Flores
       
      The Nonfiction Split
    • Josh Flores
       
      Elementary and Secodnary
    • Josh Flores
       
      Selecting Multiple Texts
  • present their analyses in writing and speaking
    • Josh Flores
       
      Listening and Speaking Tip: Class presentations with a rubric; allow class to complete rubric of their peers too and use video or text-to-speech based web 2.0 animation programs for shy students
  • all students need access to a wide range of materials on a variety of topics and genres
    • Josh Flores
       
      INTERNETS: Open Resource Revolution!
  • students improve both their reading comprehension and their writing skills when writing in response to texts.
    • Josh Flores
       
      I knew it!
  • notes, summaries, learning logs, writing to learn tasks, or even a response to a short text selection or an open-ended question.[9]
    • Josh Flores
       
      Examples of Writing Practices
  • hese responses can vary in length based on the questions asked and tasks performed, from answering brief questions to crafting multiparagraph responses in upper grades.
  • narrative story and narrative description
    • Josh Flores
       
      TWO TYPES OF NARRATIVE Writing
  • creative fiction, as well as memoirs, anecdotes, biographies, and autobiographies
  • include writing under time constraints
  • writing over multiple drafts
  • generate writing pieces in response to teacher-provided prompts and to their own prompts
    • Josh Flores
       
      LEVEL Qs: Teach students to generate Academic Questions to explore
  • For reading and writing in each module
    • Josh Flores
       
      Essential READING & WRITING Skills
    • Josh Flores
       
      for ELA/Literacy
  • Understand and apply grammar:
  • Cite evidence and analyze content
  • Understand and apply vocabulary
  • Conduct discussions and report findings:
  • grades 3-5
  • two standards progression charts for each grade level
  • Writing
  • peaking and Listening
  • Graham, S., and M. A. Hebert. 2010. Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
  • suggests both the number and types
  • Students
  • offer one way of organizing the standards
  • quarterly modules
  • reflects the integrated nature
  • four sections
  • to express an opinion/make an argument or to inform/explain
  • write
  • citing evidence
  • analyzing
  • grammar
  • vocabulary
  • discussions
  • reporting
jmcminn0208

There's No Place Like Home - 22 views

    • jmcminn0208
       
      This is literally two sentences. I found it very difficult to read through the first one... as it was itself one whole paragraph
  • And it is distressing to come home and not know where I am
  • Superimposed over that geography, like a Jackson Pollock painted on a fishnet, is the geography of a man’s life, the griefs and pleasures of various streets,
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  • We attended church at the Grace & Truth Gospel Hall on 14th Avenue South, where a preacher clutched his suspenders and spoke glowingly of Eternity, and I grew up one of the Brethren, the Chosen to whom God had vouchsafed the Knowledge of All Things that was denied to the great and mighty. The Second Coming was imminent, we would rise to the sky. We walked around Minneapolis carefully, wary of television, dance music, tobacco, baubles, bangles, flashy cars, liquor, the theater, the modern novel—all of them tempting us away from the singular life that Jesus commanded us to lead.
    • jmcminn0208
       
      What did he get from this? How has he lived his life based on this childhood staple?
  • There were the neon lights of Hennepin Avenue and the promise of naked girls at the Alvin Theater, which our family passed on Sunday morning on our way to church, but that was lost on me, a geek with glasses, pressed pants, plaid shirt, a boy for whom dating girls was like exploring the Amazon—interesting idea, but how to get there? Writing for print, on the other hand—why not? And then came the beautiful connection: You write for print, it impresses girls, they might want to go on dates with you.
  • For days after Frankie drowned, I visited the death scene, trying to imagine what had happened. He was paddling a boat near the shore, and it capsized, and he drowned. I imagined this over and over, imagined myself saving him, imagined the vast gratitude of his family. I don’t recall discussing this with other boys. We were more interested in what lay ahead in seventh grade, where (we had heard) you had to take showers after gym. Naked. With no clothes on. Which turned out to be true. Junior high was up the West River Road in Anoka, the town where I was born, 1942, in a house on Ferry Street, delivered by Dr. Mork. That fall of seventh grade, he listened to my heart and heard a click in the mitral valve, which meant I couldn’t play football, so I walked into the Anoka Herald and asked for a job covering football and basketball, and a man named Warren Feist said yes and made me a professional writer. Ask and ye shall receive.
  • down to work at 4 a.m. to do the morning shift on KSJN in a basement studio on Wabasha and then a storefront on Sixth Street, the house where I lived next to Luther Seminary and the backyard parties with musicians that inspired A Prairie Home Companion at Macalester College, the dramatic leap to home ownership on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul, where I’ve lived most of the last 20 years, where you drive up from I-94 past Masqueray’s magnificent cathedral, whose great dome and towers and arches give you a momentary illusion of Europe, and up Summit and the mansions of 19th-century grandees and pooh-bahs in a ward that votes about 85 percent Democratic today.
  • Pride goeth before a fall, so deprecate yourself before others do the job for you
  • I drive down Seventh Street to a Twins game and pass the old Dayton’s department store (Macy’s now but still Dayton’s to me), where in my poverty days I shoplifted an unabridged dictionary the size of a suitcase, and 50 years later I still feel the terror of walking out the door with it under my jacket, and I imagine the cops arresting my 20-year-old self and what 30 days in the slammer might’ve done for me
  • She was a suicide 28 years ago, drowned with rocks in her pockets, and I still love her and am not over her death, nor do I expect ever to be.
  • “There’s no point in a bunch of rubberneckers standing around gawking.”
  • That’ll be the day, when you say goodbye / oh, that’ll be the day, when you make me cry,”
  • She says, “Tell me a funny story”—my daughter who never had to fight for a seat. I say, “So ... there were these two penguins standing on an ice floe,” and she says, “Tell the truth,” so I say, “I like your ponytail. You know, years ago I wore my hair in a ponytail. Not a big ponytail. A little one. I had a beard too.” And she looks at me. “A ponytail? Are you joking?
fergtoo

the Truth About Being a Hero - WSJ - 14 views

  • We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with.
  • n the military I could exercise the power of being automatically respected because of the medals on my chest, not because I had done anything right at the moment to earn that respect.
  • I knew many Marines had done brave deeds that no one saw and for which they got no medals at all.
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  • "A lot of people have done a lot more and gotten a lot less, and a lot of people have done a lot less and gotten a lot more."
  • I got my medals, in part, because I did brave acts, but also, in part, because the kids liked me and they spent time writing better eyewitness accounts than they would have written if they hadn't liked me
  • The only people who will ever know the value of the ribbons on their chests are the people wearing them—and even they can fool themselves, in both directions.
  • he whole assault ground to a halt, except for one kid named Niemi, who had sprinted forward when we came under the intense fire and disappeared up in front of us somewhere.
  • alking to a group of us about when it was a platoon leader earned his pay. I knew, floating above that mess, that now that time had come. If I didn't get up and lead, we'd get wiped.
  • I'm most proud of is that I simply stood up, in the middle of all that flying metal, and started up the hill all by myself.
  • I did it for the right reasons.
  • At this point I saw the missing kid, Niemi, pop his head up. He sprinted across the open top of the hill, all alone.
  • He was a black kid, all tangled up in black-power politics, almost always angry and sullen. A troublemaker. Yet here he was, most of his body naked with only flapping rags left of his jungle utilities, begging for a rifle when he had a perfect excuse to just bury his head in the clay and quit. I gave him mine. I still had a pistol. He grabbed the rifle, stood up to his full height, fully exposing himself to all the fire, and simply blasted an entire magazine at the two soldiers in front of us, killing both of them. He then went charging into the fight, leaving me stunned for a moment. Why? Who was he doing this for? What is this thing in young men? We were beyond ourselves, beyond politics, beyond good and evil. This was transcendence.
  • Crashing out of the clouds into this confusion came a flaming, smoking twin-rotor CH-46 helicopter.
  • I saw Niemi pop into sight again. He sprinted to the downed chopper.
  • the only thing he could think to do was sprint across the open hilltop to see if he could find a place from which he could lay down fire to protect them.
  • Niemi got a Navy Cross.
  • I got a Navy Cross.
  • elicopter pilot
  • ont-page story
  • The kid who borrowed my rifle didn't get anyt
  • hing.
  • It was just about that time I got knocked out and blinded by a hand grenade. I came to, groggy.
  • hen a kid I knew from Second Platoon, mainly because of his bad reputation, threw himself down beside me, half his clothes blown away. He was begging people for a rifle. His had been blown out of his hands.
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