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
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.
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
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
What is SpokenText.net?
SpokenText lets you easily convert text into speech. Record (English, French, Spanish or German)
PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files,
and web pages, and convert them to speech automatically. Download your reccordings as .mp3 or .m4b (Audio Book)
files (in English, French, Spanish and German)
great way to check your
writing for grammar and spelling errors
What is SpokenText.net?
SpokenText lets you easily convert text into speech. Record (English, French, Spanish or German)
PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files,
and web pages, and convert them to speech automatically. Download your reccordings as .mp3 or .m4b (Audio Book)
files (in English, French, Spanish and German)
What is SpokenText.net?
SpokenText lets you easily convert text into speech. Record (English, French, Spanish or German)
PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files,
and web pages, and convert them to speech automatically. Download your reccordings as .mp3 or .m4b (Audio Book)
files (in English, French, Spanish and German) of any text content on your computer or mobile phone.
Record books, articles,web pages, your papers class notes or any other text content
convert text into speech. Record (English, French, Spanish or German)
PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files,
and web pages, and convert them to speech automatically.
SpokenText lets you easily convert text into speech. Record (English, French, Spanish or German) PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, and web pages, and convert them to speech automatically.
SpokenText converts any text into clear natural sounding speech. Convert documents, web pages or just copy and paste the text you want to convert, then learn while on the go
find ReadTheWords.com to be one of the most useful services on the Internet today. Many LD (learning disabled)
students struggle with auditory processing.
these students are very capable,
they tend to favor auditory processing, versus the more common visual processing. It is important that these students
learn how their mind works and modify their learning techniques accordingly.
5 students incorporate this service for study of their weekly vocabulary words. We started by making an audio file of the words and definition, and turned it into an mp3 format. The students spent 10 minutes each day on the computer. Each student has averaged a minimum of a full letter grade higher. Two students have received perfect scores for the past 2 weeks.
ReadTheWords.com been created to cater to these students.
ReadtheWords.com is an AMAZING SERIVCE for young students.
ReadTheWords.com allows me to create listening material for some learners that struggle a little bit. It allows my
students to read along with the Virtual Avatar Reader. This saves a lot of time so I can focus on certain children
without slowing down the rest of the class.
We create links to audio files that read our
upcoming events, and we use it to help visually impaired patrons read anything - articles, letters they have received,
emails that can be copy/pasted from their email account...the possibilities are endless! On a personal level, I have been
using ReadTheWords toolbar plug in.
service with my university students who are learning English
brings the text to life, and stimulates my second language learners in a
dynamic way. I would recommend this program to all foreign language teachers,
I have been assisting students to create audio files of study review materials. This greatly helps them decode and
analyze the material for comprehension. I have seen a great improvement on test scores
Students listen to a piece of their own writing, so they can
hear if what they wrote sounds correct. It helps students with comprehension, spelling, grammar and structuring
sentences.
This service is godsend for many students, especially auditory learners. I cannot even begin to imagine how many people this will help in the future. We just received approval to offer this service to our entire school. (Email webmaster@readthewords.com to get a special deal like we did.
I believe that the audio could act as a reinforcer of the written word as students read. This could be helpful not only with students who are Language Impaired, but also for students who struggle with reading comprehension.
Something not mentioned by these teachers is the possible benefit to Autistic and Aspergers students. I can this being used as a reward or incentive because the work could be done independently. Since these students generally feel more at ease working independently, it would a motivator to them.
This could be a great tool for Language Impaired students, but also Learning Disabled in reading as well. The audio would act as a reinforcer of the written material. Even though this is learning or reading comprehension tool, students may see it as a reward thereby motivating them to read more. This could a aid to any teacher attempting to motivate reluctant or struggling readers.
Read The Words could be a beneficial tool to students who are Language Impaired and/or Learning Disabled in Reading. The audio can reinforce the written word and increase comprehension. Also, it could be a valuable tool for autistic students who prefer to work independently. They can use this to aid comprehension and also it could be a reward. This tool could also add interest to text for any student.
Bring the power of the Amazon book store to your children's stories. Use this great online publishing tool to show off your children's writing and even produce paper copied.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
Superb story writing tutorial site with videos and tools to fire the imagination. But be warned - make sure you have a sofa to jump behind if viewing at night.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. It's perfect for writers who want to try out interactivity, but also for teachers and students looking to mix computer skills and creative writing.
A useful site that allows users to dictate and generate text. A great resource for children with writing difficulties to get their ideas written quickly. It works with a range of languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and more. For mistakes, the site offers alternative words with similar pronunciation. Only works with Chrome.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
This is a fabulous site for creating free ebooks by uploading photos from your computer, or by using the well stocked gallery of props scenes and characters provided by the site. Just drag and drop your items into place. Books can be private or shared using a url link. A free signing is required. You can also have your ebooks made into real books for a fee.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
Fantastic set of computer-based language resources...the word magnets tool alone is worth the 30-seconds it takes to download and install! Spice up your SMARTBoard interactions as well.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Welcome to Tagxedo, word cloud with styles
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news
articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning
word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies
of occurrence within the body of text.
"Tagxedo
turns words -- famous speeches, news articles,
slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag
cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of
occurrence within the body of text."
Imagine a site like "Wordle" but on steroids - Tagxedo allows you to make word clouds with images. Really cool possibilities as an ice breaker to the new school year.
"Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text."
Does it only work on PCs...I tried to run this on my mac but can't get past the home page; when I go to create, I am asked to download Microsoft SilverLight, which I do. Then, nothing else happens.
I genuinely want to ask: what is the educational point of 'word clouds'?
To me there are useful as 'word searches' which have to be the almost useless.
How have I got this so wrong?
I genuinely want to ask: what is the educational point of 'word clouds'?
To me there are useful as 'word searches' which have to be the almost useless.
How have I got this so wrong?
Totally agree!
To Gerald Carey - As an English teacher, word clouds are a great tool. Taking text from literature or even from your own students' writing and placing it in a word cloud builder allows students to find theme words because the words used the most often are bigger than the others. I've used my students' quickwrite entries about a chosen piece of text and shown them that they are all thinking through the literature the same way. It's pretty eye opening for an English class!
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.
Writer's Block can stop your creative efforts in their tracks and overcoming writer's block is a tough task. WEbook is here to help you overcome this creative hurdle. Use our 911 Writers Block for helpful suggestions and ideas to get the creative juices flowing again.Share:
Josh Flores on 12 Mar 13Quarterly Modules - but could be adjusted for your school's purposes.
