Group items tagged

This professor discusses how her class was better organized using a blog to generate comments, questions and collaboration. I enjoyed this particular article because it brought to life this idea of chunking a course by adding a blog element during the class. This is particularly meaningful to block teachers that may have students for 90 minutes. It is a great way to break things up.

I really like annotated bibliographies because they provide so much information on a topic in a fairly simple analytical summary, and they allow the reader to delve further by providing the source. The author, Kristi Newgarden, has two fields of interest: educational technology and teaching English as a Second Language. Overall, the focus of the bibliography is on Communities of Practice and Lave and Wenger's concepts of Legitimate Peripheral Participation.

Scott, it's great that you found this annotated bibliography. What caught my attention initially was that it was posted on a TESL website, but after reading further the author mentioned that the resources mentioned could benefit any teacher in any subject area. This is a nice way to find resources on a topic without having to type in a search engine or review resources at the end of a research study. Even better when there is a summary provided so you don't have to figure out if that is a beneficial resource or not.

J Matibag - One thing I didn't touch upon, but didn't, is the benefit summaries provided in an annotated bibliography like this one. Thanks for putting that into your post. Having these description certainly gives the reader a chance to discover more sources in less time. Most studies I've read tend to be 10-25 pages, so this circumvents sifting through studies that may not be what one is looking for.

Animated Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 kids, aligned with state standards. My students love these videos!

BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

There are so many fun games for upper elementary students that are engaging and enhance learning.

I found this Prezi a great example of instructional technology for English language learners. Well done.

"From the Page to the Classroom: Implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts and Literacy" provides the background of the CCSS and the three shifts that are inherent in these standards. Their use of videos is very effective and interesting.

This page has great articles for teaching literature.

I didn't realize that they had a section for grants. Thanks for sharing!

Introduction of Digital Connectivism and it's impact on learning. This article focuses on the impacts in English Language Teaching. It defines connectivism, states the principles, and relates it to English Language Teaching.

Connectivism breakdown from Massive Open On-line Course called Connectivism & Connected Knowledge 2011 by a learner and EFL teacher.

The authors of the paper postulate that traditional learning theories do not adequately cover the use of mobile technologies, particularly phones in a learning context. This paper looks at a class of native Arabic speaking students learning English as a second language through the use of mobile phones and facebook. They conclude that in this context, connectivism fully accounts for the interactions that their students naturally gravitated towards when interacting in english thus furthering their study of interest.

This is a digital library that has English and Spanish stories. These stories can be read to the students, which is convenient for students who struggle with reading or for students who need more input in Spanish.

This article from ABC News discusses English teachers' perceptions that their students write more, and write better when social media tools are meaningfully employed.

In this blog post, Amanda Hovious, librarian and instructional designer, discusses librarians as facilitators of communities of practice. What strikes me about this post is that Hovious identifies various types of communities of practice, including (for example) students in an English Comp class. If a classroom of students can be considered a community of practice, then every educator serves in a role that facilitates these communities.

This post was great! As a teacher of secondary English, I'm always trying to find ways to engage my learners both in and out of the classroom in regards to reading. I need to tap more into our library and our librarian! Awesome ideas I will have to share with her!

I love getting the librarian perspective in this post. I think it was interesting to see how she facilitates the communities of practice. I also liked getting ideas of different groups that constitute a community of practice.

"Censorship in the classroom: Understanding controversial issues\n\nhttp://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=203\n\nA lesson plan for grades 9-12 English Language Arts and Information Skills\nLearn more\n\n * Learn more about banned books, biases, censorship, language arts, media, persuasive writing, propaganda, reading, stereotypes, and writing.\n\nHelp\n\nPlease read our disclaimer for lesson plans.\nLegal\n\nPrint\n\n * Print\n\nShare\n\n * Email\n * Delicious Delicious\n * Digg Digg\n * Facebook Facebook\n * StumbleUpon StumbleUpon\n\nIt is important for young people to understand their individual rights and what they, as citizens, can do to protect these rights. In addition, young people need to understand the way in which bias and stereotyping are used by the media to influence popular opinion. In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students examine propaganda and media bias and explore a variety of banned and challenged books, researching the reasons these books have been censored. Following this research, students choose a side of the censorship issue and support their position through the development of an advertising campaign.\nNorth Carolina Curriculum Alignment\nEnglish Language Arts (2004)\nGrade 9\n\n * Goal 3: The learner will examine argumentation and develop informed opinions.\n o Objective 3.01: Study argument by:\n + examining relevant reasons and evidence.\n + noting the progression of ideas that substantiate the proposal.\n + analyzing style, tone, and use of language for a particular effect.\n + identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical, or cultural influences contexts, or biases.\n + identifying and analyzing rhetorical strategies that support proposals.\n\nGrade 10\n\n * Goal 3: The learner will defend argumentative positions on literary or nonliterary issues.\n o Objective 3.01: Examine controversial is

This site includes colorful, age appropriate activities for elementary school students in English, math, and science. Newest activities include Sara Jane Adventure Science and Bamzooki Math.

Incorporate art activities into your English language arts lessons, and your students will have so much fun! Use these resources to introduce new concepts or reinforce ELA topics your students have already learned.

technology is "offering new opportunities for engagement with texts, expanding the classroom beyond its walls and time slot, and encouraging students to pursue their reading and writing independently"

ways to incorporate technology in ELA along with some musings

A free study site for English as a Second Language (ESL) students with games, quizzes, puzzles, MP3 files with transcripts, listening practice, pronunciation practive, etc.