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it2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can: * Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go, * Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer, * View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen, * Print out the stories and poems to make your own book. There are four ways to get started with Lit2Go: 1. Browse by Author. You can pick your stories by the author's last name. 2. Browse by Title. You can pick your stories by title. 3. Search Database. You can search the collection by title, author, keywords or reading level. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom. 4. Launch iTunes. If you have iTunes software installed on your computer, you can download many of the selections directly into your iTunes library. The free iTunes application for either Macintosh or Windows computers may be downloaded directly from Apple, Inc.

it2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can: * Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go, * Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer, * View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen, * Print out the stories and poems to make your own book. There are four ways to get started with Lit2Go: 1. Browse by Author. You can pick your stories by the author's last name. 2. Browse by Title. You can pick your stories by title. 3. Search Database. You can search the collection by title, author, keywords or reading level. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom. 4. Launch iTunes. If you have iTunes software installed on your computer, you can download many of the selections directly into your iTunes library. The free iTunes application for either Macintosh or Windows computers may be downloaded directly from Apple, Inc.

"So Much to Read . . . So Little Time! ZAP Reader is a web based speed reading program that will change the way you read on your computer. Current beta testers report reading twice as much in half the time-that's a 300% increase in reading speed, without any loss in comprehension! There is nothing to install, it works with most popular browsers, and it's totally free! Reader - If you have some text that you want to read fast, copy it onto your computer's clipboard, click this link, and follow the instructions to Zap read that text. Settings - By default, Zap Reader allows you to read at 300 words per minute, one word at a time. Use the settings feature to configure Zap Reader with your own preferences. Tools - Zap Reader is designed to be easy to integrate with other programs. Find out about browser bookmarklets, program ad-ins, and other integration tools here. Click the "Play" button below for a quick 2-minute tutorial on how to use Zap Reader. "

"The growth of the Internet has provided more and more people the ability to read books that normally they would not have access too and has provided valuable tools to assist in learning to read as well. There are several Text-to-Audio websites that make hearing typed text easier as well as website to make annotating text easier as well. Hopefully you will find a resource in this list that helps your students read, provides an extension on what you read, or provides ideas to teach reading to your students."

LISTEN AND READ CAREFULLY. A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen...forward and backward. This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it

As far as motivating readers goes, The 39 Clues is a smash hit. Suspenseful and exciting, it attracts both boys and girls with its gutsy main characters (who, luck has it, are a boy and a girl). It's not the hardest read, so kids won't be hugely intimidated by the wordage. What's more, it presents a card-collecting, game-playing, prize-winning opportunity. What more needs to be said? The books are interactive on many different levels. Each book comes with six cards, each of which has an identification code. Kids go to the 39 Clues website to enter the code and create an online card collection. Players can enter sweepstakes with prizes ranging from $250 to $10,000. The books are genuinely fun to read. I must admit that, although the books were a little juvenile for my reading level, that I was on the edge of my seat, reading as fast as possible to find out what happened next. And I don't even like mystery-adventures.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Skype Call Hooray! Our second Skype call with Mrs. Wells' 4th graders in Ozawkie, Kansas went much better. I found my web camera, so they were able to see us this time. Since both Mrs. Wells and I were participating in Jen Wagner's project entitled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we decided to have our students read the book together during the Skype video call. My students read the left hand pages, and her students read the right hand pages. After the reading was over my class surprised her class with a song. Two of my students were our cameramen. Corey, handled the web camera so our Skype buddies in Kansas could see us, and Wayne used our Flip camera to make a video of the event. We had a few sound issues, and need to learn how to use the Flip camera better. I also need to invest in a better microphone. I created the videos for viewing using Windows Movie Maker. We hope you enjoy the videos. Feel free to leave us a comment.

"An evolutionary writing site. Only the strongest stories survive. - Simian Simon" One Million Monkeys Typing is a community story-telling site. 1. Read Start reading. When you finish a snippet of text, click 'read more'. You will be presented with three unique paths that continue the story. If you like your options, keep reading. 2. Write If you reach an end, or simply don't like the story's trajectory, graft a new snippet and take the story's direction into your own hands. 3. Publish Publish so that others may add on to your story. If it gets ranked well and has enough offshoots it stays, if not, watch it wither and die.

60second Recap™ aims to break this cycle of canonical irrelevance. We want to help teens (yes, teens of all ages!) engage with literature. We want to help them see it not as some chore to be endured, but as -- dare we say it? -- the gift of a lifetime. How? Through the language of our time -- the language of video. Video that's focused, engaging, informative ... and short enough to hold just about anyone's attention. Smirk if you must. Consider this yet another mile-marker on civilization's road to perdition. But here's the fact: You won't get non-readers to read by forcing them to read more. You'll get them to read by opening their eyes to the marvels awaiting them between the covers of that homework assignment. With 60second Recap™, teens finally have an alternative to the boring, text-based study guides that have burdened them for generations. And -- who knows? -- maybe that's just what they'll need to begin a love affair with literature, one that will last a lifetime. Mission 60second Recap™ wants to make the great works of literature accessible, relevant, and, frankly, irresistible to today's teens. Through 60second Recap™ video albums, we seek to help teens engage with the best books out there ... not just to help them get better grades, but to help them build better lives.

"Here is a list of one hundred books selected by the National Education Association in 1999 as great reading for children and young people. To help make these books more useful, we have added book and author links to any TeachersFirst resources and lesson ideas. For more reading ideas - including books grouped by theme and grade level - check out the hundreds of titles in our Suggested Reading section. "

"Ten Bloggers I Read First Yesterday, I was asked for a list of the blogs that I recommend reading other than my own. I published a similar list two years ago, but some of those blogs have become less active in the last year. Here is my updated list of the ten blogs that I go to first when my Google Reader account indicates "1000+ unread items.""

The most dreaded word in school reading for students: book reports. Teachers assign them, viewing them as a necessary component of assessing reading compreh

Interactive Websites - Reading and Language Arts

"iSchool: a closer look at Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program email Does Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program represent the future of education? Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Just before 8 a.m. one recent Tuesday, Andy Caine wheeled a waist-high cart into his second-floor history classroom at Mira Costa High School, as the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" played faintly in the background. On the syllabus for the day: the First Amendment. As the first period bell rang, Caine unlocked the cart. "Come and get 'em," Caine said to his class of seniors, and stood behind his podium, on which he's pasted a sticker reading, "Think for yourself. Question Authority." The students put aside their pens and notebooks and lined up at the cart to pick up an unconventional tool that school districts across the nation have been implementing into classrooms. Each student grabbed an iPad and returned to his or her seat. Caine is one of 43 Manhattan Beach Unified School District teachers chosen to try the $500,000 iPad pilot program, which started last fall. At Mira Costa, two English, math, science and social studies teachers use iPads, along with eight science teachers at Manhattan Beach Middle School and 27 teachers of different grade levels at each elementary school. The district purchased 560 student iPads (32 gigabytes and costing around $700 each), in addition to iPads for pilot teachers and administrators. A quarter of the pilot costs are grant funded, while the district supports the rest. Later this year, the School Board will decide whether, and in what capacity, to continue the pilot. Caine and pilot teachers implement iPads into their curricula two to three times a week, a total of 30 to 90 minutes. "I would use them every day if I had the po

"Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print. Read them like books, play them like games, and send them like greeting cards. They're curiously fun. "

The time is finally here for my annual list of favorite sites of the year. This year, I decided to up my post to the top 100 instead of 25 due to the number of sites that I reviewed and due to the popularity of the post. I tried to cover a wide range of sites, from flash card creators to digital storytelling and of course, social networks, which really shined in 2011. I hope everybody enjoys the read and has as much fun reading it as I did creating it!

"Creating & Reading on the iPad: PDF vs. ePub A cart of 30 iPads showed up at my school the other day & I get to organized the deployment and classroom use, a daunting task. Prior to the 30 iPad cart, I have been working with teachers and students to use 4 iPads, primarily in two math classes. I have blogged about both ideas here and here. "

Everyone learns differently. Social media marketing has a lot of moving parts and processes which make it hard to get up to speed. This challenge is only compounded by the ever-changing nature of the market, in which new applications and opportunities arise daily. Reading tons of blog articles, while important, takes a lot of time. Sometimes it is easier to see concepts visually to get a basic understanding and then do further research on the topics that are most relevant to your business. In today's post we collected some great visualizations of social media concepts including monitoring and content distribution. Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6005/22-Educational-Social-Media-Diagrams.aspx#ixzz0sHMcWL5n

Read and publish online for free from anywhere. Explore the Library to find magazines, newspapers, eBooks and more. Over 1 million publications read each month.

Welcome to the Google Apps Education Community, a site to share, connect & learn This site is brought to you by Google - especially for Google Apps educators and students. Come join and help us build it! New! View presentations from the Google Teaching Theater at NECC 2009 Tutorials & Tips View videos and tutorials on how you can use Google Apps at your school and in the classroom. Have an idea? Submit your own tips & tricks! Join the discussion Participate in the Community Forum by reading posts, asking questions, helping others, and choosing and sharing the best answers to your questions. Google Apps in Action Vote and submit on the best examples of using Google Apps in education. Get on the map Find other Google Apps educators & students around the world. Stay current Subscribe and read the latest Official Google blogs, the GoogleAtWork twitter account, and the Google Apps Education Community newsletter. Spread the word! Know another Google Apps user? Send them a link to this site to learn more.

"50 Fun iPhone Apps to Get Kids Reading and Learning"