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Hundreds of games and activities for a variety of subjects (including math, science, language arts) and all grade levels. Many activities include quizzes to check for comprehension.

This source is a list of research-based strategies you can use to teach beginning phonics and phonemic awareness skills to struggling readers. It is meant to used as intervention methods.  Some of these suggested activities would be good for use in whole group scenarios but many of the activities would be better for us in working with small groups of students. Most of the suggested activities are multi-sensory and interactive.

This website is a great resource for the early childhood classroom. The "picture pairs game" helps with letter recognition.

Within the website "Starfall" for beginning level readers there is an entire letter practice session; it is in the form of an interactive game. All of the letters of the alphabet are presented and students are able to click on one. It then takes the student through an interactive presentation (visuals and sounds) of that letter: it shows the upper and lowercase form of the letter, makes the letter sound, shows and says words that begin with that letter and dictates a sentence to students using many words beginning with the chosen letter. This would be good for students who are struggling to identify the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; good for repetitive, independent practice as students could use this by themselves on a computer.

On Starfall.com, there is an entire phonics section titled "Learn to Read" that begins with focus on beginning sounds, making words and word families and gradually gets harder as you progress through. It is an interactive making words game where students that are playing can hear a word, see a matching picture, select a letter that begins the word, hear the sound that the selected letter makes and hear the completed word - all in the context of word families. The game is also self correcting - there is a buzzer noise if you select the wrong beginning sound/letter, so students know to choose again. Within the "Learn to Read" section, there are also books that use the words from the making words activities and videos for students to watch. This would be a great tool to use for a student to independently practice phonics at a literacy center when they can't be working with the teacher because it is visual, it reads to the student, it is easy to use and follow, and it is self-correcting so that students are practicing correctly.

For teachers looking to keep students learning even outside of the classroom, creating a blog platform for each classroom would be key. Edublogs can be used for e-portfolios and class sites. By uploading videos, pod-casts and notes, my language art students could have an interactive classroom to complete novel study discussions and assignments. In the past, I have used Edmodo and Edublogs is a similar platform. I would recommend for teachers.

As a goal for the next school year, I have decided to include a blog that would accompany my teaching and assignments my students would complete throughout the year. Through my searching, I discovered Kidblog. According to the site, "Kidblog is designed for K-12 teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog. Students publish posts and participate in academic discussions within a secure classroom blogging community." For my language arts students, they would use this tool by completing and discussing discussion questions relating to a novel study (we complete at least 4 throughout the year). In regards to writing, their personal blog would be a great place to stay organized with their process of writing. I also like how this platform allows students to start an e-portfolio, especially for their writing and composition samples.

This is a website with some fantastic alphabet activities including ways to help children recognize the alphabet, help with learning upper case verses lower case letters, help with phonetics and a book list to help with all these skills. This website has some fresh ideas that will work well in a pre-k classroom.

This is a post by Grant Wiggins in which he provides a synopsis of 15 year's worth of reading strategies research-what works and what doesn't work-and then his key take-aways are. This is a very interesting and 'meaty' read. This article as well as the preceding and final post could serve as the foundation for a PLC text-based seminar discussion on reading strategies with the goal to improve our students transfer of these skills to novel texts.

This article, How We Learn. Ask The Cognitive Scientist. The Usefulness of Brief Instruction in Reading Comprehension Strategies, was found in Diigo. Written by cognitive psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham, he surfaces the importance of teaching reading comprehension strategies that students may benefit and receive all they're supposed to out of their reading.

@ Jessica Carr

(Week 7: Jessica Carr, Sarah Donahey, and Mark Cook) This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This article discusses the need for vocabulary and comprehension instruction in the primary grades in order for long-term, adequate reading skills in elementary students. The authors examine research that have been done on primary grades in order to closely examine the reading skills that are needed for elementary-aged students. Reading outside of school, vocabulary, word-reading skills, conceptual knowledge, and comprehension strategies are the instructional approaches that the authors believe need to be taught in the primary grades in order for long-term goals to be met. Teachers can implement the instructional strategies being encouraged in this article, in their own practice. Teachers can also encourage reading outside of school for homework to help improve reading skills among their students. References: Block, K., M., & Duke, K., N. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. The Future of Children, 22(2), 55-72. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23317411?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents

Week 8 - Posted by Katie, Bonnie, and Malkie. The author explains the importance of spending 25% of teaching time, teaching the specific phonics skills and the rest of the time engaging students in actually reading and phonics related activities. There are quite a few suggestions for activities.

Week 9: Claire and Melissa This article is accessible though Diigo using the link above This article provides instructional strategies for language arts teachers trying to teach writing to their students. While it is well-known that teaching by example is an effective strategy for writing instruction, this article provides steps for teaching students through mentor texts in a way that mitigates frustration and maintains engagement. Resource: 8 Tips for Teaching with Mentor Texts Edutopia

This article gives a brief overview of vocabulary development and then offers many different instructional strategies to teach vocabulary in the classroom. Strategies include interactive word walls, word mapping, and self-selected vocabulary among many others.

This article strongly correlates with my instructional focuses. After viewing the article, I was able to see the different levels of vocabulary comprehension as well as the interventions that can be used to assist and assess the student's levels of comprehension. This article is a great source for any reading/language arts educator.

Vocabulary plays a vital role in my class with ELL students. This resource contains criteria that will help monitor students vocabulary progress as well as give different strategies such as Self correction, Mapping, Graphic Morphemic Analysis, Interactive word Walls and more for ELL students and students with special needs. This resource aids my groups' SMART Target learning goals by providing strategies for comprehending academic vocabulary.

This article provides detailed background information regarding explicit writing instruction, especially regarding students with special needs such as ADHD, but the strategies discussed can be adapted and used with all learners regardless of ability or grade level. The article begins with a focus on strategies for providing students with motivational contexts for their writing as well as making writing a routine that they enjoy. The rest of the article is divided into sections based on students' ability/age level (basic skills, revising and editing, and motivation). This article discusses strategies that can help address teachers address students' learning gaps in elaboration and explaining their ideas fully in expository writing tasks. Be sure to click "Single Page" at the bottom right of the article so you can see the entire article on one screen, and explore the links to the left of the article for more information about writing instruction for different populations!