Group items tagged

How to teach text structures for better reading comprehension and improved retention. Teachers of history, science, and other subjects are now expected to weave literacy instruction into their teaching of content. But how should they do that? What are the most effective ways to help students learn to read challenging content-area texts? This article breaks down the research behind explicit teaching of text structures and includes a video that shows how to do it (Great for content-area literacy)

Character Scrapbook, produced by Scholastic, is a web resource that is a simple to use. It offers a reader's response activity that students can use to analyse any character in a book or story. The template allows them to include details and reflections about a character through text, but it also provides the students with an opportunity to create a visual representation of that character. Once created they can save or print it as a type of scrapbook. . It offers is a simple way to engage students and also offers an opportunity to help them form a deeper understanding of a book's character(s). Character Scrapbook could be utilized with fiction or non-fiction text as an individual, small group and/or even whole class assignment There is a detailed teacher's guide on the Scholastic site that has a detailed how-to as well as lesson extensions.

Character Scrapbook, produced by Scholastic, is a web resource that is a simple to use. It offers a reader's response activity that students can use to analyse any character in a book or story. The template allows them to include details and reflections about a character through text, but it also provides the students with an opportunity to create a visual representation of that character. 6. Ten accomplishments XX achieved. Once created they can save or print it as a type of scrapbook. . It offers is a simple way to engage students and also offers an opportunity to help them form a deeper understanding of a book's character(s). Character Scrapbook could be utilized with fiction or non-fiction text as an individual, small group and/or even whole class assignment There is a detailed teacher's guide on the Scholastic site that has a detailed how-to as well as lesson extensions.

Turn simple photographs into videos using this site. Once you sign up (it's free) you begin by choosing a video template and then adding your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, or your computer. You can set the order of your pictures, add captions to them and add text slides if you wish. Next you add music, either from their library or add your own from your computer. Your last step is to add a video title and any additional text and you're done. Completed videos can be uploaded to You Tube or Facebook and can even be embedded into a website or blog. The site does have a 30 picture maximum but that is long enough for most people.

Turn simple photographs into videos using this site. Once you sign up (it's free) you begin by choosing a video template and then adding your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, or your computer. You can set the order of your pictures, add captions to them and add text slides if you wish. Next you add music, either from their library or add your own from your computer. Your last step is to add a video title and any additional text and you're done. Completed videos can be uploaded to You Tube or Facebook and can even be embedded into a website or blog. The site does have a 30 picture maximum but that is long enough for most people.

Having the "same" text written for different levels of English comprehension can be a life-saver for a multi-level class of English Language Learners or for a teacher with a mainstream class that includes some students that are facing other challenges. They can be an important tool for differentiation. Listed here are a few sources where you can get these different versions other than creating them yourself.

"The author's use of "literary nonfiction" accommodates all the definitions. It includes finely-crafted texts that tend to win awards, sell best to schools and libraries, and make ideal mentor texts. It may be narrative nonfiction, including many kinds of life stories (biographies/autobiographies/memoirs); poetry; or expository/informational books with a strong voice, innovative format and text structure, and rich, engaging language."

Great page by Kathy Schrock explaining sketchnoting with links and videos. "Sketchnoting, in its purest form, is creating a personal visual story as one is listening to a speaker or reading a text. I also believe the interactive notebook, which includes the process of taking "regular" notes" while listening to a speaker and later creating a sketchnote of the text notes, would also be considered sketchnoting. This page will provide links, ideas, tips,and research evidence dealing with the power of sketchnoting. If you are looking for a book on the topic, the seminal work is this book by Mike Rohde.     "

" Regie Routman believes that sustained time for reading and writing meaningful text must be our first priority to turn students into readers, writers, and thinkers. In her latest ASCD book, Read, Write, Lead: Breakthrough Strategies for Schoolwide Literacy Success, Routman shares best practices that can lead to better engagement and achievement in reading and writing for all students, including second-language and struggling learners. One way to engage students in informational, complex text is to demonstrate close reading, also known as analytic reading.  In the following excerpt, Routman shares her thoughts on being a "reading role model" and why close reading is a necessity for students' understanding."

"Most teachers know what close-reading is. The part that I found most interesting the seemingly alien idea of technology promoting patient reading. Apps, for example-how on earth can a tablet or an app or an iPad or headphones or some other gadget help with the focus, patience, curiosity, and will to sit with a text and make sense of it? It seems like the opposite would be more likely. And that's certainly possible. There is no "truth" here. In one setting with one student in one kind of classroom, technology could overwhelm the fragile interaction between reader and text. In others, it could catalyze the reading process like never before. But that's a matter of design. Of strategy. Of context. At one point, books were considered "technology" during a move from oral storytelling to written record. The same with certain kinds of binding, the printing press, and so on. Throughout history, reading has been altered by technology."

An expalanation about - how to add voice typing to Google Slides and made it FREE!!! John is a former math teacher and he knows how important this feature is to teachers, especially teachers of younger children. Slides Translator allows students to take text from the slide and translate it to their native language. A new hidden feature of Slides Translator is VOICE TYPING! Install Slides Translator After installing Slides Translator, go to the Add-on menu and choose "Slides translator" and then it gives you the option to use voice typing in the sidebar or as a floating toolbar. Click on the textbox you want to voice type in, click on the mic icon in Slides Translator. When you pause… it turns your voice into text. LIKE MAGIC!!!

The seven tips here offer some advice if you want to read faster while maintaining reading comprehension. "Whether you skim a blog post, peruse files for work, or browse through a book, you most likely do some type of reading every day. But slogging through dense passages of text can be time-consuming, mentally exhausting, and hard on your eyes."

Word Mover (By ReadWriteThink) is designed to help students develop poems and short stories Students can use word banks already created or they can also add new words to the list. They can then drag onto a canvas they have selected to construct their poem or story. They are also able to manipulate and move the text as they wish to creatively publish poetry. There are six different categories and 12 canvas backgrounds students may select. Useful lesson plans that use the app for a variety of learning levels and subjects are also shared.

"In a world filled with blogs, tweets, texts, social media posts, and memes, it's more important than ever that students understand the norms of appropriate and responsible technology use. No matter which subject or grade you teach, you can help your students live, grow, and work in a technology-driven global community. Not sure how to begin teaching the many components of 21st century, technology-based learning? The nine elements of digital citizenship are a great place to start."

"A nice class activity when the books being read by the students have specific locations for the settings. You can create a book map using My Maps from Google to highlight the settings in which these texts took place."

Google Slides have made the process of creating an eBook so much easier than doing it using Google Docs. Google Slides allows you to manipulate and edit images in ways that you cannot in Google Docs. With Slides, you can add backgrounds, borders, and layer text boxes, graphics, and shapes. If you have ever been frustrated with trying to get an image in the exact spot you want in Google Docs, you may want to try it in Google Slides. Since you can easily convert your slides to PDF, the most universally accepted file format, your eBook can be read on practically any device.

"For a single subscription fee per student, schools can enable teachers to access the combined resources of publishers, both by chapter or whole text and with advanced search functions. The content is mapped to the Australian curriculum, State curriculums and the NSW syllabus. It also provides single sign-on with anywhere, anytime access including iPad, Android and PC reading applications."

The World Digital Library hosts more than 10,000 primary documents and images from collections around the world. It is sponsored by UNESCO and the mission is to promote the study and understanding of cultures. The WDL can be searched by date, era, country, continent, topic, and type of resource. There are a lot of maps and images as well as text documents.

Reading Australia has been developed by the Copyright Agency and aims to make significant Australian literary works more readily available for teaching in schools and universities. These works are supplemented with online teacher resources and essays by popular authors about the enduring relevance of the works. There is a list of titles (download as a PDF). These titles have been selected by the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) Council. They were asked to select works they thought students and others should encounter, to give a view of Australia's rich cultural identity: works that would tell Australia's history and also how we are currently developing as a nation. The ASA Council are adamant that this list should be merely the beginning, and it should be built upon with other works that have already been published, as well as the great new works that continue to be published in Australia. There is a wide range of teacher resources available (PDF) for Primary and Secondary school teachers and all of these teacher resources include classroom activities, assessments and links to the Australian Curriculum. In addition, many of the Secondary resources include an introductory essay on the text written by high profile writers. The Primary level resources have been commissioned by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association, and the resources for Secondary level have been jointly commissioned by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the English Teachers Association NSW."

"... turns any ordinary quotes texts into beautiful quotes picture for Facebook, Twitter header, Google Plus, E-Cards, Wallpapers, Pinterest, Posters and other print design."

First up is a tutorial on Jellybean Writer. The video is embedded below. Jellybean Writer is a free tool for creating picture books. Students can import pictures from their computers then write captions for each image. All stories can be saved online or downloaded and printed. If picture books are too simple for your students, they can skip using pictures and select one of the text only templates for the pages in their books. As you will see in the video below, teacher can create and manage student accounts in Jellybean Scoop.