Stephen D Krashen -

joe_bower Joe Bower

"There's strong evidence that reading achievement is largely due 2 extensive self-selected reading not 2 formal reading instruction" Krashen

Check out some of Krashen's online articles about Literacy: Free Voluntary Reading.

Teen Authors that Skype for FREE

Teen Authors that Skype - Check out the list of teen authors that will Skype with your students for FREE!

Golems - 3D recreational physics simulator

Golems - Golems is a 3D recreational physics simulator

Build robots, spaceships, clocks, catapults or cannons.

Add sensors, timers, switches, motors. Give it a brain. Make a mouse trap - or make a mouse.

Take the wheel and pilot your machine yourself.

Build anything.

http://weissice.com/

Has new games ideas that look like fun.

Cris Tovani on Reading Workshops with High School Students (PODCAST)

Cris Tovani on Reading Workshops with High School Students (PODCAST)
Click to listen to an interesting podcast!

Book Drum

Book Drum - Book Drum is the perfect companion to the books we love, bringing them to life with immersive pictures, videos, maps and music. 


Check out the resources for The Kite Runner

A Visual History of Literary References on 'The Simpsons'

A Visual History of Literary References on 'The Simpsons' -  Check out all the references.

Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week

Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week- New York Times article sharing ideas on Banned Books Week.

Creative Writing Games

Creative Writing Games @ Language is  Virus!

• Character Name Generator
• Cut Up Machine
• NEW! Shakespearean Sonnet Generator
• Poetry Generator
• Poetry Bot
• Madlib Poem
• Electronic Poetry
• Text Collage
• Haiku-a-Tron
• Poem Engine
• Translator
• Random Line Generator
• Title-o-Matic
• Writing Prompts
• Sentence Builder/Phrase Generator
• Graffiti Wall
• Lyrics Great text to use for the cut up machines!

Ink Think Tank

Ink Think Tank -
On this site, you can produce lists of books kids love to read about subjects you’re required to teach, and they’re tied directly to National Education Standards and your personal school curriculum to boot! You can also meet the authors individually or as part of a school-wide project, and we’ll show you exactly how to do it.

Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope? 

Check out the essay written by  ROBERT LIPSYTE

Author John Green Tells Funny Story

Author John Green recounting his high school's senior prank video.

Lit2Go: MP3 Stories and Poems

Lit2Go: MP3 Stories and Poems-
Lit2Go 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.

Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?

Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope? By ROBERT LIPSYTE

Graphic Novels and Comics

A great article supporting the use of graphic novels and comics in the classroom. 

literature-map

literature-map- This is a great site to find out similar authors by typing in an authors name and watching as the cloud forms.

Once the map is created, a user can click on another author to form another map from that author.

Synonyms For

Synonyms For is a web resource that lets users search and find synonyms of thousands of words. This is a comprehensive and simple to use resource that is perfect when students (and teachers) are stumped for a word to use or just want to improve their vocabulary. The site is simple to use, however there are many ads that line the pages.

Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood

Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood - an article written by Sherman Alexie the author of the young adult novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian".  A great read!

Boys Don't Read, Except When They Do

Boys Don't Read, Except When They Do - Check out this article.

Podcasts for Music and Drama Teachers

Click here to access the podcast directory.

Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Classroom

Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Classroom

Shakespeare Resources

Check out the Cybrary Man's Shakespeare page!

Romeo and Juliet Weblist

 Romeo and Juliet Weblist - Weblist is an innovative way of gathering and organizing your content on the internet. We all love lists and we love sharing our lists with others. Why spend hours tediously adding and sending links and files when you can do it all in one place using a single URL?

PaperRater

PaperRater.com is a free resource, developed and maintained by linguistics professionals and graduate students. PaperRater.com is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing.

Hunger Games Resources

Here are some resources for teaching The Hunger Games
https://sites.google.com/a/bryantschools.org/hungergames/
http://hungergameslessons.blogspot.com/2010/11/teaching-hunger-games.html

Using VoiceThreads for Online Book Discussions

Some exciting, new options for VoiceThread that will make it even more classroom friendly have been announced. These include more educator control over student work, easier embedding options for those using Moodle and Flickr Creative Commons access without a Flickr account. See below for full details.

Also: here's  a link  to a wonderful example of how one teacher in Wisconsin is using  VoiceThread for education  for her  student book talks . The online discussions students have with each other about what they are reading are very interesting.   http://voicethread.com/#q.b681651.i3779808

What Would Your Character Say??

Do you want to add some current day trends to your novel studies? Why don't you have your students create a Fake Facebook profile? With Myfakewall.com you can easily create fake profile pages just for fun. This fake facebook wall generator allows you to create a funny profile to entertain your friends. Our students are texting all the time, why not have characters in their novels text to each other using Fake iPhone Text . Finally, what would characters in novel say if they were on Twitter? Create character tweets using Fake Tweet Builder.

Have Students Sketch to Kill the Prewriting Jitters-

Check out this Edutopia article.

Biblio Bouts

Biblio Bouts - Play the BiblioBouts online game to learn the process of finding high quality information while you complete your assignments.
At the end of the game, you will have a high quality bibliography or list of research sources you can use for your assignment. 

#25wordstory on Twitter

Check out the #25wordstory on Twitter.

 

"How long must I sit here & rot?" "Quit yer complainin'," the tomato told the potato. "Be happy they have a compost bin."  dogtrax KevinHodgson

Digital is

Digital is
The NWP Digital Is website is a collection of ideas, reflections, and stories about what it means to teach writing in our digital, interconnected world. Read, discuss, and share ideas about teaching writing today.

Writing in the Digital Age

Writing in the Digital Age from Joel Malley on Vimeo.

If I was a Writer…how would I use social media?

If I was a Writer…how would I use social media? Historically publishers determined the careers of many authors, they were the gatekeepers to getting a book into print. Although some authors still were successful despite them, they were often critical to success.

Students Struggling to Find Topics for Pro - Cons

Issues & Viewpoints- Pros & Cons, Debates- Great list of resources and database to search topics.