Language Arts
Elementary
Jan Brett
With dozens of book titles to her credit, author/illustrator Jan Brett also has a terrific web site. With nearly 4000 activities pages, there are many supportive materials ranging from holiday events, handwriting, writing cards and filling out envelopes, to high frequency word lists. Many of the activities are directly connected to Jan Brett’s wonderful characters or illustrated in her easily recognized style.
http://www.janbrett.com/index.html
Literacy Center Education Network
Presented in English, Spanish, German, and French, this set of activities for early learners focuses on recognition of letters (both upper and lower case), numbers, colors, and simple words, Requires the free Flash Player plug in.
http://www.literacycenter.net/play_learn/index.htm
Make a Word
This interactive learning game starring Clifford, the Big Red Dog invites early readers to drag vowels to complete as many words as they can. Finished words are then read out loud. Requires Flash Plug-In (a free download) for your Internet browser.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/vowels/index.htm
Vowel Practice
From Studyzone, sponsored by the Oswego City School District, this very simple practice page is intended for early readers. Students can listen to the instructions read out loud to them on the page. Students click on the vowel in a row of three letters. Instant feedback is provided on their selection.
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/i/vowelp.cfm
Sesame Street
Structured much like the TV show, this site has sections for games, stories, and more In the game section click on the A,B,C button for games such as “Big Bird Gets a Letter” and “Grover of Arabia” In the stories section, students can read or create their own stories. Appropriate for ECE through grade 1.
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/
Aesop’s Fables
Presented by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, this collection of Aesop’s Fables contains college student created animated version of familiar fables. Students from grades K through 5 will enjoy exploring such fables as “The Ant and the Grasshopper”, “The Fox and the Grapes”,and “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”.
http://www.umass.edu/aesop/
Database of Award Winning Children's Literature
The purpose of this database is to create a tailored reading list of quality children's literature or to find out if a book has won one of the indexed awards. Designed for use teacher librarians or a teachers intervening for a child-reader. It may also be used by anyone to find the best in children's literature including parents, book store personnel, and children and young adults themselves.
http://www.dawcl.com/
Children’s Picture Book Database
Provided by the University of Miami, the Children’s Picture Book Data base includes a keyword-searchable database of over 5000 picture books; includes abstracts, subject classification, and Web links.
http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/
Dictionary.com's Word of the Day
The Word of the Day provides a pronunciation guide, definition, uses the word in context, and the word origins. This is a simple way to encourage vocabulary development. You can also signup to receive the word of the day through email.
http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/
Wikijunior - Wikibooks, collection of open-content text books
The aim of this project is to produce a series of full-color booklets for children aged 8 to 11. The subjects will be appealing to kids, and the writing will be light and friendly. These booklets will be richly illustrated with photographs, diagrams, sketches, and original drawings. The texts will also follow a format, so that each booklet, while different, will also have certain common features. Currently only a small collection, covering topics such as the solar system and dinosaurs, it has the potential to develop into a wider collection of quality non-fiction material for elementary age students.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior
Starfall
The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free and as a public service. Teachers from around the country are using Starfall materials as an inexpensive way to energize their classrooms and to inspire a love of reading and writing in their students. Primarily designed for first grade, Starfall.com is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade.
http://www.starfall.com/
Cyberguides
Teacher Guides and Student Activities - CyberGuides are supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, standards, a task, and a process by which the lesson may be completed, teacher-selected websites, and a rubric based on California Language Arts Content Standards. In the guides, the magenta text indicates the language (or context-appropriate equivalent to the language) of the content standards.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Web Site
This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.
http://www.carolhurst.com/
DPS Authors Web Site
Web links to authors and illustrators including DPS author studies.
http://dots.dpsk12.org/stories/storyReader$15
ReadWriteThink
Providing Educators and Students access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction.
http://www.readwritethink.org/
The Biography Maker
These online lessons explain what a biography should be and walk writers through questioning, learning, synthesis, and story-telling. The site includes embedded links to relevant Internet resources and tips for effective writing.
http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm
Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales
Students will become familiar with fables and trickster tales from different cultural traditions and will see how stories change when transferred orally between generations and cultures.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=240
DPS Authors Website
Web links to authors and illustrators including DPS author studies.
http://dots.dpsk12.org/stories/storyReader$15
Middle School
Educator’s Guide to Literature
Teacher Vision is dedicated to helping teachers save time. Find 12,000+ pages of classroom-ready lesson plans, printables, and resources at this site. Select one of the titles listed in Educator Guides to Intermediate / Middle Literature to view great supplemental material that will assist students in enjoying and understanding literature. Be sure to click “Go Directly to my Link” in the top right hand corner of the page after linking to the below URL. Also note that you may view up to 10 free articles / resources and then the website will require you to subscribe for $30 a year.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/literature/reading-instruction/5832.html?wtlAC=GS_2007-02-05,email-gs_5
Explorers on the Web
Cyber Sleuth Kids is well-rounded website with resources for all subjects. This link provides access to extensive information about famous explorers, hooking directly into the DPS social studies curriculum.
http://www.cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/History/Explorers/index1.htm
The Biography Maker
Site with information on creating biographies, as well as a template for writing a biography
http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm
In Search of Shakespeare
Shakespeare comes alive in this website with Professional Development tools,lesson plans and a multimedia library. Clicking on the “For Educators” section provides links to “Teaching Shakespeare to Elementary” which can be helpful even for middle school students, “Teaching Shakespeare with Technology” and “Primary Sources”. The “Playwright Game” is a high-interest activity challenging students to write their own 17th century plays!
http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/
Scholastic News Online
America’s leading news source for kids comes to you online in an attractive and easy-to-navigate format. There is also a teacher and parent section that provides loads of background information, graphic organizers and “thinking questions” to help you get your students thinking out-of-the-box.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/
TeacherWeb
Search for WebQuests by grade level and subject matter. Teachers can also create their own WebQuests and post them on this site.
http://teacherweb.com/WQindexSrch2.htm
Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature
The purpose of this database is to create a tailored reading list of quality children's literature or to find out if a book has won one of the indexed awards. Designed for use teacher librarians or a teachers intervening for a child-reader. It may also be used by anyone to find the best in children's literature including parents, book store personnel, and children and young adults themselves.
http://www.dawcl.com/
Children’s Picture Book Database
Provided by the University of Miami, the Children’s Picture Book Database includes a keyword-searchable database of over 5000 picture books; includes abstracts, subject classification, and Web links.
http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/
Tools for Teachers
The “Teacher Tools” website provides a host of general purpose resources for teachers. It includes: Quiz Generators, Worksheets and Flashcards, Certificates,Awards,Charts, Forms, Surveys, Calendar Generators, Templates for Classrooms, Places to Post Homework, Free or Inexpensive Webpage Builders, and Places to Store Bookmarks and Documents Online.
http://www.suelebeau.com/freetools.htm
Words of Human Kind
Words of Humankind is a compilation of many primary sources of historical literature and documents. Hosted and compiled by David Warlick, the site includes: The Bill of Rights, 19th Century Advertising, Samuel Beckett, Aesop's Fables Online Collection, and much more.
http://landmark-project.com/page.php?stamp=1169579963&;pn=3&psn=&cat=17
Literacy Net
This is a collection of weekly online interactive lessons using CNN news stories edited for students in Grades 6-12. The interactive lessons for each news story include curriculum exercises to test comprehension.
http://literacynet.org/
Meet Authors & Illustrators at Children's Lit
Here’s a powerful resource that includes information on thousands of authors and illustrators with links to their home pages and/or biographies.
http://www.childrenslit.com/f_mai.htm
High School
SAT Test Help
It’s getting to be that time of year! Offer your students some on-line SAT problems, quizzes and practice tests. All free.
http://www.syvum.com/sat/
College Admission Essay Time
A very helpful site offering college admission essay writing tips.
http://www.syvum.com/sat/essay.html
High School Literature Units
edHelper strikes again! Looking for some great activities to support the novel you are teaching? Don’t miss this comprehensive list with worksheets, ideas, and chapter quizzes for a wide range of commonly-taught high school novels.
http://www.edhelper.com/books/literature_units_grade9.htm
The Internet Public Library
The Internet Public Library (IPL) is a public service organization and learning / teaching environment founded at the University Of Michigan’s School of Information and hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology. It’s a rich trove of information, with books, magazines, newspapers (both national and international), dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc., and it’s all easy to navigate!
http://www.ipl.org/div/reading/
PBS Teacher Source: Arts & Literature
From the folks at PBS Teacher Source, this website provides Language Arts lessons and activities, arranged by topic and grade level. PBS lessons and activities are carefully constructed and integrate their many fine web sites and videos. Most lessons are designed as video companions, but many do not require that you watch the video to complete the lessons.
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm
Yale-New Haven Teacher's Institute: Curriculum Units
The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute is an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example, in schools across the country. Each participating teacher prepares a curriculum unit and provides examples of ways in which teachers have drawn material from Institute seminars for use in their own school courses. Units of interest include: “Stories around the World in Film and Literature; The Challenge of Intersecting Identities in American Society: Race/Ethnicity, Gender and Nation; Representations of American Culture, 1760-1960: Art and Literature; Teaching Poetry in the Primary and Secondary Schools; The Craft of Writing; Reading and Writing Poetry; Race and Ethnicity in ContemporaryArt and Literature; Women's Voices in Fiction; Detective Fiction: Its Use as Literature and as History; Reading Across the Cultures; Twentieth Century Latin American Writing; and American Children's Literature.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/
Web English Teacher
This site presents the best of K-12 English / Language Arts teaching resources:lesson plans,WebQuests,videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles,and classroom activities.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/
CyberGuides
CyberGuides are supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition that includes standards, a task and a process by overview, teacher-selected websites and a rubric.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
CNN for kids!
This is a lively collection of weekly online interactive lessons using CNN news stories edited for students in Grades 6-12. The interactive lessons for each news story include curriculum exercises to test comprehension the reported current events.
http://literacynet.org/
Read Write Think
The National Council of Teachers of English collaborate with the International Reading Association to bring teachers this rich collection of high quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content. This site provides a wide array of standards-based lesson plans, instructional and reference web resources, literacy engagements, and interactive student resources.
http://www.readwritethink.org/about.html