Lesson Plans Galore

The Educator’s Reference Desk is a great website that contains hundreds of lesson plans written by other teachers. There are thirteen different subjects that the lesson plans are divided into. Once you choose a subject, there are subdivisions of certain areas of that subject. I chose to explore the Language Arts section, as that is going to be my subject area. There were 16 different categories to choose from, including Literature, Journalism, Phonics, Listening Comprehension, and more. In the Literature section, there were lesson plans for every grade, even some for adult and continuing education. There were lesson plans for works by Kafka, the Bard, George Orwell, and many more. Each subdivision of Language Arts had a great selection of interesting lesson plans for all ages.

The best part about this website is the user-friendly interface coupled with the fact that the plans are all written by teachers. The Educator’s Reference Desk is so easy to navigate. You can choose to browse by subject, or you can type a query into the search box. Also, these lesson plans are written by actual teachers, not a lesson plan generator. When you choose a lesson plan to view, it gives you the contact information for the original author, which you could use if you had any questions about the activities. The goals, objectives, and materials are all clearly outlined and laid out. Each lesson plan has a web page view, and a printer friendly view. These lesson plans are easily adaptable to fit any individual classroom. This is a truly helpful website that I hope more teachers are aware of.

Breaking Language Barriers

I found a website called the International Children’s Digital Library. Their mission is to “support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community” (ICDL, year). They are going about this by compiling the cream of the crop in children’s literature around the world, and making it available online. The website is very user-friendly; menu choices are ever-present on a horizontal bar across the top of the page. You can make such choices as “Read Books,” “About Library,” and “How to Contribute.”

If you chose the “Read Books” menu choice, you can search for books by language, by location, by recently added, by award winning, and numerous other search methods. The ICDL isn’t lacking for visitors either. According to them, they have had more than 3 million “unique visitors” since the birth of their site in November of 2002 (ICDL, year). The ICDL contains 4,456 books in over 50 different languages. It’s no surprise, when you take our society’s diversity into consideration, that over half of the ICDL’s visitors are from the U.S.

This website would be a great tool to use if you have students who are struggling to find books in their native language, or who are having difficulty learning English. This site could also be used to promote cultural awareness within the classroom. Teachers could choose a book from a completely different culture, and do an entire unit on it. Literature is a great way to get a glimpse of a cultures customs, values, and more. The ICDL has made a huge impact so far, and there’s no stopping them.

Language Arts Fun

For this integration exercise, I visited a site called Primary Games. They had numerous games geared toward elementary-age kids that were supposed to make language arts fun and exciting. The site had games for other school subjects as well. The language arts games were pretty neat. There was a typing test to see how fast and accurate the students typed; there was a crossword puzzle game and a harder version called the Clueless Crossword Puzzle. There were so many games on the first page alone. Each game had a theme. One was barnyard, another was ghosts,  another was sharks. The games would clearly engage younger students. They were pretty fun. I excelled at the typing test J.

It can be difficult to know what websites are really appropriate for school, so the fact that this site had all these great, kid-friendly games in one place was really helpful. The games were very fun and creative, and I can see how they can get kids excited about learning. Being able to grant kids play time on the computer and knowing that they are still learning something is a really neat thing.

Berrien RESA to the Rescue

I found a website run by Berrien RESA. Click here to visit.This page had an extensive list of website links for classroom resources for Language Arts. The links were broken up into five categories: Authors, Books, etc.; Early Readers, High School Lit; Words and Writing; and Just for Teachers. In the first category, the links dealt mostly with finding new authors and discovering new young adult literature. There were also some links to young adult lit magazines. The Early Readers category was geared toward children in kindergarten through third grade. It contains links to sites that help improve early reading fluency and comprehension. There were some links to educational games.

The High School Lit category was broken down into sub categories of British Lit, Women’s Lit, and Adult Literacy Information; each subcategory contained relevant links. The Words, Stories, and Writing category housed link to sites that helped with grammar rules, online publishing for students, writing exercises, MLA format, and much more. The Just for Teachers category was very helpful. It had links for lesson plans, classroom sets of books, activities and games, suggested books for kids, and so much more.

This site was so helpful. I loved the way they categorized everything. It was very organized. The links were listed alphabetically, with a brief description of the site next to it. I was very impressed with it. A lot of sites like this have so much information and no organizational system, so this was a really nice change. I would trust these links because the site is run by the Berrien County School system. So I know that the information was reliable. All in all, I would recommend this website to someone in a heartbeat. It is neat, organized, and loaded with helpful tools and information. What more could you ask for?

Excited for EDSITEment

I explored the EDSITEment website. It is a great humanities resource. There are lesson plans covering everything from the history of the alphabet to the growth of party politics. This site is divided into four sections: Arts and Culture, Literature and Language Arts, Foreign Language, and History and Social Studies. Each section contains lists of lesson plans and lists of websites with related material. Also, within each category you can explore subcategories; for example, in the History and Social Studies section you can look specifically at U.S. Civil Rights, along with a multitude of other subcategories.

One of the interesting things about this website was that a few of the lesson plans were listed under multiple sections. I think that is cool because you can see how one lesson can become a true cross-curricular experience for the students. Cross-curricular learning has been proven to be a very effective method of teaching and helps students retain the information longer. This information has all been compiled from universities, museums, and other reputable institutions. The fact that the information comes from such trustworthy sources makes me feel that much better about recommending this site to anyone who wishes to enrich their classroom with some great humanities resources.

Technology in the Classroom

I read an article entitled “Integrating Technology Into a Reading Program.” This article was very informative. The author stressed the need for the students to engage and interact with the technology. The author went on to explain how he used technology in his classroom, even going so far as to provide the names of the software programs he used. He mentioned three different programs, each focused on literacy and reading. The programs provided students with a list of books to read and then games that quizzed them on the material they’d read as a way to reinforce the information. These programs helped with comprehension and retention.

The author made a good point when he mentioned that integrating technology did not mean that the teacher simply used the computer to keep track of grades. Integrating technology required the students to use the technology for themselves. This particular teacher allowed his students to use AlphaSmart Tools, four desktop computers, color printers, and a digital camera. Allowing students to not only witness the use of technology, but actually experience it is a key component to integrating technology into the classroom. It turns learning into a kinesthetic experience, which will be a great help to kids whose main learning style is kinesthetic.

I Can See...

TeacherVision is a great resource for teachers. It has so many worksheets, lesson plans, tips on running classrooms, and more. Not only can you print these out, but it's encouraged that you do so. I spent most of my time exploring the 11th and 12th grade English areas of the site. While there, I found enough quizzes, handouts, and lesson plans to keep someone going all year. This is such a great resource, especially if you are struggling to find a new and different way of presenting something such as the epic poem the Odyssey.
Another neat feature of TeacherVision is the Graphic Organizer tab. Graphic organizers are a really effective way for students to record their thoughts in a way that is easy for them to go back and review. Providing these for students can help them develop and hone their note-taking skills, which will be useful as they move further through their education.

The tab titled “Classroom Management” was also very helpful. There are tips on how to memorize students’ names quickly, conflict resolution methods, how to create a syllabus, and many other topics. New teachers who have never set foot in a classroom before, as well as veteran teachers who are looking for new ways to enhance their classroom, can find this resource very useful and helpful. I am sure that I will be using TeacherVision as a resource in the near future.