AI and ELA

Alice Keeler shared this blog post on how ELA instruction needs to change reflecting the changing AI landscape.

Video Prompts

These writing prompts from John Spencer are worth a look.  How can writing be boring with this sendoff? The above is just one example.

Free training site

While reviewing the highlighted sites on the TeachersFirst blog, I came across Free Training Tutorials.   While it covers some of the basics (excel, word, typing) it also included some interesting writing ones (“How to create a character” was one that caught my eye).  I think it is worth reviewing for some of your students.

Looking for Reading Resources?

TeachersFirst has a focus on reading resources in their featured site here.  It includes several sites for reading suggestions for all age groups.

Writing prompts to inspire

So what does Darth Vader do on his day off?  How about Superman’s brother? John Spence has assigned a playlist of interesting writing prompts to help your students create!  You can see his YouTube channel here.

Make a cube- you pick!

From  Bio Cube, Mystery Cube, Story Cube, or Create your Own Cube- just go to Read-Write-Think and follow the directions.  Lesson Plans and activities are also included. For the complete details, please see this post in TeachersFirst.

Social Studies. ELA, and Science Templates

Richard Byrne posted this morning on his blog (Free Technology for Teachers) about

the templates and lessons in ReadWriteThink.  Please click here to see his post.  

I have long been a fan of RWT yet sometimes I forget to check their resources.

Using Music to Inspire

In this New York Times article, Natalie Proulx suggests nine ways to help inspire student writing using music.  Please click here for the article.

ESL and Drama= Perfect Together

Here’s a site filled with ideas for ESL (and I think it could be adapted for ELA classroom)

to use in your classroom.  From script writing, reader theatre, and improvisation,

there is something for everyone. Check out Drama in the ESL classroom.

For the complete review from TeachersFirst, please click here.

Ideas for National Reading Month

This week’s edition of TeachersFirst highlights a variety of resources for March and National Reading Month.  From LIttle House on the Prairie  to leveled reading (Dreamreader) to The Cat in the Hat.  See all the resources here.

Get ready for National Reading Month

While I knew next month was Read Across America time- I didn’t realize reading had an entire month (as a former science teacher I think I need to protest!).  SAS Curriculum Pathways is all set and shared these resources.

36 Hours in….Sayreville?

This is a travel column from the New York Times- most times it covers a city I have not visited but is still interesting to read.  (You can see samples here.) They recently shared a lesson plan idea based on this concept for high school students (and linked it to Catcher in the Rye).

Reading and Tech

In this straightforward post from Monica Burns, Cultivating a Love of Reading in the Digital Age, you will find easy ways to integrate tech in your reading environment.

Rewordify

This free tool (described by Richard Byrne in his post here) on Free Technology for Teachers) allows you to take text and reword it.  The first parargraph is from History.com- the second is what I got with Rewordify.  Notice there are some things a machine cannot do (Harbor and a safe place) but I think this would be a useful tool for some students.

From History.com

Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, and was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.

From Rewordify

Pearl Safe place (for boats) is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, and was the scene of aterrible and destructive surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes moved downward/originatedon the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval ships, including eight huge fightships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in theattack, including people not in the military, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The dayafter the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.

Grading suggestions for ELA

This post from Teach Thought has several suggestions for providing feedback on written work.  From using a spinner to select what is graded to having students diagnose the issue, there is something for everyone (and every grade level).  Please click here to read.

Getting to the point

Ever need to summarize something?  Or have a student who would benefit with a more concise version of the text?  SMMRY  might be the answer.  You can paste in text, upload a file or enter a url. There are even settings (and you can select the number of sentences in your summary results).  For a complete review of the site by TeachersFirst, please click here.

Make your own Wonder poster

I loved this novel when I first read it- and now with the movie premiere next month, you can create your own Wonder poster.  Choose face shape, features and even a quotation.  How could you use this in your classroom?

What would the Bard think? Is that Hamlet?

In this week’s TeachersFirst email, the focus was on comics.  One of my favorites was Stick Figure Hamlet- select the act and begin! For the complete write-up, please click here.

Place those commas!

So where do all the commas go?  TeachersFirst recently shared these resources.

Grades 6-12	Copy Edit This!	Become an editor for the New York Times! This 10-question quiz includes passages from articles with one grammatical error each. Click on the word you believe to be incorrect.
Grades 2-8	Punctuation Campground	Use game-based learning to motivate your students to learn punctuation. Although basic, this site offers many opportunities for students to practice punctuation. You have the option to start over, try again, and even get a hint.
Grades 3-12	noredink	Personalize the writing and grammar experience for your students. Practice proper use of apostrophes, subject-verb agreement, comma issues, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, commonly confused words, and more. See our full review for more details!
Grades 2-5	Comma Confusion	Get gamified with punctuation! Help Dr. Igneous sort out confusing messages (missing commas) to save the villagers from an erupting volcano. Share this interactive on your whiteboard and then allow students to practice on their own. Share on your website.
Grades 1-4	Alien Punctuation	Help Max and Molly "talk to the aliens" and correct their punctuation. There are three levels of difficulty. Topics vary by level and include: capitalization, periods, question marks, commas, quotation marks, and more.

It’s all in the word choice

While I don’t teach math, the title of this blog post from WeAreTeachers caught my eye.  After I finished reading it, I recognized the difference a few small words (times versus groups of) could make in a student’s understanding.  I wonder what small changes I could make in other content areas that improve pupil comprehension?