reading – Page 10 – iLearn Technology

Computer Lab Favorites

May 14, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2001 views

What it is: Computer Lab Favorites is a collection of 50 one stop learning activities created
by Scholastic. The activities are self contained and interactive.
Students can play Dude the Dog, Scientific Labeling, Human Body Math
Hunt, Around the World, Mapman challenge, Puzzled States, Classify
This, Moon Olympics, Pick the Perfect Word, Choose a Word, and many
more. Students can spin a virtual game wheel to play a game. The site
is broken down by subject and also by grade levels k-2 and 3-5.

How to integrate Computer Lab Favorites into the classroom:
As the school year winds down, allow your students to review all they
have learned over the course of the year by playing these great
interactive activities. Students can spin the game spinner and have a
game selected for them or choose a specific subject or topic of play.
Save this site for next year, it is the perfect way to introduce a
topic or put some life back into reviews! The games are content rich
and a lot of fun to play!

Tips: This would be a good site to set as the home page on your classroom
computers. It has enough games and content to keep you coming back all
year long!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Computer Lab Favorites in your classroom.

Read the Words

May 1, 2008May 1, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2345 views

What it is: Read the Words is a free website that offers an audio player that will read anything you want. The Reader on the audio player can be listened to online, downloaded to a mp3 player, broadcasted as a podcast, or posted on a website or blog. The first step to creating your reader is selecting what you want read, this can be uploaded from a PDF, MS Word, HTML file, or input manually, cut and pasted, through RSS or URL. Step 2 is selecting a reader for your purposes, there are 14 readers to choose from. The readers speak English, Spanish, and French. Each reader has unique voices and some have accents. You can control the reader’s speed and pitch. Best of all it takes approximately one minute to generate an hour long recording.

How to integrate Read the Words into the classroom: Read the Words would be an excellent way to guide a webquest for students, create a reader to steer students through each activity in the webquest. If you have mp3 players available for checkout, create a reader for guided reading. These can be used in class during silent reading time or checked out for home use so that the student learning day can be extended. The readers would be excellent for history or science reading where vocabulary can be challenging. Read the Words is perfect for your auditory learners and because you can have text that is already in your lesson read, the differentiation for these students is short and sweet. Read the Words would also be great for English language learners or for English speakers learning Spanish or French.

Tips:
Take some time initially to listen to each of the readers. Choose the one that is easiest for your students to understand and best fits your purposes.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read the Words in your classroom.

Bookcasting

April 10, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4730 views

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What it is: Bookcasting is actually a term I made up. It is essentially a podcast about a book. My third grade students just finished their first round of Bookcast recordings that we uploaded to a Wetpaint Wiki. A Bookcast is a movie trailer-like review of a book that students create and share with one another. My students used GarageBand to record their podcasts (you could also use a free tool like Audacity) and add sound effects, then they published the Bookcast on our class G-cast account, and finally embedded the media player onto our WetPaint wiki.

How to integrate Bookcasting into your curriculum: Bookcasting is a fun alternative to the standard book report. It allows kids to be creative and gives them a great sense of audience. Bookcasting also has the added benefit of acting as a book review for other students to listen to. Bookcasting makes story retell a lot of fun! My plan is to have a link to our WetPaint wiki in the library so that students can listen to a peer review of a book before they check it out.

Tips: I had all of my students create a Bookcast on the same book before reviewing on their own. This gave them an easy starting place but still provided room for creativity. Click on the Easy Reader link on our wiki to hear the Bookcasts the students created.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Bookcasting in your classroom.

Super Why!

April 9, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2411 views

What it is: Super Why is a great new website created by PBS. Super Why is perfect for kindergarten through first grade and for remedial readers. The site focuses on helping kids gain important foundational reading skills such as alphabet, word families, spelling, comprehension, and vocabulary. The Super Why team is a group of super hero’s made up of four cartoon characters who solve problems with their reading skills, this is based on the Super Why TV show on PBS. Although the site is intended to be used in conjunction with the Super Why TV show, it is valuable as an independent reading skill tool as well. The site, games, and activities are fun and will hold the attention of your students while teaching them important basic reading skills that are needed as the foundation of literacy.

How to integrate Super Why into your curriculum: Super Why is one of those websites that is very flexible in its uses and applications. The Super Why site can be used as a center in the 1 or 2 computer classroom, independently in the computer lab setting, and as a whole class with a projector. (This is also a fun one for interactive white boards!) The online games can be played as part of your regular reading curriculum or you can print out ready made lesson plans that use the site. The lesson plans are very through and fun.

Tips: Check out the teacher section of the Super Why site for printable lesson plans, worksheets, and a great list of resources both web based and books.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Super Why in your classroom.

Book Flix

April 3, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1736 views

What it is: Book Flix is a new offering by Scholastic that instills students with a love of reading and learning with paired fiction and nonfiction online. Book Flix is a subscription based service that is delivered over the Internet for teachers, librarians and parents. Right now you can try Book Flix in your classroom for free with a trial. The basic trial offers one pair of books about rain but a full free 30 day trial of all 80 Book Flix offerings is also available for schools. Book Flix offers a neat experience pairing fiction and nonfiction books. Students can watch and listen to the books read to them, read them independently, meet the author, play accompanying games, and view related kid friendly web links. There are quality lesson plans for teachers for each Book Flix. Check out the freebies and see how Book Flix might benefit your class, if you never order Book Flix the freebie is worth using!

How to integrate Book Flix into your curriculum: Use Book Flix that match up with your current curriculum, the fiction and nonfiction books and websites will greatly enhance what you already have in place. The quality of interactive books really is impressive and will give students a greater appreciation of both fiction and nonfiction literature.

Tips: Try out the basic Book Flix freebie first with the topic of rain, if you like the concept you can sign up for the free 30 day full trial with access to all 80 Book Flix. The freebie should carry you through the end of the school year (or pretty close). Test it out on your students and see how they like it 🙂

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Book Flix in your classroom.

Virtual Author Series

March 13, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2079 views

What it is: Simon and Schuster Publishing is offering a new unique experience to schools, a virtual author series. The electronic author visit brings bestselling and award-winning authors and makes them easily accessible to students and teachers. S&S creates a website specifically for each author visit that provides teachers with background information that will help prepare students for the author visit and provides interactive material that relates to the subject discussed in the author’s book. The program also includes a series of classroom activities and curriculum binders. The live web broadcast is the culmination of the virtual author experience. The 45 minute segment will include a presentation from the author, a reading from the book, and a question and answer session in which the author answers questions from the students.

How to integrate Virtual Author Series into the classroom: Bring popular author Andrew Clements (Frindle) into your classroom by signing up at the My Visit website http://www.bsu.edu/myvisit/ You need to sign up your class ASAP if you would like to participate in the first in the Virtual Author Series which takes place on March 18th. This is an outstanding opportunity for classrooms, libraries, and schools. Bring reading to life for your students with a virtual author visit. If you, like me, are on spring break during the first author in the Virtual Author Series be sure to check back for future Virtual Author events.

Tips: Check back for future Virtual Authors. The next Virtual Author will be D.J. MacHale (PENDRAGON) on April 29, 2008. This is an awesome way to bridge literacy and technology!

Please leave a comment and tell us how the Virtual Author Series went in your class. Specifically, I want to hear all about it since I won’t be able to participate!

Colorado Podcast Summit Revisted

March 5, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2310 views

As promised the Colorado Podcast Summit that I participated in is now online. Be sure to listen to the Keynote speakers podcasts for truly inspiring ways to use podcasting in your classroom. If you are looking for my poster session, you can find it under the Poster Session section. Make sure to check out the Resources page where you can find downloads for podcating story boards, rubrics, research, copy right information, and more. You can get to the Colorado Podcast Summit online here: http://www2.bvsd.org/ipodsummit/Pages/default.aspx

Read to Feed

February 27, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2442 views

What it is: Read to Feed is a worthy reading program to get your students involved in. Heifer International sponsors the reading project for kids. Students read book and in turn help other children around the world to be fed, proud, and learn to be self-reliant. The Read to Feed website provides students with the opportunity to take virtual journeys to other countries, play trivia games, learn about farm animals, select an animal gift that they want to earn through reading, read real stories about children around the world, do “cow-culations” with the cow calculator, and send e-postcards to family and friends. The teacher tools that Read to Feed provides are amazing. The goal of Read to Feed is global education, awareness, and action. The more books your students read, the more they help impoverished children around the world. Read to Feed provides teachers with the tools to teach about important issues like poverty and environmental degredation in a real life hands on way, challenge students to learn more about the world and its people, inspire students, promote team spirit and service learning, empower kids to be global citizens and make a real difference, and improve reading skills. The curriculum is extremely flexible and best of all, free! Resources for teachers include the Read to Feed website, leaders guide, DVD, poster, storybook, brochures, bookmarks, student rewards, and standards based curriculum based on the age group you teach.

How to integrate Read to Feed into your curriculum: Read to Feed is an absolutely amazing way to teach your students about being global citizens and helping them to become globally aware. It also makes an outstanding motivational reading program because students want to read to earn animals for other children around the world. Read to Feed curriculum is all you need to integrate Read to Feed into your reading, social studies, and even math curriculum. This is hands on learning that will make a difference in your students life as well as the lives of other children around the world.

Tips: Sign up to receive your free Read to Feed teacher resources today! You will be amazed with the quality of all of the Read to Feed materials…this makes a great tie into the Free Rice project!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read to Feed in your classroom!

Tumble Books

February 26, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2286 views

What it is: Tumble Books is an incredible site that reads popular stories with kids in an interactive book. The Tumble Books site also has fun quizzes, puzzles, and games that correlate with the different books. Students can have the story read to them, read it on their own, and have individual words sounded out for them. When students are finished with the story they can take a quiz on the book to check for comprehension or write a book review.

How to integrate Tumble Books into the classroom: Tumble Books is wonderful for emergent readers, remedial reading students, and independent readers. Because the level of support is adjustable, the same Tumble Book can be used in your classroom with every student regardless of reading level. Set up a reading center in the one computer classroom or each student can work at their level in a computer lab setting. These interactive books are popular with students and increase student phonics, reading comprehension, and reading strategies. Encourage students to read with Tumble Books at home as well…a great way to extend the learning day! Students can take a quiz on the book when they are finished or write a book review for other students to read. Everything about this site is amazing! Instead of popping in a video on those indoor recess days, use a projector and have the kids read along with a Tumble Book. Split the class into teams to play the games, they can take turns coming to the computer during their turn.

Tips: I have linked to Tumble Books through the Toronto Library. Schools and libraries can subscribe to Tumble Books for a very reasonable yearly subscription. Tumble Books also has a free 30 day trial that you can sign up for before committing to a subscription.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Tumble Books in your classroom.

Links Galore!

February 21, 2008February 21, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2406 views

Normally I don’t like to just list links…I would much rather give you a snapshot of a website, give you ideas for implementing it into your classroom, and tips on what has worked for me. Today is different. If you are like me, you read a new idea and immediately want to implement it in your classroom but don’t always have the right resources to make it happen. I have so many links for podcasting that I am going to give them all to you in one shot and then break them down in another post. If you have the podcast itch, get podcasting and browse the links below for some hosting ideas.

The following links are FREE podcast hosting sites (a place to store your teacher or student created podcasts where listeners can access and/or subscribe to your podcasts).

Global Classroom http://globalclassroomusa.org- Expect to see a post dedicated to this one, it is so much more than just a podcast hosting site.

My Podcast http://www.mypodcast.com

Podango http://podango.com

Switchpod http://www.switchpod.com

Podbean http://www.podbean.com