Tag: books

Shelfari

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Shelfari2547 views


What it is: Shelfari is a virtual bookshelf that you create to show off books that you have read and recommend. It is a Web 2.0 site that allows you to connect with students, other teachers, and parents around books. Shelfari is a great way to discover new titles, discuss books, start an online book club, and show others what you are reading. You can show off your Shelfari bookshelf on your blog, classroom website, or other social networking site of choice. Really cool!

How to integrate Shelfari into the classroom: As summer break approaches, we teachers start thinking about how far we have come during the school year with our students. We also dread that they will be on their own for the summer and may or may not be reading. Shelfari would be an excellent resource to create today and introduce your students and parents to before summer break. Build a bookshelf of age-appropriate reading for your students. Post the bookshelf on your classroom website and encourage students to continue reading with you over the summer. Because Shelfari allows for you to create online book clubs and discussions, students can keep their reading and comprehension skills in tip top shape with you! Shelfari is also an excellent resource for parents who may feel overwhelmed when they enter a library with their child. They often aren’t sure of their child’s reading level and age-appropriate books. With Shelfari, they can visit your shelf before the trip to the library for some great suggestions. Shelfari is also ideal throughout the school year as a place for you and your students to connect over reading…reading is so much more fun when you have someone to share and discuss what you are reading with! Students can create their own bookshelves to show off what they are reading. Teacher to teacher book clubs on Shelfari are also a lot of fun! Connect with other staff members over books that you are reading (they can be school related or not.) Maybe in place of the traditional book report, students start a discussion on Shelfari about their reading. Where have you been all my life Shelfari? 🙂

Tips: Use Shelfari in conjunction with Book Adventure for some real reading fun!

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

Bookcasting

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Bookcasting4758 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.

Book Flix

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Book Flix1742 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.

Teacher Book Wizard

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Teacher Book Wizard2648 views

 

What it is: Teacher Book Wizard is an amazing free tool from Scholastic. It provides teachers with the book search tools you have wished for. Search the 50,000 book data base (from all different publishers, not just Scholastic) with several searching options. Search options include: leveled reading (grade level, Lexie Framework, guided reading, or DRA), a quick search when you know what you are looking for, Book Alike to find similar books at the reading level you need, and a list exchange where you and other teachers can share book lists. The Teacher Book Wizard has quizzes and other resources to use with the books you find.

How to integrate Teacher Book Wizard into your curriculum: Do you have students who have one favorite book that they read over and over but never venture out to other books? Use the Book Alike feature in Teacher Book Wizard to find similar books at the correct reading level. You might just find your students a new favorite! Create your own leveled reader library in the classroom using the Leveled Reading tool. Keep track of your book lists and look through other teachers lists with the List Exchange. This is an awesome tool for teachers and librarians, you may find yourself using it on a daily basis to hunt down the perfect book for every student!

Tips: Click on the Take a Tour button for a full video tour of all that the Teacher Book Wizard has to offer.

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

Tumble Books

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Tumble Books2292 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.

Doodle 4 Google

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Doodle 4 Google2212 views

What it is: Google is encouraging students to put their creative doodles to work and giving the opportunity to be a part of Google history. Doodle 4 Google is a contest for schools that invites kindergarten through twelfth grade students to doodle on Google’s logo and see what they come up with. The theme is centered around the question “What if…” Students can take this question and go anywhere with it…for example: What if I could live underwater, outer space, or colonial America? What if I could build any invention I wanted? What if I could see into the future? Students “doodle” their logo on an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of white paper. They can do this with any medium (as long as it isn’t 3-D) including using the computer.  The winning doodler will receive a $10,000  college scholarship and their design will take over the home page for the day.  As if that isn’t exciting enough, the winning school will also receive a $25,000 technology grant!!

How to integrate Doodle 4 Google into the classroom: This one needs to be started soon, the registration deadline is March 28, 2008 and the doodles need to be submitted by April 12, 2008. Each school can only submit 6 entries so you may have to hold a classroom vote to narrow down which doodles get sent to Google. A panel of judges will select 40 finalist doodles and the public will vote for the best. The winning doodle will be displayed on May 22, 2008 on Google’s homepage. Google provides the original artwork for the students to work from. Google has also provides some awesome lesson plans for integrating Doodle 4 Google into your curricula. This would be a fun writing/creative activity!

Tips: Google also has a section where students can learn about the original Google doodler, find out where he gets inspiration, and watch a video of him at work. They have also provided some fun posters to print out advertising the contest in your classroom.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Doodle 4 Google in your classroom. If your class is participating in this fun Google contest, be sure to share your students work with us!

Childtopia Tales

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Childtopia Tales4113 views

What it is: Childtopia is like 10 websites in one…they have so many cool things going on that I am going to break it down into sections so stay tuned… The Tales section of Childtopia has 7 books to choose from. Students can hear these books read to them in five different languages. The books are recognizable favorites such as The Ugly Duckling, and Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

How to integrate Childtopia Tales into the classroom: Use Childtopia Tales as a listening or read along center in your classroom. The Childtopia interface is great, the pages of the book turn just like a real book and there are illustrations on each page of the story. If you teach a foreign language the books would also be wonderful because they are such recognizable stories. Invite the students to make a list of words that they know as the listen and read along with the story.

Tips: This is one that you will want to bookmark for easy access!

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

Into the Book

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Into the Book2774 views

What it is: This is one of the most incredible reading websites I have come across. Into the Book “is a reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and teachers.” It focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing and Synthesizing. The site has a series of 15 min. videos for students teaching and amazing interactive web resources that can be saved! Teachers have access to great lesson plans, downloads, and videos. Check out this site, you will be wowed!

How to integrate Into the Book into the classroom: In the student section, students drag a picture representing one of the eight strategies onto the book. First they watch a short video describing the strategy and how it works, then they can try it themselves. The site is an excellent introduction to key reading strategies. Students can learn about and practice reading strategy here. The interactive environment is a fun and exciting, even your most reluctant readers will enjoy this site. If you have a projector you can use the videos on this site with the whole class. In the one to two computer classroom, use the site during center time. The site is ideal in the one to one or computer lab setting. This site is a must for remedial reading classrooms!

Tips: Make sure to check out the teacher section for great downloads, teacher videos, and lesson plans.

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

Big Huge Labs: Magazine

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Big Huge Labs: Magazine2867 views

What it is: Big Huge Labs: Magazine is an online magazine cover creator. Students can create custom magazine covers from photos on Flickr or photos uploaded from the computer.

How to integrate Big Huge Labs: Magazine into the classroom: This would be a great tie-in to a persuasive writing unit. Discuss with students why magazine covers need to be persuasive. Students can create a custom cover for a multitude of projects. This might be a fun Mother’s day/Father’s day gift as well!

Tips: Set up a class Flickr account and link to Big Huge Labs for easy access for your students.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Big Huge Labs: Magazines in your classroom.


Google Lit Trips

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Google Lit Trips3564 views

 

What it is: Google Lit trips is a new way to teach literature. Using Google Earth, students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place. This is interactive learning at its best! Google Lit Trips include books such as By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleishman, My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, Traveling with P.G. Wodehouse, The Aeneid by Virgil, Candide by Volatire, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Night by Elie Wiesel, The Odyssey by Homer, and Blood Meridian by Comac McCarthy.

How to integrate Google Lit Trips into your classroom: Use these virtual trips to make literature come alive for your students.

Tips: These Google Lit Trips are best used for upper elementary through high school.