On
Line Poetry Starters and Projects If your students are excited about writing poetry but are
having a tough time getting started, click on the pencil to
the right for
a link to a great poetry site. It includes poetry
contests, poetry starters, samples of great poetry, poetry-writing lessons,
and even opportunities for students to evaluate and rate
poetry to help a publisher decide which poems are good
enough to include in a new poetry anthology for
kids! If you don't have a class set of Rhyming
Dictionaries, you may consider having students link to aRhyming
Dictionary
on the web. (For a higher level rhyming
dictionary, click on the button at the end
of this paragraph. For a juvenile edition click on the
highlighted words above.
Golden
Lines Center You
can dramatically increase your students' writing
skills by building a strong link between great
literature and writing. By teaching them to look for
particularly outstanding sentences and paragraphs in books
they are reading they will begin to understand the elements
of outstanding writing and actually begin to think and write
like great authors. To accomplish this you may want
set up a center in your room that has access to a computer
with a publishing program. When students find a sample
of excellent writing, they may use the computer to type
it. Have them add some
colorful clip art to make their sample look stunning, and
their pride, enthusiasm, and technological abilities will
increase tremendously. Be sure to have students print
out their samples and post them on your Golden Lines
Bulletin Board. You will want to tie this in with
specific literary skills you are teaching by having students
look for specific types of great writing. You could
type and print colorful headings for some of the following
sample categories: Captivating Characters, Stunning
Settings, Marvelous Metaphors, Spectacular
Similes, Striking Starts, Delightfully Different
Dialogue Tags, and Vivid Verbs. You could also have
students look for Golden Line samples in class books and
writing assignments when they are peer editing. It
will be a great boost to your students' writing esteem to
find personal quotations, attributed to them, posted on the
Golden Line Wall! (idea developed with John Winbury)
Book
Talks On Line A
great way to increase reading comprehension skills,
writing
skills, and technology skills while interacting with
students from around the world is to introduce your students
to Book Discussion Boards, Book Talks, and Book Reviews on
line. A great site that has higher level questions for
popular books at many grade levels is the Scholastic Book
Talk site. Students may post answers, opinions, and
reviews as they discuss books with other students.
Click on the photo to the right to enter one of Scholastic's
Book Talk areas.
The
1,000 Minute Read Many
students have mastered basic reading skills, but need a lot
of practice reading in order to build their vocabulary and
comprehension skills. Consider having some or all of
your students challenge another class to a 1,000 Minute
Read. It can be very exciting to challenge another
class in your district, state, or even another country by
Email. A 1,000 minute read means a student will read
1,000 minutes in a month by keeping a record on a calendar
of all reading done for pleasure.
(Parents initial the minutes read at home each day, while
the teacher initials those read at school.) You can check
progress weekly during the month and require a book report
on one of the books the student especially enjoyed.
Post the book reports or reviews on line or Email them to
your buddy class. Recommend favorite books to each
other online if you have students who just "can't find
a book." Recommendations from an Email buddy can
be pretty motivating. Whichever class has the most
students complete the 1,000 minute Read wins. The
other class then has to send its favorite read-aloud book to
the winning class. (If the technology is available at
your site, you may want to schedule a chat or
videoconference with your adopted buddies to discuss the
book they sent to you.) By choosing books at an
appropriate level for each of your students, you can
differentiate in a way that allows everyone an opportunity
to succeed while improving reading at the same time!
Our
Favorite Author Site Now
that you are comfortable and excited about technology in
your classroom, why not consider helping
your students post an "Our Favorite Author"
site? Students can all read different books by the
same author. You can post biographical PowerPoints on
your site, or you can have students compose a biographical
web page. Each student in your class can write a
review on one of the author's books to post. Writing
skills increase dramatically when students know they are
producing reviews for a world-wide audience. If it is
difficult to find an author whose works cover the complete
reading level range of
your classroom, perhaps you could create a classroom Book
Review Page. For a sample page of student book
reviews, click on the photo of the child typing. If
you're not quite comfortable creating web pages yet,
consider posting your student's reviews on sites that invite
student submissions. For online sites where your
students may post their work, click on the computer to the
left. (Scholastic's
Online Book Clubs accept reviews from students also.)
On
Line Poetry Starters and Projects
Golden
Lines Center
some
colorful clip art to make their sample look stunning, and
their pride, enthusiasm, and technological abilities will
increase tremendously. Be sure to have students print
out their samples and post them on your Golden Lines
Bulletin Board. You will want to tie this in with
specific literary skills you are teaching by having students
look for specific types of great writing. You could
type and print colorful headings for some of the following
sample categories: Captivating Characters, Stunning
Settings, Marvelous Metaphors, Spectacular
Similes, Striking Starts, Delightfully Different
Dialogue Tags, and Vivid Verbs. You could also have
students look for Golden Line samples in class books and
writing assignments when they are peer editing. It
will be a great boost to your students' writing esteem to
find personal quotations, attributed to them, posted on the
Golden Line Wall! (idea developed with John Winbury)
Book
Talks On Line
The
1,000 Minute Read
pleasure.
(Parents initial the minutes read at home each day, while
the teacher initials those read at school.) You can check
progress weekly during the month and require a book report
on one of the books the student especially enjoyed.
Post the book reports or reviews on line or Email them to
your buddy class. Recommend favorite books to each
other online if you have students who just "can't find
a book." Recommendations from an Email buddy can
be pretty motivating. Whichever class has the most
students complete the 1,000 minute Read wins. The
other class then has to send its favorite read-aloud book to
the winning class. (If the technology is available at
your site, you may want to schedule a chat or
videoconference with your adopted buddies to discuss the
book they sent to you.) By choosing books at an
appropriate level for each of your students, you can
differentiate in a way that allows everyone an opportunity
to succeed while improving reading at the same time!
Our
Favorite Author Site
