Websites
Chapter 2 – Relevant Websites
Integrating Literacy and Technology
http://ctell.uconn.edu/cases.htm
This case-based site aids anchored instruction using multimedia cases delivered online.
Chapter 3 – Relevant Websites
Activities for Letter Recognition
An adult narrator pronounces the name of each capital letter as the child clicks on it, reinforcing letter names. A child narrator says the name of the lowercase letters. Activities and animations are brief, motivational, and support letter recognition and beginning phonics.
Chapter 4 – Relevant Websites
Learning the Alphabet with Music:
www.songsforteaching.com/avni/alliterativebooks.htm
Children’s books for teaching phonemic awareness with rhyme, alliteration, and other word play.
Phonemic Awareness Games and Activities:
This site offers phonemic awareness games and activities and options allowing children to respond to literature.
Early Literacy Screening, Tools, and Activities:
Early literacy screening, tools, and activities to help with skill-building and to improve communication between children and adults.
Preschool Games and Rhyming Activities
Free preschool games, crafts, letter-play, and rhyming activities. Over 360 Mother Goose rhymes.
Articles for Teaching Phonemic Awareness to English Learners
www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/English-language-learners
Provides information for teachers on ways to teach phonemic awareness to English learners.
A bilingual Spanish-English website that provides information to teachers on how to teach phonemic awareness to English learners; it also offers vocabulary resources and excellent resources for helping English learners with informational text, with specific connection to the CCSS.
Rhyming Word Activities
http://teams.lacoe.edu/teachers/
Rhyming word activities and a wide varietyfo other phonemic awareness activities.
Chapter 5 – Relevant Websites
Phonics Skills Chart
www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/teach-phonics-skills-chart
This Scholastic site offers a “teaching with phonics” skills chart for teachers.
Word and Picture Activities
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures
Words, picture activities, and games for phonics, CVC words, consonant clusters, long vowel sounds, and others.
Reading Games
www.adrianbruce.com/reading/games.htm
A reading resources website offering free and printable word games, phonics games, reading games, comprehension strategies, and phonics posters.
Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Word Scope and Sequence Chart
Offers a beginning level scope and sequence chart for teaching phonics.
Online Stories for Phonics
This is a site for young children that includes stories as well as song and craft activities for teachers. Lots of activities for teaching the alphabet, phonics, and phonemic awareness.
Fluency Calculator
http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/assessment/3t4oralcalc.htm
This Scholastic site offers an oral fluency calculator for grades 3-5.
Readers Theater Activities and Evaluation
www.aaronshep.com/rt/index.html
This site offers scripts and other tools for readers theatre programs.
www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm
This site offers scripts and other tools for readers theatre programs.
Teaching Fluency Through Poetry
This site helps teachers use poetry to teach fluency.
Chapter 7 – Relevant Websites
Five-finger Strategy
www.colorincolorado.org/multimedia/experts/video/prentice/strategies/
Instructs students and teachers on how to choose books that are the appropriate difficulty for English learners.
Time for Kids
An online magazine that provides a wide range of reading with high-interest articles for children.
Science News for Students
https://student.societyforscience.org/sciencenews-students
An online magazine that provides a number of interesting science-related articles for children.
National Geographic Kids
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com
An online magazine that provides a number of interesting science-related articles, polls, games, and other activities for children.
Weekly Reader
An online magazine that provides up to date news in a variety of areas.
Vocabulary Instruction
Learning activities and lesson plans to help teachers plan effective vocabulary instruction.
Suggestions for Free Drawing and Painting Tools
www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/07/15-free-awesome-drawing-and-painting.html
A free drawing program that allows students to add words to their pictures, which can be used as an activity to create a digital dictionary.
Captioned Videos
https://www.readingrainbow.com/classictv
Provides videos with captions, allowing children to see the words contextualized by the actions being performed on screen.
Vocabulary-Learning Games
Provides numerous vocabulary building games for children to learn new vocabulary and build background.
Learning activities and lesson plans to help teachers plan effective vocabulary instruction.
Colorín Colorado
www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/cognates/
Provides a list of words with similar meanings in English and Spanish, along with strategies for teaching these cognates in classroom.
Angelfire
www.angelfire.com/ill/monte/findacognate.html
A tool that provides cognates for Spanish or English words.
Chapter 8 – Relevant Websites
Critical Literacy Lesson Plans
www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml
Offers lesson plans using critical literacy practices.
Earth Adventure Activities
Miss Maggie’s earth adventures uses puzzles, activities, and games to teach children about environmental issues. The site includes weekly lesson plans, cross-curricular activities, and companion books and articles.
Encourage Greater Comprehension
This site is designed to encourage children from K-8 to read more often, for longer periods of time, and with greater comprehension.
Children’s Literature Web Guide
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
Children’s literature web guide that provides resources such as author websites, children’s bestsellers, book award winners, and other literature resources for teachers and parents.
Chapter 9 – Relevant Websites
Education Northwest
http://educationnorthwest.org/traits/traits-andcommon-core
The creators of 6 + 1 Trait Writing® offer an overview of their models with research that supports the program, lesson plans, writing prompts, and rubrics. They also give information on how to score students on elements such as ‘voice’ and ‘organization’ and use this data to inform subsequent writing instruction.
Survey Monkey
A free online survey creator that can be used to create blank checklists students can use to share feedback on each other’s writing.
Kid Pix
Software that allows students to create multimedia works of art by pasting, drawing, altering, and animating stories with easy-to-use tools. This software is useful for the creation of projects, charts, and presentations.
Lucidpress
An app that can be used to create a layout for writing and photos and adding multimedia to print and digital documents.
Book Creator
www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/
This app can be used to build stories using text, images, video, music, and narration, and to share the finished product.
Fotobabble
An app that can be used to add audio and images to text stories.
Write a biography
www.bellinghamschools.org/sites/default/files/BIO/Biomaker.htm
A webpage that provides steps for students to write comprehensive, interesting biographies.
Journal Writing
www.readingrockets.org/article/journal-writing
Provides teachers information on how journal writing can be an effective literacy instruction tool.
BookPALS Storyline
An online series of streaming videos where children of all ages can find and appreciate wonderful stories read by famous actors.
Read Along Stories and Songs
www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet/bookzone/read_aloud_stories.htm
This Reading Is Fundamental site offers ideas and activities to incorporate into the curriculum and keep students interested and motivaed.
Scholastic STACKS (see Stacks in Appendix C)
www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/index.asp
At The Stacks, students can post book reviews, get reading recommendations, play games associated with their favorite reading series, and watch “meet the author” videos.
Launchpad
Allows students to create and present their writing online, as well as read the books of other children from around the world.
Chapter 10 – Relevant Websites
Awesome library
www.awesomelibrary.org/student.html
This site contains over 26,000 resources. A must-see for information across content areas for teacher and student use. The Talking Library is perfect for
English learners, and many sites are available in various languages.
U.S. Library of Congress
A place where kids can learn about the history of America in a fun, interactive way.
Background research on different topics
The younger children’s version of the Smithsonian Institution website. Includes a picture of the day, activity ideas, and information about all the subjects the 14-museum network encompasses.
Web-Based Digital Poster
Can be used to create research project presentations incorporating multimedia.
Scavenger hunts
www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml
A child appropriate website that uses a scavenger hunt as a way for students to research a wide variety of topics including wild and domestic animals, cars, other countries, volcanoes, and planets.
Treasure hunts for ESL students
A child appropriate website that uses a scavenger hunt as a way for students to research a wide variety of topics including wild and domestic animals, cars, other countries, volcanoes, and planets.
Resources for Informational Text and English Learners
http://blog.colorincolorado.org/2013/02/13/teaching-informational-text-to-ells/
Provides instructions on how to teach informational text to English learners.
Chapter 11 – Relevant Websites
Integrate Music with Literature
Offers lesson plans that integrate music with history and literature. Older children can explore the site independently.
Drs. Cavanaugh Educational Technology
Provides resources for distance learning.
BookPALS Storyline
An online series of streaming videos where children of all ages can find and appreciate wonderful stories read by famous actors.
Information on museum subjects
Provides child-centric information on Smithsonian news and exhibits.
Links for thousands of subjects
This site offers more than 4,000 links for children on subjects such as literature, machines, and mythology. The reading level of each linked site is designated.
Chapter 12 – Relevant Websites
Information about Drawing and Graphics Software
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/softwareforkids/
Provides information on drawing and graphics software for children.
Creating Multimedia Projects
Software that allows students to create multimedia works of art by pasting, drawing, altering, and animating them with easy-to-use tools. This software is useful for the creation of project, charts, and presentations.
Picture This
Provides in depth tips for teachers on how to incorporate the making of videos into the curriculum.
Brainstorming and Organizing Software
Software that can be used to brainstorm writing processes.
SurveyMonkey
A free online survey creator that can be used to create blank checklists students can use to share feedback on each other’s writing.
Student-created Websites
A tool that can help teachers create a classroom website with student-created video presentations and math projects.
A tool that can help teachers create a classroom website with student-created video presentations and math projects.
www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Free-Website-(for-Kids)
Step-by-step article that shows kids how to create a website.
Teacher-created Classroom Website
http://classpages.i-s-d.org/grade5/
Provides an example multimedia classroom website created by teachers with information useful for teachers, students, and parents.
Blog Setup Sites
A site focused on classroom blogging that provides free blogs for teachers and students with helpful video tutorials.
A site focused on classroom blogging that provides free blog creation tools for teachers and students.
Technology in Reading and Writing Workshops
Provides information on using technology in reading and writing workshops.
Document Readers
www.edtechnetwork.com/document_cameras.html
Provides ideas on how to use a document reader in the elementary classroom.
Reviews of Educational Software
Provides reviews of educational software.
Technology Tips for English Learners
www.colorincolorado.org/educators/technology/ells
This site offers ideas on how to use technology to support language instruction.
Tools for Transcription
www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm
Speech recognition software that has been found to be especially useful in supporting students with special needs.
www.livescribe.com/en-us/solutions/learningdisabilities/
Speech recognition software that has been found to be especially useful in supporting students with special needs.
The Teaching Channel
A site that offers teachers lesson plans and videos of effective teaching in literacy.
Read, Write, Think
www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/
This site offers phonemic awareness games and activities and options allowing children to respond to literature.
Chapter 13 – Relevant Websites
DIBELS
Provides tools for teachers to help in administering the Dynamic Indicators if Basic Early Literacy Skills program.
Provides tools for teachers to help in administering the Dynamic Indicators if Basic Early Literacy Skills program.
Web-Based Rubric Sites
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
A website that allows teachers to create their own rubrics for writing instruction.
www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/
A website that allows teachers to create their own rubrics for writing instruction.
6 + 1 Trait Rubric
http://educationnorthwest.org/traits
The creators of 6 + 1 Trait Writing ® offer an overview of their models with research that supports the program, lesson plans, writing prompts, and rubrics. They also give information on how to score students on elements such as ‘voice’ and ‘organization’ and use this data to inform subsequent writing instruction.
Chapter 14 – Relevant Websites
American Library Association
Provides information on parent training sessions and assists teachers in locating trainers through the Every Child Ready to Read ® Your Library program.
How to “Raise a Reader”
http://www.randomhousekids.com/
Provides activities, games, videos, and other media as ways for children to acquire literacy skills.
Family Literacy Programs
A program that engages Head Start parents in interactive workshops to help them become literacy educators at home.
Family and Community Literacy Engagement
www.ed.gov/family-and-community-engagement
A federal government family literacy program designed to provide activities and strategies for teaching literacy skills.
A federal government family literacy program designed to provide activities and strategies for teaching literacy skills.
Home Visit Resources
An excellent resource for helping schools learn about conducting home visits.
An organization that provides resources about conducting home visits.
Chapter 15 – Relevant Websites
Videos to Share with Parents
www.earlyliteracylearning.org/ta_pract_videos1.php
Provides strategies for teaching early literacy in the home.