Featured 6-4-2014: TeachUNICEF

 

TeachUNICEF is a collection of free interdisciplinary global education resources for grades PK-12.

 

 

The standards-aligned TeachUNICEF lesson plans, stories, and multimedia resources cover social studies, science, math, English/language arts, and foreign/world languages.

 

TeachUNICEF deals with many topics including Armed Conflict, Child Labor, Child Trafficking, Global Citizenship, Poverty, Water and Environment, and more.

 

 

The mission of TeachUNICEF is to "support and create well-informed global citizens who understand interconnectedness, respect and value diversity, have the ability to challenge injustice and inequities and take action in personally meaningful ways.”

 

TeachUNICEF strives to provide rich, engaging academic materials offering multiple viewpoints, thus stimulating the consideration of global issues.

 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to save and improve children’s lives, providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.

 

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Featured 5-13-2014: ReadWorks

 

ReadWorks is a national non-profit organization that provides free, research-based, Common Core-aligned reading comprehension curriculum.

ReadWorks supplies units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online to be shared broadly.The curriculum is based on the most highly regarded, proven research on reading instruction, and includes:

• Informational and literary passages and question sets for grades K-8
• Skill and Strategy lesson units for grades K-4
• Comprehension (close reading) units for grades K-5
• Novel study units for grades 5-6

ReadWorks is committed to "solving the nation's reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students."

 

 

 View Intro to ReadWorks

 

The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards, the standards of all 50 states, and to top core reading programs. Each lesson page lists the standards that a specific lesson aligns to on the Standards Alignment tab. You can also edit your profile to automatically show the standards alignment for your state and grade.

 

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Featured 4-29-2014: Literacy Design Collaborative

 

Literacy Design Collaborative is a community of educators providing a teacher-designed and research-proven framework, online tools, and resources for creating literacy-rich assignments and courses.

 

The mission of Literacy Design Collaborative is "to ensure that every student in America graduates from high school with the Common Core literacy skills necessary for success in college and career.” In the furtherance of this goal, LDC strives to provide continuous, reflective professional development; to integrate literacy and content in K-12 instruction; and to help educators succeed in implementing the high expectations of the Common Core Standards.

 

Core Principles of Literacy Design Collaborative:

• Align with the Common Core State Standards.
• Promote the distribution of reading and writing instruction among all teachers.
• Make tasks central with clear goals.
• Connects reading and writing instruction.
• Use back mapping to identify the specific literacy skills students need if they are to succeed on a task.
• Foster a responsive system that encourages teachers to adjust their instruction in response to the formative information they gather on student performance.
• Encourage local choice with a balanced focus on results as well as means.
• Be teacher-friendly.

 

LDC offers educators an instructional system for developing students’ literacy skills in preparation for the demands of college and careers. LDC does not provide off-the-shelf curriculum units or lesson plans. Rather, LDC encourages teachers to build students’ literacy skills and understanding of science, history, and other content through meaningful, CCSS-aligned reading and writing assignments.

 

 

 Visit the Literacy Design Collaborative YouTube channel

 

Literacy Design Collaborative, as a dynamic community of teachers, is rapidly expanding its library of exemplary instructional modules, effective mini-tasks, and tools and resources for supporting teachers’ efforts to engage students in rigorous, CCSS-aligned learning.

 

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Featured 4-17-2014: Operation LAPIS

 

Operation LAPIS is a two-year game-based introductory course in Latin and in Roman culture. It may be used on its own, or as a supplement to other materials.

 

Over the course of this two-year epic adventure to find and to interpret the LAPIS SAECULORUM, students will learn to read Latin with fluency and understanding. They will also discover why their learning was important, and how they can use it.

 

 

Operation LAPIS covers the same content to be found in a very wide variety of Latin textbooks, for example the Cambridge Latin Course, the Oxford Latin Course, and Ecce Romani. Operation LAPIS can take the place of a traditional textbook, or serve as a supplementary set of materials, to help students reach the learning objectives that are standard in first and second year Latin at both the high-school and the college levels:

• Read and write Latin
• Identify key products, practices, and perspectives of Roman culture
• Summarize key events of Roman history

Google Drive and Edmodo support most of the activity in Operation LAPIS. All the story elements take place on the Edmodo platform, which serves as the bulletin board. Use Google Drive to share your students’ Operative Dossiers as well as a few other documents, like worksheets and character descriptions. All participants are required to create free accounts on both of these platforms in order to access and utilize the materials.

 

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Featured 3-24-2014: Subtext

Classroom groups can exchange ideas right in the pages of digital texts using Subtext, a free iPad app, opening up opportunities to engage students and foster analysis and writing skills.

 

Subtext was built to support classroom reading, with practical features such as getting everyone on the same page in class to insight into how your students read.

 

With Google Books and Feedbooks built in, you can search for any book or digital document, or import your own ePub formatted documents. You can also share and discuss web pages with a class in the same way as books.

 

A set of annotation tools helps to engage students and foster analysis and writing skills. Students can highlight key passages or tag a set of commonly-used literary concepts.

 

 

Set up a closed class groups in Subtext to keep your students focused and secure as they read. They will only see notes from you and their classmates.

 

Subtext can help you follow how students and classroom groups progress, including reading speed, word look-ups, highlights, notes, and quiz results.

 

See Subtext in Action

 

Subtext is aligned with the Common Core Standards. When students read with Subtext, they are encouraged to analyze what they read, articulate what they think, and make connections between texts and the real world.

 

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Featured 3-12-2014: LessonWriter

LessonWriter instantly creates personalized print, web, and mobile-ready literacy lessons using any text providing literacy and critical-thinking support to help students read and understand more.

 

LessonWriter is fast, free, and easy-to-use allowing users to create comprehensive literacy lesson plans and student materials from any content in minutes.

 

LessonWriter key features:

• Unlimited customized lessons from any digital texts
• Automatic text-specific literacy support
• Graphic organizers, prompts, and questions to support higher order thinking
• Accommodation settings and differentiated Instruction tools
• Unlimited classes and unlimited differentiation groups
• Teacher’s lesson plan with standards
• Lesson resources and ready-made lessons
• Instant reinforcement materials: vocabulary flash cards, word searches and question review sheets.

 

 

 Watch a video demo of LessonWriter

 

A premium LessonWriter account adds more features such as lessonizing any web page instantly, teaching all your lessons online, unlimited student accounts, a variety of lesson designs, and double the word limit.

 

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Featured 3-5-2014: Teaching Kids News

Teaching Kids News produces daily, timely, relevant kid-friendly news articles for kids, classroom educators, and parents. A new article, based on what is actually happening in the world, is offered every day (except holidays).

 

Every story is in kid-friendly language and is appropriate for kids in grades 2-8. As well as accessible vocabulary, Teaching Kids News provides context for everything in each story, so students can understand what’s going on, and why.

 

In the Curriculum Connections, students are encouraged to think critically about the story and also about the way the story is presented. Does the story exhibit a bias? How might the story be written differently by another journalist?

 

Teaching Kids News strives to "teach balanced literacy in a meaningful way.” Teachers have a current events resource that can be used for shared, guided, and independent reading lessons. At the bottom of each article are Writing/Discussion Prompts, Grammar Features, and a Reading Prompt that will enable you to connect with your students and solve real-life issues.

 

 

The articles are intended to work well in a classroom setting, in small groups, or for individual students. Each article can be a nearly complete lesson plan.

 

 See a video introduction to Teaching Kids News

 

Teaching Kids News has a sister site, Getting Kids Reading, with tips, activities, games, websites, research information and ideas that will help you get your kids reading.

 

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Featured 2-25-2014: Wordflex Touch Dictionary

The Wordflex Touch Dictionary for iPad uses intuitive mind-mapping technology to turn word entries into dynamic trees that you can move, shape, rearrange, save, and share with touch gestures.

 

Developed in association with the Oxford University Press, Wordflex Touch Dictionary offers a tactile, interactive reference for people who use language creatively, are looking for just the right word, are learning/studying English, and want to enrich their vocabulary.

 

Wordflex Touch Dictionary features:

• Tree-based view with realistic physical behavior for easy navigation of complex entries.
• Highly aesthetic interface with retina HD graphics.
• Ability to share 'word posters' via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, or printed hard copy.
• Multiple Oxford's dictionary/thesaurus titles in one app.
• Audio pronunciations in UK/US English.
• Flexible search with matches, hints, relatives, and real-life sentences.
• Smart bookmarking notes exact point of interest.
• Random feature that simulates 'flying through language'

 See a video introduction to Wordflex Touch Dictionary

 

 

The gesture-based Wordflex Touch Dictionary interface facilitates moving nodes around, tapping, scrolling, pinching/spreading, enabling strongly interactive play with words to replicate the elemental, tactile aspects of learning language.

 

 Wordflex Touch Dictionary is $11.99 US in the iTunes App Store. It requires iOS 4.0 or later.

 

Note: Wordflex Touch Dictionary is a content-rich installation requiring nearly 1GB of storage space.

 

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Featured: 2-11-2014 Quandary Game

Quandary is a free, online, award-winning game for players aged 8 to 14, that engages students in ethical decision-making and develops skills that will help them manage challenging ethical issues in their own lives.

 

 

Quandary presents situations relative to building a new colony on the planet Braxos. Players must make decisions in situations that have no clear right or wrong answers but do lead to consequences for themselves, others in the colony, and to the planet Braxos. Players must consider facts, opinions, and solutions as they interact with other settlers in the colony, 

 

Playing Quandary can help participants develop such skills as critical thinking, perspective-taking, and decision-making. The game provides a structure for approaching ethical decision-making without telling players what to think. 

 

 

Quandary is a digital card-based game with three scenarios. Each takes about 10-30 minutes to complete, depending on the speed of the player. 

 

 See a video showing how teachers and students can use Quandary in the classroom

 

 Read a PDF that shows how Quandary correlates to the CCSS for English Arts

 

The game and supporting materials are all free. Quandary will work on any web browser with the latest version of the Flash player plug-in. 

  Quandary is also available as a standalone app for Android and iOS tablet devices.

 

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Translate EDge21 to Your Language

Great news! You can now see the entire content of the EDge21 page and posts in almost any language you choose!

Simply select the desired language from the Translate drop down on the left and all the text on the page will be almost instantly translated thanks to the power of Google Translate.

I hope this is a convenience for many of you and makes EDge21 more accessible and easier to use.

Featured: 2-4-2014 Vocabulary Notebook

Vocabulary Notebook provides a a set of tools for schools and teachers to help students learn vocabulary faster using technology, making it more contemporary and engaging.

 

With the full Vocabulary Notebook for schools, students will have Cloud Accounts and teachers will have a dashboard to manage and get feedback about their students.

 

Key Teacher Dashboard features:

• Check your students' most important and unknown words.
• See interactive charts with stats about your students.
• See your student's tests scores and number of words.
• Suggest words to your students.

Vocabulary Notebook is easy for students to use. Just install the app and start to type those words you always forget. Change the importance of a word and mark it as "known" or "not known" whenever you want.

 

Students are able to filter words by importance or categories, for example, showing only words related to “work”. Sort words alphabetically or display only those words, phrasal verbs, or idioms that you don't know.

 

The test tool will randomly select words according to your filters and it will ask you to select whether you know them or not. Those words you don't know will automatically be marked as "not known", making it easier to take another look at them later.

 

Cloud Accounts and the web app synchronize with students’ mobile apps for iOS and Android. 

 Watch a video overview of Vocabulary Notebook

 

Teachers can discover which words students don't know as well as the categories they use most. With Vocabulary Notebook, teachers are able to send lists of vocabulary to their students.

 

With the Teacher Dashboard, you will see key information about your students. See stats like the number of words each student has, their average score in self-assessment tests, how often they use the app, and more. 

 

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Extra: 1-17-2014 Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary.com claims to be "the quickest, most intelligent way to improve your vocabulary” regardless of your education level or age.

 

Vocabulary.com can help you learn the words you need for academic and business success.

You begin by answering a few questions, more than 100,000 questions have been created to help you learn words. A model of your knowledge is built and the more you play, the more Vocabulary.com learns about your vocabulary knowledge.

They can predict which vocabulary words you don’t know and teach them to you. If you get a question wrong, Review and Progress questions are scheduled to help you learn the word, and remember it in the future.

Vocabulary.com can track your progress as you quickly learn useful words and improve your vocabulary.

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Featured: 9-10-2013 Rewordify

Rewordify is powerful, free, online reading comprehension software designed to help people comprehend difficult English faster and learn words in new ways.

Paste a difficult English sentence, paragraph, or more, or enter a website URL and click the 'Rewordify text' button. You'll get an easier-to-understand version of the text. The modified version is also specially highlighted to help build vocabulary.

The Rewordify technology aims to develop independent learners by helping people read, understand, and learn what they want to read, on their own.

 Watch a video overview of Rewordify

 Try the RewordifyTeacher Demo

Rewordify is completely free. There's nothing to register for, no app to buy, no software to install. The site displays no ads and requires no log-in or user registration.

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Featured: 8-21-2013 BusyTeacher

BusyTeacher is a place where English teachers share their printable worksheets, lesson plans, and other lesson activities with colleagues for free.

BusyTeacher serves up more than 10,000 downloadable, printable worksheets created by real teachers for teachers. The worksheets are categorized by topics such as grammar, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and more.

You will also find such useful items as free puzzle creators, classroom posters, coloring pages, and flashcards.

 Watch a video introducing BusyTeacher

BusyTeacher has nearly half a million registered users. You can join for free or log in using a Facebook account.

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