Language Arts: Help your students who don't read well practice reading the news with News In Levels

Came across this website today called News in Levels.  The developers of the site have come up with, what I think as, a brilliant idea and an educational idea that I haven't seen yet.  What they do is take news articles and then re-write them in two other levels.  In other words if you are just learning English like an ELL student is, then you would read the articles at a Level One, (pretty much everything is in present tense, not sure if I like that idea).  Level two steps up the readability of the news article and level three is the complete article.

Also for each difficulty there is a section called "Difficult Words" in which you will see a word classified as difficult with an accompanying definition or synonym.

Finally below each level is a sound or video file of the article being read or the actual news article seen through video.  Just click on the media file to have it read to you.

Below is a sample of a first paragraph of each reading level.  You can compare them to see if this site is something you might want to try with your students.


Level 1:

Level 2:

Level 3:

Students be creative writings stories using StoryBird.

StoryBird came up with a great way for students to digitally write and express themselves.  They already have hundreds of works of art that are themed so students have a lot to choose from.  Students can write their stories in many different categories and then digitally publish them so that others can view and read their thoughts and ideas.  An example of a StoryBird book is provided below.  Also there is a tutorial on how to use StoryBird.

StoryBird Tutorial

1.  Go to www.storybird.com and click the "Create" button.

2.   Your students will now choose a theme to work with.  There are many to choose from.  All you need to do is click on one of the pictures on the right hand side.  If you want to browse for more, just click the refresh button in your browser and a whole new set of images will appear.

3.  Decide what you are going to write; either a story or a poem.  Click on your preference.

4.  You will now be taken to a screen that has pictures relating to the theme that you chose in step 2.  Just drag the images you want onto your story book in the middle of the screen.

5.  As you are dragging the image onto the page you will see it highlight in different locations.  Where ever you place your image will decide where you get to write.  As you can see from the image below, if I drop the image there, it will be on the left hand side and I will be able to write on the right hand side.  Try dragging the image around until you find the best placement for your story.

6.  Now just write the first part of your story into the text box.

7.  Over to the right hand side you will see a "+" sign.  Click it to add another page to your story.

7.  At the bottom of the screen you will see your story unfold.  

8.  When you are ready to design a cover just click on the "Cover" page from your page layout.

9.  Choose the cover style that you would like to have.

10.  Choose the colored background for your text.

11.  Type your title and author into the appropriate boxes.

12.    When you are ready to share and publish your book, just click the "Menu" button from the bottom left of your screen and then choose the "Publish" option.

13.  Here you can change your title and add a summary for your book.

14.  Choose the age group your story is most likely to belong to.  Decide whether you want it public for all to see or just keep it private.  When you are done just click the "Publish" button.

//Amazon

Practice writing in the classroom with Carnigie's MyStory Maker

My Carnigie's story maker is an excellent tool that can be used for teaching creative writing to your students. With this tool, students will be able to create a story in minutes, with animation if desired, and then share their story with somebody else or even create a print out.  My Carnigie Story Maker is extremely user friendly and students can get started within minutes and won't need much training to do so.  Students will be able to get their creative juices flowing as they practice their English Language skills and if you happen to be a Foreign Language teacher, this site would be great for your students as well.

Tutorial

1.  Go to the following link:  http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm

2.  Click on the "Click to Begin" in the middle of the book image.  Once you have a story you can access it by typing in a code that will be provided at the bottom of the book image.

3.  Your students will now write their names in the book.  Click the "OK" button.

4.  Your students will now pick a character from the "Character" list.

5.  They will now set a general plot for the story.  For my story I chose the "Make Friends" option.

6.  Now you can select another main character for your story.

7.  Now that your story premise is set up, click the "OK" button that should now be visible.

8.  You can either view the instructions or you can click on the "Start Story" option to get writing.

9.  At the bottom of the page is where you can create the written portion of your story.

10.  If you click on one of your characters, you will see new options appear at the top left corner of your screen.  With these you can animate, add facial expressions, and have your characters interact with each other.

11.  if you want to move to the next page just click the green arrow at the bottom of each part of your story. Also have your character use many of the objects.  You can change your setting as well as add setting objects.  Your students will have a ton of fun designing their stories using the built in objects and animation capability.

12.  Once you are done with your story you can click the preview button which will show you what your book would look like and if you are satisfied just click the "End" button.

13.  The Story Maker will now start publishing your book.

14.  Your students will now have the ability to view their story from this next screen.  Note that they should write down their "Magic code" if they want to gain access to their stories again.  You can also print their stories in full color to make magnificent printed books.  Your students will be able to email their stories home using the "Share" button.  Finally you can create PDF versions of your story so that you can use them for years to come or highlight the best work of your students over time.

Learn Math and English Language concepts using Learnzillion.

I found this great site today called Learnzillion.  They have done a great job creating animated video tutorials in the subjects of Math and English from grades two to twelve.  They only have about 2000 videos now, but the potential with what they are trying to achieve is huge.  If Learnzillion continues creating easy and comprehensive videos for teachers and students to use in the classroom, then they will become a great resource for those students who are struggling with math and English.  In fact they are recruiting 200 more teachers this summer to create videos for more of the Common Core standards.

Tutorial

1.  Go to www.learnzillion.com and create an account; its free.

2.  At the top you will see the different tabs that can go to.  You can just go out and explore the different lessons or you can find them by the Common Core standard.  You can even create a list of favorites.  

3.  Click on the "Classes" tab if you want to create a class and enroll students.  The advantage of creating a class and adding students is that your students can get an Enrollment Code which will give them easy access to the sites content.

4.  If you click on the "Explore lessons" tab you can go straight to the videos themselves.  Decide whether to view Math or ELA content by clicking on the respective tabs.

5.  Now choose the grade level that you are teaching so that your movie selections are narrowed down a little bit.

6.  The drop down box under "Domains" will give you the different sections of the subject that are available.  Remember that after this summer they should have quite a few more completed.  To actually go straight to a Common Core standard just select the "Choose a standard" drop down box.

7.  Off to the right you should see videos that related to the grade level, domain, and standard.  Just click on the "Core Lesson" box and this will take you to the actual lesson that contains the video.

8.  Dead center is your video.  Just click on it to get it to play.  NOTE:  I tried to use Google Chrome first and the video wouldn't play.  Using Internet Explorer worked best for the entire site.  Now off to the right you can actually download the slides that teach the lesson for some offline viewing.  The Coach's commentary will let you watch a short video as to how the lesson presenter goes about teaching the specific lesson.  The Guided practice section is awesome, because it contains a video with multiple examples of the lesson.

9.  Off to the left of the main lesson video you can see the related videos that contain more content about this particular lesson and standard.

Google Chrome Extension: Dictionary

The Google Dictionary Chrome extension would be great for everybody, especially those in the education field.  The Google Dictionary extension allows you to double click or highlight any specific word as your brows the internet, and you will see a message box appear with the extension.  The picture below is an example:

1.  The following link will take you to the "Google Dictionary" extension inside the Chrome Web Store. 

2.  Click the "Add to Chrome" button.

3.  Click the "Add" button on the "Confirm New Extension" dialogue box.

4.  You will now see the "Google Dictionary" icon in the top right corner of your Google Chrome browser.

5.  To start using the "Google Dictionary" extension, just double click on any word as you are browsing the internet.  You should now see the popup box with the definition.

6.  Click the "More" link if you want to view the entire dictionary definitions and examples of the use of the word.





The Google Dictionary extension can sure be a useful tool for those completing research in a school setting or just as you browser.



Create online Stories using StoryJumper.

StoryJumper is a great site for those teachers who want to find, read, and write online stories that can be shared with others.  There are many stories that are already written and ready to be read, or you can just create your own.  Better yet, have an assignment for your students in which they write their own online story.  How cool would that be?!?!  If you are looking for having students express themselve through writing then StoryJumper might be the site for you.

Tutorial for creating your own story.

1.  Go to the following web address:  www.storyjumper.com

2.  If you don't already have an account go ahead and create one.

3.  Click the "create" option from the different colored circles.

4.  Click the "Build a book from scratch option."

5.  Off to the left hand side you see a bunch of options that allow you to give "flavor" to your story.  Lets start off with the "props" section.  Find a prop that you are interested in and then just drag it over onto your story book page.

 

6.  To manipulate the image just click on it.  Use the "handles", the little squares around the image, to resize it.  Use the "Rotate" handle for rotating the image.  The "up" and "down" arrows help with layering your images.  Play with the other buttons to do things like "clone" or "delete" the image.

7.  Off to the left again, click the "scenes" button and choose what scene or background would be best for your story book.  Once you have decided just drag it over to your page.

8.  You can see that the "scene" is placed behind your "props."

9.  To add your own images to your book, just click the "Photos" option off to the left and then click the "get photos" button.  This will then let you search for pictures from your computer.

10.  On the left again, click the "Text" option which will allow you to add "text boxes" to your story.

11.  Just drag the style of box you want onto your page, click on it to begin typing for to get your options that you can play with, such as changing the font style.

12.  At the bottom of your story you will see your "save," "undo," and "exit" buttons as well as buttons that will advance you to other pages in your book.

13.  Toward the top you get an idea of what pages you are working on.  Play with the different options across this tool bar to familiarize yourself with them as they will save you some time, knowing what they all do.

That is pretty much all there is to creating a story book using "StoryJumper."  Don't forget to hit save before  exiting the browser.  If you want to see what other people have written, just click the "Explore" green circle.  Enjoy using StoryJumper.