literacy – Page 11 – iLearn Technology

International Childrens Digital Library

December 30, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3566 views

What it is: The International Childrens Digital Library (also known as ICDL) is an online digital library for children of all ages. The mission of ICDL is to “ excite and inspire the world’s children to become members of the global community – children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online.” When students visit the ICDL website they are brought to a simple search area where they can choose different options for finding a book. They can narrow down results by age (3-13), fiction or non-fiction, book length, award winners, language, picture or chapter books, subject matter, and even what colors that cover has in it. When students choose a book they can read the book in its entirety online. I learned about this site in the iTunes store, they have a free iPod Touch and iPhone application for downloading books from the ICDL in addition to their online content. So neat!

How to integrate ICDL into the classroom: The ICDL website reminds me a lot of LookyBook. The search options are extremely user friendly and allow even the youngest readers to find a book they are sure to love. Students can register for the library (free) and then leave an online review of the book. I like the idea of digital libraries for students because it opens up a number of books to them that they may not otherwise have access to. If a story is started during school, students can finish the story when they get home from any Internet connected computer. The ICDL is nice for reading groups. All students can be reading the same book from school and from home without setting aside a large budget for group sets. The search is a wonderful way for students to discover what types of literature they enjoy. Many of the books featured are from different cultures and languages, these would be perfect to bring into a foreign language classroom. ICDL books provide a fun way for students to gain global awareness. Books in other languages could also be used as a starting point for student created stories. Students can do picture walks through the online books and then compose their own story to accompany the pictures. ICDL is a great way to read with the whole class. Connect your computer with a projector and students can read the story along with you, everyone will be able to see the pictures as you discuss the story!

Tips: One thing that I really appreciate about ICDL is the ability to view the books full screen and zoom in and out of the pages. The site is easy to navigate and this feature makes it even more user friendly.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ICDL in your classroom.

Northpole.com

December 9, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2352 views

What it is: Northpole.com is a fun Christmas themed website for kids pre-k through 3rd grade. Students can work on fine motor skills with activities like connect the dots, connect the dashes, and mazes. You will also find great Christmas time activities to help build letter recognition, sound recognition, vocabulary, numbers, ordinal numbers, right and left, and size. Students can practice writing skills with a letter to Santa or a holiday postcard. Northpole.com has printable awards and diplomas for students who complete the activities. Northpole.com also has a number of online Christmas stories that students can read on their own or have read to them. My favorite feature are the personalized stories. Students fill in their name and some other information and Northpole.com creates a story with the student as the main character that they can immediately read online!

How to integrate Northpole.com into the classroom: Use the outstanding activities on Northpole.com during the holiday season to teach and reinforce fine motor skills, alphabet, numbers, reading, and writing. Set up your classroom computer as a personalized story generator. Throughout the week, allow students to read a story about themselves during silent reading time.

Tips: The teacher page at Northpole.com gives a great break down of the site so you can find exactly what you are looking for.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Northpole.com in your classroom.

iKnow Social Learning

December 4, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2457 views

What it is: Wow, I just spent two hours playing on and reviewing this site and could have spent the rest of my day here! iKnow Social Learning is a social networking study tool created by Cerego in Japan. The site brings social networking to studying and learning in a really inventive way. Students (or you) sign up and are asked what languages you know, and what languages you want to learn. Then you are led through a short questionnaire about your interests. Study recommendations are made based on the questionnaire. Courses are available to enroll in (all free) to help you study and learn. The courses are created by Cerego and its partners or by other users. After logging in and filling out the introductory information, you are taken to a personal homepage. The homepage shows courses that you are enrolled in, your profile, friends, progress, a message center, and any items created by you. Courses are personalized language learning tools. Courses are geared for learning English and Japanese with more languages coming soon. Current English courses created by Cerego include vocabulary development, and SAT study prep. Courses created by users include everything from introduction to binary to the first presidential debate speech. There are three modes of study options for each course. The iKnow study section says the word aloud, gives the definition, and part of speech (if applicable to the course) and then uses the word in a sentence, and gives students the opportunity to practice spelling the word. After the study session, students are quizzed on the vocabulary. The next study section is called Dictation. In this section a sentence using the vocabulary is said aloud, students type the sentence (using correct spelling) as it is said. This is great for memorization, spelling, and those typing skills. The last study section is called Flash Study and provides students with a beat the clock type game to improve speed and accuracy. The current provided courses are appropriate for intermediate English language learners, and high school and college students. However, iKnow allows for users to create courses (called lists). With the ability to create lists, the iKnow study site could be used as early as second or third grade and up. As a teacher, you can create lists for your students to study based on your curriculum. The lists are very simple to create and you can attach sound, video, and images from Flickr Creative Commons (integrated) or upload your own images. Students have access to all courses they have enrolled in, an online journal, and their study results. Each course shows who created the course or list, the level of study, the number of items to learn in the course, the recommended length of study, and the privacy setting on the course. After a student enrolls in the course, their progress is tracked to provide students with exactly the practice they need. iKnow has the capability of connecting and integrating with other social networking platforms like Twitter, Skype, Delicious and Facebook (and a substantial list of others!) The high school, college, and professional age group will appreciate the integration capabilities. As you can tell by the length of this post, I am extraordinarily impressed with this site and the study options it opens up for students (and teachers!).

How to integrate iKnow Social Learning into the classroom: iKnow Social Learning is the best study tool I have seen in a while! I love the way that it encourages students to study together, challenge each other, and create solid study habits. iKnow Social Learning is an amazing way to learn and taps into multiple learning styles with each study session. Auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners will all benefit from this site! Because teachers can create lists (courses) of study, you can create interactive study guides for your students based on your curriculum. The current courses on iKnow Social Learning are too difficult for the elementary and middle school crowd. I created a list of my own for third grade vocabulary, it was simple to put together and students would benefit from the properly leveled guide. Younger students may not use the social aspect of the site as much, but the study options would be perfect for creating and setting up on a classroom computer, as a center or to use with students in a computer lab setting, or even just to suggest for home use. The layout of the study sessions makes it ideal for vocabulary words, math vocabulary (or expanded notation), history facts, spelling practice, learning a foreign language, and science vocabulary. I think that iKnow Social Learning would also be a great place for PLN (professional learning networks) to challenge each other, collaborate, and learn. Personally, I think with this setup I could know Italian by Christmas 🙂 This is a really incredible tool, I can’t say enough about it!

Tips: Right now the language options for iKnow are English and Japanese but Cerego has just opened up development for 188 additional languages, many more language options will be available shortly. Sign up for an account today (you can even sign in with your Google or Yahoo account) to check out my course called 3rd Grade Vocabulary. You can also add me as a friend: ktenkely. My warning to you, this is addictive learning!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using iKnow Social Learning in your classroom.

Jump Start 3-D

December 3, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1998 views

What it is: I got the tip off for Jump Start 3-D from a tweet by Kevin Jarrett (@kjarrett) the other night and have been having a great time exploring ever since. Jump Start is the popular software title that makes educational home and school software for pre-k through 2nd grade. Jump Start 3-D is a highly interactive virtual world for kids. Each location within the Jump Start 3-D world offers fun learning adventures focused on math, reading, and critical thinking skills. Students start out by creating a character avitar that represents them in the virtual world. Registration is free on Jump Start 3-D for access to the basic world. Membership for $7.99/ month has the added benefit of new games and activities added monthly, grows with students (as they get better at the games, new more challenging games are added). I was very impressed with the free version!

How to integrate Jump Start 3-D into the classroom: Jump Start 3-D is really geared toward home use, however, I think it would make a great center in the one or two computer classroom. The site is an awesome way to familiarize students with computer skills like mouse manipulation, clicking links, using arrow keys, etc. As the students are playing in the virtual world they will also be building reading, math, and critical thinking skills…just what they need for a great 21st century literacy base.

Tips: Even if you don’t have room in your curriculum for the Jump Start 3-D virtual world in your classroom, be sure to let parents know about this fun site. It is a great alternative to other video games that students may be playing at home because of all the learning skills packed in. This site is highly interactive including video clips, highly interactive games, and sounds. You will need a high speed connection for this site. Jump Start 3-D does require an Internet plugin called Utility Web Player.dmg. The install is very simple and fast directly from the Jump Start website.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Jump Start 3-D in your classroom.

Pocket Manila

December 1, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2594 views

What it is: Pocket Manila is a site that provides online notebooks that can be used as a journal, blog, idea bank, photo album, portfolio, group blog, ezine, story book, and more. Pocket Manila is unique because it feels like a canvas-bound, manila paper journal. Pocket Manila makes it feel like you are writing in a real notebook. The pages turn, writing and pictures automatically flow to the next page and are sized correctly for the page. Students can easily change the look of their notebooks with colors and themes. The control panel is simple, streamlined and easy to use.

How to integrate Pocket Manila into the classroom: Use Pocket Manila in a creative writing classroom as a creative writing journal. Students can work on their writing wherever they have an Internet connection without having to remember to tote their journals everywhere they go. Pocket Manila’s sharing ability makes it wonderful for collaboration in writing classes. Students can read and comment on each others writing, leaving constructive criticism right in their journals. Pocket Manila is also great used in the science classroom as a place to take lab notes, record observations and the scientific method. Teachers can use Pocket Manila as a place to collect and organize lesson plans, class notes, etc. Younger students can use Pocket Manila to record thoughts about books they are reading, practice their writing. Teachers can comment right in the student notebook.

Tips: I love Pocket Manila because there is something special about having a notebook or writing journal of your own to record thoughts. Those of us who didn’t grow up with the Internet appreciate simple pleasures like notebooks that feel like notebooks and day runners full of sticky notes and scribbled reminders! Pocket Manila provides the nostalgia of a notebook and the convenience and cool factor of digital.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Pocket Manila in your classroom.

Mrs. P’s Magic Library

November 25, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3305 views

What it is: I heard about this wonderful website from Larry Ferlazzo on his blog last week and have been exploring it ever since. Mrs. P’s Magic Library is a free website for kids that celebrates reading and books. Mrs. P is the librarian at the Magic Library, she brings story time to life with video stories and read-alongs. Her library also features fun animated games and lots of crazy characters that students will love. When students enter this virtual library they will have access to Mrs. P reading them a story, fun interactive games, and videos (lots more to explore!!). The whole idea behind the library is to introduce students to great literature read to them in classic story-time style (not just listening to an audio book). This virtual library is about as close as you can get to the real thing! Your students will love Mrs. P.

How to integrate Mrs. P’s Magic Library into the classroom: Mrs. P’s Magic Library is an outstanding addition to any classroom. Use Mrs. P.com as a place to begin silent reading one day a week. Use a projector and speakers so that Mrs. P can read to your class before they begin their silent reading time. Mrs. P’s excellent storytelling abilities will have even your reluctant readers eager to read. Tell parents about Mrs. P so that students can enjoy the virtual library from school or home. Mrs. P’s Magic Library makes a great reading/ listening center and the options to read along or listen make it ideal for any students ability level.

Tips: Mrs. P’s Magic Library requires high speed Internet access because of all the video and interactive games on the site. This one may eat up some serious bandwidth in a computer lab setting!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Mrs. P’s Magic Library in your classroom.

Grammar Games

October 17, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1922 views

What it is: The British Council has created an A-Z website of 69 Grammar
Games to help students learn and practice English grammar rules. I wouldn’t characterize many of the activities “games” but instead interactive practice. The Grammar Game website provides students with a quality explanation of each grammar rule and then gives them an activity where they can practice applying those rules. I think you will be hard pressed to find a grammar rule that was left off this site. As I was browsing through the Grammar Games site, I found many rules that I don’t recall being taught but knowing them would have been (is) helpful!

How to integrate Grammar Games into the classroom: Use the Grammar Game website as a place for your students to practice grammar rules they are learning in the classroom. You could also assign each student in your class a different grammar rule. Students can use Grammar Games to learn about the rule, practice the rule, and then teach the rule to other students. This is a great place for students to explore and interact with. Use a projector to introduce a new grammar rule to your students each day or at the beginning of each week. Students can practice the grammar rule with the activity that accompanies that rule on the classroom computers throughout the week.

Tips: Bookmark this page on your classroom and library computers so students can use it as reference during writing.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Grammar Games in your classroom.

Crick Web Literacy Resources

October 3, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2153 views

What it is: Crick Web Literacy Resource is an excellent collection of interactive games for language development and practice in students. The resources are excellent for individual student play, literacy group student play, or whole classroom play with an interactive white board. Games include hangman, alphabetical order, collective nouns, compound words, sticky letters, matching pairs, street scene labels, seaside postcard, spelling checker, story sequencer, instruction sequencer, verb links, word dice, spelling word tester and word selector. Yes, it is a treasure trove of literacy activities!

How to integrate Crick Web Literacy Resources into the classroom: The Crick Web Resources can be easily integrated into your current literacy curriculum as an enrichment. The activities fit right along side lessons you are already teaching but make them interactive for students. I really like the Word Dice activity because students (or teacher) can add their own words to the dice to roll them. The dice would be great for teaching nouns and adjectives (or any part of speech) on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector. The dice are also outstanding for playing games unique to your classroom (maybe one that you created!) The Sticky letters lets students create their own word wall or can be used with a projector for a class word wall. I was also very impressed with the Spelling Rule Tester which helps students learn the rule for making singular nouns plural. Students can input their own singular nouns and type what they think the plural is and then click on the tester to see if they are correct. Take a look at the activities and see how they fit into your curriculum… my guess is that you will find at least one keeper in the group!

Tips: If the Crick Web Literacy Resources look too difficult for your students, click on the Key Stage 1 tab at the top of the site for additional resources for younger students.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Crick Web Literacy Resources in your classroom.

Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

September 24, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2305 views

What it is: Free Federal Resource for Educational Excellence (that is a mouthful, hence forth shall be known as FREE) is a excellent resource for finding teaching and learning resources from federal agencies. Resources are broken down in to subjects arts and music, health and physical education, history and social studies, language arts, math, and science. Subjects are further broken down in to sub categories making it simple to find exactly what you are looking for quickly. There is also a great section called U.S. Time periods where you can search US history resources by time period. New sites are added to FREE regularly, you can get the new resources delivered to you by subscribing to the FREE RSS feed. The teaching and learning resources linked to from the FREE site are valuable to your classroom and will save you loads of time in searching for quality resources.

How to integrate Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence into the classroom: Use FREE to find quality online resource for any subject that you are teaching. Some of the linked websites are specifically for teachers and some are activities and sites for students. Use this as a first stop when you are creating new lessons or enhancing the good old standby lessons. The FREEresources will enhance your lessons with rich content for your students.

Tips: Sign up for the FREE RSS feed for new resources delivered to you several times a week.

Leave a comment and share how you are using FREE in your classroom.

Thinkfinity

August 18, 2008August 18, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2826 views

What it is: This is a one stop shop for the beginning of your school year but will keep you coming back all year long. Thinkfinity is “the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation’s literacy, education, and technology initiatives.” The site is completely free to use and has outstanding content for educators, students, and parents. Find amazing lesson plans, interactive activities, and other quality online resources. Thinkfinity has over 55,000 standards-based k-12 lesson plans, student materials, interactive tools, and reference materials that are reviewed by the nation’s leading education organizations to ensure the highest quality content. You will find great primary source material, interactive student resources, and even grade specific research lists to tailor materials and searches to meet your needs. Thinkfinity also provides free training and professional development. Some professional development options are online, you can search for Thinkfinity professional development opportunities near you.

How to integrate Thinkfinity into the classroom: Thinkfinity is a one stop shop for standards based lesson plans, interactive games and resources for students, maps, activities, book lists, and much more. Use Thinkfinity to support any of your lessons, themes, or current curriculum. Search for materials by subject (arts, social studies, literacy, mathematics, reading and language arts, science, and geography), by theme, by grade, or resource type. There is also a wonderful keyword search. Start out your year with lessons based on the Olympics in Beijing. Students can learn about the history of the games, sports, athletes, and even the history of Asia. This is a great site for students to complete research on. The sources are accurate and reliable and it is organized well for searching.

Tips: Content partners for Thinkfinity inlcude other top educational sites including Arts Edge, Econ Edlink, Edsitement, Illuminations, Literacy Network, Read Write Think, Science Net Links, Simithsonian National Museum of American History, and National Geographic Xpeditions.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Thinkfinity in your classroom.