literature – Page 4 – iLearn Technology

Audible Kids

February 5, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4281 views

What it is: Audible Kids was a really exciting find for me today because I am writing an article for the upcoming issue of iLearn magazine about iPods in education. Audible Kids is a website that engages kids in storytelling through audiobooks. Kids can download books, read and post reviews for each book, and share their favorites with others. Kids can discover books searching by keyword, age group, category, award winners, and more. Students can listen to samples of the stories before they download them with a handy in-browser play feature. While Audible Kids is not a totally free site, they do have some excellent audiobooks that are free to download. Roscoe Orman (of Sesame Street) is one of the cheif storytellers on Audible Kids. Enhanced Audible Kids audiobooks have pictures with the story, perfect for the iPod Touch or a computer center. For free downloads click here. Other books range in price from about $0.99 to $20.00.

How to integrate Audible Kids into the classroom: Because free products for the classroom excited me the most, I will focus on how you can use the free downloads in your classroom. Use Audible Kids downloads for an iPod listening center, or classroom computer listening center. Students can register for free Audible Kids accounts and discuss the stories in an online environment with their own classmates as well as children around the world. Use the stories as a place for students to discover rich storytelling. Encourage them to listen for voice, emphasis, tone, rhythm as the story is read to them. Students who learn to listen for these and are exposed to excellent storytellers, will become more expressive readers themselves. Students could listen to the audiobooks and use a computer drawing program (or just paper and crayon) to draw their own pictures to go along with the story. This is a great way for kids to learn visualization reading strategies. If you want to take it a step further, pictures could be gathered into iPhoto or a slideshow accompanied by the audio. Students will be the illustrator for the audiobooks!

Tips: If you are in a Mac environment, download Skitch. Your sudents can draw their pictures on the computer as they listen and they can easily be uploaded to the Skitch website or into iPhoto, Keynote, or Garage Band to create their own illustrated audiobook. So neat! Audible Kids has the option of giving the gift of audiobooks. If this is something you are serious about making a part of your classroom, consider asking parents to donate audiobooks to your classroom library.

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

Lit2Go

January 22, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3636 views

What it is: Lit2Go is a FREE online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse. With Lit2Go teachers and students can download files to an iPod or Mp3 player, listen to the Mp3 files on the computer, view the text on a webpage and read along with the audio, and print out the stories and poems to create a customized book. Lit2Go can be searched by author, tiltle, or searched via the database (by authro, keywords, title, or reading level). Each reading passage can be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or supplemental reading material for your classroom. Many of the selections can be downloaded directly to your iTuens library making it a simple transfer to one or many iPods.

How to integrate Lit2Go into the classroom: Lit2Go is a fabulous resource for all readers, but is especially valuable for struggling readers. Set up a Lit2Go listening center in your classroom. You can either download the audio to a Mp3 player or let the students listen from the computer. Each audio file has a PDF text version that can be downloaded and printed out as a read along. If students are listening from the computer they can also view the text online. Lit2Go would be a great help for a reading buddy program. Send your struggling readers home with a Mp3 player loaded with level appropriate stories or poems and the PDF print out. Students can practice reading anywhere, even if a parent or sibling isn’t available to read with them. Reading levels range from .10 to 53. You are sure to find something for every student! This is an easy way to help differentiate instruction.

Tips: Search Lit2Go in the iTunes store or visit the Lit2Go website to get started.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Lit2Go in your classroom.

Myths and Legends

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3938 views

What it is: Myths and Legends is an awesome, free, online digital story telling website. I heard about the website through @kjarrett. The story creator lets students combine pictures that they compose with clip art or images that they upload, sound, and words to create a digital story. The stories can be saved, printed, and shared. Students can record themselves reading the story aloud and even add video! The website is pretty comprehensive as far as online digital storytelling tools go, I am impressed!

How to integrate Myths and Legends into the classroom: Myths and Legends is a great way to get your students interested and eager to write. The digital story telling format gives students a unique opportunity to express themselves creatively. Many of your reluctant writers will jump at the chance to create a story in this manner because it doesn’t “feel” like writing. They don’t get stuck looking at that blank piece of paper and feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of them. I have found that students write more, and the quality of work is better when they create digital stories that are shared later with the whole class. In the one or two computer classroom you can set up a digital storytelling writing center that students can work at, in the lab setting whole classes can create at the same time, and as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector, the entire class can create a story together.

Tips: Each student should sign up and register for a free account so that they can save their work. As a teacher you can also sign up for a school account where you can login and review all of your students work online.

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

Literactive

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4345 views

What it is: Literactive is an outstanding website for reading material for pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade. The program is made up of leveled guided readers, comprehensive phonics activities, and supplemental reading material that is aimed at developing reading skills in a sequential, motivating manner. To use and view the site is free. To download material you are required to register but registration is also free. The guided readers are fully animated and each comes with a breakdown of every word in the stories. The Road to Reading is an interactive journey for students that moves them sequentially though pre-reading activities, alphabet awareness, letter sounds, short vowels, CVC word blending, initial blends, long vowels, and various phonic activities. There are over one hundred learning activities that can be used for individual or whole class use that can be downloaded for free. Worksheets are available in pdf format that correlate with each reading skill. An ESL version is offered for each guided reader, stories can be translated with the click of a mouse. E-picture books tell traditional tales for early readers and e poetry is a collection of interactive poetry including poems by Rober Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allen Poe, Edward Lear, and more. The Literactive website is packed full with reading activities for primary students that will have them on the road to reading!

How to integrate Literactive into the classroom: Literactive is a complete reading program that should be included in any primary classroom. I am amazed at the comprehensive list of activities, stories, and scope and sequence of this program. Because activities are downloaded, after having downloaded them your computer does not need an Internet connection to use them. Use Literactive as a daily reading center, individually in the computer lab setting, or for whole class instruction and reading. The activities on Literactive are highly motivating and provide an excellent foundation for reading.

Tips: Register for free today and transform your classroom into a reading-rich environment for your beginning readers! Thank you to @annemarie80 who sent a Tweet about this site!

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

Pic Lits

January 14, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments5938 views

What it is: Pic Lits is a really neat creative writing site that provides pictures and a word bank for students to create a enriched sentence or sentences about the picture. “The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.” Students can choose to only drag words from the word bank to create their sentence or compose a sentence freestyle.

How to integrate Pic Lits into the classroom: Pic Lits is a great way to get students to think creatively and critically about writing. Students can choose any picture and then use the word list to create a sentence. Pic Lits is complete with punctuation and any word can be capatalized. Students can use Pic Lits individually on computers, as a whole class with a projector, or as a creative writing center in the one or two computer classroom. When using Pic Lits as a class, choose a picture for the day and have students write their sentences on paper using words from the word bank. Take turns sharing to hear the combination of words and the different meanings that students gathered from the picture. This is a great writing exercise to use in your classroom every day! Here in Colorado, we often have indoor recesses for bad weather. Use Pic Lits with an interactive whiteboard and invite your cooped up students to choose pictures and create sentences.

Tips: Students can sign up for a free account and save each Pic Lit they create. At the end of the year, each student can create a book of their Pic Lits to take home for creative inspiration.

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

Readicide

January 13, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2584 views

What it is: Readicide is a new ebook from Kelly Gallagher about how schools are killing the love of reading. It is being made available here Jan. 13 and 14 as a free download. I downloaded Readicide earlier today and am loving it. The ebook reminds me of what made me love reading, the times when I hated reading, and how my students feel about reading. It is inspiring and may just give you the jolt you need to shake up your reading program and make your classroom the place where students fall in love with reading again (or the very first time).

How to integrate Readicide into the classroom: Download Readicide ASAP! Then send to your administration and fellow teaching staff to read. Open up communication about your reading program at the next staff meeting, be critical. Lets start a reading revolution!!

Tips: Download today while the ebook is free 🙂 I vote “readicide” to be considered as a new word for Webster to add to the dictionary.

Leave a comment and tell us what you think of Readicide and your ideas for bring a love of reading into your classroom.

Prezi

January 12, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2974 views

What it is: Prezi is a unique online presentation builder that seems to be popping up a lot lately all over the web. It is getting so much attention because of its new approach to online slide shows. Prezi has some unique features like zooming presentations that grab and hold viewers attention. Prezi lets you create a sort of walking path through your presentation. The finished product is engaging and impressive looking. The tools in Prezi are different from other online presentation builders but are easy to use and figure out. The tutorial will have you and your students creating in minutes.

How to integrate Prezi into the classroom: Because of Prezi’s unique zooming feature, it would be a good tool for students to use for vocabulary. Students can type in the word to be defined and then zoom in on the definition. Building vocabulary presentations would be good for review and study. Prezi would also be a neat way to explore and display information from history (display a date, place, or person in history and then zoom into facts and details that are related), timeline information (create paths from different dates in Prezi), literature (create a sort of interactive character map of any literary character), science projects (use Prezi’s path to lead through the scientific method), foreign language (type a word in another language and zoom to translate), geography (zoom into details around a map), math, and much more.

Tips: Be sure to check out the tutorial on Prezi, it will have you up and creating in no time! Check out the inspiration to see the amazing things that others have used Prezi to create.

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

Museum Box

January 6, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3935 views

What it is: Museum Box is a website that I heard about through a tweet on Twitter a few weeks ago that is really impressing me today (that is saying a lot since today is MacWorld and they are announcing big things!). Museum Box is based on the work of Thomas Clarkson who collected items in a box to help him in his argument for the abolition of slavery. He collected items in a box to demonstrate to others the fine craftsmanship and abilities of the African culture. He used his box as a sort of travelling museum to aid him in his debate. The Museum Box website provides a place for students to collect information and arguments in a virtual museum box of their own. They can collect items to provide a description or add to an argument of a historical event, place, or time period. Students can add images, text, sounds, video, external links, etc. to each compartment of the box helping them form their own virtual museum. The Museum Box can be shared as a presentation, saved, or printed. After a box has been created, students can view one anothers boxes and leave comments about the box. You really have to check this one out! So neat for history and literature classes!

How to integrate Museum Box into the classroom: Use Museum Box as a medium for students to learn about and collect information about a historical event, person, or time period. Because students can upload their own content to Museum Box, you might also have them create a box all about them. This would be a great way for students to get to know each other at the beginning of the year. Museum box is a neat way to share information about geography, students can make a box all about a place including items in their box that are unique to that place. The ability to incorporate text, sounds, images, video, and uploaded items makes Museum Box especially impressive! After students have created boxes, spend time viewing other’s boxes and leaving comments about the box. This is kind of like a science fair atmosphere for history, geography, and literature. Yet another tool I wish I had in school!

Tips: Introduce Museum Box to your students by learning about Thomas Clarkson, he is a very interesting historical figure that I had never heard of!

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

International Childrens Digital Library

December 30, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3570 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.

Secret Builders

December 15, 2008Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3033 views

What it is: You have undoubtedly heard of virtual world Second Life and its growing popularity in the education realm. Second life has some amazing educational opportunities for older students (students must be 13 years or older to have an account) but nothing for the elementary age student. Enter Secret Builders, an enchanting virtual world designed specifically for elementary age children. Virtual worlds like this are highly engaging for all ages and allow students to interact with each other in new ways. Secret Builders can be used to supplement different topics including literature, arts, science, and humanities. One of my favorite features, is the ability for students to interact with historical figures like Albert Einstein, William Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland, Galileo, and more! Students can visit these historical figures homes and ask them questions. There is a magazine in Secret Builders called The Crooked Pencil where students can submit writing to be published. There are learning games to play that, like Free Rice, donate to a charitable cause for correct answers. Students build up points by completing quests and can use the points to purchase things in Secret Builders.

How to integrate Secret Builders into the classroom: Secret Builders is a really neat site, students will love the online world and ability to connect with other students online. Secret Builders is more than just a ‘game’ sort of site though, there is a lot of learning to be done here! Students can build netiquette skills, computer skills, and learn about humanities, arts and literature all in Secret Builders. Students can write stories in Writers Block, go on a quest which requires logic skills and weaves in arts and humanities, perform a play in the Theater, solve puzzles, and interact with others. This is a really neat alternative to worksheets and traditional story writing. I think that the opportunity for students to interact with historical figures and tour their virtual home is fantastic! I hope that they continue to add historical figures, I would have loved this sort of history environment! The ability for students to play games and earn real money for charities is a wonderful motivator for students and great for building character education.

Tips: Secret Builders encourages student and teacher suggestions, if you have an idea, let them know…you may just add the next cool feature to the Secret Builders world! Take a look at the Teacher page for some great classroom tie-ins and features.

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