I really like this resource! Into the Book allows teachers to view short video clips related to effective reading strategies. Teachers can see observable behavioral objectives related to each strategy, and there are videos that model each objective in the classroom. There are also student activities that allow them to practice each strategy in an interactive format. It's perfect for a K-4 literacy center!
Collaborative writing has risen in popularity with the advent of web 2.0. Mixed Ink, a new site, fuses all of the elements of collaborative writing in an easy-to-use format. I think that secondary students would be very empowered by this site because it allows them to use a variety of students' facts and ideas to craft an essay. Evaluating and synthesizing the ideas of others... talk about higher levels of cognition! Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Want to make fluency practice more relevant and interesting? Want to provide access to sophisticated text for struggling readers in the middle grades? Try www.spokentext.net It is free text to speech software that operates fully "on the cloud!"
Here are my favorite features:
We've all been there-- one person is trying to scribe the thoughts of the group (students, teachers, administrators, etc.) and the general discussion breaks off into a million sidebars. Essentially, general mayhem ensues. Okay, well maybe not mayhem exactly, but you get the idea. Keep your group engaged in brainstorming this year by using Etherpad.
Here are the benefits of social bookmarking:
Are you seeking to keep students engaged during movies or student presentations? Try "back channeling." Back channeling is a method where students post to a "twitter-like" site to answer questions and pose questions as they watch presentations. Today's Meet is a service that allows teachers to create "twitter-rooms" where they can monitor or print student responses. It is a very engaging way for students to respond in real-time to movies or student presentations.
Remember: vocabulary instruction aids student achievement. For more information about that, click here.
Weboword is a website that illustrates useful academic vocabulary with student-friendly sketches and illustrations. There are a variety of features that make this site useful to teachers, including featured words, puzzles, and opportunities for students to submit word illustrations.
Check out "Watch Know" for an amazing collection of school based videos. The site boasts a whopping 547 videos on reading and literacy. I was most impressed by the videos on phonemic awareness and sight words. The videos can be embedded in wikis and websites with ease. It would create a great center activity for students!
This site can make searching for relevant videos easier and faster!
Teaching children to use a small repertoire of comprehension strategies can boost reading achievement. Check out Michael Pressley's research on the subject here. (Michael Pressley is a professor/researcher at the University of Michigan.)
Summarization is a great reading strategy to use with children after they read both expository and narrative texts. Specifically with narrative texts, an emphasis on the "beginning," "middle," and "end" is necessary.
Try using Make COMIX to help your students summarize narrative texts. On the site they can create a three paned comic that coincides with the "beginning," "middle" and "end" structure of most narrative summaries. The site is free and interactive. Most students find it highly motivating.
RtI requires a universal screening in reading for every child in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. The United States Department of Education and The RtI Network has created a concise chart that compares all of the research validated universal screenings available for reading. The .pdf version of the file is available here and the interactive web version of the chart is available here. Hopefully this resource helps you make good decisions about your screening tools!
The Screen Actor's Guild of America has created an excellent site for K-5 students to improve their reading fluency at http://www.storylineonline.net/ . Storyline Online has a collection of high quality literature (Stellaluna, Thank You Mr. Faulker, etc.) that is read aloud to students online. Students can follow along with the captions at the bottom of the screen. Some of the stories are even read by the authors themselves. I highly recommend using this site to motivate elementary readers to engage in repeated reading. Remember, reading fluency is the highest predictor of reading achievement and reading comprehension!
As RTI begins to be implemented in grades K-8, many teachers are concerned about the validity of using fluency probes as an overall measure of reading performance. While considerable research links reading fluency to reading comprehension, classroom teachers may wish to supplement specific students' fluency probes with comprehension measures. However, this can be time consuming and unreliable if you develop the probes yourself.
