Thinking English

Carnival of Web Resources #02

This week, I am using The Carnival of Web Resources series to hash together several unrelated resources. Although all of these sites provide quality information, they are only at best loosely related.

Unrelated (but still quality!)

CriticalReading.com: Understanding the difference between critical reading and critical thinking is and important relationship for students.  In many cases, students need to be taught how to think and read critically.  Strategies for critical thinking and reading need to be purposefully taught to students and then specifically applied in a classroom. This site does a excellent job of laying out the practicle difference between critical reading and critical thinking, and provides practical strategies for teaching these differences to students.

Poetry Slam: Poetry is an important and essential part of learning about English writings.  However, many students struggle to identify or understand poetry that is part of the standard cannon.  Poetry can be effectively introduced to students by taking a field trip to a poetry slam event.  After demonstrating what modern poetry looks like, students can work within the confines of a poetry workshop to learn the basic elements of poetry and to compose their own poems to perform at a class poetry slam. With the students fully on board, aspects of the poetry cannon can be read and analyzed by using poetry slam methodology to bring older and more complicated poetry to life in the classroom.

Tolerance: Diversity, whether by race, gender, sexual orientation, social class etc, is a part of every school district. Teaching tolerance can be a difficult and frustrating experience. Tolerance.org provides great resources and support for when you need to teach your students about tolerance.

Carnival of Web Resources #1

The Carnival of Web Resources series is designed as a weekly series meant to provide targeted summaries of top web resources. The Internet is filled with teaching resources and often, it is a frustrating endeavor to sift through fluff in order to find quality resources. Hopefully, this series will make it just a little bit easier.

Lesson Planning

Lesson planning can be both an exciting and laborious process. The following sites are excellent resources that can provide new ideas, fresh insight, and quality materials if you get stuck in the middle of planning a lesson/unit.

ReadWriteThink.org: Lacking the bright flashing ads of many teaching resource sites, Read. Write. Think. offers a staggering array of lesson plans. More important than the quantity however, is the quality of the lessons. In addition, the diverse search criteria that provides quick and easy access to the right information makes this site stand out.

EducationWorld.com: Although it can be difficult to navigate, this site contains great information and lesson plans. As a bonus, Education World emphasizes integrating technology into the classroom.

Bonus

Rubric Generator: Use this website to create and save highly customizable rubrics for all types of assignments. This site takes all of the formatting work away from you so that the content of the rubric becomes the only concern.

Weekly Featured Resource: Podcasting and English Language Learners

The podcasting revolution has created thousands of podcasts that can be utilized as part of a lesson. In some cases, entire units can be built around a specific podcasting series. Nowhere, however, are podcasts more effective than when working with  ELL (English Language Learners). Studies continually show that immersion is the number one way to learn a language. With podcasts, ELL are capable of taking an native English speaker with them wherever they go. More, podcasting allows ELL to pause, stop, rewind and repeat a conversation. Thus, providing them with real listening experiences that can help increase their listening and understanding abilities exponentially.  This can lead to the following benefits:

• Better English retention skills
• Improved comprehension
• Incorporation of the natural rhythms and tones of oral English
• Improved speaking capabilities

When ELL podcasts are combined with a written transcript of each Podcast,  students can then improve their understanding of written English as well. Moreover, a written transcript helps ELL students begin constructing an understanding of the complicated relationships between oral and written English. Best of all, these podcasts are available for free. After using podcasts to improve their oral and written English, ELL can then be asked to develop their own custom podcast and written transcript.

Want to know more about Podcasting? What resources will you need to create your own Podcast? I am so glad you asked.

Podcasting For People Who Like It Simple

Blogtalkradio.com: If you can talk on the phone and use a web browser, you can make a podcast. Best of all, blogtalkradio has a detailed series of screen casts to help even the most technologically challenged start podcasting.

Podcasting Techniques for Tech Savvy Audiophiles

About.com: There are many ways to podcast, but About.com provides an excellent step by step tutorial for those individuals who want to start podcasting without making a financial investment.