LINKS
Professional
Organizations
Outstanding
Web Sites for Literacy Instruction
- 21st Century
Teacher, voted in the Top Ten by "The Education Source,"
includes hundreds of links and articles for teachers, with a
special focus on the California's Computer-Using Educators (free
registration required).
www.21ct.org/
- Reading Online, a
stellar resource for teachers who want to keep up with the latest
research findings in literacy and innovative ideas for
incorporating them in classrooms.
www.readingonline.org
- The New York Times Lesson
Plans for Educators offers teachers daily lesson plans for
current events lessons. Recently published lesson plans are
archived; users can search by key words such as Geography,
Health, and Media Studies. This site also features
resources for parents and students.
www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/archive.html
- Children's Literature Web
Guide, a comprehensive site developed in Australia that offers
everything literary&emdash;&emdash;from Readers' Theatre ideas to
links to journals and book reviews.
www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
- The Teachers.Net Gazette,
drawing from teachers, school administrators, and authors
offers tips to teachers on a monthly basis. See the literacy
lesson plans about topics such as writing and conducting research
on the Internet.
Teachers.net/gazette
- Instructional Strategies
Resources, Hosted by the School of Education at the University
of Virginia, this site includes many links related to reading
comprehension, writing, and many other literacy topics. The
section on comprehension includes many sites that feature graphic
organizers.
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/clic/instructional_strategies_resources.html
- Learn to Ask the Right
Questons, A brief article on how to ask questions that
encourage kids to "reason while reading." Though it is written for
parents, teachers will also find practical suggestions for
promoting student thinking.
http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eeric_rec/parent/pt5READc.html
- Learning Strategies
Database for Reading Comprehension, An excellent resource for
teachers interested in learning about reading comprehension
strategies. Discusses the purposes and advantages of reading
comprehension strategies. Includes a comprehensive list of over 50
strategies for improving students' reading comprehension.
http://muskingum.edu/%7Ecal/database/reading.html
- What Does Research Say
About Reading? Published by the North Central Regional
Educational Laboratory (NCREL), this article presents major
findings from cognitive psychology regarding the reading process,
characteristics of poor and successful readers, characteristics of
successful teaching/learning environments, and much more.
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/stw_esys/str_read.htm
- Go to the Carol Hurst
Children's Literature Web Site and discover a wealth of
reviews of great books for kids (K-9), suggestions for using them
in the classroom, and collections of books and activities about
particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional
topics. Be sure to check out the free monthly newsletter--you can
read it on the Web site or have it delivered to you
electronically.
www.carolhurst.com/index.html
- Score Cyberguides
(Teacher Guides and Student Activities) are free, online
literature guides written by teachers for teachers. You can adapt
an existing guide or use a template to create your own. Another
great feature is the foreign language guide section lists titles
for the elementary grades through high school.
www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html.
For Grades 9-12 click on: www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cy912.html
- Visit the Eduscapes
site which has a section called "Literature Ladders" that focuses
on "Newberys & the Net." Although the site is still under
construction as of this writing, you can find summaries of Newbery
Award winners, author biographies, and links to relevant web
sites. http://www.eduscapes.com/ladders/
- Have students research their
favorite authors such as Avi, Katherine Paterson and Daniel
Drinkwater at Ask the Author. http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/youth/AskAuthor/
- Have students revisit old
favorites at Classics for Young People. The Wind in the
Willows, The Wizard of Oz, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and
other classics are but a few clicks away.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/storclas.html
- Read about previous award
winners as well as this year's medalist, A Year Down Yonder,
by Richard Peck, which is set in rural Illinois during the
Depression. See the Newbery Award Home Page
http://www.ala.org/alsc/newbery.html
Electronic Book Resources
Online
The following web sites
can help you search for entire texts available online. Project
Gutenberg is the gold standard, but the other offerings also
contain a wealth of resources.