Web+Links

June 1: In regard to differentiated instruction, take a look here: []for the Spinning Girl - left-brain/right-brain preference? or 'utter nonsense'?

Toby

Shelfari: [|www.shelfari.com]

This is a great site for logging books, writing and reading reviews, and having online discussions. Kids friend each other, like on Facebook, and can look at each others' bookshelves. If you join, friend me at literatus@comcast.net.

Ivy

Here is a great place to add websites and links that are helpful as a school librarian.

TeachingBooks.net []

This is a website that Toby mentioned in class that has the authors and illustrators saying their names. Some even added commentary about their names or their personal lives.

p.s. Teaching Books is a subscription database so in order to access it from home, you need to enter through your NLU portal account or sign in with your NLU email address or NLU Teaching Books password.

There are two websites that I love from the Mom point of view. They are great for homework help and fact review:

1) Spelling City: [] 2) Multiplication.com: []

--Submitted by Crista Goluch

Here is a great curriculum based website that I use in the library.

[|http://www.discoveryeducation.com]

Discovery Education has a great lesson plan library, streaming video, professional development and webinars.

Enjoy!

-Submitted by Julia Eidelman

Hello!

The special education teacher that the 6th grade paraprofessionals report to in my school highly recommends that we use EdHelper.com to come up with extra work to share with students. Sometimes we'll look at a student's IEP goals and print out worksheets that give that student extra practice in the area they need. Our school does have a subscription and password, but I think you can access some materials for free as well.

[]

-Leane

A website that I often recommend for high school English and U.S. History is www.shmoop.com. It offers free learning guides and teacher resources for Shakespeare, novels and poems that are often taught in high school English classes, biography, music and civics. The information is presented in a way that is fun and sometimes irreverent, but always insightful. They also offer AP prep courses, but I believe you have to pay to access those. The site won a Webby award in 2009 and 2010.

-Submitted by Monique Brada

See http://205.213.162.11/itls/benchmark_files/mankato_benchmarks.pdf for an information literacy curriculum example (Mankato, Mn school district). Be sure to scroll down & check out the K-8 benchmarks. I know this is a (relatively) old document, but in the absence of a school, district or statewide information literacy curriculum, I like the categories that are addressed, appropriately, at each grade level: Research and Inquiry Skills, including location, communication and evaluation; Life-long Reading, Technology Skills and Appropriate Use of Resources.

Toby

Hi! This is a great website that allows access to Presidential campaign commercials since 1952. [] Clearly, this would be great in a social studies classroom, but it also has a lot of applications that could be used in teaching information literacy. There are teacher lessons, online resources, and background descriptions of the various commercials. It's always fun to find out that the "I Like Ike" jingle is so catchy and the cartoon element was drawn by Dr. Seuss. Also, the numerous comparisons between candidate commercials makes this website a wealth of resources to teach information use and how it can be manipulated for political purposes.

-Submitted by Esther Yang

Julia's Resource Sharing article on graphic novels reminded me of my favorite Horn Book issue, which was devoted to graphic novels, Here is a link to their online archive of the issue [], which includes a link to my favorite article on the subject: Reading Lessons by Hollis Margaret Rudiger.

Toby

http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/labintro/newdefault.html

This is a website that allows students to complete virtual science experiments. This allows students access to experiments that they might not be able to do in school due to a variety of reasons, or even to practice chemistry at home. I would recommend this for high school students and older.

http://stuff.mit.edu/storyfun

This is a cute story creator that is easy for kids to use! They just fill in the blanks and hit submit to create a unique story that is all their own. I have found that this is a great way for younger students to practice nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

http://grabbabeast.com/#/home/daily_faves

This website allows students to build and create their own "beast". This will encourage story writing, improve vocabulary skills, and challenge students' creativity.

Mallory

And for those of you are INSPIRED by our Web 2.0 Resource Sharing tools, take a look at one of the references Katie used to prepare her presentation for us: 50 Ways to Tell a Story by Alan Levine, available at http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways He tells the same story about his dog Dominoe, using 50 different tools!