Secondary Curriculum ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Read All About It: International Literacy Day .................................... 2 SOCIAL STUDIES Civil War: 1862 ............................................................................. 6 Elementary Curriculum ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Teaching with WebQuests ............................................................ 11 MATHEMATICS Cooking Up Some Math ............................................................... 15 Independent Student Activities INTERNET CHALLENGE™ Good News About Peanuts ........................................................... 19 CURRENT EVENTS West Nile Outbreak ..................................................................... 24 Professional Development TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION Apps for Back to School ................................................................ 27 ________ Learners Online – 1 – MAY 2011 National Standards RL.9-10.10. By the end of Read All About It: International grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, Literacy Day dramas, and poems, in the Rachel Cummings grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the Imagine a life without reading: job and college high end of the range. applications, the comics or sports page, By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, birthday cards, bus schedules, Facebook including stories, dramas, and pages, prescription bottles. Your poems, at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity opportunities, recreation, and daily habits band independently and would all be different. proficiently. or those who can read, it may seem automatic, like TEKS breathing. However, becoming literate is a lifelong §110.34. English Language F Arts and Reading process that begins when you are read to as a baby and (1) Reading/Vocabulary continues throughout school as you learn new strategies Development. Students for reading more effectively. Reading is a compilation of understand new vocabulary skills including the basic understandings of how to hold a and use it when reading and book, that books are organized (cover, title, pages), and writing. (B) analyze textual context that those cryptic symbols on the page hold meaning. (within a sentence and in Preschoolers, or pre-emergent readers, learn letters and larger sections of text) to draw their matching sounds, and that letters combine to create conclusions about the nuance words. School-aged children are often beginning readers. in word meanings; They learn to recognize punctuation and common spelling (C) use the relationship between words encountered in sequences, and how words form sentences. Beginning analogies to determine their readers learn that authors leave clues that allow readers meanings (e.g., to predict, they learn to make connections, and to ask synonyms/antonyms, questions. In early elementary school you learn to read; connotation/denotation); the rest of your life, you read to learn. Each year, International Literacy Day is observed on September 8th. International Literacy Day recognizes the life-altering importance of being literate. One important way to acknowledge the importance of literacy is for students to become more aware of their own habits as a reader and to strengthen their own reading skills. Ask students to recognize International Literacy Day and their own literacy with a survey, booklists and games, and a few graphic organizers. Knowing Yourself as a Reader Readers automatically synthesize a complex series of skills: phonics (the relationship between written letters and spoken sounds), fluency (the ability to read smoothly in order to accurately build meaning), vocabulary, and comprehension. As you learn these skills, reading becomes automatic. Secondary students may ________ Learners Online – 2 – MAY 2011 believe they are finished learning how to read; not so! It is possible to know how to read but to be a naïve reader. Naïve readers are more often stumped by texts with unfamiliar vocabulary or references, complex or technical content, or sophisticated grammar. So, what can students do to become stronger readers? There are three things: read read read, build their skills, and think about thinking. The most important thing students can do is to read: an easy beach read, a newspaper, the comics, a magazine, a literary review, an historical fiction, a poem, a scientific report. Read on the beach, on the bus, before bed, after school. Read materials on a range of reading levels. Read often. Knowing yourself as a reader is a key to selecting books that will challenge you and that you will enjoy. Prompt students to consider themselves as readers by completing the Student Reading Survey hosted by Carnegie Foundation’s KEEP Toolkit. Guide a reflective discussion about their responses: Consider your reading strengths and weaknesses? Under what conditions are you a more effective reader? What changes might help you become a stronger reader? What did you learn about yourself as a reader? What reading genres or formats most interest you? Once students know what they enjoy reading, it helps to have a great source for suggestions. Check out the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Books and More for an extensive list of reading materials (not only books) for teens. Use the menu along the left margin to find a book to devour. The site shares booklists on a range of topics, including music and art, relationships (including romance), real issues, and fantasy and supernatural. Fiction and nonfiction are massive genres. Click All Fiction to view 40 different categories: baseball to war, vampires to Christian fiction, graphic novels to manga to poetry. Have students who hate to read? They have a fiction list for non-readers too! Non-fiction fans will surely find something to read here as well. There are 19 different categories of non-fiction: from African-American history to war, baseball and ________ Learners Online – 3 – MAY 2011 football, science, survival, and skateboarding, hip-hop and history. Do some students prefer a different format? How about a diary or a short story? Scroll down the Books and More homepage to find links for award-winning books, magazines, and comics. (The 2010 winner of the Printz award for young adult fiction was Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.) If nothing sparks students’ reading appetite, open the link titled Books to find more resources. If students are interested in writing or writing contests, click the Writing tab. Nothing improves literacy more than reading. The Carnegie Library lists make it easy find something to whet every reading appetite. Playing Games Vocabularies naturally grow throughout life as you have new experiences and access new, more complex information. However, a game is another fun way to increase students’ vocabulary. Have them try a game at Vocabulary Can Be Fun! Use the menu along the left margin to choose the type of game: analogies, homophones, prefixes, root words, SAT, or word play, to name a few. Some games offer the option of choosing your level: 3rd-5th grade games, 6th-8th grade games, or 9th-12th grade games. Perhaps you want to challenge students’ comprehension skills. The University of Victoria’s Study Zone offers five levels of comprehension activities. Begin by choosing your level (middle school students try 200 to begin; high school students try 400.) Next, select “Reading.” Each story has several different exercises; click the “Show all” link to see them all. The reading comprehension activities are similar to standardized tests: a short reading accompanied by multiple choice questions. The site provides immediate feedback to your answers. The advanced level stories have a counter; try to finish before your time expires. Think about Your Thinking Readers who are most literate know reading is not about what your eyes do on a page, but about what your brain does with that information. The most effective readers know reading involves thinking. They understand themselves as readers and learners. Highly literate readers are aware of when they do not understand, have strategies that might help, and know how and when to use them. There are many ways for students to track their thinking as ________ Learners Online – 4 – MAY 2011 they read. One strategy is to annotate—to take notes—about their reactions, questions, and predictions, and to make connections to personal experiences or other information. Graphic organizers are another method. Most secondary students are probably experienced in using graphic organizers before they write; however, organizers are also helpful for readers to track the information they encounter in a text. Holt Publishing provides a selection of interactive organizers. Each is labeled with its title; however, best of all: they are organized by purpose. Are your students reading an Op-Ed in this week’s paper? Choose a graphic organizer for persuading or supporting an opinion. Perhaps they are reading an essay; a chart for determining main ideas and drawing conclusions is what they seek. Most of these graphic organizers are interactive; simply open one and type directly on the chart. Students can save or print their work. Most of us take reading for granted; however, it deserves recognition. Not only do we spend most of our childhood compiling and honing the skills needed to read, if we could not read well, our lives would be more difficult, and less rich. So, have students put a poem in their pocket, write a note to a friend (not during class!), grab their local newspaper and celebrate International