Language+Arts

**Language Arts Websites**
[|English & Literature Learning Quests] - Learning Quests relating specifically to English, literature or author studies. [|English as a Second Language] - Resources in this category relate to the teaching of English as a Second Language, ESL, and TESOL in the Australian curriculum [|Lesson Plans & Units of Instruction] - Practical teaching information, including teaching strategies, activities and ideas. [|Writing] - Information about strategies for writing
 * Language Arts: **

[|actDen] With actDEN, teachers and parents can access timely content for classroom or home use, and introduce students directly to the Internet education experience. Because, Education is undergoing a progression from traditional curricula to innovative and interactive learning, ACT360° Media Ltd. is addressing the issue by providing quality content and new methods of interaction through this Digital Education Network. ActDEN currently offers seven software tutorials, produced in conjunction with Microsoft K-12 Education, and seven exciting DEN courses. Each tutorial and online course offers up-to-date information and interactive features that encourage students to learn, think, and participate in the online community. Some of the software tutorials included are Office 2000, PowerPoint, and FrontPage, which the online courses include, [|WritingDEN], which teaches students how to write effectively; [|MathDEN], which presents challenging math problems; and [|NewsDEN], which presents current events in exciting new ways. This site is based out of Canada, so don’t pay attention to TestDEN, as that is driven towards their testing standards.

Most of the website, you can get free access to, however, to view MathDEN and NewsDEN, you have to register to site, which is free, but a hassle. One good part is that you can use it as a guest and do a trial run and see if you like it before having to register. Read the instructions on this page, [].

[|www.bbc.co.uk/schools/revisewise] ** ReviseWise, ** is part of the BBC schools website in Britain and is aimed at supporting 10-11 year olds as they prepare for their Key Stage 2 National Curriculum Tests in English, Maths and Science. **//However,//** this might be a very helpful site with some of our ESOL students. Within each topic you'll find a range of animation movies and fact sheets designed to reinforce a student’s grasp of all the key points they need to understand, plus quizzes to test their knowledge, and finally a number of worksheets suitable for classroom use. Some examples of what you might find are: If you are looking for something older, also try: [|www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16].
 * Language Arts || Math || Science ||
 * Activities on adjectives and adverbs || Worksheets on measurement || Grouping and classifying materials ||
 * The planning stages of writing a story || Data Handling: How to read charts/graphs || How Forces and gravity work ||
 * Reading poetry || Problem solving questions || Life processes ||

In addition to the animation activities, there are also printable worksheets and tests on this site. Watch out for some cultural differences, as well! There are some things on this site that US students will not be used to, such as the monetary system used in Britain, but these questions can be re-worked in our monetary system. //*Update on ReviseWise: Much of this website has changed and the links do not follow to the pages as they originally did. I would suggest clicking on the first link and traveling to the 11-16 age level for classroom activities.//

Crickweb is a website from the United Kingdom that emphasizes lessons for Interactive White Boards. The interactivity that this website offers will work very well in letting students control their learning and make it engaging enough to learn. These activities can be used with the SMART Board as a whole class activity or can be done as an individual activity in the computer lab.
 * [|Crickweb] **

The website only reaches the level of our sixth graders, but the lessons provided could work very well for SPED and ESL, as well as a review of skills for other classes. This website provides activities for all curriculum areas, as well as educational games. These activities were created using Flash, so all activities are interactive and allow students to think about the process and how they should be answering.

Some of these activities include: the Double Operation Function Machine, The Digit Workout, Life Cycles, Changing States such as liquid to gas, compound words, and verb links. There isn’t that much information in history and most of it doesn’t apply to the curriculum our students are learning. However, there are learning games that apply to the Foreign Language curriculum which would be a big benefit to students.

Another idea could be to use the US Map activity, which can be found under the geography section. When using the SMART Board, you could have individual students come up and play and use this as a review of the states and their locations. Also a good idea for SOL review. [|Internet4Classrooms Language Arts] I featured ** Internet4Classrooms last year, but recently found a section that I thought was interesting for Language Arts teachers. ** ** This section features online activities and quizzes that focus on parts of speech, prefixes, root words, comprehension, and much more. The section is broken into two categories for middle school, state assessed ** ** SPI **** ’s and skill builders, and are further broken into grade level. Both categories have a variety of activities that fulfill the Language Arts curriculum. What is really great is that most of the resources I checked give instant feedback to the student allowing them to know the right answer and in many cases why that answer is correct. This website could also be used in the ESL curriculum. Although, there is not a specific area for ESL covered by this website, some of the activities could help students in their understanding of the English language. In addition to this, some of the other grade levels may have materials available for the various levels of English speakers in your classroom. I have to say that overall, this special section of Internet4Classrooms has to have the most amount of resources I have seen compiled into one place for Language Arts. I greatly encourage you to check this section out! ** [|Online Basic Skills for Language Arts] ** This is a website created by Jefferson County Schools in Tennessee. When you click on the links on the home page, you will be transferred to another page with exercises which are found on other websites. The websites provided are rich with language arts materials and interactive examples to help give your kids a boost on their parts of speech, writing, and reading skills. For example, //Go Grammar//, is a fun little activity that also tests the skills of the students.

There is more than just a language arts website provided by Jefferson County Schools. If you follow the link on the left you will also find links to math, social studies, and science. Look at the links provided on each page and see if there is something there to help you too! Check this out!! [|Web English Teacher] This website is chuck full of websites and resources for Language Arts teachers. The website was created by English teacher Carla Beard in 2000. Ms. Beard is currently the English Department Chair and the Chair for the Technology Integration Committee at Connersville High School in Indiana. She created the website so that teachers wouldn’t have to spend hours online trying to find information and ideas. Ms. Beard likes to think of the website as a way for teachers to take advantage of online technology, to share ideas, and to benefit from the work of others. Beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration. The resources on her website are for classes of all levels, not just high school.

The navigation guide on the left will help teachers find the information they are searching for. Some of the topics include writing, vocabulary, grammar, literature, and book reports. Most of the lessons I discovered were innovative and unique in their thinking. Let’s take the topic of writing, for example. I clicked on writing in the navigation bar and then decided argument and persuasive essays would be a good starting point. The first lesson that jumped out at me was how to make a good thesis statement – or a main idea sentence. But that’s not why it jumped out at me. It was because the lesson involved taking a look at the Princess Bride and other novels and how these stories are good examples of a good thesis statement and letting students discuss it. Some of the stories, like Pride and Prejudice won’t work for middle school students, but it’s a great idea to try with stories more on their level.

In searching through the website I discovered an unique lesson that can be used across curriculums. [|Graphic Accounts,][|Analyzing Graphs in The New York Times] is designed to help students understand how graphs can be used in their daily lives and examine the different types of graphs available. What a great way to hit two birds with one stone! The amount of resources available on this website is tremedous, you're bound to found a great idea! I hope you find some inspiring information.