Category Archives: Informational Texts

Alternative Resources for Flipping Your Lessons

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Scott

As I have learned more about the Flipped Classroom and as I have searched for smart, innovative ways to practice these methods, I’ve been a little disappointed.  I do like the idea that flipped lessons enable teachers to better differentiate their instruction and hone focus on mastering skills, but it seems those who are leading this movement are focusing mostly on science and math to the neglect of the humanities and language arts in particular.  Khan Academy and at The Flipped Class Network, for example, have countless math and science videos but very few that are useful to us in the humanities.  Given this lack of resources for language and lit, I came up with some alternative sources you might consider if you want to try flipping your middle or high school language arts lessons.  Some easily overlooked places you might find these useful videos (often referred to as “vodcasts” … Continue reading →

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Use Online Newspapers to Meet Common Core Standards

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Scott

Common Core Standards, Informational Texts, Key Ideas and Details: 2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text Online editions of many local, national, and world newspapers are a great place to find resources for teaching students to analyze informational texts for central ideas and how they are shaped.  In fact, many newspapers now dedicate an entire section to providing teachers with ways to use the news in the classroom and some even offer alignment to standards.  A quick Google search will help you find your local newspaper’s NEI (newspapers in education) section.  If your local paper doesn’t have a specific focus for lesson planning, many of the most popular national newspapers do.  Among them, The New York Times has an impressive collection of … Continue reading →

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Teach Students to Use the Power of Images with Worlde, Creatly, and Statworld

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Scott

The other day a student stood in the middle of my classroom holding his cellphone at arm’s length, pointing it at the white board. I was about to tell him to put it away, but then I realized what he was doing and it gave me pause to think…he was “taking notes” by snapping a digital picture of what I had written on the board.  So I wondered, what if I asked him to use those images in his next essay?  Isn’t this a way to integrate technology into the language arts curriculum—taking digital pictures and using them with text? But really, when is the last time you asked your students to include images in their essays?  Probably never, right?  When students include pictures, it’s usually to adorn the cover of the essay beneath one of those annoying plastic report covers.  But consider how many images the average student encounters … Continue reading →

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Diigo: A Powerful, Hands-On Research Tool for Students and Teachers

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Scott

Informational Texts Common Core Standard #1 – Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Remember back when we were in school and research meant pouring over books in the library with a stack of note cards?  When I was in college, I became very handy with Post-it® notes and multi-colored highlighters for finding “textual evidence.”  I miss those days hunched over a notebook amid piles of old books.  I loved rolling up my sleeves and immersing myself in the physical work of learning. Students seldom set foot in brick-and-mortar libraries for research anymore, and they rarely flip through actual paper books or periodicals either.  Most research is done with electronic resources now, and I don’t know any current students who know what a library card catalog looks like (you know, the ones with the long, narrow … Continue reading →

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Resources for Meeting the Common Core, Part I: Interactive Informational Texts

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Scott

After a long and much needed hiatus, I am back… I found I needed some complete down time very much, hence the brief silence at Interactive LA.  I hope you too are able to find this for yourself…time to repair and to recuperate. This week, I begin a weekly series focusing on using technology to meet specific Common Core State Standards beginning with “Reading,” “Key Ideas and Details,” standard 1.  For these posts, I will be looking at the standards for grades 9 & 10 because I teach high school, but I think you’ll see that adapting the standards among the grades is easy. Standard 1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Holt, Rinehart, & Winston’s Interactive Informational Texts Looking over my syllabus recently, I noticed it is heavy with fiction–short stories, novels, … Continue reading →

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