Broaden Students’ Cultural Perspectives with Project Gutenberg

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Scott

Common Core Standard six of “Reading: Craft and Structure” provides an important opportunity to expose our students to different perspectives from cultures other than their own.  This standard also gives us a great reason to explore some of the thousands of free texts that Project Gutenberg has to offer including many collections of short stories which can be downloaded to just about any digital device from an e-reader, a pc or laptop to a smartphone or tablet. 6. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature. I found some excellent collections of short stories grouped by nationality and by topic.  You must scroll to the bottom of the short stories bookshelf page, to see “Other” collections grouped by themes.  With Halloween coming right up, I’m working on organizing a few … Continue reading →

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Common Core Reading Standard #5—Analyzing Plot

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Scott

Looking at CCS standard for reading #5, I am encouraged to see critical thinking required of our students.  It is important to ensure that skills like problem solving, analyzing, and evaluating are at the core of our reading, writing, and speaking skills curricula.  It is also essential that we keep in mind the goal of generating independent, self-directed (and self-reflective), life-long learners. 5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. For standard #5, the key term is “analyze.”  In Bloom’s taxonomy, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are the top tiers we strive to reach.  A lesson plan from teacher Patricia Schulze provides some excellent opportunities to use technology for this standard. The technology for the lesson comes from a site you are probably familiar with—Read, Write, … Continue reading →

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The Dempsey Challenge 5K

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Scott

Loyal Interactive Language Arts Readers, Because I live in Maine, my last week was a bit stressful with hurricane Irene knocking out power to more than 200,000 Maine residents–including me for four days.  Add to that the start of the new school year, and I’ve been hard pressed to find the means or the time to write a new post in our Common Core Standards series.  I hope to be back on track by Tuesday, September 6th.  At least now I can iron my shirts for school because the power is back on!  In the meantime, please take a minute to check out my Dempsey Challenge fundraiser page.  I’ll be running the Dempsey Challenge 5K in Lewiston, Maine on October 9th to raise money for the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center.  Even small donations help me toward my goal of at least … Continue reading →

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Common Core Reading Standard #4—Vocabulary in Context

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Scott

This week is my last one before returning to the classroom on Monday.  I have to be honest, thinking about the first day of school still makes me really queasy even after eleven years.  Of course, I do plan to continue this series of posts about the Common Core through the fall.  This week we begin with “Craft and Structure.” 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper). So this standard is all about vocabulary and author word choice, teaching students how to understand meanings in context and how to analyze diction. Usually for this blog I focus only on free resources for integrating technology, but Academic Merit’s Literary Companion is … Continue reading →

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Online Resources for Analyzing Character

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Scott

This week we look at the last of three standards under “Key Ideas and Details” in the “Reading” section of the Common Core: Standard 3:  Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. For students to understand how a character develops over the course of a text and how his or her interactions impact plot and theme, they first need to know where to begin.  A good place to start is to help them get into the mind of the character.  The idea is to help students take a character and, to borrow a quote from Atticus Finch, “climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  The internet offers many ways to facilitate this creatively with technology.  Here are a few ideas and sites that might work … Continue reading →

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Writing about Theme with iWrite

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Scott

Continuing with our exploration of the Common Core, this week I’ve discovered a useful website for the second standard under “Key Ideas and Details.” Standard 2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail 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. This standard is a broad one but also a very important one as it focuses on analysis which is among those higher order thinking skills so important to students becoming independent learners.  It is unlikely you could (or should) cover this standard with one lesson.  Students need multiple opportunities to learn about and meet this standard. iwrite from Great Source (Haughton, Mifflin, Harcourt) offers a lot of useful material online for both teachers and students exploring not only central ideas with writing but also … 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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Summer Reading Update

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Scott

I’m well on my way through Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay and it is excellent so far.  One part of the narrative is told from the omniscient point of view relating the story of a Jewish girl and her family arrested by French police as part of a Nazi roundup of Jews in 1942.  The other half of the narrative is told in the first person by a woman who is a journalist and lives in Paris.  She has been assigned to do an investigative report on those same events of 1942.  The novel switches between these two narratives in very short, concise chapters, a method that keeps you firmly hooked.  I’ve noticed this narrative style of using quick-moving and short scenes more prevalent in current fictio.  It seems authors are adapting to our short attention spans, writing tight episodic plots instead of spinning yarns that gradually build as … Continue reading →

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What’s On My Kindle This Summer

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Scott

One of the things that I love most about summer is that I finally have a chance to read for pleasure.  After nine months of grading freshmen essays and reading the required dry textbooks for my graduate program, I’m ready to do some reading for enjoyment…And since this is a tech blog, I must also mention I was given a Kindle this last Christmas and I love it.  It changes how (and how often) you read.  I grew up devouring paperback mysteries and thrillers, so I am sad about the decline of the printed book, but I also think Kindles and e-readers make reading more fun and relaxing.  You quickly forget you’re even holding anything.  So, if you’ve been thinking about buying one, do it!  It’s the coolest gadget since…what?  the microwave?  The best part is that with the 3G version you can buy a book, magazine, or newspaper anytime, … Continue reading →

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Animoto: Another Great Tool for Adding Music and Video to Your Lit Plans

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Scott

Summer has finally arrived here in Maine.  I hope many of you, like me, have finished up the school year and can now take some time to recuperate.  Looking forward to a productive summer, I am planning a series of blog posts focusing on the Common Core State Standards Initiative.  My plan is to post regular articles with a simple goal: each blog post will take one specific CCSS outcome and demonstrate a resource and/or method for utilizing technology to meet that standard.  Essentially, I envision a CCSS curriculum map for Language Arts, based completely on technology integration.  I’m hoping to begin this series the first or second week of July. Meanwhile, I have found a website I think will be fun to use with students in the fall…Animoto.  Animoto is a basic online tool that allows you to create “video slideshows” or montages with music and text.  The basic … Continue reading →

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