Author, Scott Nailor
Tag Archives: digital
Common Core Reading Standard #5—Analyzing Plot
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
Posted in Common Core Standards, Lesson Plans, Reading, Writing
Tagged classroom technology, Common Core Standards, digital, engage students, english, high school english, High School Lesson Plans, interactive lesson, Language Arts Lesson Plans, technology integration, Technology lesson plans
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The Internet Archive: One Very Big Collection of Multimedia
The Internet Archive is a huge, well…archive. Basically, it’s a collection of images, video, music, audio recordings, and texts. Once you explore this massive digital library though, you’ll see that it’s hard to get your head around just how much is collected here. For example, the audio section includes an archive of millions of recordings of everything from an audio version of The Quran to radio talk show recordings. The music section includes live music recordings from the Grateful Dead and millions of others. The text section, called the “Open Library,” includes millions of documents from textbooks to novels and poetry collections. The Internet Archive‘s creators call it “a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.” And best of all…it’s free. One of my favorite features at the Internet Archive is the “Way Back Machine” where you can plug in a web address and see … Continue reading
The Shakespeare Pages
In my last post I mentioned a project I have been working on. It’s more-or-less done now so I thought I would write briefly about it here. I hope to develop it more, but as they say, it’s never done, just due. I developed this project for a Visual Literacies class I just finished at Northern Arizona University (online). The Shakespeare Pages Project is a website designed for high school or middle school English students. Its purpose is first to convince students that Shakespeare is not as boring or as hard to understand as they might think. The pages of the site are designed to not only persuade but also to engage teenagers’ curiosity. The project’s purpose is also to teach students about Shakespeare’s time, Elizabethan culture, the Globe Theater, and about the social class differences that divided citizens of 17th Century England. The site is designed to integrate technology … Continue reading
Posted in Drama, Shakespeare
Tagged classroom technology, digital, digital text, engage students, english, high school, high school english, High School Lesson Plans, interactive lesson, language arts, Language Arts Lesson Plans, language arts websites, lesson plans, online english, online high school, online lesson plans, romeo and juliet, shakespeare, technology integration
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Interactive Salem Witch Trials
If you teach Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond, or any other Witch Trials literature, you must check out the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria interactive website at National Geographic. It is an outstanding example of the interactive learning opportunities found on the Internet. If you are a history teacher looking for a great activity that explores the Salem Witch trials, this is an invaluable bookmark for you as well. Using a “choose your own adventure” approach, the multimedia activity draws students into history by having them “virtually” face many of the impossible situations and decisions that people faced during the 17th century when witchcraft hysteria had a grip on the New England colonies, particularly Salem, Massachusetts. Click here to see a quick demonstration. A short narrative introduces the visitor to the event that served as the catalyst: a young girl mysteriously falling sick. At this … Continue reading
Posted in Drama
Tagged arthur miller, classroom technology, crucible lessons, digital, digital text, engage students, english, etext, high school, high school english, interactive crucible, interactive lesson, language arts, language arts websites, lesson plans, online english, online high school, online lesson plans, salem, salem witch trials, the crucible
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Interactive “A Jury of Her Peers”
Hello fellow teachers and tech integration enthusiasts. I’m back from a short break. A major project in my graduate class has kept me away from blogging for nearly two weeks. The good news is I’ve been developing an interactive Shakespeare website I’ll soon be able to introduce here. For now, I’ve got another interactive text to tell you about. It is part of “Interactives” by Annenberg Media—a collection of lessons which span across the curriculum and that are meant to “enhance and improve students’ skills in a variety of curricular areas.” These activities range from 3D Geometry and History to the subject of this blog—Language Arts. Only four Language Arts “Interactives” are available at this time, but it is easy to imagine connections between Language Arts and some of the activities in other subjects such as history. For example, anyone teaching Marlowe or Shakespeare might find the Renaissance Interactives in … Continue reading
Posted in Reading, Uncategorized
Tagged digital, digital text, engage students, english, etext, high school, high school english, interactive lesson, language arts, language arts websites, lesson plans, online english, online high school, online lesson plans, technology integration, textbook
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Interactive Shakespeare: A Really Cool, Totally Free Digital Textbook
November 23, 2010 It’s not hard to find Shakespeare resources on the internet. In fact, in a way it’s too easy, so teachers are often left to sift through thousands of bland websites in search of a unique and useful one. When I searched “Shakespeare Lesson Plans” on Google today, it garnered me more than 400,000 results. It’s hard to know where to start. But then I came across one that I think is especially remarkable, one that exemplifies everything I think of when I consider the term “interactive” in language arts. The Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP) Interactive Folio and Study Guide: Romeo and Juliet is one of the finest interactive resources I’ve come across in my search for truly interactive language arts resources. This is how CASP describes it on their site: “The Interactive Folio and Study Guide is the result of two years of research and … Continue reading
Posted in Drama, Shakespeare
Tagged digital, language arts, lesson plans, romeo and juliet, shakespeare, textbook
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Digital BookTalks Generate Excitement About Books
Any language arts teacher will tell you that in our current age of media saturation, getting students interested in reading an “old fashioned” book can be a daunting challenge. In my classroom I often hear comments like “I heard that book is really boring,” or “That book looks too long,” or even “Can we just watch the movie?” Generating interest in any book is tough, but the University of Florida’s Digital Book Talks might just help make it a little easier with their video book talks for the classroom. According to the Center for Media Literacy, it is important for teachers to recognize that “media no longer just influence our culture. They are our culture.” Underscoring the importance of media literacy in today’s classrooms, Cyndy Scheibe, Ph. D and Faith Rogow, Ph. D of Ithaca College have published “Twelve Principles for Incorporating Media Literacy and Critical Thinking into any Curriculum.” … Continue reading
Posted in Reading
Tagged digital, english, high school, high school english, language arts, online high school, textbook
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Tv411.org
I love the TV411.org tagline: “Get Practice. Get Practical.” This really describes the functionality and usefulness of this website. It offers down-to-earth practical activities that teach useful practice to develop reading, vocabulary, and writing skills. TV411 is actually a site meant to complement the Adult Literacy Media Alliance’s community outreach programs. It is a tool for teaching “adults the reading and math skills essential for good health.” Though it is designed for adult education, it is a site I have found most useful for teaching high school students as well. Too often a Google search for “interactive” lesson plans nets a lot of online quizzes that do little if anything to engage students. This site, on the other hand, offers a number of exercises that actually engage the students. Take the “reading” section for example. In this section, you may choose from a series of activities including “Finding Faulty Logic,” … Continue reading