Tag Archives: etext

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 →

Posted in American Literature, Classical Literature, Common Core Standards, Lesson Plans, World Literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What if Your Textbooks Were Free and Customizable?

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Scott

As the school year winds down, you might be thinking about what new or different books you hope to use in the fall.  If you are, I encourage you to check out Open Educational Resources (OER) textbooks.  OER or “Open Source” textbooks are digital, often customizable, textbooks published and available on the web.  Many of them are quite comprehensive and are written by highly-qualified professionals with advanced degrees.  These books also often include interactive elements and multimedia such as sound and video.   Best of all, they’re free. In the Classroom Here are some OER sources you can explore.  Since these are open and free, you’ll see that you can pick and choose from multiple sources for your students instead of having to commit to one textbook from one publisher. Many of them are also available in PDF format for download and to print either for free or for a … Continue reading →

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The Internet Archive: One Very Big Collection of Multimedia

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Scott

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 →

Posted in American Literature, Audio, Drama, Poetry, Reading | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Jack London Collection Online

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Scott

Jack London died of kidney disease when he was only 40, but during his short life he was an unusually prolific writer.  When he died in 1916, he left behind everything from the adventure novels for which he is most known, to journalism, essays, and letters.  The Sonoma State University Library has gathered and organized much about this important American author in the Jack London Online Collection.  This site includes an audio book version of The Call of the Wild, a radio drama, a searchable collection of images of him, his family, and friends, and a sizeable assortment of primary documents including letters, postcards, certificates, bookplates, and much more. The Jack London Online Collection has many useful applications for those who teach Jack London or for those doing research.  The site is very well-organized, offering materials by format—audio files, documents, images, etc. as well as sections on “What’s New,” a … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Audio, Lesson Plans, Reading | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Learn and Teach Out Loud: Add Some Audio or Video Flare to Your Lit Units

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Scott

When recently looking for electronic resources to add to my short story unit, I came across LearnOutLoud.com where hundreds of recorded works are available free for download.  Learn Out Loud doesn’t just have audio recordings of books and stories (though there are plenty of those); they also have podcasts and videos. Some of the resources cost money, but there are plenty of free downloads (hundreds across all content areas.  And, for those ambitious teachers among us, you can even upload your own teaching content (lectures, etc.) and try to sell it through Teach Out Loud.  Next time you do a particularly good job of dynamically introducing Romeo and Juliet, maybe you can turn your introduction into some cash.  In the Teach Out Loud section, you can also browse content already published from other teachers.  Teach Out Loud has hundreds of downloads available including readings from Shakespeare’s Sonnets for $1.99 and … Continue reading →

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Interactive Salem Witch Trials

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Scott

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 →

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Interactive “A Jury of Her Peers”

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Scott

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 →

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