WritingResearch in YAlitResearch in Children's LitStudy Questions for YA/ChLit Books

Teaching K-12

Do you often feel like Sisyphus?

This site will help.

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."
~ Albert Einstein

artistic screen-savers

Sources for the Classroom

• Lesson Plans
  • Lesson Plan approved by the Department of English at SJSU
    • Outline version to be filled in with specifics
      • PBS--for teachers. Thousands of topical lesson plans
• Web sites for Educators--a comprehensive listing of available sites

• State Standards for English Language Arts----Kindergarten through 12th grade--message first
  • Introduction
  • K through 11 and 12th grades
  • ELD---Pdf file
  • Curriculum and Instruction
  • Reading and Language Arts
  • Standards, Assessment and Professional Development
  • Recommended Literature for grades K through 12
  • ELD standards and Assessment

• Teaching ELD
• Ask ERic--a great source for lesson plans and other information
• SCORE---a very comprehensive guide to lesson plans
• Preparation for the SAT and GRE
• Sites for enabling teachers greater use of email and interactive classrooms via the net
• Bilbliomania--a superb free link for etexts of short stories, dramas, novels, poetry
• Children's Literature Resource for Teacher
• National Council for Teachers of English: home page that includes chat areas, lesson plans, and up-to-date information
• Puzzlemaker--free, for all sorts of classroom activities--a great program
• Funderstanding: about theoretical ways of learning
• Teachnology--the web portal for educators
• Optical Illusions
• Book Reports: Over 100 innovative ways to have Students give book reports
• Humanities Web Sites for Teachers
• "Metaphors We Live By," Lakoff and Johnson's explanation of how metaphors structure our world
• Metaphorical nature of language: Contructing meaning from Lakoff and Johnson's discoveries--an article
• Innovative Ideas for Teaching a Novel in High School
• Teaching the Short Story in the classroom
• Historical and Multicultural links for studying issues and books

  Gradebook Sites--

• Gradepal-http://www.gradepal.com/--offers for a $35.00 per year fee a web site and grading program
• Classroom planner software--http://www.scheppturner.com/
• Free grade program--http://www.classroomwindows.com/
• freeware grading program--http://www.shelltech.com/--create reports, drop lowest scores, extra credit assignments
• gradekeeper--http://www.gradekeeper.com/--a grading program and on-line interface for $20--Win and Mac] Powerful and easy to use gradebook software that allows teachers to record grades for the entire school year. Gradekeeper can also create a web site so parents and students can check their grades online.
• gradebusters--http://www.gradebusters.com/--free trial and download
• 1st class gradebook--http://www.1st-class-software.com/--Here's one for all of us---free trial and if you don't like it the manufacturer will send you $50
• http://www.tucows.com/--A site that grades grading programs and offers either shareware or freeware programs of all kinds. Search for gradebook
• http://download.cnet.com/--site offers a number of useful and free software

• Bloom's Taxonomy--a guide for devising questions
  • Major Categories in Bloom's Taxonomy
  • Really useful questions from Bloom's Taxonomy
  • Bloom's Book Review Questions
• About.com--Guides to help you learn, find, and share

• Classroom Management
  • Classroom management profile--take the test, see for yourself.
  • A really good list of classroom management links
• Young Adult: Middle and Secondary Language Arts Resouces for Teachers
  • An article from ALAN discussing YA books focusing on the medieval period
• Link to Classroom Management tips from Education World
• Internet 4 kids--a great site for teaching kids about the internet & developing their own web page

  

• Historical Searches: Newspaper archive
• Teaching American Literature--sample syllabi from University of Pennsylvania
• American Literature Web Resources-
• American Stories--a short but very good site
• Interactive site for teaching American Literature
• Author, Poet, and Book List Links
• Book List's choice of outstanding books for Youth
• Game for Twisted Fairy Tales: for use in schools. Free
• Summer Reading Ideas for various grades in High School
• Quotations for Quick Writes and other Writing prompts
• Teaching Ways to Avoid Sentence Fragments: handouts and lesson plans

Specific Unit Lesson Plans for Middle & High School English Classes

See separate links for more material on books especially for Young Adult Literature and Children's Literature

Lincoln-Sudbury High School, Boston, Massachusetts. A Sample High School English Curriculum from an outstanding school:

Links to studying Literature from an Historical perspective

• Exploring Ancient World Cultures Essay Index
• Essays and Articles on Middle English Literature
• Labyrinth: A World-Wide Web Server for Medieval Studies Chaucer's life and works, particularly the Canterbury Tales.
• Romanticism
• The Nineteenth-century Prose Page
• Victorian Literature Overview
• Nineteenth Century British and Irish Authors
• A funny witful version of Percy Bysshe Shelley's wonderful poem "Ozymandias"

  
  Writing Prompts and other related Activities

• "Why I Write" by Stanley Dudek--demonstrates anaphora and provides a good prompt
• Visit The Literary Link's Writing Page
• Why Johnny Can't Read: an e-text journal article
• NCAC--on-line material about censorship

School Reform Issues Across the Country: Strategies for Improving Literary

The Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory
at Brown University (The LAB)

Articles about Young Adult Literature and Teaching English in 7-12 Classes

• Teen Literacy Across the Curriculum article
• An article about a current YA controversy
• An article about challenging the canon
• a controversy about literature that concerns all English studies, Literature Lost: a review by Frank Kermode on Professor John Ellis's controversial book.