Module H Integration

For this week’s blog exercise, I came across a website for Secondary Language Arts educators, located at http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Language_Arts/Literature.   It’s called the “Educator’s Reference Desk,” hosted by the Information Institute of Syracuse.  This site lists Literature Lesson plans for educators, submitted by other Language arts teachers for other people to use in their classrooms.  Most of the lessons are geared towards secondary school teachers, but there are also some areas that would be useful for elementary levels as well.  There are even some options for college students. 

Not only are these lessons geared towards the literary component of language arts, but there are several lesson plans also geared towards time periods, poetry mastery, and approaches to criticism and critical thinking development. 

In addition to lesson plans, the site also offers links to further resources, in the section named “Resource Guides.”  The creators of the website also archived questions asked between 1992 and 2003, so that the most basic and commonly asked questions are answered before having to be asked.   Teachers interested can also use the built-in search engine on the site to find specific resources, and link back to the Department of Education’s website for their state.  I think that this site would be really helpful to me, and other educators that would like to see how other teachers approached teaching their Language Arts subject matter to young people.

Module G Integration

I found a website in the Integration Corner of the Course Port website, that would be a great site for an interdisciplinary approach for a middle school grade level.  It’s located at http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/.   The website is based on a museum in San Fransisco, the Exploratorium- for “science, art, and human perception.”  I think it would be an awesome field trip idea for an educational facility in California to explore this website and then at the conclusion, go visit the museum.  Even if you aren’t in California, the website is a great find with its many interactive resources for learning and development.  For example, it has a “Geometry Playground,” where kids can really learn a lot about geometry and have a lot of fun at the same time in the virtual world.  Another area of the site is Bob Miller’s  “Light Walk” where students can learn how to make a pin hole camera and learn about shadows and shapes made of light.  There’s a “Science of Music” link that will allow kids to learn about music, as well as create their own.  Similarly, there is also a “Science of Cooking” where students can learn about food chemistry.  The website is a fun way to explore many different subjects at the same time.

Module F Integration

I found a website, located at http://www97.intel.com/en/ProjectDesign that has a wide array of project ideas for multiple grade levels and subjects.  This site takes in to account the different grade curricula and displays many ideas to help educators teach students how to apply their knowledge to the real world.  You can search through the projects by grade level or by subject, and see how each project idea applies to each learning technique or curriculum study.  It also shows links to other websites that demonstrate teaching concepts to teachers about getting kids to use their higher order thinking skills, and why it is necessary to help students learn how to learn in and of itself. 

The tabs on the top of the website show four different approaches to navigating the site- Project Design,  Thinking Skills, the Unit Plan Index, and Instructional Strategies.  Each of these areas help instructors teach better.  In the Project Design you can find the different assignment recommendations to help kids apply their knowledge, as well as guidelines on how to prepare a project itself for a large number of students to get the most benefit. In the Thinking Skills section you can see which projects help promote which skills that kids should be learning.  The Unit Plan index helps instructors make specific projects for different subjects, and finally the Instructional Strategies offers further resources for teachers to help organize classrooms and activities.  I believe that this site is a great find for teachers that want to help their students learn how to think for themselves.

Integration for Module E- Journey through the Internet

In the Integration Corner for Chapter 5, the website that most appealed to me was a site for teachers created by Scholastic, listing “Internet Field Trips.”  (http://teacher.scholastic.com/fieldtrp/index.htm)  It has an index of subjects including Art, Science, Reading, Vocabulary, Writing, Social Studies, Math and more—and all of these sections are geared to helping educators teach a variety of subjects within these fields.  Each page is an “Internet Field Trip”- literally a trip through the internet.  When you click one of these subjects, you are taken to a page with material that is embedded with links to other areas of the internet.  For example, the page for Series Books under the Literature section:  When this “Internet Field Trip” is clicked, the next page that comes up is an article that touches on various authors who have written children’s book series.  There is a Tour Itinerary bar, with links to Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, R.L. Stine, and many other authors’ web pages where an instructor can go to get ideas about what material to possibly introduce to his or her students. 

The other subject areas on this site have the same formats for different Internet Trips.  This scholastic site is somewhat like an Internet Archive for resources on these topics.  Instructors who use this site would benefit from its material, because instead of having to search for new ideas to further a certain study, by clicking one link they’ll be exposed to the material they are seeking from different kinds of websites all across the internet.

Module D- literary web site integration

I found a website that I believe would be great for getting kids excited about reading.  It’s located at http://www.magickeys.com/books/.   This website has got all sorts of children’s books, in digitized media- including chapters, pages, and illustrations.  Kids can log onto the internet with their parents or teachers and choose from these published works, and view the literature and reading material online.  This concept teaches young kids about technology, helps them use computers, and saves paper!  If more schools used these kinds of sites, more budgeted money could be spent taking the classroom forward.  Some of the books on these sites are also interactive, so that when the student clicks on certain words, it says the word aloud.   Indicated by a speaker icon, kids can learn how to read quicker and more easily by knowing what resources are available to them.  They won’t have to wait for a teacher or parent to help them understand the material , because the anticipated questions are answered for them already on the website.  This also helps the child become more independent and self-reliant, which is a necessary skill for them to learn at an early age.  I think that this website could really help children learn in the classroom, and on their own as well.

Module C Integration exercise

I found a great site for early childhood educators and elementary school teachers to aid in reading and language arts development at http://goodnightstories.com/stories.htm.  It is a simple website- nothing on it is too complicated and it has simple graphics and other attributes, but I found that the content of the site was valuable and endearing- I think kids would love this website!  Because of it’s simplicity, I also think it’s a great way for younger children to get involved in the internet and technology.  It’s easy for beginners to navigate and it has larger font and child-friendly graphics to draw the attention of an early reader.  This site has several different sections: See a story, Hear a story, Finish a story, Fill-in a story, as well as others.  In “See a Story,” students and click on the icon and view stories with pictures and words to help them learn how to read.  In “Hear a story,” students can see words and listen to them being read, which is a process invaluable to learning how to read, and it’s wonderful that the students can experience that with technology as well as parental or teacher instruction.  In “Finish a Story” and “Fill-in a story,” students can be more creative in the way they want the stories to occur, and can gain practice in interactive media technology, by choosing and controlling how they view what happens on the website.  This is a great way for students to learn to read and understand words and pictures, as well as learn how to use the internet in a child-friendly and simplistic manner.

Module B Integration Exercise

I found a wonderful website in the Integration Corner for chapter 2. It’s located at http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/. This website is not just a display for students to learn ideas from, but is actually an interactive site for students to participate in writing workshops with published poets and authors. The site links to videos and other multimedia resources for students to see and hear their favorite poets as they are instructed in these workshops. It is segmented into three parts, one for each stage of schooling- elementary, middle, and high school. After the students participate in the workshops, they can publish their own work online. (The website expressly instructs students to only submit any information with a parent or teacher present.) After they do so, the poems they write can be accessed in the “Read Student Writing” section. This website appealed to me because I really believe that workshops like these can inspire students to unleash their creativity through writing. By showing students how their favorite poets do it, they can emulate the writing forms and techniques and really learn how to write in-depth and more clearly. Students can also feel a sense of accomplishment when they see their published poems on the website, proudly displayed.


I think that others would find this interesting for the same reasons- the students will love being able to learn from people they look up to, and actively participate in workshops specifically formulated to build upon their current knowledge of poetry and literature.

Integration Exercise

In the Integration Corner of the Technology for Educators book website, under the language arts and reading section, I found a website that I feel would be very beneficial for students in a language arts class. It’s called ipl2.org, and it lists a multitude of resources for students (and teachers!) to use in order to further their studies. The website has an easy-to-navigate front page that lists different sections and genres of study, and creates an easy way for kids to access what they are looking for. In addition to this, it has a homework help section that includes a dictionary and encyclopedia.  This aspect is the most important to me, because I really believe that a student should always have as many resources as possible when they need help, so that they can pursue it themselves and succeed.


In one of the subcategories, “Reading Zone”, the website even lists reading material for students of various ages. Here, students can find links to short stories, poems, magazines, and book lists with additional research information links. These links would really be a great source for when students have to do research projects on their material, since by using this one site they’ll be able access information regarding the author and subject matter.

Ipl2.org not only has resource links to aid students, but creates a fun atmosphere as well. Students can navigate on the site to locations of games and puzzles relevant to language arts and reading education, which entertain as well as educate.

Blogging for Classroom Improvement

     Blogging could be a really useful tool to integrate into my curriculum when I become an educator. I plan to teach Middle or High School English, which is a subject where internet communication could really come in handy. When I find something online, for example a link or an article that might pertain to the literature being studied, I could post what I find on a blog so that any student who wishes will have instant access to the helpful information. In addition to this, I could post tips and guidelines for assignments and papers on the blog, so that students will have an aid when they are at home. This way, all they would have to do if they had a question is go online to the class blog and find their answer without having to wait until the next class to ask in person. This would help them in areas such as time management, as well as help them to be more individually resourceful. It would increase their sense of confidence, and help them be more comfortable with the material being studied in class. Using a blog for class will definitely be a tool that I will use in the future.

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