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.