changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Creative Problem-Solving with Ezra Jack Keats
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Students explore problem-solving in this new ReadWriteThink lesson, which explores the challenges faced by characters in Ezra Jack Keats’ picture books. After reading a variety of Keats’ books, students explore the problems that the characters face and solutions that they choose through classroom discussion, story mapping, and comparison and contrast of several Keats’ books. The lesson was written by Vanessa Udry of Tolono, Illinois.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: The Children’s Picture Book Project
Friday, November 03, 2006
In this new ReadWriteThink lesson, students evaluate published children’s picture storybooks. Students then plan, write, illustrate, and publish their own children’s picture books. The lesson was submitted by Junius Wright of Charleston, South Carolina.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Bio-graph: Graphing Life Events
This writing activity integrates mathematical graphing with writing and can be used to generate a number of different kinds of writing activities, but lends itself well to biographical and narrative writing. Students interview other students, choose significant life events, rate them, graph them, and write about one or more. The lesson plan was written by Susan Spangler of Fredonia, New York.
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changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Thinking Inductively: A Close Reading of Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry Picking”
Thursday, October 12, 2006
This ReadWriteThink lesson eases students’ fear of interpreting complex poetry by teaching them an inductive strategy with which they determine patterns of imagery, diction, and figurative language in order to unlock meaning. Although the lesson uses Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry-Picking,” this strategy can be applied to a variety of poems. The lesson was written by Lane Dye of the
Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP) at Kennesaw State University.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Fair Use Lesson Plan
Monday, March 06, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Fair Use Lesson Plan
In a moment of inspiration, I wrote a new lesson for the site today. I was searching for resources for Copyright Awareness Week for Inbox, and coming up empty. I hate that copyright is so frequently defined as in terms of plagiarism, and I refused to come up with resources that fall into that way of thinking. To fill the hole in the section, I wrote
Campaigning for Fair Use: Public Service Announcements on Copyright Awareness. In the lesson, students explore a range of resources on fair use and copyright then design their own audio public service announcements (PSAs), to be broadcast over the school’s public address system. Work can also be published as podcasts on the Internet. Students tap research and persuasive writing strategies as they design announcements for an audience of their peers.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Three Lessons!
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Three Lessons!
A content report was due today, so I made a last-minute push to get things online. Finished up the lesson I have been writing for several days now, and edited and posted two others:
- From Dr. Seuss to Jonathan Swift: Exploring the History behind the Satire
- After exploring the historical allusions behind Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book, the whole class discusses the history behind a passage from Gulliver’s Travels. After this group exploration, students research further historical allusions in Swift’s work and share their findings with the class. (This one I wrote)
- Alphabiography Project: Totally You
- Instead of writing their life stories in a linear fashion, students write their biographies from A to Z in this nontraditional autobiography activity, which was inspired by the book Totally Joe by James Howe. After the entry for each letter in their alphabiographies, students sum up the stories and vignettes by recording the life lessons they learned from the events.
- Finding Common Ground: Using Logical, Audience-Specific Arguments
- Using a hypothetical situation, students generate arguments from opposing points of view, discover areas of commonality through the use of Venn diagrams, and construct logical, audience-specific arguments in order to persuade their opponents. Students also have an opportunity to role-play with classmates in order to refine their arguments.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Figuring Out Swift and Seuss
Friday, February 24, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Figuring Out Swift and Seuss
Forgive me as I freewrite a splat. You see I'm a little stuck on a lesson plan, and I can't figure out where I want it to go (other than to end up as a perfect piece that I can be happy with).
Okay, the lesson idea: using Dr. Seuss to introduce satirical techniques used by Jonathan Swift. It's a Dr. Seuss book that I used when I was teaching,
The Butter Battle Book, and I found an article that does something similar to what I did. The events in the Dr. Seuss book are compared to the political satire of the Swift's Big-Endians and Little-Endians. Simple and clear parallels that students can usually see.
My problem is that I can't tell where the lesson is going. You read both texts and discuss—then what? Do they just discuss? That can't be enough. And I need to work in an interactive. I could do the simple Venn Diagram or Chart, but I'd really like to come up with something more sophisticated or at least less like a hoop to jump through. I want something that is actually important to the lesson. Not that comparing things in a chart of Venn diagram isn't important. I just think that I can do better than that.
I think that I need some kind of divine inspiration. I feel like there's some really cool idea out there that I am just not thinking of for some reason. I could ask students to write their own satirical piece on a current issue, but the lesson is supposed to be an introduction to
Gulliver's Travels. I have nothing against writing satire, but it seems off-topic. Perhaps what would make the most sense would be to work through the historical allusions in the Swift passage that I'm using and then send students off to use similar techniques on another chunk from the text. Hmm. Maybe students are to become experts on certain terms, searching for their historical significance and then explaining those terms to the class as they come up in the reading. Hmm. The class could put together a kind of glossary on the references that Swift is making in his text. So the focus is mostly on research and how Swift uses exaggeration, understatement, and parody to make commentary on society.
If I go with that, I'll need to make a list of possible terms for students to research and collect Web sites and references that they can consult as they do that research. I could probably use the Travelogue to move them through the sites that include details on the book's background. Some of the terms would be easier to figure out than others, but it's likely that a lot are basically defined in their textbooks. They could then go to the library and research the historical references in more detail.
Presentations would be spread through the reading of the book (not all done at the end). Whenever a term is encountered, the student who did the research on that item would provide the background and details. At the end, all students would be expected to piece together all of the ways that Swift satirizes society to draw conclusions about the overall message that the book makes to its readers.
There. That seems like a workable plan. See? Writing and thinking do work together :)
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Gender Issues and Comics
Thursday, February 23, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Gender Issues and Comics
The
Calvin and Hobbes from 02/23/95 would be a great discussion starter for talk of media and gender. I may revise
Comic Makeovers: Examining Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Media, or perhaps I could write up a 6&8211;8 lesson plan that uses it for a similar exploration.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: It Doesn't Have to End That Way
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
ReadWriteThink: It Doesn't Have to End That Way
Finished revising and published a fancy new version of
It Doesn’t Have to End That Way: Using Prediction Strategies with Literature, a K-2 lesson plan that now uses one of my computers in children's literature and technology books,
Arthur's Computer Disaster.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Mapping Locations from a Novel
Monday, February 20, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Mapping Locations from a Novel
Can't Remember Who Whacked Whom? Just Check the Map on the Web Site - New York Times—Potential lesson plan idea here. Obviously not about
The Sopranos. Would be useful though to create a map of a community or whatever in a reading that students had done and have them plot out the places on the map where significant things happen in the story. Many books are around with maps for the events, from Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Woods to the fly leaf maps in
The Lord of the Rings. After looking at those examples, students could create their own maps as a book report alternative or perhaps a literature circle project students could complete and then share with the class.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Macintosh Commercial Interactive
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Macintosh Commercial Interactive
I managed to hide in the office from the influx of flowers and candy and such today. It's depressing really. Even without going out there, I ended up sitting at the desk crying a little. I am so stupid and lame.
Created an
interactive for the 1984 Macintosh Commercial lesson plan. It steps students through some key phrases and the related images in the commercial. I wish it could be more polished, but we're limited by the way the tool works. I'm close to finishing the lesson plan, but I'm not going to make it live till tomorrow. I've rearranged things 3 times this evening, so I want to read it again just to make sure I didn't mix things up.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Giving a <i>Hoot</i>
Sunday, February 12, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Giving a Hoot
Book Report Alternative: A Character’s Letter to the Editor is now live! The fun part about this lesson for me was working up the examples. Carl Hiaasen's novel
Hoot is coming out as a
movie; so I used the situations in the novel for my examples. It's a natural for the lesson, since Roy (the protagonist) is on a crusade to save the burrowing owls on a plot of land destined to become Mother Paula's All-American House of Pancakes.
I also (finally) gave in and brought the new microwave into the kitchen. I bought this thing two summers ago, but I was going to keep using the existing microwave till it died. It's still going, but it's very slow. Takes longer to get things done than it should. When I moved it, I also found that it's much bigger than the new one and it's heavy as lead. I'm not at all sure how I'm going to get it out of the kitchen without hurting my back. I need a boyfriend long enough to tote things. Sigh. The positive side: wow is a well-working microwave useful. For instance, I'm used to microwave popcorn popping maybe, on a lucky day, 1/2 of the kernels. Enter the new microwave! There wasn't one unpopped kernel! Now I just need to finish cleaning and rearranging stuff. I want to get the toaster oven out there.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Letters to the Editor (and a Bonus Floral Surprise)
Friday, February 10, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Letters to the Editor (and a Bonus Floral Surprise)
Finished writing and published
Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor, a basic 9-12 lesson plan. It links to the
18th List of Ten: Ten Persuasive Prompts: Persuasive-Descriptive.
I'm creating an alternate version that has students adopt a persona from a book they've read and write a letter to the editor from that character's point of view.
Mom sent me flowers for Valentine's Day, with a little stuffed dog and a heart-shaped box of chocolates. :) It was a nice surprise when I arrived at work. Especially today.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: In the News
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
ReadWriteThink: In the News
The sidebar on the
Edutopia article "
Tech Teaches" points to ReadWriteThink as a "cool link for online learning."
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changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Audience/Purpose and a Graphic Organizer
Monday, February 06, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Audience/Purpose and a Graphic Organizer
Spent most of today working on the Inbox draft for tomorrow's issue. Otherwise, just little things. There's a new LinkScan report, so I have a new list of broken links to deal with (though I only looked through the report and didn't fix anything yet).
While looking for the resources for Inbox I found a couple of useful articles. "Putting Writing to Work" from December 1998
Teaching English in the Two-Year College talks about the benefits of authentic audience and purpose for students' writing. The author asserts that when reading and writing are “performed solely as an academic exercise, the composing process becomes an endurance test of any writer’s self-discipline, time-management, and motivation” (168).
"The Value of Idea Grids" from August 2002
Classroom Notes Plus outlines ideas for using a three-column graphic organizer. It's fairly basic, but it may be something I could develop into a simple interactive. I'm going to ask about it tomorrow in our team meeting.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Dystopia and <i>The Matrix</i> lesson plan
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Dystopia and The Matrix lesson plan
Late to work again. I seem to be stuck in my own dystopia while I work on the dystopia lesson plan. Fortunately, I finally finished the lesson so maybe the dystoppia will end.
Decoding The Matrix: Exploring Dystopian Characteristics through Film is now live. That makes 33 lessons and a nice content report turned in today.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: March Calendar and Other To-Do Items
Monday, January 30, 2006
ReadWriteThink: March Calendar and Other To-Do Items
Apparently watching
Wonderland before going to bed last night was a really bad idea. I couldn't go to sleep for thoughts of someone breaking in and crashing my head in with a tire iron. Not good. As if I don't have enough insane thoughts in my head.
I finished editing the
March entries on the ReadWriteThink calendar. I moved our files from the old fileserver to the new server and set up some preliminary permissions. We'll do testing and change things as needed.
Worked through a pile of little to-dos: updated the 100s chart with the latest lessons. We're up to 32 now. I turn in a content report on the 1st, and I hope to get some more completed before then. I fixed some errors in printouts for the
Story Map Interactive, and updated the
list of Inbox topics to date, which I mainly use internally to figure out what I wrote in the past. Did some work on a dystopia lesson plan this evening. That and laundry.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Political Cartoons and Raymond Carver Lessons
Sunday, January 29, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Political Cartoons and Raymond Carver Lessons
I finished and posted the lesson on Hopper and Carver:
Outside In: Finding A Character’s Heart Through Art. It has a whole series of interactives, because of the way that the tools work. I had to create one for each painting. Otherwise, students would be printing out tons of irrelevant stuff when they worked.
I also finished my political cartoons lesson plan:
Analyzing the Stylistic Choices of Political Cartoonists. It uses the same
Comic Vocabulary Interactive. I also created a little interactive just for this lesson,
Analyzing a Political Cartoon: "Settin' on a Rail," which walks through some of the analysis of an historical cartoon to help students understand the process.
Other than getting those lesson plans finished, I didn't really get much else done. Watched
Wonderland on TiVo, a somewhat disturbing movie.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Thursday, January 26, 2006
My MCI contact got the server up and running about 10 minutes after I went to bed last night. I called him today, and he walked me through what he does when this happens. Maybe next time, I can fix this problem myself. I hope so.
Called and postponed the appointment with the hand surgeon. My doctor said that I could last week, but I wanted to wait till the last minute. My hands seem reasonably okay. I'm always afraid that I'm going to have a relapse. I moved the appointment several weeks down, to the 20th. If my hands are still okay, I'll just go ahead and cancel it.
On some sound bite this morning, I heard some government person (Gonzales?) say that something was "inconsistent with the facts." Guess saying that it was a lie was too clear and direct.
We had a lot of coming and going in the office today. Sharon was home with sick kids, but everyone else seemed to be in the building, and at some point in our office.
I did finish the
Comic Vocabulary Interactive and posted the related lesson plan,
The Comic Book Show and Tell. It's a 9-12 lesson plan that focuses on descriptive writing by having students write comic scripts that another student uses to create illustrations. Students quickly see that if they fail to include enough details in their scripts, the illustrator will not have the information necessary to create the comic. There are PDFs of the vocabulary from the interactive, so the lesson can be completed even if the teacher does not have computers in the classroom.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: ReadWriteThink: Digital Literacy
Thursday, January 12, 2006
ReadWriteThink: Digital Literacy
Today felt much better once Lisa and I decided to take tomorrow off. I even came home and did some minor tidying. Even ran that Swiffer Carpet Flicker thing over the rugs, which were ripe with dirty little whatzits.
Sadly, Sharon was out sick today, with some sort of stomach upset that seems to be going around the building. And the really worrisome part of this is that Sharon fixed lunch yesterday for Lisa and I. It seemed like a good thing when she shared her leftovers. I may have to rethink that if we both end up sick in the next few days.
I finally finished writing a new lesson plan,
Defining Literacy in the Digital World. It's similar to lessons that we have at 3-5 and 6-8, which ask students to create a "living definition of reading." I tried to move things more toward an explicitly multimodal notion of literacy. I think it would be a nice series of activities to complete before students embark on
writing technology autobiographies, but it could also be used at the beginning of any term as a touchstone for all the activities that students complete during the course.
Today's problem is that the
Service Engine Soon light came on in the car this morning. I have no idea what the problem is. Something pricey, I'm sure. I wish I could afford a new car. I love my little car, but it's just gotten too hard on my back and knees. I need a car where my butt is higher than my knees, rather than one where I feel like I'm getting up off the floor every time I try to get out of it. I did some pricing of the car that I want online tonight. In theory, maybe I could afford it. I need to get the roof paid for though. And then there are my other debts. Still, I may be looking for something new as soon as tomorrow, depending upon what the magic light means.
Labels: ReadWriteThink
Posted Friday, 09-Nov-2007 21:51:51 PST
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