Jun 20
tengrrlBedford Bits, composition, social media collaboration, digital writing, poetry, QR codes, transmedia
Just published last week, Troy Hicks’ collection on Reading and Writing Transmedia on the National Writing Project’s Digital Is site explores how digital writing is evolving.
The collection of texts “primarily authored by Laura Fleming represents one educator’s vision of what transmedia is, and what it can be, for teachers and students learning to read and write in a digital age.” You’ll find an explanation and history of transmedia as well as example texts and pedagogical reflections.
Also out last week are these posts from Bedford Bits posts:
A Few Extra Links
For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Have a great week!
—Traci Gardner
[Photo: Gunter Somerfeld, Transmedia Development & The New World Model by Gulltaggen, on Flickr]
May 31
tengrrlclassroom activity, lesson plan, ReadWriteThink bee, bullying, calendar, cnn, journalism, Literature, news, poetry, ReadWriteThink, scripps, spelling, walt whitman, whitman
It’s the time of year when spelling exotic words that you’d never use in day-to-day communication is all the rage. The final rounds of the Scripps Spelling Bee take place, with daily coverage on ESPN.
As I wrote in an NCTE Inbox blog post a couple of years ago, the problem is that while spelling has apparently become prime time entertainment, spelling bees still aren’t good pedagogy. A 2007 Washington Post article explains that spelling bees provide limited support to students learning about words and the ways that they work. Sue Ann Gleason, the teacher quoted in the article explains the spelling bees “honor the children who already know how to spell, but they do little to support those who need explicit instruction.”
So while the Spelling Bee may get kids and their families interested in spelling for a few days, take a look at the spelling lesson plans and activities on ReadWriteThink for ways to support every student (not just the ones who can spell funny words like weissnichtwo. And check out the calendar entries, lesson plans, and classroom activities below for more classroom-ready ideas. Have a great week!
New Resources
- Listen to the most recent podcasts on ReadWriteThink:
- Are your budding scientists eager to discover what makes plants grow? Check out The Science of Spring from Science NetLinks and watch students’ imaginations bloom.
- Inspire students with some summer reading activities:
- Find more resources to kick off a summer of learning from our partners on Thinkfinity.
From the Calendar
Connecting with Other Teachers
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us.
[Photo: Bee by _PaulS_, on Flickr]
Apr 25
tengrrlclassroom activity, lesson plan, ReadWriteThink August Wilson, baseball, Coretta Scott King, dia, drama, Library of Congress, Lois Duncan, mystery, pat mora, poetry
April 30 is El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day). Developed under the leadership of author Pat Mora, this celebration focuses on providing children with books in many languages and making reading an integral part of their lives.
El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros is supported by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, an ALA affiliate that provides library and information services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking community.
This week on ReadWriteThink, you can find activities for El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros as well as other lesson plans and resources for timely classroom activities. Have a great week!
New Resources
From the Calendar
Connecting with Other Teachers
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us. Have a great week!
—Traci Gardner
Apr 10
tengrrlclassroom activity, lesson plan, ReadWriteThink copyright, dictionary, Earth Day, Gary Soto, Noah Webster, poetry, Seamus Heaney, Shakespeare
It’s nearly Earth Day! Energize students about preserving the environment with eco-friendly classroom lessons and interactive games from Thinkfinity.org.
This week on ReadWriteThink, you can find more resources for Earth Day and other poetry activities, lesson plans, and calendar resources to support you. Have a great week!
New Resources
From the Calendar
- April 10: The Statute of Anne, an influential copyright law, went into effect in 1710. Make a class booklet on copyright rules to use as a reference. (For grades 6–12)
- April 12: Gary Soto, poet and children’s writer, was born in 1952. Compose stories and poetry that evoke memories and images of home, family, and community. (For grades K–6)
- April 13: Seamus Heaney was born on this day in 1939. Focus on figurative language with an exploration of Heaney’s poem, “Digging.” (For grades 7–12)
- April 14: Participate in Poem in Your Pocket Day! Select a poem and carry it in your pocket all day, sharing it wherever you go. (For grades 3–6)
- April 14: Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. Celebrate the publication of Webster’s Dictionary using a variation of the board game Balderdash. (For grades 2–12)
- April 15: The RMS Titanic sank on this day in 1912. Use the Internet Workshop model to explore web links about the Titanic disaster.
(For grades 3–12)
- Look ahead to next week for literacy activities on Paul Revere’s midnight ride, Earth Day, and the birthdays of writers William Shakespeare, Mary Hoffman and Barbara Park.
Connecting with Other Teachers
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us.
[Photo: NASA GOES-12 Full Disk view March 30, 2010 by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, on Flickr]
Apr 03
tengrrlclassroom activity, lesson plan, ReadWriteThink Billie Holiday, Drop Everything and Read, Earth Day, haiku, Marian Anderson, Maya Angelou, Pocahontas, poetry
The first days of April always make me think of the Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and of Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”
So many April poems, it’s little wonder that April is National Poetry Month. This week, ReadWriteThink has poetry activities, lesson plans, and calendar resources to support you. Have a great week!
New Resources
From the Calendar
Connecting with Other Teachers
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us. Have a great week!
[Photo:French Lilac Detail by farlane, on Flickr]
Apr 03
tengrrlBedford Bits, composition, social media assessment, CCCC11, CCCC2011, comics, graphic novels, inquiry, naming, poetry, storytelling, trauma, TYCA, war, writer's block, writing
The solution to writer’s block is cake! A round-up of Tips for Fighting Writer’s Block, from the Inside Higher Ed’s University of Venus blog, includes everything from setting rigid deadlines to sitting down for some cake and coffee.
Cake may not be the answer to every problem, but it can’t hurt to give it a try. My suggestion for curing writer’s block? Why not take a break and read one of the new entries posted on Bedford Bits last week?
- Holly Pappas discusses her techniques to foster a sense of curiosity, inquiry, and wonder in Learning to Ask the Questions.
- A picture might be worth a thousand words. But words paired with pictures? That’s worth even more! Andrea Lunsford discusses Words . . . and Images, and teaching graphic novels.
- What role does the Writing Center play in Writing-About-Writing? Blogger Doug Downs explores how tutors contribute to the pedagogical approach in WAWriting Center.
- What kind of progress students can make in one semester? Barclay Barrios shares another student paper and his comments in More Sample Work: Student Progress.
- High School Bits blogger Jodi Rice asks why people read literature and what reading will look like in the digital age in Storytelling 2.0.
- Where does the military get names for their operations? Reflecting on the Operation Odyssey Dawn, Traci Gardner talks about Naming and the Rhetoric of War.
- Susan Naomi Bernstein reflects on classroom assignments and her own writing in Writing for the Catastrophic Moment.
A Few Extra Reminders
We’re still looking for suggestions. Tell me what you want to know about teaching writing or about using digital tools in the composition classroom by leaving a comment. Your response will help shape upcoming posts.
[Photo: Chocolate cake slice by alexanderward12, on Flickr]
Mar 31
tengrrlpoetry, ReadWriteThink poetry
April is National Poetry Month, sponsored by Academy of American Poets and other poetry organizations. ReadWriteThink includes links to poetry lesson plans, websites, and classroom activities on the calendar entry for April 1.
I wondered, however, if we had enough resources on the site to write a different kind of poetry every day. I began with student interactives and then hit the site’s search engine to come up with the list below.
Each day has a link to a different kind of poetry writing, either a specific poetic form, like sonnets or acrostics, or poetry focused on a particular topic, like seasonal haiku or color poems. The materials range in grade levels, but could usually be adapted for any age (even college students).
So here’s the challenge for you and students: I found a different poem for every day of the month. How many different poems can you write?
Cross-posted to the NCTE Community ReadWriteThink.org Group and the Reading and Language Arts Group on the Thinkfinity Community.
[Photo: Magnetic Fridge Poetry by Minimalist Photography, on Flickr]
Mar 29
tengrrlclassroom activity, lesson plan, ReadWriteThink Anna Sewell, bullying, Cesar Chavez, DEAR, fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, Libya, Literature, poetry, reading, Spanish, Truman Capote
Hope March is heading out like a lamb for you. After all the snow and rain of the last weeks, we could all use a nice, pleasant transition into April. As you plan your classes for the last days of the month, ReadWriteThink has lesson plans and related resources to support you.
New Resources
From the Calendar
- March 30: Black Beauty author Anna Sewell was born in 1820. Through Sewell’s novel, explore cruelty to animals and extend the discussion to current events. (For grades 3–12)
- March 31: César Chávez was born on this day in 1927. research a civil rights leader and do a creative writing piece, followed by a short story, with their group. (For grades 7–12)
- April 1: April is National Poetry Month! Students are assigned to be “poets of the day” and are provided several models to create, illustrate, and present their different poems to the class. (For grades K–12)
- April 2: Hans Christian Andersen was born on this date in 1805. Compare one of Andersen’s stories to the original story with
the Venn Diagram tool, write fairy tale autobiographies, and explore satire with the movie Shrek. (For grades K–12)
- Look ahead to next week for literacy activities on Maya Angelou, Pocahontas, Billie Holiday, and Marian Anderson.
Connecting with Other Teachers
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us. Have a great week!
—Traci Gardner
[Photo: Young Irish Lamb Sitting. by moonjazz, on Flickr]
Mar 20
tengrrlclassroom activity, lesson plan, ReadWriteThink Caldecott, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, chickens, earthquake, haiku, Kate DiCamillo, nuclear energy, poetry, Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, tsunami
Spring is finally here. National Poetry Month is just weeks away. No matter what grade level you teach, ReadWriteThink has lesson plans and related resources to support you.
New Resources
From the Calendar
- March 21: It’s World Poetry Day! Explore a poem by Billy Collins, create themed poetry collections, annotate favorite poems, or try your hand at acrostics, diamante, letter, or shape poems. (For grades K–12)
- March 22: Randolph Caldecott was born on March 22, 1846. Create a classroom literary award modeled after the Caldecott Medal (For grades K–12)
- March 24: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof premiered in New York in 1955. Introduce students to the characteristics of drama with Reader’s Theater. (For grades 5–12)
- March 25: Celebrate Kate DiCamillo’s birthday today. After examining the characters in one of DiCamillo’s stories, students write original short stories featuring animals as central characters. (For grades 3–6)
- March 26: Poet Robert Frost was born in 1874. Celebrate Frost’s birthday and his poetry by exploring his innovation in the sonnet form. (For grades 3–12)
- Look ahead to next week for resources on National Poetry Month and the birthdays of César Chávez, Anna Sewell, and Hans Christian Andersen.
Connecting with Other Teachers
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us. Have a great week!
Mar 20
tengrrlBedford Bits, composition diversity, march madness, music, poetry, writing centers
It’s the time of year for basketball and brackets, underdogs and dream teams, last-second miracles and heartbreaking losses.
In the classroom, why not try a March Madness Poetry Tournament? It’s an activity you can easily customize for your class. Don’t have time for all 64 participants? Just move down a level or two to the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight. Not teaching poetry? Focus your tournament on whatever you’re reading, viewing, or talking about in class (or out). How about a Final Four showdown among four authors you’ve studied?
Even if you aren’t following basketball, we have some slam-dunk strategies for you, all posted on Bedford Bits in the last week:
A Few Extra Reminders!
[Photo: March Madness by toddwickersty, on Flickr]
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