LITE Home

A Sampling of How Middle School Students
Can Make A Difference With Technology

Exploring During Workshop

Literature Extension Activities

Classroom Web Pages

Interactive Online Activities

Resources for Teachers

 

Literacy Opportunities	Resources to Explore
Documenting Work, Constructing New Knowledge, and Communicating Ideas with Technology Tools	Kid Pix Studio: Map Regions of Virginia, created by 4th graders Responding to Art, by 4th graders Civil War Timeline, by 5th graders Art Extension with King Tut, and Egyptian people colored by 3rd graders Water cycle learning template and student drawing Martin Luther King Slide Show, created by 3rd Graders Label maps from non-fiction texts, created by 3rd grader Inspiration and Kidspiration Student Work Samples: (by 5th graders) solve a murder mystery, the earth's interior, summary outline of course's units Animals in Our Backyard, created by 2nd Graders (See templates on the webpage or in software program) HyperStudio: Black History Projects, by 6th graders Country Projects, by 6th graders Simple Machines, interactive quiz (and others) designed by teachers Foreign Language Projects Endangered Species, by 7th graders Use to design web site's homepage for project PowerPoint:  Dutchess County, NY: created by fourth graders after doing an "I Love NY" webquest  Arctic Animal Slide Shows, by 4th graders Teacher designed presentations for instruction Back to School Night Slide Show, by 4th grade teacher Netscape Composer (Web Page Design): Birds of Prey Project, designed by fifth graders Pocantico Elementary School Curriculum Projects (Decade Timelines, Town History, Newsletters, Art Show) West Elementary Internet Projects (Rock Hounds) Word Processor: (ClarisWorks)  Artist Slide Shows, created by 4th graders after reading From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Colonial Mini-Book Template Class Alphabet Book on the state of Virginia Egypt Slide Show Archeology Is..., poetry responses by 4th graders
Access to Age-Appropriate  and Current  Information	Enchanted Learning: Created for younger students, but lots of great information for struggling readers Information Please Kids Almanac: Learning Network's Fact Monster includes an almanac, atlas, dictionary and encylopedia LycosZone: Easy to use reference materials for children including a kids almanac, encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, animal locater, and kid's online library plus lots of categories of regular school topics Discovery Kids Adventure List  Scholastic NewsZone (current events and news) Internet Public Library Teen Division
Internet Project Responses to Text (Fiction and Non-Fiction)	Middle School Examples Writing Directions (How to throw a free throw; checking out books at the library) (other examples in list) Summarizing and Reporting (Great Wall of China) Study / Review of Textbook (Spanish presentation) Writing a Class Newsletter (Landrom Middle School) Character Sketch: 3 samples with Inspiration  Elementary School Examples Predicting: Sarah, Plain and Tall Point of View: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs Summarizing & Adapting: Holidays Around the World (with a followup of their own holidays) Art Extension: The Vingananee and the Tree Toad  3-D Model Extension: Shelter Models from Hatchet Personal Narrative: Sally Salamander Story by third grade student Responding to A Field Trip: Maple Sugaring book written by ESL students Online Storybooks with Clay Animation Summarizing Research: The United States Project - Study the states, draw a map, write ten facts and publish  Authentic Writing: Log of a "Titanic survivor" Writing How-To Paragraphs
Literature-Based  Internet Activities	SCORE Cyberguides for Middle School Students Lincoln, A Photobiography The Cay, by Ted Taylor Diego (included foreign language sites) Webquests for Middle School Student (Matrix) Ancient Egypt for Elementary School Students King Tutankhamun, Was It Murder? Rat Tales (Thinkquest Junior created BY students) Comprehension Development (for Teachers)
Anticipation Guides	Anticipation Guides (read my Suite101 article)  Definition and Generic Format Example Extended Anticipation Guide (includes written response) Example of agree/disagree anticipation guide Content Area Literacy Anticipation Guide for high school (with teacher's reflective comments) Examples for different literacy tasks (Fungi science textbook) Example of pre and post reading tasks in one anticipation guide Guide that stresses prediction and validation of chapter events Guide for an entire novel (Number the Stars) Example of electronic anticipation guide emailed back to teacher with link to text (part of electronic homework design with online pre-reading and post-reading activities)
Children's Author - Related Background & Activities	Lois Lowry  Read Carol Hurst's Featured Author article Attend BookSense's Interview with Lois Lowry Access a personal letter written for her readers Jean Craighead George Her official website Interview Transcript (Scholastic) Harper Collins Teacher's Guides Teacher Resource Files (Internet School Library Media Center) Katherine Paterson
Ideas for Projects That Integrate Technology	Tammy's Technology Tips: templates, rubrics, handouts, related resources and much more Plug-It In Resources: lots of project examples and a Toolkit and web page evaluation forms for teachers practicing the integration of technology  ESSDACK online database of projects that integrate technology for grades 6-8 and all other grades. (ESSDACK: Educational Services and Staff Development in Central Kansas) Connecting Education and Computers Newsletter that reviews options for educators to address interdisciplinary skills and strategies with technology Midlink Magazine Project Integration Examples Virtual Classroom Ideas for integrating technology
Efficient Search Engines  for Teachers	Dogpile Northern Light
Safe Searching or Browsing with Middle School Students	Yahooligans: use search feature or "browse" through topic-based menus designed and screened for children; websites with pictures, music or video are highlighted first; nice teaching integration ideas Ask Jeeves (just type in a question)  KidsClick (get a suggested reading level for each website) Information Please Kids Almanac Searchopolis (for older students) Lightspan's Learning Search and Study Web LycosZone AOL Search: Kids Only AT&T for Kids Searching Lessons for Students  KidsClick World of Web Searching Strategy Lessons Yahooligans Search Strategies or Safe Surfing Quiz PBS Kids TechKnow: earn your online web license to surf the Internet

Literacy Extension Activities

• Seventh Grade Writing Project: Portfolios of Free Verse Poems and Personal Essays
• Reading & Writing Project: 7th graders examine one topic, theme, issue, author, or genre in depth
• Spanish Reading Project: a cultural review of a book read in class and expansion of the topic
• Visual diagram of Internet resources tied into year long curriculum (including Reading and English)
• Locating information for a comparison and contrast essay
• Seventh Grade Language Arts students construct their own web pages and create an Internet project
• Book Reports with a Twist (HyperStudio)
• Book Share Projects by sixth grade students
• Underground Canada: seventh grade students expand a novel with hyperlinks about plot, characters, theme, structure and style

Classroom Web Pages

• Great Project Ideas
• Germantown Academy
• Middle School Magnet Schools, Redwood, CA
• Thomas Jefferson Middle School, Wisconsin

 
• Great Links for Middle School Topics
• Middle School Index: Index compiled by teachers for all content areas

Online Interactive Activity Pages for Middle School Students

• AdLib: The online madlib creator
• Readers, Writers, Thinkers: online publishing activities and lessons (Grades 6-8)
• Discover what interests you at DiscoveryKids.com
• Solve A Mystery at The case.com
• Collaborate with other budding student authors at the Inkspot
• KidNews: free news and writing service for students and teachers around the world
• CyberSurfari: a bi-annual free, fun and safe Internet treasure hunt with lots of prizes
• University of Illinois Extension Activities
• CNN NewsStories: current news stories accompanied by a range of multimedia interactive activities (video clip, sound clips, read text online) to build reading comprehension skills for older students
• GeoBee Challenge
• The Odyssey USTrek: free year long curriculum on the Internet all year long
• Letters About Literature Annual Contest
• Do Kids Crosswords Online
• CRAYON: Create Your Own Newspaper
• Bonus.com: large collection of online learning games for students of all ages
• Yahooligans Online Word Games http://www.yahooligans.com/ Then search for Online Word Games (within Computer, Games, and Online category)

Teacher Literacy and Technology Resources

Online Tools for Creating Literacy Activities  (see also my list of online tools)
• Filamentality (click on start a new topic to make your own)
• Quia.com: tools and templates for twelve types of interactive online quizzes online; includes a database of quizzes already created
• TrackStar: use this template to easily compile your links into an instructional webpage
• 8th Grade Career Magazine
• Oral Presenations and African Folktales
• Building and Improving Comprehension
• Tennesee Language Arts Collection (scroll down to Language Arts)
• Discovery School's Puzzlemaker, Vocabulary Quiz Whiz, Instant Glossary Builder, and more
• QuizLab: tools for making, sorting, and assessing online quizzes for your students


Literacy

• Huge Resource (find a few great ones at this site)
• MiddleWeb (includes Language Arts resources, especially the Reading Wars)
• Literacy Research Reports -- An excellent collection of research on effective strategies to teach reading and writing to all middle grades students. From The Center on English Learning & Achievement at SUNY-Albany. The complete texts of most reports are available on-line.
• Getting Started With Literature Circles
• Database of Award Winning Children's Literature compiled by Lisa Bartle, Librarian
• Showcase Web Sites illustrating potential of WWW in Language Arts
• Resources for American Literature: evolving resource of student work and interactive texts
• IMind Language Arts Web Sites for Students in Grades 5-8
• Treasure Island Unit for Middle School
• KidsRead.com
• Scholastic for Kids: includes lots of interactive sites and discussions like "Get Quizzy With It", "You Be The Judge", "Let's Talk About Books" and "Harry Potter's Discussion Chambers"; also Scholastic NewsZone
• Lightspan Literacy Games: Word Drop (like Word Walls) and Know It or Not Trivia Game
• Harry Potter Themed Lessons List from Lightspan
• Eduscapes Learning Links for Harry Potter's The Sorcerer's Stone
• Aesop's Online Fables
• Nancy Keane's BookTalks: Quick and Simple
• The Reading-Writing Connection: A Middle School Narrative Lesson: In this lesson, students employ several reading strategies to comprehend and analyze a narrative story. After identifying the theme of this narrative, they will build a narrative around a theme of their choosing which follows the same internal structure as the sample they read.

Literacy and Technology
• A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: Using Digital Images in Teaching
• ProTeacher's excellent lessons and links for intermediate students and literature (by title, genre, or reading method)
• Scholastic: Home of many wonderful projects, ideas, lesson plans and teaching resources
• StudyWeb's Resource Index for Children's Literature and Reading and Literacy
• Teaching Through Technology Wisconsin Educational Communications Board
• MarcoPolo Internet Content For Your Classroom: try their search engine
• Net Mentors California Middle School Language Arts Links
• Selecting Quality Literature for Middle School Students Webquest
• Tacoma Middle Schools Integrating Technology Links
• Reading Online: the ultimate resource for reading practices and research
• NETS Technology Standards for Students and Teachers
• Junior WebMaster's International Challenge
• Gander Academy's List of Themes and Links
• KidLink (Language Arts Curriculum)
• The Odyssey Teacher Zone
• Entering Books into a Book Database
• Art, Computers and Encarta: Creating an interactive art book for elementary aged children
• Grades 4-12 Reading Resources
• Using Just One Computer: Too Few Computers, Too Many Kids
• Critically Reading the Web: Two projects for middle school students
• Understanding and Using the Internet by PBS Online
• MidTech Language Arts Links and see Technology Links on left menu like It's Time
• Technology and the Teaching of English
• Book Units: some nice teacher compiled many links to units about popular children's literature
• Nevada Technology Literacy Grant Middle School Lesson Plans: Includes Choose Your Own Adventure