Literacy

=Welcome to the Literacy Page!=

**Cool ideas:**
**Speed Booking!** You've heard of speed dating? Speed booking is similar but the goal is to share three minute book talks and then students move to the next person to hear about their book. It looks like a lot of fun. The follow up is at the end of the year, students make a short video about their favorite book of the year. The videos are posted on the school website and other students must choose five books for their summer reading from the posted videos.

NCTE's National Gallery of Writing, National Day of Writing: []
The Newseum displays daily newspaper front pages from all over the world in their original, unedited form. Some front pages may contain material that is objectionable to some visitors. Viewer discretion is advised. [] A silly site that condensed books into a line or two: []

A groovy fairytale resource with sequencing activities and more: []
Neil Gaiman tells where he gets his writing ideas: [] 100 Best first Lines of Novels: [] Interactive prompts, lessons, and resources designed for teachers, students, and--most importantly--lifelong writers: []

Video book talks on tons of titles from Scholastic: []
All about LOC's new literacy program; Short videos, audio book trailers: http://www.loc.gov/literacy/about/

LOC's main literacy page: http://www.loc.gov/literacy/

Digital book trailers: http://www.digitalbooktalk.com/

 How parents can help motivate children to read (from Reading is Fundamental): http://www.rif.org/parents/motivate/default.mspx

Building a home library (From Reading is Fundamental): http://www.rif.org/parents/articles/family_library.mspx

Links to lists of suggested summer reading titles (from American Library Association): http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/alscresources/summerreading/recsummerreading/recommendedreading.cfm

Make your own Pop-Up books (scroll to "make it") on the lower left. PDFs and video how-tos: http://www.popupbooks.com/

Sites for leveling books: http://www.hvrsd.k12.nj.us/forms/leveledbooksmain.htm http://battlecreekel.spps.org/Guided_Reading_Leveled_Library.html

"Open Vault provides online access to unique and historically important content produced by public television station WGBH for individual and classroom learning. The ever-expanding site contains video excerpts, searchable transcripts, a select number of complete interviews for purchase, and resource management tools." : http://openvault.wgbh.org/

Reading Strategies: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/reading%20strategies%20index.htm

Spelling Strategies: http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/curric/files/pages/saisop/VacationLiteracy/spsmain.htm

Places for students to publish: http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/studpub/ http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/basic/yngwrite.html

Click here to get your printable summer reading lists!
====[| 2008 TTT nom summer reading list.docx]==== http://www.hallco.org/main/news/2008SummerReadingList(6-8).pdf http://www.quizlist.net/(m0mnjjmjs1xxtyujfl0kecun)/toptenlist.aspx http://summerreading.sas.wikispaces.net/

Professional writers and educators share their techniques for teaching imaginative writing.
[|Writing about the Night] **Tara Tandlich** explains step by step how to teach young kids to write poems about the night. [|Poetic Forms and Students with Special Needs] **Corie Feiner** offers a step-by-step method for teaching the cinquain, or quintet, to students with special needs. [|Character Descriptions] **Jenny Robinson Hartley** on how to write character descriptions based on “Hairs,” by Sandra Cisneros [|Childhood, Poetry, Magic, and ‘Magic’] Excerpts from a 2002 talk given by **Quincy Troupe** at Teachers & Writers Collaborative to a group of teaching artists. [|Teaching by Listening] Los Angeles poet, novelist, and visual artist **Will Alexander** explains how he doesn’t come to a classroom with pre-fabricated writing assignments, but allows the students’ personalities and needs to dictate the assignments he gives. [|Playwriting For Young Students] Playwright **Kent Alexander**’s four-stage lesson plan on teaching playwriting to young students. [|Hip-hop] **Aaron Belz** discusses how to bring hip-hop lyrics into the classroom. [|Personal Dictionaries] Poet **Lee Ann Brown**’s lesson plan on teaching poetry via the creation of personal dictionaries. [|Metaphors] **Jenny Browne**’s exercises on creating image-rich, exciting metaphors. [|Space in Poetry] **Tina Cane** talks about space as a defining element in poetry. [|Shelley & Science] Poet **Julie Carr**’s lesson plan on teaching Shelley and science to sixth-grade students. [|Computers in the Classroom] Poet **Jordan Davis** describes how he has used computer technologies to teach imaginative writing. [|Poetry with Learning-disabled Students] Poet **Nicole Hefner**’s lesson designed for learning-disabled students. Learn how Nicole incorporated visual images and collaborative exercises to teach poetry. [|Classical Music and Poetry] Novelist **David Hollander**’s lesson on incorporating classical music in the teaching of poetry. [|Bilingual Poetry Workshop] Poet **Kenneth Koch** on teaching Frederico García Lorca in the bilingual classroom. [|Poetry Comics] Poet **Dave Morice** makes comics out of poetry. [|Breaking the Ice] Director and playwright **Frank Perez**’s ideas on how to break the ice on your initial day in a writing residency. This exercise is particularly suitable for writers teaching in grades 9 through 12. [|The Magic Spellbook] Poet **Kristin Prevallet**’s exercise based on incorporating a magic spellbook into the teaching of poetry writing. This exercise was inspired by two examples in the T&W book //Luna, Luna: Creative Writing Ideas from Spanish, Latin American, & Latino Literature//. (link to Luna) [|Free Writing] **Jenny Robinson Hartley**’s ecstatic account of her introduction to free writing. [|Sappho] Poet Eleni **Sikelianos**’ lesson plan on teaching Sappho to sixth-grade students. [|Sandra Cisneros] **Ashley Simpson**’s exercise on using stories by Sandra Cisneros to evoke imaginative writing.