Figment: Writing community for students
What it is: Figment is a brand new website and writing community for students 13 years old and older (middle or high school only!). This is a place where students can read student writing, share their own writing, connect with other student writers, and discover new stories and authors. Students will find a community of writers and readers who like to share collaborate, and discuss a variety of topics in the online forum.
How to integrate Figment into your curriculum: Do you have students who can’t get enough creative writing time? Figment is a perfect match. Students who love to write can join a community of other students who enjoy to write. This is a great place for them to share their writing, read other students writing and learn how to give, and accept, critiques and recommendations on their writing. This is a great place for students to analyze and evaluate each other’s writing. Have a class of creative writers? Send all of your students to Figmentto share their writing with other students. Your students can learn and practice providing constructive criticism and netiquette in Figment. Working with another class from another school, district, state or country? Send both sets of students on Figment as a platform for sharing and discussing their writing.
*There is no teacher portal for Figment, if your students are using Figment in school, be sure to sign up for an account and monitor your students use of Figment.
Tips: The sign up requires an email address, twitter account, or Facebook account. Make sure your students have one of the three before using Figment in class.
One Word - Sixty Second Writing Prompts
One Word is a simple writing prompt generator. The way it works is the user clicks "go" on the One Wordhomepage and they are presented with one word. Users then have sixty seconds to write in the text box whatever comes to their minds regarding that word. The idea is not so much to write definitions of the words, but rather it is to write sentences using the word.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing One Word.
Applications for EducationOne Word could be a handy little resource to prompt free-response writing in your classroom. If students register for the site they can see what other people have written. Although I might caution against that if you're going to use the site with younger students because there does not seem to be filter for profanity. Even if you don't have the students type on the One Word site you could still use as a supply of writing prompts.
60 Second Recap Now Offers an iPhone App
60 Second Recap is a website that hosts video overviews of many classic book titles. Each title has a selection of 60 second videos explaining different parts of each book. Today, I learned that 60 Second Recap now has an iPhone app. The app itself is free to download and comes with three book overviews (30 videos in all) preloaded on it. Additional book overviews cost $.99.
You can read more about 60 Second Recap in my previous post about it.
Applications for Education60 Second Recap's iPhone App could be a handy resource for students who need some assistance in understanding the main ideas of the books they need to read.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Guys Read - Getting Boys to Read
AdLit - Strategies for Teaching Adolescent Literature
Shmoop - Study Guides for History and Literature
Learning Chocolate - Activities for Learning English
Learning Chocolate is a nice little resource for ESL/ELL students. Learning Chocolate offers six learning activities in dozens of word categories. Pick a word category such as animals or clothing then listen to the pronunciations of the words in that category. After reviewing the pronunciations students can choose from five different activities. Each word category offers three matching games, a fill in the blank game, and dictation activity in which students spell the words as they're read to them.
Applications for EducationLearning Chocolate could be a good resource for teachers in search of activities that students can do independently or at home with parents. Learning Chocolate also offers teachers the option to build activities using their own word banks.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
10 Resources for ESL & Foreign Language Students
22 Frames - Captioned Videos & More for ESL
Figment: Writing community for students
What it is: Figment is a brand new website and writing community for students 13 years old and older (middle or high school only!). This is a place where students can read student writing, share their own writing, connect with other student writers, and discover new stories and authors. Students will find a community of writers and readers who like to share collaborate, and discuss a variety of topics in the online forum.
How to integrate Figment into your curriculum: Do you have students who can’t get enough creative writing time? Figment is a perfect match. Students who love to write can join a community of other students who enjoy to write. This is a great place for them to share their writing, read other students writing and learn how to give, and accept, critiques and recommendations on their writing. This is a great place for students to analyze and evaluate each other’s writing. Have a class of creative writers? Send all of your students to Figmentto share their writing with other students. Your students can learn and practice providing constructive criticism and netiquette in Figment. Working with another class from another school, district, state or country? Send both sets of students on Figment as a platform for sharing and discussing their writing.
*There is no teacher portal for Figment, if your students are using Figment in school, be sure to sign up for an account and monitor your students use of Figment.
Tips: The sign up requires an email address, twitter account, or Facebook account. Make sure your students have one of the three before using Figment in class.
One Word - Sixty Second Writing Prompts
One Word is a simple writing prompt generator. The way it works is the user clicks "go" on the One Wordhomepage and they are presented with one word. Users then have sixty seconds to write in the text box whatever comes to their minds regarding that word. The idea is not so much to write definitions of the words, but rather it is to write sentences using the word.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing One Word.
Applications for EducationOne Word could be a handy little resource to prompt free-response writing in your classroom. If students register for the site they can see what other people have written. Although I might caution against that if you're going to use the site with younger students because there does not seem to be filter for profanity. Even if you don't have the students type on the One Word site you could still use as a supply of writing prompts.
Figment: Writing community for students
What it is: Figment is a brand new website and writing community for students 13 years old and older (middle or high school only!). This is a place where students can read student writing, share their own writing, connect with other student writers, and discover new stories and authors. Students will find a community of writers and readers who like to share collaborate, and discuss a variety of topics in the online forum.
How to integrate Figment into your curriculum: Do you have students who can’t get enough creative writing time? Figment is a perfect match. Students who love to write can join a community of other students who enjoy to write. This is a great place for them to share their writing, read other students writing and learn how to give, and accept, critiques and recommendations on their writing. This is a great place for students to analyze and evaluate each other’s writing. Have a class of creative writers? Send all of your students to Figmentto share their writing with other students. Your students can learn and practice providing constructive criticism and netiquette in Figment. Working with another class from another school, district, state or country? Send both sets of students on Figment as a platform for sharing and discussing their writing.
*There is no teacher portal for Figment, if your students are using Figment in school, be sure to sign up for an account and monitor your students use of Figment.
Tips: The sign up requires an email address, twitter account, or Facebook account. Make sure your students have one of the three before using Figment in class.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing One Word.
Applications for Education
One Word could be a handy little resource to prompt free-response writing in your classroom. If students register for the site they can see what other people have written. Although I might caution against that if you're going to use the site with younger students because there does not seem to be filter for profanity. Even if you don't have the students type on the One Word site you could still use as a supply of writing prompts.60 Second Recap Now Offers an iPhone App
60 Second Recap is a website that hosts video overviews of many classic book titles. Each title has a selection of 60 second videos explaining different parts of each book. Today, I learned that 60 Second Recap now has an iPhone app. The app itself is free to download and comes with three book overviews (30 videos in all) preloaded on it. Additional book overviews cost $.99.You can read more about 60 Second Recap in my previous post about it.
Applications for Education60 Second Recap's iPhone App could be a handy resource for students who need some assistance in understanding the main ideas of the books they need to read.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Guys Read - Getting Boys to Read
AdLit - Strategies for Teaching Adolescent Literature
Shmoop - Study Guides for History and Literature
Learning Chocolate is a nice little resource for ESL/ELL students. Learning Chocolate offers six learning activities in dozens of word categories. Pick a word category such as animals or clothing then listen to the pronunciations of the words in that category. After reviewing the pronunciations students can choose from five different activities. Each word category offers three matching games, a fill in the blank game, and dictation activity in which students spell the words as they're read to them.Applications for EducationLearning Chocolate could be a good resource for teachers in search of activities that students can do independently or at home with parents. Learning Chocolate also offers teachers the option to build activities using their own word banks.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
10 Resources for ESL & Foreign Language Students
22 Frames - Captioned Videos & More for ESL
Snappy Words - A Visual Dictionary and Thesaurus
Snappy Words is a free visual dictionary and thesaurus. Enter any word or phrase into the Snappy Words search box and it will create a web of related words, phrases, and definitions. Hover your cursor over any word or phrase in the web to read its definition. Click and drag any node to explore other branches of the web. Double click on a node and it will generate new web branches.
Applications for Education
Snappy Words could be a good resource for students that are stuck in the rut of using the same words and phrases repeatedly in their writing. Snappy Words will give those students access to alternative words and their definitions much faster than thumbing through a thesaurus.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:Visuwords - Online Graphical Dictionary
Lexipedia - Webbed Word Connections
Wordnik Has Everything About Words
7 Resources for Detecting and Preventing Plagiarism
1. The first thing I do when I want to check a student's work for plagiarism is to do a quick search on Google. If you notice that a student has strung together some phrases that you don't think they've written, put the suspected phrase inside quotation marks and search. You may want to search on Google as well as on Google Scholar. For more Internet search tools and strategies please see my free ebook Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results.
2. The Plagiarism Checker, created as a project for the University of Maryland, is an easy-to-use tool for detecting plagiarism. Simply enter a chunk of text into the search box and the Plagiarism Checker will tell you if and from where something was plagiarized.
3. Doc Cop offers a free service for checking small documents and a free service for checking documents against each other. Doc Cop also offers a fee based service that will check large documents and do a more comprehensive check than that offered for free.
4. The Purdue OWL website is the number one place I refer students and parents to for questions not only about Plagiarism, but for questions about all parts of the writing process.
Paper Rater is a free service designed to help high school and college students improve their writing. Paper Rater does basic spelling and grammar checks, but the real value of Paper Rater is that it tells students if their papers have elements of plagiarism. Paper Rater scans students' papers then gives students an estimate of the likelihood that someone might think that their papers were plagiarized.
Plagiarism Checker.com works just like many similar services. To use it, simply type or paste text into the search box and Plagiarism Checker will tell you if and from where something was copied. (Note: the name is similar to #2 above, but they are produced by different organizations).
7. Plagiarism.org, produced by the same people that produce the commercial plagiarism detection software Turn It In, has a free learning center for students and teachers. Plagiarism.org's learning center includes tips about avoiding plagiarism, definitions of plagiarism, and explanations of when you do or do not have to cite a reference. Plagiarism.org also hosts two recorded webinars addressing the topic of plagiarism in schools and how teachers can educate their students about plagiarism.
Snappy Words - A Visual Dictionary and Thesaurus
Snappy Words is a free visual dictionary and thesaurus. Enter any word or phrase into the Snappy Words search box and it will create a web of related words, phrases, and definitions. Hover your cursor over any word or phrase in the web to read its definition. Click and drag any node to explore other branches of the web. Double click on a node and it will generate new web branches.
Applications for Education
Snappy Words could be a good resource for students that are stuck in the rut of using the same words and phrases repeatedly in their writing. Snappy Words will give those students access to alternative words and their definitions much faster than thumbing through a thesaurus.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:Visuwords - Online Graphical Dictionary
Lexipedia - Webbed Word Connections
Wordnik Has Everything About Words
1. The first thing I do when I want to check a student's work for plagiarism is to do a quick search on Google. If you notice that a student has strung together some phrases that you don't think they've written, put the suspected phrase inside quotation marks and search. You may want to search on Google as well as on Google Scholar. For more Internet search tools and strategies please see my free ebook Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results.2. The Plagiarism Checker, created as a project for the University of Maryland, is an easy-to-use tool for detecting plagiarism. Simply enter a chunk of text into the search box and the Plagiarism Checker will tell you if and from where something was plagiarized.
3. Doc Cop offers a free service for checking small documents and a free service for checking documents against each other. Doc Cop also offers a fee based service that will check large documents and do a more comprehensive check than that offered for free.
4. The Purdue OWL website is the number one place I refer students and parents to for questions not only about Plagiarism, but for questions about all parts of the writing process.
Paper Rater is a free service designed to help high school and college students improve their writing. Paper Rater does basic spelling and grammar checks, but the real value of Paper Rater is that it tells students if their papers have elements of plagiarism. Paper Rater scans students' papers then gives students an estimate of the likelihood that someone might think that their papers were plagiarized.Plagiarism Checker.com works just like many similar services. To use it, simply type or paste text into the search box and Plagiarism Checker will tell you if and from where something was copied. (Note: the name is similar to #2 above, but they are produced by different organizations).7. Plagiarism.org, produced by the same people that produce the commercial plagiarism detection software Turn It In, has a free learning center for students and teachers. Plagiarism.org's learning center includes tips about avoiding plagiarism, definitions of plagiarism, and explanations of when you do or do not have to cite a reference. Plagiarism.org also hosts two recorded webinars addressing the topic of plagiarism in schools and how teachers can educate their students about plagiarism.
Book Lamp
Book Lamp is a new site that lets you type in a book or author you like, and then it shows suggestions for books it thinks you might also enjoy.
It seems to work well, and has a nice interface. However, even though registration is simple, you still do have to register in order to use it. There are several similar sites on my The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, Book, Movie & Music Recommendations list that do not require any registration, so I’m not adding Book Lamp to that list.
Create Your Own Mad Libs
Madlibs lets you easily create your own. It could be a fun little filler if you have a few minutes leftover in the computer lab some day. You can then post the links on a teacher/student blog or website for others to complete. I could see creating them, and completing ones your peers made, could be a good activity.
A caveat, however, is that it appears the most recent mad libs done on the site are posted on the homepage, and some might be a little off-color.
Book Lamp
Book Lamp is a new site that lets you type in a book or author you like, and then it shows suggestions for books it thinks you might also enjoy.
It seems to work well, and has a nice interface. However, even though registration is simple, you still do have to register in order to use it. There are several similar sites on my The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, Book, Movie & Music Recommendations list that do not require any registration, so I’m not adding Book Lamp to that list.
It seems to work well, and has a nice interface. However, even though registration is simple, you still do have to register in order to use it. There are several similar sites on my The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, Book, Movie & Music Recommendations list that do not require any registration, so I’m not adding Book Lamp to that list.
Madlibs lets you easily create your own. It could be a fun little filler if you have a few minutes leftover in the computer lab some day. You can then post the links on a teacher/student blog or website for others to complete. I could see creating them, and completing ones your peers made, could be a good activity.
A caveat, however, is that it appears the most recent mad libs done on the site are posted on the homepage, and some might be a little off-color.
Story Starter
Story Starter is a site I just learned about from Alexandra Fransisco. This is a great place for writers to go to start a story. Teachers can use this as a writing prompt w/ students and even a way to brain storm ideas.
Free Rice
http://mlti.freerice.com/ (special for Maine's tech conference)
http://freerice.com/
Conjugation.com Conjugates any Verb
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://conjugation.com/
Conjugating verbs can be a challenge for people learning the English language. Conjugation.com aims to help those people learning English. Type a verb into the Conjugation.com engine generates a list of ways that verb can be conjugated. Conjugation.com also provides examples of your chosen verb being used in a sentence.
Conjugation.com provides a widget that you can embed into your blog or website for visitors to use. To install the widget click the conjugation.com on your site link, copy the code provided, and paste it into your blog's template.
http://www.englishcentral.com/en/videos
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
From Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom by Kathleen McGeady
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/whatisasentence/
This site by the BBC has some great factsheets, quizzes, games and worksheets about sentences. My students particularly enjoyed the games which involve deciding whether sentences make sense and adding punctuation to text. This site also has links to activities about putting sentences together and using commas.
and
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/cap_letters_stops/eng/Introduction/default.htm
This site from the Welsh National Grid for Learning includes explanations, games, worksheets and activities about using capital letters and full stops. The resources revolve around a theme of “Dewi the Dragon”. My students enjoyed punctuating the sentences in the story about Dewi with capital letters and full stops.
The Adjective Detective
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/literacy/wordclasses/adjectives.asp
other parts of speech, too!
from ilearn technology
http://www.nstru.ac.th/portal/data_resource/NEWS/2009/INSIDE/FILE/1232942687_087864500.pdf
David Deubelbeiss shared an incredible resource on Twitter today — a 62 page downloadable PDF titled Teaching English To Young Learners. from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
http://draw.to/new
Draw.to is a great drawing collaboration site. It's very easy to use and not only can this drawing be shared via a link it has the ability to be embedded into a site as well.
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler and Larry Ferlazzo
http://www.scholastic.com/dogslife/createtale.htm
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/scrapbook/
Use this reader's response activity to analyze the characters in any book. Print and collect your scrapbook pages.
http://www.kerpoof.com/
Make artwork (even if you aren't good at drawing!)
Make an animated movie (really! it's easy!)
Earn Koins which you can trade for fun things in the Kerpoof Store
Make a printed card, t-shirt, or mug
Tell a story
Make a drawing
Vote on the movies, stories, and drawings that other people have made
http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/ml_lit_gr06_ca/resources/applications/grammar_arcade_beta/arcade.html
http://www.grammaropolis.com/index.html
helps students learn the parts of speech
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