A surprising journey through the value of teaching literature and the possible promises of future journeys. I have always felt that literature was the best basis for language study. This short video helps explain why.
"The Aesop for Children interactive book is designed to be enjoyed by readers of any age. The book contains over 140 classic fables, accompanied by beautiful illustrations and interactive animations."
This app is available for iOS and Android. Some stories have animations as well.
The New York Times offers poetry paired with visuals, in this case an animation, and music, as well as two or more related poems. Readers are asked to write what they think, and the comments are very interesting also. Some adult content may be found in the sidebar, so this is for older students, not small children, though the idea is a good one for inspiring writing at any age. You may be able to strip the video and text and use the materials offline (being careful of copyright issues).
Teacher has students create question to think about a specific text in the context of reading fiction. Relates Common Core Standards to analytical thinking.
Addresses the Common Core Standards, which the teacher gives to the students as a handout. This lesson in reading literature prepares students for a writing assignment. Useful for EFL as well as for ESL teachers in the U.S. Models questioning and defining vocabulary through images and real-life experiences.
Clever writing games, writing exercises, poetry guide, and ways to publish writing. Nice site to get students interesting and keep them writing. And possibly to introduce writers they may never have heard of.
"From his comedies to histories to tragedies, the series looks at the stories that have shaped our cultural history: seeking out each play’s inspiration, finding the moments and places that set every scene, as well as examining the words that gave life to Shakespeare’s world both in the past and present.
"This thematic collection -- which adheres to national learning standards -- contains video segments from the series, informational texts, discussion questions, and suggestions for extension activities to enhance your students’ reading, viewing, and appreciation of Shakespeare’s works."
Another great series by PBS, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Each video in the series covers a particular theme and is appropriate for high school students. Explore and savour!
This is a great description of how a teacher organized a poetry slam in his high school. Includes a video of the slam and Flickr photos, videos of students reading their work, tributes from kids, and detailed directions for how to elicit poetry, ground rules, etc. This is a great way to bring a school together.
"What you see here are candid submissions from people who have engaged in a little exercise. Here’s how it works. Think about the word Race. How would you distill your thoughts, experiences or observations about race into one sentence that only has six words?"
This National Public Radio blog makes the perfect starting point for a multicultural lesson for ESL/EFL students. The entries are sheer poetry and give a great deal of content to think about the issue of race and one's place in society, for better or worse. Each 6-word "poem" makes us, as one contributor said, "Look past race to underlying humanity."
Review of Digital Dante Website.
"Great works continue to draw new specialists into the field and serve to bring the history of a language, its people, and their culture to life. Literary works serve as examples of the power and beauty of language at its best. Helping to make such texts more accessible to learners, the Web can make use of hypertext and multimedia to provide context that is so often lacking for those without the general background knowledge that a good reader is assumed to possess. "
"Students love to write fiction, and the short story is a good way to get them going. This page outlines a quickie lesson plan for writing a short story using the 5-way story starter, which plunges the reader (and the writer) into the action quickly."
Several suggestions for teaching short poems, and websites with author interviews and poetry readings. Learning how to write poetry will help students appreciate the language better.
Search for a book that students might be interested in reading.
"with listening, grammar, comprehension, dictation exercises, and crossword puzzles"
Covers a wide range of exercises and activities for listening, reading, and writing. Each short reading has multiple exercises/activities and is linked to a dictionary, and can be read aloud by the computer.
Offers songs in multiple European languages with text lyrics which you can manipulate as cloze activities. Lots of student control to repeat lines of a song, click on tab to show an answer to a missing lyric, etc. Students ign-up to keep a record of songs and the tasks completed, and to add their own lyrics. Provides 3 different levels of activity; e.g., "expert" is total cloze.
Now also with mobile app, LyricsTap for Android.
R. Stannard has a training video on using this site at http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/lyrics/index.html
Online lessons for students 9-12 using jazz to learn poetic concepts
" Great Poems to Teach: Find poems to recite, as well as favorite examples of imagery, form, narrative, and irony."
For the reader -- also has "POEM-A-DAY" that you can sign up to receive by email.
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This list would include free, online versions of both the classics or professional works and literature written or performed by students. Fiction, non-fiction belles lettres, drama, poetry, song, etc.
Updated on Mar 25, 16
Created on Apr 28, 09
Category: Computers & Internet
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