Content Area Tools
Finally, a “Thing” that is familiar to me! Before starting this Web course, I didn’t have my own blog, use Delicious, set up a Wiki, or create Google docs. But I did use the Web to locate content for my classroom! I think that I’m pretty proficient when it comes to this. Two of my go-to sites are WritingFix.com and ReadWriteThink.org. These two sites have enough ideas and resources to keep me going all year long…seriously!
Thinkfinity.org and MORE are two lesson clearinghouses that are new to me, but I noticed that ReadWriteThink is a key feed to both sites. Depending on what I’m looking for, I can see how going to one of these websites, rather than doing a Google search, would be much more efficient. Being able to search by content standards on the MORE site is also definitely a useful feature.
Here are two lessons that I was able to quickly find that fit with what is going on in my classroom right now:
In science students are summarizing what they learned about the digestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems. I had them write a short bio from the point of view of each system. These turned out pretty well, but I think that next time around, I’d like to use “The most important thing…” format shown here. This structure includes 3 really great details, which some students needed to be reminded to go back and include when doing the original assignment. It also emphasis the most important thing, rather than just having it included somewhere in the writing. The only thing that I like more about my assignment is that it’s not so structured. Students felt free to get creativeand begin their paragraphs with, “Hi, my name is Respy, your respiratory system!” or something like that. Students could still certainly add something like that, but many will probably feel tied to the structure.
For our persuasive writing unit, students use the Box and Bullets graphic organizer to plan their thesis and supporting details. I believe that different graphic organzers work better for different students. As much as I like to to plan vertically, others prefer webs and horizontal plans, such as this one. I know it’s a little difference, but sometimes these little differences are what help a student to internalize the lesson. Also, if I can present several versions of graphic organizers, students have the opportunity to try out each one and see which really works best for them.