 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
February 5, 2015 10:10 PM
|
If anything ever published on The Learning Network could be said to have “gone viral,” it is last February’s “200 Prompts for Argumentative Writing,” which we created to help teachers and students participate in our inaugural Student Editorial Contest.
"Well, this year we’re back with the Second Annual Student Editorial Contest (get yours in by March 9!), and, to go with it, we’ve updated last year’s list with new questions and what we hope is more useful categorization.
"So scroll through the 301 prompts below that touch on every aspect of contemporary life — from politics to sports, culture, education and technology — and see which ones most inspire you to take a stand. Each question comes from our daily Student Opinion feature, and each provides links to free Times resources for finding more information."
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
February 2, 2015 1:35 PM
|
"[Above] you should see my 90 page guide to using Blogger. The guide covers everything from starting your first blog to privacy settings to editing your blog's layout. The guide also includes a glossary of terms frequently used in blogging. Click here to download the guide."
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 31, 2015 7:45 PM
|
Certainly, as we turn to online reading, the physiology of the reading process itself shifts; we don’t read the same way online as we do on paper. Anne Mangen, a professor at the National Centre for Reading Education and Research at the University of Stavanger, in Norway, points out that reading is always an interaction between a person and a technology, be it a computer or an e-reader or even a bound book.
Via Nik Peachey, Jim Lerman
"Websites, apps, interactive whiteboards, systems and devices… teaching students the art of writing in the 21st century is vastly different today than just a few years ago. It requires not only an understanding of the parts of speech and composition, but also insights into which technology will also be most effective ..." ©
Via Elizabeth E Charles, Leona Ungerer, Dean J. Fusto
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 29, 2015 8:34 PM
|
Part of the problem is a lack of context; the way in which U.S. history is taught to teenagers doesn’t fully illuminate or explore the Black experience nor does it aim to create compassion, clarity, or solidarity. The average teenager has simply never been exposed to the myriad of stories–from heartening to heroic to harrowing–that comprise the history of Black people in America. And without this exposure, most cannot understand or envision the depth of suffering, injustice, and daily struggle that has defined Black life in America for centuries.
"In the wake of the Ferguson verdict and in solidarity with the growing #BlackLivesMatter movement, it is empathy that we need more than ever. Indeed, as I reflect on Dr. King’s legacy, I am reminded of this quote by him: “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” Ideally, this communication would happen face-to-face, two individuals in dialogue discovering what it means to be the other. However, in certain cases whether due to lack of representation, access, or will, this is simply not possible. What then?
"As YA librarians and as educators, I feel strongly that it is an essential part of our calling to do more than simply recommend books to our teenage patrons; we must promote, persuade, and provoke our young readers to pick up those books that broaden and challenge our understanding of what it means to be another and to be ourselves. To echo the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, we need diverse books because reading can change the world one perspective at a time. And change must come. And it will come because reading is an act of communication that can and does open minds and hearts, transcending our often irrational and unfounded fears to create newfound empathy and compassion."
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 28, 2015 5:41 PM
|
by Emily Short
"Choice of Robots is a recent large-scale Choice of Games piece: you take the role of a gifted young graduate student in robotics, about to make significant breakthroughs in your field, generating a line of robots that might become surgeons, soldiers, companions, factory workers. Your choices include design decisions for the robots and business decisions about how to manufacture and sell them, but also personal decisions about how to relate to your robot creations, and what you think it all means. The scope of your activities is such that you may find yourself flying to Shanghai to take meetings, or spending months in a military jail, or preventing the invasion of Taiwan — and along the way it’s pretty likely that you’ll also make a considerable personal fortune, which you can choose to spend on luxuries, philanthropy, or a mix of things."
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 27, 2015 5:51 PM
|
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 25, 2015 1:58 AM
|
In order to resonate deeply with your very human audience, your character's goal needs to be one of five specific things.
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 25, 2015 1:45 AM
|
Make Fewer Mistakes
"Professional proofreaders recommend reading out loud as the best way to catch mistakes. Like a personal proofreader, Voice Dream Writer reads out loud using text-to-speech, so that awkward sentences, grammatical errors and typos can be easily spotted. Also, it can read words and sentences as they’re typed or voice dictated so that errors can be corrected right away."
Via Kathleen McClaskey, Suvi Salo, Jim Lerman
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 23, 2015 5:57 PM
|
by Eveyn Wassell
"I found this site (http://bit.ly/101tagxedo)from Hardy Leung, creator of Tagxedo, about 101 ways to use Tagxedo, and thought about the myriad of ways it can be used in the classroom. The images created by Tagxedo and their derivatives are free for personal, non-commercial use, subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License. And what teacher doesn't love the word free???
"One of my favorite ways to use Tagxedo is to compare two groups of text to look for connections. Yes, they are pretty to look at but the real use of word clouds comes from analysis of the cloud itself. Imagine a lesson where students are asked to compare and contrast two speeches from historical figures. Students are given the two speeches and asked to give the comparison on their own. What might happen if they were asked to list two items the speeches have in common? Many students may have a problem completing this assignment depending on the complexity or length of the text."
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from The Funnily Enough
January 20, 2015 9:58 PM
|
When you write and revise your fiction, you deal with a host of problems. With some novels, it’s hard to decide on the right point of view. With others, it’s a struggle to work out the plot. Sometimes it’s a matter of getting the language down just right. Of course it’s one thing to spot a problem, another to fix it. Consider the following ten rather typical problems most fiction writers face—and some possible fixes.
Via mooderino
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 20, 2015 10:40 AM
|
As a professional writer and a writing specialist, I know that not everyone is as hepped up about words as I am. (What, you mean you don’t want to spend the next five hours chatting about the relationship between a character’s syntax and their familial history? Say it ain’t so!). I know that if I have any hope of maintaining student (and teacher) attention spans, I have to keep it relevant to the here and now.
My secret: use the news! With all of its of-the-moment relevancy and juicy tidbits, the news is the perfect lens through which to teach the ins and outs of craft – or, probably more accurately, the perfect mask to distract students as I sneak in the real lessons. Let’s take a look at some of the most creative and effective techniques out there today.
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 19, 2015 3:16 AM
|
By getting kids writing early and often, we prepare them to succeed across all subjects. Give students a leg up with these picks well-suited to elementary-aged kids that'll get them writing, sharing, and critiquing.
|
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 4, 2015 2:21 PM
|
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
February 2, 2015 1:33 PM
|
This morning in the Rising Stars booth at BETT 2015 I saw Julia Skinner give a nice presentation on the 100 Word Challenge. The 100 Word Challenge is a blog that provides two good services to teachers and students. First, the 100 Word Challenge offers writing prompts that students respond to on their classroom blogs. Second, 100 Word Challenge provides publicity for students' blog posts.
"It is rather easy to get started on the 100 Word Challenge. To participate you simply visit the blog for the weekly writing prompt. Give the prompt to your students and have them write 100 word posts on your classroom blog (if you have never created a classroom blog, check out my guide to blogging). After your students have written their posts you should submit to 100 Word Challenge the URLs of your students' posts. Submitting the posts to 100 Word Challenge your students will be sharing with an audience that they might not have reached if they only posted on your classroom blog. For complete directions for teachers visit the How to Enter page on 100 Word Challenge.
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 31, 2015 1:14 AM
|
I began using Dragon Dictation a few years ago when my work with a group of struggling writers left me searching for a tool that could help them get the great ideas they were sharing aloud onto a page. I wanted something elegant: a tool that wouldn’t interrupt students as they were speaking but rather, quietly capture what they were saying and flip it into text.
Via John Evans, Jim Lerman
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Purposeful Pedagogy
January 30, 2015 7:51 PM
|
I’m a firm believer in the notion that opinionated kids are the most important resources for argument writing, so when it comes to coaching this form in classrooms, early conversations are often about inciting passion and letting kids talk about what matters…..to them.
Experience has taught me that most don’t care to write about school uniforms, cell phone use, or cyber bullying, and when they are asked to write about these things, what emerges is typically uninspired. They have a lot to say about a lot of other things though, and they’re eager to research and learn more about issues that really mean something to them. Ready to support these kinds of writers in your classroom?
Via John Evans, Dean J. Fusto
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Digital Storytelling
January 29, 2015 8:27 PM
|
“The meaning behind the words…the feeling is more significant than the words themselves, so…listen.” Unknown “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader…not in the fact that it is raining, the feeling of being rained upon.” E.L. Doctorow Anyone can write. But good writing… the kind that captures a reader’s attention... Read More
Via José Carlos
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 27, 2015 6:41 PM
|
by Bryan Bishop
"You’ll have to excuse me. I’m going to sound a little excited now.
"Earlier today Oculus announced Story Studio, its in-house production team dedicated to producing virtual reality movies. We’ve been seeing VR narrative experiences for years at this point, and while they’ve been getting more and more impressive, they’ve still been iterative steps forward. Despite how much we’ve all wanted to it to happen, nothing has stood up, raised its hands, and shouted "I’m the project that proves this crazy thing could actually work."
"I just watched Lost, the first short from Story Studio. That stand up and shout moment? It’s arrived."
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 26, 2015 1:20 AM
|
by Jennifer Gonzalez
"There’s something about having our work seen by strangers that makes us take it up a notch. And while displaying writing and art in the school halls or a teacher-made book can accomplish that feeling to some degree, publication in a more “official” vehicle carries more weight.
"These publications are the real deal — online and print periodicals that showcase work by student artists and writers, some as young as age five. Many are run by a staff that is partly or completely made up of students. Each one is beautifully designed and features high-quality work. Some even pay. If you know a student who aspires to become a serious writer or artist, encourage them to take the next step and start working toward publication."
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from AdLit
January 25, 2015 1:55 AM
|
Finding text evidence seems easy enough, right? If your kids are having trouble, here are eight tips to strengthen students' ability to find and use text evidence.
Via Cindy Riley Klages, Lynnette Van Dyke
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 23, 2015 6:00 PM
|
Lots of ways to use this wonderful app for education. -JL
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 21, 2015 10:11 AM
|
The scientific research on the benefits of so-called expressive writing is surprisingly vast. Studies have shown that writing about oneself and personal experiences can improve mood disorders, help reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits and even boost memory.
Now researchers are studying whether the power of writing — and then rewriting — your personal story can lead to behavioral changes and improve happiness.
|
|
Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Feed the Writer
January 20, 2015 9:54 PM
|
|
|
Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 19, 2015 8:12 PM
|
FREE DOWNLOAD from Teq
"The Ultimate SMART Board Troubleshooting Guide
Is stress over your SMART Board getting you down? Read on and find the answers to FREQUENTLY ASKED SMART BOARD TROUBLESHOOTING QUESTIONS from the Teq professional development and support staff.
The eBook includes
How do I setup my SMART Board once it’s been installed?
How do I download SMART Notebook software?
How do I register my SMART Board?
How do I get a SMART Notebook product key?
How do I get my SMART Board to mirror my computer screen?
Why won’t my SMART Board respond to touch?
How do you clean the projector filter?
How do I connect my computer to a SMART Board that is all the way across my classroom?
How do I control my SMART Board from my iPad?"
|
