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Literacy Pearls

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Mind42.com - Collaborative mind mapping in your browser. Prezi - The Zooming Presentation Editor. Literary Elements Map. An updated version of the Story Map, this interactive best suits secondary students in literary study.

Literary Elements Map

The tool includes a set of graphic organizers designed to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities, focusing on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution development (shown at left). As with the Story Map, this interactive can be used in multiple contexts, whether they be author studies, genre studies, or thematic units, among others. Students can map out the key literary elements for a variety purposes, including response to literature or as a prewriting activity when composing their own fiction.

After completing individual sections or the entire organizer, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment. Grades 5 – 9 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson Fairy Tale Autobiographies. Letter Poem Creator. Download the plug-in tools you need to use our games and tools, or check to see if you've got the latest version.

Letter Poem Creator

Learn more Looking for ways to engage your students in online literacy learning? Find more interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals-from organizing their thoughts to learning about language. More Your students can save their work with Student Interactives. More. Letter Generator. The Letter Generator tool is designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates.

Letter Generator

A sample letter is included, and students can learn about the parts of a letter by reading descriptions of each part. Once students have become familiar with letter formats, they are prompted to write their own letter. Students follow the steps and fill in specific fields in the template (for example, heading, salutation, closing, signature, and so on). They may even add a decorative border and postscript to the friendly letter. The finished letter can be saved, e-mailed, or printed. This useful tool provides step-by-step instructions for familiarizing users with the necessary elements of written correspondence, and can serve as an excellent practice method for composing and proofreading both formal and informal letters. Hints about Print. Home › Classroom Resources › Student Interactives Student Interactive Hints about Print, included in an extended research skills unit which also employs the Fact Fragment Frenzy interactive, aids students in evaluating print resources that contain the facts they need for compiling their research.

Hints about Print

The tool asks prompting questions (shown at left) to guide young researchers in the process of their work. Wordnik: All the Words. Homepage. Fictional. Drama Map. Download the plug-in tools you need to use our games and tools, or check to see if you've got the latest version.

Drama Map

Learn more Looking for ways to engage your students in online literacy learning? Find more interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals-from organizing their thoughts to learning about language. Flip Book. The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long.

Flip Book

Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets. Students can choose from nine different layouts for the pages of their books (shown left). A blank flip book is available for demonstration and planning.

Grades K – 12 | Student Interactive | Writing & Publishing Prose Stapleless Book The Stapleless Book can be used for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating vocabulary booklets . . . the possibilities are endless! Printing Press. Circle Plot Diagram. Download the plug-in tools you need to use our games and tools, or check to see if you've got the latest version.

Circle Plot Diagram

Learn more Looking for ways to engage your students in online literacy learning? Find more interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals-from organizing their thoughts to learning about language. More Your students can save their work with Student Interactives. Story Map. The Story Map interactive includes a set of graphic organizers designed to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities.

Story Map

The organizers are intended to focus on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution development. Students can develop multiple characters, for example, in preparation for writing their own fiction, or they may reflect on and further develop characters from stories they have read. After completing individual sections or the entire organizer, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment.

The versatility of this tool allows it to be used in multiple contexts. Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson. Plot Diagram. Home › Classroom Resources › Student Interactives Student Interactive The Plot Diagram is an organizational tool focusing on a pyramid or triangular shape, which is used to map the events in a story.

Plot Diagram

This mapping of plot structure allows readers and writers to visualize the key features of stories. The basic triangle-shaped plot structure, representing the beginning, middle, and end of a story, was described by Aristotle. Gustav Freytag modified Aristotle's system by adding a rising action and a falling action to the structure.

Compare & Contrast Map. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline for one of three types of comparison essays: whole-to-whole, similarities-to-differences, or point-to-point.

Compare & Contrast Map

A link in the introduction to the Comparison and Contrast Guide give students the chance to get definitions and look at examples before they begin working. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic on the right that allows students to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion. The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed. Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson Teaching the Compare and Contrast Essay through Modeling The compare and contrast essay is taught through modeling from the brainstorming phase through the first draft. Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Unit. Comparison and Contrast Guide. Home › Classroom Resources › Student Interactives Student Interactive This interactive guide provides an introduction to the basic characteristics and resources that are typically used when students compose comparison and contrast essays.

The Comparison and Contrast Guide includes an overview, definitions and examples. The Organizing a Paper section includes details on whole-to-whole (block), point-by-point, and similarities-to-differences structures. In addition, the Guide explains how graphic organizers are used for comparison and contrast, provides tips for using transitions between ideas in comparison and contrast essays, and includes a checklist, which matches an accompanying rubric. Related Classroom & Professional Development Resources. Essay Map. Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement, main ideas they want to discuss or describe, supporting details, and a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic in the upper right-hand corner that allows students to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion.

The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed. Graphic Map. The Graphic Map is designed to assist teachers and students in reading and writing activities. The organizer focuses on charting the high and low points related to a particular item or group of items, such as chapters in a book, amounts of money spent, events during a day, month, year, or life, or scenes in a play. The Graphic Map creates a graphic representation of these high and low points that displays related images and descriptions. The interactive can be used as a prewriting activity, as students map ideas for an autobiography; as a postreading activity, as students map the significance of events in a story; and as a reflection and assessment activity, as students map the high and low points of their inquiry process.

Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Unit Writing and Assessing an Autobiographical Incident Students build upon their knowledge of biographies to write their own autobiographical incident. Fractured Fairy Tales. Whether it's The Princess and the Rutabaga or Big Blue Riding Hood, invite your students to turn familiar fairy tales upside down and inside out—and to have fun. This interactive tool gives students a choice of three fairy tales to read. They are then guided to choose a variety of changes, which they use to compose a fractured fairy tale to print off and illustrate. Useful for teaching point of view, setting, plot, as well as fairy tale conventions such as they lived happily ever after, this tool encourages students to use their imaginations and the writing process at the same time.

Grades 2 – 4 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson. Hero's Journey. The hero's journey is an ancient story pattern that can be found in texts from thousands of years ago or in newly released Hollywood blockbusters. This interactive tool will provide students with background on the hero's journey and give them a chance to explore several of the journey's key elements. Crossword Puzzles. ReadWriteThink has a variety of resources for out-of-school use. Visit our Parent & Afterschool Resources section to learn more. Alphabet Organizer. Engage students and build phonemic awareness by using Alphabet Organizer in the classroom. Students create an alphabet book or alphabet chart with words for each letter of the alphabet. Doodle Splash. Comic Creator.

Bio-Cube. The Bio Cube interactive has been changed to a new format: the Cube Creator. Summarizing information is an important postreading and prewriting activity that helps students synthesize what they have learned. The interactive Cube Creator offers four options: Cube Creator. Summarizing information is an important postreading and prewriting activity that helps students synthesize what they have learned. The interactive Cube Creator offers four options: Acrostic Poems. Diamante Poems. CD/DVD Cover Creator. Download the plug-in tools you need to use our games and tools, or check to see if you've got the latest version. WordSift - Visualize Text. Word tools - Mondofacto. ZooBurst.

Vocabulary.com - Learn Words - English Dictionary. RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus. Definr - incredibly fast dictionary.