Word Off: A New Play on Words Do you obliterate the competition when it comes to word games? Think you’ve conquered every lexicon challenge out there? Do you stay up late at night picturing Words with Friends letter combinations in your mind? If word games are your thing you’ll want to check out Word Off. Like the article? Getting Your Word on (Er…Off) The first thing you notice after creating an account (or signing in with Facebook) is that Word Off has a whimsical, halftone design complete with bright colors. There are several options for starting a new game. Once you login you're given an overview of your current games and options for starting new games with friends. While I appreciated that Word Off doesn’t post to my Facebook wall for me when I win or lose games, I was disappointed with how many times I experienced trouble connecting with Facebook and I found myself having to reconnect more often than I would have liked. How to Play Each turn you form a word to gain new territories. Other Features
Resources for Teaching - Ben Taylor / FrontPage Common Core Units - Built on the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) framework Please click on the units below to print units that fulfill the Common Core State Standards. Review Stations for English I Please click on the links below to download and print (or modify) the stations activities. English I - Poetry Review.doc English I - Expressive Non-Fiction.doc English I - Short Story.doc English I - Informational #1.doc English I - Informational #2.doc Review sheet for English 1: English I Review Sheet.doc Review Stations for Middle School ELA Goals Please click on the links below to download or view review stations for all six ELA goals. Weekly Lessons/Units The links below contain weekly lesson plans and assessments. Note: not all literature books categorize the same stories in the same grade levels. Goal-Specific Activities Reading Strategies (covers multiple goals) Other Strategies and Activities Measuring Text Complexity (Quantitative Measures)
Setting of a Story The setting of a story answers the questions of where and when the story takes place. These worksheets will help understand the concept of 'setting' as a part of a story or book. Setting Introduction: This worksheets introduces the concept of setting. Setting Introduction Setting the Mood: The choice of a good setting can help 'set the mood' of a story. Choosing a Setting Setting Cloze Activity: This cloze activity looks at the importance of setting for a story. Setting Cloze Setting and Character: Students identify a variety of settings from pictures and decide what kind of characters they might find in those settings. Setting and Character Setting of a Story for Young Learners: A collection of worksheets aimed at teaching the setting of a story to younger learners. Young Learners Collection Back to Parts of a Story
The Princess and the Pea Posted on Jul 2, 1997 by Hans Christian Andersen Illustrated by Edmund Dulac There was once a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a real Princess. He travelled right around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly. One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and lightninged and the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night. In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the old King himself sent to open it. It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from the rain and the storm. ‘Well we shall soon see if that is true,’ thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. ‘Oh terribly bad!’ Now this is a true story.
Making Inferences Making inferences is a skill by which students are often evaluated on state reading tests. Additionally, according to Bloom's Taxonomy, analyzing implications is a higher order reading skill than comprehending text. Therefore, good readers make inferences. To make an inference, a reader or listener takes information provided by the writer or speaker, combines it with background knowledge and prior information relevant to the situation, and extracts an unstated or implied idea from the communication. Inferences are related to implications; in fact, they are the same thing. The difference is relative to the position of the agent. The area between what is clearly stated and what is understood is much contended. So, did Kevin make the team? Review Making inferences is more difficult than understanding and locating information in a text, but it is something that good readers do.
Comprehension Strategies - Making connections, questioning, inferring, determining importance, and more from Strategies That Work, Mosaic of Thought, and Reading with Meaning, this page gives you information on the six comprehension strategies known as making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing.
Inanimate Alice - About the Project Born-digital Created as a reading-from-the-screen experience for the digital generation, Inanimate Alice stands alongside the best novels for pre-teen and emerging teen readers. Interactive Requires the reader to drive the action forward at their own pace and encourages readers to co-create their own versions of the story, either filling in the gaps or developing new strands. Multimedia Uses text, images, music, sound effects, puzzles and games to illustrate and enhance the narrative. A Novel A reading-from-the-screen experience for the “always on” generation. Episodic Designed originally as entertainment, Inanimate Alice has been adopted by teachers eager to develop their students’ digital literacy skills. Click here to begin with Episode #1 Designed originally as entertainment, ‘Inanimate Alice’ has been adopted by teachers eager to connect with students through media they inherently understand. Available in French, German, Italian and Spanish
Tagxedo - Word Cloud with Styles