Common Core State Standards: English Language Arts

1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (show more) Print many upper- and lowercase letters. Kindergarten students can use and expand complete sentences, print many (upper-and lowercase) letters, use nouns and verbs, use question words, and use prepositions. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. First grade students can use and expand a variety of sentences, print all letters, and use singular and plural nouns with verbs (past, present, and future). Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. Second grade students can use, expand, and rearrange a variety of sentences. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Synchronous Editing with Google Docs to Teach the Common Core *ISTE Workshop: Transitioning to the Common Core with Google Apps – Join me! I am using Google documents for all writing assignments this year. The day I assign a formal essay topic, students must create a doc, title it properly and share it with me. This makes it possible for me to check their progress throughout the writing process. It creates opportunities to provide formative feedback instead of waiting until the final draft is submitted to provide comments. The challenge? This is how… Last week, I reserved the computer lab for two 90 minute class periods. Click to watch a screencast: I asked students to use the instant chat feature on their document to send me questions or comments as they worked. I successfully edited every paper shared with me 2 times before the final draft was submitted. A new student to my class as of the semester break wrote me the following email: Ms. Thank you so much.

Best Websites for English Teachers The Internet truly is the information highway. As a teacher, you can search for lessons, ideas, videos, organizational tips, reference guides, and the list goes on and on. With time constantly eluding me, I started bookmarking the websites I visit most frequently. Websites to Focus on Grammar Should one write a while or awhile? Grammar Girl is my first go-to website if I have a question relating to grammar. Websites to Focus on Writing Whether the focus is on creative writing or academic writing, it can be a hard skill to teach. 6+1 Trait Writing focuses on the six traits of writing (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions). Websites to Focus on Literature Help your students choose independent reading books, find resources to supplement your literature lessons, and browse a compilation of graphic organizers. goodreads is the perfect website to help students in choosing their next independent reading book! Are there websites you can’t live without?

Teaching English using iPads - Day 1 This is the first post in what will be a series of posts pertaining to how I am teaching Summer School English using 1:1 iPads. Some background info: Our iPad program is in the beginning of its second year. We are still in a pilot program, but it has expanded with the start of our 2nd year to include more schools in the district. I am our Instructional Technology Director, but originally taught English. I am teaching summer school English to test my hand at teaching 1:1 with iPads. The majority of the students are in the class for Senior English, there are a couple students in the class for Junior English. My goal for the course: I want to use the iPads as tools to help students learn the material in an interesting and modern way. My goal for these posts: To chronicle the daily activities of my class (4 hours a day, 4 days a week, 3 weeks, 2 sessions) in a way that is brief, but also informative. What we did Day 1: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. That was basically it for Day 1. About the Author

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: Teacher's Web Tools to Teach Writing as a Process Today I had the chance to present to my colleagues in university. The topic was about teaching writing through technology. Here is what I talked about : The writing Process :The writing process is conventionally known to be composed of 5 stages : Prewriting, writing, revising, editing, and publishing. Below are web tools to help your students in each writing stage. 1- Pre-writingThis stage is about coming up with an idea. a- Writing prompts Writing stories is a great way to get students actively involved in the writing process. c- Graphic organizers : brain storming, mind mapping, concept mapping, Using graphic organizers and mind maps can help students think visually . If you have tried all the above mentioned tools but you still did not find the one that meets your students needs,then try to create your own writing prompts . Piclit2- Writing, Revising, and Editing Now that you have generated enough ideas to get you by, you need to organize them into coherent whole.

5 Tools Students Can Use to Create Alternative Book Reports This afternoon someone emailed me asking for some suggestions for tools for creating book trailer videos. It has been two years since I last wrote about the topic so I created a new list of tools for creating book trailers. Book trailers are short videos designed to spark a viewer's interest in a book. Animoto makes it possible to quickly create a video using still images, music, video clips, and text. WeVideo is a collaborative online video creation tool. Pixntell is an iPad app for quickly creating simple narrated photostories. Narrable is a neat service for creating short narrated slideshows.