Monday, January 23, 2012

Website Resources

Do you ever stay up late, endlessly searching online for resources or a video to teach that lesson on determining the main idea? 
Well, your life just got easier with these go-to websites for literacy resources!

The district has purchased subscriptions for Daily CAFE and Choice Literacy and are available for teachers of literacy to use!  If you haven't signed up for the weekly emails from Choice Literacy or Daily Cafe go to their sites and do so!

Some ways to search for information on the site instead of just mindlessly clicking (which can also be fun!) would be to search for some key terms:  Try typing in:  text features or main idea or persuasive writing. Nonfiction is too broad of a term.  So consult your learning goals before searching!  

Both sites are now "white-listed" with our server so there won't be any problems in getting information through email. 

Check out the websites now:

Choice Literacy

Daily CAFE

Can't remember your password?  Go to the site and request it by entering in your school email address.

Happy surfing! 

Heart Maps


The most effective way to let students know you care about them as writers is to allow them to write about what they know a lot about, what is important to them. Typically in grades 2-up students compile a list of what they know a lot about, what is important to them in what is referred to as "Writing Territories." For our youngest writers, "territories" may be too complex for them to wrap their brains around.
Here is a really great example of how Miss Sarah and Miss Beth honored their Kindergarten writers by assisting them in creating "Heart Maps". These maps are what the students know a lot about, what is important to them. The process entailed the teachers sitting with their individual students to discuss what they know a lot about, what is important to them and then the teachers searched on-line for the images, copied, and pasted them onto the heart.
These maps are kept in the student's writing notebooks as a point of reference when choosing writing topics.
Please contact your literacy coach to learn more about Miss Sarah and Miss Beth's process.