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Multimedia Online Resources for Educators
MERLOT - Grapevine:
Resource for peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials.
'via Blog this'
Resource for peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials.
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Children's Literature
NY Times Children's Literature List
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2011/11/13/arts/artsspecial/index.html?ref=books
Read
transforming understanding
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| American Street |
Fine fiction allows us to step into the shoes of another for just a moment, transforming our understanding of the human experience.
From School Library Journal
"Grade 7-12-Fourteen short stories about growing up in America's diverse society. Written by such authors as Robert Cormier, Langston Hughes, Lensey Namioka, Grace Paley, Gary Soto, and Michele Wallace, they range from powerful to poignant to downright hilarious. Readers will come away from this collection understanding what it is like to be a migrant worker, an African-American child in a white school, or a Jewish child cast in a Christmas pageant. "The Wrong Lunch Line" details the problems a Latina has when trying to eat with her best friend, who is Jewish; the Chinese-American Lin family has trouble dining in "The All-American Slurp." While all but one of these stories have been published previously, it is a treat to have them pulled together here, reflecting as they do the dignity of individuals and the strength of family bonds across different cultures."Hearing Bilingual - How Babies Tell Languages Apart - NYTimes.com
Hearing Bilingual - How Babies Tell Languages Apart - NYTimes.com:
Researchers have found ways to analyze infant behavior — where babies turn their gazes, how long they pay attention — to help figure out infant perceptions of sounds and words and languages, of what is familiar and what is unfamiliar to them. Now, analyzing the neurologic activity of babies’ brains as they hear language, and then comparing those early responses with the words that those children learn as they get older, is helping explain not just how the early brain listens to language, but how listening shapes the early brain.
'via Blog this'
Researchers have found ways to analyze infant behavior — where babies turn their gazes, how long they pay attention — to help figure out infant perceptions of sounds and words and languages, of what is familiar and what is unfamiliar to them. Now, analyzing the neurologic activity of babies’ brains as they hear language, and then comparing those early responses with the words that those children learn as they get older, is helping explain not just how the early brain listens to language, but how listening shapes the early brain.
Recently, researchers at the University of Washington used measures of electrical brain responses to compare so-called monolingual infants, from homes in which one language was spoken, to bilingual infants exposed to two languages. Of course, since the subjects of the study, adorable in their infant-size EEG caps, ranged from 6 months to 12 months of age, they weren’t producing many words in any language.
Still, the researchers found that at 6 months, the monolingual infants could discriminate between phonetic sounds, whether they were uttered in the language they were used to hearing or in another language not spoken in their homes. By 10 to 12 months, however, monolingual babies were no longer detecting sounds in the second language, only in the language they usually heard.
The researchers suggested that this represents a process of “neural commitment,” in which the infant brain wires itself to understand one language and its sounds.
In contrast, the bilingual infants followed a different developmental trajectory. At 6 to 9 months, they did not detect differences in phonetic sounds in either language, but when they were older — 10 to 12 months — they were able to discriminate sounds in both.
'via Blog this'
Code-switching: the concurrent use of more than one language
I remember the first time I read an excerpt from The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros to my sophomore English class in El Paso and their reaction to her code-switching in the story. The story of a young girl growing up in the Hispanic section of Chicago, Esperanza is coming of age and coming to terms with her own identity in desolate surroundings. My class was 98% Hispanic; they had recently exited the ESL program and moved into "regular" English with me. I chose the book with the hope my students would identify with Esperanza's struggles and because the langauge Cisneros uses in her stories exemplifies the language coding they use. At first they were surprised by the author's language choices because they had been told to leave their language out of their communications for academia, yet here was a novel being read in class that included their native language. I would even ask their help pronouncing the words and phrases she used. They "got" her and laughed at her humor that is only understood by the group; we truly became "we." We were having conversations about language that were not contrived. The effect it created in my class was one of solidarity. They knew I understood and was willing to meet them where they lived (so to speak).
Had I been the sort of teacher that held strict rules for disallowing code-switching and made curriculum choices that did not include an analysis of my audience (i.e., my students), as some do I am sad to say, those sophomores that year and the many others I've taught since then would have tuned out and turned off.
Mutual respect is the name of the game; fear and paranoia is cast aside and we stand side by side in solidarity as human beings who are compassionate of one another's values, perceptions, beliefs, communication styles, and behaviors. Not us vs. them (or "my way or the highway") attitudes, maintaining language as a barrier.
Mothers are said to be the ones that set the tone in a home. Educators set the tone in their classrooms. How can we create a nurturing and safe learning environment without acceptance, respect, and trust?
Losing Language
"Shackle a people, strip them bare, cover their mouths: they are still free.
Deprive them of work, their passports, food and sleep: they are still rich.
A people are poor and enslaved when they are robbed of the language inherited
from their parents: it is lost forever." Sicilian poet, Ignazio Buttitta (1972)
Deprive them of work, their passports, food and sleep: they are still rich.
A people are poor and enslaved when they are robbed of the language inherited
from their parents: it is lost forever." Sicilian poet, Ignazio Buttitta (1972)
Infographics for Visual Learners
Three elements of an infographic
- design
- journalism
- analysis
I've got a timeline project due, so I'll post my own infographic here upon completion. Really looking forward to trying my hand at this!
Book Videos: Author Interviews, Author Read-Alouds, Book Trailers, Booktalks | Scholastic.com
Book Videos: Author Interviews, Author Read-Alouds, Book Trailers, Booktalks | Scholastic.com:
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
Authors talking about their writing process and read-alouds, bringing writing and books to life. Great stuff!
Why Dont We Teach Kids How to Use CTRL+F? - Education - GOOD - StumbleUpon
Why Dont We Teach Kids How to Use CTRL+F? - Education - GOOD - StumbleUpon
Every school district in the country has strict standards for the essential English, math, science, and history content students must master. As early as elementary school, students also are expected to develop basic research skills, like how to use a book's table of contents or index. But many schools don't mandate knowing how to use a computer, word processing and database software, and internet research tools. Yet those just might be the most important skills they can learn.
Dan Russell, a Google "search anthropologist" who studies how everyday people search for information online, told The Atlantic last week that 90 percent of people don't know that they can use CTRL or Command+F to find a word in a document or web page.
Dog-Eared Books: A New Definition | www.cesarsway.com
Dog-Eared Books: A New Definition | www.cesarsway.com: Dog-Eared Books: A New Definition
By Joe Wilkes
Lately, there have been a number of programs springing up around the world where young children and older children with learning disabilities have been entered into programs where they have been reading to dogs. Dogs, you say? While our canine brethren have been enthusiasts of running, Frisbee, swimming, and many athletic pursuits, it’s been rare that they’ve been regarded by us humans as any meaningful participant in a literary salon. The vast majority of pooches haven’t even read Old Yeller, The Call of the Wild, or even Marley and Me.
Yet, these four-legged critics are being enlisted to hear recitations of Dr. Seuss, Hans Christian Andersen, and J.K. Rowling in schools and libraries everywhere, where previously they might not even have been let through the door due to various hygiene considerations. So what’s going on?
By Joe Wilkes
Lately, there have been a number of programs springing up around the world where young children and older children with learning disabilities have been entered into programs where they have been reading to dogs. Dogs, you say? While our canine brethren have been enthusiasts of running, Frisbee, swimming, and many athletic pursuits, it’s been rare that they’ve been regarded by us humans as any meaningful participant in a literary salon. The vast majority of pooches haven’t even read Old Yeller, The Call of the Wild, or even Marley and Me.
Yet, these four-legged critics are being enlisted to hear recitations of Dr. Seuss, Hans Christian Andersen, and J.K. Rowling in schools and libraries everywhere, where previously they might not even have been let through the door due to various hygiene considerations. So what’s going on?
Kathryn Stockett's 'The Help' Turned Down 60 Times Before Becoming a Best Seller on Shine
Excerpts from
Kathryn Stockett's 'The Help' Turned Down 60 Times Before Becoming a Best Seller on Shine:
"In the end, I received 60 rejections forThe Help. But letter number 61 was the one that accepted me. After my five years of writing and three and a half years of rejection, an agent named Susan Ramer took pity on me. What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60? Three weeks later, Susan sold The Help to Amy Einhorn Books.
The point is, I can’t tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or painting, song, voice, dance moves, [insert passion here]—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won’t take you anywhere. Or you could do what this writer did: Give in to your obsession instead.
And if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember—just lie.
The article was written by Kathryn Stockett."
Kathryn Stockett's 'The Help' Turned Down 60 Times Before Becoming a Best Seller on Shine:
"By rejection number 45, I was truly neurotic. It was all I could think about—revising the book, making it better, getting an agent, getting it published. I insisted on rewriting the last chapter an hour before I was due at the hospital to give birth to my daughter. I would not go to the hospital until I’d typed The End. I was still poring over my research in my hospital room when the nurse looked at me like I wasn’t human and said in a New Jersey accent, “Put the book down, you nut job—you’re crowning.”
It got worse. I started lying to my husband. It was as if I were having an affair—with 10 black maids and a skinny white girl. After my daughter was born, I began sneaking off to hotels on the weekends to get in a few hours of writing. I’m off to the Poconos! Off on a girls’ weekend! I’d say. Meanwhile, I’d be at the Comfort Inn around the corner. It was an awful way to act, but—for God’s sake—I could not make myself give up."
"In the end, I received 60 rejections forThe Help. But letter number 61 was the one that accepted me. After my five years of writing and three and a half years of rejection, an agent named Susan Ramer took pity on me. What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60? Three weeks later, Susan sold The Help to Amy Einhorn Books.
The point is, I can’t tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or painting, song, voice, dance moves, [insert passion here]—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won’t take you anywhere. Or you could do what this writer did: Give in to your obsession instead.
And if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember—just lie.
The article was written by Kathryn Stockett."
Studies Explore Whether the Internet Makes Students Better Writers - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education
from the article: http://chronicle.com/article/Studies-Explore-Whether-the/44476/
..."The rise of online media has helped raise a new generation of college students who write far more, and in more-diverse forms, than their predecessors did. But the implications of the shift are hotly debated, both for the future of students' writing and for the college curriculum.
Some scholars say that this new writing is more engaged and more connected to an audience, and that colleges should encourage students to bring lessons from that writing into the classroom. Others argue that tweets and blog posts enforce bad writing habits and have little relevance to the kind of sustained, focused argument that academic work demands.
A new generation of longitudinal studies, which track large numbers of students over several years, is attempting to settle this argument. The 'Stanford Study of Writing,' a five-year study of the writing lives of Stanford students —including Mr. Otuteye —is probably the most extensive to date."
...Mr. Grabill, from Michigan State, says college writing instruction should have two goals: to help students become better academic writers, and to help them become better writers in the outside world. The second, broader goal is often lost, he says, either because it is seen as not the college's responsibility, or because it seems unnecessary.
..."The rise of online media has helped raise a new generation of college students who write far more, and in more-diverse forms, than their predecessors did. But the implications of the shift are hotly debated, both for the future of students' writing and for the college curriculum.
Some scholars say that this new writing is more engaged and more connected to an audience, and that colleges should encourage students to bring lessons from that writing into the classroom. Others argue that tweets and blog posts enforce bad writing habits and have little relevance to the kind of sustained, focused argument that academic work demands.
A new generation of longitudinal studies, which track large numbers of students over several years, is attempting to settle this argument. The 'Stanford Study of Writing,' a five-year study of the writing lives of Stanford students —including Mr. Otuteye —is probably the most extensive to date."
...Mr. Grabill, from Michigan State, says college writing instruction should have two goals: to help students become better academic writers, and to help them become better writers in the outside world. The second, broader goal is often lost, he says, either because it is seen as not the college's responsibility, or because it seems unnecessary.
"The unstated assumption there is that if you can write a good essay for your literature professor, you can write anything," Mr. Grabill says. "That's utter nonsense."
The writing done outside of class is, in some ways, the opposite of a traditional academic paper, he says. Much out-of-class writing, he says, is for a broad audience instead of a single professor, tries to solve real-world problems rather than accomplish academic goals, and resembles a conversation more than an argument.Rather than being seen as an impoverished, secondary form, online writing should be seen as "the new normal," he says, and treated in the curriculum as such: "The writing that students do in their lives is a tremendous resource."
Arne Duncan to Override ‘No Child Left Behind’ Requirement - NYTimes.com
Arne Duncan to Override ‘No Child Left Behind’ Requirement - NYTimes.com: "Overriding a Key Education Law
By SAM DILLON
Published: August 8, 2011
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override the centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014."
By SAM DILLON
Published: August 8, 2011
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override the centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014."
The repercussions of this will be far reaching.
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Teaching Tolerance
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Teaching Tolerance: "Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice
Level: Grades 6 to 8 Grades 9 to 12
Subject: Reading and Language Arts Social Studies Arts ELL / ESL
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice is a series of 12 lessons. Each lesson focuses on a contemporary social justice issue. These lessons are multidisciplinary and geared toward middle- and high-school students."
Level: Grades 6 to 8 Grades 9 to 12
Subject: Reading and Language Arts Social Studies Arts ELL / ESL
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice is a series of 12 lessons. Each lesson focuses on a contemporary social justice issue. These lessons are multidisciplinary and geared toward middle- and high-school students."
Education Week: South Korea to Replace All Paper Textbooks With Digital Content
Education Week: South Korea to Replace All Paper Textbooks With Digital Content: "The 2009 OECD study says there's a positive relationship between students' use of computers at home for leisure and their digital navigation skills. 'Proficient digital readers tend to know how to navigate effectively and efficiently,' the study said.
The study said students who read online more frequently also read a greater variety of print material and report higher enjoyment of reading itself."
The study said students who read online more frequently also read a greater variety of print material and report higher enjoyment of reading itself."
"Sentence as River and as Drum" from Kim Stafford
Publication: The Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 3
Date: 2003
Date: 2003
Summary: Stafford encourages students to try paragraphs made up entirely of either long or short sentences, eventually creating paragraphs that embed both "the roll of the river and the beat of the drum."
When I left college to conduct an oral history project in the 1970s, I learned how the spoken language is performed in the key of and. A storyteller ends each "sentence," each episode in a long recollection, with the word and, which simultaneously holds the floor from interruption and links one action to the next. This makes the music of one's life feel endless.
At the same time I was observing this performance quirk, I was troubled by the way school had taught me to write interminable prosy sentences, with proof piled upon proof in classy rhetorical structures that left me breathless if I tried to read them aloud. I had learned too well. As someone beginning to write—to write the stories I was hearing in the world with the language habits I had learned in school—I felt the need to both unreel and to rein in my utterances. So, when I became a teacher of writing, I began to use the twin exercise of the long and short sentence to make each student's repertoire more pliable. Each mode tempers the other.
The idea is simple. First, I invite an assembly of writers to compose a sentence that goes on for at least a page—and no fair cheating with a semicolon. Just use "and" when you have to, or a dash, or make a list, and keep it going. After your years of being told not to, take pleasure in writing the greatest run-on sentence you can.
After doing this exercise some fifty times myself, I think I've begun to learn the atmospheric opportunity of the sentence that never has to make a hard decision. As always I comply with my own request, writing without stopping until I come to the lower right corner of my page, and then I put a title on the monster I have created:
A Life of Art in a Busy WorldCould my writing be the river that winds through the obstacles of my life, flowing in its own way, without conflict, so sure of its own relation to gravity that it unfurls its long story past clock and meal, past child and loving wife, inquiring gently through dream and waking, flowing undisturbed and undisturbing past the mailbox, curling and eddying softly past the edges of deadline and annual report, suffusing budget and application and prospectus, carrying little rafts of poetry and barges of prose gracefully through the channel deepened by fear and scoured by grief, urging my intention effortlessly through thickets of disbelief, mildly passing no and yes and maybe on its journey to lower and lower ground, moving easily, flooding with clear water and light the lowest reaches I can find, without any destination but down, without any intention but vital motion through, without any agenda but inclusion, buoyancy, permission, carrying the living scent of one place to the hunger of another, flowing nameless and pure, eager, without ambition, disguised as the world itself traveling through the world?
Then we shake out our writing hands, take a blank page, and write from the upper left to the lower right corner again, but this time letting no sentence be longer than four words (but every sentence must have a subject and a verb). Again, I try the exercise along with everyone and then release my cramp by adding a long and languid title:
The Realm Where Writing Can Happen Even When You Are So Busy You Can't Write Long But You Can Still Write All the Time Because You Have Watched How Rivers MoveWriting takes time. Life takes time. There's your problem. Can they happen together? They can. Rivers have the key. Rivers pass rocks. There is a way. A rock sits heavy. The river goes around. The mountain rises. The river cuts down. Life gets complex. Writing gets simple. There is a crevice. A moment opens. Writing takes possession. Queens rule small countries. Kings preside over jewels. Wives master hard times. Husbands can learn. Writing braids a rope. Each strand is small. Dreams are filaments. Conversations are strong wire. Family stories weave everything. It all connects. Novels forge rivers. Every little thing counts. Do you believe? Do you want this? Others haunt arenas. Your writing inhabits threads. There are ways. Believe. Write. Be patient. Be bold. It will come together. Gather all things. Travel through time. Harvest gold. Be hospitable to everyone. Leave everyone. Enter your cell. Be the lucky prisoner. Your words are rain. Be free as rain. Tell it all. Rivers have ends. So do you. Be big. Let go.
An odd piece, but I'm fond of it, and I find some lucky nuggets: "Be the lucky prisoner." I like that. And more important than the success of either exercise is that I have reminded myself of the true elasticity of the sentence. In the midst of a run of long sentences, sometime soon, I will remember to embed a small one. Life needs contrast. And in the midst of drumbeat assertions, sometime soon, I will remember to let my cello speak an aria.
The exercise of the long sentence may help me discover connections among many things, all gathered into the net with the simple sticky magnetism of and. The exercise of the short sentences may help me discover the multiplicity of divergent opportunity within a single subject. I enjoy both. Together they contribute to the preliminary calisthenics of our writing workshop: Which was easy? Which was hard? Why? As we write, let's watch for opportunities to be concise, and then inclusive, breaking the boundaries of the acceptable in order to be a river, and be a drum. Rivers have long rhythms. Drums roll.
A version of this article appears in Stafford's recently released book The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft (University of Georgia Press, 2003).
This article is featured in the NWP booklet 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing.
Need to make an important decision? Set up a flowchart.
Creating a flowchart to make important, well reasoned decisions is easy.
Three main types of Symbols used in a flowchart:
Example:
Three main types of Symbols used in a flowchart:
- Elongated circles, which signify the start or end of a process.
- Rectangles, which show instructions or actions.
- Diamonds, which show decisions that must be made
Example:
Color-Coded Feedback for Student Writing
Marcia Hilsabeck, a former AP teacher and AP Summer Institute Coordinator/Presenter from Round Rock, Texas, is credited for first introducing me to this marvelous strategy for providing students with feedback to their writing at a glance. I have used this strategy for many years with an assortment of grade levels and abilities. Not only do students enthusiastically respond to this type of feedback, but it can easily become a springboard for a discussion in peer editing or student-teacher writing conferences .
Pink, yellow, green, orange, and blue highlighters are used to mark syntax, mechanics, diction, and the well written/"good stuff" in an essay. With one glance, students see their frequent errors and are positively rewarded for thoughtfully crafted, finely honed phrasing.
Here's how I use the colors:
Pink - mechanics/grammar & usage/ punctuation errors such as commas in a series, spelling, capitalization, etc.
Yellow - overuse of "to be" verbs (am, is, are, was, were), and/or pronouns
Orange - syntax errors such as run-ons, sentence fragments, comma splices, or wordiness
Blue - wrong word, pronoun/antecedent errors, diction problems
Green - The well written sentence, outstanding "turn of a phrase", exemplary use of literary devices
There are several options for using this color-coded feedback method. Teacher or student can use one color for one type of problem per draft. For example, I may tell my class that for this draft I am going to concentrate of syntax errors because we just spent time examining and working with sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and sentence combining techniques. So in this instance, only the orange highlighter will be used to draw attention to specific sentence errors requiring revision. For a final draft, I would use all the colors. Students are aiming for a paper that only has green markings because that would indicate the well written, really awesome "stuff." Students especially like "going for the green."
Pink, yellow, green, orange, and blue highlighters are used to mark syntax, mechanics, diction, and the well written/"good stuff" in an essay. With one glance, students see their frequent errors and are positively rewarded for thoughtfully crafted, finely honed phrasing.
Here's how I use the colors:
Pink - mechanics/grammar & usage/ punctuation errors such as commas in a series, spelling, capitalization, etc.
Yellow - overuse of "to be" verbs (am, is, are, was, were), and/or pronouns
Orange - syntax errors such as run-ons, sentence fragments, comma splices, or wordiness
Blue - wrong word, pronoun/antecedent errors, diction problems
Green - The well written sentence, outstanding "turn of a phrase", exemplary use of literary devices
There are several options for using this color-coded feedback method. Teacher or student can use one color for one type of problem per draft. For example, I may tell my class that for this draft I am going to concentrate of syntax errors because we just spent time examining and working with sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and sentence combining techniques. So in this instance, only the orange highlighter will be used to draw attention to specific sentence errors requiring revision. For a final draft, I would use all the colors. Students are aiming for a paper that only has green markings because that would indicate the well written, really awesome "stuff." Students especially like "going for the green."
Global Visitors
Thank you to all of those folks from around the world who have stopped by here.
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Two minutes and a dream
A hero emerges from a stable.
A hero that teaches us about long shots and hope;
Teaches us to believe in the impossible.
Americans love a challenge.
What better challenge than a race-
A horse race.
The field is leveled;
The stakes are high.
The tension mounts;
We can be lifted out of our doldrums.
For two minutes
We feel the rush
And witness greatness
In a horse.
We all want to go at something in a full gallop;
Defeat the odds-
Win by a nose.
Two minutes
To watch the glory;
To watch the strength of the legs,
The flexing of the haunches,
The release of the muscles,
The shimmer of sweat on a chesnut coat,
Nostrils flaring,
Neck out, stretched,
Reaching for the unseen golden finish.
That’s in all of us.
That’s a glimpse at freedom-
At being an American with a dream-
A dream of running at something
With all we got
And winning.
~Lori Vanden Berghe
Improving Syntax
Syntax: the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
Let's say I have my students check for a Flesch-Kincaid grade level score (Readability and Comprehension ) and they discover their piece is written at a 7.0 or 8.0 level, but they are in 10th grade (or higher) and striving for a more sophisticated tone, style, and syntax in their writing.
What I have them do next is take that same paragraph and run it through this Syntax Analysis Chart to see exactly where the issues are and how they can revise to improve their readability for a higher score and stylistically create a more sophisticated piece of writing.
Oftentimes, students will discover they are using the same sentences openers ("I think"), structure (simple), and "to be" verbs (am, is was, were) repeatedly. One of the most important elements of syntax is the way the words, phrases, and clauses are arranged. This is a key element of the author’s style and can have a marked effect on meaning.
I first learned of this strategy at a Advanced Placement Language and Composition conference I attended some years back. The College Board says, "This reflective tool not only helps students examine how style contributes to meaning and purpose but also helps students identify various writing problems (repetitiveness, possible run-ons or fragments, weak verbs, and lack of syntactical variety). In addition, students are made aware of their own developing voices and diction."
Let's say I have my students check for a Flesch-Kincaid grade level score (Readability and Comprehension ) and they discover their piece is written at a 7.0 or 8.0 level, but they are in 10th grade (or higher) and striving for a more sophisticated tone, style, and syntax in their writing.
What I have them do next is take that same paragraph and run it through this Syntax Analysis Chart to see exactly where the issues are and how they can revise to improve their readability for a higher score and stylistically create a more sophisticated piece of writing.
Oftentimes, students will discover they are using the same sentences openers ("I think"), structure (simple), and "to be" verbs (am, is was, were) repeatedly. One of the most important elements of syntax is the way the words, phrases, and clauses are arranged. This is a key element of the author’s style and can have a marked effect on meaning.
Readability Scores and Comprehension
A readability score is designed to indicate comprehension difficulty. Most webpages try to maintain a 7.0 to 8.0 (7th to 8th grade) reading comprehension level. Students can utilize this feature for improving their writing skills, and teachers can use the statistics to gauge comprehension level for corresponding with parents.
Readability Statistics provide writers with one more tool to use as a way to evaluate their writing for improvement.
First, with your document open, go to the icon at the top left of your screen and click on Word Options.
Next, click Proofing. At the bottom of that screen you will need to check the Readability Statistics option, then click OK.
After you check your grammar and spelling, you will see the readability statistics pop up after making your corrections.
Next, click Proofing. At the bottom of that screen you will need to check the Readability Statistics option, then click OK.
After you check your grammar and spelling, you will see the readability statistics pop up after making your corrections.
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is determined by total number of words, sentences, and paragraphs resulting in a comprehension difficulty score related to an American grade school level.
To determine the grade level for comprehension of a writing sample, Word counts the number of letters in words, the number of words in sentences, the lengths of sentences, and the lengths of paragraphs. The shorter the words, sentences, and paragraphs the lower the comprehension difficulty and grade level.
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level statistic can be a helpful tool for writers who want to improve their comprehension level for a specific audience. Students may need to improve their syntax and diction for a sophisticated audience, and educators may need to adjust their writing for broad range of community members and/or parents.
Readability Statistics provide writers with one more tool to use as a way to evaluate their writing for improvement.
from Barbara Kingsolver- author
Do you go through a lot of drafts?
Gazillions. I adore revision. Whether it’s a two-page article or a 500-page book, I rewrite endlessly. I may rewrite the first paragraph of a novel fifty times before I’m satisfied. I comb through a manuscript again and again, altering every sentence a little or a lot. I don’t print out every draft on paper, or I’d be mowing down forests.Pounding out a first draft is like hoeing a row of corn – you just keep your head down and concentrate on getting to the end. Revision is where fine art begins. It’s thrilling to take an ending and pull it backward like a shiny thread through the whole fabric of a manuscript, letting little glints shine through here and there. To plant resolution, like a seed, into chapter one. To create new scenes, investing a character with the necessary damage, the right kind of longing. To pitch out boldly and try again. To work every metaphor across the whole, back and forth, like weaving. I love that word “fabrication,” because making an elaborate fiction feels so much like making cloth.
Perfectionism is my disease. Revision is my milk and honey.
Read more from Barbara Kingsolver
...and whether pigs have wings
There are many applications for using Voki with all ages. Choose an avatar and record what you want. Fun! Not able (or willing) to record your own voice? Voki can transfer text to speech too, and you can even choose the accent. The site now has a teacher's corner for tips and lesson plan discussions.
My little experiment was taking one stanza from Lewis Carrol's, "The Walrus and The Carpenter" (Alice Through The Looking Glass) and putting a little spin to it.
My little experiment was taking one stanza from Lewis Carrol's, "The Walrus and The Carpenter" (Alice Through The Looking Glass) and putting a little spin to it.
Witness the magic
Since the Beat Poets first began appearing in coffee houses in the 50s, poetry has moved from formal readings to impromptu, open mic settings. Pushing the edges of established views and uses of language, the Beats took free form poetry, added rhythms, and became the voice of a generation. So, taking note from the voices of the past, and adding the hip-hop voices of today, poetry has become a powerful tool for improving literacy in schools through Spoken Word performances and Slam competitions because even the most reluctant learner is motivated by this self-expressive medium.
I have seen firsthand how Slam poetry when modeled and channeled in a classroom can facilitate literacy, communication, and creativity from kids who are otherwise marginalized in academia. But in order for students to find their voices and be willing to open themselves, they must feel secure and appreciated. And teachers must be willing to stand back, allowing the kids freedom to openly express (while still abiding by school policy) those inner most, sometimes gut wrenching and controversial topics. Students begin to experiment with language in ways they would not otherwise because "getting it just right" takes on a whole new meaning and dimension in this genre.
Dr. Janette Hughes from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology says this about using poetry to improve literacy: "A focus on oral language development through the reading and performing of poetry acknowledges that sound is meaning. When we hear the sound of the words in a poem read aloud, we gain a better understanding of the meaning of the writing...If we want our students to understand how literature, and poetry in particular, brings them to a deeper understanding of life, we need to find meaningful ways to engage them in poetry."
A former colleague told me once: "Poetry is an important and integral part of the human experience. It may not be to the page, but to anybody who has tried to woo a lover through voice, body, or both has experienced poetry. I don't think it is better than any medium, but it is definitely part of the human spirit."
There are Slam teams in nearly every major city in the U.S. who also compete nationally, so finding a poet to help you out in the classroom would not be difficult. Bring performance poetry to your students, set up a competition in your class or across classes, and witness the magic unfold.
I have seen firsthand how Slam poetry when modeled and channeled in a classroom can facilitate literacy, communication, and creativity from kids who are otherwise marginalized in academia. But in order for students to find their voices and be willing to open themselves, they must feel secure and appreciated. And teachers must be willing to stand back, allowing the kids freedom to openly express (while still abiding by school policy) those inner most, sometimes gut wrenching and controversial topics. Students begin to experiment with language in ways they would not otherwise because "getting it just right" takes on a whole new meaning and dimension in this genre.
Dr. Janette Hughes from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology says this about using poetry to improve literacy: "A focus on oral language development through the reading and performing of poetry acknowledges that sound is meaning. When we hear the sound of the words in a poem read aloud, we gain a better understanding of the meaning of the writing...If we want our students to understand how literature, and poetry in particular, brings them to a deeper understanding of life, we need to find meaningful ways to engage them in poetry."
A former colleague told me once: "Poetry is an important and integral part of the human experience. It may not be to the page, but to anybody who has tried to woo a lover through voice, body, or both has experienced poetry. I don't think it is better than any medium, but it is definitely part of the human spirit."
There are Slam teams in nearly every major city in the U.S. who also compete nationally, so finding a poet to help you out in the classroom would not be difficult. Bring performance poetry to your students, set up a competition in your class or across classes, and witness the magic unfold.
April is National Poetry Month
The Trouble with Poetry: A Poem of Explanation
A U.S. poet laureate shares.
by Billy Collins
The trouble with poetry, I realized
as I walked along a beach one night --
cold Florida sand under my bare feet,
a show of stars in the sky --
the trouble with poetry is
that it encourages the writing of more poetry,
more guppies crowding the fish tank,
more baby rabbits
hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass.
And how will it ever end?
unless the day finally arrives
when we have compared everything in the world
to everything else in the world,
and there is nothing left to do
but quietly close our notebooks
and sit with our hands folded on our desks.
Poetry fills me with joy
and I rise like a feather in the wind.
Poetry fills me with sorrow
and I sink like a chain flung from a bridge.
But mostly poetry fills me
with the urge to write poetry,
to sit in the dark and wait for a little flame
to appear at the tip of my pencil.
And along with that, the longing to steal,
to break into the poems of others
with a flashlight and a ski mask.
And what an unmerry band of thieves we are,
cut-purses, common shoplifters,
I thought to myself
as a cold wave swirled around my feet
and the lighthouse moved its megaphone over the sea,
which is an image I stole directly
from Lawrence Ferlinghetti --
to be perfectly honest for a moment --
cut-purses, common shoplifters,
I thought to myself
as a cold wave swirled around my feet
and the lighthouse moved its megaphone over the sea,
which is an image I stole directly
from Lawrence Ferlinghetti --
to be perfectly honest for a moment --
the bicycling poet of San Francisco
whose little amusement park of a book
I carried in a side pocket of my uniform
up and down the treacherous halls of high school.
Billy Collins, the U.S. poet laureate from 2001 to 2003, is the author of seven collections of poetry and is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He serves as the poet laureate of New York State.
This article originally published on 10/18/2006
Writing A Woman's Life
According to Heilbrun, women's lives have been written under the guise of what the perception of their life should be. Societal pressures, patriarchal constraints, and a lack of language not “steeped in that of men,” all contribute to the silence of real issues and topics for women. I was reminded of Anis Nin who wrote two sets of journals: one for herself and one for others to read.
It was in my Women in Literature class in college that I was first exposed to this book, but I have kept it close for reference ever since. In fact, one year I had a small class of all female, senior Independent Honors students and we decided to tackle the book together. Prior to Women's History Month (March), we wrote letters to prominent, respected women from the local, state, and national arena to come speak at our high school about the trials and tribulations they had to overcome to reach their dreams. Diane Sawyer wrote a letter back to one student, and Hillary Clinton sent a letter from the White House. Several local women came to speak to a small group and were taped for an interview by our broadcasting class. All as a result of reading this book. Well worth the time for men and women to read.
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