Interactive Writing Sites

A visitor tried out Wordle after reading about it here and said her kids loved it! Stacey wanted to know if I could recommend similar sites that might encourage her kids to get more psyched about writing.

Glad you asked. I recently finished compiling some Interactive Writing Tools that my students just love!

The collection is by no means complete; for example, I have since heard from Martin Jorgensen, creator of Lightning Bug, who informed me that he has recently launched The Digital Narrative, which looks like a pretty awesome blog/resource compilation. I've spent only an hour there and barely scratched the surface!

So check out those sites, enjoy them with your students, and please email me any other recommendations that you might have.

Playing with Blocks: Not Just for Kids

From TED talks:

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Teaching That Makes Sense

Teaching That Makes Sense, founded by Steve Peha, is an impressive web site full of well-organized, original resources on reading and writing.

They're all in pdf format and they're all free.

Is this guy insane? It would be easy to understand his generosity if the stuff was mediocre. But Steve has put together hundreds of pages of strategies, structures, checklists, and posters for teachers that are high quality, practical, and immediately usable.

Getting started in Reader's or Writer's Workshop? Looking for authentic student writing samples? Seeking sound ideas for writing across the curriculum? Need a writing lesson to use tomorrow? It's all there. And if that's not enough, Steve and his crew are continually adding articles on the teaching profession that are truly worth a read.

And it's sticky stuff, because the ideas are concrete (yet not closed-ended) and simple (yet not dumbed down).

So visit the site. Read the articles. Download the pdfs. Before Steve comes to his senses.

UPDATE 03/09/09: Apparently they loosened Steve's straight jacket long enough for him to peck out a response to my post:

Hey, Keith! Love your blog. And your kind words about our work are really
appreciated. Here's a link to our newest strategy guide (not yet on the site) if
you're interested: www.ttms.org/ttms_strategy_guide.pdf. We've also got a new
book on reading that we'll be giving away, too. Is this guy crazy? Perhaps. But
I really just want teachers to have access to good materials.

Thanks for stopping by, Steve! We appreciate your efforts.

Presenting: A Two Way Street

In his most recent blog, marketer extraordinaire and all-around-knowledgeable guy Seth Godin points out that emotional give and take is a key for successful presenters. Check out his thoughts on respect for the audience.

It's All Greek to Me

While most educators would agree that the best method for vocabulary acquisition is the act of reading itself, there's something to be said for word root study, especially Greek and Latin roots.

This became clear to me years ago when we were studying decimals. I made the casual observation that deci- typically means "one-tenth of" and mentioned the word decimeter as an example. Michael raised his hand and asked, "So is the word decimate somehow related to that?" Being the confident, all-knowing teacher that I was in my third year teaching, I answered, "No," and dismissed the class to lunch.

As I munched on my chicken salad sandwich, and regained strength of both body and mind, I realized that I had missed an opportunity. Following the lunch period, I encouraged Michael to look up the word in the dictionary.

The word decimate in present use means ‘to destroy a large part’ of something, but its origin sheds light upon a somewhat drastic means of behavioral intervention. According to the Merriam -Webster New Book of Word Histories,

A technique used by the Roman army to keep mutinous units in line was to select one-tenth of the men by lot and execute them, thereby encouraging the remaining nine-tenths to follow orders. The Latin verb for this presumably effective form of punishment was decimare, literally, ‘to take a tenth of,’ which was derived from decimus, meaning ‘tenth.’ (pp. 133-4)

Since that time I've been an ardent believer that vocabulary instruction can greatly benefit from word study (etymology). Etymology can, in fact, shed some light upon the world in which we presently live.

The Greek origin of the word ostracize, for example, cements its meaning into the memory:

Ostraka were shards of broken pots re-used as voting 'ballots' cast by the
Athenian assembly, who would each choose a politician they wished to have
'ostracized', or exiled for ten years. If any one name received a majority and a
total of 6,000 or more votes, that man would have to leave Athens.

At the time the hit television series Survivor premiered, it was hailed for its originality. Turns out that its premise was actually thousands of years old!

Below you'll find some links where you and your students can check out word origins for yourself.

Etymologically Speaking... Word origins appearing alphabetically.

Funwords.com For word origins, click where it says "Expand your vocabulary."

Greek and Latin Roots Information and activities for understanding Greek and Latin roots.

Meanings and Origins of Phrases Searchable database.

Online Etymology Dictionary An A-Z searchable collection of word origins.

Word Detective Origins plus other cool word-related facts.

Word Origin Game Given a word, select its origin or meaning from three choices.

Word Spy Web site is devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. NOTE: Some adult themes here!

I Want to Teach Forever: 52 Teachers, 52 Lessons

At 52 Teachers, 52 Lessons, Mr. D has started a project called "52 Teachers, 52 Lessons." Once a week for a year, Teach Forever will share an essential lesson submitted by teachers, for teachers. 52 different "mini-lessons" will answer the question:

"What is the most important advice you can give to other teachers?"

Yours truly was featured on March 2nd, with some Advice for New and Student Teachers.

Stop by the site to hear some great advice, or weigh in yourself on the topic.

The World According to Ben Hillman

Slam dunks are no problem for this guy.
Polar bears are the largest carnivores on Earth. And when they stand on their hind legs, they’re the tallest. The biggest polar bear anyone ever saw stood at astounding 12 feet tall (3.7 m.). That’s two feet higher than the rim of a basketball net.

from How Big Is It?
by Ben Hillman

Ben Hillman has created four wonderful books which illustrate the magnitude of real life objects by comparing them with everyday phenomena. How Big Is It?, How Strong Is It?, How Fast Is It?, and How Weird Is It? have quickly become nonfiction must-reads for the upper primary and intermediate school set.

As shown above from How Big Is It?, the largest polar bear on record is a whopping 12 feet! Yes, students will be surprised to hear that a polar bear is taller than their classroom ceiling, but the surprising juxtapositions created by Ben Hillman's composite illustrations drive home each book's concepts in a really powerful, fun way.

Have some reluctant readers? They will devour these books! The text is as wonderful as the pictures, and is in no way dumbed down for the young audience for which it is intended. In speaking about the Akula (Shark) Submarine, for example, Hillman writes

This leviathan of the deep is one of the most dangerous submarines imaginable –
a giant submersible weapon of mass destruction.

Many of the contextual clues needed for comprehension are provided by the illustrations. Some words, however, are not made clear by the pictures alone, and the reader's curiosity will promote an interest in word study.

As seen in this description of our polar bear from How Big Is It?, the text, like the illustrations, uses similes, metaphors, and hard data to create memorable juxtapositions,

For short distances, a polar bear can charge along at 25 miles per hour (40
km/h) – almost as fast as the fastest Olympic sprinter.

From How Strong Is It?, a description of human hair's amazing strength:

The average human hair can support 2 to 3.5 ounces without breaking. That doesn't sound like much, but the average human head has more than 100,000 hairs.
And blondes have more than most. About 140,000 hairs per blonde... So how many princes can Rapunzel handle? Do the math. Her two golden braids can hold at the
very least 17,500 pounds of princes!

All four books are a blast! They make excellent nonfiction read-alouds due to their brevity and brilliance, and the individual topics need not be read in any particular order. How Strong Is It?, for example, features twenty-two two-page spreads, with a full color picture on the left (running onto the right page), and an article-length text appearing on the right.

Visit the author's site for an up-close preview of these books. Students especially enjoy the cool roll-over feature used to illustrate the sample pages provided.

Looking for questions and extension activities to use in the classroom? You can find those at my Teach with Picture Books site (along with suggestions for other excellent picture book read-alouds).