Developing
Language and Academic Literacy with Technology, Grades 4-12
Karen Cadiero-Kaplan,
Ph.D.
San
Diego State University
kcadiero@mail.sdsu.edu
Presented at
the15th Annual ELD Institute
“One Size Does Not Fit All: Ensuring Success for All English Learners”
Saturday, April 9, 2005
San
Diego County Office of Education
Communicating
Across Distances
- Yahoo:
http://login.yahoo.com
- From Shore
to Shore, or "De Orilla a Orilla"http://www.orillas.org/welcomee.html
- This is an international
teacher-researcher project that has focused on documenting promising classroom
practices for intercultural learning over global learning networks
- Project
FRESA: http://www.clmer.csulb.edu/gln/fresa/index.html
- This is a collaborative
project designed by Michelle Singer and Amada Irma H. Perez. Michelle teaches
5th grade and Amada teaches 3rd grade. Both teachers work at Mar Vista Elementary
School in the Ocean View School District in Oxnard, California. Together,
their classes created a multi-media, cross-curricular anthology about the
relationship between the strawberry crops that surround and sustain the local
community, environment, and economy to their lives.
- Putting
the Movement back into Civil Rights Teaching: LEARN Civil Rights Project:
http://www.civilrightsteaching.org/CRTglobal.htm
In partnership with the LEARN Project at Long Island University,
the Civil Rights Teaching Global Learning Project is a groundbreaking online
education project that highlights the recently published Putting the Movement
Back into Civil Rights Teaching. The project links classrooms together
across geographic lines in dialogue and action on issues of civil rights,
social justice, and people's movements. The text, edited by: Menkart, D.,
Murray, A., View, J. availabe at: http://www.civilrightsteaching.org/.
Internet
Activities & Lessons by Content Area
Language
Arts & ELD
- Hear the tales of the indigenous peoples
of Australia, and better understand the role of storytelling as well as other
areas of cultural heritage. Students can access a dictionary of terms that
may be new to them, and the "How do I find...?" area can help them find information
on specific topics, such as medicines and land ownership.
- If your students love the book, Charlotte's
Web, this site provides creative supplemental resources, a mystery quotes
quiz, trivia crossword puzzles, and links to other Charlotte's Web sites.
Created by Mrs. Taverna's 1998-1999 Second Grade, at Pocantico Hills School
in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
- This on-line picture dictionary has a
wide range of vocabulary categories with a variety of activities to give students
practice in using vocabulary in context. Langauges include English, Spanish,
French, Italina, and German.
- The site is designed by and for ESL teachers. The
fables are used to increase fluency as well as critical thinking and increasing
vocabulary.
- A comprehensive resource for ESL teachers and students
in middle and high school. Includes a variety of on-line and printable grammar
related exercises and activities. The site includes bilingual voabulary quizzes
in over 20 languages.
- This site, developed by a teacher from
Belgium, offers online and worksheet activities for English language learners.
Lessons incorporate activities with teaching tips. When activities have Dutch/English
next to them in parentheses,that means it is in Dutch,to be translated into
English. However, most exercises are in English and help to prepare students
for the general work force.
- Paper postcards are still the rage! Here
is a project that entails students exchanging postcards with other classrooms.
Through what is now lovingly referred to as snail mail, these postcards allow
cultural exchanges, polish writing and mapping skills.
- Amigos is a bilingual website of interest
to, but not limited to, ethnically diverse middle school and high school students,
parents, teachers and interested adults. Amigos consists of several components
including informational essays, resources for locating help, and sharing personal
stories and intergenerational experiences.
Math
- Integrating Mathematics, Science and
Language: An Instructional Program is a two-volume curriculum and resources
guide developed by Paso Partners - a partnership of three public schools,
an institution of higher education, and SEDL specialists. The resource is
designed to help elementary school teachers organize their classrooms and
instructional activities in order to increase achievement of Hispanic primary-grade
children whose first language is not English. The guide offers a curriculum
plan, instructional strategies and activities, suggested teacher and student
materials, and assessment procedures.
- This site features an interdisciplinary
Web based project designed for middle school math students to determine how
much it would cost to build an Egyptian pyramid today.
- NASS provides the numbers to help understand
agriculture. Ag for Teachers contains links to lessons using USDA information
and statistics.
- A hotlist created by a science librarian
at the University of Exeter, teachers and older students can find sources
to compare inflation, costs of living, and more for periods in history, Ancient
Rome, Spain, and Colonial America are some of the periods featured. Many links
to explore, linking mathematical concepts of finance to history
Science
- Are the organisms found in pond water
the same all over the world? Let your students identify organisms in a water
sample, compare their findings with other participating classes, and look
for relationships and trends in the data collected by all project participants.If
you don't want elementary school students (grades 1-5) mucking about in a
pond, there are instructions for teacher collection of samples. This site
contains a great list of links to help you identify your local macro invertebrates.
- This website is an excellent resource
for student research on the solar system. Planet facts are written to meet
the needs of various reading levels and is also in Spanish.
- Using actual specimens from the Dinosphere:
Now You're in Their World exhibit, The Children's Museum staff along with
local educators and university professionals collaborated to create engaging,
K-8 standards-based online activities and WebQuests. There are eight activities
for K - 2, divided into nonreader, early reader, and reader categories. There
is also a WebQuest for grades 3 -5, as well as one for grades 6 - 8. Each
activity has a teacher's guide including activity overview, standards and
suggestions for variations, when applicable. All activities and WebQuests
have been translated into Spanish for ESL students.
- Exploring the Prairie, Pioneer Farming,
The Story of Corn and Farming Today and Tomorrow are the areas covered by
this website. Each area is divided into a Student area, a Teacher area (with
lesson plans), and Resources. This is a great site for combining the study
of US westward expansion and biomes.
Social
Studies
- Students are charged with finding a location
for the last California Mission, and work as a team to research the geography,
native peoples, and natural resources of the region.
- This site uses the national debt controversy
to inspire students toward taking democratic action. After exploring the issues
from four perspectives, students have to answer the question, "What's so big
about a 5 trillion debt?"
-
- This site is an outstanding example
of how the Web is about people and reaching out (not bandwidth and AUPs).
Iqbal Masih was sold into child bonded labor at 4 years of age for the equivalent
of $12. He escaped at age 10 and began to speak out against child slavery.
He won the Reebok Human Rights Youth in Action Award 1994 and on Easter
Sunday, 1995, he was murdered. Students at Broadmeadow Middle School formed
a campaign to help fight for Iqbal's Dream.
- Want to give elementary students an
understanding of how the government plays a part in our daily lives, or
what the President of the United States does during the day? This easy to
navigate site lets students explore these topics, or go virtually into the
voting booth.
- Developed by Pakistan teacher Fatemeh
Sheikh, this web quest provides tasks that guide students in designing a lasting
peace agreement between India and Pakistan.(NOTE: This
site sometimes causes the browser to open multiple pop up windows, but it
is worth checking out for the content and process).
- The World Game Institute is a 27 year
old non-profit research and education organization whose mission is to supply
the perspective and information needed to solve the critical problems facing
global society of the twenty-first century.
English
Language Development & Bilingual Education Resources
- You will find resources for students
who speak Spanish as their primary language and you will also find links for
students learning Spanish as a foreign language. The resources are appropriate
for Kindergarten through Community College levels
- This site provides a comprehensive resource
on the philosophy, methods and public policy issues in educating language
minority students. It is designed to link university scholarship, K-12 educators
and the general public to disseminate current information about pedagogically
sound principles and practices in language education.
National Clearning House for
English Language Acquisition: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/
- OELA's National Clearinghouse for English Language
Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA) collects,
analyzes, synthesizes and disseminates information about language instruction
educational programs for English language learners and related programs. It
is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language
Acquisition, Language Enhancement & Academic Achievement for Limited English
Proficient Students (OELA) under Title III of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
Act of 2001.
- This site is truly Mexico para Ninos,
and in addition to Spanish, the site includes English, French and Italian
translations. Students can explore the states of Mexico as well as the government
and history. Diversity not only covers plants and wildlife, but the indigenous
peoples of Mexico. Cultural information on Mexican mythology, foods,games
and music can be found throughout the site.
- Teaching French or Spanish? Casa Joanna
has links for you. Find language websites that contain thematically organized
authentic links for Spanish teachers. There are also links to French and Spanish
language search engines and portals/web guides.
- Many teachers, students, librarians and
others are interested in locating good Spanish language resources. No matter
what statistics you hear about the growth of the Internet, the number of good
Spanish language sites doesn't seem to be keeping pace. We created this web
site because we are concerned about the lack of resources and lessons available.
- This website is a hotlist of Spanish
resources on the internet, it includes lists in Spanish for government resources,
periodicals, arts and culture and more.
- Dave's ESL Cafe is for ESL/EFL students and teachers
from around the world. Includes a Search Page, Quiz Center, Help Center, Idea
Page, Graffiti Wall, Question Page, and more.
Art
- This
site on color vision is designed for K-12 students and includes a sample color
blindness test using two of the Ishihara charts along with brief explanations
about color blindness. Included are links to Sir Isaac Newton and a chart
on common animals and the colors they see. Developed by the Research Topics
section of the Ask a Biologist site at Arizona State University.
-
- Photographs of masks from many cultures
can be found here. Featured are masks from affiliated museums around the world,
as well as masks found at mask festivals in Europe and Asia and masks made
by contemporary artists
-
- The National Gallery in Washington created
a variety of activities for children learning about art. Take a tour of the
sculpture garden, or explore the colors, shapes, and lines found in Kandinsky's
Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle.)
-
- A flashy site (Flash plugin required)
for artists and creative thinkers to just sit back and watch. Turn your high
school computer lab students loose trying to figure out how they did it. Beginning
animators may get some wonderful ideas, all surrounding the basic alphabet.
Discussion &
Reflection
How could you integrate the content
and activities found in these sites into your curriculum and/or school day?
What other ideas come to mind for using the computer for whole class instruction?
Searching
the Internet
Resource
Sites for Students
- Provides 4th to 8th grade students information
to help them complete a research project; access tips, worksheets, and resources
that help build information literacy skills.
Teacher
Resources
- Welcome to the U.S. government interagency
Kids' Portal. It provides links to Federal kids' sites along with some of
the best kids' sites from other organizations all grouped by subject. Look
for state report information as well as music and transportation.
- Montage is an impressive collection of
interactive curriculum projects involving teachers and students around the
globe. The projects are designed to create collaboration and learning through
the medium of the Internet and other communication technologies.
- This site features a chronological look
at seminal artists in Spanish History. Explore important art periods and view
information and works by over 100 Spanish artists from Fresco to Gargallo.
Creating
Your Own Web Page
- Create a free personal website that's
as easy to use as the bulletin board in your classroom. What could be easier
than posting assignments, announcements, and other educational material on
your own classroom's bulletin board?
- Create a FREE course Web site to bring
your learning materials, class discussions, and even tests online. Supplement
an existing class or teach a course entirely on the Web.
- Whatever it is, if you are working with
students on webpages, this is a must read. What are layers? How do you do
a Quicktime VR panorama, and make it easier to load? What is dynamic HTML,
and which version should you try to implement? Update your HTML skills, or
just visit the areas marked with a green dot (for beginners).
Teacher
List Serves
- BlueWebn:
For K-12 Teachers, receive
news weekly of new online resources, lesson plans, tools, and learning activities.
TO SUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn
- Have
a Cow, Dude.
If you are an elementary
school teacher, this listserv offers a variety of data you can integrate into
your lessons. Learn about milk production from a dairyman who names each of
his cows (the girls), and updates listserv subscribers on their milk and calf
production. Each month, the author tackles questions from readers. To subscribe,
visit http://www.10acresbackyard.com/.
- The
Weekly Puzzler sends
you puzzles each week. Riddles, Brain Busters, Math Riddles, Trivia and more...all
in one e-mail message. The answers are included in the same message. Keep
those brains working! To subscribe, visit http://www.topica.com/lists/TheWeeklyPuzzler/
- "On
the Wild Side"
is created by the Audubon
Society. Very cool, weird facts you can use to dazzle people and perhaps gross
out your students. For a more detailed nature listserv, subscribe to the "eNature
Observer." Visit the Audubon website at http://www.enature.com/feature/feature_subscribe.asp
to subscribe
Credits:
Many of the recommended site descriptions
on this web page were obtained from Blue
Web'n.
A list serve developed by the Pacific Bell Education First Fellows at San
Diego State University's Department of Educational Technology.
Blue Web'n is a searchable library of Blue Ribbon Web sites categorized by grade
level, and content area. You can visit Blue Web'n online at http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn