PUBLIC MARKS with tags "ms:language arts" & hs:english

Problem-solving/decision-making tool for students/teachers. Free until June 2009, but only $299 for site license. This is a great web-based tool for helping students analyze complex issues. Most appropriate for middle and high school

Welcome to the Virtual Library of Conceptual Units. The Virtual Libray includes conceptual teaching units for middle and high school English/Language Arts classes. These units have been designed by preservice and practicing teachers at The University of Georgia. The units follow principles of curriculum and instruction developed by George Hillocks, Jr., (see, e.g., Dynamics of English Instruction, Grades 7-12, by Hillocks, McCabe, and McCampbell; Random House, 1971). The process for designing these units is described in Peter Smagorinsky's Teaching English through Principled Practice (Merrill/Prentice-Hall, 2002) and Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units (Heinemann, 2008; an online Instructor's Guide is available for this book as well).The units are designed to cover 4-6 weeks (assuming daily class periods of 45-55 minutes). Each is organized around a concept such as a theme (e.g., Coming of Age), genre (e.g., satire), strategy (e.g., understanding irony), literary period (e.g., Victorian Age), movement (e.g., Transcendantalism), region (e.g., Authors of Georgia), or author (e.g., the works of Emily Dickinson).

Hypertextopia is a space where you can read and write stories for the internet. On the surface, it looks like a mind-map, but it embeds a word-processor, and allows you to publish your stories like a blog. It's designed to facilitate the writing of axial hypertexts by making a distinction between the fragments (essential elements) and the shards (minor, but enriching elements) of a story. You write in Hypertextopia by dragging the fragment arrow (the large one) or the shard arrow (the small one) and dropping them onto other fragments and shards, or onto empty space.

Nice example of how to use wordle in the classroom as a pre-reading strategy.

Interactive tutorial for use of possessive and contracted apostrophes

vocabulary mapping

MapMyWord is an interactive graphic dictionary and thesaurus, which dynamically draws color-coded representation of words, relationships (16 types), and meanings in radial clickable graphs. The g, s, t superscripts denote words suitable for GRE, SAT, and TOEFL levels, respectively. Special editable features include Pronunciation, Wordlist Difficulty Setting, Next Word Randomization, Spelling Suggestions, Sample Usage mini-Messages, and Clickable Nodes and Words. Where can I use MapMyWord?

Interactive games for middle,hs,and ESL students. Covers lots of specific grammar topics that are often confusing for students.

Learn 26 high powered vocabulary words in this one song! Download to to your ipod! Download lyrics and definitions too! (Only one song is actually free)

What is it? The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus with an innovative display that encourages exploration and learning. You'll understand language in an exciting new way. To understand the power of the Visual Thesaurus, you really need to see it in action. Type in your favorite word and give it a try! Teacher lessons here:http://www.visualthesaurus.com/educators/