Hot Websites November/December 2004
By Linda Lindroth

Holidays abound in November and December. This month's plethora of web resources will provide some interactive ways to engage your students in learning fun while keeping them focused on curriculum goals and standards.

Read Write Think
www.readwritethink.org
Sponsored by IRA, NCTE and MarcoPolo, this web resource has something for every educator. I've already got a shortcut for this great website on my desktop and I hope you will want to do the same. This comprehensive reading and language arts resource is divided into Lessons, Standards, Web Resources, and Student Materials.

Lessons. The database is easy to browse by title and grade, or search by grade or literacy strand, learning language, learning about language or learning through language. Individual lesson plans have an Overview, a background for Theory to Practice, Student Objectives, Instructional Plan, Extensions, Web Resources and NCTE/ IRA Standards. The left sidebar makes it easy to identify lesson time, standards and interactive web resources to support the lesson.

Standards. The 12 language arts standards for NCTE and IRA are listed for easy reference.

Web Resources. There's a very extensive annotated list of language resources. A drop down menu lets you sort the long list of resources by grade level and resource type (instructional resources, professional development, reference library and student resources).

Student Resources. This collection of interactive tools makes it easy for students to use technology to enhance their language learning. Tools include Story Map, Timeline, Alphabet Organizer, Letter Poem Creator, Plot Diagram and ReadWriteThink Printing Press to name just a few. These are fantastic interactive language tools.

From Cave Art to Your Art
www.sanford-artedventures.com/play/caveart
Travel through time for 30,000 years of art media, compliments of Sanford. From the cave art of Native Americans who first put charcoal to the rock wall of caves to the art mediums of today, your students can learn about art media and use video clips to create their own movie. The video clips encompass art topics from oil and acrylic paints to watercolor, colored pencil and markers. The website allows students to view video clips about the different art mediums and select the video they want to use in their own video timeline. There is even an option for uploading their own pictures from the computer to play as six second video clips in their movie.

Video selection is simple. Just drag each desired video clip into the timeline. Next, add Title Cards by selecting the template you want, adding your text and then sliding it to the video clip of your choice. Cards will show up as introductory captions for your video – just like a silent movie! All that's left to do is add the music. Music slip choices include classical, folk and world, rock and electronics in 15 second increments. Want your music clip to last longer? Just drop the same music clip into the timeline as many times as needed for the desired background music.

Last, but most important, is the ability to download your finished movie in a zip file for Mac or Windows with a reader that let's you share it with other classrooms or friends and family. You can even burn your video movie to a CD for easy portability.

Teaching With Historic Places
www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/index.htm
This website uses historic sites in the National Park Service to learn more about historic events. Complete lessons include materials, background information and readings, web resources, "Setting the Stage" for historical content, maps and images related to the historic place or event. Be sure to also investigate the current feature on Hispanic Culture for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Sites for November/December

November 15 - 21: Atlapedia Online
www.atlapedia.com/
November 15 is the start of Geography Awareness Week. Countries A-Z database with a printable political and physical maps. You can also download a Country Research guide.

November 29 – December 5: Time 100: Walt Disney
www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/disney.html
December 5 – Walt Disney's birthday: Biography by Time Magazine with magazine covers and related links – even Mickey Mouse and his friends!

December 13 - 19: History of Monopoly
www.hasbro.com/monopoly
December 31 – Monopoly patented: Monopoly timeline, rules and tips. Download a Game Guide and create Monopoly based on your community.

Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.

Updated November 2007
November/December 2004, Vol.35, No.3