Amy SellarsAburke817@holyfamily.eduhttp://sellarscms.angelfire.com

Middle School Language Arts TechnologyPrepared Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Table of Contents

• Introduction• Summary Findings• Detailed Findings• Conclusion• Appendix

Introduction• The advent of technology has created many innovative and effective ways of

conveying and transferring information. With merely the click of the mouse, one can be up to date on the latest news, talk to a long-distance friend, or research an array of topics within a matter of seconds.

• Technology has become a crucial component of our everyday lives, which is why it is essential that children, from a young age, are exposed to various forms of technology in the classroom.

• It is our job as educators to utilize technology within the planning of our lessons, as well as in the facilitation of learning.

• The following report is catered to assist middle school language arts teachers to find information on the Internet that can be used to enhance classroom instruction.

• Through my research, I have discovered that there is a plethora of valuable information and resources that can be used to supplement student learning.

Summary Findings• I began my research by creating an Internet Address Book

with 20 websites that specifically were aimed at language arts instruction.

• I found a variety of sites including: government, educational, commercial, and organizational.

• Within my address book I rated my websites based on different criteria such as a content, usability, and overall rating.

• Most of the sites had a list of lesson plans according to grade level and language arts subsection.

• All 20 websites that I researched are available in my Internet Address Book, and along with excerpts from each site, which can be found in the Research Excerpts File in the Appendix.

Summary Findings (contd.)• Below are a few examples of sites that I found useful in my IAB:• One government site that I found useful was Federal Resources

for Educational Excellence, http://free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=78

• This site is a government run site that is dedicated to providing free resources for reading and language arts teachers.

• Another site that I found fairly useful was Daily Grammar, http://www.dailygrammar.com/ . This site is particularly helpful to language arts teacher who focus on sentencing editing and complete warm ups at the beginning of class.

• An additional website that I found helpful for language arts teachers was The South Jersey Academy for Teaching and Learning, http://www.southjerseyacademy.com/, which is comprised of lesson plans and resources that were donated by local teachers.

Summary Findings (contd.)

• Out of all 20 sites that I researched, there were 5 in particular that stood out. Each website rated all 5’s, which is the highest scaled rating, in content, usability, and overall quality. Below is a brief overview of each site:

• 1) http://www.readwritethink.org/ Read, Write, Think is an excellent website that earned the highest ratings on my Internet Address Book. The site has a great deal of information regarding language arts and reading instruction.

• 2) http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/ Outta Ray’s Head is an excellent website for teaching English literature at the middle to high school level.

• 3) http://www.educationworld.com/ Education World is an outstanding website that contains resources for both teachers and administrators

• 4) http://www.webenglishteacher.com/ Web English Teacher is a site catered to teachers of reading and writing, particularly middle school through high school.

• 5) http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Language_Arts The Educator’s Reference Desk is a website that contains lessons from all different disciplines.

Detailed Findings Read, Write, Think

• Out of all 20 sites that I researched, there were 5 in particular that stood out. Each website rated all 5’s, which is the highest scaled rating, in content, usability, and overall quality. Below is a brief overview of each site:

• 1) http://www.readwritethink.org/ Read, Write, Think is an excellent website that earned the highest ratings on my Internet Address Book

• The site is sponsored by NCTE and IRA, who are working together to provide educators and students with access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.

• The site is free of charge and has a variety of reading and language arts activities that are categorized by grades.

• It has a convenient toolbar that offers the options Lessons, Standards, and Student Materials.

Detailed FindingsRead, Write, Think (contd.)

• A samples lesson that I found useful was called “Alliteration in Headline Poems”

• This lesson would be an ideal choice for a teacher to incorporate into the classroom.

• The lesson objectives, materials, and preparation are all clearly stated, along with a step by step procedure for how to carry out the lesson.

• This lesson, like most on this site, incorporates technology into the procedure and handouts are provided.

• Students would benefit because they are completing a variety of activities: searching the web, writing on the board, cutting and pasting, speaking orally.

• It has been proven that the more stimulation and interest that is conducted in the classroom, the more a students will retain the information that was presented.

Detailed FindingsOutta Ray’s Head

• Outta Ray’s Head, http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/ is a site that accommodates older students, middle school through high school age.

• Ray Saitz started the site in 1996 after he became frustrated with the lack of valuable lessons on the net

• Teachers from all over the world submit their creative lessons that they have preformed in the classroom and provide detailed rationale and procedures for each one.

• As shown above, the lessons are arranged through the links Literature, Writing, Poetry, and Library.

• The lessons are extremely valuable because they are often lessons on novels and short stories that are difficult to find.

Home  Literature     riting      Poetry    Library       Lessons

Detailed FindingsOutta Ray’s Head (contd.)

• The lessons are extremely valuable because they are often lessons on novels and short stories that are difficult to find.

• A lesson that I found very valuable from this website was a Romeo and Juliet lesson that incorporates technology through the internet site MySpace.

• This is beneficial for the teacher and the students because it take a play that can be difficult to understand, and relates it to present-day technology that students are interested in.

MYSPACE profiles – Romeo and Juliet characterization assignment

As with any good piece of fiction, well-developed characters are essential. We learn about characters through what they say, how they react to conflict, and how others talk about and to them. We are also able to imagine beyond a text and reasonably guess at other aspects of characters’ lives, based on the evidence given by an author or playwright. This is part of the task you each have when creating MySpace profiles for your chosen character(s).

Detailed FindingsEducation World

• Education World, http://www.educationworld.com/ not only has a multitude of lesson, but it also has advice for teachers on effective ways of operating their classrooms.

• Classroom management, grading, and motivation are just some of the issues that can plague new teachers, and Education World has several different areas located to these issues.

• Currently, the site offers advice on concerns in Special Education, Teachers and the Profession, Teach for America Diaries, and Teacher-submitted Issues.

• It is a great resource for a newer teacher who is struggling with classroom control or organization and a way for teachers to share their experiences with one another.

Detailed FindingsEducation World (cont.)

• In addition to classroom issues, the Education World is full of lessons plans for all disciplines and all grade levels.

• A lesson that I found very valuable for the language arts classroom was different Word Wall activities as shown below:

Word Wall "Active-ities" Build Vocabulary,

Spelling, Writing Skills

FIVE WORD WALL ACTIVITIES PROVIDE FUN AND LEARNING Click each of the five lesson headlines below for a complete teaching resource. (Appropriate grade levels for each lesson appear in parentheses.)OOPS!A fun game provides word recognition, vocabulary, and spelling practice. (Grades pre-K-8)

Erasing RelayA fast-moving game provides practice in recognizing grade-appropriate vocabulary. (Grades pre-K-8)

Mind ReaderStudents use clues to figure out the "mystery word." (Grades pre-K-8)

Hot SeatA student in the "hot seat" asks questions to discern the secret word. (Grades pre-K-8)

Detailed FindingsEducation World (contd.)

• Below is an example of a classroom ticket, which can be used as a management tool and can be found under the Teacher Issues section of the site.

Detailed FindingsWeb English Teacher

• Web English Teacher, http://www.webenglishteacher.com/ is website that supports the idea of Collecting, Relating, Creating, and Donating .

• Using technology, students collect information, relate the information by sharing with their peers, create a product that demonstrates learning, and finally donate it to the classroom or community.

• The site is divided into several different areas of English instruction, which is meant for the middle to high school levels: poetry, drama, journalism, mythology, and grammar.

• The lessons are then arranged by the author’s, followed by the title of the work.

Detailed FindingsWeb English Teacher (contd.)

• A lesson plan that I found in the Drama section of the website under Shakespeare then “Othello” would be very useful at the high school level:Images of Othello: A Shakespearean WebQuestIntroduction

•This lesson will use the "infinite variety" of resources on the Internet to let students find their own image of Othello. The lesson will take them on a WebQuest, first to textual references, and then to on-line searches for images of Othello in film, play productions, and art. The student will write an essay about the casting of Othello at the conclusion.

Objectives•By completing this lesson, the student will

•Look closely at the text of "Othello"•Use an online dictionary•Use various search engines•Use an online Shakespeare concordance

Detailed FindingsThe Educator’s Reference Desk• The Educator’s Reference Desk,

http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Language_Arts is a website designed and compiled by the Information Institute of Syracuse.

• The site’s Resource Collection - Links to over 3000 resources on a variety of educational issues including Internet sites, educational organizations, and electronic discussion groups.

• Lesson Plans - The Lesson Plan Collection contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which were written and submitted by teachers from all over the United States.

• The Question Archive - A collection of over 200 responses to popular questions on the practice, theory, and research of education.

Detailed FindingsThe Educator’s Refernce Desk (contd.)• The language arts section is divided into several different

areas of the subject matter. • The site is very easy to navigate and has an enormous

selection of lesson that includes handouts, webquests, and links to different sites with similar information.

• The ERIC website has lesson plans for all disciplines at all grade levels. The site allows you to specifically search for lessons by grade and keyword topic as shown below.

Search the Lesson Plan Collection Describe what you are looking for. Searching Tips. Top of Form

Pre-K 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Kinder. 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th

Vocational EducationAdult/Continuing Education   Higher Education 

Conclusions• The importance of technology is evident in our every day

lives.• It is vital that students are exposed to technology in the

classroom, so that they are fully equipped when they enter the real world.

• Teachers are obligated to incorporate various forms of technology into both their lessons and assignments.

• The five websites that I have included in my detailed findings are catered towards middle school language arts teachers

• They are a valuable resource for both teachers and students because of their wealth of information and ease of use.

• All of the information that was presented came from websites that can all be found in my IAB and Research Excerpts File in the Appendix.

Appendix

• Internet Address Book

• Research Excerpts File

• Research Report

• Introductory Remarks

• Closing Remarks

• Image

• Sample Page