Resources for English Classes

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VOCABULARY

• The Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus is online. You can subscribe to a free word of the day service. The site also has an area called Word Central whose purpose is "to show kids how much fun words can be."
• There are sites that help students with vocabulary like this which is part of the Vocabulary University. They also have a word of the day service which emails subscribers a word of the day. There are vocab games for all abilities.
• Look on www.download.com for things like spelling lists and vocab programs which allow your students to make personalized flash cards.

   

  OTHER HOMEWORK HELPERS FOR STUDENTS from the book The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages, 3rd edition by Jean Armour Polly. See her other hotlists for kids and families.

• Ask an Expert Page allows students to ask their question(s) to experts who will personally reply. "You usually won't get an answer overnight, so think ahead."
• At Ask Jeeves for Kids students can type in their actual question rather than struggle with search engines. The response will be limited to kid-friendly sites with the answer.
• B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper is a world famous (hey, the power of the www!) collection of resources created and maintained by eleven year old "Beege."
• The Internet Public Library's Reference Center has bookshelves arranged by subject, good sections on states, presidents, etc.
• LibrarySpot has "acronym dictionaries, biographical dictionaries, inventions, useful calculators," etc. Its "sister site, BookSpot . . . links to the best bestseller lists, authors, publishers, and what's new and old in award-winning books for kids and adults."
• Research-It! - your one stop reference desk with "almost 30 quick reference tools all rolled into one easy-to-use site."
• Study WEB gives brief reviews of helpful sites for whatever homework assignment is at hand. "More than 84,000 research-quality links."
• Lastly, to help students with study skills, You Don't have to Play Football to Score a Touchdown.

ABOUT PLAGIARISM

• Plagiarism Q & A is an outstanding site by Michael Spears, a teacher at North Grosse Pointe High School, for both students (to learn how to avoid plagiarism) and teachers (to prevent and catch plagiarism). Particularly helpful is his page of resources "For Teachers."
• Glatt Plagiarism Services is a comercial site that offers software to assist schools in preventing and catching plagiarism.

  QUOTATIONS

• The Quotations Homepage is a nice site with a huge selection of quotations (over 21,000) divided by category. It even includes a section of great first lines in literature.

   

  EVALUATING ONLINE RESOURCES

• UCLA has put together excellent material on evaluating websites. Have students start with "Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources" and go on to "Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!", an activity which the students can work on during a class period.
• Kathy Schrock's "Guide for Educators," Critical Evaluation Information offers grade level specific approaches.
• Tammy McConnell's Fact or Fiction activity shows students how tricky website evaluation can be.

   

  PUBLISHING STUDENT WORK in the form of a paperback book can be arranged through "Classroom and Community Publishing" for as little as $150 for thirty copies.

  SHAKESPEARE

• The complete works of William Shakespeare are available online!
• The reconstructed Globe Stage is open for a virtual tour.

   

  OTHER AUTHOR/WORKS

• The King James Bible is online, offering a sophisticated search function.
• The online companion to X.J. Kennedy's Literature Anthology (which Iolani uses for English 9 and English 10) includes sections on various authors among other things.
• The On-Line Books Page "provides a long list of full-text books and items" (thanks Herbst Library at Urban School).
• Carnegie Mellon University has an extensive collection of online books and fiction.
• To Kill a Mockingbird material is available.
• Global Connections sports Featured Lesson Plans which are fun to peruse.

   

  EDUCATION RESOURCES

• The Internet Public Library has a "great selection of resources including reference, literature, teen and youth resources" (thanks to Herbst Library, Urban School).
• The Technology Education Lab has put together a comprehensive site on K12 Educational Resources.
• The Gateway to Educational Resources currently contains 6661 education resources, including specific lesson plans.
• Tech-Learning is similar but in format like a magazine. Its purpose is "serving educators with ideas, tools, and resources for integrating technology into the K-12 school,classroom and curriculum."
• "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites on the Internet found to be useful for enhancing curriculum and teacher professional growth."
• The Concord Consortium says, "Information technologies, used in creative, intelligent ways, will revolutionize teaching and learning. The Concord Consortium is dedicated to furthering this revolution worldwide through innovations in hardware, software, learning environments, curricula, and institutions. We are a nonprofit, research and development organization."
• Link2Learn is a site dedicated to professional development in integrating technology.
• wNet is a web service geared to teachers and personalized for subscribers (free). "Subscribers receive a selection of links tailored to their interests, a free monthly email bulletin, and much, much more."
• TeacherZone.com is a terrific site for teachers.
• California's Clearinghouse Online is "the educator's guide to high quality instructional technology resources that support California's curriculum frameworks and standards."
• Utah Link is similar, but created with Utah schools in mind.
• The Literacy and Technology Web Site was created "to assist teachers, students, parents and others, with the integration of curriculum and the Internet to promote student literacy. The site is divided into six sections: Education Links, Government Links, Computer and Technology Specific Links, Media Links, Reference Links, and Virtual Field Trip Links. Education Links range from multi-level lesson plans and teacher tips to professional organizations."

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