I hope the work I share with you can be useful and helpful to your classrooms. If you have any questions or ideas please feel free to share them with me!
Check out work that I have created and have used in my own classes... /created-work.html
I am going to share some links that I have found helpful. These may make life as a teacher just a little more simple for you!
http://englishcompanion.ning.com/ Where English teachers go to help each other!
http://www.tagxedo.com/ Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.
http://www.wordle.net/ Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
http://www.tagxedo.com/ Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.
http://www.wordle.net/ Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
Suggested English Journal articles dealing with Service Learning!
English Journal Articles: Service Learning
From the Secondary Section: Service Learning Reinforces Language Arts Skills
Author(s): Pat S. Graff
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 5, The School and the Community (May, 2001), pp.
19-21
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821849 .
Service Learning Reinforces Language Arts Skills
Service learning is not a new concept in American schools, but it has become a popular component of some schools' educational programs.
* They help meet a community need.
* They help reinforce one or more academic
skills being taught to the students.
* They encourage reflection and evaluation,
allowing students to respond to their
experiences.
Using a story like The Crucible (as the example in the article) and have the student create a way that they could retell the story to others who don’t have the chance to read the story or have the ability to read. The students can go from school to school and share what they have learned about the story they have read. They can also travel to libraries and conduct a literary circle.
Academic Service Learning: More than Just "Doing Time"
Author(s): Rebecca Bowers Sipe
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 5, The School and the Community (May, 2001), pp.
33-38
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821852 .
Academic Service Learning: More Than Just "Doing Time"
When we ask students to engage in service learning projects as a part of academic requirements, we do so with the goal of providing meaningful learning experiences that reach beyond the school and benefit someone beyond the self. We want students to learn through active, personal involvement, and we want them to experience the value found in helping others through volunteerism.
Really be smart about what projects we want our students to engage in. Find the projects that will benefit our students the most. Incorporate service learning in to the curriculum, I can do so by assigning one major project that will have them research a literary piece of work and have them come up with a way that they want to share that with the community. They can have a read-aloud, literary circle, or create a book club for the community.
Bridging the Gap: Connecting School and Community with Service Learning
Author(s): Sarah K. Edwards
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 5, The School and the Community (May, 2001), pp.
39-44
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821853 .
Bridging the Gap: Connecting School and Community with Service Learning
Service learning differs from volunteer work in one major way: it includes the element of reflection. Projects are organized to meet the needs of the community, then integrated into the curriculum. After the projects are completed, the students are given the opportunity to reflect on the service experience. Service learning provides them with the chance to actively participate in thoughtfully organized experiences that are integrated into existing academic curricula. This type of learning provides students with the opportunity not only to engage in volunteer projects, but also to talk, think, and write about the experience as well.
Students can visit the other schools in the district, including elementary, middle and high schools. This can create one large student community and it can close the gap between students of multiple levels in education.
From the Secondary Section: Service Learning Reinforces Language Arts Skills
Author(s): Pat S. Graff
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 5, The School and the Community (May, 2001), pp.
19-21
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821849 .
Service Learning Reinforces Language Arts Skills
Service learning is not a new concept in American schools, but it has become a popular component of some schools' educational programs.
* They help meet a community need.
* They help reinforce one or more academic
skills being taught to the students.
* They encourage reflection and evaluation,
allowing students to respond to their
experiences.
Using a story like The Crucible (as the example in the article) and have the student create a way that they could retell the story to others who don’t have the chance to read the story or have the ability to read. The students can go from school to school and share what they have learned about the story they have read. They can also travel to libraries and conduct a literary circle.
Academic Service Learning: More than Just "Doing Time"
Author(s): Rebecca Bowers Sipe
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 5, The School and the Community (May, 2001), pp.
33-38
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821852 .
Academic Service Learning: More Than Just "Doing Time"
When we ask students to engage in service learning projects as a part of academic requirements, we do so with the goal of providing meaningful learning experiences that reach beyond the school and benefit someone beyond the self. We want students to learn through active, personal involvement, and we want them to experience the value found in helping others through volunteerism.
Really be smart about what projects we want our students to engage in. Find the projects that will benefit our students the most. Incorporate service learning in to the curriculum, I can do so by assigning one major project that will have them research a literary piece of work and have them come up with a way that they want to share that with the community. They can have a read-aloud, literary circle, or create a book club for the community.
Bridging the Gap: Connecting School and Community with Service Learning
Author(s): Sarah K. Edwards
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 5, The School and the Community (May, 2001), pp.
39-44
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821853 .
Bridging the Gap: Connecting School and Community with Service Learning
Service learning differs from volunteer work in one major way: it includes the element of reflection. Projects are organized to meet the needs of the community, then integrated into the curriculum. After the projects are completed, the students are given the opportunity to reflect on the service experience. Service learning provides them with the chance to actively participate in thoughtfully organized experiences that are integrated into existing academic curricula. This type of learning provides students with the opportunity not only to engage in volunteer projects, but also to talk, think, and write about the experience as well.
Students can visit the other schools in the district, including elementary, middle and high schools. This can create one large student community and it can close the gap between students of multiple levels in education.
