Owl Sensei
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill
Literacy tools for teachers
Writing tools
Links to explore:
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60 free tools for modern story tellers
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https://lendmeyourliteracy.com/category/pic-of-the-day/ There are all sorts of writing prompts, opportunities to view and comment on student wriritng as well as publish our won work if you sign up. Would be a good way of getting a wider audience for our student work!
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This could be helpful for the less able kids who struggle to make up characters?
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Here is a website you may want to use with your Group 1, 2, 3 (Foundation, Stage 1) students. http://esol.britishcouncil.org/beginners
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Ace Wing Bug Detective If link doesn’t work click below link then choose “Search Tumble books”
That will take you to below link where you need to click “Story books” (red button)
http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp
This will take you to the first link up top where you scroll down to the two Acewing stories to view online.
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Spelling, punctuation, grammar and proofreading tools
Links to explore:
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Good website for teaching how to improve sentences etc. http://www.sentenceplay.co.uk/index.htm
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I showed this sometime last year: http://www.telescopictext.com/ It shows how a simple sentence can be expanded. I have had it open on my iPad whilst conferencing with the students.
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This sentence has five words - mini article to explain why we use different sentence lengths.
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There are heaps of simple sentences here that the kids could select from to improve
http://www.jisk8.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/35-Show-dont-tell-me-Writing-Packet-ABC.pdf
Reading tools
Links to explore:
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Sheena Cameron Resource links has several links to her wikispaces where you can download resources, and has links for all sorts of reading activities. I am sure many of you have come across this, but just for a little refresher.
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Found this cool website I thought you guys might be interested in. https://www.biblionasium.com/#tab/content-new-releases It is like an online reading log - the kids can log what they are reading each day, add books to their bookshelf, write recommendations, set themselves challenges etc. As teachers you can set challenges (like read for 80mins this week etc) and track what they read. It also has a parents log in so those parents that like to be involved can track their kids. Maybe something to motivate our reluctant readers!
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Here is a great website to use as an alternative to kiwi kids news - it is aimed at a higher level, you can adjust the level using the Grades to suit your students and they have comprehension and critical thinking questions to support the articles. www.dogonews.com
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www.booktrackclassroom.com Students can read a range of genre books whilst it plays a soundtrack in the background. The books are not necessarily that up to date but it would give them an idea, because they can then create their own soundtrack to go with their own piece of writing using the soundfiles on the website..
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Would this be a useful interactive activity for when we are learning reading strategies?
Maybe something we could use to have some variety/to practice their strategies in a fun way one lesson) Into the Book- Using Strategies
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Boys book blogs:
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Sites to recommend books based on what you already like:
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Oral language tools
Links to explore:
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This site could be really good for some critical literacy or visual langauge....you would just need to pick and choose the pics you want to use rather than give the students the whole site http://digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/60-public-service-announcements-social-issue-ads/
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Not sure if you guys have seen this, http://www.abc.net.au/btn/stories.htm It's called 'behind the news' and it's episodes of news stories (you can watch a full episode which is about 25mins or you can choose individual stories which are about 3/4 mins) Then there are some really good discussion questions under the teacher tab. We have been using them with some of our reading groups to encourage those deep discussions.
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