Literature in the Classroom

Looking to blog about "Animal Farm" in April

Lisa M — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:06:15 GMT

I have a class of 27 advanced sophomores in the middle of Kansas who will read "Animal Farm" starting on March 23rd and running into April. We plan to blog with one another, but we would be extremely excited to also blog with another group of students. The fantastic thing about blogging is that it doesn't matter if you have 8 or 80 students.

Regards,

Lisa

Of Mice and Men Ideas?, USA

Jenny W — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:54:48 GMT

Looking for ideas for the novel Of Mice and Men. Any suggestions, let me know. Jenny

3rd graders from Missouri looking to discuss common literature

Betsy G — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:48:22 GMT

I have a classroom full of third graders who love to connect with people. I am looking for another classroom to have my kids connect with and share ideas with. Ideally I am wanting to have my kids discuss a common piece of text, whether it be articles or books, with kids from another area of the country or world.

Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

JosÃ© F. M — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:37:42 GMT

Looking for a basic ePals connection with another group reading the Scarlett Letter in October/November.

Possibilities:

Skype-discussion
E-mailing in groups
Sharing/presenting projects

Thanks!

Jose

jfmoreno@epals.com

Looking for Catcher in the Rye readers

Carol C — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:36:25 GMT

We will be beginning Catcher in the Rye soon and would like to find other students with whom to discuss the book.

The Great Gatsby

Sheila A — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:58:30 GMT

We are looking for a high school class that is reading The Great Gatsby and would like to do a book discussion with us via Skype during the month of March, possibly April. We are located in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

A suggestion from Reading Today

Susan A — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:45:13 GMT

I was following up on an article I read in this month's issue of Reading Today. The article, "So Much Fun With Technology," highlights a free program that engages struggling readers. According to the article, "It is interactive, 3-D animation software available at no cost as a public service from Carnegie Mellon University at http://www.alice.org/."

From the website:
What is Alice?
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.
In Alice's interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.

One of the teachers interviewed for the article said that it accomplishes the following learning objectives:
*engaging students in a meaningful reading activity
*performing a close reading of a text
*making inferences
*making distinctions between essential and nonessential information

Teaching resources, instructional texts, and support are also available on the site. The program works with both PCs and Macs.

Book suggestions for low level readers needed

sonya w — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:52:05 GMT

Hi!

I have a unique class of students this year (English). Technically, they are in grades 6-8-- in one class. Their levels are approximately third through low seventh. I would like to split the class in half and read two books that we can link with social studies. Any suggestions for books that would not be "insulting" to them, yet still readable and fun? Would anybody like to connect with us to do some kind of project?

Sonya W

6th grade literature classes seeking collaboration

Kim Y — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:59:23 GMT

I teach 4 classes of 6th grade reading with a total of 65 students. I am interested in finding another class for each of mine for collaboration. Open to video-conferencing, blogging, email, etc. Let me know if you are interested and then we can work out the details.

Kim

8th grade Book ePALS Wanted, USA

Pamela O — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 14:52:25 GMT

I teach approximately 120 regular 8th grade students in Oakwood, Georgia, USA. We are in a small town community northeast of Atlanta. The student population is diverse, with a 40% Hispanic population. Many of the students were born in the United States and have a middle to high proficiency with English. We are looking to correspond with another class on a semi-regular basis, perhaps once a month. Right now we are reading "The Outsiders" with a follow up of "That Was Then, This is Now", both by S.E. Hinton. After Christmas we will be reading "Out of the Dust" and "The Diary of Anne Frank." This is a Literature class, so we would like to focus on literary discussion rather than letter-writing techniques per se. The students are excited about this project and we hope to hear from you soon!

Anyone with experience with "Falling Man"?

Harald L — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:59:30 GMT

"Falling Man" is an obligatory piece of literature for courses of upper students (year 12 - 17-18 years old) here in Germany and I have never read this book in school before. There aren't any additional teacher editions providing me with informations about methods, didactical approach etc. Is there anyone around here who can give me some information or ideas how to use this book in class?

Sincerely,

Harald

3rd graders - iChat or Skype - book clubs, book talks, or sharing our writing

Julie S — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:53:04 GMT

Hello! I teach 3rd grade in South Lyon, MI (just north of Ann Arbor). We will be starting book clubs soon, and I would love to use iChat or Skype to communicate with other elementary kids who are also doing book clubs. We could coordinate reading similar books, or even just do book talks/recommendations to each other's classes after they finish a club. I would also be interested in having kids share their published writing with each other. Our kids have written two personal narratives, two essays, and are now starting fiction writing. Let me know if you're interested!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Julie

Story Books for Struggling Readers, USA

Peter C — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:19:48 GMT

I am looking for suggestions of high interest, low readability story books to use in my 5th grade classroom. I am also looking for suggestions as to how to best use these pieces of literature to help comprehension and increase fluency. Any suggestions would be helpful, as well as any anecdotes. Thank you.

2nd Grade Online Book Club

Theresa E — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:09:04 GMT

Let's read chapter books (or picture books) and have our students express and exchange their thoughts and ideas.

Anyone interested, please email me.

Also open to other projects with other early childhood classes.

Thanks

Theresa

Huck Finn Project with Students 15-18 Years Old

DuAnne T — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:14:36 GMT

I'm looking for an American Literature class that will be studying The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn during the month of November 09. I'd like to do an interactive project covering the first 20 chapters. Please contact me as soon as possible if you are interested. We are located in south-central Pennsylvania. Here's the project description:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn project will involve reading and interacting through ePals Student Forum and student blogs about chapters 1-20 and developing an analytical essay by no more than four students, two from each of the two participating schools. In addition to synthesizing a formal essay that cites the novel as supporting evidence for the students’ analysis, the students will create and imbed one video clip or photo story in an appendix that will visualize the essay’s thesis.

Re: Creativity project for teachers and students across the world

Calin R — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:57:11 GMT

Dear colleagues and dear friends from across the world,

It’s time for you now to give your students a strong reason to express their creativity by seeing their teachers already involved, then taking them as first and true models !

It's time for you now you to tell the world your thoughts, your ideas and your vision about the world we are living.

We also call parents and adults who never had this opportunity and was never listen by anyone, to speak free about their life and their dreams, to share their experiences next to their vision about the issues we have to face today.

With no discrimination of any kind, and in respect to all cultures, we have the right to live. to express ouserveles and to make our voices heard as CITIZENS OF THE WORLD !

Join the WKS (World Kids Stories) e-Book, the first international storytelling project where participants are free to write first using their mother tongue ! (and/or English next to other international language - but not compulsory...).

Enter ePals homepage, then scroll down to the Collaboration corner projects, where you will find the link to world of WKS e-Book already launched issues !

Feel free to contact us in order to freely register and be published into the WKS (World Kids Stories) e-Book issue 3, by using the contact details from the WKS e-Book project homepage.

prof. Calin Rudeanu

Educational projects coordinator

(WKS e-Book project mentor)

Fiction reading in a Living Environment/Biology high school class

Christy H — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:40:57 GMT

Hi there! I currently teach Living Environment Honors in a high school outside of New York City, NY. My students are primarily 9th and 10th grade students (ages 14-16). I like to give a summer reading across the curriculum assignment. I currently have two assignments created. The first is reading Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton and doing an assignment based on the reading dealing with cloning. The second project I have created is reading Outbreak by Robin Cook. The assignment associated with this is researching the Ebola Virus. I was just curious if anyone has any ideas for summer assignments geared for an honors level student in Biology. I especially like reading across the curriculum but I would be interested in any ideas for a summer project! Thank you!

Chris

Reading programs for all grades

safura A — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:14:56 GMT

Dear All

Seasons greetings!We are an International school.I want to introduce reading programmes across the school,if any one has interesting ideas please share.

Safura

Warriors Don't Cry -- Skype?

John R — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:31:21 GMT

We are 7th grade Language Arts classes -- 3 regular and 1 advanced -- in Vernon Hills, IL that are interested in Skyping with a school in the southern United States, or in Arkansas specifically, during our unit in which we read Melba Beales' novel Warriors Don't Cry. In the past we have done role play presentations to the Little Rock School Board, a final research wiki project on a civil rights leader. We typically work on this novel during the month of February/March.

All Countries Invited

Calin R — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:45:40 GMT

Dear fellow educators,

It is our pleasure to introduce to you the international project (agreed and having the recommendation of the Romanian Ministry of Education) and the launch of WKS "World Kids Stories" e-Book issue 1 (247 pages) - the first international e-Book writen in world people MOTHER TONGUE ! - with texts and contributions from 4 continents:

- North America: USA (US Colorado)

- Europe: Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, UK

- Africa: Zambia

- Asia: India

(Fully tested and also designed to be read on mobile devices and iPhone screens, the e-Book has working links too, and it is available for free download at: http://www.ejournal.fi/veniamincostachi)

Please also check WKS e-Book 2n issue updates.

The project is open to: Kids. People from 8 ... to 80 years old.

To everyone who still feel their mind and spirit open to the world's present issues and future’s challenges.

That is:

- KIDS writing tales and trues stories for kids and about their lives

- YOUTH also writing tales and stories about their daily lives and teens’ world

- PARENTS who want to get involve in this worldwide educational multimedia environment, also facing both communities and family issues and challenges

- TEACHERS who want to share their educational and personal views, ideas, and living experiences

– PUBLIC PERSONS, leaders, TV stars, famous people from across the world who want to see their voices heard worldwide as uniques life experiences.

If interested to join the project and to be published into the WKS World Kids Stories e-Book next issue, feel free to contact us !

prof. Calin Rudeanu

Educational Projects Coordinator

(WKS e-Book project mentor)

Skype: calinrudeanu

English/Literature Opportunities for next school year...

Ashley W — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:18:31 GMT

Hello all!

I'm very excited to get involved with epals, but I'm more interested in getting my class involved with online discussions rather than penpal-ing. With the use of Edublogs and similar sites, I'd like to create a forum where our classes would be able to interact regarding discussions of our classroom texts of other ideas.

I'm very open to ideas, but I wanted to throw out the names of the texts that we cover in my 9th grade English classroom: A Separate Peace, Romeo and Juliet, Anthem, Ethan Frome, The Miracle Worker, and we cover a variety of poetry and poetic terms. In addition to novels and plays, we also cover short stories like: The Idealist, The Most Dangerous Game, A Bird in the House, New African, and At Pitt Rivers.

My classes currently participate in discussion through turnitin.com, but these discussions are limited to our classroom alone. I think the kids would be much happier and more excited if they could communicate with people outside their own community!

Ashley

World Project Launched

Calin R — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:45:35 GMT

Dear fellow educators,

We call you to join the international project (agreed and having the recommendation of the Romanian Ministry of Education) of the

WKS World Kids Stories e-Book

the first international e-Book writen in world people mother tongue,

already launched with texts and contributions from 4 continents (others are always welcome):

- North America: USA (US Colorado)

- Europe: Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, UK

- Africa: Zambia

- Asia: India

The project is open to:

Kids. People from 8 ... to 80 years old.
To everyone who still feel their mind and spirit open to the world's present issues and future’s challenges.

That is:
- kids writing tales and trues stories for kids and about their lives
- youth also writing tales and stories about their daily lives and teens’ world
- parents who want to get involve in this worldwide educational multimedia environment, also facing both communities and family issues and challenges
- teachers who want to share their educational and personal views, ideas, and living experiences
- public persons, leaders, TV stars, famous people from across the world who want to see their voices heard worldwide as uniques life experiences

Fully tested and also working on mobile devices and iPhone screens, the WKS e-Book has working links too

For more details just email us at: calin1@epals.com

or better directly using: calinrudy(at) gmail.com

prof. Calin Rudeanu

Educational Projects Coordinator

(WKS e-Book project mentor)

Shakespeare - Othello Project

Nicolas P — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:21:13 GMT

My name is Nicolas. I am studying at Laval University, Quebec, Canada, to become an English second language teacher and I would like to get some feedback about a project on Shakespeare I thought about.

I would like to use Shakespeare's famous play Othello with French secondary 4 learners of English. My idea was to have the students read 20 pages of the book per month during 8 months and create different activities for each part. These activities would focus on developping the students' reading skills and understanding of texts. Evalutations would take form of development questions on the storyline, true or false and yes-no questions.

Then, by the end of the year, I would form groups of 2-3 students and ask them to learn specific sections of the play (the most important ones) and memorize them. Finally, the students would act out their section on the play and I would evaluate them on their speaking abilities.

I'd like teachers, parents or anybody interested in the use of literature in classroom to give me feedback about my project and/or ideas on how to improve it.

Thanks

Nicolas

Death of a Salesman Unit of study for 16-18 year olds in the U.S.A.

Candace P — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:02:18 GMT

My students are going to read Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, during the beginning of September, 2008 Our unit of study is for 16-18 year olds. I'm looking for another class who is reading this to discuss the play's themes of Character Identity & Values, Relationships with Parents and Overcoming Adversity. I plan to create a blog where students can share comments. I teach at Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, California, U.S.A. Sincerely, Candace Pauchnick.

Animal Farm

Deb A — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:49:08 GMT

Why do you think revolutions occur? What circumstances would lead people to overthrow the daily political and economical structure of their lives?