Rainforest

http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-movies.php?movie=biomes
I was really looking for a website that would touch on the differences between biomes. I thought that this video was very good for both ELL’s and native English speakers. There are vocabulary words thrown into the video and also defined, which is great because all students would benefit from the vocabulary definitions for newly introduced science words. Because there are so many vocabulary words and the video is dense with content, it would help ELL’s who have developed pretty good English skills. There are subtitles and pictures for students, which could aid ELL’s, but does not have a pause button for students who read more slowly.
The video touched on many differences between biomes, with a good introduction to biomes and then segues into the rainforest, telling students what to look for in the rainforest biome specifically.
There is a fill in the blank test at the end testing both spelling and content retention, making sure they were paying attention, saw words on screen, now spell them. The questions were VERY specific, I’m not sure that I caught all the answers, but you can go back and watch the video again until you collect all the correct answers. I think this is good because then students can watch the video the second time knowing what to look out for. Overall, a great website for students and teachers because it will surely stimulate some classroom discussion!
By: Elyse Prevot


www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids
This website is helpful and entertaining for children learning about the rainforest. It is a website for all ages of people dedicated to saving and learning about the rainforest. The part that will be focused on is the “Kid’s Corner” of the website. Once you get to the “Kid’s Corner,” children are directed to a set of 6 pictures describing what each link goes to. Once they click the “Plant and Animal” link with a monkey on it, they are directed to a long list of many animals that live in the rainforest and break them up into their species profile. I think this is helpful because it also helps children learn what animals belong in what species. It shows the Red Eye Tree Frog under Amphibians, a Bird species list, an Insect species list, and a mammal species list. Once they click on the animal they want to learn about, for instance, the Capuchin Monkey, they are directed to the Species Profile page. Here they are given a picture of the animal and a long list of interesting facts such as their anatomy, habitat, diet and threats. After the children study up on their animals of choice, there is a link easily identifiable on the left labeled “online games”. There is a game called, “Jewels of the Earth,” which takes the child on a tour of the rainforest and it’s canopies where the child can run into a large variety of animals to learn more about. Through the “Kids Corner” page, children can also be directed to an activities page where they can print out coloring pages of animals to color and also some links to some hands on activities to teach about the rainforest through experiments, crafts and quizzes.
I like how the language is used through out the “Kid’s Corner” of the website. It is not too heavy of language so that an English Language Learner is not completely lost. The photo galleries are very engaging as well which give the children a better idea of what they are studying. I also like how the online games section is not just games; they apply information for children to learn from. I really like the activities page because it gives the children hands on experiments to grow plants in similar environments as those in the rainforest, such as the bromeliad experiment. I think this website is a fun and interactive way for children of all ages to learn about animals of the rainforest.
By: Cecily Augustine


http://kids.mongabay.com/elementary/002.html
This website will explain everything about rainforests. For example, it will explain what rainforest is, where a rainforest is found, what makes a rainforest, and the different types of rainforest animals, plants, and even people. This website has videos and pictures so that it can help ELL students. The topic that I picked was rainforest locations. In this website, there is a picture of the world and the locations that have rainforests are marked green. This visual representation is going to help ELL students understand where rainforests are located in the world. In this website, it even has pictures of different country flags explaining which countries have largest amount of rainforests. This will help students understand that not only one country has rainforests. This will help them understand that rainforests are located in different countries. In the picture, students will notice that almost all the rainforests are located between the tropic of Capricorn and tropic of Cancer. (Capricorn and Cancer are marked on the map). If students do not know what these are, teachers can show it to them by pointing. In this website it explains why most rainforest are located between the tropic of Capricorn and tropic of Cancer. This is because this region is the warmest. This way, student can learn that rainforest are located only in warm places, not everywhere.
By: Soo Yoon



http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/Kids
This website is very useful for kids to gain some knowledge about rainforests. Some topics that this site covers are rainforest people, plants and animals, threats to rainforests, as well as activity sheets and information on how to save the rainforest. The topic that I am focusing on is rainforest people. This website is easy to follow and when you get to the main page it says "What do you want to do," click on the first section that says "meet some of the people who live in the rainforest and find out how they live." It takes you to trail 1. There is a total of 7 trails. In trail 1 you meet Mirim who is part of a tribe who lives in the amazon rainforest. He acts as a guide that will assist you through each trail. The topics that Mirim covers about rainforest people are hunting, farming, medicine from plants, clothes and jewelry, homes, and daily life in the rainforest. This website is excellent for kids as well as ESL learners. The information given is short and simple. Each section also provides bold words through out the passage. This would be very beneficial for ESL learners so they can focus and the bold words and get the main idea out of the passage. There are also pictures provided for each trail that coordinates to the topic. This would be another resource for ESL learners to make the connection of the picture to the word. What I really liked about this site is that Mirim who is the guide, asks questions to engage the students and to check for clarification.
By: Aprial Guerra

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/rnfrst_plant_page.htm
The website that I found was a place called blueplanetbiomes. I found the website to be very beneficial to those children who are trying to learn about the the rainforest. I really liked it because I find it was something that will help out all ages. It is a website that helps children of every age to be able to learn and navigate around the website. When you first get to the website you will find pictures and information on the rainforest biome.I think this is good for ELL students because they are able to look at a map and know where the rainforest is located. There are many tabs along the left side that help you learn a little about what is involved in the areas. The tabs include ?Plants? ?Animals? ?Climate? These tabs are really big and when you click on them they allow you to go to other sites to learn about what they choose. I am focusing on the different plants that are included in the the rainforest. When you click on the tab it takes you to another page where there is a list of different plants that are in the area. There are again tabs along the left side of the page when you click on one of the plants such as the Jambu you get a picture and information on what it is. This is something I think that ELL students would also benefit from they can know where the location is and even know the different plats that are located here. The teacher could even do different games with the different plants like identifying which plant is what and they can even take turns spelling it. These are different things that could allow the ELL students to get a better grasp on the material. I think that overall this site is a good one for both students and teachers.
By: Gabriel Gonzalez

Recycling

Recyclezone.org

I think this website provides some great age appropriate information about waste, recycling and landfills. This website would be great for the middle grades, probably 2-4. I think the website has some great information, but this information is not presented in a verity of ways, making its text inaccessible for some ELL students.

The text is broken up into different sections, including “what is waste,” “where do we put it” and “we’ve got to do it…or else.” I think it is good that the text is broken up into different sections with bold headings. This will help ELLs know when they are moving to a different main idea. I do think the website could use bold words within the text to help ELLs see main points or help them identify the information that is the most important.

I think this website would not be good for ELLs with limited English because there are no graphs or graphic organizers as to the different types of recyclable material, or even what can and can’t be recycled.

I do like the actual material that is covered in the text. For example the text talks about how recycling is more than just reusing something. The text explains how the process to make something new uses more energy than using recycled material to make something new. I like that it explains that there is more to recycling than just saving raw materials, such as tress, it is also about saving energy.

If I were to use this website as a resource in my classroom I would probably use it as an option for the kids to explore but not make the kids use it. For example I would provide them with a list of links with information about recycling. I would have them work in groups and then have them make a list of the environmental benefits to recycling or maybe a pro/con list for recycling.

childrenoftheearth.com

This is a great website that provides animation, text and oral reading for each slide that is played. The website is very informative and helps students learn where aluminum used in soda cans comes from, how it is made and how students can help conserve energy and resources by recycling. The paper link also uses animation, text and readings to help the students learn what items are made of paper and why recycling paper is important for tree conservation. There is then a link that offers an interactive quiz type game that allows the students to test the recycling knowledge.

I think this is a great website for ELLs because the slide shows are narrated so the student can use their oral language comprehension. Then the most important ideas are then reinforced with text so the students know which information in the presentation to attend to. I also think the animations will keep the students focused on the slide show. The game is also a great way to test the students knowledge of what was presented in the slide shows but in a low stress way. The game also has links to back to the slide show if the answer to the question was incorrect.

I think if I were to use this link in my class I would divide the class into two groups. I would have one group work on a presentation about where aluminum comes from and have the other group work a presentation about where paper products come from. I would then have the two groups teach each other about the topic they did not cover. I would then have all the students work together to make a list about why recycling is important. Then as a class project we would work on increasing the frequency that the schools recycle rate and reduce the amount of trash the school produces.

EEK

This website offers a variety of links to environmental facts and information. There are links called critter corner, nature notes, our earth, cool stuff, get a job and teacher pages. One of the cool things about this website is there is also a link to the environmental education for kids in Spanish.

I think the fact that this website offers a Spanish link is great and would be really helpful in developing literacy for ELL students who’s first language is Spanish. The down side to the Spanish link is that the information in each of the six previously listed links are not the same as the English pages.

Although the information in the Spanish and English pages is not the same, this might be a great way for students to work with partners to help translate for the other student. For example, you could pair and English speaker with a Spanish speaker and have the Spanish speaking student translate and help teach the English speaking student and like wise the other way. This activity could help the English speaking student see how hard it is when the teacher is speaking a different language and might foster a since of understanding and patients between the students.

nationalgeographic.co.uk

This is a fun game link, where the students have to sort as much trash as possible in two minutes. The students have to decide if the items are recyclables, compostable or trash. I think this is a fun way for students to practice putting different items in different bins. This really makes students think about if something can be recycled or composted.

This website would be great for ELLs because it is a game and uses pictures of everyday items. The students would not need to have advanced English language skills to learn the concept that some items can be recycled and composted.

This website is not good for academic content because it does not really teach anything. The teacher would have to first cover the concept of recycling, composting as well as what items can be placed in each of these categories. If I were using this link in my class I would use it as an option during free time. If we had a class computer I would leave this link open during free time so the students could practice the academic concept or recycling in a no pressure, fun, and relaxing way.

Evaluated by: Sarah Roddy

Fun Literacy Websites for Kids

1. Paw Park- Kangaroo Confusion Game

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark/pawpark.html

The link I will be evaluating for blog 3 will be the paw park game on the Gamer Goo website. Basically how this game works is that you have different kangaroos wearing t-shirts bearing capitalized and lower cased letters. The objective of the game is to have the capital form of the letter match with its lower case counterpart, or vice-versa. So at the start of the game, you are given a kangaroo with a letter on its shirt and you have to match it with the correct lower or capital letter. You are given four different answer choices to choose from and you must choose the right one to advance. This is a type of game that helps English language learners learn the alphabet and the lower and capital forms of the letters. It is a great way to practice recognizing the letters and it also sounds out the letter for the learner to hear, so they know how to properly say the letter. The game also provides colorful, playful images that are fun, but appear to be geared more towards children starting to learn their first language. There is also music that is cheerful and gives a fun atmosphere, and a narrator that helps explain the rules of the game and gives guidance. It is definitely a fun way to learn the alphabet while getting good practice, so it is a worthy try for anyone starting to learn the English Language. This is one of many games that English Language Learners can play to get the practice they need while having fun play them. Included in this game are word/letter recognition, pronunciation, and introduction to spelling and writing.

Evaluated by Samuel Martinez

2. Giggle Poetry: The #1 Fun Poetry Site for Kids on the Web

http://www.gigglepoetry.com

I remember growing up and in school, I would always here my friends talk about how they didn't like poetry because it was so hard! I can recall to my first few poem assignments back in elementary school. We did a Japanese haiku poem sometime during 4th or 5th grade and I thought it was a lot of fun! But some of my other friends didn't... Even when I was taking literature classes here at UT, I would hear my fellow peers talk about how they didn't like poetry either!

Giggle poetry is a nice site for children who are learning to write poems and want to publish something online. They offer a HUGE selection of student-written poems from all grade levels in elementary school You have students from first grade to fifth grade submitting poems. I find this to be a good resource for other students to read poems and gain inspiration. Since they are written by students, ELL's and native English speakers will have that comprehensible input (i+1). They'll be able to identify more with what poems are about if they are the same age as the author.

The website is very easy to navigate and has THOUSANDS of poems – from many everyday topics like teachers and principals to excuses to school activities to homework and much more. All the topics can be easily related to students of all ages.

In addition, it has interviews with professional writers and poets where students can learn about what it's like to be a poet. What others' inspirations are and just information about their childhood experiences. There are also a lot of fun activities and games that do with poems. They have these fun things called fill-in-the-blank poems, where there is a poem with words missing and users can add in whatever words they like.

I think it's a great website to help upcoming poem writers. It provides a lot of information and examples on writing poems. Also, it's very colorful and cartoon oriented, so it caters to children of all ages.

Evaluated by Thaison Nguyen

Activites and Games

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark2/pawpark2.html
This website helps children with many skills such as spelling, vocabulary, and reading. Alphabetizing words is just one of many activities kids can play and learn. By showing them an example the first round shows children what is expected of them when they play this activity. They have a fun background with bright colors and an amusement park which will attract children. The bears are wearing yellow shirts with the word on them along with a picture so it can help children who work better with visuals along with the word underneath it. Then the child must alphabetize the bears from left to right and drag them into a cart that they will drive off in. It has fun graphics and sounds that will grab the child’s attention which is important for children’s games. I like this game because even if a child does not know the word the bear is wearing, when you move your mouse over it will say the word which also helps children with visual impairments. Also, the main website has levels that you can have you child play. It varies from beginner, intermediate, and advanced which is helpful for teachers and parents who have a variety of learning abilities. Because of the levels, I accept the other games even if they are little more advanced. Some of the games could have a better pronunciation person because it is hard understanding some of the words he/she might be saying. Other than that, this website is organized and well structured in dealing with children’s games and what they want to teach. Students will be able to try a variety of games that could teach them spelling, vocabulary, and reading.

By:Courtney Kagan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/
This is a great interactive website for students. It provides reading, writing, and spelling and grammar sections. Inside each of these sections are links for games, reading activities, videos and quizzes that deal with each section. For example, the reading games that a student can play includes things like reading directions to get to a certain in place in so many steps. The child has to read the directions carefully to follow the steps correctly and win the game. These games provide children with fun ways that require them to read. In the read link there is important information about different types of reading, like newspapers, and advertisements, and more. In this tab students are able to read and gain knowledge about different types of literature and where people find readings. In each section there is a quiz link about what that section discussed, which is beneficial to students because they are able to summarize and solidify what they have learned. This website is a great tool for children and students who working on their reading, writing, spelling, and grammar skills, therefore it is a very good site for English language learners. This website provides literacy development activities for English language learners that help to develop their literacy skills. There are links for teachers and schools that have lesson plans and general education information on it.
By :Molly Rice

www.readwritethink.com
Although the requirements for the Word Family Sorts online activity may appear to be simple, this website provides students with both the understanding of rhyming and different vocabulary words as well. In this activity, students must identify "word families" where they are provided four words that have the same main vowel use but are structured differently. When each new word pops up, the student must be able to identify which "family" the word belongs based on its grammatical structure. While students are identifying each word's makeup, they also have the potential to learn new words, considering the activity provides up to 28 words per vowel. Although this activity may appear repetitive, this process promotes students to become accustomed to seeing the grammatical structure of various words and helps them to recognize why these words look and sound the same. In addition, students have the opportunity to practice this activity with each of the five vowels, which means the idea of word families is reiterated even more. I think it is a very helpful way for a student to become familiar with word structure and also potentially to learn new vocabulary. RWT: Word Family Sort
By: Melissa Berger

http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.php#This is a great site for ESL students to learn and practice their vocabulary, reading, writing, and comprehension skills. There are multiple activities for ESL to do for fun. A great way for students to practice reading skills is by clicking on the "Colors" tab and clicking on a color, and the name of that color pops up. This is an effective exercise because it is providing a picture to go along with the word so the student can apply the English name of the color and compare it to the their own language's name of that color; thus, they are learning that word with more effective instruction. To practice their writing skills, the "Writing" tab is effective for ESL. It teaches students how to write uppercase and lowercase letters of the English alphabet. For early English learners, there is a tab for "Uppercase letters" and "Lowercase letters" to look at the letter "A" or "a" to get familiar with it and remember their names, and there is a "Uppercase/lowercase" tab to compare and contrast the letters to show the difference. Using pictures, as stated above is affected for ESL students because it shows them the difference, and also helps with their comprehension skills in English. The "Words" tab is one of my favorite tabs for ESL students. First, it shows all the vowels of the alphabet, and the students are free to click on the words. Then, it has pictures of crayons, and the student can click on the color, then they must spell it out the English name of the color to work on their vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension skills. The "Word" tab exercises are designed to help students read words. Instead of teaching students that "o is for orange", the site shows students an "orange" or "cat." An exercise teachers can try is saying to the ESL student(s) “o-r-a-n-g-e spells orange”. This will help the teacher to later replace the first language word with a second language word for the same object. Also, teach the names of the numbers and then names of the colors so you are using the chunking technique, which in turn can give students confidence, a sense of achievement and help build self esteem. Then, celebrate when your child can read all the number words or all the color words. is also a "Shapes" tab to introduce ESL students to different shapes, encouraging recognition and comprehension. The site also familiarizes the students with numbers. Overall, this is a great site for ELLs and is strongly recommended for educator to refer to families and incorporate into their
By: Morgan Smith

Literacy Games/Activities for Improving Vocabulary

The links below are ones that are useful for increasing a child's vocabulary through fun games! Growing a child's vocabulary is a very important to help with learning literacy skills. These websites will help students to understand the meanings of important vocabulary words and much more!

1. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/wordfamily/

The Family Word Sort is an excellent online resource to teach children different vocabulary words and word families. It is an excellent game where the children are given a vocabulary word and they have to choose which word family it falls under. The user begins by clicking on a vowel to begin a word sort with words in that vowel family. Then, they are given 28 words to sort into four different word families. Once the user has completed the chart, he/she can print off their word charts.I think this activity is helpful because it is a great activity for beginning or struggling readers. The vocabulary words it includes are short, simple words that children can sound out or break apart easily. This activity allows the children to visual see the differences and similarities among the vocabulary words they have to sort. Once they have completed the activity, they can check themselves by making sure they put the words in the correct categories. If they had made a mistake by accident, they can easily move the vocabulary word to its correct word family.

The only negative thing I don’t like about this activity is that whenever the user is finished with all the words, it doesn’t check to make sure they put the words in their correct word family. I would advise to have an adult present when a child is using this resource to monitor the child’s choices and make sure they are putting the words in the correct word family.

By: Amy Yarbrough

2.http://www.funbrain.com/words.html

As we have discussed multiple times, it is extremely important for children to have a simple but strong phonemic and literary foundation before learning to read. The website I found, www.funbrain.com, deals with these basic concepts. One the site, there are numerous literacy games to help development in many areas. The game “Word Confusion” helps children differentiate between certain words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. A question sample from this game is “Put plastic in the correct recycle bin or been?” They must select the correct choice and then they can move on the next question. This helps with word differentiation and vocabulary skills as well. Another game, “Scramble-Saurus” gives children the option to pick their own skill level and category. If they chose the “dinosaur” category, they would be given scrambled words pertaining to dinosaurs and would be given chances to unscramble hopefully ending with the correct conclusion. This will require some higher thinking skills and will help immensely with spelling and vocabulary. The game “What’s the Word” will again give children the option to pick the level they are comfortable with and the category they are interested in. This game will show a picture and they will have to select the word that best describes it (this game is multiple choice). Again, this game is an excellent way to improve children’s vocabulary skills. I believe that this site in a great resource for teachers of kindergarten through first grade that will help children develop skills they need to be successful readers!

By : Alyssa Sacco

3. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/flip-chip-30031.html

Flip-a-Chip is a game on the website “Read Write Think.” This is an effective and fun game to build vocabulary comprehension skills for ELL students. Although the website says the game is intended for 6^th-8^th graders, I think students as young as 4th grade could use this website. Flip-a-Chip gives a fill in the blank story, and students click on a chip to “flip” it until the appropriate root word + suffix comes up to fill in the blank. This is a good activity because it shows students how to put together affixes and roots to form significant and appropriate vocabulary words. It also promotes the use of context clues, which is an important skill for children to acquire. I would use this activity in an ELL classroom because it teaches them how to create meaningful words that are different from how they are formed in the Spanish language. I would utilize this resource by having them do the fill in the blank story, read it out loud, and then create their own words to make a story. This would give them several opportunities to develop their English language proficiency.

By: D’Anna Siciliano

4. http://www.fekids.com/kln/games/wordjungle/

Word Jungle is a wonderful website to help students truly comprehend vocabulary words. It not only helps the students, but it is incorporated into a game format so students will have fun while learning. Vocabulary is key in reading so the students will understand what they are reading. The game is really easy once you learn the instructions. It is an interactive game where the child plays as a character of a monkey. At the top of the page a question appears such as what word means “to send a ball through the air towards a basket?” Then on the side there are several words that the answer could be and the child picks an answer. If the student gets it right then the monkey goes through an obstacle without falling. This game is so helpful with vocabulary because it asks students what words are similar and sometimes it gives the definition and the student has to pick the right word. The game is intended for 3^rd graders, but I think this could be great for ELL’s. This game helps students get to know vocabulary while mixing things up so that the student really understand the meaning for words. This game really is helpful for improving vocabulary skills. Vocabulary is so important for literacy skills and this game will help!

By: Stephanie Nguyen

5. http://www.janbrett.com/games/hedgies_alphabet_game/intro.html

In Hedgie's Alphabet, there is a vocabulary game in which there are five or six different words in a word bank and different pictures with blanks next to them. The target of the game is to match up the vocabulary words to each of the pictures, accurately. Once the first level is completed, then you can move on to the next level, in which the level of vocabulary increases in difficulty. This activity/game is great for vocabulary development, because students can read the vocabulary word and then see pictures that can activate background knowledge and lead them to make connections between the two. This game also has a great feature in which "Hedgie" the hedgehog reads out the vocabulary word that matches the picture when you scroll your mouse over it. This is helpful because when a student may be struggling between a word or two, this feature can give them the answer. Also, even though the student may hear the word, they too have to read the word so that they can make a connection between the oral word and written word, so they still have to practice their reading skills. However, the best way to use this feature is to check for accuracy, rather than just look for the right answer. The downside to this feature in the game is that students may abuse this feature and instead of making educated guesses for words they are unsure of, they simply just scroll over the picture for the answer. Overall, this is a fun way for students to develop their vocabulary, if used properly.

By: Noura Wakim

Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness
Our group explored websites that have emphasis on phonological awareness. There are activities and games that children can do, and teachers and parents can utilize. I hope they are helpful to all of you guys!

1. Readinga-z
www.readinga-z.com/phonics/index.html

The website focuses all on phonological awareness and phonics. This program uses direct and explicit instructional strategies for teaching phonological awareness and phonics. Reading A-Z provides instructional resources for teaching the sounds and symbols of language and their relationships to one another using 30 phonological awareness lessons and 68 phonics lessons. The website is broken down into eight different sections: Phonological Awareness Lessons, Phonological Awareness Assessment, Phonics Lesson, Phonics Assessment, Phonogram Flashcards, Decodable Books, Read-Aloud Books, and Sound/Symbol Books. Each lesson provide teacher and parent many resources they can use with their kids. In the Phonological Awareness lesson children are taught to notice, differentiate, think about and manipulate sounds – from sounds of words to sounds of individual phonemes. Some of the things the lessons focus on are blend syllables; manipulate initial sounds, segment syllables and onset and rime. Phonological Awareness Assessment is where the children listen for, identify, discriminate, and produce sounds. The assessments cover rhyme, onset and rime and syllable awareness. The phonics lessons contain worksheets that focus on consonants, short vowels, and word families, blending of sounds, long vowels, open vowel, vowel digraphs and other vowel patterns. There are two phonics assessments available. One assessment focuses on the child’s ability to associate a sound with a given symbols which covers decoding simple CVC words. The second one focuses on the child’s ability to decode nonsense words which is blending, long vowels, digraphs, and diphthongs. Phonogram flashcards are usefully in teaching word building. The flashcard focuses on the five short vowel sounds. Decoding books can be useful with a child who needs practice decoding the sound/syllables relationships in words that they have already learned. The read-aloud books help children hear a certain sound that they have been working on. Sound/Symbol books let the children read by themselves while they focus on sound/symbol relationships. All of these lessons are great to do with kids who are struggling and kids that are not struggling. The more practice a child receives the better they will understand the sounds of the letters and how the letters work together. There are so many opportunities to practice certain phonics and phonological awareness on this website. It is a great website for parents and teachers who want their children to become better readers.

Evaluated by: Ashley Chumchal


2. Half Pint Kids
www.halfpintkids.com

The website, halfpintkids.com is a wonderful tool for parents or teachers to use with children to help them with their emergent reading and activities for phonemic awareness.
Half Pint Kids has "readers" that a parent or teacher can buy that are fun to read, easy to decode and affordable. The readers were written by a Kindergarten teacher so they are both practical and effective as each word was carefully chosen. The readers are based upon the principles of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. Half-Pint Readers introduce only a few sounds or new skills at a time while providing lots of opportunities for practice before adding more skills. The books are centered around a theme and each book builds upon the skills of a previous book.
Half Pint Kids also has over 30 different activities that can be done with a child to go along with the readers. Some of the activities prepare the child for reading while others give instructions on how to teach and blend sounds. After the child has mastered the skill, there are games and activities to review and practice that skill.
The downside to this website is that the readers are not free. They are for sale on the website along with several games and activities to reinforce phonemic awareness.
Overall, this website has many great free activities to do with a child to get them started reading. Whether you plan to buy the readers or not, the website offers valuable information, games and activities that would get any child ready to read!

Evaluated by: Callista Young


3. Free-reading
www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Phonological_Awareness_Activities

Freereading.net is a fantastic website with numerous resources and activities for students and teachers particularly dealing with phonological awareness.
There are five tabs including, Core Activities, Educator-Contributed Activities, About Activities, Teaching Tips and Resources.
Under Find Activities there are many resources including- Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Comprehension, Vocabulary, Fluency and Writing.
If you click on Phonological Awareness there are numerous activities for building students phonological awareness, these activities are ordered in skill level, so once your students master the skill you are able to scroll down to a new level. Each activity provides explicit directions and details and some also provide a video of the activity or skill being learned. Some of the activities are identifying and generating rhyming words, body part game, counting words in a sentence and blending syllables name game.
Under educator-contributed activities there are over 70 other different activities for phonological awareness.

Under about the activities there is a complete overview on the importance of phonological awareness, two important manipulation skills are:

• Oral segmenting, which refers to taking spoken language and breaking it into separate parts. Phoneme segmenting, for instance, teaches students that words are composed of sounds, which they need to understand in order for sounding out to make sense.

• Oral blending, which refers to taking a sequence of sounds and putting them together to form spoken language. Phoneme blending is what students will need to do when they sound out words to pronounce them correctly. And information provided by the national reading panel.

The teaching tips tab provides great strategies and explanations on the lessons and activities that are very helpful. And the last tab which is resources provides picture cards that you can download, sound pronunciation guides in mp3 format that provides the recommended way to segment words into onset-rimes and phonemes

Freereading.net is a very useful tool for educators and great learning activities for students. It is also a collaborative website where you can share lessons and ideas!

Evaluated by: Jennifer Porton


4. PBS Spelling Games
http://pbskids.org/games/spelling.html

PBS is a great resource for young children’s learning. I particularly explored the area, spelling. It was such a wonderful website because how it delivered the phonological practices for kids. I mean, it was fun to go through different games/activities because of its rich sound and visual effects. The activities are animated so colorfully and more than that, the narrator’s exciting intonation was what grabbed my attention the most. I think children would not feel boring doing these activities even though most of them are similar. What they do is, in the spelling section, the narrator tells the sound of the letter for them to guess the correspondent letter that eventually makes up a word. For example, the narrator says, “Which letter makes the sound “p” pig?” And then the child has to choose the letter. When they get right, the narrator encourages the child, saying comments such as “Sensational!” There are different levels, which I thought it was good. In each game, there are always directions read from the narrator in fun background music, that children would never get bored. The only downside is that you might need to dig and choose what games to do according to specific practices you want children to learn. And there are a lot of activities other than the spelling part.
I had such fun time exploring it, and I am sure the kids will enjoy them, and teachers and parents can use them, pulling up this website to do the activities together and have some fun learning the sounds of the letter!

Evaluated by: Yire Lee

Starfall

http://www.starfall.com/

Starfall is an interactive website designed to help children learn how to read through the usage of phonics. The website is mainly designed for preschool aged students to second grade level students. It is also very helpful for special education and students learning English as a second language. The website is visually appealing to children, with pictures and colors, and easy to navigate. The website first starts with learning the ABCs, to get children prepared to learn how to read. It consists of sing-alongs to teach the children the different sounds the letters can make, along with teaching children the vowels. The next section puts the letters in words, and teaches children how to say the entire word, through different short phrases. The next section puts the phrases into sentences. And that section is followed with putting sentences into stories. The best part of the website is that it is interactive. It is more like playing a game, then it is learning how to read. For example, the website will prompt the user with a question like "Who am I?" and the user must click on boy or girl. Simple tools like this can really facilitate the child's learning, because it is necessary for a child to want to learn. When there is a learning game to be played, the child is more willing to learn, and more ready to accept new information.

This resource can be used in a classroom setting (if computers are present) or at home for outside of school assignments. The website has levels for different levels, and allows a student to move through it at their own pace. This is very helpful in classes with a mix of students who already know the English language, to students who are learning it as their second language. The website talks to the students so that they can orally and visually learn at the same time. The speaker also repeats the sounds, words, phrases, and sentences while the computer screen visually repeats the same.

By Myron Hardy

Literacy Acquisition Through Fun Activities

The resources we found focused on how fun and games can help students with literacy acquisition. With something that is enjoyable, students will be more motivated towards learning how to read and write. It'll allow students to engage with language in different ways with positive attitudes. If it's fun, learning won't be seen as such a daunting task.

1) http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

Game Goo is an interesting website that helps kids practice recognizing letters, forming sentences, spelling, and other many other things through games. The website consists of several small games that cover many sorts of activities such as identifying antonyms, identifying synonyms, and letter-sound correspondences. They are ranked from beginner to advanced, and each game presents colorful characters and backgrounds, interesting drawing styles, music, voices and fun extras. They are definitely fun games that do help practice learning the basics of language while having fun. I have tried a few games myself and found them to be enjoyable as well as educational. The games are intended mostly for young kids who are starting to learn the English language, but it may be enjoyable for other audiences, as I myself did. These games are designed more to be enjoyed outside of the classroom during free time or at home on the computer. For those who want to learn but still have fun during the process, these games at Game Goo are definitely worth looking into.

By Samuel Martinez

2)http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/kids.htm

One website and source that I feel many people overlook to help students with their literacy acquisition are local library websites. Austin Public Library has a great website and programs for students of all ages to promote literacy acquisition. They offer a plethora of sources for parents and adults to use. The divide it into three different programs: Children's Programming, Teen Programming and Outreach programming. Each program focuses mainly on reading and attracting students to reading. For the children's programming, they have various activities where students and caregivers can get involved with reading stories. I've gone and sat in on these read-along type activities and seen how much fun children have. It also is great because it allows adults/parents/caregivers to get actively involved with students and reading. This would provide students with a more meaningful way of reading. The experience they share with their caregiver will give them more motivation towards reading and developing their skills. The children sat attentively and listened to the person reading to them. Then afterwards they would even do certain activities to help with spelling, learning word sounds, and things like that. It was almost like an extra literacy learning for students out side of school. On top of allowing students a fun experience, they will be receiving extra attention to literacy outside of the classroom environment. The people who run the programs are very great with helping students learn and giving parents pointers, tips, and resources to help their students with literacy acquisition

The Austin Public Library website also has links to websites to help students with learning. Parents and educators can easily access these materials to use for their children. One source I found very interesting is called “Tumble Book Library.” This program provides story books, puzzles/games, audio books, and featured books that are recommended for children. I feel that with the integration of technology to our everyday lives, a computer-oriented reading program would be received greatly by students. The library itself, provides students with animated, talking picture books. It's a resource available for teachers and librarians to order and have for their children. It even provides teachers with lesson plans and worksheets for their students. For teachers that need help with their literacy activities, this “library” will be very helpful. There are some things available for free online, but for the more extensive material, it would need to be purchased. However, what's available online is very vibrant images, sounds and animation to draw students to stories.

One of the greatest resources we can go to for resources for literacy learning for students, if our very own public libraries. Often times you won't realize the amount of fun activities and games they might have to offer your students.

By Thaison Nguyen

Unique Strategies and Activities to Help Teachers Teach Children Literacy

The Websites our group has provided will help teachers develop methods and strategies to improve their student’s literacy and learning capabilities. These websites include stories, games, and practice work to help children develop their literacy skills for the future.

1) http://www.meddybemps.com/7.33.html

The Website I have chose focuses primarily on helping children in preschool and children up to the age of 8. This website is great for helping children hone their literacy skills by providing a large amount of games that specialize in different aspects of literacy. For example this website provides games in the fields of “writing and reading”, “observation and discussion”, and “language skills.” Though I have only listed three sections that offer games to help children increase their literacy skills, there are many more. What makes this website great is that it provides levels for each game, for example a 4 year old child can do the same game as an 8 year old child, but the content will be slightly different. I really like the structure of this website, it keeps the child thinking differently by offering a wide variety of games to chose from, a child can work on his reading by doing the “riddle” sections or if the child would like to work on their writing, they can just play the “writing and reading” games. Also if games like that don’t appeal to the child they can play puzzles.

This websites looks like if it were to be used by a teacher they could only assign these activities during school. It would not be a good idea to use this website for homework assignments because there is no way to check the child work. When dealing with multiliteracy classrooms, this website is useful to a point. This website offers a “language skills” section where they offer stories that can be translated into 12 different languages. This would help greatly in a multiliteracy classroom because the teacher could tell the child to read it in their 2^nd language first than their 1^st language to grasp the full meaning of the story. The “language skills” section offers a wide variety of stories and this would be very helpful in multiliteracy classrooms. The best way to use this website would be a “classroom fieldtrip” to the computer lab. Most of the learning that will be taking place will be on the computer and alone without the help of others. Scaffolding will still be possible, the teacher should walk around and make sure the child is doing what he or she is supposed to, but there is room for the child to wonder about and just randomly click during the games and end up not really learning. The teacher should make sure he or she knows the levels of each child’s literacy, so they may assign the child what game level to work with. Also the teacher should definitely switch up the games in order to keep the child’s mind thinking and creating new ideas.

By: Michael Dang

2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml

I think this is a great website to improve children’s literacy, as well as build confidence, as the activities seem easy enough that they could do them on their own for the most part, with a little guidance on the instructions. It uses a bunch of bright and pastel, fun colors on the homepage, which are more appealing and inviting.

What stood out to me right away was the fact that there are games and activities for all different levels, whether you have a child who is just starting to build their literacy skills, or whether you have one who is a little more advanced. I think this would help a whole lot in a class with both L1 and L2 learners, as there is something for everyone. For example, on the left includes different links of different categories that are available to children. These include, but are not limited to, CVC Words, High Frequency Words, Consonant Clusters, and so on. Clicking on CVC Words, shows a couple different activities, including a “Magic Pencil,” in which you can watch the pencil write a word, and then write it yourself. Another is a little more advanced and you try to make different words with the limited letters they give you, proving to be a little more of a challenge. Another thing I like is that all of this is not online. They also have a “Print and Do” section. This could come in handy, as the teachers could print these and send them home with the children. Or, if a family does not have computer access, they could maybe go to a local library and print the sheets out to take them home to do with their children.

This website focuses on many of the difficult aspects to fully grasping literacy. There is a whole section devoted to words that are frequently used, as well as one focusing on long vowel sounds, such as “coat” and “hide.” Another cool aspect is the gallery of “Silly Sentences” where children and parents can actually submit sentences of their own that they have made up. This could give children a sense of accomplishment as they can build on their skills, and then prove what they have learned later.

I discussed all of the strengths above, so now for a couple weaknesses. There could be more pictures, especially on the home page, to make it seem like a more fun website. I think a more exciting layout would definitely spice it up. Also, once the students have done the exercises, there’s not really any more to do, so maybe an update every once in a while with new, exciting ideas would be a good idea! And finally, some software is necessary, for example, a RealPlayer for the Magic Pencil, which might not be compatible with all computers.

Overall, any kind of practice is good practice when learning and developing literacy skills. But, I think that this website has a fun and cool way of doing things!

“Evaluated by Kayla Acosta”

3) http://www.tickettoread.com

The aforementioned website is a wonderful tool for children to use to increase their vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and increase their overall level of literacy. Although the website is not free, it can be a very effective if purchased through the school or the district.

This website is individualized so that each student has his or her own account. Each user has a home page called a club house. The club house is a place that they can decorate and customize. They may purchase decorative items and other trinkets with tickets they earn. Users earn tickets by reading short passages that range from a paragraph to a page. T.J. Ticket is an animated character who reads all of the instructions aloud and gives clues to the user as he or she navigates the website. He’s TicketToRead’s equivalent of Microsoft Word’s Paperclip. T.J. Ticket shows up after each segment of the lesson to further instruct students.

This website is really effective because it measures the student’s progress by asking comprehension questions, setting a goal for the words read per minute, tracking the student’s words read per minute, and tickets. For every passage the student reads, they get 100 tickets. The website tracks the amount of time the student uses to finish the passage and records it. If the student reads too quickly, the When they read the story aloud into a microphone, they get 50 additional tickets. At the end of each short passage, there is a series of 6 comprehension questions. The questions have an audio button for students who can’t comprehend what the question is asking by reading it. This is especially helpful for second language learnersbecause it reinforces their comprehension with the audio aid. For each question answered correctly, 10 tickets are earned. In order to help readers stay on track, the screen highlights the current line when the student mouses over it.

For students who have trouble with reading and are not reading at the “Target” speed, T.J. Ticket offers a few words of encouragement and asks the reader to follow along as the narrator reads the story to the student. Then, there are flashcards that appear with the three vocabulary words in the passage. On these interactive flashcards, the word is read aloud, a picture of the word is shown, and the definition is read aloud. After a few moments, the narrator uses a sentence with the word, making the word more meaningful to the student. The student is then asked to read the passage along with the narrator which helps the student with fluency, inflection, and tone.

If implemented in a school-wide setting, it would be a great incentive system for children to read. Teachers can keep a list of how many tickets their students have and use that as an incentive for a school wide store full of goods like pencils, school supplies, small toys, and bigger prizes that can be won if students save enough tickets.

By: Karynna Garcia

4) http://www.eduplace.com/kids/

The Austin School District has just adopted Houghton Mifflin as their primary textbook source. This website would be extremely beneficial for students (especially AISD students) because it is a great way for the students to have access to a fun way of learning on the web and it is in sync with what they are reading and learning in school. This website is very interactive and the learning aspect is easily disguised because it is entertaining. The student can choose between many different school subjects, among them spelling and language arts. There are levels that pertain to grades so the activities are appropriate. It’s important, in this era, for children to learn how to access the web because there is so much information they can gain through it. These games are kid friendly and provide an excellent source of information because it comes from the textbook creators.

Students could be required to master certain levels and games at home or even at school and print out their scores. This is a way to check their understanding but also give them a sense of accomplishment. The website has a wide spectrum of learning techniques for all different types of learners. This is especially helpful for visual learners (like me!) Using this website is helpful because students can go at their own pace and bilingual students can find games and activities according to their level and knowledge of English.

I love the idea of this website because it parallels to what is being taught in schools that carry Houghton Mifflin books.

By: Kate Hoffner

How students develop reading skills

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/
Between the Lions is a great website for children 3 and up because not only does it read the book to you but the children can follow along to try and sound out the words as they are said. There are three categories for the children to explore which are the following: Games, Stories, and Video Clips. These different areas give children a different way of learning. By watching the words light up while the reader reads the words the child can relate and comprehend how to read words. Also, with the games they aren't just allowing children to play any games but rhyming games so it can help the children understand rhyming and also can help with the similarities in the sounds to spell words in the future. It allows the children to variety on how they want to learn and what is easiest for them. Video clips can include fictional characters but also real people who read them stories. The website contains a lot of authors who read their own books and say their intake on the stories they are telling. The website attracts children which is necessary for them to learn. They need to be interested in what they are learning and how they are learning it and between the lions gives variety for different type of children. Last, It can be used with the parents or for the parents so they learn how they can teach their children or how they can be involved with their children's learning ability.
By: Courtney Kagan

http://www.colorincolorado.org/
The purpose of “Colorín Colorado” is to provide information, strategies, and activities for teachers of English Language Learners. The variety of activities provided help benefit students of all ages and levels of literacy development. The sidebar of this website includes tabs for both educators and for families with ideas and helpful approaches for students to linguistically develop their English. The Educators’ Section can be adapted by teachers in various teaching situations including ESL teachers and general education teachers with ELLs in their classroom. The “For Educators” tab includes links that explain the importance of reaching out to Hispanic Students and families, the ELL Resources necessary for each grade level, the assessment and placement processes teachers must be aware of, as well as other helpful tools and ideas that students may benefit from.The Families’ Section provides parents with an idea of how they can help their child to succeed at school. This tab includes links such as tips that are essential to a child’s bilingual development, informational articles and resources, as well as an entire page dedicated to the requirement for strong Parent-Educator partnerships. In addition to sections specifically for teachers and parents, this site literally offers information on “Topics A-Z” that address a wide variety ideas that can impact students’ literacy development.Colorín Colorado more specifically focuses on the development of Hispanic students and their families considering the vast majority of ELLs in the United States today are Spanish-speaking. However, the strategies the website provides are applicable to students from all bilingual backgrounds.
By: Melissa Berger

http://www.funbrain.com/index.html
This website is great for children in the beginning stages of literacy development. The child and parent can pick the child's reading level at the bottom of the page, and then click on the section labeled, “Reading,” where there are popular comic books for the child to read aloud to the parent. The website is for children from grades K to 8, so the reading is encouraged at all stages for early elementary to secondary education. There is also Madlib activities for children K to 2, where the child must fill in the correct word depending on whether it is an adjective, noun, or verb, and sometimes it depends on what the letter begins with; for example, on the madlibs for the Kindergarten section it says, “'H' is for Henry's Hotdog Hut,” and then it tells the child to pick or type in an adjective, noun, verb, or plural verb that begins with an “h.” This is a great activity for ESL students in developing the foundations of learning the English language by becoming familiar with the nouns, and also by learning that the “h” makes a “hhhh” sound. ESL students can build their phonological awareness for the English language. These games will help strengthen writing/reading skills and vocab. This website has multiple activities to encourage students to read. Web books, word games, grammar and spelling activities, There are also a great amount of other reading tools and writing tools that this website has made fun to encourage the kids to keep practicing their reading and writing skills.
By: Morgan Smith

http://www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet.htm
This website has great activities for students, especially ELL students. Some of the activities include writing a poem inspired by a painting. Printing out a story and illustrating the pictures to go along with them. This encourages students reading development because they have to be able to read the story to know what to draw in their illustrations instead of drawing random things. Monthly calendars in English and Spanish for daily reading activities, like reading a Dr. Seuss book to a younger student. The website also has stories that children can read and listen to online, gives books and information about different cultures. The website has games about languages where you match English words to the words in other languages. There is also an author of the month and an interview that children can read about the author. This website gives students a variety of tools to read online, which encourages reading acquisition. It also provides resources like book titles for students to read and ideas for children to get them involved in literacy development of reading and writing.
By: Mary Rice