Reading

Source: 21 Things 4 Students homepage (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, you will teach your students the basics of computer literacy including navigation, image capture, shortcuts, browsers, safe and secure online, email, and email etiquette. 21Things 4 Students use videos, key vocabulary, tutorials, checklists, quizzes, certificates and even badging to motivate the students. 

(License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

Source: Infoplease Famous Firsts by African Americans (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

This site presents a vast array of articles and images on a host of subjects .(check Browse tab)  Students can read about African American History,  History and Timelines, Contemporary Issues and Facts, Biographyies and Special Features, Holidays, Education and Awards With the information, students create a timeline of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. In this assignment, students read about Famous Firsts by African Americans.

Source: NPR Technology Entries (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

NPR's "All Things Considered" airs its series called "All Tech Considered" which explores the sometimes daunting—always-changing—world of technology. If you are baffled by your cell phone, or your students are wondering what their kids mean when they say they are tweeting on Twitter, All Tech Considered explores many of these areas and could be of help. Try sending your students here to look up information that interests them. Not all stories have an audio component, so look for ones that have "Listen to the Story" or the word "podcast." Podcasts of many of the archived shows are downloadable and the segments are usually under 10 minutes.

Source: Pixabay by Jim Jorstad (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Students have conversation about favorite places, learn about a United States national monument by watching a video and answering questions, and then select a place in the U.S. to research and present on.

Source: Cleaning Institute Cleaning Tips (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

This site offers a world of information about laundry and all types of cleaning tips, understanding products, sustainable cleaning as well as industry priorities. The example website includes a section called Cleaning Tips where you can apply learning to home, school, or work. "Information sheets" found in teacher resources are in a printable format such as PDF. The section on Soaps and Detergents History with a timeline offers another way to organize a lesson.

Source: Pixabay Image (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

This chapter teaches students how to make a doctor's appointment.

Source: Pixabay by QuinceCreative (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

Students use web sites for department stores to find product information for similar products in order to compare prices and qualities of products at different stores so that they can make wise buying decisions.

Source: 21st Century Information Fluency Project Wizard Tools (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Teach your students how to conduct effective Web searches with the Search Wizard tool.

Designed by educators for educators (and students), this site offers three tools that make it easy to teach the essential steps of locating, evaluating, and ethically using digital resources:

1. Search Wizard: helps students learn how to build good Web searches
2. Evaluation Wizard: helps students evaluate Web sites
3. Citation Wizard: helps students build citations (in five styles) to be used in research papers or documents.

Source: Pixabay by Sergei Tokmakov (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students engage in conversation about the environment, practice listening comprehension by watching a video and answering questions, read an article about the harm of plastics on the environment, brainstorm ways to preserve the natural environment, write a paragraph, and create an inforgraphic based on their ideas.

Source: 4Tests GED Practice Test page (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

A free online practice test site for the 2014 GED test with the 4 sections of the GED provided by Barrons Educational Series. It includes an explanation for the right answer.

Source: Applied Digital Skills (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this series of video lessons, students learn how to use Google Slides in making a personal introduction presentation to the class. 

Source: Carnegie Corporation Great Immigrants Website by Unknown (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Students use the Internet to find and read information about a great immigrant from their native countries or other countires. Using the Carnegie Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Web site, they choose an immigrant, read and take notes about them, and prepare an oral presentation, optionally using the PowerPoint or Google Slides template provided.

Source: Pixabay by Gerd Altmann (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Honing their 21st Century Skills of global awareness and teamwork, students work in teams, role-playing international business consultants. Their job is to create a presentation for a group of American business people relocating to another country (students’ native country or a country assigned to them) about business customs and etiquette in that country, especially as they differ from that of the USA.

Source: YouTube Learn English with Speeches by Learn English with Speeches (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Use the any of the video sources for student pronunciation practice. There are several speeches by famous people from around the world. Each video has large subtitles so that students can see the words and develop their vocabulary at the same time as practicing pronunciation and oral presentations.

Source: Pixabay by Scott (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students will make oral presentations with visual aides to talk about their hometowns. Students practice present and past passive verb forms by talking about their hometowns or birthplaces (It is called..., It is known for..., etc.). For information that is unknown (such as what is produced there), students can use Web sites such as Wikipedia to find the information.

Source: Newsela homepage (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Newsela is a personalized reading service designed to help students master non-fiction literacy by providing daily news articles at multiple reading levels. Newsela makes it easy for an entire class to read the same article at their own reading level.

The teacher assigns an article(s) to the class. Many of the articles have quizzes available. "Write" is a feature that allows students to answer open-ended questions. The teacher can customize the prompt.

Newsela offers a free version and a premium for pay program called Newsela Pro. Pro includes many additional features including student tracking, annotation on articles, etc. June 30, 2023 Newsela offers Newsela Lite. Articles will still be available at multiple reading levels but each week four articles will be available to select from. The articles will be available for four weeks. Each week one will be replaced. When an article is selected the teacher will be able to see student actions and quiz results. It is free to any teacher. Review the new features. 

Source: Unsplash by Handiwork NYC (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

 

In this activity, students will use online classified ads to investigate job openings and find housing where they live for someone they know who is hypothetically relocating to their city. Students create a PowerPoint slideshow about the job and salary, the housing and cost, and create a monthly budget.

This is a good unit on consumerism. The lesson is complete with video, note-taking and practice.

Students watch a video which explains advertising strategies. Then, using a note-taking chart, they will practice identifying advertising strategies while watching various commercials. They can also use the form at home while watching TV commercials for further practice. Then as a final activity, students can make a team presentation using PowerPoint.

Source: Reading Skills 4 Today

Previously Marshall Reading,this site provides leveled reading selections that are appropriate for adult learners. These materials, combined with the research-proven strategies of repeated reading and guided oral reading, aid in building learners' fluency and comprehension skills. For First Timmer Users 

 

Source: ReadWorks (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students are assigned a reading passage and shown the different tools they can use during the reading. They are then introduced to a Question Set and asked to complete the activity. When the students finish the activity, it is projected so they can see the article and as a class, responses are reviewed.

Readworks is a free, non-profit site focused on improving teacher effectiveness and student achievement in reading comprehension by providing free standards-aligned content, curriculum, and tools based on the highest quality cognitive scientific research on how to learn to read.

Source: Snopes.com (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

While learning about urban legends, students practice reading skills, summarizing and paragraphing in speaking and writing, and hone their abilities to view media critically. Students use Snopes, a site dedicated to fact-checking news stories, past events and urban legends, to read and take notes on an urban legends. 

Source: The Free Dictionary (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Using this site, students will practice vocabulary by learning and using the word of the day, playing the spelling bee, and looking up two idioms and one acronym. Students can customize their page to include as many features as they like. Other features included in the side menu include a thesaurus, medical legal and financial dictionaries, acronyms, idioms, and encyclopedias.

This Web site is rich in possibilities. Beyond vocabulary practice the site offers a variety of dictionaries in various languages (Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, Russian and Turkish). There are games to play: Hangman, Spelling Bee, Words Within Words, Matching. There are also great sources of information: Article of the Day; In the News; This Day in History; Today's Holiday; Today's Birthday; and Quotation of the Day.

Source: NPR's This I Believe (License: CC0/Public Domain)

If you listen to NPR radio, you may hear both famous and unknowns discussing their core values and beliefs on weekly broadcasts of the radio spot “This I Believe,” a take-off on Edward R. Murrow’s original 1950s radio show. The site is an archive of all the modern broadcasts accompanied by the original print essays and contains a searchable database of thousands of other essays on numerous topics ranging from patriotism, to family, to sports. Each short essay that has been broadcast on NPR has a “Listen” link to hear the authors read their essays, which provides a listening component for the ABE student. The audio can be the basis for exercises on note-taking, listening for main ideas, supporting details, and cloze (listening for missing words).

In this activity, students learn about photosynthesis through a introductory video and three online activities. Along the way they learn to interpret diagrams that describe the process of photosynthesis, examine the ingredients and products of photosynthesis and identify producers and consumers in the food chain. Each activity has several quiz questions to check for understanding. There is also an online quiz covering all three activities.

Source: http://www.tv411.org/science/tv411-whats-cooking/photosynthesis-science-lesson (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

These activities work best in a computer lab; however, students can be divided into groups on several classroom computers or the activity can be projected on a screen for the whole class.

Life Science is approximately 40% of the GED Science test, and 50% of the HiSET Science test.

Source: TV411: Reading Medicine Labels (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

This activity includes a video, printable worksheet, and online Web lesson on reading medicine labels.

TV411's mission is to help adults gain the basic reading, writing, math, and science skills they need to achieve their educational, career, and personal goals. They create educationally sound and entertaining multimedia learning materials and distribute them through television, the Internet, and literacy and community-based programs across the country. TV411 is a project of the Learning and Teaching Division of the Education Development Center, a non-profit organization that addresses challenges in education, health and economic development.

Source: Working the Web for Education Tom March (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

In this activity, Students will read and discuss a current issue: Rise of the machines: Philippine outsourcing industry braces for AI. The emphasis is on critical thinking. Students will read, consider and discuss the future of Technology and its impact on jobs.

The Tom March Web site contains videos, political cartoons, and pictures that encourage students to think critically. 

                                                        

Source: magicschool.ai (License: CC0/Public Domain)    

 

 

Use an AI enhanced program such as magicschool.ai or web.diffit.me to level text to match the reading levels of your students

Source: Diffit for Teachers (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 Use the same AI enhanced software to select other tools to assist in teaching students reading comprehension skills.

In this activity, students answer the VARK Learning Style online questionnaire’s 16 questions to measure their learning style preferences in these areas: Visual (V), Aural/Auditory (A), Reading/Writing (R), and Kinesthetic (K) – see descriptions at VARK Modalities page http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=categories in order to find their preferred learning styles and their weaker study habit. The inventory’s focus is on study habits and skills more than personality traits, and there are “help sheets” that explain to students how to develop their less-preferred learning modalities.

Source: 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web foreword. (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

This is an online book (61 pages) about various aspects of browsers, the Internet, cloud computing, cookies, privacy, security, malware, and phishing. The reading level is about 6th grade. It can be covered in small chunks (20) and integrated into your everyday skills and competencies.

In this activity, students will use the Internet to select or are assigned to find information about a fantastic place in the USA, such as a national park or monument, take notes, and create a visual aide (a Word document or PowerPoint with images). Students will then copy/paste their assignment into an AI application for revision and edit suggestions. As a class the revisions are weighed, discussed, examined and determined it they are useful or not. Discuss the value of AI.

In this lesson, students will explore savings by reading a comic book and discussing their reading. At the conclusion of this lesson, students will see how savings affect the economy and perhaps, start saving.

Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/raisin-sun-quest-american-dream#sect-introduction (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students read the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and explore how the social, educational, economical, and political climate of the 1950s affected African Americans' quest for "The American Dream." The critical reading and analysis of the play are complemented by a close examination of biographical and historical documents that students use as the basis for creating speeches, essays, and scripts.

Read the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry with your students and you can enhance your discussion of "The American Dream" even while you and your students explore how the social, educational, economical, and political climate of the 1950s affected African Americans' quest for "The American Dream."

Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/story-epic-proportions-what-makes-poem-epic#sect-introduction (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

This lesson will introduce students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition. Students will learn about the epic hero cycle and will learn how to recognize this pattern of events and elements- even in surprisingly contemporary places. Students will also be introduced to the patterns embedded in these stories that have helped generations of storytellers remember these immense poems.

Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/animal-farm-allegory-and-art-persuasion#sect-activities (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students are introduced to the concept of allegory by using George Orwell’s widely read the novella, Animal Farm. This lesson consists of the following four activities: Animal Farm and Allegory, The Collective Farm and the Communist State, What’s in a Name, and Tyranny by any other Name…

Source: https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans/anne-frank-one-hundreds-thousands#sect-thelesson%22_blank%22 (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

This lesson invites you to supplement your students' reading of The Diary of a Young Girl by connecting the diary to the study of history and to honor the legacy of Anne Frank, the writer, as she inspires your students to use writing to deepen their insights into their own experiences and the experiences of others.

In the class activity, students look at a series of maps to gain an idea of the territorial changes in Europe after World War I up to the beginning of the defeat of Germany. They complete a map intended to show the speed and reach of Germany's wartime expansion. Then students share information about the German occupation in some European countries, which they then compare to the situation in the Netherlands. Lastly, students analyze a map.

 

Source: http://annex.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/activities/classroom/characteristics/ca_characteristics.php (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students learn to recognize and describe the characteristics of living organisms. Students view several different short videos and complete a worksheet identifying the characteristics of life observed in each video.

In the microscope imaging station (see link in the Example Web Site above), you will introduce students to unique life science activities that let them work with research-quality microscopic images and videos. In the Flipbooks section, you can use printable images from the time-lapse movies to make flipbooks (handheld animations that students can make at home).

 

Source: http://annex.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/activities/classroom/genetic_crosses/ca_genetic_crosses.php (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students explore genetic inheritance patterns in the fruit fly using Punnett squares to predict the results of genetic crosses and determine the genotypes of the parent flies in a particular cross.

Source: http://annex.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/activities/flipbooks/flipbooks_mitosis.php (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students use printable images from a time-lapse movie to make flipbooks—handheld animations. This series of images depicts the process of mitosis in the early embryo of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. In this stage of Drosophila development, the nuclei divide very rapidly without cell division, and the divisions are synchronized. The mitosis shown took about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Source: http://annex.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/activities/classroom/wild_mutant/ca_wild_mutant.php (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students are introduced to genetic vocabulary and learn about the inheritance patterns and genotypes of fruit flies by viewing images of fruit flies and drawing conclusions.

This activity, Wild Type and Mutant from the Exploratorium is an introduction to genetics and should be used before, Genetic Crosses, which explores the topic in greater depth. Genetic Crosses goes on to use Punnett squares to predict the results of genetic crosses and determine the genotypes of the parent flies in a particular cross.

Source: My Books-Unlimited Library App (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students use a free iPad app to read a book they or their teacher select. Students read assigned chapters and highlight new vocabulary and important information. During a class discussion, students are able to refer to their highlighted notes. Students are then asked to look up new vocabulary words and write a short synopsis of the chapter.

The Free Books – Unlimited Library – The Ultimate Ebooks And Audiobooks Library In Your Pocket app by Digital Press Publishing provides notes, highlights, bookmarks, and dictionary support. The upgraded version ($$) includes audiobooks; however, the student is not able to see the printed text while listening to the audio.

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In this activity, students learn about the history of Women’s Suffrage through the exploration of primary sources. The American Memory Collection’s Classroom Materials section features lesson plans, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations and activities, and collection connections. The Presentations & Activities section offers media-rich historical content or interactive opportunities for exploration to both teachers and students.

Source: President Elect homepage (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

The President-Elect site is a great site to help your students learn about the electoral college. The "FAQ" page would be a good place to start, as these may represent most of your students' questions about the electoral college and how it works. The site is per election year so check for the current election.

The President Elect site is a great site to help your students learn about the electoral college. The "FAQ" page would be a good place to start, as these may represent most of your students questions about the electoral college and how it works. The site is per election year so check for current election

In this activity, students use an interactive quiz to correctly put the steps of how a bill becomes a law in order. They must be careful to consider ALL the steps, even those that take place when the bill doesn't go smoothly.

A screenshot of How a Bill Becomes a Law Activity.

Source: https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/pocahontas (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

In this activity, students use primary sources to answer the question of whether Pocahontas saved John Smith’s life.

Screenshot of the Reading Like a Historian lesson on Pocahontas

The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities. U.S. History consists of the following Units:

• Unit 1: Introduction
• Unit 2: Colonial
• Unit 3: Revolution and Early America
• Unit 4: Expansion/Slavery
• Unit 5: Civil War and Reconstruction
• Unit 6: The Gilded Age
• Unit 7: American Imperialism
• Unit 8: Progressivism
• Unit 9: World War I and the 1920s
• Unit 10: New Deal and World War II
• Unit 11: Cold War
• Unit 12: Cold War Culture/Civil Rights

Source: https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/vitamins/index.html (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

In this activity, students learn the sources, functions, discovery history, deficiency, and excess effects of vitamins. The Molecular Expressions Vitamins Collection contains all of the known vitamins and many biochemicals that were once thought and claimed to be vitamins.