Just+English

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OHIO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
= = = **GENERAL ELA RESOURCES** = = Lesson Plans (Also see Lesson Plan Sites) = = Teaching Materials =
 * [|English language arts] ** information supporting each part of Ohio’s educational system: Ohio’s Learning Standards, the model curricula, assessments, and additional resources to help teachers in the classroom.
 * [|ActiveLit] - create and play interactive stories and text-based games. A fun way to practice reading and writing skills. (grades 6-12)
 * ** [|AdLit.org] ** offers information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.
 * **Lessons by Grade and Interest**
 * More **lesson plans** (grouped by topics such as **Fables**, **Shakespeare**, **Mythology**, **Grammar**, and more) and other resources such as **activities**, can be found at **Web English Teacher**.
 * [|Ayn Rand Education] - Free sets of Ayn Rand's novels for your classroom! Each set of novels comes with a teacher's kit to aid your instruction.

=** LISTENING SKILLS **= =(try the Podcasts page)=

=** READING **=
 * [|Booktrack][| Classroom] creates an immersive reading experience which allows students to read with a movie-style soundtrack. Students can read booktracks already created or create and publish their own. Student work will be published and visible for their peers to enjoy. Grades: 3rd-12th
 * ** [|Book Trailers] ** -for those of you who are tired of Book Reports. Go to this site for information, for a step-by-step procedure. Another site to try is **43 Book Trailer Sites** to Inspire you. Scroll down to the **"How-To"** section.
 * Free reading posters - Get Caught Reading offers free posters with popular celebrities reading. Teachers can choose posters with celebrities like Alicia Keys, Greg Oden, Dinosaur Train, Tim Duncan, Nick Goepper, Mercer Mayer and even Yoda. There are dozens of posters available. There are even a few available in Spanish. The posters themselves are free and you can print them yourself. However if you want the full-size posters and quality printing you will need to order them. Shipping is $5 per order with a limit of 12 posters per order.

ADOLESCENT LIT (Be sure to check out The Book Lovers Page for ideas for your classes)

 * **[|AdLit.org] ** is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.
 * **[|New York Public Library Blog]- **lists, recommendations, and variety of other topics related to teen books and media.
 * ** [|NPR] - Top 100 YA novels - See the tremendous response that came in for this summer's Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll  **
 * ** TeenReads ** offers a wide selection of author ** biographies **, along with YALSA ** Book lists ** , ** Books into Movies ** lists, ** Book Reviews ** , and more!
 * YALSA - Popular YA Booklists

Authors (See the Authors page)
Graphic Novels: (**How to use these in the Classroom!)**
 * The Librarian's Guide to Anime and Manga
 * No Flying, No Tights - Graphic Novel Reviews

CLASSIC LITERATURE:
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 * **[|A Crash Course in Literature] ** : A video series by best-selling author John Green covers Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Salinger, Emily Dickinson and many more.
 * [|Get to Know Poe] : The literature life and times of Edgar Allan Poe
 * [|Google Lit Trips] (K-12) free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are place marks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story.
 * [|The Internet Classics Archive] - [|Select from a list of 441 works of classical literature] by 59 different authors. Mainly Greco-Roman works (some Chinese and Persian), all in English translation.
 * [|Luminarium] - Anthology of English Literature - 1350-1785 - Includes complete works, biographies, quotes, study resources and more.
 * [|Penguin Teacher's Guides for Classic Literature]
 * [|Romantic Circles] - A scholarly Website devoted to the study of Romantic-period literature and culture
 * == Shakespeare ==
 * ** [|Folger Shakespeare Library] ** **: Offers a world of online resources for teachers — from lesson plans to study guides to videos — for teaching Shakespeare on the K-12 levels.**
 * **[|myShakespeare] -** Dive into the rich world of Shakespeare with full-text, interactive editions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth. Multimedia resources include: audio recordings, contemporary translations, animated videos, performances of key scenes and more!
 * **[|Shakespeare Online] - A vast resource on everything Shakespeare!**
 * [|Shakespeare Search] - Full-text search of all works by Shakespeare with links to related information.
 * [|Speak the Speech] - Audio performances of the following plays are available online: The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Merry Wives of Windsor, King John, and King Richard II. You can also read along with several of the plays.

MYTHOLOGY:

 * [|Bulfinch's Mythology] - Online text
 * [|Encyclopedia Mythica]-Enter the award-winning internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. Here you will find everything from A-gskw to Zveda Vechanyaya, with plenty in between. Geared to older students, a little dry, but very extensive and informative.
 * [|Greek-Gods.info] - This website is dedicated to the civilization of ancient Greece. Here you will find information on the [|creation of the world] , the [|main Greek gods and goddesses] , frightful [|monsters and creatures of Ancient Greece] , fascinating [|demigods and spirits] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Lato,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> as well as the glorious <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Lato,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Greek heroes] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Lato,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">This digital [|Smithsonian in Your Classroom]<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">features artwork depicting stories from classical mythology as well as the texts of the stories themselves. Whether your students are new to mythology or already love it, they will all enjoy reading the stories and exploring the self-directed interactives, while building their analytical skills.
 * [|Celtic Folklore]
 * [|Theoi Greek Mythology] - This site contains more than 1,500 pages profiling the Greek gods and other characters from Greek mythology and 1,200 full sized pictures.
 * [|Timeless Myths] - ancient and medieval European mythology and legend. Timeless Myths centered around four mythology in Europe.
 * Classical Mythology
 * Norse Mythology
 * Celtic Mythology
 * Arthurian Legends
 * [|Irish and Celtic Myths]

Also, see the **Poetry Websites** page.

 * === thousands of [|classical poems] ===

READING SKILLS AND COMPREHENSION:
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 * [[image:http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/right_nav_pods/actively_learn.jpg caption="best website icon" link="@http://www.activelylearn.com/"]] ** Actively Learn - Digital Reading Platform -** ** AASL **2016 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning - **Over 3500 works are already included, delineated as ELA, social studies, science, math or current events. In addition, teachers may upload content of their choosing. Teachers are able to select the content, distribute it to students through a class code, and later assign a grade. Questions, notes, ways to collaborate with others, text-to-speech, articles at different lexile levels, translation, and grading options add to the features currently available. Create classroom and district collections that can be shared among teachers, or upload current event articles and create questions of any type. Recommended for grades 5-12.**
 * [|CommonLit] - a free collection of fiction and nonfiction (and tracking tools) for 5th-12th grade classrooms. Search and assign passages by lexile, grade, theme, genre, literary device, or common core standard. <span style="font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Some of the tools available are a built in dictionary, read aloud option and highlighting.
 * Also, check out [|book pairings]. They have paired over 50 books commonly used in the classroom with related reading (informational texts, speeches, poems, news articles, short stories and more). Several of the books listed are books we already use at the Jr. and High School (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, The Giver, A Long Walk to Water...)
 * The [|units] section offers selected readings, graphic organizers and writing prompts based on specific themes, authors, and more.
 * **Lexiles for 100,000 titles**
 * [|Newsela] takes articles from various news feeds, adapts them with multiple lexile levels, and provides quizzes and writing prompts. As a teacher, you can also create your own writing prompts. Teachers need to register and create binders for classes. Students simply log in with access codes provided. You can then assign articles and assignments to students.
 * Also available, [|Text Sets] is a collection of articles that share a common theme, topic, or standard. You can browse Newsela created text sets or create your own text sets.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2d3237; font-family: &#39;Gotham SSm A&#39;,&#39;Gotham SSm B&#39;,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|ReadTheory] is an online reading comprehension assessment tool for students. It allows students to read narrative, informative, or informational literary passages and answer corresponding comprehension questions, while tracking student performance and reporting progress to teachers. It is free for all users. (This reminds me of NoRedInk, only for reading comprehension.)
 * [|ReadWorks] provides FREE, research-based, and Common Core-aligned reading comprehension curriculum for grades K-12. Teachers have direct access to over 1000 Lexile-leveled non-fiction and literary passages online.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Article-A-Day] - choose a weekly set of high-quality nonfiction articles for your students based on grade level and lexile level. You can print or download them. Once you choose a set, click on the tab that says "How to Do Article-A-Day" and it will give you suggestions and teaching tips. (Thanks Mrs. Hayes)
 * [|Rewordify.com] - This is a must see if you have struggling, low-level readers ! Simply c opy/paste text (or just a URL for an entire web page), and it "rewords" the text into simpler English. Select from a menu of choices, from "Maximum," which rewords the most words with the simplest definitions, up to Level 5, which rewords only the hardest words with more descriptive definitions. Plus, the easier version is specially highlighted to help build vocabulary. This site also has a library of classic literature. Just c lick a title to read the easier version. Watch the brief demo video on the site for more information!
 * [|Spreeder] – Free speed reading application

Study Guides

 * ==** Cummings Study Guides - **for all of the classics==
 * [|CliffsNotes.com] – Study guides for literature, math, and other various subject

= SPEECH = (Also see Debate Resources) __** SPEECHES ONLINE: **__
 * ** American Rhetoric ** is a fabulous site which provides a great database of 5000+ ** full text, audio and video ** versions of ** famous speeches, ** sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events.
 * **Gifts of Speech** is a site that provides access to Women's Speeches from around the world. ** It is searchable. **
 * ** [|Newsela - Famous speeches] **

= VOCABULARY = <span style="background-color: #f4f5f6; font-family: Georgia,Utopia,;">media type="youtube" key="aS9oREFie_k" width="560" height="315"
 * Academic Word Finder - identifies words in passages to help teachers select the most useful vocabulary to teach their students. Simply paste your passage and select the grade level. The finder identifies below-, on-, and above-grade level Tier 2 vocabulary. It also provides the grade range, part of speech, meaning, and an example sentence for each vocabulary word.
 * [|EasyDefine]- <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">copy and paste a word list and all the words will be extracted and defined. Y ou can also look up **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">synonyms **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">, **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">quiz yourself **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">, **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">download flashcard **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> as well as **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">quizzes **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">.
 * [|myvocabulary.com] - (Thank you Christy Shuja!) It has an alphabetical list of a TON of roots/prefixes, etc AND Vocab. lists for novels...yes alphabetical and a lot of novels that we teach. PLUS it has quizzes, games for practice SAT and ACT words. :)
 * [|Visual Dictionary Online]
 * ** __[|Visuwords™]__ ** a free online graphical dictionary - a remarkably interactive tool that provides animated connections to synonyms, word parts and definitions of many variants of the requested word.
 * [|Vocabahead]
 * **VocabGrabber** "analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just copy text from a document and paste it into the box, and then click on the "Grab Vocabulary!" button. VocabGrabber will automatically create a list of vocabulary from your text, which you can then sort, filter, and save."
 * **Vocabulary.com** The "Challenge" section of this site reminds me of No Red Ink, except it is for vocabulary. Anyone can create a free account and questions are adapted for each individual. Progress is charted and individuals and entire schools can earn points and "badges" to represent levels of achievement.
 * <span style="background-color: #f4f5f6; color: #458dff; font-family: Georgia,Utopia,;">Vocabulist <span style="background-color: #f4f5f6; font-family: Georgia,Utopia,;"> - upload documents and have vocabulary words extracted from them. Vocabulist then matches definitions to the words. The matched words and definitions can be shared to Quizlet to study as flashcards.
 * <span style="background-color: #f4f5f6; color: #458dff; font-family: Georgia,Utopia,;">Vocabulist <span style="background-color: #f4f5f6; font-family: Georgia,Utopia,;"> - upload documents and have vocabulary words extracted from them. Vocabulist then matches definitions to the words. The matched words and definitions can be shared to Quizlet to study as flashcards.
 * <span style="background-color: #fafbfc; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Word Hippo_] <span style="background-color: #fafbfc; color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"> - An excellent online dictionary and translator as well.
 * [|Words With Friends EDU] brings the fun of Words With Friends into your classroom. Students learn new words as they play in a safe environment with their classmates, and teachers and parents track students’ progress using custom teacher dashboards.
 * **Wordsift** - similar to VocabGrabber - helps anyone easily sift through texts -- just cut and paste any text into WordSift and you can engage in a verbal quick-capture! The program helps to quickly identify important words that appear in the text. A Tag Cloud of any word in the text can be created. Also incorporates the Visual Thesaurus® and Google® searches of images and videos. With just a click on any word in the Tag Cloud, the program displays instances of sentences in which that word is used in the text.

= WRITING =

Analysis:

 * ==// ** [|Analyze My Writing] ** // **is an online text content and readability analyzer. Copy and paste a text into the homepage and gain a wealth of information about your text including word and character counts, word and sentence lengths, the readability of your text, passive voice, and other analyses.** ==
 * [|Expresso] is a practical tool to analyze, edit and compare text styles in English. It highlights weak parts of a text which can benefit from stylistic changes (ex. weak verbs, passive voice, filler words...).
 * [|Hemingway app] - Write directly on the app or copy and paste your material. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #545454; font-family: Roboto,arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The app highlights lengthy, complex sentences and common errors.

Citations:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Geneva,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">[|INFOhio Citation Guide: Citing Sources] Technology makes it easy to copy and share ideas and information. Learn how to maintain academic integrity while you are doing your research.
 * [|OWL - Purdue Online Writing Lab]is another excellent resource to get you started!
 * [|IRSCLibraries] - User friendly with lots of examples

Citation Creation Sites : (//**plug in the info and the citation is created for you**//)
EASY CITATIONS: Get your citations directly from [|Infohio] or [|Follett Destiny] when you use these resources. OTHER PREFERRED SITES:
 * **B**ibme is an automated bibliography generator. It finds information about your sources and formats the citations for you. This site can save you time while building your bibliography. It also allows you to search from a database of millions of entries to find your source. (** Nienaber, Reynolds) **
 * Yet another great **plug-in citation creator** can be found at **KnightsCite**.
 * automatically generates citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. ** (Reynolds) **
 * automatically generates citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. ** (Reynolds) **

Creative Writing

 * [|Books by the Banks Writing Contest]- <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15.4px;">This year’s contest is devoted to short-short works of up to 500 words. Both fiction and nonfiction are welcome, and all subjects and themes are acceptable. There will be separate judging in the Adult (Age 18+) and Teen (Ages 13-17) categories.
 * ** [|National Novel Writing Month] ** happens every November! It's a fun, seat-of-your-pants writing event where the challenge is to complete an entire novel in just 30 days. For one month, you get to lock away your inner editor, let your imagination take over, and just create!
 * [|One Word] - Simple. You’ll see one word at the top of the screen. You have sixty seconds to write about it. Don’t think. Just write. Teachers can create groups for classes.
 * [|PicLits] - creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords to inspire users to write, express themselves, and share their work with others. It could be a good source of inspiration for reluctant writers.
 * [|Teen Ink] -monthly magazine has been publishing teen writing, art and photos for 25 years. Anyone aged 13-19 can [|submit] their work for consideration - no charge. TeenInk.com has an archive, as well as a daily poem, artwork, story, essay, quote and more. With forums, chat rooms, more than 300 categorized Web resources for teens, TeenInk.com is the source for teen expression on the Web!
 * [|Write the World] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #363940; font-family: BrandonText-Regular; font-size: 16px;">is dedicated to improving the writing of high school students through a global online community and guided interactive process. Tools include writing prompts, competitions, peer and expert review and more.

GRAMMAR:
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 * [|grmr.me] - Instead of writing corrections and notes when grading, write a short URL directing your students to a brief video reteaching the concept.
 * [|Grammarly] - A FREE, ACCURATE GRAMMAR CHECKER BUILT FOR EVERYONE
 * [|No Red Ink] is a web-based learning platform that helps students improve their grammar and writing skills. It provides differentiated instruction, adjusting questions based on what students get right/wrong and drilling down to their underlying misconceptions. Color-coded "heat maps" allow teachers to track progress easily. This is currently being used at the high school, but can be used with younger students as well. (Thanks to Jeff Nienaber!)
 * [|The Punctuation Guide] - <span style="background-color: #f0e7db; color: #1c2336; font-family: Palatino,;">a comprehensive guide to American punctuation.
 * [|The Tongue Untied Blog]- A GUIDE TO GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION AND STYLE
 * [|Wacky Web Tales] - Mad Libs-type activity - Offers a parts of speech page to help students create silly stories; geared for grades 3 and above.

OUTLINE MAKING SITES:

 * 1) [|Checkvist] - A great collaborative online outliner that has an abundance of features such as: gmail/browser integration, mobility, and nice import/export features.
 * 2) [|CRLS Outline Maker] - Takes users through a step-by-step process to create an outline.
 * 3) [|Wisemapping] - More of a mindmapper than pure outline creator, but still a great visual site that teaches the basic concepts of creating an outline.

** Prompts: **

 * **[|Visual Writing Prompts] - Search by subject or type of writing**
 * **Writing Fix** is a site that provides interactive writing prompts for teachers. There is also a wealth of information for English teachers here.

Quotations:
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 * Aphorisms Galore
 * Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
 * ** BrainyQuote ** is a site from which you can pick ** quotes on any subject ** from a long list of writers. You can add "Quote of the day" to your own website.
 * Creative Quotations
 * Just Quotations- over 20,000 entries in 30 collections. You can search by author, topic, or other access points.
 * Quoteland- Quotations by topic, **Humorous quotations**, TV and movie transcripts, TV commercials, historical speeches and more!
 * Spanish Proverbs and Sayings with their English equivalents

Spelling-

 * ** Spelling Bee - ** In the Tournament Spelling Bee, you'll be challenged by a series of words, with the spelling difficulty adapted to your skill level. The more words you get right, the higher your score will go, on a scale from 200 to 800.

Templates

 * ** [|Citelighter] ** **- Online K-12 writing platform allows you to collect online text and images, organize, pre-write and turn outlines into finished papers. Integrates with Google Docs.**
 * [|Zoom In] uses primary and secondary sources to help students build literacy and historical thinking skills. It features 18 U.S. history units that supplement your regular history instruction. Each interactive inquiry engages students in reading documents closely, gathering evidence, and writing an argumentative or explanatory essay. In addition, Zoom In has templates that help scaffold student writing, using interactive outlines, tips, and sentence starters. Teachers can differentiate instruction by assigning individual students either a high or low level of writing support.

Writer's Workshop
>>>> [|Figment] is an online community where young adults and teens come together to create, discover, and share new reading and writing. It offers special features developed just for you to use with your students, including exclusive author programming, writing prompts, and private group functionality, where you can create a ** virtual writers’ workshop for your classroom. ** Grades 4-12.

Writing and Research**- (also see Resources for Research)**

 * [|Essay Writing Skills] - <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #747474; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Writing an essay can be challenging, especially when you have multiple assignments due at the same time. But there a few tricks that can make the whole process that much easier. This site will help you figure out what your essay question is really asking, and then break the question down into easy tasks.
 * The **Owl at Purdue University** has a HUGE selection of tools for the teacher and your students. These tools range from help with **writing**, to **research** and includes a great **citation guide**.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">continues to be the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S., and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. Join us as a student, teacher, affiliate, partner, or supporter, and claim your place within our nation’s creative legacy. (grades 7-12
 * **Writing in the Classroom** is a super place to get **ideas to help your students become better writers**. Go here and scroll down for something that catches your fancy. :-) There are even **HANDOUTS** for your students! (Writing, Publishing, Social Media, Workshops and more!)
 * [|Writing Reviser] Revise your writing with the help of this tool.