July 13

July 13

In the News
World software piracy losses climb to $29 billion: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/biztech/07/07/software.piracy.reut/index.html
The global trade in pirated software, from versions of Microsoft Windows XP to Adobe Acrobat, hit nearly $29 billion in 2003, an industry trade body said in its annual survey on July 7, 2004.

Quiz-making programs
Quiz-Buddy: http://www.quiz-buddy.com/index.html
Sierra Vista Software has a free demo to download at this site. It is also available for use on the Palm.
When using this program, these directions may be helpful:
1)To select a picture for Quiz-Buddy background:
1. Click on “View > Options”
2. Click on the “Visual” tab
3. Check the “Picture” checkbox
4. Click on “Browse” and navigate to the desired picture file
2) User-selectable background color.
To select your favorite background color:
1. Click on “View > Options”
2. Click on the “Visual” tab
3. Uncheck the “Picture” checkbox
4. Check the “custom” checkbox
5. Click on the color box and select the desired color
3) New layout option with question picture included in the main window.
This new layout option is ideal for quizzes with small to medium pictures. To try it, open the “US States” quiz and switch to the layout “Boxes-4”:
1. Click on “View > Options”
2. Click on the “Layout” tab
3. Select “Boxes-4” and click on “OK”
4) US States quiz with pictures.
This quiz includes US States, State Capitals and maps.
5) Changeable printed flashcard font.
To change face and/or size of the printed flashcard font:
1. Click on “View > Options”
2. Click on the “Visual” tab
3. Click on the “Printed” button and select the font you like
Note: The size of the font on the actual printed card will be different from its size on the font dialog. Therefore, we recommend that you printout a test page before printing a big batch of cards.
6) Student name included in the HTML report.
To add student name to the HTML report, please use the “Student Data” dialog. It can be opened by clicking on “View > Student Data”.
To open the HTML report, click on “File > Export to HTML”

Survey-making Programs
SurveyMonkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Comic Strips
Cartoon Analysis Worksheet: http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/cartoon.html

Comics.com: http://comics.com/
Featuring dozens of cartoonists from United Media, Creators, and Washington Post Writers Group, Comics.com has fresh content daily along with thirty-day archives, e-cards for all occasions, and comics via e-mail subscription. Snoopy (AKA Peanuts) and Dilbert are two of the most popular, and they each have their own complete site, just click on the buttons near the top of the page. Other family favorites include Luann, Heathcliff and Momma. If you've ever dreamed of being a cartoonist, take a look at "So You Want to Become a Cartoonist" on the Luann page.

ComicsPage.com: http://www.comicspage.com/
Comic strips from Tribune Media Services include classics such as Gasoline Alley, Annie, Dick Tracy, and Brenda Starr. Along with a ninety-day archive, many of the comics include a reader forum, interactive games, and a bit of strip history. From the front page, site navigation is divided into strips (comics with multiple frames, such as Shoe) and panels (single frame cartoons such as 9 to 5.) Bulletin boards for discussion are available from the entry page, as well as from each cartoon's main page.

King Features Syndicate-Comics: http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/comics.htm
Arranged alphabetically from The Amazing Spiderman to Zits, King Features Syndicate offers thirty-day archives of dozens of comics. In addition to the dailies and the archive, each comic has a page about the cartoonist, its characters, and the strip's history. Many of today's most popular cartoons have endured more than fifty years, and are no longer being drawn by their creators. For example, Hank Ketcham introduced Dennis the Menace in 1950. In 1994, the strip was turned over to longtime assistants Ron Ferdinand and Marcus Hamilton, but Ketcham continued to supervise until his death in June 2001.

Political Cartoons
Political Cartoons by David Horsey: http://www.newseum.org/horsey/

The Cartoon: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/cartoon.html

Teacher's For the Professional Cartoonists' Index: http://cagle.slate.msn.com/teacher/

Copyright and Fair Use
Columbia Law Library Music Copyright Infringement Online Archive: http://library.law.columbia.edu/music_plagiarism/index2.html

Copyright for Students: http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/downloads/copyrightbooklet.pdf
http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/downloads/copyrightposter.pdf

Crash Course on Copyright: http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top

Does Fair Use Apply?: http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/02/28/09gripe_1.html

From Pokemon to Picasso: Art Rights and Wrongs: http://library.thinkquest.org/J001570/?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0530

Improving on the Original: http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM380&page=teacher
Students learn about the methods of protecting intellectual copyright -- an important economic and legal principle for authors, poets and playwrights.

Intellectual property is theft. Ideas are for sharing: http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,891687,00.html

Multimedia Copyright Guidelines for Students: http://www.hazelwood.k12.mo.us/~jdarnell/webq/

MLA Copyright for Music Librarians: http://www.lib.jmu.edu/Org/MLA/

Music 'pirate' sweep nets all ages: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3095181.stm

Music Publishers Association of the United States: http://www.mpa.org/

Online Intellectual Property Survey: http://www.survey.net/sv-ip0.htm

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) Leaning on Kids' Parents: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,59756,00.html

Scanning text books - a new form of intellectual property theft?:
http://www.it-analysis.com/article.php?id=3614

School-Library.org: http://www.school-library.org/copyright.htm
School-Library.org is attempting to collect data on school district copyright infringement actions, from cease and desist letters to actual lawsuits.

Schools stay mum on file traders' names: http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5052884.html
ISPs and schools receiving the subpoenas are required to turn over the names and contact info
associated with the screennames cited in the documents.

Stanford University Library: Copyright and Fair Use: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright: http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm#Purpose

Twenty Questions about Fair Use for Teachers: http://www.esu7.org/~sgsweb/copyquiz.html
http://www.esu7.org/~sgsweb/copyanswers.html

U. S. Copyright Office: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

University of Washington Libraries: http://www.lib.washington.edu/music/copy.html

Visit to Copyright Bay: http://www.stfrancis.edu/cid/copyrightbay/
Fair Use Harbor: http://www.stfrancis.edu/cid/copyrightbay/fairuse.htm

WWW Sites with Information on Music Copyright: http://staff.lib.muohio.edu/~shocker/copyright/music/

Writing
3D Writer: http://www.3dwriting.com/
Freeware for Windows, this program easily lets students write using hypertext. I found many unexpected gems on the site while checking it out, like "Standardized Testing Blues": http://www.3dwriting.com/examples/stb/stb.htm, a song parody turned into a 3DWriting project.

ABC's of the Writing Process-Writing Process Links for Secondary Students: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/secwplinks.html

Character Clash: A Mini-Lesson on Paragraphing and Dialogue: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=117

Direction for Teachers of Creative Writing: http://teachers.net/gazette/APR03/lukiv.html

The Effect of Computers on Student Writing: A Meta-Analysis of Studies from 1992 to 2002: http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/jtla/journal/pdf/v2n1_jtla.pdf

The Five Paragraph Essay Wizard: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/expo.html

Freedom Forum: http://www.freedomforum.org
"The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three main priorities: the Newseum, First Amendment
freedoms and newsroom diversity." This site helps students learn the history of journalism, especially at the http://www.newseum.org site that is sponsored by the Freedom Forum and is linked from their page.

Fictionary - Post an obscure word on the front board that you're sure no one has ever encountered before. Ask students to write down their best made-up definition for the term, including part of speech, on small pieces of paper and place them in a box. Students are trying to make them sound like dictionary definitions. Make sure to throw in the real definition on a similar piece of paper as well. Once everyone has submitted his or her definition, pull them out of the box one at a time and read them. Students vote on which one they think is accurate. The one getting the most votes wins a prize.

High School Journalism: http://highschooljournalism.org/index.students.cfm
This site was created by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is dedicated to high school journalism students. It includes scholarship information and links to online high school papers throughout the country.

ABC's of the Writing Process-Writing Process Links for Secondary Students: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/secwplinks.html

Character Clash: A Mini-Lesson on Paragraphing and Dialogue: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=117

Direction for Teachers of Creative Writing: http://teachers.net/gazette/APR03/lukiv.html

The Effect of Computers on Student Writing: A Meta-Analysis of Studies from 1992 to 2002: http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/jtla/journal/pdf/v2n1_jtla.pdf

The Five Paragraph Essay Wizard: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/expo.html

In2Books: http://www.in2books.org/
In2Books connects students, teachers, families and adult pen pal volunteers. At the start of the school year, students are matched with a pen pal and both are given the same set of books to read. They then exchange correspondence about ht books throughout the school year.

Kansas University-The Paraphrasing Strategy: http://itc.gsu.edu/academymodules/a306/support/xpages/a306b0_20400.html
R-read a paragraph, A-ask yourself the main idea and 3 details P-put them into your own words.

Leads in Expository Writing: http://www.mcte.org/resources/laneleads.html

LiveJournal.com: http://www.livejournal.com/
LiveJournal.com is a free service that allows you to create and customize your very own "live journal": a journal that you keep online! Kids and their parents can share the password and share the writing

Newswriting.com: http://www.newswriting.com/

Paragraph - Have students write one paragraph: 5 sentences, S1 gives claim, S2,3,4 explain and S5 is a clincher. Many times these paragraphs are written on 3x5 cards. These are easy to grade and can be done quickly.

Pizzaz!-Creative Writing and Storytelling Ideas: http://www.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html

Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/desktop/index.jsp

Poetic Odes - Have students study a formal ode or two, then write their own odes to something -- "Ode to a Pencil," "Ode to my Adolescence," "Ode to the Overhead Projector," "Ode to IM (Instant Messaging)," "Ode to P.E. Class," "Ode to the Hall Pass," "Ode to my Childhood," "Ode to Unnecessary Rules," "Ode to Tomorrow," "Ode to my Locker," "Ode to Mrs. _____," "Ode to Imagination," "Ode to Apathy," "Ode to [favorite author]" "Ode to Rebellion"

Poynter Guide to High School Journalism Sites: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=32&aid=3116 PoynterOnline bills itself as "Everything you need to know to be a better journalist."
Poynter's High School Journalism Guide from The Poynter Institute:
http://legacy.poynter.org/centerpiece/highschool/index.htm
This guide is also from Poynter. This link goes directly to the high school journalism information contained on the Poynter site, unlike the link above which links to a directory of outside sites. It has specific info on law, ethics, and writing, among other things.

Prewriting list making - In their writer's notebook have students divide a page into three columns. The first column is titled "Name/Noun". The second column is titled "Description/Adjectives" and the third column is titled "Anecdote". Begin with the first column and ask the students to name the members of their immediate family-- the people they live with, then extended family, then friends, pets, places they lived, favorite places etc....you'll run out of time before they run out of names. Give them 7 minutes for this. Then go to the second column and ask them to write description of what the people, places, things look like. Give them about 7 minutes. Then have them write a short anecdote for each one--something memorable.
When you are done tell them that this is an ongoing section and that if they have any additional time they can go back and work on it. Then have them choose a topic they'd like to discuss more, circle it and move on to another page. Have them prewrite only on that topic. Looping works best in this instance. That's where they write about the topic for 7 min then circle something they want to explore more and write about that for 7 min then circle another thing and write for another 7 minutes about that.

Quick Resource: Persuasive Writing: http://www.discoverwriting.com/feb-00.html

Silhouettes - Students make silhouettes of their heads on black paper and then chose words, phrases, etc and put them into a poem that is about them. That is glued on the portrait with a Guess Who? at the end.

Student Friendly Writing Rubric: http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/MvaleRubric.pdf

Take the Fat Out of Your Writing: http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3443&t=career_effectiveness

Teaching Students How to do Online Research: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10810514

Web English Teacher: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/

A Walk Through Your Neighborhood: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/afterschool/activities/social_studies/walk.html
Kids take a virtual tour of Brooklyn, New York; then, they create a virtual tour of their own neighborhoods.

won't you celebrate with me: The Joy of Lucille Clifton: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/afterschool/activities/literacy/celebrate.html
In this activity, kids collaborate to write a poem -- and learn a thing or two about poetry in the process.

Quick-Write Strategies
§Choose something that has happened on the date in history. Discuss it and then have students write their thoughts about it. Appropriate events for classrooms can be found for each day of the year at: Timely Topics: http://studyplans.com/timely.htm
§ Question-All Write: This strategy begins with the teacher posing an initial question to students, asking them to think about the question, and then write their responses. After most students have had time to write out their answers, the teacher chooses some method for student sharing.
§ Asking students to think and write on a quote that relates to the ideas in the days lesson can be an effective opening. This is especially true if there is an element of puzzlement or inquiry to the quote or question.
§ Writing Prompts: 1. Write about a time when someone told you that you could not learn to do something and you proved them wrong. 2. Write about a friend or relative who was told they would not be able to do something and your friend or relative proved them wrong. (i.e. graduate from high school, get a job, overcome an illness or disability, etc.) 3. Write about someone who overcame a challenge (difficulty) and that inspired you to reach higher and go after your dreams. 4. Name your greatest challenge. Next write how you would like to use that to inspire others to go after their dreams.
5. Write about how you will help your family and friends when you succeed in overcoming the greatest challenges in your life.
§ Sentence Synthesis: Sentence Synthesis is a quick-write strategy in which three or four words from the lesson of the previous day are put on the board. Students must take the words and write them into a meaningful sentence. These sentences are then shared. For example, for a lesson on the governmental separation of powers a teacher might write the words "SEPARATION", "CONSTITUTION, " and "BRANCH." Students take time to think, write their sentences, and share them. One student, for example, might construct a sentence like this: SEPARATION of powers is the CONSTITUTIONAL principal that divides power between the different BRANCHES of government. Please note that students are not defining the words, they are combining them a way meaningful to them.
§ Media KWL: The KWL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr2kwl.htm strategy gets at prior knowledge and eventually has student connecting prior knowledge with new learning. Using a slide or short video clip adds a visual component to the KWL that students can connect with. A teacher might, for example, show a slide that has to do with the lesson, and have students write four or five things that they see in the picture. This can be used as a springboard for discussion.
§ Whip-Around: Following the writing strategies, the teacher selects a method for the students to share their answers. One strategy for initiating a discussion is the "Whip Around" in which the teacher selects an area of the room, and everyone in that area reads their answer. This strategy can be used with a selected part of the class and supplemented by calling on others. It is important that the question asked will draw a variety of responses. The teacher might say to the class "look over your written responses to the question. Let's whip down this row and across the back. Please read your responses. I will also call on a few others." Students often listen more closely to others responses in order to compare those responses to theirs.
§ Numbered Heads Together: Numbered Heads is a Spencer Kagan discussion strategy: http://www.kaganonline.com/. This is used when students are in groups for the lesson. Each students has a number (one through four, or one through three depending upon the size of the group). A question is posed-about an idea in the previous lesson, or something in today's lesson, and students discuss it in their groups. After a short discussion period a number is chosen and called. Those students are then responsible for discussing their group's consensus and ideas prior to the discussion branching out to the whole class.
§ Timed-Pair-Share: After the teacher asks an open-ended question, students think about it and then pair up. Each student has a specified period of time to explain his or her ideas to the other student in the pair (e.g. one minute). When the time limit is up the other student has the same amount of time to explain their answer. The well known variation of this strategy is THINK-PAIR-SHARE.

Writer's Workshop
How to Start a Writer's Workshop: http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/681.html

Juli Kendall's Weekly Writing Workshop Journal: http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/JK61.html

Writing Fix: http://writingfix.com/

Writer's Workshop: http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/writers/writer-3.html

Writing to Learn: http://www.pitt.edu/~edindex/WebQuests/writingtolearn.html

Grammar and Spelling
50 Common Spelling Errors: http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/Mistakes/Spelling/Test/word1.htm

2003 Audio Paideia: http://www.spellingbee.com/audiopaideia.shtml

AMC Montessori Grammar Bingo: http://www.amonco.org/montessori_grammar_bingo.html

Annie's Rhyme Time: http://teacher.scholastic.com/annie/index.asp

Batter Up Spelling - First, take some sticky notes and stick a smaller sticky note on the back of each of them. Write a number on the smaller sticky note, such as 500, 100, 50, 25, or even 0. Attach these sticky notes, small sticky note side down, onto your black or whiteboard in random order. (Use your imagination with what you write on the small sticky notes, depending on the age and ability level of your class.) Divide your class into teams of varying numbers and prepare a chart you can keep score on...For example, several columns headed with Teams, Round , Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Total Score. Then, have one member of the team spell a word you call out. If it's right, he or she gets to go to the board and turn over the sticky note. His or her team receives the number of points written on the small sticky note. If it's wrong, pass the word on to the next team. Play continues until all the words are given out, the sticky notes are all used up, or whatever criteria you want to use to end the game. The winning team has the highest score. You can use this game in all subjects. You can also put several wild cards and zero cards on the sticky notes just to add interest.

Battleship - This game is done by drawing 36 squares on a 1/2 sheet of paper. Along the left side Label the boxes A-E. On the top row of horizontal squares label them 1-5. (Leave the square in the upper left hand corner empty.) Each child gets a piece of paper and they put in 20 to 25 spelling words in the empty boxes and put into pairs to play. The first player calls out, for example, B-5. His opponent says the spelling word. If there is one in the square, the first player spells the word and it is a hit, if not a miss. If the box is empty, it is a miss. The both players are winners because they are practicing spelling words, or the one who "sinks" the most words when the time is up.

Big Dog's Grammar-A Bare Bones Guide to English: http://aliscot.com/bigdog/

Buzz Off - Children all stand behind their chairs. Give them a word and they take turns around the class spelling that word, one letter each. When it gets to the end of the word the next child says "Buzz" and then the following child says "Off!" The next child in line sits down. Continue going round and round the class until there is only one child left - the winner! Children also have to sit if they say an incorrect letter.

Commonly Confused Words from Nancy Stratton, Pacific Northwest Laboratory: http://www.pnl.gov/ag/usage/confuse.html
This site points out some common errors writers make. It is a quick resource that is available wherever you have web access.

Connect the dots - Put 30 - 36 single dots on a sheet of paper, spaced about 1/4-1/2 inch apart. Make groups of 4 in your spelling class. Each group (one member at a time) is given a word, if that member spells it correctly they draw a line from one dot to another. As the game goes on, the other teams must spell words correctly to connect dots, and can gain "completed boxes" started by other teams. When a box is completed, the team puts their team number in the box. The team with the most completed boxes wins.

Commonly Misused Words and Phrases: http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm

Correcting and Proofreading Checklist: http://teachers.net/gazette/JUL03/images/proofreading.pdf

Cyber English-An Internet Project: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/

A Dictionary of Prefixes, Suffixes and Combining Forms: http://www.spellingbee.com/pre_suf_comb.pdf

Grammar Bytes!: http://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm

Grammar Handbook: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/grammar_handbook.htm

Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/

Index to the Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm

Learning to Write/Writing to Learn:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/irish/share/storytelling/workshop/reading/phidelta.html

The Magic "e" Song (to the tune of "Old McDonald had a Farm)
When you have a magic "e"
a-e-i-o-u,
The middle vowel says its own name
a-e-i-o-u,
mad turns to made
and mat turns to mate
mad to made,
mat to mate,
mad , made
mat , mate
when you have a magic "e"
and so on....."

PowerPoint Presentations-Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/powerpoint.htm
PowerPoint Presentation: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/ppt/spelling.pps

Prefix Game and Associated Worksheets: http://members.aol.com/twittwoo/grpdfs/prefixgame.pdf

The Secret Code Machine: http://www.zappazoom.com/codemachine.asp
"Making your own code to swap secret messages with your friends is now easy and fun! First, you have to define your code. You do this by going through the alphabet and setting the different letters to be other letters. Then you can print out your key, which holds the secret to your code. Or you can put a message into the secret code you've made up!"

Some Rules and Suggestions about Spelling - scroll down for tests: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/spelling.htm

Spelling Battleship - Give the students a piece of graph paper (with 1 inch squares). They label the bottom, from left to right, Box 1-10. Up the left hand side label A-J. Students fill in the boxes with their ships. (spelling words) one word per box. Then pair up. Student A picks a coordinate: for example B- 7. If there is no word in the box, student B says miss. Then Student B asks if there were a word in a particular box. Student A says hit and the spelling word. Student B spells the word. If it is correct he sinks it. If not the first student spells it correctly for him and it becomes a miss. Continue until all "ships" are sunk.

Spelling Football - Divide into two teams. Take turns giving each team a spelling word. A correct spelling advances the team on the football field. First team to reach the end zone scores. Use overhead to draw a football field and use overhead colored counters to move teams down the field.

Spelling Test: http://www.sentex.net/~mmcadams/spelling.html

Spelling Test Spreadsheet: http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/spelling.html

Spelling Worksheets: http://www.spelling.hemscott.net/exlist.html

Student Outcome Spelling: http://www.easymark.com.au/easymark.nsf/products/Student%2BOutcome%2BSpelling/$file/SOSpelling.pdf

Stufun.com: http://www.stufun.com/

Sweating that Spelling Test: http://www.nasaexplores.com/show_k4_teacher_st.php?id=03010994210&gl=k4

Two-Minute Brain Quests: http://www.brainquest.com/
What vowel can you add to the word "hug" to make a word that means "giant-sized"? This is one of the questions kids will find in Brain Quest's lighthearted, two-minute online quizzes for ages 6-9 and ages 9-13. The energetic sounds will let 'em know if they got the answer right or wrong, and in true gamer fashion, kids can post their initials with their scores online for all to see. There more things to do at the site, including a coloring page, ecards to send, and facts to read.

Typos - Kids bring in typos from newspapers or magazines for extra credit. Also, if they find examples in their reading books of the writing techniques studied, they get extra credit. Give 2 points to students who locate a vocabulary word in their reading and 2 points for using the word correctly in a writing selection.

This site began in March 1998 by Janet Luch.
Email to studyplans@yahoo.com.