June 3 - afternoon

June 3 - Afternoon

Helpful sites
Virginia Middle School Association Resources: http://www.vmsa.org/

Graphic Organizers
Concept Mapping: http://www.graphic.org/concept.html
Mind mapping techniques will surely build useful foundations for student work and research in the upper grades. This site offers demonstrations and guidelines to help them understand and master these skills.

FreeMind: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
This is an open source graphic organizer.

Graphic Organizer Makers: http://teachers.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/

Graphic Organizers: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/torganiz.htm
Here is a whole selection of various graphic organizers. Find an Interaction Outline, and Anticipation/Reaction Guide, Chain of Events, Compare and Contrast, and the usual Venn diagrams, amongst other choices.

Graphic Organizers: http://www.educ.state.ak.us/tls/frameworks/mathsci/MS5_2AS1.HTM#graphicorganizers
Alaska's Department of Education & Early Development offers organizers for Webbing, Content/Concept Maps, What We Know/Want to Know/Learned (KWL) Charts, Hypercard, Outlines, Timelines, Flow Charts, and Venn Diagrams.

Graphic Organizers that Support Specific Thinking Skills: http://www.somers.k12.ny.us/intranet/skills/thinkmaps.html
This site offers simple descriptions of graphic organizers like bubble maps, Venn diagrams, and flow charts.

Graphic Organizers for Content Instruction: http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/graphic_organizers.php
Visit this site for associated .pdf activities to graphic organizers.

Grids to Organize Thinking: http://www.fno.org/oct97/grids.html
Critical thinking skills rely upon organization to help them develop. These grid selections will help students to classify their thinking processes along several topics. If they are not familiar with the material, have them do a brief online search for information first.

IHMC CmapTools: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Index.html
This is a graphic tool that's not Inspiration based, and it's free courtesy of the University of West Florida.

Index of Graphic Organizers: http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

A Taxonomy of Information Patterns: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss98/patterns-taxonomy.html

The Textmapping Project: http://www.textmapping.org/index.html
"Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content."

Kidspiration/Inspiration
Inspiration/Kidspiration: http://www.inspiration.com/home.cfm
There is a free 30 day download available at this site.

You can create checklists with Inspiration. Create a map on how to solve a problem or steps to completing a rubric and then go to Tools and choose "Show Checklist" It will add checkboxes. You can have students sign off that they completed each step. In that way they are held accountable up front for the work.

50 Uses for Inspiration® and KidspirationTM: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/conceptmap/50uses.html

Examples and Templates - Kidspired Tales: http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~ptk1nc/kidspired2002/samples.html

Flashes Newsletter: http://www.inspiration.com/newsletter/index.cfm
This is a link on the Inspiration web site to subscribe to Flashes, a newsletter. It is available in electronic version and has curriculum ideas.

Inspiration and Kidspiration Software: Tools to Increase Reading Comprehension: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/conceptmap/

Learning to use Inspiration in your classroom: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/inspiration_use.htm

Our Nations Symbols: http://www.msad54.k12.me.us/MSAD54Pages/Mercer/Winship/index.htm

Rubric for Graphic Organizers - Inspiration Diagrams: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/inspirationrubric.html

Teacher-Created Inspiration® and KidspirationTM Projects: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/inspirationprojects.shtml

This site began in March 1998 and was created by Janet Luch. It was last updated on June 16, 2006 .
Email to studyplans@yahoo.com.