Laptops
in the English ClassroomLaptops
in the English Classroom
Nyack Middle School, May 2003
Workshop Overview | Workshop Resources
General Resources for English
- How is a laptop like a pizza box?
- Laptop classroom management basics - out of the box
- PowerPoint show
- A word about keyboarding
- The online classroom:
- Search Engines
- Reference resources - search dictionaries, thesaurus for the sophisticated iconoclast - search activity
- Grammar study
- Quizzes and exercises ready made - site sampling
- E-texts, with a focus on poetry, and what to do with them
- Locating e-texts
- short activities with poems -Activity #1
- Sound
- etext activity - Word - prepositions, who/whom - Activity #2
- WebQuests, web hunts - sample activity pointers - our focus will be Charles Dickens
1:45 - 2:00 Break - Q&A session
- Copyright
- Laptops and Writing
- Tools - spelling & grammar
- Graphic organizers - quick look
- Word: tracking changes - Activity#3
- Creating your own laptop-based experience
- Collecting and organizing web sites - 3 methods
- PowerPoint presentations
- Web-based quizzes - 2 activities (1 grammar, 1 reading)
- PowerPoint Jeopardy
- web-based study guide
- Things we have not yet said about Word : web pages
- Software to check out - where to find it
Questions
3:30-4:40 - Continue to work on your own activity
- thirteen ed online - United Streaming registration: 21F0 - 43E8
- keyboarding: Typing Pal Online - free online typing course with record-keeping capabilities - covers the QWERTY keyboard with drill and practice - includes a section on Ergonomics - subscription option for Typing Pal and Typing Pal Junior full versions ($19.95) with demo available
- search engines:
- reference resources:
- CoolDictionary.com - definitions, audio file pronunciation, links to quotations from classical literature, some word history
- HyperDictionary - includes an impressive thesaurus search - all hyperlinked
- Word of the Day from the Oxford English Dictionary
- RhymeZone
- grammar:
- Power Proofreading - Select Grade 8 and we will select a passage together
- Notorious Confusables: lie/lay - from the Guide to Grammar and Writing - grammar guide with quizzes and exercises
- lie & lay from the British Council Grammar Games - English Grammar Games from England
- our poems: Activity #1
- Poetry 180 : The Bagel
- Favorite Poem Project: My Papa's Waltz
- Academy of American Poets: My Papa's Waltz, The Testing Tree, Workshop Notebook
- copyright - Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use - note the two links to .pdf files
- webquests & web hunts
- writing
- graphic organizer downloads:
- from Houghton Mifflin - reproducable templates
- Inspiration - software demo - view examples from The House of Dies Drear
- Word tools for writing
- our texts:
- The Story of the Young Man and the Mouse - an example of a questionable copyright infringement and a poor etext
- David Copperfield - an example of an excellent etext and the text for Activity#2 and Activity #3
- The Fifty-first Dragon - an example from Bartleby - useful for study of point of view, irony, sentence structure and parts of speech
- The New Yorker online - source of current essays, useful in the classroom - many other periodicals are available online in current edition, which are less restricted by Fair Use and copyright guidelines for copying
- create your own
- PowerPoint
- Poetry in Presentation
- other ideas: tableau, annotated text, author study
- PowerPoint Jeopardy - computer terms - download to run
- Quia - too/to/two, roots and prefixes
- HotPotatoes - a reading quiz
- PuzzleMaker
- Study Guide to Alice in Wonderland
- create a web page in Microsoft Word
Resources for English - General topics are linked to pages I have already prepared
Reference
- Official online version of Merriam-Webster Dictionary - word search
- CoolDictionary.com - definitions, audio file pronunciation, links to quotations from classical literature, some word history
- RhymeZone - search for rhymes
- Glossary of Poetic Terms - somewhat simplified
- Glossary of Poetic Terms - more in depth, from England via University of Toronto
- HyperDictionary - includes an impressive thesaurus search - all hyperlinked
- Guide to resources in English - all forms
- Poetry on the Web
- Foklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
- USCALA News - links to online newspapers and magazine
Homepages, Assignment Sheets, Discussion Boards - a very short highlight list to get you started
- Assign-A-Day! - FREE teacher-managed calendar - students have login access
- Express Page - one page hosted for free, low cost site hosting - tools - beware of popups!
- Tripod - affiliated with Lycos - provides links to HTML tutorials and resources as well as page hosting
- Quick Topic
- ezBoard
Quiz and Activity Makers or Web-Sites
- Download Jeopardy (or other game) for PowerPoint
- HotPotatoes - FREE to educators - quiz and exercise maker - creates web pages - ability to send student scores to teacher's email - Windows users can also use HalfBaked Software servers to store student scores for record-keeping
- Quia - this site used to be free, and still maintains an archive of free interactive puzzles, games and learning activities - good for language learning, math and social studies - low cost membership for individual teachers and for schools allows for score reporting and archiving via student login
- Filamentality - a tried and true resource for creating your own Quests, Hunts, etc. - also a good resource for learning about types of web-related resources - many quests to choose from
- Least Tern full listing
Things to Investigate or Download
Applications
- Movabletype - a new version of Blog (weblog) software, simplified and streamlined, making it a good choice for educators
- IrfanView - an image editor, viewer, converter - also creates slide shows - FREE download
- Windows Movie Maker - FREE download for movie editing, includes samples
- Zapnotes - FREE notepad for Windows OS - a small application that sits in in the taskbar - available for reminders, HW notes, etc.
- Bruce's Typing Tutor - FREE download for the PC
- PowerTyping - FREE download for PC
- Inspiration - download the demo of this concept mapping software - multi-featured and multi-purpose
- FrontPage Express - at the end of this page, you will find a download of the light version of FrontPage, no longer available from Microsoft (the copyright issue is unresolved from my point of view)
Players and Plug-ins
- Real Player - necessary for view the audio files at Academy of American Poets and Poetry 180
- QuickTime Player - an alternative to Windows Media Player, necessary for .mov QT movie files - FREE
- Acrobat Reader - necessary for reading .pdf files
- free download
- directions for configuration of your browser for file viewing
Media Resources
- Sites with audio clips - beyond the poetry e-texts, this site links you to speech, radio, song, music, story and other audio files
- Moonlit Road - audio recordings of ghost tales and folktales from the American South
- iconbazaar - source of free clip art for projects and web pages - large FREE collection plus for a fee collections
Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain 7/2/03
