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Showcase of Innovative Practice
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Click on Over. . .
Using Technology: Evaluating Software Programs
The National Center for ESL Literacy Education hosts this page that offers
background information, guidelines and recommendations on software programs
for adult ESL programs. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/softwareval.html
Awesome Stories
http://www.awesomestories.com/
Sponsored by the Bos & Glazier law firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
this website includes high-interest stories that students in pre-GED or
Intermediate-Advanced ESL classes would enjoy reading. Categories of the
stories include: Biography, Disasters, Famous Trials, Flicks, History,
Inspiration, Religion, and Law Buzz. Each story begins with a preface
that provides background for the story and the times, often includes a
salient quotation, and always lists the titles of subsequent chapters
which may range from 5 to 21. Stories include links to relevant source
materials in libraries, museums, historical societies, national archives,
and universities in order to enlist learners in a virtual journey. While
no specific reading level is applied to all the stories, they could be
used in multi-level classrooms to provoke critical thinking and engage
students regardless of their learning ability.
A-Rhyme-a-Week
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm
This website for phonological awareness program features 30 different
nursery rhymes that can be used by parents or teachers of young children.
The phonograms or “rimes” emphasized in the program were first
identified by Richard Wylie and Donald Durrell in 1970. Examining a list
of 1,437 words commonly spoken by children in primary grades (Murphy,
1957), In determining the order of rhymes and rimes to present each week,
the program follows Fry's (1998) suggested consideration of frequency.
A-Rhyme-a-Week is a program of Webbing into Literacy (WIL), designed to
provide rural Head Start teachers with materials and instruction. WIL
began as a component in a "best practices" study conducted by
Dr. Laura B. Smolkin, Principal Investigator in CIERA, the national Center
for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement.
Early Childhood Today
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/ect/
Scholastic, the children's publishing and media company, offers a free
online version of their magazine, Early Childhood Today. Each issue
includes a featured article, activities for ages 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, and for
mixed ages, and features on School-to-Home Connection, Behavior &
Development, Literacy Focus, Roots of Early Childhood Education, and a
Professional Discussion Group.
NCCTE Professional Development Speaker Series
The National Centers for Career and Technical Education are funded by
the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education.
NCCTE's Professional Development Speaker Series offers multimedia webcasts
designed to create an interactive learning environment to be used to enrich
the professional development experiences of secondary and postsecondary
career and technical educators across the country. All presentations are
webcast live at the time and date listed and archived for on-demand viewing
after the event. All events are closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.
Learn more about the presentations here: http://136.165.122.102/mambo/
Upcoming topics include the following, all scheduled from 2:00 to 4:00
PM CT: June 3, 2004: Emerging Models for Professional
Development. Presenter: Kathleen Szuminski; June 10, 2004:
Education’s Role in Economic Development. Presenter: Keith
W. Bird; July 13, 2004: Serving Economic Disadvantaged
Adult Populations in Community Colleges. Presenter: Holly Moore September
15, 2004: The Importance of Three Different Skill Sets: Technical,
Employability, and Academic. Presenter: Jim Jacobs; September
30, 2004: Using Career Strategies in Smaller Learning Communities.
Presenter: Jim Connell; October 21, 2004: Emerging
Roles for Community Colleges. Presenter: Mark Milliron
The Key News: A Newspaper for New Readers
http://www.keynews.org
Published by the Milwaukee Area Technical College in collaboration with
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this monthly newsletter includes a Teacher's
Guide with each issue. Articles and lesson plans are appropriate for ABE,
GED, and ESL classrooms. Two "top" stories are featured on the
home page, with other stories in the navigation bar under the headings:
World News, U.S. News, State News, Health, Family, Jobs and Money, Education,
Sports, Leisure, and Lesson Plans for the Month.
The New York Times Learning Network
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/
This site for students in grades 3-12, their teachers and parents is updated
Monday through Friday throughout the year. Students can read the day's
top stories using Knowledge Tools, take a news quiz about today's world,
and play special crossword puzzles. Students can also submit a letter
to the editor, ask a reporter a question, or submit a science question
and search through the Science Q&A archive. They can also expand their
vocabularies and practice their verbal test-taking skills, and even take
a Web Exploration on a variety of topics. Teachers can access a daily
lesson plan for grades 6-12, written in partnership with The Bank Street
College of Education in New York City. Each lesson plan and the article
it references can be printed out for classroom use. Previous lessons are
available in the archive and in thematic lesson plan units. Teachers can
also use News Spapshot aimed for grades 3-5, to explore current events
through New York Times photos and related questions. Parents can enhance
their child's understanding of current events using Conversation Starters,
join an online discussion, explore the family movie guide or participate
with their children in the activities in the student section.
The Peters Projection Map
http://www.petersmap.com/
Maps on this site could be an interesting tool for encouraging critical
thinking in the context of geography instruction. The earth is round.
The challenge of any world map is to represent a round earth on a flat
surface. There are literally thousands of map projections. Each has certain
strengths and corresponding weaknesses. Choosing among them is an exercise
in values clarification: you have to decide what's important to you. That
is generally determined by the way you intend to use the map. The Peters
Projection is an area accurate map. The site also includes other resources
for geography instruction intended to "jostle our thinking and help us
create new mental maps which in turn will foster creativity and innovation."
 
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