Language Arts Resources

Reading Rainbow

2008-07-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

Reading Rainbow: Find information about excellent children's literature and dive into special segments of the television show. Includes online games and printable resources.

Thematic Word Puzzles

2008-07-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

Vocabulary.com's Thematic Word Puzzles are first listed by 7 Subject Areas for ease of navigation. Click on any theme within that subject and go directly to that thematic feature. Then these subjects/themes are listed monthly in the School Calendar Matrix further below. Finally, we have all 60+ features alphabetically listed (and linkable) in the table at the bottom of the page.

Root-Word Lesson Plans

2008-07-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

Root-Word Lesson Plans are separated into 3 levels of difficulty. These free interactive vocabulary puzzle and activity sessions use Latin and Greek "roots and cells" to help unlock word meanings.

There are eight exercises into each session and include: Interactive Puzzle, Fill-in-the-Blanks, Definition Match, Synonym & Antonym Encounters, Crosswords, Word Finds, True/False and Word Stories.

The Doucette Index to K-12 Teaching Ideas for Literature

2008-07-22T05:59:00.000-07:00

The Doucette Index to K-12 Teaching Ideas for Literature: If you are looking for teaching suggestions related to a specific book or author, this index should help you find out what is available. Please note that this index will lead you primarily to teaching ideas found in books (you remember books, don't you?), but we have also indexed some of the websites listed on this page.

The Doucette Index provides access to books and websites that contain useful teaching suggestions related to books for children and young adults, and the creators of those books. The books indexed are those held by the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources, but many of these books will also be available in other libraries.

Children's Literature

2008-07-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Web Site for teaching ideas using children's books.
This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.

Novel Study

2008-07-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Bantam Doubleday Novel Study Resources: Includes biographies of authors, and teaching ideas for several novels (recent ones, like Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen, and old standbys like The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton). Novels are indexed by grade, theme, and curriculum subject.

Debates in the Classroom

2008-07-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

Debates in the Classroom - Here are helpful online materials for employing debating as a teaching method. Included are a teacher guide, a student FAQ, rubrics and suggested topics from middle years Social Studies.
Debate resources

Using First Nations Literature in the Classroom

2008-07-17T17:18:00.001-07:00

First Nations Literature
This unit contains activities for several subject areas including Language Arts, Social Studies, Dance, and Drama. It begins with an introduction to oral tradition, storytelling, and First Nations' cultural areas. Students will learn how geographic location influences the evolution of the various First Nation’s cultures and they will be required to differentiate between the different types of First Nation’s mythology. The students will also be required to examine the literature to find information about First Nation’s beliefs, values, customs, and ways of life. Following that, students will identify common themes found in the First Nation’s literature, using drama and dance to gain a deeper understanding of the First Nation’s way of life.

The students will also learn what types of characteristics make stories ideal for retelling or reading aloud. They will select their own stories to retell to their classmates. They will also examine original and adapted versions of the same tale to warm them up for an authentication project. The final section, authenticating folklore, will teach students about the important role that good research plays in communicating accurate cultural information. It will also force students to pay attention to the intricate details in the literature.

Middle Years English Language Arts

2008-07-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to English Language Arts (ELA) Online. This site is devoted to listing online Resources and Lesson Plans that complement the teaching of the Middle Level ELA Curriculum of Sask.Learning

The Web Sites are organized by grade level, by topic (theme) and by learning strand. Each includes a summary of the site's content to help aid teachers in choosing whether or not to use the site in their unit planning and/or classroom teaching.

Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Viewing, Representing

Adventures in Writing

2008-07-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Adventures in Writing
Purpose: The purpose of this unit is to teach students some simple writing strategies that will assist them in making their writing more sophisticated and more creative.

Grade Level: This unit can be adapted for any grade and you would have an entirely different outcome with much older children, but the unit was written with grade 3 to 6 students in mind.

Spelling Police Literary Devices

2008-07-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

Spelling Police: Literary Devices. This page contains a list of literary devices and their meanings.

Story Online

2008-07-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Storyline Online - Children love to be read to. The Screen Actors Guild Foundation is proud to bring you Storyline Online, an on-line streaming video program featuring SAG members reading children's' books aloud. Includes captioning so that students can follow along.

Amazing Spelling Fleas

2008-07-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

TVO - The Amazing Spelling Fleas
Fun and interactive spelling games for junior students

Reading Rangers

2008-07-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

TVO - Reading Rangers
Help students find enjoyable books to read with these kid friendly book reviews. The list of books include classics and contempary favourites. Students can also submit the own reviews.

International Reading Association: ReadWriteThink

2008-05-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

ReadWriteThink

Lessons
ReadWriteThink offers a wide array of standards-based lesson plans that meaningfully integrate Internet content into the teaching and/or learning experience. Lessons can be selected according to grade band (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12) and area of literacy practice. Each lesson is research-based, and includes a detailed instructional plan. The lessons are written for the teacher but include student-ready materials such as worksheets, interactives, and reviewed Web resources.

Web Resources
An important component of ReadWriteThink is our collection of Web resources. These resources are selected in adherence to a rigorous set of criteria and are thoroughly reviewed by our Review Panel. Within our Web Resource Gallery, you can select and sort Web resources by grade band (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12) and resource type. Resource types include

Instructional Resources—sites that provide instructional resources for the teacher, such as lesson plans, classroom activities, and teaching techniques
Professional Development—sites that offer current information in the teaching profession, including research findings, teaching trends, and noteworthy events
Reference Library—sites that provide specific information or offer general reference resources
Student Resources—sites that provide online interactive resources for students engaging in a reading or writing exercise

Literacy Engagements
Lessons on ReadWriteThink can be sorted by literacy engagements so that teachers can highlight specific language functions in the classroom. Following M. A. K. Halliday's model, lessons are designed to engage students in authentic and meaningful language learning (1982). Literacy engagements simultaneously involve learning language (as students listen to it and use it with others in their everyday lives), learning about language (as students try to figure out how it works, engage with their teachers in focused instruction on how it works or in critiquing its impact), and learning through language (as students use it to learn about or do something).

While all three literacy functions—learning language, learning about language, learning through language—operate in any literacy event that makes sense to a learner, teachers, according to Kathy Short (1999), frequently find it instructionally useful to highlight one of these functions at a time (at least in their minds) so that they can consider which curriculum experiences are most likely to engage learners in that specific literacy function.

Student Materials
To enhance interactive learning, ReadWriteThink has produced a selection of lessons that incorporate online activities for K–12 students. These interactives are primarily intended to assist students with a reading or writing activity. Although they are tied to specific lessons, they can also be used with other lessons in your class.

BBC: Bitesize Lessons - English

2008-05-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Bitesize Lessons - from BBC Education. Students can practice and test their skills with online activities related to; Adjectives & adverbs, Deduction, Compound & complex sentences, Language structure, Punctuation Poetry, Non-Fiction etc...
Includes online lesson plans and worksheets. Teachers can embed the activities into their own website or blog.

Learn Alberta: Reading, Viewing and Listening Strategies

2008-05-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Reading, Viewing and Listening Strategies - These videos show groups of students as they learn a number of reading, viewing, and listening strategies. The students learn how to analyze literary techniques, learn research skills, and use their personal experiences and interests in responding to texts. The resource offers four learning levels; how-to tips and student worksheets are also included.

Writing Den

2008-05-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Writing Den - many reading and writing activities for the Junior and Intermediate student.

Good communication skills are essential in today's information culture. Learning to listen, read, represent and write effectively will prepare students for success in both the classroom and the outside world. Being able to express yourself well in writing can be a great source of power. WritingDEN aims to supply this power by making it fun to learn to write.

Students' abilities to communicate in English vary greatly. Some students are brand new to the English language while others have been exposed to English since infancy. For this reason, WritingDEN has been designed to meet the needs of individual students throughout the Grade 4 to 12 range.

WritingDEN has seven basic aims. They are:

to improve writing skills and the ability to write a variety of essays
to develop communication skills
to expand vocabulary
to foster knowledge of a variety of cultural, historical and scientific topics
to increase visual literacy
to improve English pronunciation
to expand comprehension skills and critical thinking abilities

Writing Den Teacher's Guide

Reading

2008-01-05T15:59:00.000-08:00

Between the Lions: Games (primary)
Look Out Below (make small words from the letters of a big word)
Word Play (click on a word and watch it "play")
Pounce (pounce on the word that matches the sound)
A.B.Cow (finding the missing letters in the alphabet)
Alphabet Soup (find the mixed up word floating in the soup)
Flood! (the library has flooded and books need to be grouped together)
Gawain's Word (word blends)
Chicken Stacker (vowel sounds)
Fuzzy Lions Ears (starting sounds of words)

Game Goo - 13 interactive games covering a range of skills from letter recognitions to antonyms/synonyms (Primary)

Digby Mole's Word Activities - Matching, Rhymes, First Letters (uses Shockwave) (Primary)

Story Bear - 3 interactive stories (uses Shockwave) (Primary)

Kidport - Select your grade and then click on the Language Arts button. This site uses the Shockwave plugin. (Primary)

Words and Pictures These games and activities will make learning phonics fun. Produced by BBC Education. (Primary)

Storyline Online - The Screen Actors Guild Foundation is proud to bring you Storyline Online, an on-line streaming video program featuring SAG members reading children's' books aloud. (Primary, Junior)

The Reading Rangers from TVOKids (Primary, Junior)

Billy Bear's Cookies - the "kind" hangman game (Primary, Junior)

Same Difference - a game to practise your knowledge of synonyms and antonyms. (requires Shockwave) (Primary, Junior)

Story Elements - Test Tutor - an interactive reading activity (Primary, Junior)

Plot Diagram - an interactive on-line tool to summarize a plot (Junior, Intermediate)

Literary Elements Map - an interactive graphic organizer to "map" character, setting, conflict, and resolution, (Junior, Intermediate)

ReviseWise Reading - from BBC Education. Practise and test your skills in the following reading areas; Deduction, Poetry, Non-Fiction (Junior)

Writing Den - many reading and writing activities for the Junior and Intermediate student.

Literature - What Makes a Good Short Story? Join a journey through a classic short story, "A Jury of Her Peers," by Susan Glaspell. Along the way, you'll solve the mystery of whether Minnie Wright killed her husband and explore the story's literary elements. You will also encounter rest stops where you can read more about the structure of story and take part in activities related to "A Jury of Her Peers". (Junior, Intermediate)