Dewey Digger

I am not sure how much students are held to knowing about the Dewey Decimal system as part of the Library curriculum (it probably varies), but the system itself is an interesting use of abstract categorization, a skill that often eludes our students.  Dewey Digger is a very cool visual and interactive look at the system, where a click will bring you to subcategories, then visual search results (I'd recommend going to Google Images at that stage).  It would be a great way to build a lesson around advanced categorization, or naming items associated with a particular category (you'd need to have a specific plan rather than asking students to explore randomly)  The initial page would also be a fun one to explore as sort of a "mystery" task- based on the images scrolling by, what do you think this category is?

Images on this main page continually change, leading to a nice predictive activity in itself

A view after clicking on "colonies," then Google Images, giving students a chance to verbalize some concepts associated with this word.

Thanks to Jane's E-learning Pick of the Day for highlighting this resource.

Some posts to tell you about...

While I have been finally, I think, adjusting to the pace of the school year, a few pieces I wrote popped up elsewhere, and I figured I should link to them!

Please click on over to the Mindwing blog to see my post about how Google Earth can be used to teach kids about the narrative element of setting, complete with a screencast showing you exactly how to do it.

Fenway Park, a setting as seen in Google Earth

I'm on ASHA's new blog, ASHAsphere, discussing PLNs and finding support from colleagues using interactive web tools.

Finally, please check out today's post on the ADVANCE blog, the 3rd in a series about free tools from Google that make SLP's jobs easier.  This post is about the Tasks feature that helps you maintain and organize a To-Do list(s) from anywhere, including your phone.

60-Second Recaps

Do you work with high school or adult students and struggle to help them access curriculum? 60-Second Recaps is a great resource for you.  The site provides a series of recaps for an ever-growing library of books commonly tackled by older students.  The recaps, indeed 60 seconds in length, are narrated by Jenny, an engaging and humorous host, and organized by essential characteristics of the book- characters, themes, etc.  Visuals throughout each recap support comprehension of the clip, and every effort is taken to relate the themes to the books to meaningful aspects of students' lives.  Consider making a Facebook page for your intervention group- you don't have to "friend" students to interact with them on the page.  You can share 60-Second Recaps on Facebook and perhaps facilitate some great discussion "homework" and home consultation.

Ricky Explores Antarctica

Ricky Explores Antarctica is a blog written by a UK teacher who is getting ready to take an educational journey to Antarctica. Except...she is also taking a puppet named Ricky and blogging in primary-school-level language about the preparations and the trip.  The blog welcomes young students to follow the exploration and submit questions. From the blog:

Not many people can experience life in the extreme environment of Antarctica. The ‘Ricky goes to Antarctica’ Project provides a wonderful opportunity to get a bit closer to that environment through the adventures of Ricky (with a bit of help from a teacher called Lisa Wood). Ricky has so much to do to get ready. He needs lots of help. While he is in Antarctica Ricky will carry out investigations and find answers to children’s questions about life in Antarctica. It’s an exciting and novel way to learn.

They are getting ready to go in November, so check it out.  Beware there's a bit of British humour (I say that with the highest respect for our friends across the pond) and a post about Poo.  Thank you to The Whiteboard Blog for featuring this resource.


Language Lens:

• This site aligns well with and will provide an experiential approach to curriculum around geology, geography and weather.  
• Reading posts and generating questions to Ricky would be wonderful authentic reading comprehension activities.

Landform Detectives

Landform Detectives is a great curriculum-based game developed by Filament Games for National Geographic.  The game involves looking at specific landforms (e.g. the Red Sea) and determining the geographic process and timeline that caused them to form.  Great informational videos are delivered by Dr. Bob Ballard to guide you in making your decisions. Search the globe for the green circles- those indicate landforms that are unlocked for you to tackle.  As you complete the landform (about a 5 minute process), more are unlocked.

Language Lens:

• This activity aligns perfectly with abstract curriculum areas around Geology and Landforms.  Rather than having to memorize landforms and vocabulary words, students operate on a higher level of thinking in order to analyze and even manipulate them.  They are therefore more likely to remember the information about landforms, as it has been made meaningful.
• Dr. Bob's video clips provide a great opportunity to use auditory comprehension strategies as students are guided toward the correct answer.

FREE App Today: Snow Globe Maker Winter

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... That's what I think about the approach (distant) of winter.

I'll say it again: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

However, downloading this app today would definitely be a great move, like finding your holiday cards on sale in July. You may remember that back in the early summer, when life was full of promise, I featured the app Snow Globe Maker Beach. Snow Globe Maker Winter is another fun creative app for the iPhone/iPod Touch that allows you to create your own snow globe (choose automatic snow or shake away)! The winter theme has a particular focus on the categories of animals, weather, and the phases of the moon, so it would be helpful for students accessing those curriculum areas.

Again, thanks to Moms With Apps for setting up another App Friday!

PBS Democracy Project

The PBS Democracy Project site features some great interactives to visualize social studies concepts, particularly around Constitution Day.

The President for a Day activity allows students to assume the role of President and make decisions to plan his or her day.  The activity lends itself well to using a graphic organizer to emphasize the text structure of sequence.

How Does Government Affect Me allows you to scroll around a town and view the interactions between government in our lives.  This activity would result more in a list on a graphic organizer.

The website also allows you to register and create a sticker related to an issue.  This was geared toward the 2008 election, but would still make a nice descriptive activity.

iCivics

iCivics is an incredibly rich and well designed site conceived by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been (rightly) concerned that civics is not well-taught in our schools because teachers lack effective materials (um, and time, Your Honor).  iCivics features many simulations allowing students to make decisions from the perspective of government participants (e.g. attorneys arguing an issue before the Supreme Court), and I feel like I would like to revisit it and review specific simulations and their relation to language therapy.  However, I wanted to put it out there as another resource relevant to Constitution Day.  What is marvelous about it is that students are not asked to memorize facts and concepts about our government, but rather instantly apply those toward a learning experience that is likely to stay with them.  The site is highly visual and allows students to click-drag and see the effects of their decisions.  Take some time to explore iCivics, even as Constitution Day passes.  Teachers have so little time to address these standards and they provide a great, meaningful context to address language goals.

From the Branches of Power activity

Constitution Day is Coming Up!

Constitution Day is October 17.  All classrooms (really not including you, necessarily, but it couldn't hurt) are required to conduct a lesson on the U.S. Constitution on that day.  I really like working on concepts around government with students- it's a topic that is way abstract for them, but so functional and important to learn.  Try starting with this classic available on YouTube- Three Ring Government:



Kids love Schoolhouse Rock videos- they are catchy and get stuck in their head, thereby utilizing some brain-based learning techniques.  Kids think they are quaint but I totally remember watching them with my Saturday morning cereal.

A good follow-up to this activity would be a sorting or graphic-organizer-based lesson, or a wordsplash with some of the vocabulary and concepts in the clip.  Here, also, is a good online sorting activity.

Supervision Strategies through Google

Please click on over to the ADVANCE Speech in the Schools blog to see my second post in a series about free Google tools for SLPs.  This post features applications of Google chat and Google Docs for communicating with graduate student interns.