Curriculum+Ideas+-+English

=Curriculum Ideas - English= What ideas do you have for integrating technology into your classroom? Please share! You can list your idea under one of the categories given or make a new category and list your idea. If you wish, you can create a new page and copy and paste your lesson plan to share or create a link in your description to a place on-line where your lesson plan is already hosted!

Blogging

 * English 8** Grammar Mechanics Blog (GUM), [|http://grammarusagemechancis.blogspot.com], began as a CSP (Critical Skills Program) focusing on teamwwork, team management, and problem solving and emphasized the importance of proper grammar usage mechanics. The objective was for the students to address three essential questions: 1) What do you suppose we need GUM? 2) How do you think GUM will help you today, tomorrow, and in the "real world"? The students in teams of five had to research their topics and present through PowerPoint. Each team had to come up with lessons and examples per breakdown? Team 1 - Sentence Structure/Formatting -how will they explain simple versus complex/compound sentences, fragments, and run-ons? Team 2 - Capitalization/Punctuation--how will they demonstrate the use in beginning of sentences, quotations, proper nouns, titles/date? Team 3 - How will they explain apostrophes, possessives, quotation marks? Team 4 - Spelling - how will they explain compound and high-frequency words, plurals, word endings (suffixes and prefixes), proper nouns and names? Team 5 - Grammar/Usage - how will they explain subjective/objective pronouns, subject/verb agreement, action/linking/helping verbs. After completion of the presentations, the students returned to the blog to post their reflections.

7th - 12th graders can use the blog site [] to share ideas and comments about literature that they have read or have some interest in.

**Interactive Whiteboard Lessons**

 * Click on links below to open SMART Notebook 10 Lesson and Lesson Plan**

Literature Grades 11-12 - Novel - __Ellen Foster__ Review Lesson - This lesson is a review after reading the book __Ellen Foster__ by Kaye Gibbons

Podcasting
Collaboration with Technology and **English 8** - Reading Comprehension Strategies Web site and Podcasts [] The purpose of this collaboration was to produce a community-based project to help everyone with literacy. Over a period of a week students wrote podcasting scripts about the ten reading comprehension strategies. Students worked in groups with 2-3 students per strategy and demonstrated how to use each strategy along with examples from the book, //The Giver//, by Lois Lowry. They used Audacity software to record their voices along with music fading in and out. Each podcast was embedded on the site for each letter of the reading poster, "I'm a Reader."

Voice Thread

 * English 8** - Every Picture Tells a Story or Elicits a Poem []. The purpose of this voicethread is to inspire students to write a short narrative or a poem. Students will have address the essential questions through the use of the voicethread and share information with peers. The essential questions: 1) Is it true that every picture tells a story? 2) What is your perception of these pictures? 3) What is that you see and want to share? Additionally, class particiaption and their ability to create a detailed discussion about the short narrative or poem will add to the objectives and learning outcomes.

Wikis

 * English 8** - Chinese New Year & Astrology Challenge, http://mrsos.wikispaces.com This lesson was to emphasize diverse literary traditions and the use of wiki as another form of writing conventions. Students addressed essential questions: 1) What is Chinese New Year? 2) What is Chinese Astrology? 3) Why should we learn about China, a diverse culture?

The Interview--Wiki, Animoto, Facebook
Students will identify a focused topic for an interview with examination of a particular experiential aspect of the interviewee’s life as a controlling idea. Care will be taken to make sure the students have a reason for conducting the interview based on student interest in the topic rather than the individual. This will be established in a student-written rationale. The work will be undertaken in groups. The final product will be a video of the formal interview, and students will conclude the project with reflective writing about what has been learned.

&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;