Currents in Literacy

Web Resources

There are thousands of web sites that offer information on various issues concerning education and literacy. We have selected a sampling of sites that address these issues from a variety of viewpoints: parents, teachers, administrators, and elementary school students.

We hope these are informative and fun sites for you. If you have found others that you would like to share with our readers, please forward the URL to the editor of Currents in Literacy, Ellyn Ruthstrom, at eruthstr@mail.lesley.edu

Teachers

http://library.advanced.org/50072
ArtFul Minds gives prospective and practicing teachers theoretical and practical information about art education, brain research, and technology use and integration. The site includes recommended resources, WebQuests, PowerPoint presentations, and interactive tools for university and K-12 classroom use. The Behind the Palette section features interactive elements that enable visitors to contribute to the site and communicate with other educators and the ArtFul Minds team. A visually appealing and well organized site.

http://www.carolhurst.com/
Well known author/educator Carol Hurst has a children's literature site that provides online support for parents and teachers interested in helping children learn to read. An extensive listing of book reviews is arranged by title, author, type of book, and grade level. There are also curriculum ideas for certain themes, parenting resources, teacher resources, as well as an online newsletter on children's literature.

http://www.tomsnyder.com/ddonline
Bring contemporary issues alive in your classroom with the Internet version of the "Decisions, Decisions" series from Tom Snyder Productions. Students role-play legislators faced with a critical situation and share viewpoints with others across the country. Decisions, Decisions Online stimulates discussions that start inside your classroom and continue outside of it. Each month, Decisions, Decisions Online introduces students to differing opinions behind a controversial social issue drawn from current news headlines. This fall students discussed gun control and cloning.

http://members.aol.com/ivonavon/booklis.htm
If you can withstand the music that accompanies most screens on this site, it has a lot of information. There are lists of Newbery, Caldecott, and Sunshine State award winning books as well as "Necessary Books" for a variety of age groups. An "Interactive Book" link has quite a selection of books that you can read on-line. This site was created by Whitney LaPolla, a high school student from St. Petersburg, Florida, as part of a course on information technology in a global society course.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/
Currents in Electronic Literacy is a scholarly discussion of issues pertaining to electronic literacy and addressing the use of electronic texts and technologies in reading, writing, teaching, and learning in literature, rhetoric and composition, languages, communications, media studies, and education. The focus of the Spring 1999 issue is "Electronic Pedagogy in Literature Classes."

http://www.tomsnyder.com/cdonline
Cultural Debates Online makes multicultural studies come alive. You can watch video, learn about issues, read and write opinions, and see what others think too. You'll discover connections and differences between a rainforest society, your own culture, and other communities of students. Beatifully designed site for K-12 classes.

http://www.csusm.edu/campus_centers/csb
The web site of the Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents at the California State University-San Marcos is available in Spanish and in English. Search for Spanish-language books by title, subject, grade or age level, country, publisher, or copyright data. Click on "Lists" at the main page for titles of English-language award-winning books, magazines, and sing-along audiotapes that have been translated into Spanish.

Parents

http://www.familyeducation.com/
The Family Education Network (FEN) offers reading lists and ideas for children in preschool through high school and beyond. Look for "Hot Topics" and click on "Summer Reading." Under "Expert Advice," parents can post questions and read answers to child reading dilemmas.

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/
The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education of the U.S. Department of Education sponsors this site, which offers you a choice between "A Compact for Reading Guide" and "School-Home Links Reading Kit." The Guide gives a detailed explanation of how to set up a reading compact in your community by linking parents, students, teachers, and administrators. The Kit includes different reading activities for K-3 children to be used by parents and families in the home environment to reinforce the learning going on at school.

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/startearly/
Another site of the U.S. Department of Education, "Start Early, Finish Strong" focuses on information related to the America Reads Challenge slogan of the same name. "How to Help Every Child Become a Reader" is the subtitle. There are several long articles on topics such as "The Right Kind of Reading War," "Raising Readers: The Tremendous Potential of Families," and "Ready to Read: Building Skills Through Early Care and Education."

Organizations

http://cela.albany.edu/
The homepage for CELA: the Center on English Learning & Achievement includes a newsletter published three times a year with an assortment of very interesting articles on the teaching of English. There is a discussion forum for anyone interested in literacy, learning, technology, and education.

http://www.ncte.org
If you are a new English teacher, sign up for TEACH2000 and get a free one-year membership to NCTE. Then have access to CyberBriefs which are filled with articles and resources of specific interest to new teachers, an enriched online "teachers lounge," classroom ideas, interactive discussions, and "cyber-mentors."

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard
NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card) is the only ongoing, national assessment of student performance in the United States. One section, "Sample Questions Tool," is where teachers, parents, and students can find NAEP test items, sample student responses, descriptions of the assessments, and scoring procedures. State reports of NAEP scores are listed as is a calendar of upcoming assessments, with alerts and announcements of results. There are also opportunities for online discussions with experts in assessment and in subject areas.

Kids

http://yahooligans.com
Yahooligans is very similar to its parent Yahoo site, with a prominent query box and a list of general categories that you can click on to start looking into more specific topics. Filters block adult sites available on the regular Yahoo. Science and Nature, Arts and Entertainment, Around the World, Computers and Games, Sports and Recreation, and School Bell are the general categories for school age children.

http://www.ajkids.com
Ask Jeeves for Kids has a different format than most other search engines. You type in a question and Jeeves offers you a variety of related questions to help narrow the intent of the question. This seems a good way for kids to follow different avenues of responses in case their initial question isn't worded in a very specific way. Easy to find your way around.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning
The New York Times Learning Network has sections on news summaries, a daily news quiz, science questions and answers, student written articles, and "On this day in history." Each month there is a new crossword puzzle with a theme. For teachers, there are lesson plans and education news sections.

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
Looking for a list of Newbery, Caldecott, or other award-winning books? The Children's Literature Web Guide contains links to award lists, as well as to resources for parents, teachers, and storytellers. Post questions to the "Readers Helping Readers" bulletin board. And learn about Readers' Theatre (minimal theater in support of literature and reading) which is gaining popularity in K-12 classrooms.

http://www.kidscastle.si.edu/
The Smithsonian Museums Kids' Castle has sections on science, animals, personalities, sports, the arts, history, and air and space. Within each section there are articles to read in the Facts and Photos area. And in the Message Topics area you can respond to different questions on group bulletin boards. Easy to find your way around.