Access more than 3000 items including visual art, audio files, primary source materials and additional texts supporting and enriching the understanding of American Literature.
Create multi-media presentations in response to writing assignments and close reading activities, by pairing audio and visual artifacts from a database of 3000 items.
Observe a veteran teacher and her fourth-graders in a mini-lesson on adding detail to narrative writing. Consider the purpose and effectiveness of each part of the lesson and compare your observations with those of another teacher.
Read descriptions of two different classrooms. Identify which of the guidelines for creating a positive writing environment are best represented in each example and compare your answers to samples answers provided.
Determine your standards (logic, creativity, structure, etc.) when assessing student writing. Evaluate three essays using an analytic or holistic rubric and see how your standards compare with your peers.
Pair artifacts with appropriate literary texts, and find tips for using them together in the classroom by selecting movements and disciplines with this handy tool.
Rubrics provide students with clear expectations and consistent feedback. Build a customizable rubric that can be used for any writing activity your class might be completing.
Organize and navigate a challenging parent-teacher conference. Decide which factors contribute to a successful conference, and which factors influence a difficult one.
Test your knowledge about setting, characters, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax and resolution. Take this 14-question test, review your correct and incorrect answers, and print out your assessment.
Evaluate a piece of student writing and weigh the student's strengths and weaknesses. Decide which content and conventions are the most important things to address.
Practice evaluating Web sites to determine which ones are the most useful. Browse a Web site and evaluate it by answering the basic questions of who, what, when, where, why and how.
Examine the cueing strategies (graphophonic, syntactic, semantic) that readers use to comprehend text. Learn how to use these strategies to support English Language Learners.
