Prior to Google, Web search engines ranked search results according to the number of times a key word appeared on a page. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized the Internet search process by ranking pages based on the number of other pages to which they are linked. Since incorporating in 1998, Google has grown in popularity as a preferred Internet search engine and information application provider. In 2006, the verb "google" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Working with your librarian/school media specialist, engage students in an overview of developments in information/reference search technology. Guide students in an exploration of the following search tools (or others that provide a similar sense of contrast and development):
- card catalog
- Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature
- library Web site
- Google or other search engines
After students have had a chance to become familiar with the different search technologies, lead a discussion about the purposes, benefits, and disadvantages of each.
Encourage students to think beyond the notion that the newest technology is always the best. Remind them, for example, that information they find through an online search may not have the same credibility as something they might have found through the library card catalog. Or point out that while an online search engine may offer faster, more refined results, it may be keeping track of what you searched for without your full knowledge or permission.
Part of Google's official site, this timeline covers the company's lifespan from 1995 to the present, including thorough links to more recent developments in Google services. The timeline also lists the April Fool's Day jokes for which Google has become famous.
This frequently-updated blog includes information about new developments at Google, as well as innovative ways to use Google tools for work or leisure activities. Here you can also find links to other blogs about web technologies and blogs written by Google staff.
Offering an extensive history of search engines, this site puts Google in perspective as one of the industry leaders in the market. The site also includes an extensive list of links for further reading and exploration on the topic.
Novelist, poet, and screenwriter Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Often focusing on the connections between physical places and the stories that occur in them, Alexie wrote a semi-autobiographical young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian with a protagonist who chooses to leave the school on his reservation to attend a nearby high school where he is the only Native American student.
In 2003, Sherman Alexie was asked to contribute to the "Finding Our Families, Finding Ourselves" exhibition, a project of The Museum of Tolerance. The collection consists of recreations of parts of participants' childhood homes or other significant family locations and showcases the diversity of Americans' personal histories. The scenes explore the meaning and inspiration behind the places and objects where memories and family history were made.
- Ask your class to imagine that they have been asked to participate in such an exhibit. Have students draw or take photos/video of their home or another significant location and then write or record reflections that explain why this location is important to their family history and their personal identity.
- Alternately, have students create an exhibit for a character from a short story, book, or play the class has read. They can use information in the text (and their imaginations), to help them create a representation of the rooms of a character's family home and explain how these rooms reflect the personal history and identity of the character.
Featuring information about Alexie's publications, this site also includes his blog, contests for readers, and a calendar of his appearances.
The official site for the Musuem of Tolerance exhibit includes images of some of the displays and resources for researching family history including tips for getting started and links to genealogy sites.
This collection of resources, a supplement to the NCTE book Sherman Alexie in the Classroom, offers ideas for teaching social justice and an introduction to Native American literatures, as well as critical excerpts about Alexie's work.
Alexie's entry on the Academy of American Poets site contains a biography and a link to his poem "Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World."
Since 1978, the month of May has been a time to honor the heritage of Asian and Pacific Americans and their contributions to the United States. Originally a week-long Asian American Heritage Week, the celebration now lasts through the entire month.
Ask students to consider the portrayal of Asians in popular culture by focusing on characters in films and movies. Have students explore images from classic and contemporary films and then compare these images to the historical and cultural reference materials.
- Read Asian Images in Film with students and analyze still images and movie trailers shared to identify how and when Asians are included in Hollywood films.
- Have students consider the shortcomings of Hollywood portrayals as well as those that are accurate.
- Ask students to find historical and cultural reference materials covering topics similar to those in the film clips. Have students compare the film portrayals to the information that they find in other texts.
This Library of Congress site features resources on Asian Pacific American history and culture, including links to biographies in the Veterans History Project, contemporary Japanese paintings, and resources for teachers.
The Smithsonian Education site includes materials on ethnic heritage, world music, history, and the arts. Visitors can learn about Hawaiian Lu'aus, Chinese immigrants' participation in the American Gold Rush, and the art of Buddhism. Educational materials and lesson plans are also provided.
This article from the Asia Society explores the history of Asian Americans and their role in shaping the country.
Find great books written about a wide range of Asian and Pacific American cultural experiences for children and adolescents.
Watch online interviews with Asian American children's book authors.
In September 1996, television personality Oprah Winfrey announced the first selection for her new book club, and her viewers responded by buying millions of copies of Jacquelyn Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean. Credited with starting a resurgence in the popularity of reading and book clubs, Winfrey went on to promote books by contemporary authors such as Toni Morrison, Ernest Gaines, and Barbara Kingsolver, as well as classic authors from Tolstoy to Faulkner.
Book clubs promote the social nature of reading and invite students to enjoy reading for its own sake. Even though individual readers might process text successfully in isolation, having the opportunity to discuss responses, share insights, and learn from the interpretations of other readers can be very valuable. Consider trying one of the activities below to get your own version of a book club started in your classroom.
- Within a classroom, have students form groups of three to five. Working with your librarian/school media specialist, have each group choose an appropriate book to read and discuss in place of an independent reading assignment.
- If you're feeling more ambitious, consider collaborating with colleagues on a larger book club model. Take the "One Grade, One Book" approach and have all students in a particular grade level read the same title. Discussion groups from different classes can share their responses at designated times. For middle school and secondary students, consider launching a "One School, One Book" intitiative and unite all the readers in your school around an appropriate title.
See the resources below for tips and suggestions on getting book clubs (large or small) started in your classroom or school.
This site provides questions that can help groups make basic decisions about what their group will do. Edit this site's list of questions to customize it for the specific needs of your students or group.
Older students can use these guidelines from Oprah’s website to organize their book clubs. The list includes sections on how to host, getting things started, discussion questions, and growing your club.
Here is a gathering all of Oprah's official book selections in one place, dating all the way back to 1996's inaugural book club pick.
Although this online article focuses on an adult audience at a library (not students at a school), it provides honest and practical advice for starting a larger-scale book club project.
A poet and author equally skilled at writing for both youth and adult audiences, Pat Mora has written a number of children's books and collections of poetry. She is the founder of Día: El día de los niños/El día de los libros, Children's Day/Book Day, an initiative aimed at spreading what Mora calls "bookjoy" to all young readers. Mora is a champion of multilingual expression, as evidenced by many of her books and poems, including The Desert is My Mother/El Desierto Es Mi Madre.
- Begin this word association activity by arranging students in two groups. Ask one group to write down as many words as they can that relate to the word desert. Have the other group focus on the word mother.
- Have the groups share their lists, and ask students to look for words or phrases that show overlap between the concepts. Discuss their findings.
- Introduce Pat Mora's book The Desert is My Mother/El Desierto Es Mi Madre, and explain that the book is actually a poem that develops an extended metaphor. Stress that effective extended metaphors suggest several appropriate likenesses between two seemingly unlike things.
- As you read the story aloud, have students listen for ways that the narrator finds the desert similar to a mother. Have the class compare the words and images in the book to the lists they brainstormed earlier and discuss the surprising number of ways the desert can be considered like a mother.
- Share a few more extended metaphors, such as the poem "Fog" by Carl Sandburg or the Shakespearean speech "All the World's a Stage." Discuss how these texts exemplify the definition of extended metaphor.
- Ask students to write their own extended metaphor poems by asking them to choose a famliar concept (such as school, family, or friends) and think of a surprising comparison concept. Provide prewriting resources such as a two-column chart or a concept web to support students' writing process. Once they have written their poems, ask students to share their writing with the class.
Pat Mora's homepage includes lists of her publications as well as educator resources, activities for young readers, and a look at her future publications.
From the Academy of American Poets, this author page provides biographical information on Pat Mora.
The official ALSC site for El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros includes a state-by-state list of Día events, library programming ideas, a Día fact sheet, and downloadable Día brochures.
In this Reading Rockets interview, Pat Mora discusses her work and heritage, including her views on the need for more diverse voices in literature for children.
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry, was born in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Best known for her novels such as The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, she also published children's books based on Aesop's fables with her son Slade. Recurring motifs in her works for both young and adult readers included the reworking of myths, fables, and folk tales and the importance of personal and collective memory. She passed away in 2019.
Although most of Morrison's works are appropriate at the secondary level, students at any grade can be introduced to her style and language through her book Who's Got Game? Poppy or the Snake?, based on Aesop's fable "The Farmer and the Snake."
- Remind students of (or retell) "The Farmer and the Snake." Ask students to consider how the moral of the story relates to who is portrayed as the victim and who is the portrayed as the aggressor.
- Share with students Morrison's retelling of the fable. Ask students to pay attention to ways in which the retelling changes and expands on the original story (such as setting, character, dialogue, etc.). Use the ReadWriteThink interactive Story Map tool to facilitate this process.
- After reading the retelling, discuss students' observations. Ask students to compare the moral of the new story-now a tale about memory and paying attention-to the old one. How have the authors altered the resolution of the conflict-the snake is now a pair of boots that Poppy uses to remind him of the lesson-to shape that new moral?
- Consider sharing other such reworkings such as Christopher Myers' book Wings (which thoughtfully plays off the Icarus myth) before asking groups of students to adapt a myth, folk tale, or fable of their choosing to share with the class. Invite students to use the Story Map tool in their writing process.
The society, an official member of the Coalition of American Author Societies that make up the American Literature Association, has as its goal to "initiate, sponsor, and encourage critical dialogue, scholarly publications, conferences and projects devoted to the study of the life and works of Toni Morrison."
In 1993, the Nobel Foundation awarded its prize in Literature to Morrison, "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." The site contains a biography, the text and sound recording of her Nobel lecture, and excerpts from her prose.
In this special edition of the Book Tour program on National Public Radio, Toni Morrison reads from her 2008 novel, A Mercy. The page also includes an interview with Morrison.
A collection of essays offering new and experienced teacher-scholars alternative ways to approach Toni Morrison's fiction and prose in the classroom, focusing on the history of racism and identity and cultural politics.
Developed under the leadership of author Pat Mora, El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros focuses on providing children with books in many languages and making reading an integral part of their lives. El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros is supported by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, an ALA affiliate that provides library and information services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking community.
Celebrate El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros by having students write and share their own multilingual stories:
- Read a book with parallel stories with the class, such as La Llorona: The Weeping Woman or The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El Dia Que Nevaron Tortillas, both by Joe Hayes. With students, examine the way that the books tell the story in two different languages.
- Arrange students in mixed multicultural groups and explain that together the groups will compose an illustrated, bilingual, or multilingual children's storybook to share with younger students.
- Return to the parallel stories read by the class to model how students will compose their own stories.
- Spend time exploring and creating the different parts that make up a professional book: title pages, acknowledgements, and dedications.
- Use the Book Cover Guide to discuss covers and dust jackets. Have students design these additional parts of the book.
- Students can use the Book Cover Creator to make the polished covers.
- Once the books are assembled, students can deliver them to their intended readers for a celebration of Día!
The official ALA site for El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros includes a state-by-state list of Día events, library programming ideas, a Día fact sheet, and downloadable Día brochures.
Pat Mora, founder of El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros, provides background and celebration suggestions on her personal website.
This Día-sponsored website features bilingual story time resources, a Spanish story time plan for preschoolers, and online resources for librarians working with Latino children. The site also includes guidelines and information on the Estela and Reforma Award, established to promote El Día de Los Niños/El Día de Los Libros.
This is the webpage for current winners of the American Library Association's Pura Belpré© Award, which is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
The "1984" commercial launched Apple's Macintosh personal computer in the United States in January, 1984. The 45-second ad, which aired during a break in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, was declared the best ad of the last 50 years in 1995. Directed by Alien and Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, the advertisement cost $1.6 million to produce and was aired only once.
After finishing one or more of the lessons on advertising below, have students create original advertisements. Have students review the advertising techniques they've studied (propaganda, advertising fallacies). Next, have students identify a subject for their ad, such as a favorite television show, CD, or product; an upcoming event; or a political candidate. Then, ask small groups to create advertisements designed to persuade others to use a product, hold a viewpoint, or participate in an activity. Students can use one of the following activities to share their ads:
- Videotape student presentations.
- Perform skits in the style of radio or television commercials.
- Draw posters or print flyers using the Printing Press interactive.
This page includes background information about the ground-breaking Apple commercial and the difficulties involved in airing it, as well as links to the commercial itself.
MediaSmarts provides lesson plans and other resources for teaching about advertising and media persuasion.
Media specialist Cynthia Matzat provides this slideshow, which highlights propaganda and other advertising techniques.
This PBS website illustrates the ways advertisers try to manipulate consumers. Included is a collection of interactive activities for kids.
Thomas Nast was born on September 27, 1840. He was a 19th- century caricaturist and editorial cartoonist and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. During the Civil War and Reconstruction era, Nast was well known for his cartoons supporting American Indians, Chinese Americans, and the abolition of slavery. Some of the images and icons he created or popularized include the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party donkey, and Uncle Sam.
Political cartoons, because of their powerful means of communicating the artists' message, are subject to "freedom of speech" protections. Have students create their own political cartoons after studying First Amendment rights and freedom of speech issues.
- First, explore free speech issues and the First Amendment using resources on this EDSITEment Freedom of Speech Week webpage. Ask students the following: "What constitutes free speech? When does one's freedom of speech become an infringement on another person's rights? How do political cartoonists exercise their first amendment rights?"
- Then, after completing one or more of the lessons below, ask students to comb the newspaper or Internet resources and create a list of current events.
- From this list, have students draw original cartoons using the techniques they've studied.
After students have completed their work, consider having them published in the school newspaper, or share them in the school library.
This extensive resource on Nast, offered by The Ohio State University, includes a biography, timeline, portfolio of Nast's cartoons, bibliography of works by and about Nast, and a teacher's guide. Also included is an essay titled "The World of Thomas Nast."
EDSITEment offers this collection of lesson plans and other resources on free speech and the First Amendment.
The Library of Congress offers this resource about political cartoons for teachers, including collections of historical political cartoons on American and British topics.
This ReadWriteThink resource links to information about First Amendment issues.
National Bullying Prevention Month was created by PACER in 2006 with a one-week event which has now evolved into a month-long effort that encourages everyone to take an active role in the bullying prevention movement. Efforts are focused on encouraging both personal and community responsibility to prevent bullying. During this month, communities are urged to address the problem of bullying through media campaigns, classroom activities, workshops, and other special events.
Promote school-wide awareness of bullying issues by sponsoring a poster contest. First, complete one of the lessons below and review information learned about bullying and the roles of bystanders and victims. Divide the class into three groups, and have each group create a poster representing the role of the bully, the victim, or bystanders to educate other classes about bullying issues. Then, advertise a poster-making contest to other classes, asking students to create posters that illustrate ways each student in the school can help stop bullying and make the school environment safer.
- Invite entrants to use any medium they wish to create their posters, including pencil, crayon, paint, or even an interactive medium such as the ReadWriteThink Printing Press (flyer format).
- Ask other classroom teachers, the school counselor, and the art teacher to help in judging the posters. Be sure to communicate your judging criteria as part of the contest.
Include a reproduction of the winning poster in the school newsletter or website, or feature the poster in the library, cafeteria, or main office.
McGruff.org provides resources for adults and children looking to stop bullying and educate others about bullying issues. Look for comics, a kids' poll, parent articles, and more.
This resource, from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, offers fun games, webisodes, and other resources designed to teach children about bullying prevention.
This site provides information about bullying and offers tips for preventing bullying and providing help both to victims and to students who engage in bullying behavior.
The Meet Kelly Bear website provides this teacher's guide with strategies for teaching about bullying.
The goals of this site/center are to engage and educate communities nationwide to address bullying through creative, relevant and interactive resources.
In support of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) is providing resources for families, teens, educators, clinicians, mental health professionals, and law enforcement personnel on how to recognize, deal with, and prevent bullying.