Students study Chaucer's Canterbury Tales not just for its rich language, but also for the insights it provides into the Middle Ages. Using wikis, students collaborate to study both literature and history on their own terms. They create meaning and build information networks using tools Chaucer himself would have loved.
Exploring The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales using Wikis
Grades
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Utilizing Visual Images for Creating and Conveying Setting in Written Text
3 - 6
Lesson Plan
| Recurring Lesson
This lesson supports third-through-sixth grade students as they communicate story setting to their readers through the use of visual image prompts. Activities include individual and cooperative learning group work, as well as whole class discussion.
Grades
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Using Microblogging and Social Networking to Explore Characterization and Style
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students use social networking sites to trace the development of characters by assuming the persona of a character on the class Ning and sending a set number of tweets, or status updates.
Grades
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There Are No Small Parts: Minor Characters in David Copperfield
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
This lesson capitalizes on students' interest in social networking by asking students to build an online profile for a minor character in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.
Grades
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Literacy Centers: Getting Started
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Recurring Lesson
This lesson gives teachers resources and guidance to create reading, listening, computer, and poetry Literacy Centers in their own classrooms.
Grades
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Walt Whitman as a Model Poet: "I Hear My School Singing"
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students first analyze Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," then use Whitman's poem as a model as they create their own list poems.
Grades
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Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students work together to create their own utopias, using blogs as the primary source of publication.
Grades
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Campaigning for Fair Use: Public Service Announcements on Copyright Awareness
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students explore a range of resources on fair use and copyright then design their own audio public service announcements (PSAs), to be broadcast over the school's public address system.
Grades
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Defining Literacy in a Digital World
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Through listing and observation, students identify the many texts that they read and composeincluding books and magazines, television shows, movies, audio broadcasts, hypertexts, and animations.
Grades
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Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
After exploring Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, students create their own audio dramatization of a text they have read.
Grades
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Star-Crossed Lovers Online: Romeo and Juliet for a Digital Age
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Explore the modern significance of an older text, such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, by asking students to create their own modern interpretation of specific events from the drama.
Grades
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Copyright Infringement or Not? The Debate over Downloading Music
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
This lesson takes advantage of students' interest in music and audio sharing. Students investigate multiple perspectives in the music downloading debate and develop a persuasive argument for a classroom debate.
Grades
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Naming in a Digital World: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students explore naming conventions in digital and non-digital settings then choose and explain specific names and profiles to represent themselves online.
Grades
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Cooking Up Descriptive Language: Designing Restaurant Menus
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students explore the menu genre by analyzing existing menus from local restaurants. They review adjectives and descriptive writing and then work in groups to create their own custom menus.
Grades
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Building Vietnam War Scavenger Hunts through Web-Based Inquiry
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students research the effects of the Vietnam war on a specific group of people who were involved. They then create Internet scavenger hunts to share with the class.
Grades
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Literary Scrapbooks Online: An Electronic Reader-Response Project
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students capture scraps of information from a variety of Web resources and use them to create an electronic scrapbook. Emphasis is placed on evaluating and citing resources.
Grades
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Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students use Internet search engines and Web analysis checklists to evaluate online resources then write annotations that explain how and why the resources will be valuable to the class.
Grades
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Paying Attention to Technology: Writing Technology Autobiographies
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
This lesson plan asks students to pay attention to the technologies they use. They graphically map their interactions with technology and compose narratives of their most significant interactions with technology.
Grades
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Write Right Back: Recognizing Readers' Needs and Expectations for E-mail Replies
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students who know how to compose and send simple e-mail messages learn to use the reply function with audience needs and expectations in mind.
Grades
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Choosing the Best Verb: An Active and Passive Voice Minilesson
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Students explore how active and passive voices are appropriate to different audiences. They examine online resources, and then draw conclusions about verb use, which they apply to their own writing.