Teaching Kids News

Teaching Kids News http://teachingkidsnews.com/ is an awesome website!! The articles on this website are current news in kid language.

How can you use this in your classroom? For Social Studies teachers this would be a terrific website to send students to gather current events.

For Reading teachers this fits perfect with the Common Core. Below are the Common Core Standards for 6th Grade. 

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.2 Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7 Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.8 Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not

Confusing Words?????

Do you have students who get confused on which word to use? Should they use it's or its??/ Or their, there, or they're.
Here is a super website for them to get the answers to all of those confusing words.

http://www.confusingwords.com/index.php

Vocabahead Challenge

What is a Vocabahead Challenge?

Vocabahead Challenges are short videos that students can watch to learn a new word. The definition of the word is given along with the word used in a sentence and a super cute video to boot. 

How I use this in my classroom?? Every Monday I post a video on my classroom blog and EDMODO. The students have until Friday to watch the video, write a new sentence with the word in the video and list synonyms and antonyms for the word. 

The sentences must written in a way that a younger student would be able to figure out what the word means from the context clues in the sentence.

Below is an example video. You can go to www.vocabahead.com to watch more videos. They are also available on Youtube.

6th Grade Book Reveal Podcast!

This podcast was created using the Audioboo software. The free version of the app allows you to record up to a 3 minute podcast. Super simply to use.

Classroom Library Organizer

Check this out!!  Booksource.com has a free classroom library organizer. What a great way to keep track of all your books. All you do is add in all your books, add in your class list and voila. If you have a ton of books like I do and have struggled to find a system of how to keep track of them all, try this out!!!

60 Second Recap

For anyone who teaches Middle School Literature, 60 Second Recap is a must!!! On this site Jenny takes just 60 seconds and makes sense of things like motif, theme, conflict for middle school and high school kids. She is funny, quick, and she make it make sense to them. Below is an example of one of Jenny's recaps!

The Protagonist | RecapResource | 60second Recap

The Protagonist | RecapResource | 60second Recap