Philanthropic Extension

http://freerice.com/category

You are probably very familair with the philanthropic 'Free Rice' website which donates rice according to the number of vocabulary words you get right but did you know that the website also offers other subjects. As you can see above there are a number of categories which could be used as extension, homework tasks or revision in some cases. You might even decide to set a test based on the website.  It's a whole lot of fun, I've tried it and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Randling - a game show about words

 

RANDLING
A game show about words

Premiering 8.30pm, Wednesday 2 May on ABC1

Randling – created for ABC1 by Andrew Denton and Jon Casimir, the creators of The Gruen Transfer – is a game show about words. The game show pits ten teams, with two players a side, against each other over twenty-seven rounds of fiery and fierce word play. Each team is vying for a place in the 2012 Randling Grand Final and the chance to take home the Randling premiership trophy. Designed to enlighten, educate and amuse viewers, Randling is the only game show that comes with a guarantee that every episode will leave you at least 1% smarter and 100% happier.

Learn more about Randling, the randlers and how to randle online at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/randling/.

How to make an English lesson funner-er
One of the stated aims of The Australian Curriculum: English is to ensure that students appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue. Given this aim, a game show about words that encourages players and viewers: to discover new and archaic words; to invent words and definitions; and to realise how entertaining word play can be, makes Randling a recommended resource for use in secondary English classes.

Randling offers teachers the opportunity to develop students’ knowledge, understanding and skills within the strand of Language and within this strand to examine the sub-strands of: language variation and change; language for interaction; expressing and developing ideas; and sound and letter knowledge.

ATOM study guide
ATOM have created a study guide to accompany Randling that provides activities to support students’ viewing of the program. Explanations of Randling games are included, so that teachers and students can randle in their English classes. Teachers and students are encouraged to design their own questions and challenges based on the examples provided.

To download this free ATOM study guide, visit http://www.metromagazine.com.au and click on ‘study guides’.

Recording off-air
Teachers and AV Technicians: Set your recorders to record Episode 1 of Randling at 8.30pm, Wednesday 2 May on ABC1. Alternatively, the program will be repeated at 11pm, Friday 4 May on ABC2.

Information taken from ATOM's newsletter - ATOM - editor@atom.org.au

'Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.'

Below is an example I whipped up in a few minutes using a poem I'd written.

 

FREE online books, puzzles and more

Funbrain offers a range of FREE novels online. The novels are popular, well presented , colourful and easy to read. They could be set as extended reading for homework, extension work (for those students who always finish a task well ahead of the others) or even be studied as a classroom text. Why not prepare your own online activities and questions to go with your chosen novel?

With the ABC series 'Once Upon a Time' about to debut on Australian Television, it seems timely to re-visit a favourite writing activity which was very popular some years ago - the fractured fairytale. 



http://www.slideshare.net/USAteacher/fractured-fairytale



This unit of work on Slideshare gives all the information you need to create your own unit or piggyback using this slideshare presentation.

Fractured Fairytale

by USAteacher on Aug 28, 2008

Left is a quirky example of a fractured fairytale you might like to use as an introduction to the task.

The website also includes numerous features that you might like to use.



Year 9 Book Trailer

As a part of the Year 9 Wide Reading program, this year we'll be trialing student-created book trailers. Below I've compiled a number of examples that I've taken from YouTube .  They all feature Scott Westerfield's novel 'Uglies' which is being studied as an English text for all of Year 9. The range of YouTube trailers available for 'Uglies' is truly astonishing as is the range and sophistication.
 
 

1. View the following trailers and see what you think.

2. Using the criteria created for the book trailer task, grade each trailer.

3. Choose a definitive winner, then in one hundred words, justify your choice.

QR codes - easier than you think

QR codes (Quick Response Codes) are two-dimensional codes that can store huge amounts of data. They are somewhat like the product bar codes we are all used to seeing on our purchases. The scanning app needed to read the codes can be downloaded for free from the following website: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ suggested by Annette as one of the more user-friendly versions available. 

Having used myself this morning to create a QR for BookCloud in only a few seconds (see above), I can vouch for its ease of use.  If you're interested in experimenting with new FREE apps, especially those with smartphones or the new iPad 2 and netbooks, visit the e-Support wiki.

Tired of adding YouTube links to your VC that disappear? Why not save your clips directly to your PC? Even if the clip is erased, you'll still have your copy. 

Download YouTube videos online without even copy-and-pasting the URL.  Just write 'save' in front of the URL in the address bar and hit enter. For example: http://saveyoutube.com/watch?v=dXP2GdqYCOM Don't forget your citation! :

LiquidGenerationTube, 2008, 10 Most racist moments in TV, online video, Oct 7th, accessed 20 February 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMvfEdTUO6Q.

LiquidGenerationTube, 2008, 10 Most racist moments in TV, online video, Oct 7th, accessed 20 February 2012, .

BBC Poetry Archive - Listen to the voices of contemporary (and the recent past) English Language poets

The Poetry Archive is an easy to navigate website that offers an impressive repository of English Language poets reading their work.  Poets can be found by clicking on the alphabet to the bottom right of the web page.  If you click on 'A' for example, then choose 'Margaret Atwood', the following page (second image) will open giving you access to Atwood's biography, links to her personal website as well as podcasts of five featured poems.


Once you have opened a poet's page you are given access to a variety of very useful options including:

• Browse all poets by name
• Browse all poets by title
• Glossary of poetic terms
• Browse all poems by theme
• Browse all poems by form

You can also create lists of your favourite poems and poets and official portraits and share them with friends when you sign up to create your own 'My Archive'.

Across the top of the page are a range of other options.  'The Children's Archive is incredibly cute and colourful and worth exploring for Year 7 activities. 

The 'For Students' section is excellent for researching poems, poetry and related topics.  The list of links are valuable for teachers as well, especially those interested in exploring online content for their students.

The 'For Teachers' section includes:

• Classroom Materials: Lesson plans and activities for all key stages, built around Poetry Archive recordings and offering lively, engaging ways of working with poetry at all Key Stages.                        
• Poet in Residence: Each term a different poet is in residence here, talking about poetry with anyone who wants to join in the conversation. You are welcome to explore our archive of past residencies and read some of the lively and varied discussions you'll find there.                                                               
• Poetry, creativity, Multimodality (film): In this film, four teachers share their ideas for using the Archive to enrich and enliven poetry lessons.
  

National Young Writers' Month

This month is National Young Writers’ Month. NYWM is a new national initiative created by Express Media, an organisation helping young writers. NYWM is open to anyone under the age of 25. It involves logging onto the website http://www.expressmedia.org.au/nywm/ to register and setting a writing goal.

Each state has an ambassador who will be running workshops and writing activities to help young writers stay motivated. The Victorian ambassador is Thomas Banks. The website also features forums, so that everyone can bounce ideas off each other, as well as other authors who will share their views on writing and why they write. More information can be found at the website above.

Express Media has also opened the John Marsden Prize for 2011, which is a short story or poetry competition for everyone under 25 years of age. The deadline for submissions is on the 31st of August.

Voiceworks is Express Media’s quarterly magazine featuring exciting new writing by Australian young writers. It is a unique opportunity for young writers and artists (under 25) to publish their poetry, short stories, articles and comics, illustrations, drawings and photos; as well as receiving feedback on their submission. It is produced entirely by young people and relies totally on the contributions from the readers to make up the content. Voiceworks is currently taking submissions for its next issue, with the deadline of the 3rd of July.

For more information on Voiceworks and how your students can be a part of it, please visit: http://www.expressmedia.org.au/voiceworks/index.php/about-voiceworks/

Inside a Dog

Inside a Dog has a whole new look and a series of additional features.

Book Clubs:

The biggest new feature on the site is the addition of member-run book clubs. If you are a fan of a particular author, genre, or series, you can now start your own Inside a Dog book club and find other like-minded readers to share ideas, post reviews, or show off your fan art. Book clubs can be either open membership, allowing any of the site’s users from around the world to join and contribute, or closed, requiring permission from the clubs’ creator to join.
Each site member will have their own page, listing reviews they have written, their favourite and recommended books, and the book clubs they are members of. “Star reviewers” will earn privileges, ranging from recognition on the site itself to copies of books to review.

You'll find the 'Book Clubs' link at the very top of the Inside a Dog homepage, just above where you might expect a dog's eye to be :)

Reviews:
In addition to individual pages for members, each book reviewed on the site will have its own page. Book pages will list all reviews of the book, along with any additional content supplied by publishers, including first chapters, book trailers, and audiobook snippets, and a list of recommendations and related titles.

Click on the Books link (next to 'Book Clubs') and you'll be taken to the latest books that have been added. Most require a review. You can still add a review to older books by going back through the pages or choosing a genre and finding books you've read.

Teacher Resources:

There are some fabulous links under the link titled: 'Teachers' at the top of the homepage.

Take a look at the 'Book Trailers' link which supplies excellent links that will help your students create book trailers in a number of formats including PowerPoint and Movie Maker.

A free searchable database of photos that can be legally used.

MorgueFile is a free searchable collection of photographs that can legally be used online in for example, blogs or wikis. The title explains the source of these photos, they are 'dead' images, those that professional photographers no longer need or value.

Images can be used in PowerPoint displays or even printed out for displays in the classroom and you don't even need to attribute the artist.




You are free to:

1. Remix — to adapt the work.

2. Go Commercial — to use this work for commercial purposes.

3. Without Attribution — to use without attributing the original author.

Under the following conditions:

1. Stand alone basis — You can not sell, license, sublicense, rent, transfer or distribute this image exactly as it is without alteration.




2. Ownership — You may not claim ownership of this image in its original state.
   
   Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the owner.

To the left are some of the 739 images that I found when I surfed for 'books' but you can also filter by size, creative, rating, even geographical area.