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Fair Test

    The site I looked at for this blog is Fair Test. I found it to be rather interesting and full of information. However, I do not see how it could be very beneficial in the classroom of a reading teacher or a content teacher trying to incorporate reading. Support for reading in the content areas     I do not see where this site directly supports reading in the content area. However, it does discuss students needing a deeper understanding of information and I believe that comes from reading. It talks about multiple choice testing being damaging to students and schools; one reason being that students are only taught to read and answer those types of questions. That leads me to believe they would support more critical reading in the content area. Ease of navigation     I had no issue navigating the site. There are a list of tabs at the top of the page you can choose from and subcategories if you want to be more specific. There are plenty of links that you can click on to furthe
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WebQuest.org

    This blog is intended to inform you about the website WebQuest.org. I have mixed feelings about this site. My first concern is that it seems a little dated. The newest dates I could find were from 2017 and 2015. It also did not look very appealing. On the other hand, it appeared to have some good information for anyone looking into webquests and some good links. After reading the information on this site, I realized I did not know exactly what a webquest was. Essentially, a webquest is an assignment given where the majority of the information is found online. Support for reading in the content areas     I believe that webquests are very helpful with reading in the content area. It allows the students to use new literacies and learn to navigate them. Our students are pretty good at reading a text message but not so good at looking for specific information online. Students also struggle knowing if the site is legit or not. WebQuests are a good way to practice those skills while
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Dictionary.com

For this blog I chose to do Dictionary.com. I love this website because it has been so helpful to me and my students. It also has a sister site that has a direct link called Thesaurus.com which is equally helpful. This site it most helpful when writing a paper and trying to avoid repetition. Support for reading in the content areas     This site is absolutely helpful when reading in the content area. If a student is reading on their own and comes up on a word they do not understand they can easily type the word in and receive the definition. What is cool about this site is that is does not only give the definition but, a ton of other information as well. For example, it will tell the part of speech, synonyms, what it is related to, and will let the student hear the word being pronounced. Ease of navigation     This site could not be easier to navigate. Right at the top is a search bar where the word in question can be typed. Next, he/she just selects search and the information
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The Graphic Organizer

I was really excited to learn about this website because I have been trying to utilize more graphic organizers in my classes. I think having a way to understand and sort out the information is a very important next step when reading. The Graphic Organizer at http://www.graphic.org/ however, is not as user-friendly as I hoped. It has some great explanations and examples but lacks the ability to recreate an organizer on the site. Support for reading in the content areas     Graphic organizers alone are a great support for reading. This site is really good about explaining which graphic organizer to use and why. It provides detailed information on multiple organizers and gives examples of each. I especially liked that if I was unsure of which one to use, this site would help me choose the right one. Ease of navigation     The navigation was not so easy. Many of the link I tried to click on wanted me to download a software or my computer said was unsafe. I noticed the site was
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Virtual Middle School Library

For today’s blog I chose to review the site, Virtual Middle School Library at http://www.sldirectory.com/virtual.html It originally caught my attention because many kids today do not want to look at a book or even go in a library. However, they are all about technology so I figured combining the two might make for a pretty good site, and it did! This librarian, Linda Bertland, did a really good job adding each aspect of a library to the website and more! Support for Reading in the Content Areas     This site has it all! Links and information for all content areas, even music! I especially like the links that takes the students to live sites, such as USA Today, where they can read online what it going on in the world today. I also like the availability of YouTube links that allow students or parents to learn or understand something better. Ease of Navigation     I think that this site is easy enough to navigate for students, teachers, and parents. There are titles that you
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Reading Quest at www.readingquest.org        I really enjoyed investigating Reading Quest. As I was looking it over I was automatically thinking of topics I could use for different topics. Even topics that I could not include a reading activity in before. I also liked reading the part about the author and learning why he chose to start and maintain the site. I hope some of you are able to make use of the information as well! Support for reading in the content areas      As a social studies teacher I have struggled to add reading in. It should be easy because there are a lot of options out there but finding them is not the hard part. It was what to do with the reading after. This website offers a ton of ways to take the "next step" to reading in the history content. There are a lot of graphic organizers to choose from but it is sometimes hard to connect them to my content without an example. One thing I really like about this site it that it gives an example f
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