ED 534/ Pulliam

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 un...

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 paren...

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 th...