EDSITEment! - Lessons for the Common Core

Close reading. Citing evidence. Making logical inferences. Analyzing. Summarizing. Interpreting. Evaluating and differentiating primary and secondary sources. Where does a busy teacher find appropriate lessons and activities to guide students in developing these required CCSS English Language Arts skills?

In this first post of a series about the fantastic Thinkfinity Consortium gateway, we're looking at EDSITEment, a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities.

"All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, language, art, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality."

EDSITEment truly is a treasure trove, with lesson plans searchable by subject, theme, and grade level. As examples, I want to point you to two of these: Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands and Anne Frank: Writer. These lessons provide a means for you to "supplement your students' reading of The Diary of a Young Girl by connecting the diary to the study of history and to honor the legacy of Anne Frank, the writer, as she inspires your students to use writing to deepen their insights into their own experiences and the experiences of others."

The skills listed for the lessons are:

• Critical analysis
• Critical thinking
• Historical analysis
• Textual analysis
• Using primary sources

Here are two of the learning objectives:

• Use specific examples from first-hand accounts to draw conclusions about one aspect of human behavior.
• Students will read the diary in search of quotes that indicate Anne's reflections on different feelings, relationships and behaviors that she noted while her family was in hiding. 

Below is the first page of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Changing Record, which you can use as a guide for close reading. Students are asked to cite entry date and quote for emotions, relationships, and behaviors they find in Anne's diary.

There are hundreds more wonderful lessons in EDSITEment's library - lessons for the Common Core, at your service from this amazing resource, for FREE. Enjoy!

The Marvelous Cherry Carl (and her updated website)

If you teach kindergarten, primary grades, or English Learners, or if you do reading intervention and by some twist of fate have never seen Cherry Carl's incredible work, you are in for a truly amazing treat!

to Carl's Corner!

Cherry retired after 35 years as a teacher & language arts specialist, and was an instructor in the Reading Specialist Program  at U.C. San Diego until 2009. She still maintains this amazing website packed with great resources. In her words, "I wasn't ready to retire. Teaching is in my blood! I'm passionate about the joy of knowing how to read and write and want every child to have the experience of closing a book with a sigh, 'Wow, that was a good book!'"

Cherry had expanded her original website Carl's Corner into four separate ones. In 2015, she incorporated them back into one large site. Here you'll find so many activities that it will take you hours to see it all. Seriously. I tried to think of a way to give you an idea of everything on the site, but I simply couldn't. Instead, I'll just show you one of her "Rhyme Time Bingo" cards and tell you that it's the tip of an enormous iceberg:

Click on Alphabet Avenue, which is is dedicated entirely to activities that support learning and using the alphabet, including a variety of offerings for each letter. There is a CD loaded with goodies for sale, but most things are absolutely FREE!

There are small books to print that you can find on the Website Directory by subject, such as Critters, Dinosaurs, Fall, etc., along with pocket chart cards and much more. Again, you can buy a CD with lots of printables, or you can download and print FREE ones.

Another previously separate site, Word Way, has hundreds of pages of word family activities, games, posters, songs, and puzzles.

Honestly, I've been downloading, printing, laminating, and using Cherry Carl's resources for several years, and every time I look at one of her websites, I'm still amazed by things I've never seen before. You're going to love them!

FREE Essential Paper Printables

Maybe your students always bring to class everything they need. Maybe your shelves are so well-stocked that you have everything they need, even if they don't. Or maybe you're a real teacher with real students, and neither of the above is true. If that's your real world, and you use specialized paper, such as graph, penmanship, etc., I have some great sites for you!

DonnaYoung.org has lots of handwriting paper, some ruled in colored stripes or with blank tops & ruled bottoms for illustrated writing. This former homeschooler even has ruled & unruled paper with themes, in addition to journal, booklet, and bordered paper, like the one below.

graphpaper.us allows you to print simple graph paper with your choice of size and colored grid lines. Cool for your school colors - this one is purple in honor of Dibrell Elementary School!

MathBits has blank calculator screens and number lines as well as a wide variety of graph paper.

Print Free Graph Paper lets you choose graph type, paper size, units, etc., before you print.

Printable Paper has so many choices (more than 900!), it makes me a little dizzy. Graph, storyboard, music, lined, dot, penmanship, and games.

There's really something for everyone, and I hope you and your real students enjoy the possibilities!