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April 4, 2014

Shakespeare for the Classroom: In Honor of His Birthday, Sort of

Posted by carfamily under Common Core, education, educators, history, holiday, home schooling, language, Lesson plan, Literacy, school, student teacher, teachers, teaching
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Shakespeare for the Classroom: In Honor of His Birthday, Sort of
by Alan Haskvitz
National Teachers Hall of Fame

for more free resources go to http://www.reacheverychild.com/

No one knows for certain when William Shakespeare was born, but he was baptized on April 26, 1564 so why not use that date as an excuse to bring his work into the classroom. Here are some exciting ideas that can be used to meet Common Core standards and are useful for classes from upper elementary through high school.

I really like to read a sonnet to my students and have them discuss it. I use this site (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets) Afterwords they create there own poem about the same subject. Some interesting and creative poetry comes from this, but most importantly when they are done they have to compare and contrast their work to Shakespeare’s and make a case for which one was the best. I let students work in teams based on the sonnets mentioned in the link.

Lots of good ideas for teachers are posted here:
Primary resources and videos of how to teach sonnets and other elements. Excellent.
https://www.folger.edu/index_sa.cfm?specaudid=2

The New York Times
All sorts of ideas to teach Shakespeare and make it come alive.

A great idea from the New York Times
This printable gives students an opportunity to learn that they may already know something about the bard.
graphics8.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/studentactivity/20081218a.pdf

These are quick, video overviews of some of Shakespeare’s work
It deals mainly with the plot.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shakespeare+sparknotes

The PBS offerings
Includes a webquest and more
http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/lessonplans.html

148 Ideas
Uneven quality, but well worth a look.
http://www.teachersfirst.com/spectopics/shakespeare.cfm
98 More Ideas
Lots of good stuff here. I like the Types of Female Characters in Shakespeare to get students interested in reading more. For older students.

96 Incredibly Useful Links for Teaching and Studying Shakespeare

March 23, 2014

Making Abraham Lincoln Come Alive for Common Core

Posted by carfamily under Common Core, education, educators, English, ESL, history, Lincoln, special education, student teacher, teachers, teaching, Uncategorized
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Abraham Lincoln: Lessons and Links

for more great resources go to

http://reacheverychild.com/

There is nothing difficult about finding information about President Abraham Lincoln. What is a problem is finding appropriate materials for use in classrooms that students can understand. As such, I have tried to locate those sites that offered an array of resources that cover everything from the basic timelines and quotes to literacy encouraging lessons.

Here is a site that has the bones of an excellent lesson. It shows the great strength of Lincoln and the students always enjoyed it trying to figure out how much a barrel of whiskey weighed as written in the article.

http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=19&CRLI=96

Others ideas could include research about his failures and the changes in his face as the stress of the presidency and his personal life had on him. Printing out a series of pictures from the first to the last is quite compelling and clearly show how the war took its toil on him. Here are the locations for that assignment:

Lincoln’s pictures through time are below or you can show the students this video

Early photo

Students should read about the research that went into identifying this photo.

http://www.lincolnportrait.com/#

First known photo 1846

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/first.jpg

1859

http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/photo_credits.asp?photoID=175&subjectID=2&ID=10

1860

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/stand.jpg

1861

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/linc-3.jpg

1862

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/pink.jpg

1863

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/b63.jpg

1864

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/1864-1.jpg

1865 for five dollar bill

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/chair.jpg

Last photo taken

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/last.jpg

The following are additional links to quality resources:

The Lincoln Institute has a site with lesson ideas for teachers

http://www.abrahamlincoln.org/teachers/index.asp

An article from the April 27, 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly features a biography and picture of President Abraham Lincoln, and an incredible description of Mr. Lincoln’s declaration of war on the South..A must see site that fits the Common Core requirements.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/april/abraham-lincoln-biography-picture.htm

Easy to understand story of Lincoln’s Life

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~maggieoh/Pd/abe.html

Printable script for a game show that asks the audience to pick the real Abraham Lincoln

http://socialstudies.com/c/@_aDT73d7tWR.s/Pages/article.html?article@SHL177

Lincoln lesson plans and activities

http://www.proteacher.com/090158.shtml

Timeline of Lincoln’s Life

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/index.html

Failures in Lincoln’s life.

A great way to get students to think about overcoming adversity and rejection.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/education/failures.htm

A unique site where the students can watch video clips and answer questions.

http://www.americanwriters.org/classroom/videolesson/vlp14_lincoln.asp

A PBS lesson plan site

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_lincoln.html

Large link sites for many grade levels

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/education/curriculum.htm

September 1, 2009

Banned Books: Lessons and Links

Posted by carfamily under books, civics, education, educators, government, history, law, Lesson plan
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Banned Book Lists and Lessons

by Alan Haskvitz

http://www.reacheverychild.com/alan.html

The power of the writing word has caused a great many legal cases challenging the First Amendment. A discussion about these cases and the books involved is an excellent opportunity for students to learn about the legal process and see different viewpoints.

What I especially like about this topic is that shows how society’s values change over time and enables students to develop an appreciation for standing up for one’s rights. As always preview these resources with the child and parents in mind. And there is a need to explain to the students that a banned book and a challenged book are not the same. As always, follow the directions of your administration.

Teachers and the Law

Legal cases that all educators and parents should know about.

http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/teacher_law.html

The American Library Association Page

Includes a list of frequently banned books plus ideas and resources and a calendar of events.

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

Books Suppressed by Legal Authorizes

For older students. Really quite interesting to see the differences in various countries as well as in the past.

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html

History of Book Banning

http://www.freedomtoread.ca/links_and_resources/bannings_and_burnings.asp

Recent censorship