a. Online election game – Inspired by “The Game of Life”, eLECTIONS has students role-play virtual presidential candidates and explore how a campaign works. Check it out at http://www.ciconline.org/elections.
Spotted in American School Board Journal, September 2008 (Vol. 195, #9, p. 55)
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b. Online pre-algebra and Algebra I games – At http://www.dimensionm.com, you can access Tabula Digita’s games, which operate in a futuristic, 3-D virtual world in which students are challenged to use coordinate systems and scatter plots, linear relationships, and data analysis to rid a remote island of a bio-digital virus and defend against mutated species. “Learn math or die trying” is the motto.
Spotted in American School Board Journal, September 2008 (Vol. 195, #9, p. 55)
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c. Teen Read Week – October 12-18, 2008 is the week for the 11th annual campaign to get adolescents reading. It’s sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, in cooperation with corporations and non-profits and the International Reading Association. Last year, more than 4,800 schools and libraries took part: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/index.cfm.
Spotted in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 3)
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d. Banned books – September 27-October 4, 2008 is Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. Here are the most frequently challenged books of 2007:
- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
- Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- TTYL by Lauren Myracle
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
For more information, including the reasons each of these books were challenged and books recently off the list, see http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/may2008/penguin.cfm.
“Banned Books Week Set” in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 7)
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e. Lesson plans on picture books – These three lesson plans from ReadWriteThink are geared to graphic novels and books with pictures:
• Applying Question-Answer Relationships to Pictures by Leigh Hall and Yongmei Li for middle-elementary students:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=370.
• Creative Writing Through Wordless Picture Books by Laurie Henry for middle-school students to write their own story lines:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=130.
• Pictures Tell a Story: Improving Comprehension With Persepolis by Janet Ankiel for high-school students reading graphic novels, focusing on the popular book, Persepolis:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1102.
“Inventive Picture Books Help Develop Imagination” in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 12)
