Ph-ph-ph-phonics

On the Merlin John blog (MJO) yesterday Ray Barker wrote an interesting article about phonics and ICT – Routes to literacy lead through ph-ph-ph-phonics – in which he describes the support that ICT can give to the learning of reading through phonics.

More on Wordle

Mandy Barrow has just posted this link on Twitter … lots of really good ‘Wordle’ ideas … here

National Storytelling Week – Plan Ahead !!

National Storytelling Week  is from January 30th to February 6th 2010 … time to plan it in ?

Literacy with ICT

Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth teachers have come up with a neat booklet to inform parents about Literacy with ICT which makes good reading for anyone.

This is what the writers say about the booklet:

This Handbook provides you with information about new ways your child is learning in today’s classroom.

Children today live and learn in a world that is different from the world in which we grew up. Information grows so quickly that the amount of information in the world is said to double every two years. At this rate,
textbooks, maps, encyclopedias and most printed material can be outdated by the time they reach our children’s hands.

At the same time, today’s students communicate using technology like websites, texting, chat, email and blogs.

Even the meaning of literacy has changed. Literacy is not only about reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and representing. It is also about developing literacy with information and communication technology
(ICT). Our children face an exciting but challenging future. How do we prepare them to succeed in a world that changes so quickly?

Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth has created a developmental continuum, an assessment tool used by teachers, called Literacy with Information and Communication Technology Across the Curriculum
to set a path for teachers and students to follow.

Inside this handbook you will see what Literacy with ICT might look like in your child’s classroom. You will also discover ways that you, as a parent or guardian can support your child’s use of ICT at home in safe and responsible ways. By working together, we can all help prepare our children for the world in which they live.

Literacy with ICT IS FOR ME!

“In times of change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

Save The Words

 

Save The Words … What fun !! Just look at the amazing words you can try to define … love the sounds that go with it .

(Thanks to Tricia Neal for this)

Ways to write .. with a difference

The Hero Factory … An avatar builder … no log on … no password … a chance to build a character to write about.

 … no log in no sign up  just start writing  …  Fridge Magnet Poetry from ‘Magnetic Poetry’

Wordsmith’s Anagram builder

If you are an anagram ‘person’ then this site is surely for you. This is what they say for themselves:

Wordsmith is a worldwide online community of some half-million people who share a love for words, wordplay, language, and literature. They hail from Australia to Zimbabwe and almost all other places in between. Did you know that parliament is an anagram of partial men? Or, Clint Eastwood an anagram of Old West Action? Someone once said, “All the life’s wisdom can be found in anagrams. Anagrams never lie.” Here is your chance to discover the wisdom of anagrams.
Wordsmith.org was founded in 1994 by Anu Garg, while studying as a graduate student in computer science.

Thanks to John Sutton for this link.

Kids on the Net

Kids on the Net … I was alerted to this ‘writing’ web site at a conference today and felt that it was well worth a look. This is what they say about themselves:

Kids on the Net was one of the first websites on the internet to invite children to submit their writing. Now there are thousands of Kids on the Net writers – have a read! We want children all over the world to send us your writing – poems, stories, articles and reports, opinions, writing about yourselves – whether you write it at school, at home, in a library or club, or anywhere else.

Web 2.0 Shakespeare

Open Source Shakespeare is a really great tool if you want to get at texts quickly and easily.

Here is what they say about themselves:

Open Source Shakespeare attempts to be the best free Web site containing Shakespeare’s complete works. It is intended for scholars, thespians, and Shakespeare lovers of every kind. OSS includes the 1864 Globe Edition of the complete works, which was the definitive single-volume Shakespeare edition for over a half-century.

The Railway Children

On Sunday 14th December 2008, starting at 19.45, Joanna Tope will read from E Nesbit’s children’s classic ‘The Railway Children’.

The first episode, 1 of 5: Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis live a happy and comfortable suburban life with their parents. But that life is about to change.

Enjoy