Connect-ELA
The newsletter of Web English Teacher

July 5, 2015

Web English Teacher is now 15 years old! The Wayback Machine records a homepage from August 2000, when the site was all of 6 weeks old and stylin' with the hot trend of the time: frames. The years have brought many revisions but always the same goal: to help teachers save time by making good resources readily available. I value your suggestions and feedback as we work together to, as Christa McAuliffe once said, "touch the future."

Links of note

• Cinderella: Elements of a Story
  At this site students can listen to, watch, and read the story. Then they are guided to analyze setting, characters, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. Includes self-grading assessment and additional information.
• Creating Cartoons: Art and Controversy
  "Political cartoons also have the power to generate healthy public debate, highlight pressing issues of the day, move some viewers to consider both sides of an issue and take positive action." A collection of political cartoons from the U. S. Library of Congress.
• The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance
  Plot summary; author information; biography of Merrick; extensive historical context; glossary; prereading, during reading, and postreading activities; postreading discussion questions; related titles. 19 pages; Adobe Reader required.
• Extended Metaphor
  Examples of extended metaphor drawn from literature. Don't miss the clip of Will Ferrell describing his education in the School of Hard Knocks (school-appropriate).
• Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
  This very extensive resource includes word study, discussion questions, vocabulary, practice with inferences, printable learning logs, conflict analysis, character analysis, more. 180 pages of printable handouts; Adobe Reader required.
• Letters About Literature
  Letters About Literature, a reading and writing program that asks young people in grades 4 through 12 to write to an author about how his or her book affected their lives, announced its 2015 winners. This blog post includes the winning entry from grades 4-6, which can serve as a model should you wish to try this writing task in your classroom.
• Preserving Songs and Culture: Zora Neale Hurston and the Federal Writers’ Project
  What can be learned about a culture or region from a song recording? Why is listening to music an effective way of studying a culture or region? What songs do you think should be preserved? A lesson from the U. S. Library of Congress.
• Story Impressions: Judging a Book by its Key Words
  In this pre-reading activity, students piece together a plausible narrative based on a list of key words from the novel Holes .