The CCSS Tiered Vocabulary Made Simple is an article on the Learning Unlimited site by Dr. Kimberly Tyson. With vocabulary instruction being at the forefront of Common Core ELA efforts, this article will help administrators and teacher understand the tiered approach.
21 Digital Tools to Build Vocabulary is a great blog post with resources stressing vocabulary acquisition – a key component of Common Core ELA standards.
Using myHistro, you can combine maps and timelines seamlessly into one great presentation, convert any public timeline into a personal pdf file, or export it into Google Earth format for offline storage. All completed timelines can be embedded into your blog and websites for maximum exposure.
10 Online Resources to Inspire Writers of any Age has literature resources to inspire writing.
Pulp-O-Mizer The Pulp-O-Mizer allows its lucky operator to select from menus of backgrounds, foregrounds, and magazine titles and to add new and exciting text to them for use as web graphic memes, blog illustrations, Facebook posts, forum messages, or for any other non-commercial purpose.
Character Scrapbook is a site from Scholastic where students can go to analyze characters from literature. When finished, students can print their scrapbook pages.
Teach Hub Video Writing Prompts has videos students can watch followed by writing prompts developed by grade level strands.
The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. The DPLA aims to expand this crucial realm of openly available materials, and make those riches more easily discovered and more widely usable and used, through its three main elements:
1. A portal that delivers students, teachers, scholars, and the public to incredible resources, wherever they may be in America. Far more than a search engine, the portal provides innovative ways to search and scan through the united collection of millions of items, including by timeline, map, format, and topic.
2. A platform that enables new and transformative uses of our digitized cultural heritage. With an application programming interface (API) and maximally open data, the DPLA can be used by software developers, researchers, and others to create novel environments for learning, tools for discovery, and engaging apps.
3. An advocate for a strong public option in the twenty-first century. For most of American history, the ability to access materials for free through public libraries has been a central part of our culture, producing generations of avid readers and a knowledgeable, engaged citizenry. The DPLA will work, along with like-minded organizations and individuals, to ensure that this critical, open intellectual landscape remains vibrant and broad in the face of increasingly restrictive digital options. The DPLA will seek to multiply openly accessible materials to strengthen the public option that libraries represent in their communities.
Gregory Shaver/Journal Times, via Associated PressThe phrase “summer reading” tends to conjure two opposing mental images: there’s the stack of relaxingly trashy beach books … but there’s also that list of classics your teacher gave you in June that you ignored until the last week of August.
Our contest, we hope, offers something in the middle.
Here’s how it works: Each week from June 14 to Aug. 16, teenagers 13 to 19 years old are invited to choose any piece in The New York Times they like and write to tell us why it interested them. We will then choose a weekly favorite to feature, just as we have done every summer since 2010.
Sure, it’s an easy way to add more nonfiction (or “informational text”) to a school’s summer reading list, but because contestants can choose any article they want, on any topic from North Korea to Justin Bieber, we hope it also offers a bit of fun.
For more information click: NYT Summer Reading Contest
Poetry Idea Engine is a site from Scholastic where students can get ideas and help with poetry structure and compose poems online.
ReadWorks.Org provides:
• Over 1,000 non-fiction reading passages with associated text-dependent question sets, leveled using the Lexile framework (http://www.readworks.org/
• 100’s of easy to use lesson plans that help you explicitly teach comprehension to K-6 students (http://www.readworks.org/
• All reading passages, question sets, and lesson plans are research-based and aligned with the Common Core State Standards
• Student Handouts, Graphic Organizers and Teacher Materials that can be easily downloaded and printed for your use
Visit ReadWorks often for new non-fiction reading passages, question sets, and lessons. We’re always adding more resources to help make your planning easier.
Picture a Story allows students to choose a genre; create picture with backgrounds, characters, and props; and write (and narrate) a story to share online.
Docs Teach is a site with the National Archives that has a searchable database of historical documents.
PBS News Hour Extra Lesson Plans is a great site to use for Common Core. Start with a current events video, read background text, and analyze the meaning and implications of the story. Lesson plans and ideas are included on the site.
37 Writing Prompts for Social Studies/History uses visual cues as prompts for student writing. Great integration of Language Arts and Social Studies – compatible with Common Core.
Here is a collection from TN of sample Common Core writing prompts and a scoring rubric
Just came upon a phenomenal resource for Common Core Math geared specifically to middle school teachers. Created by teacher Alison Shook, this Livebinder has everything from tasks, teaching resources, inclusion ideas, integrating reading & writing, students activities, and even algebra resources.
Check it out at:
BBC Earth has a You Tube channel with some incredible videos that can be used in the classroom. You’ll find 50 years worth of astounding, entertaining, thought-provoking and educational natural history content on here.
Quozio allows you to copy and paste any quote and author and the site will create a jpeg image you can save to your computer to use in slideshows, videos, or posters. 
Curriculum Corner Common Core ELA Checklists by Grade Level is a helpful tool for teachers implementing Common Core Standards in the classroom. There are many other good Common Core Resources on this web site.
The lottery of birth is responsible for much of who we are. If you were not born in the country you were, what would your life be like? Would you be the same person?
IfItWereMyHome.com is your gateway to understanding life outside your home. Use our country comparison tool to compare living conditions in your own country to those of another. Start by selecting a region to compare on the map to the right, and begin your exploration.
Teach your Monster to Read: First Steps is a new, free game to practise the first steps of reading.
Combining top quality games design with essential learning, the game is built on the principles of synthetic phonics and follows the teaching sequence of the Letters and Sounds programme.
Printing Press The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers. Teachers and students can choose from several templates to publish class newspapers, informational brochures, and flyers announcing class events.
