Interactive whiteboard redefine hands-on activity in the classroom, as students manipulate information on a giant digital display. They also bring teachers a new challenge: what activities can you use to make the most of this new technology?
Teachers on the Thinkfinity Community have been busy collecting answers. trying ReadWriteThink’s interactive Word Mover for “I Have a Dream” and Word Mover for Holes and asking students to rearrange the words on the whiteboard as a class experience. Find dozens of additional ideas on the Thinkfinity Community discussion board.
And be sure to check out the ReadWriteThink calendar entries, new lesson plans, and classroom materials below. Have a great week!
New Resources
- Difficult to finish work with ReadWriteThink interactives during a single class period? The Save Capability added to six of the interactives allows students to work on their online assignments over multiple days, at school or at home.
- New Podcasts on ReadWriteThink:
- Chatting about Books: Episode 37—Confessions of a Former Bully (For grades K–5)
- Text Messages: Episode 41—Stories of Suspense (For grades 6–12)
- Thinkfinity.org's Back to School collection offers special classroom topics such as the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, Constitution Day and Creating Classroom Communities.
- Use Thinkfinity's interactive games, lessons and artifacts to bring the inventions of the world into your classroom.
- Looking for ways to encourage your students to get to know one another so you will have a strong classroom community to last throughout the year? Check out fun ideas on Thinkfinity.org!
From the Calendar
- August 10: The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846. After exploring an exhibit online, students use the information they learned to write “A Day in the Life” narratives that tell about a person, animal, or object they saw in the exhibit. (For grades 1–8)
- August 11: Alex Haley, author of Roots, was born in 1921. Students explore their own roots by interviewing family members and use their family history to write a fictional account of their roots. (For grades 5–12)
- August 12: Walter Dean Myers, author of the Printz Award-winning novel Monster, was born in 1937. Students discuss how the form of a film script affects the story, why the author may have selected this writing style, and write a story using a similar format. (For grades 3–12)
- August 13: The first English printer, William Caxton, was born on this day in 1422. Students consider how the printing press affects their world by completing a printing inventory, comparing lists, and developing a “super” list of all printed materials that they interact with. (For grades 3–8)
- August 14: Ernest Thayer, author of the famous poem “Casey at the Bat,” was born in 1863. In small groups or individually, students make baseball cards for the players in the poem “Casey at the Bat.” Students can use a word processor or the Character Trading Cards interactive to create their cards. (For grades 3–8)
- August 15: In 1870, the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad was completed. Students access the National Park Service website and look at the webpage The Last Spikes. Students explore different accounts of what happened as the railroad neared completion and discuss the nature of ceremonies. (For grades 7–12)
- Later this month find lesson plans and activities on the first picture of Davy Crockett, monarch butterflies, the 19th Amendment, hurricane Katrina, mail-order catalogs, the “I Have a Dream” speech, and authors Ray Bradbury, Karen Hesse, and Virginia Lee Burton.
Discuss These Topics with Other Teachers
- How do you use the Comic Creator with students?
- How can literacy teachers contribute to the STEM initiative?
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- Make the most of Thinkfinity.org by adding our partners to your social network!
If you have feedback or questions about ReadWriteThink, all you have to do is contact us.
—Traci Gardner
