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Reading Rockets
www.readingrockets.org/ This web site teaches children to read and to also helps children who struggle with reading. The site is full of information on games, reading strategies, lessons, and activities to help children learn how to read and improve their reading skills. The site also has resources to aid parents, teachers, principals, librarians, and other professionals. There is also an extensive list of other resources on the site.

One way the site has been used in an educational setting is by utilizing a classroom strategy, Rhyming Games. How to use rhyming in learning to read and spell is discussed in the strategy. Also discussed is why to teach about rhyming, when and how to use rhyming, and examples. A book list is given to use with this strategy. Suggestions are also given to create games. Also noted is differentiated instruction for second language learners, students with diverse reading abilities and lower reading level students. Also of interest is the site lists the research that supports the strategy. www.readingrockets.org/strategies/rhyming_games/

The site is also brimming with information for librarians. The site notes the resources in the librarian section was developed in partnership with The American Library Association. The site lists twelve top resources for librarians.

For a lesson in the library, the curriculum in our district conducts a study on America Earhart. To supplement the lesson in the classroom, the activity connects to aviation, biography, engineering, geography, and women’s history. The subject areas the activity connects to are: language arts, math, science, social studies, and technology. www.timewarptrio.com/teachers-parents/lessons/pdf/twt-lesson-earhart.pdf

In learning about Amelia Earhart and utilizing the information from this site, the students would be in diverse-ability groupings and they would play a media Amelia Earhart Jeopardy game. The Jeopardy game would be based on the initial information the students have collected on Amelia Earhart. The rules for Jeopardy would be followed and discussed with the class. The winners of the game would get a homework pass for a subject approved by the classroom teacher.

When the activity is completed, the student groups would brainstorm and come up with tags. The tags could then be used in Wordplosion. Each group would go to the computer to play Wordplosion using the tags they came up with. @http://www.timewarptrio.com/games/wordsplosion/. The students would then play a different version of an Amelia Earhart Jeopardy game. This game would summarize the information the students learned about Ameila Earhart. The rules for Jeopardy would be followed and reviewed with the class. The winners of the game would get 10 minutes free time in the library to play a game on the computer or to have the librarian start reading a book to the group; or file folder games on information covered in the Amelia Earhart activities would be placed at the student group tables for student groups to play.

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