English Teacher Websites
This short list includes links to websites designed by and for English teachers. These all contain valuable resources, including examples of student work to help you better understand how to teach the assignments they include. I have made a point of avoiding commercial sites, preferring to link to those who are in the classroom doing the work we all do.
- Web English Teacher: "Web English Teacher presents the best of online teaching resources: lesson plans and activities, biography, e-texts, online criticism, Webquests, professional resources, jokes, puzzles, classroom-friendly sites, and videos. Pages are updated regularly. Bookmark this site and visit often!" (Description taken from the site)
- CyberEnglish: Created by English teacher Ted Nellen, this site offers helpful examples of a classroom that incorporates technology effectively and a teacher who has learned to use the Web to support his teaching (and his students).
- Outta Ray's Head: A very succinct site with abundant resources for high school English teachers. Most of the assignments include examples and helpful directions for teachers. A fine example of how useful the Web can be.
- Traci's Lists of Ten: teaching tips, pedagogical guidelines, administrative pointers, and the like, showing up in batches of ten, approximately every 10 days for the rest of the year.
Poetry Links
Desription needed
- The Internet Poetry Archive: This site, sponsored by the University of North Carolina Press, offers a wonderful audio archive of poems by Seamus Heaney, Czeslaw Milosz, Robert Pinsky, Margaret Walker, Yusef Komanyakaa, and Philip Levine. They grant fair use to those who use the poetry and recordings for personal or educational purposes.
- Fooling wiith Words: Bill Moyers' latest poetry project brings together some amazing performances by poets worth knowing about. I especially liked Kurtis Lamkin's performance, composed within the oral tradition and played on a 9-stringed instrument he learned while in Africa. He is a man who has chosen to commit his life to his art. W.S. Merwin's reading of his poem "Yesterday" is an imagined conversation between a father and his son.
- Americans' Favorite Poem Project: Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky asked Americans of all ages to name their favorite poem, explain its meaning to them, and read it for the Library of Congress bicentennial. This site will grow to offer educators and students rich support for the use of poetry in the classroom and in our lives.
Resource and Curriculum Sites
These sites complement the "English Teacher Websites" listed above, but offer specific curriculum materials I highly recommend.
- SCORE CyberGuides
- Schwabb Foundation"A Parent's Guide To Learning Differences": The Schwab Foundation for Learning is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to "helping kids with learning differences be successful in learning and life." The Foundation, based in San Mateo, CA, has collaborative ties to research and advocacy organizations nationwide, including the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities and the National Institutes of Health.
- State Standards for Each State: This school district houses on its pages the best collection of states' standards I've found.
- MCREL Language Arts Standards Homepage. This is the best set of language arts standards available. Very coherent, very helpful, and drawn, no doubt, from standards across the country.
