The Panasonic Academic Challenge is a highly academic national high school competition modeled after Florida's statewide tournament. Each team consists of six students (four players and two alternates) and one coach. As many as six teams may compete against each other in one competition. This is not a quick response, trivial pursuit contest. Instead, it is a slower-paced tournament in which players are asked questions from the areas of mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, the fine arts, foreign language (French and Spanish) and technology. The questions are written by educators from high schools and colleges throughout the nation.
In this competition, created by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation, high school students memorize and recite the work of great poets. This competition helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn about their literary heritage while competing at the classroom level, then moving on through school-wide, city-wide and regional competitions. Each state-level winner receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington (with a chaperone) to compete for the national championship. The state winner's school receives a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. Finalists compete at the National Finals in May, where scholarships and school stipends totaling $50,000 are awarded.
The Davidson Fellows scholarship program recognizes outstanding achievements of profoundly gifted young people who have developed their talents by contributing a significant piece of work in one of these submission areas: Mathematics, Science, Technology, Music, Literature, Philosophy or Outside the Box.
CARLA offers lessons and classroom tasks for teachers of French, German and Spanish. A virtual assessment center helps teachers develop proficiency-oriented instruction and performance measures. Their database tells where (in North America) students may study less commonly taught languages.
This organization provides teenagers a communication outlet for addressing important issues in their lives. It helps them develop their reading, writing, thinking, and reflection skills by: training teens in journalism, publishing a number of teen-written publications and providing a public forum. There are a number of resources for educators related to reading and writing, and many of the articles are gifted-related.
Youth Speaks is one of the top youth poetry, spoken word and creative writing programs in the country. It provides teens an excellent opportunity to share and compare their writing; some of their events include poetry slams, festivals and reading slams. Other features include a free after-school workshop, press resources, and a merchandise section. An underlying mission of Youth Speaks is to give teens the tools they need to apply their voices in creating social change.
This guide supplies the modern reader with background information on topics which Shakespeare assumed were familiar to Elizabethan audiences. Shakepeare provided "horseplay and slapstick comedy for the less educated in his audiences, while providing a wealth of allusion for the more educated." He assumed the educated members of his audiences were thoroughly grounded in Greek & Roman mythology and history; that they were knowledgeable about England's history and the geography of 16th century Europe. Dr Asimov does not intend this to be a literary evaluation, but provides the historical, legendary and mythological background of play. Shakespeare's works take on new dimensions which lend to greater enjoyment.
Beyond Five in a Row contains literature unit studies for ages 8 to 12. Chapter books, rather than picture books, are used, but families of profoundly gifted children will probably wish to use these unit studies before age 8 (they may begin anytime the child is ready to read chapter books). Literature selected includes such children's classics as The Cricket in Times Square, Homer Price, The Boxcar Children, and Sarah Plain and Tall. Instructions for the homeschooling parent and interdisciplinary hands-on activities are included.
The Bob Books are tiny sets of 4" x 5" books, perfect for little fingers. The series builds early reading skills incrementally starting with the beginning phonics sounds and uses a logical, structured method that has children reading right away. Part of the draw of these books is that young children can say they read the "whole book," thus increasing confidence. Clever and engaging black and white line illustrations are used (a child might even enjoy coloring them). The clever and humorous drawings help maintain attention.
This is a workbook to improve writing and communication skills. Builds skills in descriptive vocabulary, directionality, compare and contrast, classification, organization, similarities and differences.
Implement inquiry in the classroom with this book from Jeffrey Wilhelm. Engaging Readers & Writiers with Inquiry leads educators in using research-based techniques to meet mandated content-area standards while engaging students in productive, meaningful learning experiences.
This is a simple, multi-sensory teaching system for the etymologies of the English language, focusing on Greek and Latin roots. Much of the program uses colored, bordered cards, which may either be made by the student or teacher, or purchased separately for use with the program. All teaching tips are included for instruction in 63 Latin root words and 37 Greek root words. The word roots can be mixed and matched to make new words.
This workbook is great for homeschoolers. It helps students master the Latin and Greek roots by providing sequenced activities, practice sets and reviews. A separate response key is also provided. It has over 275 word bases, including the variations. For example, FAC (FIC), FACT (FECT) (FY) all mean "to do, to make." Each lesson has five sections: "Touching Base", "Branching Out", "Words in Progress", "Words in Action" and "Word of Interest". After every 3 lessons, there are review activities and practice sets. There is also a list of Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes in the back of the workbook.
This textbook discusses the three major questions: why we read, what we read, and how we interpret. The author lays out the major debates currently taking place within English departments and selections including: new historicism, feminism and gender studies, reader-response criticism, ethical criticism, and postcolonial and cultural studies.
This book is filled with writing from different authors' childhoods. "Each of the forty-two chapters in First Words includes a brief introduction to the author, the juvenilia with commentary by writer and editor linking the childhood and adult work, photographs of the author (then and now) and, in some cases, facsimile reproductions of the original manuscripts and drawings." It includes John Updike, Amy Tan, and Michael Crichton.
Designed by an educator who has taught grammar and writing from grades seven through the first year of college, this workbook emphasizes practice. It contains six separate topics: parts of speech, sentence structure, word usage, case, agreement, and style. Each page presents a brief lesson followed by related exercises. The book is available with or without answer keys following each section. Because the workbook arose from real classroom situations, it has been widely field-tested and is practical and effective
Make grammer fun by using this book from Brad Newton.30 creative, improvisational activities are included to help kids learn grammer, puncuation, critical thinking and problm solving. Children in grades 2-10 will enjoy Newton's approach for developing foundational language skills.
Collection of word origins and an entertaining primer on classical times. This book contains English idioms and maxims, and their origins from classical history, literature, philosophy and drama. Begins with Homer and ends with 2nd century A.D.
This collection of articles from Gifted Child Today (compiled by Susan K. Johnsen and James Kendrick) were selected specifically for the teacher who is searching for ways to serve students who are gifted in English/language arts.
What's more fun than a treasure hunt? Few other activities offer such excitement and challenge, or the wonderful sense of accomplishment. Now, imagine a treasure hunt that encourages your kids to start reading. From the author of Games for Reading comes the perfect learning aid for beginning readers and their parents. This book, featuring 50 treasure hunt games, provides weeks of family fun, and enables busy parents to help their kids become better readers. There's a new treasure hunt every day, each consisting of three or four clues. Every perforated page is a written clue that parents tear off, fold, hide, leading to familiar items and places in the home-from the fridge to the bed to the bathtub. As kids sharpen their reading skills, hunts become progressively more difficult. A bonus phonics game on the back of the final clue reinforces what kids learned that day.
Living Books is story telling programs with various titles like: Just Grandma & Me, Just Me and My Mom, Tortoise & the Hare, Arthurs Big Trouble and others. It is a great program which helps children read while entertaining them. It also allows you to switch between several languages like Spanish, French, German and Japanese.
A reprint of the nineteenth century classic reading primer. Still by far the best self study book for new readers. The use of pictures and review sections reinforce the learning and make it easy for kids to progress.
Nitty-Gritty Grammar is written by two women who are obsessed with grammar errors. The book covers just about every imaginable error that could happen in grammar in a funny, lighthearted manner. The authors even compare punctuation marks to traffic signals (a period is a stop sign, a comma a flashing yellow light). The books crowning glory is the nearly 30 cartoons on the subject of grammar that are sure to delight anyone while at the same time learning grammar rules.
This series is meant to introduce young people to great poets like Whitman, Poe, Kipling, Shakespeare, Browning, Dickinson, etc. Each book has about 25 poems or excerpts, vividly illustrated, with annotations to explain archaic or poetic terminology, as well as the historic context. The rhythms and rhymes are meant to spark the imagination of children, and make an inviting portal into great poetry.
Burdett transforms Shakespeare's complex verse into a format readily understood by children. There are wonderful drawings and anecdotes created by her Grade 2 and 3 students in Stratford, Ontario where she has taught Shakespeare for over two decades. Series includes:
A Child's Portrait of Shakespeare
Macbeth: For Kids
Romeo and Juliet: For Kids
The Tempest: For Kids
Twelfth Night: For Kids
A Midsummer Night's dream: For Kids
This book is a combination of a childrens version biography of Shakespeare, and a collection of hands-on projects related to Shakespeare's life and times. Many of the projects are theater-oriented, including costumes, props, and sound effects. The book contains historically accurate text, illustrations, and projects.
Simply Grammar features an oral approach to teaching the basics of English grammar through the intermediate and middle school levels. This approach is particularly attractive to families homeschooling gifted children, since gifted children often have an aversion to written drill and practice activities. The grammar program can be conducted with children of a variety of age levels at once; students may accelerate in the program as fast as they are able to master the material.
"Bryson has joyfully mined the rich ore of English...." He covers the history of English, origins of rules of grammar, and vagaries of the language. There are chapters on spelling and Americanisms, wordplay, pronunciation, word origins, names, usage and dialects.
This is a workbook series offering five levels of vocabulary studies. The publisher describes the layout: "Lessons begin with a Latin phrase frequently used in English and contain 11-15 words, plus: phonetic pronunciation; parts of speech and multiple definitions; illustrative sentences with culturally varied literary, historical, or geographical references; derivations of words; related forms of the same word; familiar words based on the same root; challenge words based on the same root; pictorial illustrations of varying style and mood, including humor; exercises on synonyms, antonyms, analogies, sentence completions, and usage; vocabulary in context in paragraph form."
A valuable resource for students, this book by Philip Steinbacher, helps students learn to love vocabulary lessons. Students are taught to recognize, define, comprehend and use these words in their everyday lives.
This multi-sensory grammar teaching program provides full instruction in the fundamentals of English grammar for the elementary and early middle school grade levels. Particularly recommended for twice-exceptional gifted children, especially those with dyslexia and other language learning disabilities. Advanced Winston Grammar kit is available for the junior high and high school grades.
Word Roots are workbooks for ages 8-11 or ages 12 to adult. By teaching kids to recognize the prefixes, roots, and suffixes that can reveal a word's meaning, you'll help your students expand their vocabulary, as well as their comprehension and spelling skills. Wonderful for warm-ups or word-of-the-day exercises, each activity introduces Greek or Latin roots, then builds understanding with their English counterparts.
These books teach vocabulary by giving students words to read in context, to write in sentences, and to recognize their meaning in exercises.
More than 3000 different vocabulary words are introduced and taught in a series of nine books of increasing difficulties. Words are drawn from literature, textbooks, and SAT-I vocabulary lists.
Part of the The Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education, this book by Michael S. Matthews, Ph.D introduces educators to the complexities and challenges of providing appropriate educational experiences for gifted English Language Learners.
This workbook helps elementary age writers refine their sentence and paragraph writing. It contains reproducible pages which model and provide practice in the basic components of writing. Including excercises to help students write more complex sentences, use figurative language, organize writing and thoughts better, and more.
This distance learning program through EPGY offers English courses from the fourth-grade level through the Advanced Placement level. Students are placed into English Expository Writing courses based on age and standardized test scores.
Advanced middle and high school students can experience this one- or two-week summer reading program where they will read great works of literature, converse with distinguished college professors and explore a whole new world of ideas through college-style seminar discussions on the campuses of Amherst College, Stanford University and The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. High school students will have the opportunity to sharpen their writing skills, prepare for the new verbal SAT, discuss college choices with professors and current college students, and tour local campuses.
The Read, Write & Type!™ Learning System provides systematic instruction with engaging games and lively graphics to help children learn to read. As children progress through the 40-lesson adventure, they become empowered to tackle the new words they encounter both in their reading and writing. But most of all, Read, Write & Type!™ is fun and easy to use.
This CD tests math and language abilities in a fun setting of rescuing Reader Rabbit in a castle. There is also hand-eye coordination games as well.
Grades 10 & 11; 2 weeks; residential. Open to advanced students who wish to refine their writing in a particular genre.
This site gives personalized English instruction to students of all ages using the parents' curriculum of choice. A full English program (reading, literature, composition, language and research, and communications) is taught via e-mail and fax. Students begin at their ability level and are guided towards excellence in the above areas. There are links for dictionaries, thesauruses, and grammar databases.
This online curriculum reatiler features an alphabetical list of classic novels that Glencoe has developed into literature study packages. They provide a brief description of each book along with a list of related readings and a downloadable study guide. The related readings include poems, articles, essays and short stories. The study guide is in a PDF format and can be downloaded and copied. They sell the packages complete with a hardcover copy of the book, the readings and the study guide.
"Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) is the easy way to teach pre-printing, printing and cursive! It was developed by Jan Z. Olsen, OTR, an occupational therapist and handwriting specialist. She has more than 25 years of experience helping children and training teachers and therapists. HWT is an inclusive method for teaching children of ALL ability levels. Children love it. Also, it doesn't take any special training to teach the Handwriting Without Tears method. Parents and new teachers enjoy the simple and clear directions that make it easy to help children. Experienced teachers appreciate the innovative techniques and limited preparation needed to have great success with the entire class."
Inspiration Software®, Inc. is a leader in visual thinking and learning that develops and publishes software tools that inspire learners of all ages to brainstorm, organize, plan, and create. With more than 10 million users worldwide, this software is revolutionizing visual learning in education—inspiring students to develop strong thinking and organizational skills and improve their academic performance.
This vendor provides curriculum guides and staff development for English/Language Arts teachers.
Interactive toys that teach children basic skills. This mixed media line of learning tools uses printed books and electronic gadgetry to help along young kids who have academic interest but are still early readers. There are programs that are focused on Science, Social Studies, and books on tape. The programs have a read aloud feature for children who are still developing reading vocabulary.
"Pieces of Learning staff, with expertise in Differentiation, Standards-Based Teaching Activities, Assessment, Underachievement, and Gifted and Talented Education, publish supplemental Activity Books to improve student thinking and questioning skills, encourage creativity in the language arts, promote critical thinking in math and science, explore character education, present research skills and provide enrichment in social studies. Teacher Resource book topics include differentiation, assessment, achievement, motivation, and teaching strategies."
This online catalogue offers course materials in many math subject areas and in phonics. Placement tests are available to help when deciding where to place students.
This website is home to Scholastic, the global children’s publishing and media company, and has a corporate mission of instilling the love of reading and learning for lifelong pleasure in all children. Recognizing that literacy is the cornerstone of a child’s intellectual, personal and cultural growth, Scholastic, for more than 83 years, has created quality products and services that educate, entertain and motivate children and are designed to help enlarge their understanding of the world around them. This website offers resources for teachers and parents, and games for kids.
Welcome to Stevenson Learning Skills, the company that publishes the Stevenson Reading Program, Semple Math and other materials for teaching essential skills to students. Our methods are unusual and innovative. We use established techniques like mnemonics (memory aids) and multisensory instruction in imaginative new ways. The materials accommodate common learning problems, such as attention deficits, phonological processing difficulties, memory weakness and sequencing confusion. In addition to publishing, we offer training and consult services. The Stevenson Language Skills Program covers reading, spelling and language arts. Semple Math teaches arithmetic operations, place value, word problems and more. Additional materials for teaching grammar, cursive writing and telling time is also available.
Here you’ll find reading instruction and literature-based materials to teach reading skills and language arts to students from pre-kindergarten through high school. Sundance has provides educators with the highest quality reading instructional materials to help your students succeed. Sundance has an array of innovative and creative teaching materials to help kids of all ages develop a lifelong love of reading!
The Verbal Advantage Student Edition was specifically developed to help junior high and high school students and is also great for adults who are well on their way to learning English as a second language. There are 16 lessons, two per audio unit, which introduce new vocabulary words using fun, dramatized stories, typical English paragraphs, and unique "top twenty" word categories.
This program promises to increase one's vocabulary by 15 minutes per day. There is a one-week free trial; the continuing program is $10 per month.
The WordMasters Challenge is a fun and mind-stretching classroom competition for Language Arts students in grades 3 - 12.
This online instructional service provides you with your own private writing teacher who works with your son or daughter on a daily basis via email, Monday through Friday. All that's required to use the individualized programs is a computer and the ability to communicate via email. Designed specifically to address the needs of the individual student, these programs can serve as a full-fledged writing curriculum, or as a supplement to virtually any other course of study. All students work at their own pace with their own teacher, and all of the hand-tailored services are guaranteed within 24 hours.
The National Storytelling Network (NSN) is a "member driven organization, with a Board of Directors elected by members from six regions across America. It offers direct services, publications and educational opportunities to several thousand individuals, local storytelling guilds and associations. These services are designed to improve the quality of storytelling at all levels - in entertainment venues, in classrooms and libraries, and wherever storytelling can make a contribution to quality of life. To facilitate that process, NSN sponsors the National Storytelling Conference in cooperation with local or regional members at a different location each year. The Conference provides educational workshops, demonstration programs and the National Storytelling Awards ceremony that recognizes storytelling excellence, leadership and service across the country."
The Great Books Foundation offers people of all ages an exciting way to read and discuss outstanding works of literature. As a nonprofit educational organization, we publish reading series for children and adults and conduct training in the shared inquiry method throughout the United States and abroad.
This interactive website is devoted to Lewis Carroll's two famous Alice books: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. There are numerous games, activities and quizzes.
This game takes its name from the writings of William Shakespeare. Players take turns moving around a board trying to land on the appropriate letter-spaces to spell a particular Game Word. More than 1,000 cards have questions from 30 different categories and six levels of difficulty. Although the difficult questions are tricky, many will often prove you actually know more about words than you think.
This edition of Bethump'd with Words® is expressly designed for parents and children, teachers and students to play together. It tests strategic skills and knowledge of everyday words, including many from the lingo of today's youth, and will entertain and challenge both participating age groups. It enables teachers to stretch brain muscles while stimulating a fundamental interest in words, language, and, ultimately, reading.
This game consists of reading short passages from famous books aloud, then having your partner answer trivia questions about what they just heard. Excellent for improving reading comprehension and memory skills.
A series of computer games that teach many different subjects and things. The series includes The Castle of Dr. Brain, The Island of Dr. Brain, The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain, Dr. Brain's IQ Adventure, Action Reaction, Puzzleopolis, Mindventure, and The Time Warp of Dr. Brain. Subjects covered range from math to antonyms and synonyms, logic and reasoning, astronomy, weights and measures.
This website provides numerous activities for the young and interested child. From the easy arts to more complicated activities, this site can accommodate young children and their parents with several hours of educational entertainment.
This website offers a FREE, reading incentive program dedicated to encouraging kids in grades K-8 to read. With the help of Rex Reader and Bailey Bookmark, kids have more than 4,000 of the most popular and acclaimed titles from which to choose. Book Adventure was created by the Sylvan Learning Foundation and is a non-profit organization.
The Children's Literature Web Guide is a website that gathers together and categorizes the growing number of Internet resources related to books for children and young adults. Much of the information that you can find through these pages is provided by others: fans, schools, libraries, and commercial enterprises in the book world.
Daily Grammar no longer provides an 'email a day' service. You can however view the archive section of our web site to enjoy the Daily Grammar lessons at your own pace.
Mr. Bill Johanson is the author of the lessons. He has taught high school and junior high school English classes for thirty years, doing a great job of preparing his students for college.
Teachers have our permission to duplicate and use the lessons in their classrooms so long as the copyright information is preserved.
The Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature (DAWCL) has more than 4,500 records from 56 awards across six English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Ireland). The user should be a librarian or a teacher intervening for a child-reader, although anyone may make use of it to find the best in children's literature including parents, book store personnel, and children and young adults.
ECCE ROMANI is an online Resource for students interestes in studying Latin.
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. A magnet for scholars from around the globe, the Folger is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, as well as magnificent collections of other rare Renaissance books and manuscripts on all disciplines—history and politics, theology and exploration, law and the arts.
This website contains 5000 collegiate words with brief definitions designed to help you communicate effectively, be more persuasive, and even score higher on the SAT, GRE and other tests. An audio CD is also available for purchase.
This website provides links to a number of gifted websites, including a listing of professional associations and news publications. There is also a listing of specific subject matter links on such topics as math, science and social studies.
This website allows visitors to play a classic word game every day or visit our archive to play games you missed during the past two months. The Classic Word Games come in four fun formats: Definition Demolition: Use definition clues to unscramble three words before the bomb goes off! Flip Flop: It's as easy as matching the synonyms, antonyms, or slang terms before time runs out. Transform Brainstorm: Presto chango! Transform one word into another one letter at a time by matching the clues. Match Maker: Know your word histories? Or geography? Or history? Prove it with our hot matching challenge.
This website is a great introduction to past and present Nobel Laureates. Articles written by Laureates, biographies and autobiographical essays as well as photos and some video footage are on the site. Fascinating information into the lives of these accomplished intellectuals.
In association with MarcoPolo, the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation, this website can be used as an effective language arts and reading resource for both teachers and students. This site is full of Internet-based content, including: a database of K-12 lesson plans, an index of student reading materials and a large database of English web resources.
This online curriculum website is offered by the Californis Department of Education. The SCORE Literature Cyberguides were designed as part of a California-wide effort to create model supplemental and enrichment materials based on California's state standards in reading and language arts. The units are available in four levels: K-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12; a few units are also available in Spanish. Each unit clearly delineates the standards covered by the unit; specifies materials needed; and provides step-by-step instructions for the unit activities, including accompanying websites (some with primary source materials). The units include both modern and classic literature; almost 200 units are currently available.
Fast ForWord programs are based on years of scientific research on how the brain learns, and use patented technologies to build oral language and learning skills in a highly efficient, structured way. Fast ForWord exercises help students master the sounds, structures, and patterns of oral language, giving them the tools to develop an automatic mastery of the fundamental skills that they will need in all aspects of learning.
The comprehensive language lessons teach you how to speak and read new languages at your own pace. There is no subscription, monthly fee or software to download to learn a new language. Loquella developed this language course based off the Foreign Service Institute's language lessons. FSI has been using this methond for over 30 years to teach thousands of serious language students. You choose your own level of difficulty as well as your own way of learning.
The Reader Rabbit Kindergarten Series is a group of interactive computer adventures in which the child is tasked with accomplishing a "big-picture" effort (rebuilding a carnival, cleaning up a park, etc.) by performing a series of educational tasks such as spelling, math, and sorting. The software is designed to advance your child when they master a task, but also properly review areas where more work is needed. It makes learning fun through humorous but challenging exercises.
This web site features live tailor-made French lessons with a trained teacher through your personal computer. All you need is a webcam and headsets. Take your lessons as you wish according to your free time, your needs or your desire, without being forced to book at set times.