WEB
RESOURCES FOR LITERACY TEACHERS
The literacy sites listed here are wide ranging. We have organized them into 21 categories for convenience, but many have multiple functions and defy easy classification. The categories we created are:
Children's
Literature
Children's Book Awards
Books and E-Books
Miscellaneous Teacher Resources
Struggling
Readers and Exceptional Students
Reading
Processes and Strategies
Interactive
Sites for Kids
Search
Engines
Links to Teachers and Kids
Selected Author Sites
Literacy-Related Organizations
Online Journals
Government Sites
Selected Research Centers
Selected UK and
Commonwealth Sites
Online References
ERIC Sites
Help for Parents
Sites for ESL and Adult Literacy
Historical
Sites
Hoax
Sites
Please
scroll to the one you want.
Children's
Literature
Internet School Library Media Center. A
beautifully designed site with links to author sites, awards, commercial
publishers, organizations, special education, core content subjects,
technology, and more. Housed at
James Madison University and administered by Inez Ramsey. http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil
The Children's
Literature Web Guide. An attempt to gather together and
categorize 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 involved in the book world. http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
TeachingBooks.net. Combines many great features: multimedia components, discussion guides to more than 1,000 books, author study, links to children's literature sites. http://www.teachingbooks.net
Carol Hurst. This site is now sponsored by Teaching PreK-8. It is a collection of reviews of children's literature and ways to use children's literature in the classroom. Features literature-related activities across many subjects and themes. In addition to author studies and book reviews, the site also contains a great deal of professional information. Direct links for ordering literature. http://www.carolhurst.com
Jim Trelease. Though a bit commercial, this site, by the read-aloud master, offers some unusual links (e.g., parenting, publishers, author sites, "kid-safe" sites) and other features. Worth a visit. http://www.trelease-on-reading.com
Vandergrift's Children's Literature Page. Great site for children's literature, created by Kay E. Vandergrift of Rutgers University. http://scils.rutgers.edu/%7Ekvander/ChildrenLit/index.html
Children's Book Awards
Choices. Lists books having received one of the following
distinctions: Children's Choice, Young Adults' Choice, or Teachers'
Choices. In my experience, these
books are more likely to connect with young people than Newbery or Caldecott
Award winners. Deep-link within
the IRA site: http://www.ira.org/choices
University of Calgary's Awards Links. Links to
most major childrenŐs book awards, including many of the specific links that
follow in this section. Canadian,
British, New Zealand, and Australian awards too. http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/awards.html
Newbery Medal. Operated by the American Library
Association. Extensive information
on current and past winners, honor books, history of the award, selection
process. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Book_Media_Awards&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=31915
Caldecott Medal.
Extensive information on current and past winners, honor books, history of the
award, selection process. Operated by the American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/alsc/caldecott.html
Coretta Scott King Award. This award "honors African American authors and illustrators for
outstanding contributions to children's and young adult literature that promote
understanding and appreciation of the culture and contribution of all people to
the realization of the American Dream." Offers information on the history of
the award, criteria and selection, its present and past winners. Operated by the Amer. Library Asso. http://www.ala.org/srrt/csking
Hans Christian Andersen Medal. Established
in 1956 by the International Board on Books for Young People. Currently awarded
every two years to one author and one illustrator in recognition of his or her
entire body of work. http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ibby.html
Phoenix Award. Given each year by the Children's Literature Association to an
English-language book that was first published twenty years earlier but that
did not receive a major award at the time of its publication. http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/phoenix.html
Georgia Children's
Book Awards. Does your state recognize children's literature that
has been selected by local educators or children? Do a search and find out! http://www.coe.uga.edu/gachildlit/awards/index.html
Books and E-Books
The Intersect Digital Library. Features an extensive "library of 'supported text' books incorporating resources and study strategies that help students learn more from what they read." Contains not only online texts with various support features but lesson plans and help for creating your own supported texts. This is Lynne Anderson-Inman's superb site at the University of Oregon. Be sure to note the Diary of Opal Whiteley. http://intersect.uoregon.edu
Project Gutenberg. Thousands of public domain online texts
of famous works. "Fine literature
digitally re-published." http://promo.net/pg
Internet Public Library. The IPL
offers the full texts of some classics.
Children's
literature, mostly in the public domain, is also included. Many interesting features for kids. http://www.ipl.org
The English Server. This site is housed at the Iowa State
University. Makes available many
literary texts online, as well as literary commentary. "Literacy and Education" link
is useful. http://www.eserver.org
Reading A-Z. Offers downloadable books for guided reading and phonics. Each book has lesson plans and worksheets and the benchmark books have running record forms. http://www.readinga-z.com
Fable Library. Offers a number of engaging, downloadable fables (new ones, not the classics), mostly at beginning reading levels. Also contains a "Make Your Own Fable" feature, enabling children to create their own fables and submit them to the site. http://www.fablevision.com/place/library/index.html
Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents. Contains a searchable database of "more than 6,000 in print books that deserve to be read by Spanish-speaking children and adolescents (or those who wish to learn Spanish)." Headings and descriptions are bilingual. Updated weekly. Sponsored by California State University, San Marcos. http://www.csusm.edu/csb/intro_eng.html
The Velveteen Rabbit. Online version of this classic. (Text only.) http://www.writepage.com/velvet.htm
The Real Mother Goose. Complete online texts of the rhymes. Introduction by May Hill Arbuthnot. Beautifully illustrated. http://trmg.designwest.com
Grimms' Fairy Tales. Twelve tales from the 1914 translation appear on this National Geographic site. Also offers activities, resources, and map. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html
Miscellaneous Teacher Resources
ReadWriteThink. Sponsored jointly by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the MarcoPolo Education Foundation. It is a "free website offering standards-based lesson plans and online resources that integrate Internet content meaningfully into K-8 reading and language arts instruction." http://www.ira.org/publications/rwt/
Gallileo Internet Resources. Links to many other sources, including ERIC, USDOE, lesson plans, materials, more. Operated by Univ, System of Ga. Board of Regents. http://www.usg.edu/galileo/internet/education/education.html
Internet4Classrooms. A a collaborative project developed by Susan Brooks and Bill Byles, this site contains a multitude of resources for educators at all grade levels. Includes online texts. http://www.internet4classrooms.com/lang.htm
ABC Teach. This colorful and easy-to-browse website is one of my favorites. I recommend it to any educator or parent looking for useful and creative materials and ideas. It offers month-to-month teaching themes, a rain forest unit, printable Dolch lists, literature materials (e.g., Charlotte's Web), portfolio resources, book report forms, graphic organizers, and many, many more. http://www.abcteach.com
School Express. Contains free worksheets, free units, free math online activities, free stories online, award maker, spell maker, funtime, and many other activities. http://www.schoolexpress.com
Public Broadcasting System. Many kid activities related to characters they are familiar with, such as The Big Red Dog, Bert, Ernie etc. There are also many interactive writing activities. Included are links to other PBS sites. http://www.pbs.org
Georgia Learning Connections. A great site for lesson plans, regular and special education information, and teaching strategies across the curriculum. http://www.glc.k12.ga.us
Apple Learning Interchange. A great site for lesson plans, regular and special education information, and teaching strategies across the curriculum. http://www.ali.apple.com
NEA. Home page of the National Education Association. Many links to resources and information for teachers. Try the "Readacross" link for materials, lesson plans, and more. http://www.nea.org
Preschool by Stormie. Provides preschool teachers with monthly thematic activities. Stormie suggests a shape, colors, number, letters, gross motor focus, fine motor focus, nursery rhyme, water table activity, and mini-georgraphic/multicultural idea per month. http://www.preschoolbystormie.com
The Perpetual Preschool. Offers teachers month-by-month ideas for various activities, plus teaching tips (e.g., about behavior management, home visits, etc.), seasonal themes, "Teacher 2 Teacher" (where teachers correspond online), and learning center ideas. http://www.perpetualpreschool.com
Enchanted Learning. Offers background information and free printable materials and pictures on a variety of common topics (e.g., butterflies, dinosaurs, states, Antarctica, rainforests). http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/Home.html
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE!). Offers
hundreds of educational resources
supported by by U.S. Federal government agencies in various subjects including
the arts, educational technology, foreign languages, health and safety,
language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, etc. http://www.ed.gov/free
Between the Lions. This site is tied to the PBS series of
the same name. It features over
200 games and stories based on the series, divided into 30 web sites, one for
each episode. Each site follows the same phonics/whole language curriculum as
the series. http://www.pbskids.org/lions
CyberGuides. These are activities and lesson plans
centered around popular childrenŐs literature, grades K-12. Prepared through S.C.O.R.E. (Schools of
California Online Resources in Education) http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
Kathy Schrock. Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized
list of sites on the Internet found useful for enhancing curriculum and
teachers' professional growth.
A branch of DiscoverySchool.com. http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/index.html
Library in the Sky. Contains over 10,000 links to some of
the best educational resources on the Internet, The Library in the Sky guides
teachers, students, parents, librarians, and members of the community on their
journeys through cyberspace. http://www.nwrel.org/sky
Song Lyrics.com. Check out the lyrics to those songs
your teens are listening to! (Plus
many others.). Linked to Google as
a search engine. http://www.songlyrics.com/songlyrics
Education World. This site claims a searchable database
of 500,000 resources. Links
include: Lesson Planning, News/Eye on School, Curriculum, Books in Education,
Administrators, Education Site Reviews, Financial Planning. Sponsored by American Fidelity
Assurance Company. http://www.education-world.com
Alphabet Superhighway. The Alphabet Superhighway is a resource
for teachers to find materials and ideas for teaching almost any part of the
elementary or secondary curriculum; it is a place for students to browse for
ideas and materials for reports and for in depth information on topics of
interest, for classes to build exhibits on problem based projects, for
challenges, and for fun http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash/index_1.html
Teacher's Desk. A collection of lesson ideas for
Spelling, Writing, English, Reading, and Vocabulary, especially for grades 5 and 6. http://www.teachersdesk.org
Classroom Connect. Online form of a publication designed
as "the K-12 educators' practical guide to using the Internet
in the classroom." Loads of resources. http://www.classroom.com
New York Times. Presents a daily article from the New
York Times, complete with classroom activities, plus this date in history, a
crossword puzzle, and a current events quiz. Also offers online software and e-mail access to reporters. http://www.nytimes.com/learning
Teaching with Folklore. Resources page for
teaching folklore (myths, legends, tales, fables, religious lore). Developed by Gary Holzgang, a teacher at
Hemmingford Elementary School, New Frontiers School Board, Quebec. Offers
lesson plans, resources, search function, contact information, more. http://www.qesn.meq.gouv.qc.ca/folklore/index.htm
Aaron ShepardŐs RT Page. Devoted to
readerŐs theater. Includes advice
on creating classroom scripts from childrenŐs literature and also a number of
downloadable scripts ready to use.
Also offers contact information and a means of sharing scripts. http://www.aaronshep.com/rt
KinderKorner. Great site for early childhood teachers, created by Victoria Smith! It is packed with resources, plus she shows pictures of how she gets her classroom ready for the beginning of school. www.kinderkorner.com
Reading Rockets. Gives lots of information for both parents and teachers. Operated by WETA, a PBS station in Maryland. www.readingrockets.org
Nancy Keane's Booktalks. Good site for ideas and tips about giving booktalks. www.nancykeane.com/booktalks
TeacherFiles.com. Offers free clip art, plus "innovative lessons and resources for teachers." A creative site operated by Virginia teacher Shayni Tokarczyk. http://www.teacherfiles.com/index.html
Reading Rainbow. There are two key sites associated with this popular series. Both offer descriptions and suggested activities by title. http://www.canlearn.com/READINGR/rr-alt.html
Tucows. Allows you to download freeware and shareware. Bills itself as the largest software download site. http://www.tucows.com/
edHelper. Lots of units, lesson plans, and teaching ideas, but you must subscribe. http://www.edhelper.com/
Starfall. This sight offers free resources, including interactive activities, and also low-cost resources. http://www.starfall.com/
Struggling
Readers and Exceptional Students
International Dyslexia Association (IDA). The "oldest learning disabilities organization in the nation, founded in 1949." Offers resources, information, and research for educators, parents, and others. Useful links. http://www.interdys.org/index.jsp
AVKO Dyslexia Research Foundation. Offers resourses and commercial products. Somewhat out of the mainstream. A related site is http://www.spelling.org. http://www.avko.org
Council for Exceptional Children. Homepage for
the CEC, this internet site provides teachers with a valuable resources for
their exceptional students. http://www.cec.sped.org
LD OnLine. Provides information and suggestions for parents, teachers, and students. Useful links and activity section. A great site for lesson plans, regular and special education information, and teaching strategies across the curriculum. http://www.ldonline.org
Reading
Processes and Strategies
Four Blocks. Patricia Cunningham's site, created to provide information about her Four Blocks model. Offers overviews, suggestions, research, and commercial resources. http://www.wfu.edu/~cunningh/fourblocks
SEDL. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's site, organized by area of reading (e.g., decoding, comprehension, letter knowledge, etc.). Contains a great deal of background on each area.http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework
Reading/Literacy Resources for Present and Future Teachers. This marvelous site, constructed by David Lund at the Southern Utah University, offers useful links to nearly every dimension of literacy (e.g., fluency, content literacy, diversity, comprehension, assessment). Links to articles, printable materials, and key sites. Frequently updated. http://www.suu.edu/faculty/lundd/readingsite/readingresources
ReadingQuest. Raymond Jones' site containing explanations of key strategies for teaching vocabulary and comprehension. The strategies are universal and well validated but the examples here have a social studies context. Included are semantic feature analysis, graphic organizers, reciprocal teaching questioning the author, question-answer relationships (QARs), KWL, comparison-contrast charts, story maps, and many more. http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest
The
Literacy Web. Don Leu's excellent site at Uconn; great links to many
resources in all major areas of literacy.
In Don's words, "The Literacy Web is an extensive collection of the
very best resources we have found on the Internet to support teachers with
limited time. Julie [Coiro] has
organized The Literacy Web so that you may quickly explore these resources by
grade level or by a specific topic area to find the resources you need. http://www.literacy.uconn.edu
Interactive
Sites for Kids
WordPlays.
Interactive word games of all kinds and at many levels, such as Boggler,
Crossword Challenge, Words In Word, Jumble, Anagram, Word Morph and Crossword
Helper. Contains online
dictionary. Created and maintained by one dedicated individual, Richard
DeSimine. http://www.wordplays.com
Wacky Web Tales. Children can write their own funny tales by picking a title and filling in the blanks with nouns and verbs. (Based on Mad-Libs.) The tales geared for grade 3+. http://www.eduplace.com/tales
Fun Brain. Full of games for children of all ages and tends to be especially fun for school-age children. There are also teacher and parent resources available on this site. http://www.funbrain.com
Giggle Poetry. This website encompasses a whole realm of poetry and activities to do with poetry. The website was created by Bruce Lansky, and he gives students opportunities to rate poems, submit poems, ask a poet questions, read interviews, and learn how to write poetry. The site also includes links to poetryteachers.com and fictionteachers.com. http://www.gigglepoetry.com
Discovery School. For parents, students and teachers. Support for quizzes, worksheets, puzzlemaker, and lesson plans. http://www.discoveryschool.com
KidsReads.com. An excellent site for hands-on use by kids. It is easy to navigate and there is little advertising. This site features: video interviews with authors, sneak previews of new books, opportunities to write to authors, a question of the week, student responses to questions about literature, online trivia quizzes about books, word scrambles with book ties, a bookshelf featuring entire books online, information about many authors, and links to other literature sites. http://www.kidsreads.com
The Write Site. This Ohio site offers tips to middle schoolers on writing well. It has a journalistic focus and provides plenty of background on newspaper publishing and related topics. http://www.writesite.org
Kid's Search Tools. An Internet search tool for
children. Search sites are screened
for childrenŐs safety. http://www.rcls.org/ksearch.htm
Little Explorers. ChildrenŐs Online Engish Dictionary
containing over 1,200 entries.
Also contains English-French, English-German, English-Portuguese, or the English-Spanish version. There is a list of classroom activities
that use the Little Explorers site. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dictionary.html
Bibliomania. Lots of online public domain books. http://www.bibliomania.com
Jolly Roger. Lots of teen classics online, chat room
available for students to chat about books they have read. http://www.jollyroger.com/treasureisland.html
State Information. Gives information about all 50 states,
including a bio and picture of the governor, the state flower, capital, links,
etc. Just replace "ga" in this address
with the two-letter postal abbreviation of the state you wish to research. http://www.state.ga.us
CyberPuppy Software. Offers a way to construct a journal for
those who may not be motivated to do so.
Provides email prompts and a student's responses to them are housed in the
form of an electronic journal that can be viewed on a customized
web page. A password is assigned
and it's all free. http://www.CyberPuppy.com
Purdue University's
Online Writing Lab (OWL). Offers advice to secondary and college
students on grammar, writing in various disciplines, Internet research,
more. Good resource for ESL
writers. http://owl.english.purdue.edu
Ask Jeeves. Pose
any factual question and let "Jeeves," a virtual manservant, look up the answer. This site is linked to several major
search engines. It provides not
only the answer but lots of related information. Results can be a bit complex, but upper elementary students
should be able to sift through them. http://www.askjeeves.com
Yahooligans. Page full of links for kids –
some educational, others just for fun.
Excellent kid-friendly search engine. http://www.yahooligans.com
Word Central. Offers a student dictionary, a "Build Your Own Dictionary" option, and the "Daily Buzzword." Operated by Merriam-Webster. Daily buzzword gives in-depth descriptions and even a nonthreatening multiple-choice question. http://www.wordcentral.com
CIA World Fact Book. This site offers extensive information (maps, facts, figures) about countries. This is not really a kid site but some will find it intriguing because of the CIA connection, which is quite real. An excellent database for strategic reading. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
Search
Engines
Google Images. A relatively new feature of this excellent search engine is the "Images" option. By entering your request and then clicking on the Images link, you retrieve only pictures. Excellent tool for struggling readers with imaging difficulties or others who find the Internet's labyrinth of hypertext a little daunting. http://www.google.com
Metasearch Engines. Ever think your search engine may have missed a few sites? You're right. Google, for instance, captures only 42% of indexable web pages. Try one of the new super engines that combine regular search engines and give you a single list.
Links to Teachers and Kids
Rteacher Listserv.
IRA's listserv, now bringing
together over 1,000 reading educators.
Subscribers can pose questions or merely "lurk" and follow
discussion threads. Easy to get on
and off. You can subscribe to a
digest version if you wish and receive just one composite message per day. An excellent means of sharing expertise
with educators you'd be unlikely ever encounter in person. There is no fee and
you need not be a member of IRA to subscribe. The following site gives directions for subscribing: http://www.ira.org/virtual/rt_listserv.html
Children's
Stomping Ground.
Contains links to several sites for people interested in starting pen pal
correspondence, either by email or snail mail. Operated by the Blackett Family in the U.K. http://www.oink.demon.co.uk/kids.htm
Teaching.com. Intercultural email classroom
connections; allows you to link up with other teachers so that your students
can exchange email. http://www.iecc.org
American School Directory. Links to
over 70,000 schools with web sites.
Contains a search engine "School Reports" options. The "Education Connection"
provides links to other web sites of interest to teachers, parents, and
students. Students can also take
virtual field trips to NSF, NASA, IBM, and more. http://www.asd.com
Selected Author Sites
The following woefully but unavoidably incomplete list
of author sites combines "official" sites (not all authors have them)
with other useful ones. Please
forgive me if I've left out your favorite. If I have, simply go to Google.com and type in your author's
name. Chances are, you'll be
overwhelmed.
Lloyd Alexander http://www.cas.usf.edu/lis/alis/lis5937/prior/eliza.htm
Tedd Arnold http://www.geocities.com/~teddarnold
Natalie Babbitt http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/babbitt.htm
L. Frank Baum http://www.literarytraveler.com/spring/west/baum.htm
Judy Blume http://www.judyblume.com
Jan Brett http://www.janbrett.com
Marc Brown http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/arthur
Eve Bunting http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bunting.htm
Eric Carle http://www.eric-carle.com
Nancy Carlson http://www.nancycarlson.com
Lewis Carroll http://www.lewiscarroll.org/carroll.html
Beverly Cleary http://www.beverlycleary.com
Brian Cleary http://www.briancleary.com
Susan Cooper www.thelostland.com
Sharon Creech http://www.sharoncreech.com
Christopher Paul Curtis http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/curtis.htm
Karen Cushman http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/author/cushman
Debbie Dadey http://www.baileykids.com/authors.htm
Roald Dahl http://www.roalddahl.com/
Teri Daniels http://www.TeriDanielsBooks.com
Tomie DePaola http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/depaola.htm
Sylvia Engdahl http://www.sylviaengdahl.com
Sid Fleischman http://www.carr.org/authco/fleischman.htm
Mem Fox http://www.memfox.net
Paula Fox http://www.frontstreetbooks.com/apage/main_biopf.htm
Jean Fritz http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/fritz.htm
Charles Ghigna
("Father Goose") www.CharlesGhigna.com
Patricia Reilly Giff http://www.bcplonline.org/kidspage/kids_pgiff.html
Brothers Grimm http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html
Virginia Hamilton http://www.virginiahamilton.com
Barbara Haworth-Attard http://www.barbarahaworthattard.com
Kate Greenaway http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/artists2/greenway.htm
Anna Grossnickle Hines http://www.aghines.com
Will Hobbs http://www.willhobbsauthor.com
Deborah Hopkinson http://people.whitman.edu/~hopkinda
Erick Ingraham http://www.erickingraham.com
Brian Jacques http://www.redwall.org/dave/jacques.html
Marcia Thornton Jones http://www.baileykids.com/authors.htm
Ezra Jack Keats http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/keats/biography.html
Brian Lies http://www.brianlies.com
Madeleine L'Engle http://www.madeleinelengle.com
Lois Lenski http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/ressubj/speccol/lenski/Welcome.html
Laura Leuck http://patmedia.net/aleuck/
Arnold Lobel http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/arnoldlobel.htm
Lois Lowry http://www.ipl.org/youth/AskAuthor/Lowry.html
Bill Martin, Jr. http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/billmartin.htm
Susan Rowan Masters
http://www.madbbs.com/~srmasters
Nancy McArthur http://junior.apk.net/~mcarthur
Suse McDonald http://www.create4kids.com
Walter Dean Myers http://scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/myers.html
A. A. Milne http://www.pooh-corner.com/biomilne.html
Robert Munsch http://www.robertmunsch.com
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor http://www.ipl.org/youth/AskAuthor/Naylor.html
Scott O'Dell http://www.scottodell.com/
Janie Lynn Panagopoulos http://www.JLPanagopoulos.com/
Linda Sue Park http://www.lindasuepark.com
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent http://www.dorothyhinshawpatent.com
Katherine Patterson http://www.terabithia.com
Gary Paulsen http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen
Tamora Pierce http://www.tamora-pierce.com
Patricia Polacco http://www.patriciapolacco.com
Beatrix Potter http://www.beatrixpottersociety.org.uk
Jack Prelutsky http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/jack_home.htm
Robert Quackenbush http://www.rquackenbush.com
J.K. Rowling http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author
Louis Sachar http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/rc/rc_ab_lsa.html
Richard Scarry http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/scarry.htm
Dr. Seuss http://www.seuss.org/seuss/seuss.home.html
Neal Shusterman http://www.storyman.com
William Steig http://www.williamsteig.com
Robert Louis Stevenson http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/rls/rls.html
R.L. Stine http://www.scholastic.com/goosebumps/books/stine/index.htm
Phoebe Stone http://www.phoebestone.com
Nikki Tate http://www.stablemates.net
J. R. R. Tolkien http://www.tolkiensociety.org
Chris Van Allsburg http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/author/cva/index.html
Jules Verne http://jv.gilead.org.il
Carole Boston Weatherford http://www.boydsmillspress.com/authors.tpl?command=showpage&authorid=0769
David Wiesner http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/wiesner
Laura Ingalls Wilder http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/frames.html
Laurence Yep http://scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/yep.html
Literacy-Related Organizations
International Reading Association. The
principal organization for literacy educators. Offers literacy links, bookstore, listservs, research,
"Choices" booklists (Children's, Young Adults', and Teachers'),
grants, conferences. Also accessible at www.reading.org. http://www.ira.org
National Reading Conference. Information
about the organization, which consists mainly of reading researchers, its
annual meeting, and listserv. An
excellent section on "Literacy Links" is guest-edited contains both current
and archived links. http://www.nrconline.org
National Council of Teachers of English. Site
contains ideas for teaching English, Literacy, and Language Arts for P-16 teachers. Also contains information on books,
journals and NCTE news. http://www.ncte.org
American Library Association. Contains
links to many author sites and book awards, such as those listed in a preceding
section. http://www.ala.org
Children's Book
Council. CBC online contains links for teacher,
parents, and authors in their quest to encourage children to read. Ideas
for Children's Book Week.
http://www.cbcbooks.org
American Educational Research Association. Foremost
organization of educational researchers in U. S. (Not limited to reading.) "Net Resources" link offers powerful search
options. http://aera.net
National Association for the Education of Young Children. Contains
information on NAEYCŐs membership, conferences, professional development,
position papers, and their journal, Young Children. http://www.naeyc.org
Online Journals
Reading Online. IRA's online journal. Treats all aspects of literacy and is
by no means limited to technology applications. Still free to all! http://www.readingonline.org
Education Week. Current issue plus archives. You can register for e-mail
updates. Also contains a link to
Teacher Magazine. http://www.edweek.org
Teacher Magazine. Contains current issue and links to
grants and fellowship opportunities for you and contests and scholarship
opportunities for your students.
http://www.edweek.org
Teaching K-8. Intended to supplement the print
magazine, not duplicate it. Contains teaching ideas, loads of links. http://www.teachingk-8.com
iT's Magazine.
This publication is for teachers and students of English (ESL) around
the world and provides materials for both. It offers pen pal/keypal opportunities for the exchange of
ideas. There is an archive of teacher materials from back issues with notes for
the teacher and steps in using the materials. http://www.its-online.com
Government Sites
U. S. Department of Education. Lots of
links to agencies, documents, research, grants. http://www.ed.gov
USDE's National
Center for Education Statistics. Lots of online research
summaries, especially those involving demographics. http://nces.ed.gov
USDE's Office of
Educational Research and Instruction. Since OERI
was terminated, this site contains archived information. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/SAI
USDE's Institute of Education Sciences. Formerly
OERI. Established in November, 2002, to increase the government's research
focus on scientific evidence only.
IES consists of the National Center for Education Research, the National
Center for Education Statistics, and the National Center for Education
Evaluation and Regional Assistance. http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html?src=mr
Thomas. Allows you to locate and track
legislation on literacy (and other matters) in the U.S. House and Senate. Search capability by bill number and by
key word/s. Also contains links to
Congressional Record, Committee activity, roll call votes. Full text of key historical documents
available, including U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Federalist
Papers. (Named for Thomas
Jefferson.) http://thomas.loc.gov
Reading Report Card. Report of the most recent National
Assessment of Educational Progress, with access to long-term trend results. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading
Selected Research Centers
Research Reports from the National Research and
Development Centers. Makes available over 600 reports from
the 12 federal research and development
centers. Reports are in
full text and/or PDF format. http://research.cse.ucla.edu
Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement
(CIERA). Database, research summaries, "10 Principles," "Hot Lists," more. http://www.umich.edu/~ciera
Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA). CELA is "dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English
and language arts. CELA's research seeks to learn what elements of
curriculum, instruction, and assessment are essential to developing high
literacy and how schools can best help students achieve success." http://cela.albany.edu
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). CAST is
"an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology to
expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities."
Conducts research and develops software (e.g., Bailey's Book House,
Scholastic's WiggleWorks). Good
source of brain research linked to reading problems. http://www.cast.org
National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL). Based at the
University of Pennsylvania, NCAL offers a strong collection of resources in the
area of literacy research. Also
includes information on publications and software. http://ncal.literacy.upenn.edu/
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Now part of
the University of Toronto, the OISE site offers an extensive network of
resources, programs, and workshops. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/
Selected UK and
Commonwealth Sites
United Kingdom Reading Association. Information
about publications, issues, awards, research, plus an excellent collection of
links to other UK sources. An IRA
affiliate. http://www.ukla.org
Australian Literacy Educators' Association. Information
on literacy education in Australia, publications, standards, awards,
conferences. An IRA affiliate. http://www.alea.edu.au
New Zealand Reading Association. Links
to universities, publishers, awards, New Zealand writers, NZ Book Council,
events, more. An IRA affiliate. http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/community/organisations/nzread.html
British Dyslexia Association. This organization occasions much interaction. The BDA "offers advice,
information and help to families, professionals and dyslexic individuals."
http://www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk
Basic Skills Agency.
Strong on family/adult literacy.
This is the "national agency for basic skills in England and
Wales" and is government sponsored. http://www.basic-skills.co.uk
National Literacy Trust. Sponsored by
the Basic Skills Agency. Purpose is to further literacy generally. Extensive
database. http://www.literacytrust.org.uk
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. This is the
national organization for educational technology in England and Wales. Not
limited to literacy. http://www.becta.org.uk
Online References
iTools. Online dictionary (Webster's), rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, maps,
phone directories. etc. http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html
WordNet. Princeton UniversityŐs online thesaurus
that groups nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in related categories. http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn
Onelook. Online dictionary, impressive in
scope. Contains almost 3 million
words. http://www.onelook.com
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Offers quick
look-ups plus a thesaurus, word games, word of the day, more. (Connected with Word Central, listed previously.) http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm
Encyclopaedia Britannica. The entire contents
online with a convenient search engine and many related links. By subscription. http://www.britannica.com
Library of Congress. Home page of the most
extensive information system in the world (except for the Internet!). Sections for parents and kids. Maps available. http://www.loc.gov
Wordsmith.org.
Offers several intriguing
features. A Word a Day provides
instructions for signing up through email to receive an interesting word and
its definition every day. Audio
pronunciations are available. (You
can receive today's word without signing on.) Site also provides anagrams – just type in a word or
phrase. Offers other reference
services via email. http://www.wordsmith.org
First Names and What They Mean. Provides
derivation of over 6,000 first names.
Designed primarily for expectant parents but of interest to anyone. http://www.zelo.com
Readability Sites. Just in case you lost your print copies, two readability formulas are online: the Fry and the SMOG – directions, tables, graphs, everything you need. Just to keep such formulas in proper perspective, however, remember that SMOG stands for "Some Measure of Gobbledygook"!
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry.html
http://www.cdc.gov/od/ads/smog.htm
ERIC Sites
ERIC Database. Renamed October 1, 2004, this free
research site is now maintained by USDOE.
Easy to use. Offers over
107,000 full-text non-journal documents, issued 1993-2004.
Educator's Desk
Reference. This site offers not only quick ERIC
searches but lesson plans arranged by topic and article digests. http://www.eduref.org/Eric/
ERIC Digests. Extensive ERIC digest system, operated
by U.S. Department of Education.
Searchable by topic. Good
for quick research overviews. http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/index
Help for Parents
Parent's Journal. Variety of features and links, articles
by experts, tips, archives, audio versions, more. http://www.parentsjournal.com
Tips for Parents. American Library Association's tip page. Provides tips for parents
about how to raise a reader and
provides a list of over 700 web sites for children and the adults who care
about them. The web sites are
organized by subject http://www.ala.org/parentspage
iVillage. Broadly based parenting site. ChildrenŐs literature newsletter,
oriented toward parents. Provides
a list of recommended books for your preschool aged child. http://www.parentsoup.com/preschool
Family Guide Book. Contains a complete guide to how to
protect your children on the Internet.
Also offers information to teachers, teacher educators, law enforcement,
etc. http://www.familyguidebook.com
National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). A
"nonprofit organization supporting family literacy services for families
across the United States through training, programming, research, advocacy and
dissemination." Located in
Louisville. Good links. http://www.famlit.org
Sites for ESL and Adult Literacy
Literacy.org. Links the International Literacy
Institute (ILI), UNESCO, and the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL)
housed at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. It provides links to international
literacy sites especially useful to developing countries. The aim is to provide leadership in
research and training in the field of international literacy and development. http://ncal.literacy.upenn.edu
Internet TESL Journal. This well-designed forum offers
materials that one can download as well as articles, teaching techniques,
lesson plans, and links to issues of interest to ESL teachers. It includes electronic discussion lists
and news groups. http://iteslj.org
Teacher Information Network. This site
houses a teacher chat room with focus on ESL issues. Identifies and reviews teacher sites. Links to USDOE and state DOEs. http://www.teacher.com
Literacy Assistance Center. The LAC
provides information on resources and links to literacy on the Net. It is useful to teachers and students
alike. Its web site links and
e-mail contacts can connect teachers and students around the world. http://www.lacnyc.org
Story Place. A very interactive site for beginning readers, organized around themes, each with a reading activity, an interactive activity, a printable activity, and a reading list. Each theme is available in English and Spanish. The site thus provides a great way to accommodate Spanish-speaking students and to introduce Spanish to other students. Operated by the Public Library of Charlotte (NC) and Mecklenburg County. http://www.storyplace.org
Book Hive. Makes book recommendations to kids through age 12. Organized by category. Online audio stories available. Operated by the Public Library of Charlotte (NC) and Mecklenburg County. http://www.bookhive.org
Flags and Maps of the World. Provides flags and maps, but little else. This visual site places very low text reading demands on users. Operated by the Public Library of Charlotte (NC) and Mecklenburg County. http://www.plcmc.org/forkids/mow
English-to-Go. Classroom-ready esl activities, based
on articles that have appeared in Reuters; new lessons posted weekly, with
complete lesson plans. http://www.english-to-go.com
Historical
Sites
History of Literacy. Offers research and an excellent set of links. Operated by the History of Literacy special interest group of IRA. http://www.historyliteracy.org
Center for the Book. This division of the Library of Congress is the hub of numerous resources and links related to promoting literacy. It "was established in 1977 to use the resources and prestige of the Library of Congress to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy." Most states now have affiliates. (Check out their intriguing logo!) http://lcweb.loc.gov/loc/cfbook
Hoax
Sites
Hoax Busters. A good source of information regarding Internet hoaxes is the U.S.
government's Hoaxbusters site, housed at the Department of Energy. I'm not sure why it's housed there, but it may save you plenty of energy the next time you receive a virus warning, chain letter, too-good-to-be-true offer, or something of the kind. http://HoaxBusters.ciac.org
Urban Legends Reference Pages. Allows you to identify Internet hoaxes and other dysinformation. Use the search engine or select categories. Fascinating browsing! http://www.snopes.com