Children's Literature Resources

 

Teacher Resources - Support Tools

 
  4Teachers http://4teachers.org
    4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering FREE online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. Discover valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students.
       
  abcteach http://www.abcteach.org/
    abcteach provides 5000+ free printable pages and worksheets focusing on for Pre-K-6th grade. Requires a paid subscription for full access, but contains numerous free samples.
       
  Adolescent Literacy in the Content Areas http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/index.jsp
    This Knowledge Loom spotlight presents four key components of a successful adolescent literacy initiative and the best practices related to each, along with examples in action in actual classrooms. Use this resource to support local decision-making and as content for onsite professional development. The content has been prepared by The Education Alliance at Brown University and CRM (Center for Resource Management), as partners in the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory.
       
  AwesomeStories http://www.awesomestories.com/
    AwesomeStories.com uniquely uses the Internet to link its story content to hundreds of thousands of the world's best on-line primary sources. Enjoy an interactive learning experience as you see relevant maps, pictures, videos, audio clips, artifacts, manuscripts, and documents, IN CONTEXT, within each story. Take advantage of human-based searches for a safe, fast and fun way to learn the real story behind historic events, famous people, heroic exploits, legends, disasters, movies, plus topics of current and general interest.
       
  Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site http://www.carolhurst.com/index.html
    A collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.
       
  Children's Literature Web Guide http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
    The Children's Literature Web Guide is an attempt to gather together and categorize the growing number of Internet resources related to books for Children and Young Adults. Included are links to book lists, author sites, and resources for teachers, parents, and storytellers.
       
  Children's Picture Book Database http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/search/
    Housed at Miami University Libraries the Children's Picture Book Database gives teachers, librarians, parents, and students a place for designing literature-based thematic units for all subjects. The site offers abstracts of over 5000 children's picture books and search capabilities for over 950 keywords, including topics, concepts, and skills which describe each book.
       
  International Reading Association - Web Resources http://www.reading.org/resources/index.html
   

The International Reading Association (IRA) is dedicated to providing information, research, and resources that can help all those interested in promoting literacy. The Web Resources area of www.reading.org provides a range of resources in three groupings, freely available to all those with Internet access. Teaching Tools offers practical, hands-on ideas and materials to help you help learners. Issues in Literacy is your source for news, views, and policies. Literacy Community puts you in touch with colleagues, to exchange ideas and information, share your concerns, and celebrate your successes.

       
  Literacy Connections http://www.literacyconnections.com
    Literacy Connections provides a wealth of information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. They recommend resources that are useful for teachers, volunteers, and directors of literacy programs. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children's literature.
       
  Literature Learning Ladders http://eduscapes.com/ladders/index.html
    Literature Learning Ladders (encouraging active reading through book-technology connections) is part of the eduScapes website provided by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson. Features include: Themes and Literature Circles, Collaborative and Interactive Projects, Literature-based WebQuests, Literacy Across the Curriculum for Today and Tomorrow, Newberys & the Net, Caldecott Connections, and Fun with Favorites.
       
  North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) - Literacy http://www.ncrel.org/litweb/index.html
    This website provides professional resources to help teachers build their knowledge base, apply their expertise to help children meet challenges in reading, and keep abreast of developments concerning literacy development.
       
  Online Reading Resources http://www.onlinereadingresources.com/
    OnLine Reading Resources is a collection of teaching aids designed for teachers to use to maximize students' learning. The principal resource on this site is a collection of downloadable Scaffolded Reading Experiences™ (SREs). SREs are detailed, adaptable, and research-based lesson plans designed to support teaching widely used fiction and nonfiction texts. The site currently contains over 50 SREs. This site also contains Other Reading Resources teachers can use to improve student learning. These include information on promoting Higher Order Thinking Skills, an annotated bibliography of High Interest-Easy Reading Book Series, and Previews and Story Maps for widely used reading selections.
       
  Personal Education Press http://www.educationalpress.org/
    Create free educational worksheets such as flashcards, game boards, and quizzes to print directly from your browser. Simply choose a word list and an output style.
       
  Poetry Teachers http://www.poetryteachers.com
    #1 site for poetry resources on the web from how to teach poetry, to poetry theater, and activities.
       
  Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/
    Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books (over 16,000), or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.
       
  Promising Practices for Elementary Literacy Instruction http://knowledgeloom.org/elemlit/index.jsp
    This Knowledge Loom spotlight identifies the promising literacy practices of successful elementary school teachers who support the diverse learning needs of their students. Special sections highlight issues pertaining to English language learners, providing examples of good teaching that can apply to all students. The content in the spotlight has been prepared by The Education Alliance at Brown University. It will continue to grow and change as users share their experiences and concerns in support of elementary literacy development.
       
  Reading A-Z http://www.readinga-z.com/
    Reading A-Z offers a number of resources to help make teaching easier and help children learn to love to read, including   printable books and lesson plans to teach guided reading, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and reading comprehension. Requires a paid subscription for full access, but contains numerous free samples.
       
  Reading Online http://www.readingonline.org/
    Reading Online (ROL) is a peer-reviewed journal of the International Reading Association (IRA). Since its launch in May 1997 it has become a leading online source of information for the worldwide literacy-education community, with tens of thousands of accesses to the site each month. The journal focuses on literacy practice and research in classrooms serving students aged 5 to 18. “Literacy” is broadly defined to include traditional print literacy, as well as visual literacy, critical literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, and so on. A special mission of the journal is to support professionals as they integrate technology in the classroom, preparing students for a future in which literacy’s meaning will continue to evolve and expand.
       
  Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/
    The Reading Rockets web site is updated daily with news headlines about reading, research-based articles, video interviews with top children's book authors, tips for parents and educators, lists of national and local resources, and much more.
       
  Starfall http://www.starfall.com
    The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service. They also provide writing journals and books at a very low cost that can be used with the website or separately.Primarily designed for first grade, Starfall.com is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade. Focus is on comprehension and phonics.
       
  Storyline Online http://www.bookpals.net/storyline/index.html
    The Screen Actors Guild Foundation is proud to bring you Storyline Online, an on-line streaming video program featuring SAG members reading childrens books aloud. Hand-picked by BookPALS National Program Director Ellen Nathan, a former teacher and librarian, each of the books on this site offer an accompanying lesson plan and activity guide.
       
   
     
       
  TeachingBooks.net http://www.teachingbooks.net
    TeachingBooks' mission is to generate enthusiasm for books and reading by bringing authors, illustrators and engaging resources about books for children and teens to every school, library and home. From one easy-to-use website, TeachingBooks makes instantly available original, in-studio movies of authors and illustrators, audio excerpts of professional book readings, guides to thousands of titles and a wealth of multimedia resources on children's and young adult literature. Our hope is that by utilizing TeachingBooks' multimedia resources, educators will better understand the spirit and personality behind books and discover exciting ways to share these insights with children and teens. (Note: This is a fee based service, however they offer a 14-day free trial and maintain free highlights on their home page. They also have made their collection of thousands of Valuable Links publicly available — including more than 1,000 personal author websites and thousands of other professionally relevant links cataloged into 25 categories.)
       
  Time for Kids - Teacher Resources http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/class/
    You do not have to subscribe to Time for Kids to make use of the numerous resources provided here.
       
  Today's Front Pages http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
    Today's Front Pages is an online presentation of one of the Newseum's most popular exhibits. Every morning, more than 500 newspapers from around the world (47 countries) submit their front pages to the Newseum via the Internet. You can read the articles on a front page by opening a PDF file or by linking directly to the newspaper's Web site. Navigational tools make it easy to locate available newspapers by name or state/country.
       
  The Real Mother Goose http://trmg.designwest.com/
    The Real Mother Goose is an online transcription (text and illustrations) of the original 1916 book.