101 Ways to Integrate Technology into  Literacy Activities

online interactive sites    software   hardware

1
Strategies for decoding
 1.KidsClick!  A whole bunch of alphabet sites are listed here. 2.Words in a Word 
Make your own Making Words project!!

 

3.What's the word?  Choose a word that matches the picture 
4.Read Write & Type by The Learning Company. Phonics, spelling, typing, and English 
are all pulled together.

5.Create a template  to  fill in missing initial or ending sounds, or to add an ending to a list of words (-ing, -ed, -s, -es)

6.Use a graphics program to sort pictures or words in some way (beginning sound, vowel sounds, one syllables, etc)

 

7.Students can write their names in KidPix, then find several stamps of things they like or that begin with the same sound as their name or that matches the sound  of each letter  in their name. 8.In any word processing program, change all vowels to red, or change all long vowels to red, all short vowels to blue, all silent vowels to yellow, etc.
9.Set up a database of word families.  Students can add to it as they discover more words in each family. 10.Puzzlemaker.com 
Make your own wordsearches, crossword puzzles, mazes
11.Korky's Cool Rhyme Machine
Type in your name & you'll get a poem emphasizing the initial letter
2
Language conventions
12.Candlelight Stories
Choose a word to finish the sentence
13.Matching Contractions
14.Wacky Tales
Type in parts of speech to finish a story

15.In  any  word  processing program, add punctuation to teacher’s text, or bold all nouns, italicize verbs, underline adjectives, etc  

16.Create  a  table  to record contractions or compound words.
17.Create a slideshow to illustrate compound words, rhyming words, word families, action words, parts of speech, synonyms, antonyms,  or to create alliterations (Molly makes many muffins Monday for munching.)
3
Strategies for constructing meaning

 

18.Rebus Rhymes
Mother Goose and others
19.Spelling Game
Put in the correct words 
20.
Hangman
Play against the computer
21.Students can create a classroom dictionary based on current unit study.   Set up a table – the first column for the word, second for definition, and third for an illustration. 22.Practice writing your spelling words in a word processing program.  Once they are written, students can explore different fonts, sizes, colors, bold, italicize, click and drag, etc.  

 23.Audiotape kids reading at the beginning of the year, middle, and end of the year.  Share with parents at conferences and send home at the end of the year.  

24.Write a complete sentence to accompany an illustration.   25.Schoolnotes.com 
Create online homework pages and flashcards
26.Create a slideshow using only text.  Record yourself reading each slide.  Students can then illustrate.
27.Record students brainstorming as many words as they can think of about a topic.  Record using Inspiration software, as a table, or a simple list.  Print out in large font to be used as a vocabulary reference. 28.Introduce a word a day  with Dorling Kindersley's My First Incredible Amazing Dictionary.  Each morning open the dictionary and choose a random word.  Students will see and hear the word.  Have them define the word, and then show them the program’s definition.   29.Create your own flashcards: KidPix, Hyperstudio, and Powerpoint all allow you to create a slideshow with a word on each slide.  You can even set the timing for how fast/slow you want the words to appear, or set for manual progress.
30.Take digital pix of kids on the playground, in the lunchroom, in the classroom, in art, music, etc.  Students can dictate phrases of things they see in the picture.  When you have 7 or 8 phrases, have students re-order them to create a poem.  Don’t forget to use the main idea of the picture as the title!
4
Use the English language effectively

 

31.Word search
Make your own or play the computer 
32.Spell Check
Something is wrong with one of these words 
33.
Alfy  Interactive stories and games.  Picture-based site for beginners.
34.Video tape kids using good reading strategies.  Share this with the rest of the class. Or  kids can work together to create a reading strategies tape: What we do to figure out a word. 35.Write a rebus story  with  blank  spaces for  students to fill in words or stamps or clipart. Or kids can dictate a story, and add stamps in place of words. 36.Create a slideshow to develop a vocabulary of feelings.  Each slide depicts a feeling and an example of when they experienced it.  “I got mad when …  But then I…”

37.Use a 35mm camera to take pictures of your kids.  This  gives kids manipulatives  to match pictures to words  that illustrate:

action words (kids running, jumping, sitting, etc). 

names of students with their pictures 

numbers of students together (1 student, 2, 3,….)  

position words (on the monkey bars, at the top of the slide, etc.)

shapes (4 kids laying on the  floor in the shape of a square or circle)  

color words (each child holds a 12"X18" sheet of different colored construction paper).

5
Select & respond to a variety of texts
38.Theodore the Tugboat
Choose an adventure
39.Book Adventure
Read a book & answer questions
40.Weekly Reader
Writing, games, reading
41.Small groups can work together to create an overhead story. Illustrate the beginning, middle & end of the story on transparencies. Use to illustrate their Book Talk. 42.Insert digital pictures of each student  into a drawing program. Students can edit their picture to make themselves into a story character.  Add written (or dictated) 4 or 5 characteristics of their character. 43.Kids  can create costumes  & a  backdrop for a retelling. Take  digital pix  of kids as  characters illustrating the retelling.  Create a slideshow with text .  Or  print out  & assemble as  books.
44.Once a month, have kids write book reviews about several favorite books.  Vote  on the class favorites & send the top 3 stories & reviews to the class website.  45.Create a  story map using pictures or words to sequence the story in pre-drawn rectangles  connected by arrows. 46.Write a sentence or 2  from a story on several transparencies. Students illustrate.  Have them work together to put the story into correct order.
47.Create a Venn diagram  template. Either click & drag phrases or write their own  to  compare 2 stories or characters .
6
Explore works of different authors & speakers
48.Kids' Authors pages
49.Reader's Theater Scripts
Choose a story at your level & perform
50.More Kids' Authors
51.Create  an  Author bookmark  (1  of 3 columns  in landscape view). Place the author's name at the top, then list stories/books  by that author.  Print  out to use, or modify  by changing the color,  font, or bold each story as it is read. 52. One student can start a story by entering text  on  an Alphasmart, then pass it to a 2nd student who continues, etc. 
7
Strategies to construct meaning
53.Words and Pictures
Short, long vowels, poems, animations
  54.Bingo cards
Make a set with this demo
55.A Rhyme A Week
Phonological awareness 
 56.KidPix Deluxe will read whatever is written before it is permanently pasted into the drawing. 
57.Quia! 
Create your own online quizzes
58.Quiz Lab 
Construct your own online quizzes
8
Genre
59.Li'l Fingers Storybooks
Text & animation, but no sound
60.Community Club
Read & listen about 3 occupations
61.The North Star
Choose a character, listen to the story & write a response.
62.Create a  book report  template. When students have finished a story, they call  up the template & enter their information  -  name, title, author, genre, &  their feelings about the story. 63.Students can put together a slideshow that lists characters, genre, main events, and 3 details, OR title, author  beginning, middle & end of story, OR retell story with characters & word  balloons. 64.In KidPix, write the words to a well known song (a line or two on each slide).  Have a small group illustrate each slide.  When finished, record the whole class singing the words on each slide.
 

65.Create a template of   several boxes with  "guide words".  Students can move words to the appropriate "page".

66.At the end of each month, ask the class to help put together a “diary” page recording speakers, field trips, birthdays, activities, units, etc.  By the end of the year, you’ll have a great timeline!
67.BlueMountain Cards 
Send an e-card to your class - great calendar here.   Or send  a birthday e-card  to  students.
9
Finding themes
68.Oddball
One does not belong
69.Storybook
Of kids, by kids, for kids
70.Childrenstory.com
A few stories for & by kids (some with audio)
71.Check out the PBS  site for some wonderful reading/writing programs such as Wishbone and Arthur. Check the taping rights to PBS programs. 72.Create a slideshow of jokes and riddles.  Write the riddle on one page and the answer on the next. 73.Use KidPix, Hyperstudio, or Powerpoint to create an ABC book.  Each student can illustrate a letter of the alphabet based on a theme of your choice (school, oceans, animals, foods, etc)
74.Thematic Poems  
Collected by a teacher
10
Apply text ideas to their lives
75.Berenstein Bear Country
Read a book, email the characters
76.Storybook Station
Personalize a story
77.Writer's Block
Respond to a weekly question
78.If your vcr/tv is networked to other classrooms, have kids create advertising posters for their play and broadcast days/times.  Broadcast your video version of your play/poetry reading/reader’s theater/etc. at specific times during the day for other classes to view when it’s convenient for them. 79.Practice listening/speaking skills by having a student phone a local bank for the current weather temp and forecast and then reporting to the class.
80.To reinforce social skill concepts, pick a social skill (eg controlling anger), and students illustrate steps to take when you get angry. 81.Send an email birthday card  on each student's birthday.  Send it to the classroom email address, so that each student receives their card, even if they are not online at home.  Read  aloud as part of your birthday celebration and add to your classroom web page!
82.ePals 
Classroom keypal exchange program
83.Global Schoolhouse 
Internet projects
84.Create a slideshow to illustrate how to do something, step by step.  
11
Define & investigate important issues & problems
85.KidsClick
Topic websites collected by librarians
86.Ask Jeeves for Kids
87.Little Explorer's Dictionary
Safely research the web
88.Create a slideshow to publish student stories or a report 89.Illustrate a concept such as “What is Science” 90.Show kids how to create a page about themselves for a Class Slideshow entitled “All About Us”.
91.Publish student stories in The Amazing Writing Machine (Broderbund), KidWorks Deluxe, or enter text in a word processing program.  Print out and have students create their own illustrations. 92. Refdesk.com 
Dictionaries, encyclopedias, online newspapers, maps, you name it!
12
Enjoy & evaluate texts
93.KidView
Book reviews by kids
94.Bedtime Stories
Stories by theme to read to kids
95.Story Hour
Do Spiders Live on the World Wide Web?
96.Use a microphone with your cassette recorder or a karaoke machine for sharing writing, news, show & tell, reader’s theater, etc. 97.Audiotape kids’ Reader’s Theater productions.  Make copies to send home for parents to enjoy. 98.There are lots of good software programs that will “read” books to kids, such as Living Books.  Some are fiction, others non fiction.  Balance your purchases.
99.Tape kids reading their published stories.  Have them create some sort of signal to turn the page.  Or have other adults read stories (eg. the principal, bus drivers, safety patrols, custodian, etc).  Place tapes & books in the listening center.   100.Use a video camera to record the final production of your class play.  Make a copy, and select two students to take home to share with families.  Send along a Response Book.  The next day they can share their families’ reactions to the videotape, and pass the video and book along to two other students.  Make sure you have a backup copy in case the video gets lost!  

101.Create  a hotlist  that students may access at center time or when they have finished a computer  assignment

But wait! There's more...

Bonus sites!! 


 

Teachers.Net Chatboard 
Teacher support by grade level, remedial reading, AR, 4 blocks literacy

Teachers.Net Mailring 
Talk with other grade level teachers via email

 

ProTeacher Collection of primary  language arts sites -  lots of useful ideas and more grade level chatboards

 

Patti's  Electronic Classroom Lesson plans, discussion area, experts in K-3 Reading strategies

Handwriting  Worksheets D'Nealian, Traditional, Manuscript & Cursive

Author Birthday Calendars for your desktop Complete with directions for downloading

 School-Home Links  Resource for getting the family involved!!!

Between the Lions  PBS program for beginning readers 

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