5:50 PMThis is a fun poetry exercise. Write a poem about whatever you want (or you can assign a specific prompt, or style) and then copy and paste it into the Cut-Up Machine at: http://www.languageisavirus.com/cutupmachine.html This is a great site that will rearrange, duplicate, and otherwise cut-up your poem into something entirely new.
This might be fun to assign while covering modernist poetry. It might be difficult to tell your own poem from one of ee cummings'! Give it a shot.
Okay, we all need a break every once in a while. The students do, too. So here's my idea, Text Twist tournament! It's a fun game that you can play for free online. The idea is to make as many words as possible using the letters on the screen.
A Text Twist contest would encourage students to stretch their vocabulary, and start using words that they thought they'd forgotten. It's great for getting your brain into rapid-word mode. This might be a fun sometimes-replacement for traditional free-writing exercises.
http://zone.msn.com/en/texttwist/default.htm
Hey teachers, tired of explaining MLA format ad nauseum?
Well, now there's an easy way to get around it. In the past, in order to have a complete manual outlining the guidelines of MLA, you would have to buy a writing handbook. Now there's the OWL. It's a really cool site run by the graduate school at the University of Purdue.
They have complete style manuals for MLA, APA, and more. Give this link to your students, and save yourself (and them) a lot of hassle.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/printable/557/
Here's one idea to make group research papers a bit easier: Google Docs' collaboration feature. Instead of having multiple hard copies of a document, each undergoing its own editing process, or emailing documents back and forth, now students can work on their essays simultaneously, and in real time. This enables students to stay on top of updates that their peers are making to the essay. Pretty cool, huh?
Check out http://docs.google.com, to get started.
I just found a new way to help students learn vocabulary (and even a bit of grammar!). The site is: http://www.freerice.com
This is a great site that makes learning new vocabulary and grammar usage fun (well, more fun that normal, anyway). The cool thing is, everytime you get a question right (either guessing the correct definition to a word, or clicking the grammatically correct sentence), the site donates one grain of rice to end world hunger. Those grains can really add up!
So now students can learn English, and help end world hunger, all in one step!