reading websites

Reading Websites

All Kinds of Minds: Mel Levine's website on different ways of learning - as seen on Oprah!

Assessment Database: This comprehensive website by the SEDL has info on both norm- and criterion-referenced tests.
Author Video - Scholastic: Video clips of well-known authors
Author Video Clips: Reading Rockets also has video clips, conveniently broken up into smaller sections 1 - 3 minutes long.
Big News For Kids: Free online edu-tainment newspaper for kids
Book It!: This reading incentive program encourages and rewards student reading
Booklists: Great lists of books including chapter books, poetry books, professional books, books about reading, books about writing, Japanese internment, teachers and teaching, math concepts, building community and more.
BookPALS: Listen and watch stories read online by famous actors.
Booksource: Thematic booklists: award winning books, thematic books, professional books and more
Brain Connection: This huge site has vast amounts of information about our brains and how they work. Includes articles about the brain and learning, games and assessments for reading skills and memory skills, brain teasers, interactive resources and the latest news and reseach about how our brains work and learn.

Children's Authors and Illustrators websites: Includes sites for Eric Carle, Jan Brett and many, many more
Comprehension Activities: Includes descriptions of graphic organizers, inquiry charts, QtA and QAR, reciprocal teaching and many more.
Comprehension Strategies site: This teacher has tips, forms, lessons and a yearly plan for teaching the comprehension strategies.
Denver Public Schools: Denver's Curriculum and Instruction site has literacy and math units laid out for each grade level (scroll down main page).
Comprehension Activities Integrating Technology: Comprehension lessons divided into primary, intermediate and upper levels.
Comprehension site - "Into the Book": Multimedia teaching source for enhancing comprehension instruction. Includes videos and interactive activities.
Correlation Chart: This chart correlates to each grade level: lexiles, DRA, Fountas and Pinnell, Rigby, fluency, and developmental spelling levels.
Critical Literacy with PBS's "Don't Buy It!": Kids learn not to believe everything they see in TV advertising and entertainment.
Cyberguides to Literature: Cyberguides are web-based units centered on core pieces of literature. Students complete online activities based on quality literature by following cyberguide instructions.
Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature: searches titles by subject, setting, keyword, historical period and more.
ESL Lounge: Free ESL lesson materials and ESL lesson plans. Printable worksheets for ESL classroom teaching. Grammar, pronunciation, board games, flashcards, games, song lyrics and more.
ESL Activities: Play games and take quizzes at this site to improve your English.
Fluency Phrases: These phrases contain the first 300 words of the Fry Instant Word list.
Fluency Phrases - Power Points: this teacher created Power Points and flash cards with Fry's Fluency Phrases.
Four Blocks Instruction and Guided Reading: Information on this popular reading approach.
Four Blocks Goodies: Downloadable files to help with your 4 Blocks!
Giggle Poetry: has poems organized by category and allows kids to rate them and even write their own
Graphic Organizers: This great site has LOADS of graphic organizers of all types, shapes and sizes!
Graphic Organizers in 3D: This site has a 3D graphic organizer of the month, complete with photos and directions.
Intervention Central: This very helpful site has all sorts of tools for intervention: don't miss the behavior report generator and their intervention ideas for the classroom.
Kid Authors: allows kids to submit stories and poems, and has links for teachers and parents as well.
Leveled Book Lists: has database of leveled books searchable by title and author. Also has lists by grade level. Leveled according to Fountas and Pinnell levels
LeveledBooks.com: has a searchable database of leveled books.
Leveled Books - Beaverton School District: has levels of children's literature books and guided reading books
Leveled Books - Portland Public Schools: searchable by level, title, author or grade level
Leveled Books - "Teaching with the Heart": has books listed by level for 1st , 2nd and 3rd grades. Books are linked directly to Amazon and some even include lesson plans.
Leveled Text Readability: type in a section of text at this site to find the readability level
Leveled Books: 440 titles sorted by reading level, grades 1-8
Leveled Text Characteristics: describes the characteristics of books at early emergent, emergent and fluent levels.
Literacy Web: This site by the Univ. of Connecticut is a great resource for teachers and includes webquests, sample classroom websites, and safe websites for kids, all organized by grade level. A gem of a site!
Literature Circles: One of the best literature circle websites out there! Created by Laura Candler. Has lots of reproducibles and management tips.
Literature Circles - Harvey Daniels: The guy who wrote the book on Literature Circles.
Literature Circles: Includes management sheets
Looking At Student Work: This web site represents an association of individuals and educational organizations that focus on looking at student work to strengthen connections between instruction, curriculum, and other aspects of school life to students' learning.
Math and Literature: Math and Literature lists useful books for teaching math concepts such as fractions, money, time, shapes, addition, etc.
Mosaic of Thought website: Mosaic website is based on the bestselling book "Mosaic of Thought" by Keene and Zimmerman. Many good downloadable resources here, created by teachers using the strategies.
Mrs. Meacham's Class site: Check out this teacher's wonderful site for loads of ideas. Don't miss "classroom pictures" to see how she laid out her room.
My personal experience - "In my students' shoes": Here's an article I published about my difficulties reading after a head injury, and the effect it had on my teaching.
Nancy Keene.com: Need a book title? This site has books listed by every type of category imaginable
National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities: has info on a variety of disabilities
Newbery Medal Homepage: has all Newbery winners and honor books since 1922. A great source for quality literature.
Online articles: has online news articles for kids written by CNN in simplified language. Some also contain video clips.
Planet Esme: has resources for parents and teachers on wonderful children's literature, including book reviews, teacher links and author studies.
Pronouncing Dictionary of Author's Names: ever wondered how to say Jon Scieszka's name? This site has pronunciation guides for many popular authors.
Reading Worksheets: Dozens of reproducibles, graphic organizers, and forms
Reader's Theater: Find free Reader's Theater scripts at this site.
Read-Write-Think: this site, created by IRA and NCTE, has many useful web resources and activities to help teachers teach reading.
Reading A-Z.com: has 30 free downloadable leveled books with accompanying lesson plans. For a subscription fee, many more leveled books are available.
Reading Lady: This online resource has information on Four Blocks, writing, author studies, comprehension strategies and more.
Reading Rockets: This site has information for parents and teachers on helping struggling readers, tips for reading with your child, book clubs, forums, news in the reading field and much more
Rubrics and Handouts: Rubric templates for writing, reading and more.
Rubrics: More links to rubrics
Scholastic News: News articles written on kids' reading levels on a variety of topics.
School-Home Links for Kindergarten: Home activities for students organized by separate reading and literacy skills.
School-Home Links for 1st grade: Home activities for students organized by separate reading and literacy skills.
School-Home Links for 2nd grade: Home activities for students organized by separate reading and literacy skills.
School-Home Links for 3rd grade: Home activities for students organized by separate reading and literacy skills.
Teachingbooks.net: This site has hundreds of author interviews and video clips, often long and in-depth. They now charge a fairly hefty subscription, but it would be worth it for a school to join.
Technology Integration Ideas for Comprehension Strategies: Links to strategy lessons that incorporate technology.
Textmapping: Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content. It involves paper scrolls, colored markers, and a spatially-descriptive form of marking called mapping.

Textmapping (more): Features photos of one teacher's students as they use the textmapping strategy.
Textmapping Student Samples: View pictures of 4th and 5th graders learning through textmapping
Weekly Reader

Word Sorts: Collections of word sorts to go along with "Word Journeys" and "Words Their Way" approach to word work. Printable as Adobe or Word docs.

Information on strategic vocabulary instruction from the well-know gurus Beck and McKeown. Includes word lists, a five-day plan and video clips.

Disclaimer: The links here have been scrutinized for their grade and age appropriateness; however, contents on links on the
World Wide Web change continuously. Teachers and parents should preview all links before introducing to students.