Brandon Cruz
ED 638-40
Dr. M. Rivera
IRA Newsletter Project:
Effective Literacy Websites #4
It may
lack in the visual splendor education blogs and resource sites are commonly
found to have these days, but teacher.depaul.edu is a nice resource for teachers
looking for passages and assessment ideas for grades K through 8 (some texts
scale up to 10th grade). The site employs heavy use of graphic
organizers to teach and assess content and provides resources for both fiction
and nonfiction. The site includes resources for Literature, Vocabulary, Math,
as well as Science and Social Studies Spanish Language Support Guides.
The
visual of the page might be the first thing noticed upon first visiting, being
very white page and text heavy with minimal pictures. However, if you are here
as a teacher looking for ideas and templets for lesson and unit planning it is
a short process of reading through the many links that are used to navigate
through the site and once adjusted to are very efficient. Once into the subpages
more visual examples of the work possibilities are given in the form of actual
student samples from various grade levels. One note of navigation assistance is
to use the “return” arrow found in the top right of the heading bar near the
link for the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University. Hitting that link
will return you to the main page from any of the site’s subpages or sponsored
links.
One of
the acronyms that is heavily seen through the site is SEL (Social and Emotional
Learning). SEL is the process in which children and adults acquire and apply
the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to understand and manage emotions,
set and reach positive goals, feel and show empathy, establish and maintain
relationships, and make responsible decisions. The framework is a little like
the positive reinforcement framework of PBIS and is the adopted framework of many
Chicago districts. If interested, you can find out more at https://casel.org/what-is-sel.
One of
the nice things about each set of subpages is the clear identification of the
Common Core Anchor standard supported by the resources at the top of the page.
This identification of the Standard extends into the worksheets that you can
download for use as well, which in SBG (Standards Based Grading) is a key
component in developing a student’s understanding of their own personal
performance which is key in working with students to create personalized
learning goals.
Of the
resources on the page a nice addition was the link to the work of John P.
Curtin and his guides to Creative Content Poetry. One of the most commonly
heard frustrations in our content I have born witness to in my colleagues is
that of teaching poetry and creative writing to students in the middle school
range. I know and understand that Poetry may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I
for one love and thrive on teaching it, but this little gem is full of engaging
activities and examples to get kids writing about experiences creatively. You an
find the link in the bottom right area of the main page along with the tribute
to John Paul Curtin by Paul F. Camenisch.
Oh, and
the best part is that its all free to use and even has a link to request for
your name and school to receive official authorization from DePaul University.
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