Essential ELA Resources

[Jim Burke]

In addition to the great resources here on the NCTE Ning, what other sites do you find help you do your work? One new resource for English teachers, inspired by NCTE's Ning, is the English Companion Ning, a social network where English teachers come to help each other do their work by sharing resources, ideas, and more. What other sources help you?

[Kylene Beers]

Interesting question. I'm using Twitter more and more as a way to keep up--quickly--with what others are watching, reading, blogging about.

[Carol Jago]

Participating in adult book clubs helps me remember what the kind of conversations I try to foster in the classroom look like in real life. Watching as readers poke and prod a text, share questions, posit possible answers keeps me from getting too caught up with the apparatus we often associate with ELA instruction. The goal isn't to discover a cool new strategy or graphic organizer but to foster rich discussion.

[Frank W. Baker]

Jim, I want to recommend a book that I think should be in every school's professional collection. Ten years ago, David Considine and his wife Gail Haley co-authored "Visual Messages: Integrating Imagery Into Instruction." It covers K-12 and all curriculum discplines. This is the one media literacy text that has it all---and in my opinion, no other book has come closer, even though many have tried. Frank Baker

[Wes Kriesel]

Interesting book recommendation! Thanks. I also agree with Kylene that Twitter is impressive as a source of resources - and asking for needed information or resources from people on Twitter seems to always produce helpful suggestions.

[Ms. Ward]

I'm chiming in with the Twitter users. In the last year, I have learned of so many wonderful Web 2.0 tools, curriculum materials, lesson plans, and collaboration opportunities through my twitter personal learning network (PLN). Once you find a handful of great English teachers to follow on Twitter, you can look at who they follow to begin to build your own Twitter PLN. I've been trying to pass along how teachers can use Twitter - http://etceteraward.blogspot.com/2009/03/tweet-me.html

[Mark Pennington]

Thanks, Jim. I love English Companion Ning. Also, check out my article-rich blog for ELA and remedial reading teachers at http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog.

[Janet Files]

I am new to Twitter--but enjoy several web sites and resources in support of literacy leadership and literacy coaches. I was following the Book Whisperer blog by Donalyn Miller--so glad she has published her book. Choice Literacy is excellent as is the NSDC site and of course NCTE and ASCD. I too have enjoyed the English Companion--time is the only factor.

[Doris Herrmann]

I enjoy Twitter to keep up with my fellow teachers, and many of my students use it as a way to keep up with their assignments, get book recommendations and just for collaboration.

Another great resource for the classroom is Goodreads.com. It is a great resource for novel suggestions, to read other book talks and it's useful for those prolific readers who like to keep lists of the books they've read. If their parent's give them permission to join, most of the kids friend me to see what I've been reading as well.