Online Education

Reverend Brenda Hoffman
350

There are 3 powerful reasons why homeschooling works. These include:
(1.) Homeschooling enables exposure to a broad range of people, ideas, and places. Homeschooling is so flexible that it allows family field trips whenever you want. This provides a great way to learn through taking tours, meeting knowledgeable people, and volunteering. What is even better is that you can take advantage of these opportunities during the week when there aren’t crowds and when the tour guides, or educators, have time to answer your individual questions. Add in some library books and videos, the writing of thank you notes, the writing of a portfolio entry describing your “adventure,” and the possibility of giving an oral presentation to other homeschoolers and you’ll see just how powerful this can truly be. This also teaches your child(ren) that there are great teachers to be found in every walk of life.
(2.) If you own your own home business, homeschooling provides opportunities to teach your child(ren) business skills. Starting a home business today is relatively easy and painless. Involving your child(ren) in your home business is an excellent opportunity to teach them skills which will serve them well in any livelihood they might choose as adults. Just think of the various business opportunities that avail themselves. For instance, you can teach your child(ren) how to do basic bookkeeping on the computer.
(3.) Homeschooling allows great flexibility for vacations. You can easily take vacations in the off-season when prices are significantly lower and crowds are rare. For instance, if your family enjoys camping, you can go during the week, or in the weeks before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.
As you can easily see, homeschooling allows a family to do so much of what they truly love to do. That is the greatest power of homeschooling.

Frank Gerace
358

The voiced and unvoiced consonants
In this section we will try to clarify the difference between the voiced consonants and the unvoiced consonants.
If you want to master English pronunciation you have to able to distinguish between these two types of consonants. This is necessary for you to learn the proper pronunciation when you learn new vocabulary. And more importantly you need to know the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants to be able to pronounce the words of English correctly. What makes one consonant be voiced and another not?
A consonant is voiced when it makes the vocal cords vibrate. It is voiceless when it is pronounced without vibrating the vocal cords.
The sound of the letters “p” and “b”
For example, the sounds indicated by the letters “b” and “p” differ only in their vocalization (voicing). The are both “bilabials”, that is, they are produced by closing both lips. But the “b” is voiced and the “p” is unvoiced. In this article, we will follow common practice and indicate the letters of the alphabet with quotes (“b?and “p? and the sounds with slashes (/b/ and /p/)
You can appreciate the difference by lightly touching with the tips of your fingers your “Adam’s Apple” (the voice box that you can see in the front of your throat) as you pronounce the word bowl . You can feel the vibration with the tips of our fingers. Concentrate on the first sound, the consonant /b/ before passing to the vowel represented by the “o”. Notice that you can lengthen the sound (something is heard!) without the “o”. This is because /b/ is a voiced consonant.
Now pronounce the word pole. Do you feel the vibration in the vocal cords? No. The reason is that /p/ is an unvoiced consonant. Notice that you you can’t lengthen the sound or hear anything.
When you pronounce these sounds, don’t forget the advice we already gave you in other articles: exaggerate the value of the vowel “o” with a strong English accent!
Listen to the following exercise until you can distinguish betwen the two sounds and produce them yourself.
You should be able to telll the difference between the /p/ and the /b/ in the sentence The doctor said: “Bill, take your pill!
Try it now!
The sounds of the English letters /k/ (sometimes “c”) and /g/
It is not only the sounds /p/ and /b/ that are voiced or unvoiced. The same distinction holds for the sounds represented by the letters “k” y “g” in the International Phonetic Alphabet. By the way, do you see that it will not be hard for you to learn the symbols of the IPA? Many of the symbols, like the k and the g are already familiar to you. They are the normal letters of the alphabet.
The IPA symbol k interests us now. It is the “hard” sound of the letter “c”, the sound that the letter “c” usually takes before the letters “a”, “o”, and “u”, for example in the words car, coat, cube.
Now can you see how the IPA system makes it easy for you to learn the pronunciation of new words? Now, we don’t have to worry that sometimes the letter “c” has the sound of the IPA symbol k (as in the word cold) or that sometimes the same letter “c” of the English alphabet is pronounced as the IPA s (as in the words cell ).
!
Now try to feel in your voice box the vibration in the word coal! You can’t because it is the unvoiced partner in the pair. If you touch your voice box while you pronounce the word goal, you do feel the vibration because the sound g is voiced.
Practice the two words coal and goal. But keep on pronouncing the the English vowel with its lengthening. Exaggerate the English language character of the vowel. Don’t pronounce it as if it were col or gol in your language. And also remember the explosive nature of the consonant represented by the “c” in English when it is pronounced as the IPA k. Blow out the candle when you say coal.
Pero?¡Qu?no suene como si hablaras de repollo (la col en el Per? o del fútbol (el gol)!
¡Cuidado con tu acento hispano!
Did you notice that we review various important things about the English sounds as we move along in this book. From now on, in your listening and in your practice, you must remember the explosive consonants, the special English vowels, and the voiced or unvoiced consonants.
Listen and practice all these essential elements of English pronunciation.
The sound of the letters “t” and “d”
Consider the pair of words tear and dear. Do the same with these words as you did above with the pairs of words coal and goal, and pole and bowl. Can you distinguish which of the initial sounds is voiced and which is unvoiced? Both are pronounced in almost the same place in the mouth but the initial sound of these two words is different in that the letter “t” is usually voiceless and the “d” is usually voiced. However, do NOT think that the letter “d” in English is always voiced. You will see that sometimes this letter “d” represents a voiceless sound. This is a VERY important lesson in the pronunciation of English and when you learn how and when the “d” is unvoiced it will be a valuable tool for you in your mastery of English.
This difference between the letters “d” and “t” in English is very important in the matter of the past tense of verbs. We will treat this elsewhere.
Also there is another pair of voiced and unvoiced consonants, the sounds represented in English by the letters “s” and “z”. We will study them in their most important contexts, that of the third person singular of the present of verbs, and that of the plural of nouns.
But for now, concentrate on the consonants we just looked at.
Now listen and practice! Listen wherever you can (or listen in our book) to the different pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants. Then make them yourself.
P and B
K and G
T and D
This lesson is taken from the book, “Word Power?which contains sound files that let you hear the vowels and consonants and practice their pronunciation.

Jennifer Banks
255

“CITE YOUR SOURCES!?The evils of plagiarism are pounded into students?heads as soon as they start writing. Most students hearken to the requests of their teachers to be honest and cite their sources in a bibliography. By high school, most have learned how to write a paper using their own thoughts and words. Unfortunately, as technology advances, plagiarism becomes easier. Today’s teachers are dealing with a high-tech version of yesterday’s plagiarism problem. Luckily, the resources that make plagiarism simple also make catching the copiers easier than ever.
Before the internet became popular, teachers had to worry about students copying sections out of encyclopedias and books. It required a lot of photocopying and retyping, which acted as a barrier to plagiarism. This form of academic dishonesty was also fairly easy to catch since the vocabulary of most children is fairly inferior to that of a book or encyclopedia. Today’s teachers are dealing with a new problem ?the term paper websites.
Google the term “download term paper” and you might fall off your chair when you see how many websites pop up in the search results. Some will sell you a single, pre-written term paper for prices as low as $9.95. There are also services that will write you a custom paper at a very high cost. Others, such as www.MonsterPapers.com, will allow you to subscribe to a database of over 1 million term papers.
An outrage! Immoral! Unbelievable! The cries of teachers all over the world are pretty similar. They see these term paper websites as promotion of plagiarism. Teachers have begun to subscribe to services such as Turnitin.com to try and catch the plagiarizers. An economics professor at McGill University in Canada even required all students to obtain an “originality report?from this service. When a student refused, saying he felt like he was “guilty until proven innocent,?the case ended up in front of a judge where the student’s rights prevailed. Even if students cannot be required to submit their papers to services such as Turnitin.com, the fact that they exist and teachers have access to them should clearly indicate that turning in term papers from internet websites isn’t a good idea.
The term paper websites may have contributed to a growing problem of academic dishonesty, but as with many ethics questions, there are benefits to such services. It may be that students and teachers have not been properly trained on how they can use these sites to their educational benefit. As long as there are students, the term paper websites will not go away. For the sake of the students, it is imperative that teachers instruct students on how they case use these resources honestly.
An important benefit of term paper websites is the ability for students to read research prepared by other students. Learning by example is an excellent way to improve your own abilities. Students rarely have the opportunity to read examples of term papers written by other students. Many struggle with writing papers, not because they can’t do it, but because they don’t have experience with such writing. Reading examples of term papers can benefit some students enormously.
Technically, a term paper database isn’t very different than an encyclopedia. It has snippets of information on hundreds of thousands of different topics. The difference is the format of the information. Some papers are persuasive. Others are informative. One benefit that these databases have over encyclopedias is that they usually will include a bibliography that directs the student to more information on the topic. Students who are looking for research on difficult topics can use these sources to prepare their own papers.
One of the greatest benefits to a term paper database is the ability to combat and defeat writer’s block. Coming up with a great idea can be one of the most frustrating steps in the writing process for some students. For years teachers have encourage students to read to find ideas. A term paper database is another service that students can use to formulate opinions, read different points of view, generate ideas, and develop their own term paper.
Approaching these term paper databases from the stance of them being a learning tool, instead of a learning block, will greatly enhance a student’s education. Students know they are out there and many will use them. Educating students on how these services can be used responsibly and honestly is a step that all teachers should take to promote academic honesty.

Mark Woodcock
546

It seems as if having a college degree is necessary to get almost any good job these days. Many employers don’t even consider applicants without a degree, even for entry-level positions. Many individuals find themselves either unable to find a stable, long-term job, or are stuck in a job for many years because they did not go to college and earn a degree. But, technology is giving many people the opportunity to earn a degree in a short period of time. Online degree programs offer a wide array of subjects to study, offer flexible schedules, and a unique learning environment that benefits many adults accustomed to independent work. Attaining a quick college degree is an excellent way to secure a solid job with excellent benefits, or to reach new levels of professional achievement.
The primary advantage to earning a quick college degree online is the learning format itself. Online learning is adjustable to the needs of the student, offering flexible class schedules and continuously available course materials. A student who carries the responsibilities of a full-time job and a family does not need to worry about fitting in class time. And the time frame is often perfect for the needs of the working student. In fact, many online programs are geared toward the working adult looking to earn a degree in a short period of time. Because of this, online colleges and universities have designed programs that teach more pertinent material in compressed frames of time. If a student goes into an online program with an Associate’s degree, it is possible to earn a bachelor’s degree in a year (as opposed to traditional college, where it would take 2-3 years or longer, depending on the degree program). For the student who has no prior college credits, it can take less than 2 years to earn a bachelor’s degree. The ability for a school and its students to achieve this involves a concept known as accelerated learning.
Accelerated learning involves teaching a few key components of a subject or field at a time in smaller periods that are shorter than the typical college semester, usually 4-6 weeks. The most important and pertinent information to the topic is taught. Students are better able to focus on one topic at a time, without having to cram different information from different courses into their heads. Therefore retention of newly learned information is often higher. In the business world, where a person is often accustomed to working on one task or project at a time, the ability to focus on and hone in on the nuances of one topic at a time is a key tool that can be improved upon for a person’s professional future. In an accelerated learning environment, shorter class frames not only means better retention of learned material, but also mean that students are likely to remain more interested in the program. Therefore, students are more likely to complete the program and graduate from this quick type of learning program with a college degree.
The advantages of earning a quick college degree online are numerous. The ability to earn a college degree in less than 2 years means that you will be able to find a great job, or advance in your current position sooner than if you took the traditional college route. Online learning provides a flexibility that does not hinder your work and social life. It allows you to schedule school around life, not the other way around. The availability of your course materials, discussion archives, and research resources is great – they are all at your disposal online, which means that they are available to you any time you need them, from any computer. The biggest advantage of earning a quick college degree is by far the satisfaction you will have knowing that you achieved a huge goal, and that your professional opportunities will be limitless in the future. Getting a quick college degree through an online program is the ultimate way to get career and personal satisfaction in a short period of time.

Keith Taylor
338

Have you ever wondered how to use movies in your ESL classes, without just sitting your students down in front of the screen, hitting ‘Play’ and sitting back to watch?
Here are a few ideas to get you started, using very short movie extracts to present and practise new language and develop communicative skills.
1 No picture
Choose a short extract (2 or 3 minutes) with plenty of sound effects. Play it with the screen covered or turned away from the students, and ask them to write down what they hear. If two of the sound effects are birds singing and a baby crying, you could use the extract to present or practice any of these language points (and I’m sure you can think of more):
Some birds are singing / A baby is crying
Some birds were singing / A baby was crying
It must / might / can’t be birds singing or It must / might / can’t have been birds singing
I heard some birds singing / I heard a baby crying
After playing the extract, have students compare what they heard in pairs, and then elicit the language from them. Remember to show the extract with both picture and sound at the end of the activity to satisfy the students’ curiosity!
2 No sound
Here’s the opposite idea. Show a short extract (again, 2 or 3 minutes is enough) with a lot going on, or where the characters convey a lot of emotion in their expressions, but play it with the volume off. Students can then do one of the activities below without having to worry about understanding dialogue:
Describe what happened using narrative tenses
Describe the scene
Anticipate dialogue or reactions
Arrange a cut up dialogue which you have given them.
Finally, play the extract again with sound. Having done one of these tasks, your students will be able to fit what they hear into a context much more effectively than if they had viewed the extract initially with picture and sound.
3 Jigsaw viewing
You may have done jigsaw reading activities in your class, where students have half the information, and share what they have read with another student to recreate the whole story. You can also do this with short video sequences in a number of ways:
Half the class watches with no picture, then the other half with no sound (you’ll have to take half the students out of the class in each case). In pairs they then question each other to recreate the scene.
Half the class have picture and sound, the other half just have sound. You can do this by sitting students in two rows, back to back, so that only one row can see the screen. The half who only had sound then question the other half.
One student listens with headphones, while all the others view without sound. The student with headphones questions the others to recreate the scene.
4 Viewing on rewind
Choose a short sequence with a lot of action. For example, a woman enters an apartment, picks up the telephone, listens, looks terrified, runs out of her apartment and down the stairs, and runs off down the street. Movies are, of course, a great source for this sort of material. Play the scene backwards to the students (DVD gives more flexibility than video with the speed of playback) then have them reconstruct the story in chronological order, using narrative tenses, or future tenses, or whatever you want the linguistic focus to be. Finally, play the sequence normally so students can compare it with their version.
5 Pause / Freeze Frame
If you use pictures in your classroom for introducing new vocabulary, or for describing people and scenes, you can add a new dimension to this with the pause/freeze frame button of your video or DVD player. Hit pause when a character has an interesting expression on his or her face, is about to react to something or answer a question, or when there is a lot of colourful new vocabulary on the screen. Have students describe the character/scene, or anticipate what the character will say or do next. Release the pause button to allow students to compare their ideas with what actually happens.
Video is a motivating and effective way to bring variety to your ESL classes. Using short, sharp sequences with a clear linguistic focus, your students will go away from your class with much more than if you sit them down in front of the screen and hit ‘play’.

Keith Taylor
337

Have you ever wondered how to use video in your ESL classes, without just sitting your students down in front of the screen and hitting ‘Play’? Here are five more activities for you to try.
1 Vocabulary in context
Choose a scene (no longer than two or three minutes) with some dialogue rich in vocabulary. Make a worksheet with ten to twenty words that are used in the scene, or that describe the scene in some way. Give the worksheet to each pair of students and have them discuss some possible contexts in which the vocabulary might appear in a movie. (Giving students the context of the movie as a whole can make this task easier). Play your chosen scene once, asking students to listen for the contexts in which the vocabulary is used. Pairs can then compare their information and report back to you.
2 Subtitles
A big advantage of DVD over video is the subtitles feature. Playing a scene with subtitles in the students’ own language or in English is good for building confidence. Try playing it with the sound down first, letting them read the subtitles, then with the sound up, again reading the subtitles, and finally with the sound up and the subtitles turned off. Keep the extract you use to about two or three minutes.
3 News
If you have access to TV news in English, record a news story with plenty of visual footage. Play it with the volume off and have your students discuss in groups what they think the item was about. Then give them a pre-prepared list of vocabulary, containing words essential for understanding the story. Using this list and what they have seen, students reconstruct the story in pairs and report back to the group. Don’t forget to play it with the volume up at the end, so that students can compare their version with the original.
4 Cultures
This activity could be used in a conversation class about cultural differences. Find a short extract which shows a typical aspect of British culture, or American culture, or any culture you want to focus on! Have students discuss the differences between what they see and their own culture. Students do not necessarily need to understand the dialogue for this — the visual aspect of the cultural scene is usually enough.
5 Voices in my head
Choose a short scene with some interesting and expressive dialogue between two or more characters. Show the scene normally and check students’ comprehension. Put your students into groups, so that you have one group for each character in the scene. Their task is to imagine what is going on inside the head of their assigned character. Play the scene again, several times if necessary, for students to “get to know” their character, and have them work together to imagine his/her thoughts. Finally, play the scene once more, hitting “Pause” after each character has spoken, at which point the groups say what their character is thinking.
A short video sequence with a clearly focused activity is an effective and motivating way to bring variety to your ESL classes. Your students will go away with more than if you sit them down in front of the screen and hit ‘play’.

Adam Waxler
331

What is guided reading?
What are some guided reading activities?
How about guided reading demonstrations or guided reading lesson plans?
Using guided reading as a teaching strategy has become more and more popular as the emphasis in education continues to focus on how to increasing reading comprehension As a teacher mentor, I often have teachers ask me questions about guided reading similar to those above. However, as with any other reading strategy, increasing reading comprehension depends highly on what the teacher does “before?the reading assignment.
First, though, what is guided reading? Simply put, in guided reading students are placed in small groups with similar reading levels. Children read either silently or aloud to themselves, but they do not read in unison. In early guided reading groups books are chosen based on a 90% accuracy level. Books should also match a child’s interests and knowledge base.
Of course, two problems exist. First, to do all that guided reading suggests can be quite challenging and maybe even impossible since kids with similar reading levels do not necessarily have similar interests or knowledge bases. And second, the teacher still needs to tap into and build upon the student’s prior knowledge of the subject matter (before reading) if the teacher truly wants to increase reading comprehension.
A great teaching strategy to overcome these obstacles and improve guided reading instruction is to do a three to five minute book introduction as a scaffold for the first reading of a text.
Here is an example from an historical fiction guided reading lesson I did with 8th graders during our unit on World War II. Eve Bunting’s book, “So Far From the Sea? is a beautiful story about the Iwasakis, a Japanese-American family that goes back to visit the “relocation” camp where the father was interned for three and a half years during World War II. While the content is serious, the book is actually a picture book written on a second grade level. Nevertheless, an introduction to the book is necessary to scaffold learning, clear up any comprehension concerns, and ultimately make the guided reading instruction more successful. I would start with the cover, both the title and the illustration. I would point out the mountains in the background and explain that the family is clearly very far from the sea. I would then ask a series of questions: Is the family happy or sad? Why are they standing next to a monument? What are monuments for? Why is the mother holding flowers? By answering these questions, the students conclude that the Iwasaki family has brought flowers to some solemn place, and at least one reason they are sad is that they are “so far from the sea? Students can then predict where they think the Iwasaki family is on the cover and the goal of the guided reading can then be to discover if their predictions are correct.
However, I would not start the guided reading just yet. First, I would take the students on a “picture walk” through the book. The pictures in a book can go a long way towards increasing comprehension. In this particular book, the father often reflects back to his youth when he and his father were interned in the prison camp. This reflecting, however, can create problems for some readers. Fortunately, the illustrator, Chris K. Soentpiet, has drawn pictures in both color and black and white. The color pictures are present day (1972) at the abandoned prison camp. The black and white pictures are during World War II when 10,000 Japanese-Americans were interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in eastern California. The “picture walk” also provides a great opportunity to point out any words that the students may have trouble with. For example, I would certainly point out “Manzanar War Relocation Center” written on a sign in an early illustration in the book. These words come up often and the pictures provide a great opportunity to explain their meaning.
By “walking” through the pictures to introduce the book, a teacher can tap into students’ prior knowledge and also have students predict what the text is about. Furthermore, teachers can clear up any comprehension concerns they may have about the book, such as “jumping” back and forth between 1943 to 1972. The “picture walk” will, in turn, increase students’ interest in the book and therefore increase students’ motivation to learn. This is all done prior to the actual guided reading. Remember, guided reading is a great reading strategy, however, teachers must still activate prior knowledge and clear up any comprehension concerns if they really want to increase reading comprehension and get the most success from their the guided reading.
Copyright 2006 Adam Waxler

Mary Joyce
163

One of the most effective teaching methods for children is to use materials that the child has a natural interest in. Teaching reading to your child is no exception. Our kids (as I’m sure most kids) have a natural interest in animals. Right from the beginning we had great success using their natural curiosity and affection for animals to teach the basic formations and sounds that are associated with the letters and pictures. This naturally progressed into using the same to aid in teaching reading to them as well.
There are several children’s magazines available for you that are dedicated to the animal child connection. As our kids got a bit older we even subscribed to a couple of the magazines for them. You talk about generating an interest! Just wait till the kids realize that every so often the mailman brings them a present. They couldn’t wait and it certainly helped us with teaching reading to both of the kids. If your kids, are struggling to read or maybe struggling to get interested in reading, use a tool that they are naturally interested in. For us, the animal stories and magazines were a great way for us to get started teaching reading.
Find a magazine that seems to fit the age level of your child. For younger children, I recommend one that has big bright colorful pictures with interesting facts. One of our favorite children’s magazines is Zoobooks. Some even have interactive puzzles and games the child can play and learn. A simple search on the internet of “children + animals + magazine?will turn up many choices for you.
Teaching reading to your child is 100 times easier when you employ the use of a subject that children naturally want to know more about. In fact, one thing that we discovered was that once the one of the magazines had been used and was no longer current, they made great tools for the kids to cut some of the pictures out and make bulletin boards, calendars, and it made a great start in getting to the next level of reading by learning to make up their own stories and adventures using the pictures they cut out and the information from the magazines!
Whatever you choice of tools you are considering using to teach reading to your child, I highly recommend the use of some good children’s magazines.

Tripp Taylor
114

Do you want to finish school and get a degree? Are you unable to go to college campus because you can’t fit into your busy schedule? Perhaps you have to work at varying times. Perhaps you have kids to take care of or other responsibilities. Whatever the reasons may be, there are many people that want to get a degree at a college campus, but they just don’t have the time to fit it into their random schedules. If you happen to be one of these people, perhaps you should consider getting an online degree. If you have no clue how to do this, or if you would just like some information, please read on for some tips on finding the best online degree programs.
There are many online degree programs available. You can really choose any online degree program you want. This is because literally everything is done online. This means if you live on one side of the United States, you can still take an online college degree programs from the other side of the United States! With online degree programs, you can get your degree at your own pace and around your busy and ever changing schedule. The best part is that you can do it right from the comfort of your own home! A great place to start to look for online degree programs are at online–degree.net. This website lists hundreds of accredited online degree programs for you to choose from.
When choosing between the online degree programs, make sure you pick on that offers free job placement assistance for you when you graduate. Also look for an online degree program that allows you to take the courses again for free as refreshers. When checking out their websites look for one that offers a free consultation by phone or email so that you can get better information. If this is not available, or if the website is very vague about the online degree programs, then stay away from it. Also, when you think you found the right online degree program for you, try to see if the courses offered also provide you with ways to chat with other students and teachers if you are in need of help with a subject.
Those were the most important tips on finding the best online degree programs. There are a lot of options for you to choose from when you begin your search. Take all of these tips into consideration before making your choice between the various online degree programs. With the right online degree program, you will be one step closer to getting a better education and landing that dream job you have always thought about!

Freda J. Glatt, MS
80

With this severe, active, hurricane season underway, here are some ideas to make areas of the curriculum relevant to your children. There are also suggestions for dealing with the aftermath of a catastrophic hurricane. If you are in an area that experiences other natural phenomena, just adapt these suggestions to fit your needs.
1. Have children express their feelings. Youngsters will be able to draw pictures and dictate sentences, while older children will be able to illustrate their own stories. With everyone participating, this will draw out your shy, timid children who may not want to take part in a verbal discussion.
2. Make a bound book of the class?experiences and keep it in the class library. Perhaps you can have students ‘rent?it for a night to share with their families.
3. If you do not have Pen Pals, why not try to find a class in another part of the country or world that has not experienced a hurricane. Your pupils will then become teachers as they explain what happened.
4. Instead of writing, your class could make a cassette or videotape. If sending it to Pen Pals, make sure you check on the privacy policies in your school.
5. Use children’s experiences to have lessons on adjectives, adverbs, similes, and onomatopoeia.
6. Answer who, what, where, when, why, and how as you write the opening paragraph of a story. Do it on the overhead projector and obtain input from class members.
7. This would be a good time to teach specificity and the Voice Writing Trait. Compare these two stories and tell which is more specific and exciting: a. Yesterday, a hurricane came to my city and caused a lot of damage. I was scared because it was loud and the water was high. b. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared into New Orleans like a lion. I felt terrified as I heard the howling wind and crashing surf; but I was petrified when the water kept rising and I had to climb through my roof to be safe. When I got up there, all I could see was water, water everywhere and rooftops of houses.
8. Have a unit on the Five Senses of Hurricane ___. Can you smell the sweat? Do you feel hot and sticky? Have each child make his own booklet.
9. Reinforce map skills as you track a hurricane. What better way to relate latitude and longitude?! Get to know those terms for your own city. Looking at the map’s key, older children will be able to estimate how far away a hurricane is from a specific place.
10. Delve into the causes of hurricanes. Make a list of the strongest ever recorded and include their data. This will reinforce research skills and graph-making.
11. Tally how many hurricanes have occurred each year since 1960. Circle the major ones. Is there a pattern?
12. Teachers and parents, alike, will need to remember that there may be extreme anxiety during any rainstorm. If the power is still on, try to stand close to a person who has been through a horrible ordeal. Give a pat on the back or a hug, along with a reassuring word. On the other hand, if power goes out, have a flashlight handy and play games with it (follow the direction of light; spotlight a child and have him recite a poem, sing a song, or perform a silly antic). Have children all hold hands to know they are not alone. If children are old enough, keep your lessons going without reading; much can be accomplished orally! Do whatever you can to allay children’s fears.
I hope these ideas are useful and have inspired your own creative thinking.
And remember…Reading is FUNdamental!!