The FAPE Site

Classroom Management Resources

Here are three categories of resources on classroom management: Articles, Quizzes, Tips; Books; and Web sites.

Articles, Quizzes, Tips

Behavior Control
These Works4Me tips are from teachers. Building a sense of order, respect, and trust in your classroom is essential. Without these underlying dynamics, the real business of teaching and learning cannot take place. Here are ways that some educators are meeting the challenge, and using positive reinforcement to transform undesirable behavior in their students. Try them and see if they work in your classroom! (NEA)
www.nea.org/tips/manage/behavior.html

Cheating, Plagiarism (and Other Questionable Practices), the Internet and Other Electronic Resources
This comprehensive article lists commercial and free term-paper sources, Web-based plagiarism detection tools, and, way down at the end, practical tips for discouraging cheating and plagiarizing from the Internet and other electronic sources in your class.
www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/plag.htm

Creating an Atmosphere for Learning
This article looks at the three major components of classroom management: the organization of the physical space and placement of materials, the rules that guide student behavior, and the need to gain and maintain the students' attention for instructional learning. From the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
www.nea.org/classmanagement/envk030214.html

The Inclusional Classroom
The most important element in classroom management is to have a plan. Answer the questions in this article to see if you're ready for school. The About Education Web site offers many free articles and numerous items for purchase.
http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherstrategies/ a/management.htm

Laying the Foundation for Positive Classroom Behavior
Classroom behavior is one of the trickiest issues teachers face today. One key to nipping behavioral problems in the bud is to promote positive behavior before problems arise. This takes some planning, but these practical tips will help you lay a foundation for positive classroom behavior. Requires free registration. (Pearson Education Development Group)
www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6400.html

Management Tips for New Teachers
Four areas to address to bring order to the classroom: establishing classroom climate, conducting class efficiently, reaching all students, and establishing discipline. (NEA)
www.nea.org/classmanagement/begtk030731.html

10 Approaches to Better Discipline
All discipline problems are not alike. Effective teachers match different approaches to different problems. Here are ten approaches from Merrill Harmin's Inspiring Discipline. From the NEA Professional Library 1995.
www.nea.org/classmanagement/disck021113.html

Top Clicks for New Teachers
Three areas to consider when organizing the classroom: general classroom management, student behavior, and learning environment.
www.nea.org/classmanagement/begtk030828.html

What Is Your Classroom Management Profile?
The intent of this quiz is to inform you and arouse your curiosity regarding classroom management styles. The styles are adaptations of the parenting styles discussed in Adolescence, by John T. Santrock.
http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v1i2/what.html

Books

The Discipline Checklist: Advice from 60 Successful Teachers by Ken Kosier
Sixty elementary teachers--each recognized for highly successful efforts at maintaining discipline--share their secrets of classroom management and suggestions for motivating today's students. Practical and easy to read. (NEA Professional Library)
http://store.nea.org/NEABookstore/control/ productdetails?&item_id=2165700

Innovative Discipline by Judi Call et al.
Covers discipline strategies that work and can improve the whole culture of a school, peer mediation, self-help sessions, and TQM as a discipline strategy. New in this edition are a section on school safety and an extensive list of resources. (2nd ed., 2000) (NEA Professional Library)
http://store.nea.org/NEABookstore/control/ productdetails?&item_id=2916X00

Web Sites

Do the Right Thing
Every generation bemoans the rude behavior of young people. What's an educator to do? Find out how educators are helping students get along with others and "do the right thing." You'll find resources with a positive, proactive approach to instilling civil behavior in the learning environment: success stories, tips, strategies, grants, and more. From NEA.
www.nea.org/dotherightthing/index.html

Managing the Class Climate
Teaching Effectiveness Program (TEP) answers 10 Frequently Asked Questions, including what to do if you have a reputation for being boring or a blowoff. Ideas are applicable for K-16. From the University of Oregon.
http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/faqs/ managingclimate/managing.html

You Can Handle Them All
A reference for handling over 117 different misbehaviors at home and at school. (The Master Teacher)
www.disciplinehelp.com

Revised January 2007.

Arts & Literature Resources

Art

Art Access
This Web site from the Art Institute of Chicago examines objects from the museum's permanent collection to provide site visitors with an understanding of the collection’s content, style, and historical context. It has Ancient Indian and African-American art, impressionism, post-impressionism, and modern art as well as a variety of online resources for teachers, parents and students, including lesson plans for the classroom and art projects for the home.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/artaccess/

Artcyclopedia
Part portal and part collection of articles about famous paintings and painters, the Artcyclopedia site indexes over a thousand museum and fine-arts-related sites from around the world, providing access to the most authoritative sites on the Internet. The site's "Top 30" feature provides the 30 most popular artists and 30 most popular works of art searched by users of the site. Has a glossary with hundreds of fine arts terms.
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/

ARTSEDGE
An excellent source of information on arts education, ARTSEDGE provides arts curriculum resources; look-listen-learn lessons; standards in dance, music, theater, and the visual arts; articles about how to teach the arts, and articles and reports on current issues in arts education. Developed by the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/

A Century of Drawing
This site presents 50 of the 140 drawings on view in the "A Century of Drawing" exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibit charts the development of modern art and shows some of the most aesthetically compelling and intellectually intriguing works from the 20th century. The Web site includes works by Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Calder, Rothko, de Kooning, Dubuffet, Guston, Rauschenberg, Twombly, and others.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/drawinginfo.htm

The Drama Teacher's Resource Room
This Web site is dedicated to drama teachers (grades 4-12) and includes a variety of resources: lesson plans, backstage activities/archives, production ideas, other drama links, and educator seminar information.
http://www.sasktelwebsite.net/erachi/index.html

Education at the Getty
Discover an interdisciplinary approach to using the Internet to help bring Los Angeles's worlds of art into the classroom. Teachers outside of Los Angeles can also use the lesson plans and resources to build connections between art learning and the art worlds of their own communities. The site offers lesson plans and curriculum ideas, image galleries, and discussion boards.
http://www.getty.edu/education/

Guggenheim Museum
Learning Through Art is an artists-in-the-schools program of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The program encourages teachers and teaching artists to design art projects that support student learning across the curriculum.
http://www.learningthroughart.org/

Joy2Learn
This Web site features e-presentations with internationally renowned artists. Each artist introduces his or her art form, discussing its history, background, and personal insights. Students can navigate through videos including performances, discussions, and quiz games. The Joy2Learn e-presentations were designed to support curriculum standards in areas of social studies, science, the arts, and English language arts and may also be used by general education teachers of elementary or middle schools class levels. 
http://joy2learn.com/

KinderArt, Art Lessons for K-12
This site boasts over 1000 free art lesson plans, covering art topics from architecture to drama, and folk art to sculpture. Also included are a free newsletter, an art gallery of children's art, profiles of young artists, information about contests for students, and many materials for purchase.
http://www.kinderart.com/index.html

Metropolitan Museum of Art
This site includes Explore and Learn (an area about artists and their works), Timeline of Art History, Educational Resources, and Museumkids (activities for kids to try). 
http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp

PapaInk
This Web site is an international online gallery of children's art. The creators of the site provide no-cost archival services to organizations and individuals all over the world, enabling the set-up and building out of permanent galleries of children's art -- a great service with amazing images.
http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/index.html

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
The "What's New" link from the home page leads to five specialized interfaces of the museum's collections: diversity, uses, imagery, currently on view, and advanced.
http://africa.si.edu/index1.html

Music

Essentials of Music
This site for basic information about classical music  (created in cooperation with W.W. Norton, built around Essential Classics) includes overviews of the six main periods in music history (Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century); brief biographies of nearly 70 composers; and a glossary containing 200 definitions with numerous musical examples. RealAudio is required for sound clips.
http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/

San Francisco Symphony Kids' Site
The site offers a refresher course on The Instruments of the Orchestra and or an introduction to reading music in Meet the Notes.
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/splash.asp

Research

Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum conducted a three-year study to evaluate the impact of arts education on critical thinking skills and literacy among elementary school children. The study found that students in the program performed better in several categories of literacy and critical thinking skills — including extended focus, hypothesizing, and providing multiple interpretations — than did students who were not in the program.
http://www.learningthroughart.org/research_findings.php

Writing & Literature

Guide to Grammar and Writing
Whether it's run-on sentences, modifiers, punctuation, spelling rules, or essay writing, if you have a grammar or writing question, you can probably find the answer here.
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

International Children's Digital Library
The goal of this 5-year project is to create a digital library of international children's books for children ages 3-13, building an international collection that reflects both the diversity and quality of children's literature. The collection includes over 700 titles, all available for free. The ICDL is a public library for the world, and the collection reflects diverse cultures, perspectives, and historical periods. The ICDL searching and reading tools are now available in 9 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Filipino/Tagalog, German, Hebrew, Persian/Farsi, and Spanish.
http://www.icdlbooks.org/

Media Literacy
The site provides background information and teaching materials on media literacy -- accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and creating media. Resources include a "how-to" program for teaching media literacy skills to K-5 students, with replicable structure, tools, and lesson plans; a downloadable classroom activity guide that provides 25 lesson plans for K-12 media literacy; over 350 online magazine articles; and a media literacy kit with materials for free and for sale, in English and in Spanish.
http://www.medialit.org/

PBS TeacherSource: Arts & Literature
Use the pull-down menus in the center of the page for access to hundreds of PreK-12 curriculum resources. Lessons are based upon PBS's on-air and online programming. Most lessons incorporate the use of video, but do not require it. The site also provides access to dozens of recommended arts and literature Web sites and books.
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm

Perseus Digital Library
This site, produced by members of Tufts University's Classics Department, provides visitors with a wealth of information about the classical Western world. It includes an atlas, encyclopedia, introductory essays to ancient Greek and Roman life, English-to-Greek and English-to-Latin dictionaries, classic texts, and images of art and archaeology. Of special interest are the site's collection of electronic texts of Greek and Latin literature (from Aeschylus and Aristotle to Sophocles and Xenophon), The Bible, and the English Renaissance (Shakespeare, Philip Marlowe, and others).
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

Poets & Poetry Video Biographies
Annenberg Media's "Voices & Visions" is a great way to learn about the most influential American poets and poetry. Hour-long biographies highlight the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, William Carlos Williams, and nine other renowned poets.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series57.html

See the "Spotlight on Voices & Visions" Web site for brief videoclips from the series and links to extend the learning.
http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/



Updated June 2006.

Asian History Resources  

Links to Sites That Show the Richness of Eastern Cultures

Preparing a unit on Asian history? Well, here are some Web sites that may help you.

Asia for Educators
This site offers rich content -- including interactive time lines, historical maps, an image gallery -- that can be explored by subject, file type, time period, or unit. Educators will find outlines and background readings and links to standards and other information to help develop lesson plans. (Additional materials are available for purchase.) Students will find content for research reports or other projects. Despite two big problems -- links "under construction" and videos with long loading times and frequent interruptions -- the site has much to offer. From Columbia University.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu

Ask Asia
This clearinghouse for K-12 Asian and Asian-American studies offers lesson plans, essays, maps, images, and more. This Web site serves as a resource from which teachers can pick and choose parts of essays, particular lessons, teaching ideas that suit their individual teaching purpose. From Asia Society.
http://www.askasia.org/

Smithsonian Institute Freer and Sackler Galleries
The Education Department of the Freer and Sackler galleries offers a wide variety of programs designed to foster better understanding of Asian art and culture. Materials for teachers were developed by classroom educators working with museum curators. These curriculum packets provide multidisciplinary activities to capture the interest of students and inspire their creativity.
http://www.asia.si.edu/education/default.htm

Best Bet Book Lists & Awards

Elementary Students Through Young Adults

Best Bet Book Lists

Read Across America | NEA 
The Read Across America site has several interesting book lists, including Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children, Kid's Top 100 Books, Celebrity Book Picks, and more.
http://www.nea.org/readacross/parents.html

100 Favorite Children's Books | New York Public Library 
Listed by these categories: biography and history, fantasy, favorite animal stories, humor, mystery, poetry and song, science fiction, stories, survival/adventure, and today's kids.
http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=60

Choices Booklists | International Reading Association 
Each year, thousands of children, young adults, teachers, and librarians around the United States select their favorite recently published books to be included in the Choices annotated booklists. Published annually by the International Reading Association, Children’s Choices, Teachers' Choices, and Young Adults' Choices booklists are used in classrooms, libraries, and homes to help young people find books they will enjoy reading.
http://www.reading.org/resources/tools/choices.html

Bimonthly Showcase | Children's Book Council 
Book recommendations are organized around themes, such as Spanish Cultural Heritage, Math and Counting, or Summer Reading. CBC is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children's books, and is the sponsor of Young People's Poetry Week and Children's Book Week each year.
http://cbcbooks.org/html/showcase.html

Book Awards

Caldecott Medal Home Page  | American Library Association
Named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, this medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/caldecott.html

Coretta Scott King Award | American Library Association
This award is presented to authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the "American Dream."
http://www.ala.org/srrt/csking/index.html

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal | American Library Association
This award honors an author or illustrator whose books have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/wilder.html

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award | American Library Association 
Awarded to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States.
www.ala.org/alsc/batch.html

Newbery Medal | American Library Association 
Awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/newbery.html 

Pura Belpré Award  | American Library Association 
The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/belpre.html

Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award | Children's Literature Web Guide 
Presented for a work of historical fiction published by a U.S. publisher and set in the New World.
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/odell.html

Sydney Taylor Book Awards | Association of Jewish Libraries  
It is awarded annually to outstanding books of positive Jewish content for children. In some years, a special Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award is given as well.
http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/awards/st_books.htm

Bilingual and ESL Resources

Articles & Newsletters

Hands-on English
A 16-page print publication for teachers of adult ESL students. The publication is mailed six times a year with practical teaching ideas, hints & tips, and copyable activities for the classroom. It's written by teachers for teachers and is 99% jargon-free!
www.handsonenglish.com/

Kidspeak: How Children Acquire Language
Book chapter on how children develop language skills. From The Language Web by Jean Aitchison, published by Cambridge University Press, 1997.
www.fathom.com/course/10701036/

Seeing English Learners Through New Eyes
This article demonstrates the value of using English learners' native languages in the classroom. From Essential Teacher (March 2005).
www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=824&DID=3403

Works4Me Tips on Foreign Language Instruction
Reviewing techniques for studying a foreign language. From NEA.
www.nea.org/tips/content/foreign.html

Curriculum Resources

Hispanic-American History
Curriculum resources about Hispanic Americans, their impact on this country, when parts of it were theirs, and now. From About Web site.
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/hispanicamerican/

Web Sites

Colorín Colorado
Colorín Colorado provides information, activities, and advice for Spanish-speaking parents and educators of English language learners (ELLs). The site's "For Educators" section offers research-based resources for teachers and paraprofessionals, including information to help them better understand and address the needs of Latino ELL students, tips on the placement and assessment of ELL children, and ideas to foster stronger parent-teacher partnerships.
www.colorincolorado.org

NCELA (formerly NCBE) - Language & Education Links
The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA) site provides links to organizations and resources for effective education of linguistically and culturally diverse learners. The site also includes special pages for teacher training programs and bilingual parenting.
www.ncela.gwu.edu/resabout/

OELA (formerly OBEMLA)
The Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA) was established in 1974 by Congress to help school districts meet their responsibility to provide high quality education for limited English proficient students (LEPs). OELA's Web site is a source of contacts, organizations, grant news, and other information.
www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/index.html?src=mr

ESLoop
Collection of sites relevant to English language teaching and learning on Web. Each site is linked to the next, so that no matter where you start, you will eventually make your way around all the sites and end up back at the beginning. The ESLoop was intended to give you a more linear way of browsing, to help with demonstrations, and to form a fun association of those with ESL pages on the web. ESLoop sites feature student projects and activities to scholarly papers to English for Science and Technology and job opportunities.
www.linguistic-funland.com/esloop/esloop.html

Updated December 2007.