website makes life easier

Not a lot on the technolgy front right now. Both of my classes have been focusing a lot of energy on reading from good ol' fashioned books. My seniors are currently participating in literature circles groups, so each week they work to complete their required reading, a journal, and their group role for their discussion groups. My sophomores are reading Independent Reading Books (IRBs) and we are also reading Othello in class as a group. Needless to say, everyone has pretty much had their noses in a book rather than pressed against the computer screen.

I will say, though, that in attempting to meet diverse student needs, I have found a website that has made everyone's life a little easier. In class, we are reading the No Fear Shakespeare version of the play, in which the left side of the page is the classic Shakespeare text and the right side of the page is a modern translation. Using this version has been very helpful for my high number of special needs students (to whom I recommended they just read the modern text), allowing them to follow along with the class and engage in discussions. What is convenient is that you can find this text on the web at www.nofearshakespeare.com . Once at this site, you just click on the play you want to read, and the text appears on the screen exactly like it is in our book, pagination and everything. This has been really great for catching up students who are absent, assisting students who need extra help or are working with a learning specialist, or simply to allow students in "In-School-Suspension" to stay caught up even if they are not physically in class. This online resource has also helped students as they work on their projects for this unit (a series of three different projects that really provide students with a great deal of choice in the medium and project they develop). However, these projects require students use quotes from the play. So when we are down in the media center having project work time, the students find great ease in going to this site to find the quotes they need.