Language Workouts to flex-your-brain!
Below is a collection of lively Web-based resources designed to build language & literacy skills. These resources are organized under five general headings:
*Listening
*Comprehension
*Vocabulary
*Word Reading & Spelling
*Writing
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- LISTENING to speech sounds in words at Orson's Farm
- Orson's Farm provides fun, interactive practice with phonological (speech sound) awareness for early elementary school age students. Orson's Farm is located on The Professor Garfield Foundation learning portal.
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- LISTENING PRACTICE: Sound Exercises for Early Reading
- Designed to exercise the neural pathways involved in distinguishing subtle differences in sound, this group of games works at training the basic fundamentals necessary for language, listening, and reading. Improvements in these types of activities have been associated with improvements in academic performance and reading.
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- COMPREHENSION: 20 Questions games to play against a computer
- This is version of 20 Questions against an artificial intelligence (a computer!) provides intensive practice with some essential language and communication skills: 1) turn-taking 2) question asking and answering 3) categorization 4) verbal memory 5) impulse control 6) asking and answering with factual information (truth). Be patient while the language grid loads, then select your language preference (e.g., "Think in American"). If you are the parent of a nonreader you can play this game as your child's partner (i.e., You read the questions and the two of you think as a team).
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- COMPREHENSION: Silly Sentence Machine
- HERE IS WHAT YOU DO: 1) Click on pictures to make up a 5 part 'silly sentence.' 2) Listen to your sentence. 3) Illustrate your sentence (You'll need paper and colored markers, crayons, pencils or paints!). 4) Listen to your sentence again to be sure you are drawing what the sentence says.
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- COMPREHENSION: Time for Kids Online
- This is a great source of motivating and interesting reading material for kids from the Time Magazine company. There are reports from a kids' news team, coverage of "hot topics," and online games and crafts.
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- COMPREHENSION: Chaiasmus (order matters!)
- Playing with the order of linguistic elements can be fun, surprising and instructive! This activity requires grammatical skill and is most appropriate for older elementary, middle and high school students.
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- VOCABULARY: FreeRice
- FreeRice allows you to earn rice for hungry people by doing vocabulary practice. It automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary.
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- VOCABULARY: Homonyms
- Alan Cooper's Homonyms Page (Homonyms are English words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings.)
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- VOCABULARY: Number 2.com
- Named after the famous #2 pencil, this free resource links students to comprehensive SAT, ACT and GRE preparation resources, including a personal Web page to track their progress. Plus, the better students do, the harder the questions get. Detailed sample tests and financial aid tips are included. The practice routine works best when you sign up with a teacher or SLP as your coach.
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- VOCABULARY: Wordsmith.org
- The music and magic of words — that's what A.Word.A.Day is all about. This is the Web site for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which sends a vocabulary word and its definition to the subscribers every day.
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- VOCABULARY Workshop
- This site is maintained by American University and is generally appropriate for upper level language users. Students can explore this site by using the mouse and clicking on any blue underlined item. The primary areas are: roots, prefixes, suffixes, and vocabulary. Note that many of the roots are 'closed syllables,' so some of this content might make good practice for older students who are just beginning to learn English syllable types (a key to pronouncing the vowels in English words).
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- READING & SPELLING WORDS: practice for emergent readers
- The Starfall.com Website provides free activities and materials as a public service. The methods are designed for the emergent readers in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten first and second grades. While these materials are based on sound, research-based principles and can provide fun and engaging practice for emergent readers, the pace of instruction may not be approproiate for all students, so you might want to consult your child's teacher and/or speech-language pathologist about when and how to use them.
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- READING & SPELLING WORDS: Reading Skills Practice for K-3 Student
- A Compact for Reading provides a free "School-Home Links Reading Kit" for children in kindergarten through 3rd grade. These materials do not constitute a complete reading method, but may be useful in conjunction with a comprehensive method. You may want to consult your child's teacher or speech-language pathologist for the appropriate application of these materials for your child.
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- WRITING: Essay Basics
- Here are Professor Rick Lewis' (Sandhills Community College) 6 steps to a successful essay.
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- WRITING: Grammar Gorillas
- The Grammar Gorillas need help identifying parts of speech. If you click on the right word in the sentence, the gorillas get a banana. And you know, a gorilla with a banana is a gorilla with appeal!
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- WRITING: Writing Skills "Ace"
- This site has lively illustrations and provides engaging practice for each part of the writing process (content, organization, vocabulary, language, mechanics, editing). It is appropriate for students who read at or above ~ a 5th grade level.
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