NAVIGATING THE WEB - Recommended Web Sites

AlphaRoute Update,
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A majority of learners quickly gained the ability to sign on and navigate through the web-site. Indeed, within six online sessions, most learners reported being comfortable with the site, understanding the various tools and being able to decide what to do and where to go next.

A large number of level 3 and level 4 learners were comfortable with the site by session 2 or 4; level 1 and 2 learners required more time. Most level 1 learners struggled at various times throughout the project. During some activities, they would be highly concentrated and enthralled with the experience; at other times, they were lost and needed either the mentor, or preferably an onsite facilitator, to reassure them and help them out.

Feeling good about learning is also a sign of independence. At various moments throughout the project, learners reported that they were highly motivated to continue. They persevered even if they faced a new challenge, they felt proud and self-confident about what they were accomplishing, and they had fun.

Learners were eloquent in describing their challenges and their successes as well as their ability to address complex contents while enjoying the process of learning

Why watch TV? Explore A&E on the Web!

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A&E Television Networks maintain several Web sites that could be the basis of reading or writing lessons for literacy students.

Biography.com is a Web site based on A&Es Biography series. The site includes a database of over 20,000 biographies. Students could be given reading, comprehension activities to do based on a biography. The biographies could also inspire students to write an autobiography or the biography of someone they admire. This Web site contains a search tool that allows you to quickly locate the biography you are interested in reading. The search tool is very easy to use; it allows you to enter the name with or without a comma and it will show you names which are close in spelling. You also have the option of searching using an alphabetical index. This could tie into a lesson on alphabetical order. The reading level is high, but not as high as you might find in a similar article from an encyclopedia. The information is very up-to-date and sometimes includes links to other Web sites that contain related information. The only drawback is that there are only a small number of biographies about Canadians. American entertainers make up the bulk of the database. Lower level literacy classes may want to cheek out the Bio Bytes, one minute documentaries about various celebrities, or your class may also be interested in reading who was born on this day in history.

Another of A&Es Web sites, www.mysteries.com, may be just the thing for the amateur detective in your class. This Web site contains a "Mystery of the Day". The mystery is a short "who done it", that contains a mystery, evidence and then the solution. A word of warning - some of the stories do contain violence, so this may not be for all students.

Finally, www.historychannel.com also contains some interesting articles that could be incorporated into a reading lesson. Now before you jump to the conclusion that history is not something your students would be interested in, take a look at the History Features. These articles cleverly describe historical events in a way that everyone can relate to. For example, one of there articles described "The First Thanksgiving - Without Forks".

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