EMC authors present at NCTE in Las Vegas on November 17!

Are you attending the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Conference in Las Vegas? EMC's Expository Composition: Discovering Your Voice authors Gary Anderson and Tony Romano are presenting two sessions this weekend.

Here, There, and Everywhere: Professional Development that Starts with You 
Saturday, November 17, 2012
8:00 AM - 9:15 AM
MGM Grand: Level Three, Room 308
Do your in-service days leave you uninspired and dreaming of meaningful professional development? Join us to co-discover, learn, and discuss ways newer teachers, veterans, and everyone in between can find and design relevant, affordable, authentic professional development experiences at school, online, and off-site. Connect and ignite your professional development!

Igniting Student Bloggers: Using Creative Nonfiction Techniques to Connect with Online Audiences 
Saturday, November 17, 2012
9:30 AM - 9:45 AM
MGM Grand: Level One, Room 118
When students know their writing will be read by wide audiences, they take their language seriously and make exciting choices. In this interactive session, participants will discover and explore how to use creative nonfiction techniques to launch student blogs alive with powerful ideas, imagery, and intellectual curiosity.

Make sure to stop at EMC’s booth #408 on Friday, November 16 from noon until 6:00pm to meet authors, Gary Anderson and Tony Romano for a book signing! Also, while you are there please sign up to win a $50 American Express gift card courtesy of EMC Publishing.

EMC offers "spooktacular" reads for your students!

EMC offers “spooktacular” reads for your students!

Looking for a way to bring the Halloween spirit into your classroom? EMC has many spooky tales to engage your students this Halloween season. One of our favorites here at EMC is the classic, Frankenstein:

“It was a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils…[B]y the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.”

This is how Victor Frankenstein describes his creation, the most famous fiend in the history of horror fiction. Today, over one hundred and eighty years after it was written, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus remains the most widely known and influential example of Gothic Romance. More than a horror story, Frankenstein explores the timeless themes of creation and responsibility.

EMC’s Access Edition of Frankenstein is a multilayered piece of reading and includes the following:

·         A biography of the author, Mary Shelley,

·          The historical context of Frankenstein

·         The characters

·         Echoes and illustrations

·         Plot analysis

·         Creative writing activities

·         Projects

·         Selections for additional reading: The Story of Prometheus and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

·         Glossary

·         Handbook of Literary Terms

·         Assessment Manual 

For more ghostly and mysterious reads check out all of EMC Masterpiece Series Access Edition readers at http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=74. Happy Halloween!

Join the Common Core State Standards Network

Now you can join in the conversation about the common core standards by joining the CCSS--Common Core State Standards Network Group on LinkedIn.

The CCSS Network Group is a national network of school leaders and teachers committed to assuring CCSS readiness by 2014! Have something to say?

Join LinkedIn for free to participate in the conversation. When you join, you can comment and post your own discussions.
Click here to join the group. 

Summer School Resources Available Online

Don't forget that all of the Mirrors & Windows Differentiating Instruction activities are available for your summer school students on the Internet Resource Center at mirrorsandwindows.com. Differentiating Instruction activities are offered for developing readers, English language learners, and advanced learners. For example, the activities for ELL students include the full selection text, accompanied by guided reading questions, reading strategies, and vocabulary prompts. To find these activities on the website, go to the selection title, click on Activities, and select the Activity for ELL. Full audio support is also offered in the Audio Program on the website under the Resources Tab.

Wired for Books Online Audio Recordings

                                                                                                   Wired for Books hosts a multitude of audio recordings of poems, stories, plays, essays, lectures, and interviews for children and adults. Wired for Books is a production of the WOUB Center for Public Media Scripps, College of Communication, at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. You can listen to classic tales like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Robert Pinsky, plays by William Shakespeare, such as the Tragedy of Macbeth in their entirety, or contemporary plays like Susan Glaspell's Trifles: A Play in One Act, as well as interviews with well-known authors like Daniel Keyes. 

You can also listen to readings and lectures of today's noted writers who were featured guests of the Ohio University Spring Literary Festival. Wired for Books brings the the literary festival to you!

Wired for Books Poetry Online offers all of their poems and poets in one place. Don't miss out on this wonderful resource for your classroom!

The Red Door, by Frederick Harris, is a watercolor

painting of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi.

Four Myths About the ELA Common-Core Standards

From Teacher Leaders Network, two teachers attempt to set the record straight on the instructional shifts required by the common standards. Middle school English teacher Dina Strasser and teacher education instructor and consultant Cheryl Dobbertin tackled some of the critical aspects of implementing the ELA standards that have been obscured by polarizing debates.

Strasser and Dobbertin have identified four myths that often appear to be accepted as fact (and are sometimes delivered to teachers that way) but are not actually aligned with the spirit and intention of the ELA common-core standards.

Myth #1: Text complexity is a fixed number.

Myth #2: All prereading activities are inappropriate.

Myth #3 Answering text-dependent questions is what teaches students to be analytical readers.

Myth #4: The common core abandons fiction.

They conclude that it's important for educators to embrace the common-core standards, but to do so in a way that honors students' needs and the wisdom of great teachers. “We must keep "mythbusting" our own practices and what we are hearing so that the common-core standards can live up to their full potential. After all, the intention behind these rigorous standards—to prepare all students for careers and college—is at the heart of our work.”

To read the complete article at Education Week, go to http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/07/10/tln_strasserdobbertin.html?tkn=SRWF0kZ%2FhojAvTz6K2vS5iUIQ5hoSPvvblWB&cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1

Top 2012 Summer Reading Lists For Kids and Teens

Are you looking for summer reading lists for your elementary, middle, or high school students? Keep your students reading all summer with this selection of 2012 summer reading lists compiled by Elizabeth Kennedy. These lists of recommended children's books and young adult books are generally organized by grade levels. Many of the elementary reading lists include children's picture books. Many of the middle school reading lists include a mix of middle grade fiction and nonfiction and young adult books. You'll find both classics and recently published books here http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/forparents/tp/summer_reading.htm.

 

And of course, don’t forget EMC’s Access Edition novels or the EMC E-Library at mirrorsandwindows.com. The Mirrors & Windows website provides two full length Access Edition novels for each grade as eBooks that can be downloaded as PDFs to E-Readers. The complete Access Edition print library contains over 30 titles for grades 6-12. The EMC E-Library, found under Course Resources, offers more than 20,000 pages of literary classics, including 120 long selections (epic poems, novels, plays, nonfiction, and poetry) and 194 short selections ( poetry and excerpts from longer works).