Teachers, are your kids in a spooky mood? We have great resources that will let your kids have some scary fun while learning to read, write and think!

The Mystery Cube from ReadWriteThink

Use this tool to help your students sort out the clues in their favorite mysteries or develop outlines for their own stories. The Mystery Cube helps students identify mystery elements, practice using vocabulary, and sort and summarize information. For Teachers (includes 3 lessons that use this interactive) and for Parents & After School. Start writing your own mystery today!

Teaching the Epic through Ghost Stories from ReadWriteThink

In this lesson, which includes support for English language learners, students connect to epic storytellers by sharing their own oral tales of ghosts, goblins and monsters! It even comes with a Ghost Story Checklist!

Ghosts and Fear in Language Arts: Exploring the Ways Writers Scare Readers from ReadWriteThink

How do writers and storytellers scare us? This lesson invites students to answer this question by exploring their own scary stories, short stories and books. The lesson culminates in a Fright Fair, where students share scary projects that they have created including posters, multimedia projects and creative writing. Get ready for a scary good time!

Collaborating on a Class Book: Exploring Before-During-After Sequences from ReadWriteThink

In this project, students produce a class book through a group-writing activity focusing on a basic before-during-after sequence of events. In this case, the sequence is the carving of a jack-o-lantern, but the lesson plan could be customized for other classroom projects. Check it out!

FALL FUN WITH SHAPE POEMS

Shape Poems from ReadWriteThink

With this online tool, students brainstorm, write and revise shape poems. They can also take their finished poems and cut, color and display them in the classroom or at home. There are great fall themes to choose from: Nature, Sports, School and Celebrations. Shape Poems For Teachers (including 5 lesson plans) and for Parents & After School.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Oct. 18-23: Adult Education & Family Literacy Week
Oct. 20: National Day on Writing

Energize and Encourage Adult New Writers’ Voices

Here are great tools to get adult and family literacy students writing about their ideas, experiences and concerns, finding their voice in new and non-threatening ways.

These resources are just in time for Adult Education & Family Literacy Week (Oct 18-23) and the National Day on Writing (Oct 20).

Verizon Thinkfinity and its Partners encourage everyone to submit a piece of writing to the National Gallery of Writing. And be sure to look for the Galleries from some of the Verizon Thinkfinity Partners: National Council of Teachers of English, American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Reading Association, National Center for Family Literacy, National Endowment for the Humanities & ProLiteracy.

Creating Participatory Photonovels: A Classroom Guide

Find out how members of an ESL class created a photonovel that addressed good nutrition, one of the many health care concerns the group had. Learn about the process the students used and then view their finished product.

Writing Without Fear

In this self-paced 60-minute online course, instructors and tutors learn a writing process that can help students overcome their fear of writing.

General Editing: Revising and Editing Checklist

Students can use this checklist to revise their writing and make it more understandable by checking for the correct words, spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Writing Rubric

Adult literacy students can use this rubric to help them improve their writing. The rubric contains features to look for and describes how well each feature has been done.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Have you attended a Verizon Thinkfinity training session?

If so, you can now access a running record of sessions you have attended and print a certificate of participation for any training session you have passed and for which you have completed a survey. Just log in to myThinkfinity and click on “View My Activity” under “My Profile.” You’ll see a list of all the sessions you’ve attended and a link to each corresponding certificate. Additionally, you’ll see a list of any future sessions for which you are currently registered.

Not registered for any training sessions? Check out our list of FREE webinars and sign up today!

VERIZON THINKFINITY PARTNER NEWS

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Sign up to receive updates when new lessons and resources become available. Go to EconEdLink and put your e-mail address in the blue “Stay Connected” box in the lower right corner. You can also find EconEdLink on Facebook!

Verizon Thinkfinity
Powers Up! Afterschool

The popular Verizon Thinkfinity lesson from Science NetLinks, Power Up!, was featured at the “Lights on Afterschool” rally at the U.S. Department of Education. Read More.

Building Social Value

Verizon recently received several accolades in the area of corporate responsibility:

• The Swiss research firm Covalence placed Verizon as the highest-ranked U.S.-based telecommunications company in its annual ethical-ranking study.
• Verizon was added for the first time to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index.
• The Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe named Verizon as the first-ever telecommunications company to rank in the top three of its Most Trusted Companies in Privacy list. Verizon came in second overall.