Share the "Craziness" of the English Language With ELLs Through 4 Fun Videos

How often do students complain about the difficulties in trying to learn English?  Teachers try to be sympathetic, but there is no easy way to mastering the tongue.  Some of the "pain" can be dealt with by humor such as "i before e except after c" cartoon below:)

Other issues need repeated reinforcement such as "there, they're, their."  Of course, teachers post wall charts and posters throughout the room, but still, it takes time for students to fully internalize the many oddities of English.

Well, from time to time, teachers do find ways to ease the frustration.  One approach is through  videos on some of the fun facts about English.  In these clips from T.E.D-ED, teachers will be able to share fun facts such as why DOUBT has a B.  This can lead to bringing in backgrounds on other English words with bizarre spellings (ex. knight--silent K, G, and H).  Such information most students are intrigued by.  Examples such as these are proof positive that English is living language.  In fact, when time allows, teachers can explain that the English language has over 650,000 words in it due to the tendency of English speakers to take vocabulary directly from other languages (solo, rendez-vous, laissez faire, Arabic numerals, etc.). 

English spelling will also be addressed.  Here the structure of words are explored along with their history.  How did English become the language it is today?  Clip 3 addresses that.  And last, the question of who invented writing.

I hope your students enjoy the content.  I know I did:)

Denise
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Great Interactive on Development of English From 449 A.D to Present

Both English teachers and English language enthusiasts will truly enjoy this site.  This BBC site looks at the development of English from 449 A.D. from many angles.  The audio clips contain language puns, insults, and riddles from old English.  Students will be able to hear the language the way it was spoken over 1500 years ago.

How does this tool enrich English class?  Click on Beowulf from the 8th century to hear it read in English's earliest forms.  Supports such as these not only broaden the students' knowledge of English, but also transfer over to world history in the study of Vikings, Anglos, and Saxons:)  Remember in the new common core, teachers of all content areas will be demonstrating to students that content knowledge in one course can and does transfer to other subject areas.

For vocabulary development, this site provides samples of words that each time period added to the language.  Again, such information easily bridges over into world history, English, science, and mathematics.  Everything now known about English took hundreds of years to evolve.  This site provides just enough to grab student interest without overwhelming them.  Think of it as a "hook" to build interest AND it is fun.

What about studying puns, jokes, and insults in the various forms of Old English?  What could be more fun for students studying Shakespeare than insulting each other in the language of Queen Elizabeth's reign?   What better motivator to fully engage all students in studying English literature:)

Explore the other great options this site offers and see how it can tap and hold student interest:)

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM BBC

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

PS  Why not follow us on TWITTER @ell_teacherpros  :)

Benefits of Teacher Collaboration in Delivering Common Core Based Lessons

With common core lessons on the horizon, teachers will be entertaining many new ways to address lesson topics that they have probably been teaching for years.  One highly effective way to objectively plan and review a lesson's success as well as shortcomings is to jointly plan lessons with one teacher who is teaching the same grade and subject matter.  This is an approach that some schools are presently using to ease teachers into the common core.  The whole process of lesson planning becomes less stressful when there is another person to plot and plan together with. 

Once the lesson is developed including all phases of lesson planning( standard, objective, "I do, we do, we do," checks-for-understanding, closure, and independent practice), team teachers should try teaching it exactly as planned within the week.  As they teach it, they should make notes of what worked for them and what didn't.  If at all possible, it might be even more insightful if the teachers could record each other teaching the jointly planned lesson.  Recordings are often more accurate than note-taking.  Further, since this activity is peer support in action, there is no anxiety on either teacher's part.  The videos are for their use only.  Cooperation on this level leads to increased student success and here ELLs especially benefit since teachers will be looking for increasingly more effective approaches to reach all students.

See if your school supports course-alike planning sessions.  If not, try to get them included in the monthly meetings schedules.  Many districts are actively pushing for it because they want to make sure a firm instructional foundation is in place before the common core standards are fully implemented.  I will be doing more of this shortly with some teachers who have elected to collaborate with me on creating common core based lessons.  I will offer to be recorded first so that they will quickly see that the videos go no where (in fact, last year I let them take my iPad and erase them with a click).

ALGEBRA TEAM TEACHING

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Blogging - Great Tool to Change Student Attitudes About Writing:)

With the numbers of long-term English language learners rising, schools are exploring all venues to see what can be done to reverse the trend.  These students have been in school since the early grades and now in middle school and high school are failing.  Their academic language skills in reading and writing are far below those of their American peers (those from English speaking homes).  Conversational language is fine, but that skill will not make the language in a textbook more accessible or an academic writing assignment easier to complete.

So how can a teacher re-introduce the skill of writing in a way that will spark interest?  Blogging might be just the ticket to show students that writing is a skill that the vast majority of people have and that they should not consider themselves and exception to the rule:)  There are blogging sites available to teachers to use with their students.

One of my favorites is BLOGGER (this site).  Several teachers at my site have class blogs up with details from their lectures, power points, notes, etc. loaded on it.  Students must create GMAIL ACCOUNTS and then they can create small group blogs on their class projects.  These blogs are stored on the teacher's class blog to share with every student in the class.  Students are describing, noting, clarifying, generating hypotheses, etc. online.  It should also be noted that the teacher assigns the usernames and passwords so that parents can see what their children are doing at any time.  Further, the teacher can prevent strangers from entering the blog since s/he sees the comments first and can decide what does or does not get published so students can write and then publish their results to the web safely!  Long term ELLs are provided with sentence stems to set them up to eventually write up their own lab reports using academic English formats.  Over time and with lots of scaffolding, long term ELLs see their use of academic English improve.  Their blogging entries will develop over time with patience, support, class charts, notes, etc. 

EDUBLOGS is also a free blogging site for classrooms. Like BLOGGER, it is another tool to use to have students publish to the internet.  It claims to be the largest educational blogging site on the internet. Here, blogging is just as easy as sending an email.  If something is stress free to use, more students will use it.  Further, teachers can create as many student blogs as they like.  Managing the sites is also not an issue for the teachers.  Some of the features here--discussion tools, video embedding, Facebook and Twitter integration, and calendars--are also in BLOGGER.  Again, research based assignments are possible here.  Students can collaborate with classmates through them using computers, iPads, OR cell phones/smart phones.  With common core project based learning assignments on the way, this is a tool that will enable students to develop those life long skills to survive in the real world where team work is valued.

Other advantages to having struggling students blog?  Teachers can have students use them as "notebooks."  Just think about it.  No more will students be able to say, "I left my binder home."  No longer will teachers have to struggle in trying to read illegible handwriting.  More importantly, students will be able to embellish more with pictures, videos, links, etc.  These additional supports will enhance their writing efforts.  As mentioned at the start, this is a tool that might excite them about writing.

BLOGGING -- GET STUDENTS EXCITED ABOUT WRITING!

Denise

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AWESOME STORIES-Non-fiction and Fiction Readings for English Literature, Current Events, Science, and Social Studies--Perfect for Common Core Lessons!

As students begin to work under the new common core, teachers will need to find a reliable of easy-to-access online resource for both fiction and non-fiction documents/materials.  With ELLs in many classes, these sources should ideally contain some support without watering down the content. 

With this goal in mind, I found a site with incredible resources in history, social studies, film, English literature.  Though I only linked 5 areas, there are more.  You will need to register (free) to have full access to every feature on the site. 

AWESOME STORIES  -- Some areas covered are biographies, famous trials, disasters, flicks, history, the arts, etc.  Actual photographs are embedded throughout and those photos provide context for ELLs.  You will also find audio files.  Since many ELLs develop their listening skills before the more complex ones of reading and writing, they would benefit greatly from this feature. 

AWESOME STORIES INDEX  To plan out lessons that will make use of the site, use the index so students can be directed to the areas tied to the lesson.  There is some incredible material.  It is well worth exploring on their part, but maybe at home since school time is limited:) 

AWESOME STORIES RADIO BROADCASTS Some of these historical speeches are accompanied by video!  Churchill's WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER speech is part of the collection along with a 9 minute HBO video on this event.  Short video clips are far more effective in teaching ELLs especially since they are better able to concentrate on the content and not get lost in the language.

VISUAL VOCABULARY BUILDER Vocabulary is frontloaded here.  Teachers would need to decide which one(s) of the KEY vocabulary words need detailed explanations (pictures, synonyms, antonyms, examples, etc.).  However, by dealing with this at the start, ELLs would get more from the lesson.

VIDEOS 
The videos are free---newsreels, films (short clips), etc.  Again, to an ELL, this format provides visual context to which they can attach lecture information.  This is schema building.

DOCUMENTS
Famous speeches (Roosevelt's  "Day of Infamy" speech for example), 450 B.C. - The World According to Herodotus, Abraham Lincoln - Letter Accepting Nomination, 1860, and much more!

I hope you find this site useful to lesson planning....by the way, there are also LESSONS on the site:)

Denise

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TIMELINES OFFER POTENTIAL AS EXAMPLES OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS FOR ELLS

Mainstream content teachers may like this form of an alternative assessment--a timeline.  Students in teams or with partners could opt to generate a detailed timeline on a topic of their choice which is tied to the content lesson or theme.  This can be done on paper, in a power point, via a student designed website, etc. 

Once the timeline is created, teachers can proceed to having students do research on each of the elements included in the timeline.  With the use of a graphic organizer, ELLs (and others) can select the key points for each item that they will later have to develop into a sentence or two which will be added to the timeline.  Since ELLs with be working with partners or in small structured cooperative groups, writing such sentences should proceed along without many, if any, glitches.  After all, the teacher will be facilitating as needed.

After the timeline is complete, students could be required to complete an essay graphic organizer around a central theme in their timeline.  Once they decide on a theme, they would move on to generating a thesis statement on the importance of their event, invention, etc. selected.  Again, especially with ELLs, allow ELLs to create this essay as a member of team.  Eventually, they will need to produce their own, but initially, this type of support builds skills and self-confidence.

Below is a timeline I found fascinating:

THE EVOLUTION OF CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY
As a teacher, I could not resist this one:)  Technology has definitely improved over the last 362 years!  Imagine using this as a example of what students should be aiming for in creating their own.   Further, teachers can model the process of creating a timeline so students will know what is expected of them in designing their own.  If students select topics of importance to them, they are more likely to experience success:)

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

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COMMON CORE STANDARDS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO RADICALLY TRANSFORM 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOMS:)

A major shift is coming to the classroom with common core standards.  The teacher will take on more of a role of facilitator rather than lecturer.  This change will actively engage students in problem solving, thinking, challenging, justifying, debating, researching, and much more.  Project based learning will energize kids about exploring subjects that truly interest them while teachers guide student through the selection process of resources.  This way students will be able to distinguish reputable sources from disreputable ones.   This is the ideal way to attach world knowledge to the content classes.  Textbooks will still be around, but they will not control the delivery of curriculum as they sometimes do currently. 

TEACHING IN 21ST CENTURY 
This prez power point offers a new look at learning in the 21st century.  It offers a thorough overview of the changing roles of teachers, how instruction will occur, how students will excitedly take on responsibility for their own learning, how technology and social media will be accepted as legitimate research tools to problem solve, etc. 

PREZI  This is the tool used to do deliver TEACHING IN 21ST CENTURY.  It is free unless a teacher wishes to download the power points s/he created.  With just the right layout, teachers can release information to students by zooming in/out, spinning, enlarging dots over the letter i, etc.  In fact, many students are using PREZI and would probably be more than willing to support a teacher trying to use it.  Further, many educators have already shared their prezis so teachers should feel free to browse and use ones that fit their instructional needs.

ENGAGE ME  A "plea" from elementary school children in England to more fully engage them in learning using tools that they are already proficient in:  blogging, wikis, iPods, twitter, podcasts,  etc.

Take it one tool at a time.  Allow students to offer insight in how to use the selected tool.  Once you feel comfortable, bring in another tool.  Most importantly, have fun in doing it:)

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

P.S.  We are also on FACEBOOK under ELL TEACHER PROS.  Please visit us and click the LIKE US icon:)

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COMMON CORE SUPPORTS REGULAR CHECKS-FOR-UNDERSTANDING

With the start of the new school year, holding students accountable for learning with the new common core standards will be every teacher's goal.  To pull this off, teachers will need to have a few CFU (checks for understanding) strategies in their toolkits.  Though there are lots of them out there from the internet, colleagues, students themselves, etc., teachers will need to find the ones that most resonate with them, their personalities, and teaching styles.  CFUs respresent forms of formative assessments--the assessments that guide instruction.  These tools tell teachers what kids know and how well they know it.  They also reveal to the teacher how close the class is to taking a summative assessment.  After all, what is the point of giving a summative assessment at the end of the lesson only to find out that a majority of kids failed?  Instead, by giving several mini-cfus throughout the lesson, teachers are in effect preparing their students for test on the lesson.  CFUs will build student confidence along with content knowledge.  This is a win for both the teacher and the students (ELLs benefit greatly here).

PRIMER FOR CHECKS-FOR-UNDERSTANDING  Here is one that though geared to elementary school works equally well in upper grades.  In fact, many of these tools have been in use in grade school for years.  They are not necessarily new.  However, for upper grades, it is a fairly new area:)  When common core is fully implemented, long lectures should be a thing of the past.  Mini-lectures are far more effective because they hold and maintainstudent interest unlike long ones where students stop listening after 10 minutes (lecture is too long).  If teachers mix up the routines and do random call-ons, they will see test scores improve since students will be more focused in class.

HOW TO HOLD ALL STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR LEARNING
This video shows a teacher doing a common (and highly effective) CFU with popsicle sticks.  Notice how kids are all sitting upright because they know that they could be called on.  Also, if called on, the popsicle stick with the student's name goes back in the cup.  Message here?  Stay alert because you can be called on again:)

I also have another CFU on facebook (ELL TEACHER PROS).  Please note that there are NO duplicates so feel free to LIKE US and explore there as well:)

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Techniques to Bring Beginners/Early Intermediates Into Classroom Discussion

With some schools dropping ELD programs, ELLs are now going directly into mainstream classes.  Though teachers have had some training in supporting ELLs in their classes, they generally have not had much experience with working with the lower end of the English language development proficiency spectrum:  beginners and early intermediates.  In a classroom of 30+ students, it is often times a bit difficult to bring those 2 or 3 students into classroom discussions beyond "yes/no" questions and pointing/drawing. 

Well, the only way to develop their English is to actively engage them in class routines beyond the "pair up with a student who speaks his/her language."  The buddy approach can be used occasionally, but it should not be the only tool.  Why?  One reason is that the student doing the translating is not in a position to fully listen to the teacher so s/he is not able to fully focus on the lesson.  Further, that student is not a teacher.  In addition, unless a teacher can monitor what is being translated, the teacher has no idea as to whether or not the translation was accurate.  A second reason why this should not be the only approach is that by using students to translate, the English skills of the ELLs do not improve.

Though the tips in this article could be applied to many students, they most benefit the ELL who is much more likely to be quiet in class due to discomfort because of language barrier and cultural differences.  A few of the suggested guidelines to more actively engage ELLs in class are to uphold high expectations for all to participate in class beyond the raising of hands (think-pair-share, choral reads, etc.).  Keep a record (checklist) of who responds, how often, and in what manner.  Allow sufficient wait time so that ELLs have time to process the question and arrive at an answer.  Accept phrases and then model more complete sentences.  There are many more approaches here and of course, teachers may have their own approaches that achieve the same goal. 

EXTENDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' CLASSROOM INTERACTIONS

Denise

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COMMON CORE BILINGUAL SUBJECT SUPPORT FOR ELLS IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH AND FREE.

As classrooms become more diverse with a wide range of academic abilities, teachers will need support above and beyond textbooks.  This is where the internet can bridge the gap.  With just the right sites, teachers can build vital background knowledge in a topic or supply additional details to a lesson for those who need more information.

POWER MY LEARNING  is a site that will support the content delivery and language needs of students in all content areas-math, social studies, language and literature, science, computer programming, and technology.  Each subject is broken down in sub-categories.  For example, science covers astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and more.  Grades K-12 are included here. The activities tie the abstract to the real world in ways that will delight students of all ages.


FOR EDUCATORS - once teachers enroll for free, they may construct common core based lessons and store them directly on the site.  Using this feature, teachers may want to embed videos as well as other instructional gadgets which are all available directly from the site.

Last, but not least, there is one unique feature that every teacher with Spanish speaking students will enjoy--with a click of a button, everything on the site will be translated into Spanish!  These translations are true to the English versions.  They will not replace instruction, but will make any assignment for a beginning/early intermediate student a bit more comprehensible.

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

5 EASY THINGS TEACHERS CAN DO TO IMPROVE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF ELLS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR:)

It never hurts to have several instructional strategies at a teacher's disposal at the start of the school year.  With this approach, a teacher doesn't have to scramble to try to find effective ways to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse classroom with a sizable percentage of ELLs of varying English proficiency levels.  So, with this as the goal, here are some additional powerful, highly effective, and easy-to-implement instructional strategies for mainstream classes with ELLs in them. 

5 THINGS TEACHERS CAN DO TO HELP THEIR ELLS IN CLASS

1.  Provide many opportunities for ELLs to interact with peers in structured group interactive activities.  This approach will require that ELLs use English to explain concepts.  With an understanding of the concepts, they can become productive members of the group enabling them to develop their language skills while mastering content.  Further, as the ELL interacts with peers on assigned tasks, the teacher can easily monitor language used as s/he moves from group to group.  This type of assessment tells the teacher what, if any, assistance the ELL may need to access the content or follow the language.  One additional point here that the article makes is for the teacher to include measurable goals of having the ELL demonstrate his/her verbal abilities at lease 3 times a week.  Unless the teacher creates settings where the ELL can use English risk-free, s/he will be quiet and leads to no progress.

2. English language and vocabulary must be explicitly taught and reinforced throughout the lesson in a variety of ways addressing the different learning modalities because ELLs are individuals first each with his/her own learning style and English learners second.  Some content teachers might not feel comfortable in teaching English language, but they can.  After all, every teacher has at least one degree (most 2) so every teacher knows English.  Do they have to teach English in the same fashion as an English literature/language arts teacher?  No.  Content teachers assist students in expressing themselves in ways suitable for their discipline.  Again, with the implementation of the new common core standards, writing will be a key focus across all content areas thereby making all teachers English teachers.

As for vocabulary for any given discipline, teachers must teach the vocabulary.  A glossary will not work.  Content words must be explicitly taught.  Mind maps, concept maps, word walls, etc. are all tools that teachers can use to help ELLs master the vocabulary tied to the key concepts.  How many content words are suitable for a content class?  Ideally the number of words should not exceed 7-10 per week and those words need to be reinforced in many activities throughout the week if students are to internalize them.  Frayer models help here (index cards 3 X 5).  Once the cards are complete, have students hold them together with binder rings.  Just before a test, have students pair up and quiz each other with the weaker students testing the stronger partners first.  Once the stronger one is done being quizzed, the weaker student would be quizzed.

3.  Activate prior knowledge.  See how much a student may already know on the subject of the lesson.  How can prior knowledge be assessed?  Short video clips, realia, brainstorming, journal writing, anticipation guides, etc. are all effective.  The benefit in checking for prior knowledge is that if the students are totally unfamiliar with the topic, the teacher can fill in some of the gaps before the actual teaching of the lesson.

4.  Involve parents as much as possible.  Parents do not have to be experts in the subject areas.  Their goals should be to support their children in learning.  Provide a place for their children to do homework.  If their child is having academic difficulties, parents should contact the bilingual parent representative on the school campus to join any parent teacher conference.  Further, teachers should try to find bilingual support personnel to make any parent contact beneficial for both parent and teacher.  Google translate does not solve the problem.

5.  Increase writing opportunities as much as possible.  Though practice does not necessarily make perfect, it does make better:)  ELLs need to write often on the content if their use of English grammar is to grow.  One approach is the inclusion of learning logs ("Today in geometry, I studied.......).  Done regularly, the ELL has a record of activities s/he successfully completed and this tool could assist him/her in taking a test.  Another quick writing activity (to assess for understanding) is the EXIT SLIP.  Give it 5 minutes before the period ends (or use them as admittance slips).  Great quick assessment that provides teacher with a clear picture of how well the ELLs and others understood the major components of the lesson.

Hope these suggestions help:)

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Teach History? If So, Your ELLs (and EOs) Will Definitely Enjoy These Two Clips:)

Many ELLs sit in classes in English speaking countries at a definite disadvantage since that critical background knowledge is not there.  So how can a teacher quickly fill in some of the knowledge without overwhelming the student?  Sometimes a little humor (based in fact) comes in handy.

The first clip presents a 4 minute clip on how the United States came to be.  Try putting on the closed captioning so that students can follow along as the actor/comedian speaks.  The visuals provide context and though the material presented would not be enough to pass a history test, it is enough to provide some background knowledge for ELLs and other strugglers.  In fact, students could even watch the clips at home on their cell phones.  Such supports for ELLs can be used as vehicles to prepare students to fully participate in class activities.  In fact, some of the English only kids may wish to have a look as well.  The information in it is correct.  It is only lacking in the many details which can not be delivered in 4 minutes and 15 seconds:) HISTORY OF AMERICA 


The next clip is tied to language.  It traces the evolution of English from earliest days to now (Open University U.K.).  Teachers need not show all 11 minutes in one class.  Break up the video and tie it to actual lessons where explaining the language might be more easily done via the video.  Say you are teaching Shakespeare.  Pull out the sections on Shakespeare's influence on English.  Students will be amazed to see what an influence the Bard had over present day English.  ELLs will have time to connect the cartoon characters and the words.  If you discover ways to make the study of English informative as well as entertaining, you will find all your students, including ELLs, actively engaged in learning.  HISTORY OF ENGLISH

Denise

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Analyzing Primary Sources: The Declaration of Independence--Drafts and Final Copy!

In working with primary sources, students might be reviewing the same documents in two different classes but with a different focus.  This approach will make such text more comprehensible since it will be studied in two different content classes.

Take for example the U.S. constitution.  Several drafts of this document are available online (I have one below).  Imagine what it would be for like for students to study the drafts (including the final copy).  What might an assignment be here?

If it is being read in an English class, students might study grammar, sentence style, figurative language, tone, etc.  Even more importantly, students will see DRAFT copies meaning that this document wasn't written in one session. If the writers of the constitution used drafts along the way to arrive at the final copy, why shouldn't students?  ROUGH DRAFT WRITTEN BY JEFFERSON 
Another draft is the version Congress developed:  CONGRESS'S DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCENotice from the typed versions how many changes they wove in.  Have students in pairs or very small groups look at all 3 versions side by side and study those slight difference between copies.  Were the mistakes minor ones or not?  Provide students with some open-ended questions to work on in small groups and then see what ideas they came up with on their own.

History or social science teachers can have their students work on the same pieces, but with a historical perspective.  THREE DRAFTS OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE  What was the message at the start of each draft (same approach can be used throughout---WHAT was the intended message?  Which draft was most/least effective? Find evidence in the text to support your answer.  ETC.)?  Students would analyze small sections of the text and then discuss the message with their peers.  Teachers would then randomly call on students to share the answers.  EVERY student would be held accountable.

There are many historical records on the internet where the same strategies could easily be applied.  The key point is to have ALL students analyzing non-fiction/informational text 70% of the time.

Denise


ELL TEACHER PROS

Incredible PRIMARY SOURCE for World History!

Queen Elizabeth II has offered the world access to Queen Victoria's journals online.  This collection covers the years 1832 to her death in 1901.  Included with the journals are drawings, sketches, photos, and more.  The queen kept writing until she passed away.

 Queen Victoria was on the throne from 1837 to 1901 and was  Empress of India from 1877.  In total, her surviving volumes number over 43,000 pages. This unique record covers the day to day routines and insights of a monarch in her reign over the world's largest empire in the 19th century. 

What areas are specifically addressed throughout those 68 years?  Culture, empire and exploration, military, politics and society, royal family, science and technology, and sport are all covered in great detail within.  Use the timeline to search out specific details for any of those 7 areas. 

If you searching for a specific month, day, and year, use the time index.  If your world history is studying the British empire, you could assign different dates to students to research (or if they are familiar with the index, let them select the time periods most important to them in doing their research--PRIMARY SOURCE material).  

If you wish students to explore science and technology, have them use the timeline to guide them or get them started.  On the timeline, they will click on the icon associated with the area they wish to explore.  For example, if they want to research scientific advancements over her reign, they would click on the light bulb icon over any year where it is visible (each year or months within a year highlight a new invention).

If you teach art, take a look at the section on her illustrations.  It could easily be woven into any art appreciation class.  Students could focus on how her skills evolved over time. 


This is an overall recap of the online resource:
QUEEN VICTORIA'S JOURNALS

This link provides the overview of the journals:
INFORMATION ABOUT THE JOURNALS

Here you will find an index to all the journal entries:
TIME INDEX TO SEARCH FOR SPECIFIC DATES

Finally, here is an index to all of her drawings:
QUEEN VICTORIA'S ILLUSTRATIONS

As schools move to COMMON CORE STANDARDS in the coming year, the need to be to identify and use primary resources will be the focus of all the non-elective classes.  Here is a primary source that spans English language, world history, science, art, and mathematics.  It is a gem!

Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS