Table+1

[|Story Line Online]
Storyline is a resource that is produced by the Screen Actors Guild. This site consists of numerous popular children’s books which are read aloud by famous personalities or celebrities.
 * Is it a tool or a resource?**

The purpose of this site appears to be to expose children to good read alouds of popular children’s books and give them access to rich children’s literature they might otherwise not have access to. The read aloud features actors and actresses reading aloud, modeling fluency, and using intonation and expression. It provides visual support, sound support, and modeling.
 * Purpose:**


 * Major Components/Features: (interactive features, age appropriateness, ease of use/design, and literacy support )**

The site does not have truly interactive features. It has “Activities” and “More Activities” which are really “questions” that children can do independently if they are able to read the questions and activities on their own. (Children could benefit from just the read aloud feature, the book summary and suggested activities are more appropriate for children who can read on their own.)They can also download the page. However, this functions more as a guide, and is not structured as a worksheet that children would write on. This site offers motivation for reading, in that children will be exposed to different celebrities they might admire.

The site appears to be designed for Kindergarten – 4th grade children. The literature is rich and well chosen, though there could be more choices. The design is user friendly, colorful and engaging. The site features a book cover that is an interactive icon. When you click on the icon, it takes the reader to the book. The font is large and therefore easy for users to read. Users with special needs and ELL’s will find the graphics extremely assistive. The site definitely supports literacy as it introduces children to favorite picture books in a motivational medium. Celebreties display each book as they read it and model for children their love of reading.

It is a resource for teachers to use with students.
 * Is it a tool or a resource?**

This web site provides units of study based on literature that uses online resources.
 * Purpose:**

Cyberguides are provided for grades K through 12. The cyberguides include links to standards and activity descriptions that teachers may click on to access content. Each actual activity guide page includes links that students can click on in order to access web pages from which they will gather information as part of the lesson.
 * Major Components/Features: (****interactive features, age appropriateness, ease of use/design, and literacy support )**

This site is well organized and easy to use for adults. The web site organizes the units/cyberguides by grade level ranges: K-3, 4-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Within each grade range a list of books and their authors is provided. When you click on the book title you are taken into the unit plan or cyberguide. There are links provided to each activity. Once you are in an activity page there are links provided to the other activities in the cyber guide so that you don't have to click on the back button of your browser. One disadvantage is that not all of the cyberguides clearly state the grade level of that specific guide. In addition, the font of the web site is small, which might make the site difficult to use for younger grades in particular or students with visual impairments.

The way the site is set up integrates well with the balanced literacy model currently being implemented in the school. Balanced literacy requires that teachers use authentic literature to teach literacy skills, therefore the set up this page facilitates its use. Teachers can begin by choosing a particular piece of literature and then find a full cyberguide unit with planned activites to go along with it. This is great way to incorporate technology into the every day curriculum. The use of technology is therefore purposeful and can be used for the duration of a unit as opposed to being used only to create a product at the end of a unit of study. This site would be great for librarians in particular because the activities are essentially literature extensions using technology.

Unfortunately, the site is no longer being funded and as a result some of the links are broken and some of the content may not be updated. Also, please be aware the standards provided are for the state of California.

[|ALAN Book Club]

 * ALAN – The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents**


 * Description:** ALAN is a group of professionals and students interested in young adult literature. The ALAN web site offers a book club and book reviews.


 * Is it a tool or a resource****?** It is a resource where one can find news and reviews about young adult literature.


 * Interactive features:** The book club is interactive. Once a month members meet to chat about a particular book. Some of the meetings include a guest, the author of the month’s book.


 * Appropriate age level:** 12 and up


 * Ease of use and design:** The design is not particularly appealing. There is a lot of text. In order to participate in the chat one would have to have good “IM” skills.


 * How does it support literacy?** It supports literacy by acting as a central clearing house for information on young adult books. The club might encourage students to read in order to participate in the chat.

[|Filamentality]
It’s mainly a template tool for a teacher to use to create hot lists, treasure hunts, web quests and two other types of interactive sites. You don’t need any programming ability to create your own web sites but you are limited to these five templates. It can also be used as a resource that allows you to call up and use hot lists and web quests created by other teachers.
 * Is it a tool or a resource?**


 * Description:** There are five different templates. A hotlist is a list of links, a web quest is a guided online search, a treasure hunt is similar to a hot list except that it has questions at the end, a multimedia scrapbook is a collection of multimedia links for students to explore, and a subject sampler allows learners to explore multimedia links, but is more complex than a scrapbook or a hotlist.


 * Interactive features?** The templates are fixed but the user has a choice of templates. Students can interact with the web sites that the teacher creates but clicking on links.


 * Appropriate age level?** This is a teacher tool but because of font limitations, the resulting web sites are not appropriate for children below the age of 9.

How does it support literacy? Students must be able read to in order to use the hotlists and carry out the tasks required on the treasure hunts and web quests. Students need to use their higher level thinking processes in order to answer the questions on web quests and treasure hunts.
 * Ease of use and design?** It is probably the easiest way to create a web site, within its limitations.