4.1.1

4.1.1: Read, view, and listen for pleasure and personal growth.

For standard 4, the focus is to help students develop a personal aesthetic. Tumblebooks, a resource of the New York Public Library, is an excellent tool for accomplishing standard 4. The resources found at Tumblebooks, @http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp, are an ideal way for students who excel in musical, spatial, and linguistic intelligence. Not only does Tumblebooks have a wide selection of e-books and audio books available in an easy to use, kid-friendly interface, but many books have animations, as well as narrators who read the books along with the children. These animations bring storybooks to life, and simulate a traditional storytelling environment, with each word in the book becoming highlighted as the narrator speaks them. Tumblebooks is a great way for students to read, view, and listen to some great books.



Tumblebooks also has a level of web2.0 capability, making it a fun tool for interpersonal and intrapersonal learners as well. Students can "favorite" books as well as create their own books playlists. Students can also use the Tumble mailer to send each other e-books and e-cards. This would be a great way to reduce waste on Valentines day. Teachers could have students go onto Tumble books and send each of their classmates a Valentine along with an e-book recommendation. This would let students share their favorite books with each other, and help reduce the need for messy Valentine exchanges.

For verbal-linguistic learners (especially language nerds like I was) Aesopica is an incredible source for fables from the ancient world. Did I mention that they are also available in Latin and Greek? For Logical-mathematical learners, the subject matters of these fables should appeal to their reasoning skills. Intrapersonal will enjoy reflecting on the characters, while interpersonal will enjoy connecting with other learners online. For more visual learners, there are gorgeous illustrated editions available to virtual page through as well. For more auditory learners, combining these resources with a reader will let you listen to what dactylic hexameter sounds like. These aspects definately cover reading, viewing and listening for pleasure and personal growth. For Active learners, they can observe the texts, pictures, and manipulate them into Latin and Greek. Since it's from the ancient world, there's not as much to change, but the observation aspect of Meaningful learing really shines through. Constructive learners have plenty to reflect on. Many of them would have heard these tales in one form or another, seeing them in their natural surroundings should allow them to build on previous knowledge. The user-friendly aspect of this site helps Intentional learning. I can really see it helping in some kind of project, either school-assigned in English, History, or Latin, or for the personal goals that this standard alludes to. The original language features and primary source aspect of this tool goes right to the core of Authenic learners. It situates these stories in the world that they were crreated in. This site is constantly updated, and links to other more social networking sites for those who are interested in the subject matter helps students help each other and connects experts to novice users. Cooperative learning can take place as students appropriate all the knowledge available here.

As for the NETS, Standard 1 encorages Creativity and Innovation. This source most supports c) use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. I certainly can't think of anything more complex than the human nature expressed in these ancient tales. For #2, Communication and Collaboration, c) develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. Not only can students engage with other students in the present day, but reading these tales allows them to commune with history. #3 Research and Information Fluency most relates to b) locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. The diversity of sources included gives any student ample ground to grow all of these skills. #4 Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Aesopica demonstrates d) use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions. Again, the diversity of opinion and morals illustrated in the classics allows for an infinite number of solutions to the problems of the human condition. For #5 Digital Citizenship, c) demonstrates personal responsibilty for lifelong learning. Again, these tales inspire reflection and can be read a myriad of different ways. The multiple language offer may inspire students to study a new language to understand deeper an old story. #6 Technology Operations and Concepts a) understand and use technology systems. There are so many sites, features and more to explore on this site and linked to this site that it aids students in understanding technology and using it to learn. _ 4.1.1: Read, view, and listen for pleasure and personal growth. Internet Children’s Digital Library [|http://childrenslibrary.org] A great place for children to explore new books online is the Internet Children’s Digital Library (ICDL). The ICDL has books in many languages and many volumes in multiple languages, enabling language acquisition to take place as children use the site and read through stories they enjoy. The goal of the ICDL is, “The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world community.” The ICDL has an impressive collection from all over the world. According to the website, the ICDL collection includes 4,386 books in over 50 different languages. It has a simple search feature that enables even small children to search for books by book cover color as seen in this screen shot:



This is a great tool to promote reading for pleasure and personal growth in even very small children. For the parent on the go, this is accessible reading material from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. 

This tool will enable standard 4.1.1 to be promoted to people with all different intelligences since it contains books about all different subject matters. Doing simple searches, music books, books about nature, and art books all abounded plentifully. These would be great for musical, naturalistic, and visual learners. Less copious were books on mathematics or numbers for logical learners and there were no books on exercise for kinesthetic learners. Kinesthetic learners would probably have the hardest time with this tool since it involves sitting still for the most part. This also would appeal to intra and interpersonal learners since you can read alone or with a partner. The characteristics of meaningful learning that are most applicable here would be authentic and intentional. If students desire to, they can go back and forth between several languages and compare the lettering and patterns and length of text that they see. The NETS standard that this tool best matches up with is probably  2c. It states that “Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.” This tool could especially satisfy this standard if partners in 2 countries were to read the same stories and then collaborate about them online in a forum. Finally, the ICDL could be used to meet a variety of state standards where students are required to pick a story and read it. For example, as part of the 2nd grade reading curriculum, the ICDL could help teachers with the following indicators and objectives:

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1. Acquire new vocabulary through listening to and independently reading a variety of literary and informational texts  ======

i. Answer questions (what if, why, and how) in writing
Here is an example of a page from a story in multiple languages.

Perhaps one of the more unique and beneficial features of the ICDL site is that it provides younger students with access to bilingual books. The materials ICDL provides are not only beneficial to ELL students, but to all students, as it is proven that exposure to different languages early in life leads to increased success in nearly all academic endeavors. Author and publisher Dawn Jeffers says in her article //Bilingual Books for ESL Students...And Beyond// that "the best time to introduce a new language to a child is ages 1 to 8 [...] Being exposed to a second language offers numerous benefits to young children, including an improved ability to communicate, better cognitive development, richer cultural awareness, improved academic performance, superior educational opportunities, and, ultimately, better jobs." By providing younger students access to such resources as the ICDL, educators are helping students develop the skills that are necessary to succeed in an increasingly multicultural world.