Creator: Ellen Siminoff, et. al. | visit site
Grade Range: 8 - 11
Move over, <i>Sparknotes</i>! Shmoop provides students (and teachers) with so much more than summaries and character lists. This is a great site with a unique voice. Written by Ph.D. and Masters students at top universities (such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc.), the book resources include such things as Booker’s 7 plot analyses, "What’s Up with the Title?" and directed links to pictures, movies, and other material on the web(some for a fee). They have a very good page on plagiarism, and this is a growing site. There are also History and Poetry sections to this site.rn<br><br> rnWhile actually signing up (which is free) gives you the ability to "clip" files and keep them in a folder, you can access the majority of the information without signing up. Registration does require an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships.If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. <a href="/whats-hot/policy-tips.cfm#8"> Here is a blog post </a> that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.rn<br><br>
In the Classroom
Because the style of writing is informal, this is a great site to use for those difficult to explain qualities such as tone and writing style with students. Visit the site together and discuss some of the "brain snacks," experience some of the short video clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector, or talk about the constructive use of a site like this without plagiarizing. rn<br><br>rnShare one of the slide shows on a projector or interactive whiteboard as you introduce a unit or allow students to use portions of the slide shows as part of their own presentations on a specific author or literature topic.
At Home
If your student is having trouble comprehending a certain piece of literature, check out this site for some additional support and direction.