LitCharts

LitCharts is a neat site I just learned about from Richard Byrne's excellent blog.  LitCharts is a free service for students that lets them type in a book to find out all relevant information pertains to that title, such as: background info, summary, detailed analysis, quotes, characters, and much much more. All information can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF.  Also, there is a innovative chart wheel which color-codes different themes in the story.

I highly recommend checking out LitCharts by clicking here!!!

ShakespeareKids

ShakespeareKids is a fun site for kids wanting to learn more about Shakespeare or even partake in their own Shakespearian performance.  This site lets kids "Do Your Own Shakespeare" which allows them to role-play one of six roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Q/A.  There is a teacher section filled w/ activities and exercises for K-8 and even a fun little virtual tour that people can go on.

I highly recommend checking out ShakespeareKids by clicking here!!!

Lit Charts

Lit Charts is a great site that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers.  This is a site for getting free outlines and study guides for classic literature.  A person can read a piece online, download a PDF, or view w/ an iPhone app.

I highly recommend checking out Lit Charts by clicking here!!

MeeGenuis

MeeGenuis is a great site for younger students that will either read a book to student while highlighting the text or can be personalized to change the story up (similar in the way mad libs work). There is quite a collection of children books on here for teachers to like.

I highly recommend checking out MeeGenuis especially those in the K-2 age group.

Thanks to Zarco English for the tip!!

Wired for Books

Wired for Books is an excellent site for pieces of literature such as poems, plays, lectures, and interviews. I'd like to thank the wonderful blog ZarcoEnglish, for reviewing such an interesting site.

What makes WFB so great for educators is the ability to hear/download interviews of these great authors and even view some of these stories by clicking on KidsCorner.



I highly recommend checking out Wired for Books by clicking here.

LoudLit

LoudLit is a site dedicated to great pieces of literature. It covers everything from poetry to children books and is a great site for beginner readers. What really makes this site stand out is the user can either download the literature or have it read to them (similar to Nettrekker).

Below is an example of the Novel, Scarlet Letter...



Give LoudLit a try by clicking here.

For another excellent review check out Life Feast.

60 Second Recap

60 Second Recap is a new site (alpha) that is vastly becoming one of my favorite new sites for literature. This is a place where people can go to get a 60 video summary of some of the great works of literature. Think of it as a book review w/ a interactive presentation happening behind the presenter.

I can see this site being used for MS/HS students as teachers introduce new topics to help perk their interests!!


A screen shot from the review of Frankenstein.

Give 60 Second Recap a look by clicking here.

For another excellent review check out The Educational Tech Guy's blog.

Goodreads

Goodreads is a social network for book lovers in the same vein as Book Army or Shelfari. It is a place where members can come together to: rate books, create a virtual library (aka book shelf), create a book club, collect quotes, etc.

After creating an account and testing it out, I would have to say it's just as good as the latter two w/ a lot of nice potential. For those of you that are familiar w/ social networking sites (and if you read this blog, I'm sure you are) the interface will be exactly the same: create an account, edit your profile, add your books, review, etc etc.... nothing dramatically different to write home about.



However, there are some nice features which makes Goodreads stand out from these other sites. For example, you can sign up for your friends reviews which is nice. Also, you can create clubs which is another neat feature.

The issue that I have is, adding friends seems to be problematic as I couldn't find out how to search for friends unless they had a Yahoo email account. If that is the case it really does create some difficult limitations.

I suggest checking Goodreads out by clicking here.

Book Wink

Book Wink is a new site I learned about from the wonderful blog, iLearn Technology. It is a place where kids can go to get inspired to read. It's such a fascinating idea/site that works well due to it's simplicity.

Basically, it is site where books for grades 3-8 are reviewed/read in video format. Also, you can subscribe to their podcast to get the latest videos, and of course you can search for books by subject/grade/or author.



I really think Book Wink is a nice little site that is headed in the right direction for all young readers!!!

For more info click here.