Spotlight on Sources:
Welcome to Renzulli Learning’s Spotlight on Sources, some of our most engaging resources to excite and inspire your students!
One of our favorite tools in Renzulli Learning is the student journal! You can assign reading journals in Renzulli Learning to help students process their experience with reading. The best part is that teachers can read, communicate, and enjoy each of their students’ writing virtually! This way no matter how you are teaching this year, whether it’s in person, hybrid, or completely virtual you are able to access your students’ work!In My Enrichment Activities, students can explore thousands of books, including ebooks! Renzulli Learning is here to connect your students to ebooks to spark their passions and interests.
Check out a few of our favorite activities below!
To locate these activities within Renzulli Learning you can SEARCH Enrichment Activities and type in the title of the activity you would like to locate. For more ideas to infuse enrichment activities with your curriculum, please visit the Unit Supplements on the Teacher Site, under “Teach.” We can also link these enrichment resources to your regular curriculum if you send us a theme or topic.
K-2
An alphabet of quadrupeds comprising descriptions of their appearance and habits
This alphabet book is about four-legged animals. Find out where they live, what they eat, and how they survive. You can see what kids were reading a long time ago because this book is more than 150 years old!
NASA-Adventures in Aeronautics Storybook
Aeronautics is just a big word that means any type of aircraft. Have you ever flown in an airplane? Do you know how we came to have airplanes? Did you know scientists and engineers are working on an airplane that can be packed into a spaceship? Wow! So much to learn!
Storyline Online: Strega Nona Read Aloud
Strega Nona – “Grandma Witch” – is the source for potions, cures, magic and comfort in her Calabrian town. Her magical ever-full pasta pot is especially intriguing to hungry Big Anthony. He is supposed to look after her house and tend her garden, but one day, when she goes over the mountain to visit Strega Amelia, Big Anthony recites the magic verse over the pasta pot, with disastrous results.
3-5
Listen to this famous story about a lonely girl in a house filled with secrets. You can read along, or just close your eyes and picture the events.
Black Beauty
What would it be like to see the world, and human behavior, from a horse's point of view? Read along, or simply listen, as Black Beauty tells his tale.
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare is a compendium of stories that re-tells some of his most famous plays.The plays retold here range across the Great Tragedies like King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello. One of the most appealing features of Nesbit's retelling is that she retains the atmosphere and milieu of the plays while she makes the text simpler for children to understand. In Macbeth for instance, the witches, the crimes and the final tragic climax are superbly recreated. A lighter note is struck in plays like A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night where all Shakespeare's wit and talent for creating comic situations is brought out. Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare contains twenty stories and they are so attractively presented that both young and old readers alike can enjoy them. For younger readers, they would be a great stepping-stone to go on and read the magnificent plays in their original form.
6-9
Listen to this amusing fantasy about a girl who travels down a rabbit-hole. If you wish, you can read along with the narrator.
Pirates, mutiny, and buried treasure are all part of this classic adventure. Read along with the narrator, or just listen to the story.
Phileas Fogg is about to take the adventure of a lifetime... around the world in 80 days! So, the question is: why stay home when you can join him? Download this classic tale and visit the places you imagine as well as parts of the globe you may not even know exist!
10-12
Listen to Francis Barton Gummere's 1910 translation of the great Anglo-Saxon epic.
As revolution creates upheaval in France, a group of people must decide what is most important in life. Read along with the narrator, or just listen to the story.
Listen as this great romantic tragedy is read aloud. You may wish to follow along with the narrator.
Locating the Journal:
Where is the student journal?
On your dashboard, upper right-hand section.
Click, Write and Save!
Once your student has opened their journal they are able to compose a response. Students can change the font, size, and style of their writing. You may want to have students write out the prompt or question they are responding to, prior to completing the rest of their entry.
Check out this list of Awesome E-Books in the Enrichment Database:
- Lit2go – Classic Literature
Turning the Pages – British Museum
Room Recess (Fiction/Non-Fiction) – This site offers the Lexile level, word count, a printable version of the story, story questions and a vocabulary activity.
Storyline – Stories read by members of the Actor Guild
How do I find these books?
Just add the keyword into your search engine. On your dashboard, upper right side. Need more help searching? Check out the Student Tutorial Video!