Lord of the Flies Game
Audience: high school
This educational game tests player's knowledge about the novel Lord of the Flies by Nobel Prize winner William Golding. Player's need to understand symbols, characters, and plot action from the novel. Players progress through different scenes from the novel with questions. In order to move on, you must answer the questions correctly. The island begins to burn after a few scenes.
BOOKS
This book is an obvious choice for an interactive game about Golding's novel. The website goes beyond the typical questions and has the player match up character quotations, descriptions, and objects from the novel. A thorough reading is necessary for success on the game. One of the screens is about the symbols, so players need to understand what symbols are and how they work.
The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
This story by Dr. Seuss is a great way to teach symbols and allegory. It helps readers understand that stories have layers beyond the top story layer. Using this book will help players of the LotF game with the symbols section of the game.
This last connection is a modern extension of the chaos seen in the Lord of the Flies. Many times young readers think the novel does not have any connection to what could potentially happen and do not believe children would be capable of the evil they commit on the island. The Hunger Games takes the familiar story into the future. This newer novel doesn't seem to connect to the website, but it helps with the overall understanding of the story. If students read The Hunger Games along with Lord of the Flies, there is a deeper understanding of the themes and actions of the characters.
INTERACTIVE
OpenLearn: What Do You Really Know About Autism?
Audience: high school
This website has an autism quiz which disputes a lot of myths people believe about the disorder. You can take the quiz and then use the website to learn more about autism through the different links to articles.
BOOKS
This book is an amazing look inside the mind of a 13-year-old Japanese boy who has autism. He wrote this book to help explain what goes on in his brain every day. He answers 58 different questions from "Would you like to be normal?" to "What's the reason you jump?". His answers are honest and eye-opening to people who would like to understand autism better. This book would be a great addition to learning more about autism - beyond the basic myths.
David Mitchell on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" speaks about The Reason I Jump
Episodes: My Life as I See It by Blaze Ginsberg
Another nonfiction choice, Ginsberg's book is setup like an IMDB entry to show how he thinks: in television shows. The easiest way for him to explain his life in his memoir was as if the events in his life were events in a television series. This unique memoir is a great way for teens to learn about autism from the direct source.
This book is fiction but is told from the perspective of an autistic teen who witnesses the death of a neighborhood dog. Although the book has a lot of profanity, the story is told in a way that lets you see how a boy with autism works through problems. It is not traditional, but it works for him. Told in prime number chapters by a boy who doesn't understand human emotion but relates well to animals, this story helps teens to understand the disorder better than ever.
INTERACTIVE
ReadWriteThink: Haiku Poem Interactive
Audience: elementary
This interactive site helps students build poems one word and idea at a time. Because haikus have a very unique structure, the step-by-step site is a great resource for blooming poets. This website is beautiful and creates a beautiful product where you can change the background and print it, email it, or export it as a PDF.
BOOKS
Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter
A little girl struggling with her writing assignment decides to look around her street for inspiration. She thinks nothing happens on her boring street, but she quickly discovers that is not true. A great way to show children how to find inspiration in what they know, this book is very helpful for the beginning of writing any poem. It works great for the Haiku Poetry Interactive tool.
The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter
About a little boy who loves words so much that he jots down his favorites on slips of paper, this book is a great way to help come up with better words to describe what you see around you. A beautiful tribute to the power of language, this book will help make any poetry better. When paired with the Haiku Poetry Interactive, it aids children in the first steps of writing a haiku.
If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelutsky
The final part of the project, this book includes 17 haiku examples about a cat and many other creatures. You have to puzzle out who the author is of each haiku. Children can use these examples to understand the structure and flow of haikus for their poetry writing.
