Millions of ordinary people are now doing extraordinary things with words, images, and sounds on the Internet. To gain the most from this new medium, abilities in reading and interpreting imagery are absolute necessities. Indeed, the Internet and the World Wide Web are already reshaping the architecture of how young people learn to read and interpret text and images. And in many classrooms the web is being used to help with the writing process, too. For example, at the prewriting stage students can gather information and ideas from online resources, and overall motivation can be enhanced by suggesting to students that they share their final products with a worldwide audience by posting them on the Internet.

But using the Internet in the literacy and language arts classroom takes more than simply putting the technology into children's hands. It requires clarifying educational goals and reconceptualizing how we approach teaching and learning activities. There are many online resources that can help teachers with this process and provide valuable information related to teaching and learning in the language arts. These include discussion groups, virtual classrooms, research tools, and free software.

In this Web Watch our focus is on sites that connect to the English language arts standards delineated by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. We have chosen a sampling of teacher-tested sites that work across a number of literacy topics and grade levels. Some are for teachers, some for students, many for both; some are commercial, others are the work of professional or academic organizations, and some have been developed by teachers themselves. The sites are described under statements that summarize the NCTE/IRA standards. (The full text and background of the standards can be found in the NCTE/IRA joint publication Standards for the English Language Arts.) Our intention is not to suggest, however, that either the sites or the standards should be considered in isolation; they are interrelated and form only part of the whole concept of using Internet resources in standards-based teaching and learning.

To begin your journey through the annotated lists of websites, click on one of the standards listed below:

• Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build understanding of those texts, themselves, the many dimensions of human experience, and of various cultures, and to acquire new information. Texts includes fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
  
  
• Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts.
  
  
• Students adjust their language to communicate effectively for a variety of purposes and apply knowledge of writing strategies, language structure and conventions, media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
  
  
• Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They use a variety of sources to gather, evaluate, and synthesize data to create and communicate knowledge and discoveries.
  
  
• Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use across cultures.
  
  
• Students whose first language is not English make use of their first language to develop competency in the English language arts.
  
  
• Students use spoken, written, and visual language as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Both authors teach at Montclair State University (Upper Montclair, NJ 07043, USA), Adams in the Department of Reading and Educational Media, College of Education and Human Services, and Angeles in the Department of Information and Decision Sciences, School of Business. Contact the authors by e-mail to Angeles at angelesr@mail.montclair.edu.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Shari Alboum, Meg E. Brandt, Laura S. Coburn, Donna L. Cohen, Helen Flynn, Sharon Holster, Helen Machleder, Lynn F. Mackwell, Millicent Petrullo, Jeanne Rotolo, and June M. Wolff in developing and preparing this web watch.

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Go to an index listing of Web Watches posted May 1997 to June 2000