Resources to Help You Integrate Inspiration® Across the Curriculum
Lesson Plan Books
Textbook Connections
Related Technologies
Lesson Plan Books
Standards-based teacher lesson plan books make it easy to integrate Inspiration® and visual thinking and learning across the curriculum. Teachers get practical ideas and step-by-step directions for engaging students in activities that encourage learning, thinking and creativity.
The Thinking Classroom: Using Inspiration to Meet Curriculum Standards
Designed to support teachers as they help students develop their critical thinking strategies, each of the book's six sections includes an overview of a key cognitive strategy and its application in the major curriculum areas of language arts, science and social studies. This innovative teacher resource book takes a new approach by offering in-depth explanations of visual learning's role in mastering fundamental critical thinking skills:
- Determining cause and effect
- Making comparison
- Decoding ideas
- Generating questions
- Evaluating information
- Testing one's knowledge
Each of the six sections of the book provides teachers with a summary of a specific cognitive strategy, examples of templates and diagrams that students can use to apply the strategy to a wide-range of topics, and finally a sample lesson of the thinking skill in language arts, social studies and science. Lesson plans for each subject area provide all the information teachers need to model a thinking skill and help their students practice the strategy.
View sample pages from The Thinking Classroom.
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The Readers’ Handbook Integration Guide for Inspiration
Inspiration Software has developed with Great Source a resource that supports the use of Inspiration with the Reader's Handbook for grades 6-8. The Reader's Handbook Integration Guide for Inspiration helps teachers get the most out of these two classroom tools and provides strategies for teaching reading and comprehension across the curriculum.
The user-friendly Reader's Handbook Integration Guide contains step-by-step instructions on how to use Inspiration and the Reader's Handbook to customize instruction, assess student progress and develop students' reading proficiency. It also comes with a CD-Rom full of Inspiration graphic organizer templates which support the guide's lessons and activities, as well as a fully-functioning 30-day trial of Inspiration.
For ordering information and further details, visit the Inspiration Software online store.
Textbook Connections
Many leading education textbook publishers have chosen graphic organizers as a core strategy to improve learning outcomes. They use graphic organizers within textbooks to present new information and concepts, and they give recommendations on how to use graphic organizers with student activities in their teacher guides and classroom materials.
Inspiration Software collaborates with publishers to provide materials that make it easy to effectively integrate Inspiration with the following textbooks:
Strategies for Writers, levels F-H
Zaner-Bloser
Grades 6-8/Writing
Download Inspiration templates to use with activities and projects found in Zaner-Bloser's Strategies for Writers' textbooks and notebooks. Using these graphic organizers with process writing will help your students systematically and confidently plan and organize their writing in five critical modes: Narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive and test writing.
To use these templates, you must have Inspiration. To download a free 30-day trial of Inspiration, click here.
Click on your textbook to access the templates:
Level F, Grade 6
Level G, Grade 7
Level H, Grade 8
High Point Series
Hampton-Brown
Grades 6-12
Hampton-Brown recommends using Inspiration in conjunction with its High Point Series' lesson plans. The High Point Series is a standards-based language arts program for grades 6 and up, offering relevant themes, motivating literature, content connections and specialized strategies for English-language learners and struggling readers. Using Inspiration, students develop vocabulary and writing skills by building graphic organizers as part of the lesson plans.
Related Technologies
Inspiration® for RedHalo®
Inspiration for RedHalo offers the same capabilities* as Inspiration for Pocket PC while running on handheld devices using the RedHalo platform and the Windows Mobile 2005 operating system. Inspiration for RedHalo is included in a subscription to RedHalo. Click here to learn more about the RedHalo mobile learning platform.
Inspiration® for Nova5000
The handheld version of Inspiration runs on Fourier System's Nova5000, a student learning appliance designed to fill the space between handheld devices and laptops, and is bundled with every Nova5000 purchase. Click here to learn more about the Nova5000.
Inspiration® for Palm OS®
Capture, structure and share ideas with Inspiration® for Palm OS®. Whether you're brainstorming, project planning or simply taking notes, use Inspiration to improve productivity in any setting. An intuitive interface offers powerful, easy-to-use tools that allow professionals to visually organize complex topics.
Visualize thoughts in the diagramming environment
Use Inspiration for Palm to brainstorm and clarify ideas, collect and communicate information and analyze new approaches to problems. Visual representations of relationships, patterns and themes help crystallize thoughts and resolve complex issues.
- Use the stylus to naturally sketch diagrams and map out information
- Tap the unique RapidFire® tool to quickly capture ideas
- Rearrange thoughts by intuitively dragging symbols—links remain connected
- Format symbols with a library of colors and shapes
- Add up to 15 pages of notes to each idea
- Use zoom controls to see details or grasp the big picture
- Transform a diagram into a traditional outline to further organize and write
Get organized in the integrated outlining environment
With one click, visual ideas are instantly transformed into a traditional outline format. In the integrated outlining environment, you efficiently refine ideas, develop organized plans, structure research and create clear and concise reports.
- Easily record new thoughts
- Add topics at different levels with single commands
- Reorganize topics by dragging
- Hide and show levels of detail
- Add notes to further develop writing
- Choose from a variety of prefix labels
Sync, transfer or print to finalize projects
Inspiration for Palm OS provides a multitude of ways to communicate information to colleagues. Generate final output directly from your handheld, or work in conjunction with your desktop PC.
- Transfer work to a favorite word processor
- Sync with Inspiration on the desktop
- Print projects via infrared, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB
- Beam to share documents with another handheld
