Reset the “furthest page read” of a book you’re re reading

Thanks to the Kindle’s handy “Whispersync” feature, you can start reading a book on, say, your Kindle Fire, then pick up right where you left off on another Kindle-friendly device, like an Android phone or iPhone.
But if you try to re-read a Kindle book that you finished a year ago, your various Kindle devices will want to jump to the very last page you read—meaning, most likely, the end of the book—even if you only re-read to Chapter 2 the other day.
Ugh.
The good news, though, is that you can reset the “furthest page read” for any Kindle book you wish.
Once that’s done, the Kindle’s Whispersync feature (which also keeps track of your bookmarks, highlights, and notes) will essentially forget the last page you read in a given book and start over—and yes, that means you’ll again be able to jump back and forth between your various Kindle devices without losing your place.

You can reset the “furthest page read” for a given Kindle book from the “Manage Your Kindle” settings in your Amazon account.

Here’s how…

• Log onto your Amazon account from a desktop browser, hover your mouse over the “Your Account” tab, then select “Manage Your Kindle” from the drop-down menu.
• Browse your Kindle library until you find the book you’re re-reading, or just type the title into the search box.
• Once you’ve found the right book, click the “Actions” button on the right side of the page and click the “Clear furthest page read” option.
• Now, the next time you open that particular book, the first page it opens to will become the “furthest” page read as far as your Kindle devices and apps are concerned.

Source http://heresthethingblog.com
Reset the “furthest page read” of a book you’re re-reading

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If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going You’ll End Up Somewhere Else

The following is a guest post by Juliana Meehan.

As I sat with my stack of 100+ personal narratives waiting for grading, the enormity of the task threatened to swamp whatever energy I had.  After thirteen years of teaching high school and middle school language arts, the idea of having to mark those papers with notations like “run-on” and “fragment” ad nauseam drove me to seek a different solution.  In my desperation, I remembered a session I wandered into at AMLE the year before, where Catherine Garrison of Measured Progress gave a talk on formative assessment and learning targets coupled with the Common Core Curriculum Standards (CCCS).  The idea was simple but powerful, and I realized in my consternation that what I had learned from Garrison was the answer to my present dilemma.

Image credit: http://gilpizano.com/personal-development/dont-youre-notyoull-2/

I put all my papers aside and took out the CCCS.  The idea was simple:  select those core standards that pertain to narrative writing (written in “teacher-ese”) and turn them into student-friendly language with the words “I can” in front of them.  For instance, some excerpts,

For composing (A):

A1_____ I can have my story unfold as a series of clear events.

A2_____ I can create a background for my story by telling stories, giving examples.
A3_____ I can organize events so that they unfold naturally and logically.


For publishing (B):

B1_____ I can show that I am editing my work.

B2_____ I can vary sentence length, depending on meaning, reader/ listener interest, and style.


For doing research to build knowledge (C):

C1_____ I can look at ways other writers have created their stories by reading several stories and imitating the style (or styles) that I think fit my work.

C2_____ I can do a bit of research so that my story is as realistic as possible; I will be able to show what I’ve learned and where I found it (from books, the Internet, interviews, etc.).


For using conventions of English (D):

D1_____ I can make sure it’s clear what character a pronoun refers to in my writing.

D2_____ I can use commas to set off an introductory phrase.

D3_____ I can use a comma with a conjunction to correct a run-on sentence.


It took a lot of work, but now my stack of papers could be coded at the end with E17 for “run-ons,” and A7 for “give background, thoughts and feelings.”  I would write short codes once, not many times.

Students and teacher then collaborate to decide which targets should be worked on first (I call it “writing triage”) and then, when a student demonstrates mastery, we put a check mark in their sheet and they move on to the next one(s).

Having done the hard work of breaking down the CCCS and creating those targets, I would now be doing several powerful things all at once:

• Giving students a rationale for my grading (I would explain the CCCS to them, i.e., “These are not my rules; they’re what students your age are expected to know and be able to do all across the country!”)
• Putting the CCCS right into the students’ hands, thereby transferring responsibility for and ownership of their work to them.
• Providing clear expectations.
• Providing students with measurable targets.
• Keeping my eyes on the CCCS.
• Uncovering patterns:  whole-class and individual strengths and weaknesses.
• Developing a system by which I could easily group students for whole-class or flexible, small group instruction.
• Providing a solid and easy way to formatively assess going forward.

And the targets were all ready for any future writing assignments too.  I only needed to do this once!

Now students would have feedback and goals set for their next writing work.  They’d know exactly what they should be working on for a better grade.  And I would have done the work of assessment with minimal frustration and repetition, knowing that I was setting my students up for future achievement.

I am indebted to Garrison for her fine work and to Yogi Berra for his catchphrase, "If you dont know where youre going, youll end up somewhere else," which the students loved as our learning targets motto!

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Save web links for later even when you’re offline in iPhone

Found a link on your iPhone or iPad to a long, enticing web article that you don’t have time to read right now? Or maybe you do have time, but not the cellular signal.
Well, there’s a better way to save web links for later than, say, simply pasting them into your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) Notes app.
The trick: using Apple’s “Reading List” feature, which saves links from Mail, Safari, and other iPhone apps and (once you’ve got a data connection again) downloads full web pages to your iOS device’s memory.
Prefer using a third-party “read it later” app like Instapaper ($3.99) or Pocket (free)? We’ll cover them, too.
Let’s get started…

You can access saved web links from the Reading List in your iPhone’s or iPad’s Safari bookmarks.

Using Reading List

• So, you just found a web link you wanted to open on your iPhone or iPad, but there’s no cell connection—or you’re just short on time. First, tap and hold the link you want to open.
• A series of buttons will slide (or pop up, on the iPad) into view: “Open,” “Add to Reading List,” and “Copy.” Tap “Add to Reading List”—and yes, this option will work even if your iOS device doesn’t have a data connection.
• Once you’ve got time or a cell connection again, open Safari, tap the Bookmarks icon at the bottom of the screen, then tap Reading List. (You may have to tap the Back button at the top of the screen a few times to get to the main Bookmarks directory; Reading List sits at the top.)
• Now you’ll see the list of links saved in your Reading List, and the link you just saved should be at the top of the list—and if you were offline when you saved the link, your iPhone/iPad will save the page to your handset’s memory once it gets a data connection back.

You can save links to reading apps like Instapaper and Pocket even if your iPhone/iPad doesn’t have a data connection.

Using Instapaper or Pocket

• Once again, tap and hold the link you want to save—but this time, tap the “Copy” button instead of “Reading List.”
• Next, open the app with which you’d like to save your link—either Instapaper or Pocket. When you do, a prompt will ask if you’d like to add the copied URL to the app’s list of saved links. Tap OK (or “Read Later,” in the case of Instapaper).
• Trying to save a link without a data connection? No problem. When you’re back in cellular or Wi-Fi range, open the app again, and app will automatically download the web page for the link you saved.

A Tip from heresthethingblog.com
Save web links for later, even when you’re offline in iPhone

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