The Verizon foundation sponsors a wonderful website at Thinkfinity.org. For FREE resources in every subject area and grade level that are searchable by those parameters, it would be difficult to come up empty-handed at this site. When I ran a search for interactive activities in Reading/Language Arts for grades 9-12, I ended up with 124 different options. A few at the top of the list included interactives dealing with Venn diagrams for pre-writing, analysis activities based on fine art, an activity dealing with poetry analysis and metaphor, and many more that sounded like they would be both fun and educational. I played with the art analysis tool for a while. It initially takes you to a website to view the paining “Sunday” by Edward Hopper. A box appears beside the paining allowing for note-taking, and once you’ve finished viewing the art and taking notes, you continue on through a series of analytical questions regarding your interpretation of the symbolism present, and your personal emotional reaction to the piece. It is a valuable activity that employs many higher-level thinking skills. There were also lesson plans and many other types of resources available. Obviously having a big corporate sponsor makes for some very worthwhile material.
“Sunday” by Edward Hopper © Nicholas Pioch 2002 under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/street/hopper.sunday.jpg
It would be easy to fit the three activities I mentioned above into Bloom’s Taxonomy under Evaluating and Analyzing. It is sometimes difficult to come up with fresh ideas to motivate high school students to think, so this website certainly seems like a winner.
The site can be accessed here: http://www.thinkfinity.org/
Tracey Mahler 
