My Take
Is this a joke? This may be the first question that you ask when you first take a look at the cartoons and flashy colors of the Schmoop homepage. Beyond the attention grabbing teen friendly tag lines and flashy graphics, Schmoop is full of
well designed and thoughtfully articulated explanations and activities for everything from Civics to Pre-Algebra. Their Essay Lab is incredibly helpful for junior high and high school students because the tools are designed to help students connect to the writing process. Combining examples from pop-culture and teen friendly language in no way lessens the quality and accuracy of the learning tools available in Schmoop! The video library and novel guides give well balanced and entertaining explanations, and it is great to see students relax and enjoy the humorous bells and whistles that make Schmoop a real winner with teens.
How I Use It
The quirky collection of videos were useful as warm-up tools and discussion starters in Math and English Literature small group supports. The general summary of the Great Gatsby, written in "teen friendly" language, was a helpful pre-teaching tool for my students who needed to have a general overview first in order to follow the sequence of events as they occur in a novel. The English Lab's Essay Analysis guide is an ingenious tool that will be a mainstay for all of my reluctant writers in the future. Some of the puns and jokes needed further explanation for a few of my students who are English Language Learners, but that certainly should not stop Special Education and ESL teachers from learning more about the wealth of learning support materials and guides that Schmoop has to offer for free.
More community reviews for Shmoop
Fun supplemental tool to enhance lesson topics
Videos are engaging and hook students immediately!
