For novice writers, looking at a blank white computer screen can be daunting. I want students to brainstorm ideas in a way that is flexible, easy, and colorful. That's why I have students use Lino (linoit.com) to brainstorm. Lino is an online corkboard application that hosts student-created sticky notes on a canvas. Stickies can be moves, organized, color-coded, and copied to other canvases, and students can work on Lino canvases in groups.
For our introductory Lino activity, I had students alternate brainstorming ideas to write about and sharing with their groups for 5 3-minute segments. This gave everyone an opportunity to gather possible writing ideas, post them to their Lino canvas, and hear the ideas of others in their group. Posting then sharing encourages students to listen to each other, share their ideas with their writing group(which can be hard for some students), and inspire each other with new thoughts.
I start be modeling how to sign up for Lino and create a new canvas. Then I show students how to brainstorm with Lino, posting new ideas different stickies and letting them pile up before spreading them out to cover the canvas. After alternating brainstorming and sharing, students begin to organize their ideas.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Day 10- Tackk (A of W)
Once students get a chance to see a model and create their own summaries of articles, they get to make their own websites for those articles. I use a free online tool called Tackk (www.tackk.com) that might be the simplest website creator I have ever used. I give students a demonstration on first the different pieces that they need to include in their website.
Tackk details: https://tackk.com/fhdv1t
Next, I show an example Tackk site that I created using the article we read, annotated, and summarized together in class the previous day.
Tackk Article Example: https://tackk.com/n51u0w
Finally, I run through a quick demonstration of just how easy it is to create a Tackk site and give students time to work in their groups creating their own Tackk site. They use the information they generated the day before and add resources and an image. I encourage them to divide the responsibility into roles:
- The title of the article
- Your opinion about the article's topic
- An image from or about the topic
- A summary of the main ideas and important details
- Personal connections and additional resources
Next, I show an example Tackk site that I created using the article we read, annotated, and summarized together in class the previous day.
Finally, I run through a quick demonstration of just how easy it is to create a Tackk site and give students time to work in their groups creating their own Tackk site. They use the information they generated the day before and add resources and an image. I encourage them to divide the responsibility into roles:
- leader: organizes the group, helps out wherever needed, and keeps the group on-task
- visual designer:finds great images and organizes the visual layout of the website
- resource finder: finds supplementary resources that add to the essence of their story, including websites, online articles, or maps
- summarizer: finalizes and proofs the written text
Day 9- Article of the Week
Articles of the Week
junior.scholastic.com
upfrontmagazine.com
We did a model reading and summary together, highlighting important information and combining main ideas with important details for a summary in our own words. We came up with a good title and formed an opinion which turned into our tagline. Next, each group will choose a different article and repeat the process of reading, highlighting, and summarizing for their chosen article.
- Every week, your group will read and annotate an article in one of the two online magazines.
- Your group will create a well-organized and visually pleasing website with the following information:
- The title of the article
- Your opinion about the article's topic
- An image from or about the topic
- A summary of the main ideas and important details
- Three additional resources
junior.scholastic.com
upfrontmagazine.com
We did a model reading and summary together, highlighting important information and combining main ideas with important details for a summary in our own words. We came up with a good title and formed an opinion which turned into our tagline. Next, each group will choose a different article and repeat the process of reading, highlighting, and summarizing for their chosen article.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Day 8-Poll
(Aug 22) Today we used a poll to elicit student responses about what the most interesting topic from CNN Student news. This activity served as both an introduction to Poll Everywhere, which will be used throughout the year, and as a way to determine which which types of text information students enjoyed. Students used their computers or cellphones to answer the poll.
Additionally, students responded to an exit card using Socrative. Socrative is a student response system that records responses of students to teacher-created questions. Today's exit card using Socrative was also an introduction to a new web tool that will be used for exit cards and quizzes as well as posting short student writing samples.
Day 6- Open Procedures
Today we learned our open procedure using our blogs. Open procedure includes opening our blogs up and checking the reader (RSS feed reader on Edublogs) for the day's open task.. We create a new post and title it with today's date. The first line of the post starts with the word OPEN. Students then do the OPEN task from the reader. [I post directions everyday in my teacher blog and students follow me. That way they can see my latest post in the reader.]
For the first set of OPEN tasks, I wanted to practice procedure without having too much going on with the OPEN task itself. I chose to use CNN Student News as my OPENS for the first three days so that I could start building consistency. CNN Student News is an online, ten minute, commercial-free video newscast from CNN that highlights the day's news. Watching it builds students' schema and connects them to the larger world via current events. Additional activities can be found on the site if/when a teacher decides she wants to use them.
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/
Students then watch the news report and jot down interesting ideas as they see them. I ask that they describe at least three things they found interesting with good details. Students can choose to wait until the end as the news does move pretty quickly. I give students one minute to discuss what they found interesting and another two minutes to record their ideas. Eventually, OPEN tasks will include creative writing and analyzing tasks, but to introduce and practice the procedure, I want students to be comfortable with the task itself. The videos involve high interest topics and are paced for high school students.
For the first set of OPEN tasks, I wanted to practice procedure without having too much going on with the OPEN task itself. I chose to use CNN Student News as my OPENS for the first three days so that I could start building consistency. CNN Student News is an online, ten minute, commercial-free video newscast from CNN that highlights the day's news. Watching it builds students' schema and connects them to the larger world via current events. Additional activities can be found on the site if/when a teacher decides she wants to use them.
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/
Students then watch the news report and jot down interesting ideas as they see them. I ask that they describe at least three things they found interesting with good details. Students can choose to wait until the end as the news does move pretty quickly. I give students one minute to discuss what they found interesting and another two minutes to record their ideas. Eventually, OPEN tasks will include creative writing and analyzing tasks, but to introduce and practice the procedure, I want students to be comfortable with the task itself. The videos involve high interest topics and are paced for high school students.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Day 4--Edublogs
I decided that I was going to use a class blog to post writing assignments in my writing-heavy language lab class. I used Edublogs to host my blog. At some point we may go to a learning management system, but for now the blog will do. I created my blog in Edublogs with my students in mind. First, I wanted to be able to share writing assignments online in a method that was simple. I also wanted students to become familiar with the backend on blogging such as using the features on a dashboard.
I had students watch me demonstrate how to register for a blog through Edublogs. Then students set up their own blogs. Once they were logged in, they went to my teacher blog and followed me. My new blog posts pop up in a reader on their dashboard. Now, they never have to go directly to my blog again. I posted my first assignment to my blog which showed up in students' readers. They then read through the directions and copy/paste important information from my blog to theirs.
For example, the first writing workout was a series of questions about who was important to them, what they enjoyed doing, and where they saw themselves in the future. Students use their blogs as writing notebooks which means that they do not have to use complete sentences or proper grammar. The terms of service of Edublogs do require appropriate language, however.
Students can organize their blogs in several ways. Students use the days' date as their blog title. They can add details if they choose. All blogs are automatically categorized as uncategorized. Students create a category called "love it" to categorize writing that they want to work on more or share in conferences. Students can also tag blogs so that they remember what their writing topic was about.
I had students watch me demonstrate how to register for a blog through Edublogs. Then students set up their own blogs. Once they were logged in, they went to my teacher blog and followed me. My new blog posts pop up in a reader on their dashboard. Now, they never have to go directly to my blog again. I posted my first assignment to my blog which showed up in students' readers. They then read through the directions and copy/paste important information from my blog to theirs.
For example, the first writing workout was a series of questions about who was important to them, what they enjoyed doing, and where they saw themselves in the future. Students use their blogs as writing notebooks which means that they do not have to use complete sentences or proper grammar. The terms of service of Edublogs do require appropriate language, however.
Students can organize their blogs in several ways. Students use the days' date as their blog title. They can add details if they choose. All blogs are automatically categorized as uncategorized. Students create a category called "love it" to categorize writing that they want to work on more or share in conferences. Students can also tag blogs so that they remember what their writing topic was about.
Day 3--Jeopardy Rules Review
Days 1 and 2 were spent going over classroom rules and procedures. Day 3 ended up being a Friday. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I don't like starting a new unit on Friday for several reasons--absences, the weekend to forget which requires review on Monday, the antsy behaviors on Friday in general. Also, I wanted to be sure that my classes were processing the massive amounts of information that I was sharing. Finally, I wanted a quick recap to ensure I told all my classes the same things and to fill in gaps for students who missed anything.
I decided to use a game of Jeopardy to review the large amount of information. Jeopardylabs is a great free tool for creating online Jeopardy games. The game can be displayed using a projector or SmartBoard. Here's a quick screenshot of the board.
jeopardylabs.com/play/stairs-class-overview-1
I can choose the number of teams and the game allows me to keep track of the score. I can make the questions anything I want. Students were given group numbers based on the six groups they were sitting in. I do Jeopardy a bit differently than the gameshow since I want all groups to have a chance to answer the question. Each group gets a dry erase board and marker (a white three-ring binder works if you don't have a dry erase board). I go around to each group to pick questions; if there is a question that I know I want them to answer, I will take a turn picking. After I read the question, groups have 10 seconds or so to answer by writing on their boards. Then I say3-2-1 show me! Groups show me their answers and I award or subtract points. If groups choose not to answer, they do not show me their board.
Using Jeopardy as a review works well. Groups get a chance to briefly discuss. They must come to a consensus quickly. Opportunities to speak and listen purposefully and negotiate are abundant. As a review of any information, it helps students to first activate the organizational hierarchy of their schema and then learn from their mistakes.
As an activity in general, Jeopardy is flexible enough to fill varied time constraints; the round can end at any time with a double jeopardy question. One class may play for six minutes and one class for fifteen. I usually give candy to the winners; often the winners get first choice and three out of a candy grab bag and then the rest of the class gets one piece of candy. I have also given bonus points on tests or quizzes for the top team(s).
I decided to use a game of Jeopardy to review the large amount of information. Jeopardylabs is a great free tool for creating online Jeopardy games. The game can be displayed using a projector or SmartBoard. Here's a quick screenshot of the board.
jeopardylabs.com/play/stairs-class-overview-1
I can choose the number of teams and the game allows me to keep track of the score. I can make the questions anything I want. Students were given group numbers based on the six groups they were sitting in. I do Jeopardy a bit differently than the gameshow since I want all groups to have a chance to answer the question. Each group gets a dry erase board and marker (a white three-ring binder works if you don't have a dry erase board). I go around to each group to pick questions; if there is a question that I know I want them to answer, I will take a turn picking. After I read the question, groups have 10 seconds or so to answer by writing on their boards. Then I say3-2-1 show me! Groups show me their answers and I award or subtract points. If groups choose not to answer, they do not show me their board.
Using Jeopardy as a review works well. Groups get a chance to briefly discuss. They must come to a consensus quickly. Opportunities to speak and listen purposefully and negotiate are abundant. As a review of any information, it helps students to first activate the organizational hierarchy of their schema and then learn from their mistakes.
As an activity in general, Jeopardy is flexible enough to fill varied time constraints; the round can end at any time with a double jeopardy question. One class may play for six minutes and one class for fifteen. I usually give candy to the winners; often the winners get first choice and three out of a candy grab bag and then the rest of the class gets one piece of candy. I have also given bonus points on tests or quizzes for the top team(s).
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