April is National Poetry Month!You don't have to teach English or Language Arts to have your students appreciate the beauty of the written word. Edgar Allen Poe defined poetry this way... "I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty." Check out some of the poems about physics or chemistry or math. Just as Fibonacci is represented in so many things in nature, so poetry is represented in so many of the things we study at school.
Poems can be beautiful, funny, outrageous... and so much more. Check out some of the links below for apps and websites to use in the classroom. Monica Evons posted an excellent resource for elementary educators... some are ipad apps, but many are readwritethink ideas.
Poetry Videos
Just as Shakespeare's plays were meant to be performed, so much poetry is visual or meant to be performed. Spoken word poetry, poetry slams, etc... are much more popular than they were when I was a student- actually I don't think they existed... There are some excellent videos online- but the caveat- listen to them first!
Poem in Your Pocket Day is coming up on April 21. You can still celebrate it before or after the date. Check out their resources here
There are so many great resources for your students, for teachers- both elementary and secondary... check some of them out on these symbaloos.
Taylor Mali...
an oldie, but goodie...
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Texthelp has come out with an update for Read & Write for Google Chrome-with the addition of both Word Prediction and Speech Input. Check it out below: there are also a few other changes that you can read about on their blog... but speech input is a big one. This means that students who are using Read & Write to access assignments on pdfs can now use their voice to fill in their answers in addition to the typewriter tool (which now also supports word prediction) Remember, we subscribe to this service. It is free for all staff, faculty, and all of our students as subscribers. If you have not tried it out, try it. If you have students who struggle-perhaps one or two of you have some students who need some support?... show this to them. It's a chrome add on- you have to be logged into your school Google account and have to be using/signed into the chrome browser. You need 2 extensions- the basic Read &Write as well as their new screenshot reader (which helps access inaccessible text) Voice Typing
Google introduced voice typing over the summer and has made some big improvements. If you haven’t tried it out, it’s worth the time to check. Located right in Google Docs- top navigation bar- Tools, you can now use your voice to format your document. Is it perfect? No… but it can be very helpful for both teachers and students to quickly get some notes down, as well as for students who are articulate, but struggle to put their pen to paper. Even though it’s still a blank white space, I have seen it help kids who think they “can’t write”.
These are the basic punctuation commands, but you can access the full list here, including lots of ways to format your document simply using your voice. · Period · Comma · Exclamation point · Question mark · New line · New paragraph Google Forms for Quizzes
I spent Saturday morning over at Mahar in Orange, at edcamp North Quabbin. I was really impressed with how well the teachers at Mahar are integrating technology into their day to day work with students and how much they love using Google Forms with flubaroo, integrated into Google Classroom. If you 've never tried flubaroo, here's the quick overview.
If you are not using Google Forms for multiple choice or short answer quizzes, you’re missing out on a quick and easy way to collect student data, to teach and give formative assessments and more. Google Forms has changed recently, so it may look different to you. The icon- accessed from your google drive> more> forms is now purple.
Here’s an overview video for the new version of Google Forms: Forms to Teach and Assess
Tom Mullaney recently posted about using google forms for remediation and review, featuring his Impossible to Fail Quiz. What, pray tell, is an impossible to fail quiz? Here are 2 examples- Tom’s French Revolution Quiz and a Quiz on Google Classroom. Essentially, if you get the question wrong you are directed to a video or website or document to help you, then you get to answer the question again.
If you want to give this a try yourself.. check out his tutorial here
By the way he also embedded this into a Thinglink… pretty cool idea. We have a thinglink account that can be used at the elementary school for HES classes.
My favorite tools to use with students tend to be those used for digital storytelling. Digital StoryTelling is a huge umbrella and many tools fall into this category. Not just for the primary grades, these tools offer wonderful alternatives to traditional papers or powerpoints. If you have access to iPads or tablets you can use a myriad of tools to make books, video or slideshows. My favorites in this category include:
You can also use tools on your computer or laptop to create digital stories. Prezi is available online, as well as Google Slides. You can leverage slides to create much more than your typical powerpoint type presentations. Check out this Google Slide presentation on Washington’s Presidency- lots of engaging features. Check out Animoto for a quick, engaging way to display content. You can get a free educator account as well as 50 accounts to share with your students or colleagues. You can make beautiful posters with Canva or Smore or use the Lucid Press tools right in your Google account (Go to Drive>New>More>LucidPress). You can produce a beautiful book with StoryBird, complete with professional artwork. The hardest thing about digital storytelling is choosing the right tool to enhance and display your content, or your student’s content. Believe it or not, this is a very short list of what is available online, on devices. What’s your favorite tool? Powerpoint is not evil… but check out some tips from the experts: Thoughts & Tips on Presenting Naked. Aren’t you glad you read to the end? Keep it simple! Try one new tool this week! An old favorite This is Part 2 of these sources, please click here to revisit part 1.. There are many websites to support teachers in their goals to teach reading and writing as well as to provide ideas, new methods, ways to shake up learning in your classroom and perhaps reach that student who needs your help to build skills and become more successful in the classroom. These resources can help you differentiate learning for all your students, from struggling reader to high flyers. Apps There is a plethora of apps on iTunes that claim to help students learn to read and write. The 3 apps I would like to highlight are Voice Dream Reader, Voice Dream Writer and Liquid Text. * Note Voice Dream app bundle- 3 apps which also includes 2 more voices. The Voice Dream apps have been created by a "local" (Boston area) man named Winston Chen. I have had the pleasure of meeting him at several edcamps. He listens to teachers and students, and has created ways to make reading and writing easier for all and has proven to be an amazing resource for students with reading disorders or attentional difficulties. Voice Dream Writer proofreads your writing with text to speech.
Liquid Text is a brand new app, that looks like it has great potential in the classroom. Here's what the web site says " The smart way to read. LiquidText gives you the tools you need to develop a deeper understanding of the things you read. With our gesture based reading software you can review, analyze, and react to text in ways not possible on paper." Check out the video below. Teacher Resources & Interactive Sites Quill.org Quill is a literacy tool that builds students’ grammar skills through free personalized writing, grammar, and vocabulary activities for " We’ve created 154 activities starting from 42 Common Core language standards. We’ve translated these Common Core directives into purposeful activities." Here's a quick video to tell you more about it. After you create a teacher account, you can create a class, which students join with a class code. Activities to assign are searchable by application (sentence or paragraph), CCSS strand or core concept. Read Theory is another site that could benefit students and teachers. According to the web site : "The quickest, most intelligent way to improve K-12 reading comprehension. Read Theory adapts to student ability to provide the perfect reading passages and questions. Our program is completely free for an unlimited number of teacher and student users. " Essentially this site provides reading passages and collects data on comprehension. Very easy to set up and to use...and it's free. Common Lit is a great way to help prepare a lesson. " COMMONLIT is a collection of poems, short stories, news articles, historical documents, and literature for classrooms." You simply choose a theme, pick one of the provided discussion questions, choose the difficulty level and download the text to go with it. Literacy Shed is designed for younger students, ages 5-11. "The aim is to provide high quality resources that can be used in stand alone literacy lessons, can form the basis for a whole Literacy unit or can support literacy units that you already have in place. " Using engaging short videos teachers and students can use these resources for discussion questions, as inspiration for creative writing activities and more. Use of videos can help accommodate different modalities and reach and inspire students.
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AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
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