Last week I spent time in TN working with fantastic kids and teachers! I taught a variety of lessons that integrated either webtools or apps. As I reflected on the lessons, it was easy to see a pattern of how I put together the experiences.
Each lesson began with some type of attention grabber that got the students’ attention and set the purpose for the lesson. Along the way, students talked with others and built background knowledge, brainstormed, or shared what they already knew about the topic.Then, I presented content using some form of digital resource such as a video clip or electronic book. Along the way, I stopped to have students question, predict, discuss, or clarify content. Finally, once the information was shared and discussed students created a product that demonstrated their understanding. These experiences were usually collaborative and always creative!
My littlest learners used ABC Ya.com’s Magnets to make words that related to our topic of sea otters. We read a digital book together and then they discussed with a partner what they learned. They used the digital magnets to show their comprehension.
Another lesson involved learning about How To writing/reading. After we explored a cook book and found out the importance of following directions step by step, students used ABC YA’s Go Animate to create their own How To animations!
Older students learned about the basics of research and used InstaGrok to find out information about a topic they liked. Then the students used Tagxedo to create Word Clouds to display the findings of their research.
Popplet was used in several lessons to find out what students knew prior to sharing the content. Then, they returned to Popplet after learning the concepts and added to their Popplet mind maps. This example is for a lesson on good nutrition. The colored popples show the facts students learned and placed on the Popplet after the lesson on nutrition.
Educreations was used in several lessons to have students draw, type, and narrate their understanding. In this example 5th graders learned how to compare prices. They were asked to create a presentation to share with kindergarten kids about how to shop wisely and save money.
Sock Puppets! Sock Puppets! Everyone loves Sock Puppets! We used this app to have students share about themselves in complete sentences. We also used this one for students to retell a story and some shared information they learned from their own topic research.
We went on several picture scavenger hunts last week. Younger students learned about the alphabet and looked for things that started with certain letters. Middle grade kids learned about skip counting and found things that came in groups. The students took pictures and then placed them in Pic Collage to share with others. They loved moving around the room and taking pictures.
My young writer friends used Write About This to develop writing pieces about a photo they selected from within the app. We discussed how pictures can often help us as writers get ideas and help us to brainstorm topics and words.
Big Thank You to Kathy Pryor and her amazing staff and teachers in TN for the opportunity to teach and share ideas!
