If you are like me, a teacher of teens, you probably cringe at the thought of planning grammar lessons. The students walk into the classroom with a full vocabulary of texting lingo (among other things) that is quickly pushing academic English out of their common vernacular. Students look at me like I'm speaking a foreign language when I ask them to use the words "whom" and "you're" in their writing when they think "u" and "ur" will always suffice.
Today's Tech Tool: Laptop Computers
My campus has a rolling cart of ThinkPad Computers
This lesson can also be completed in a computer lab.
The Goal: Review Grammar Rules- Particularly Pronoun Usage
This week I let my students play with language rules during our grammar unit in hopes that the lesson would sneak its way into their brains. We spent several boring days going over pronouns and parts of speech as a review. To reward their hardwork, I let my students create their own mad libs using a class set of laptops at the end of the week.
The Lesson:
1. The students worked in pairs to create a 1-2 paragraph story including as many different types of pronouns as they could think of.
2. I asked the students to label the type and case of every pronoun they used.
3. Then the students were to type a version of their story with blanks for a reader to fill in his or her own pronouns that matched the labels. To make the stories even more entertaining, I asked students to create a few blanks for nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.
4. The students saved and printed their stories. The next day I made copies of a few of the student create mad-libs, and passed them out. The result was a very crazy and very fun review of grammar and pronoun rules for the students.
5. I printed and laminated a copy of each story as it was originally written and a copy of the MadLib version with blanks. Students took turns filling in the blanks with dry erase or vis-a-vis markers as a review before our pronoun test.
This activity could be handwritten, but it is much quicker to create these on the computer. Students also like to include fun clipart to go along with their stories.
Pros:1. 98-100% Participation! There's just something about Mad Libs that the kids love. They seem to forget that they are completing a writing assignment because they want their story to be funny and entertaining.
2. The students get to discuss the different types of pronouns and parts of speech, and in effect get to tutor each other on difficult concepts.
Cons:
1. Saving and printing can be a circus because groups finish up at different times.
Here is a fun example from my class:
What kinds of lessons have you put together that make grammar fun for the secondary classroom?
The Goal:
Student groups will work together as teams to answer review questions during a class competition.
The Day Before:
Create a powerpoint using questions from the test or questions from the study guides. You'll need a slide for the question and a slide with the answer.
During Class:
1. Divide students into groups and assign each group a team name. My team names were characters from the book we have just finished..
2. Two desks are arranged face-to-face at the front of the room. An iPad is place on the center of these two desks. The iPad is open to a free app called "Game Buzzer."
3. The groups take turns sending one member to face another group at the front of the room.4. One group members takes the news summary to the class computer to type in their article.
4. I show a question slide and read the question to the class. Students are instructed not to buzz in until I've finished the question.
5. The timer gives the student 6 seconds to answer the question.
6. The teacher can keep track of the scores on the whiteboard.
Lesson Extender:
1. The class can go through the questions a second time as a group to discuss the correct answers and clarify any confusion.
Pros:
1. 100% Participation!
2. The students get an idea of the types of questions that will be on the test.
3. The teacher gets an idea on any last minute items that need to be re-taught.
4. Students really enjoy the class that day.
Cons:
1. They get REALLY competitive. I had one class shouting by the end of the game because they were so mad that they lost. Clear expectations have to be set up from the start or the game can take a negative turn.
Do you facilitate a similar project in your classroom? How have you used one one iPad in your classroom activites?
My English 2 classes and Pre-AP English 2 classes will be taking a test over The Pearl and Lord of the Flies respectively at the end of the week. Using one classroom computer, the students put together a summary of the book to use as a study guide.
The Goal:
Student groups will work together to summarize one chapter from the novel. They will incorporate creative writing to turn their summaries into an eye-witness news article that reports the main conflict from their chapter.
The Day Before:
There really is nothing to prepare for this lesson! The kids do all of the work.
During Class:
1. Divide students into groups and assign each group a chapter.
2. Students must come up with a catchy newspaper headline summarizing the chapter in one sentence.
3. Group members must then write out a summary as if they were newspaper reporters traveling into their book to report on what they saw happening.
4. One group members takes the news summary to the class computer to type in their article.
End of Class:
1. The teacher sets up the class computer for student use.
2. Pull up the website: http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
3. One student from each group comes up to type their chapter number into the headline box. (The program does not leave much room for an actual headline)
4. Their actual headline is typed in as the first line of their story.
5. The students then type in the body of their article, paying attention to the word limit.
6. Have students click "Generate!"
7. Then have the students click the link under the image of their generated article to save it to the computer.
8. Have the students save their article using their chapter number.
Extender:
1. The teacher can show the images on the screen and have the students take turn reading the summers out loud in order.
2. Or the teacher can print the images and copy the articles for the students to take home as a study guide for the test.
Pros:
1. There isn't much prep time at all, if any.
2. The students get to practice summarizing skills and writing from different points of view.
3. The students get to work with each other to decide on the major events.
4. Every student gets to benefit from eachother's work. Cons:
1. If one group does not work well together, the entire class misses out on a good review of that chapter.
Do you facilitate a similar project in your classroom? How have you used one classroom computer during a lesson?
My students just finished reading Lord of the Flies, and I needed a hands-on way to review the students for their test for those who read the book and for those who admittedly did not read the book. It took a little bit of prep time, but I came up with a review that took groups of students around the campus to act out scenes from the book.
The Goal:
Student groups will act out an assigned chapter of the novel. They will use props and costumes to pose in a picture representing an important scene from their chapter. Students are to text their picture with a caption that summarizes the major conflict to the teacher which will later be gathered into a slideshow to use as a novel review.
The Day Before:
Come up with a location on campus for each chapter.
Print out directions, chapter summaries, and clipart of different props.
Assemble an envelope for each chapter to give to the groups.
Beginning of Class:
Divide students into groups. (I had each class act out 4-5 of the chapters.)
Appoint one group member to be the prop-master.
Appoint a group member to read the chapter summary to the group.
Appoint one group member with a camera phone to direct and take the picture.
End of Class:
A celly text is sent out to the students to return to class.
The pictures are shown on the screen, and the group members are to explain what happened in their assigned chapter.
Extender:
Upload the photos and their captions to www.animoto.com to create a slideshow of the student's summary of the book.
***Unfortunately I haven't included any of the students pictures or our amazing animoto video to share for privacy purposes. However, I have included a few pictures I snapped around the room. The first image is a shot of the intro to our animoto video. Animoto's website had the perfect video template of a beach scene for our Lord of the Flies summary.
Alternate Tech Tool:
My original lesson plan was to use the GPS coordinates and iPad/iPhone apps to send students to specific locations to give the project a geo-caching twist.
Pros:
This activity gets the students up and moving instead of being stuck in their desks all day.
The students get to live through the events of the book and better internalize the plot.
100% Participation
Cons:
It takes more prep time than usual!
The teacher cannot be everywhere at once to monitor student behavior across campus.
Do you facilitate a similar project in your classroom? How have camera phones worked in your curriculum?
Isn't this a beautiful sight? A cart loaded down with brand new iPads is available to me anytime I wish to check them out from the library. It is a beautiful, terrifying thing! How do you pass out expensive technology to 20 students when half of your classes have over 25 students and still manage true undistracted learning?
The answer: Quizlet
Quizlet is an app that can be use online, on the iPhone, AND on the iPad. Luckily my students had access to all three of those things in my room on Tuesday!
The learning goal: Get students to study and learn their vocabulary terms.
The night before:
1. I sent out a message requesting that my students with iPhones download the free Quizlet app.
2. I logged onto Quizlet's website and typed in both of my class vocabulary lists and named them "HHS Lord of the Flies" and "HHS The Pearl" so they could be easily searched for.
At the beginning of class:
1. I had students get out their headphones and iphones and leave everything else at the front of the room. This clears the aisles so we don't have any shattered iPads or disappearing iPads for that matter.
The Lesson:
Once the Quizlet app was open and the students had all searched for our class list, we were able to get started. The students will breeze right through all of the fun things Quizlet has to offer in a matter of minutes if you are not giving them clear steps to complete. I wanted my students to get 25-30 minutes of quality time studying their vocabulary terms. By the end of the day, we had this routine down pat!
1. The List: Let students play with the sound feature on their vocabulary list. I told them to click through each word in the list and listen to the woman pronounce the words. My second period had a particular good time syncing their iPads to pronounce "Mortification: Humiliation" over and over simultaneously. It was very funny and very disturbing. After having fun with the list, they were instructed to either plug in their headphones or turn the sound OFF.
2. Card Mode: The students were then to click through the flash-card function once.
3. Learn Mode: I then had the students complete a few rounds in the learn mode. During this mode the students are given definitions and have to type in the correct word--with the correct spelling! I put a word bank on each desk for spelling purposes. This mode tracks which words the students have learned and mastered.
4. Scatter Mode: Once they have completed learn mode, I let the students jump into a game called Scatter Mode. This is a timed matching game. They have to match the words to the definitions as fast as they can. I asked the students to try to complete the game in less than 20 seconds. They loved the competitiveness of it!
5. Final Quiz: I asked the students to log back into Card Mode to see how many of the definitions they were able to remember by the end of the lesson.
6. Lesson Extender: After I had the students logged out and the iPads stored back in the cart, I put my iPad on my Elmo. I asked the students to pronounce the words together for me as I flipped through the card mode.
There you have it! 100% engagement in vocabulary learning for 30 minutes straight! Their eyes and ears were glued to these words for the entire lesson, freeing me up to deal with the occasional technology issue. The kids had fun with it, they learned a new resource that they can access at home, and it prepared them for our upcoming test.
I'm planning out some future lessons using literary terms and example sentences using Quizlet. What other iPad apps do you use with a classroom set of iPads?
My school district gave me an iPad to use in my classroom for BYOD purposes; however, many of my students do not have iPads or tablets of any sort. The technology that almost all of them have readily available is a cell phone.
I needed to find a way to implement my students' available devices into my lessons since this program is Bring YOUR OWN Device, not Watch Your Teacher Use Her Device. I had to keep in mind that not all of my students have cell phones nor are all of the cell phones smart phones. I have to admit that I joined the smartphone craze and then eventually went back to my regular "dumb" phone to save a few dollars.The answer? Allow cell phone use during specific classroom and homework activities utilizing nothing other than text messaging.
There are several programs and websites that you can use to remind students of assignments (Remind101) and send students polls and quizzes (Socrative and Poll Everywhere). This year I've set my classes up with the program Cel.ly that does both of those things. Students can also use a computer to send and receive messages if texting is not an option.
Celly Quick Tips
1. Anonymity: Students sign up for their class group by sending in a text and picking a username.
I assign students a username to keep them anonymous among their peers. This helps encourage students to interact without feeling self-conscious. Each one of my classes has a theme (disney characters, Greek mythological characters, famous authors, Shakespearean characters, etc).
2. Professionalism: Students never see my cell phone number, and I never see their cell phone numbers. All messages are stored in a dashboard on the cel.ly. Students can only message me, not individual students and not the entire class. The only way the students can see other students' messages is if I put the website on the whiteboard for discussion purposes.
3. So I can potentially have 140 students sending me back text messages? Yes, BUT I've turned off the SMS feature so I do not receive their texts on my phone, only the website. I can also delete any text message I receive that does not follow my rules. I've told my students the messages they send have to be in complete sentences, cannot use slang, and cannot contain any abbreviations. This is an English Language Arts class after all! If they really want to see their answers broadcast on the screen, and they do even if it is anonymous, they will adhere to these rules.
How do I use it as a learning aid?
1. I send out text reminders to students about assignments due dates.
2. Students receive optional bonus study questions to respond to after reading. I tell students it is optional and will not count against their grade if they do not participate. However, I offer the incentive that if at least 5 students give me legitimate answers, I will reward the entire class the next day.
3. I can quickly poll students at the end of a lesson to gauge understanding.
4. I can receive questions about material that was unclear to later re-teach.
Sample Prompts
1. Write a newspaper headline that summarizes the chapter that you read tonight for homework.
2. Find a word you were unfamiliar with during your reading. Send in a message with the word and it's definition.
3. Create a test question based on the reading selection you completed today.
4. What good qualities does the main character display in this story?
5. Why do you think the character reacted the way that he did?
6. What do you think will happen in the next chapter? (Please do not answer if you have read ahead!)
7. Which character are you similar to? Explain why.
8. When this character faces a problem in life, how does he respond to it?
9. Summarize this chapter in one sentence.
10. How is this story similar to another story you've read before?
Below is a screenshot of a bonus question I sent my students this morning along with a few responses. I will put this up on the board tomorrow during class to give the students some material to use when filling out a chart comparing these two characters.
I also teach a Creative Writing class. Here is a poll I sent to my students during class to teach them how to answer the poll questions. The poll shows the results in real time as the students answer. It does not show which students gave which answer.
Check out the short video about another High School teacher who has used Celly successfully with his students.
I hope you find Cel.ly to be as useful in your classroom as I have so far this year! The students really enjoy getting to interact in class and getting reminders from me after school I've never had such much participation in discussions. They all want to see what everyone has had to say about the questions I've sent out. So far, we're loving it!
Teachers: What types of questions would you send to your students using cel.ly? What other uses have you found for cell phones in your lessons?
Today marks the first day of another school year. I have volunteered to be one of 25 teachers piloting a Bring Your Own Device program on my campus, so I have commted myself to a personal challenge to make the most of my Device Days. My goal is to teach 100 lessons using technology in different ways and share my lessons on this blog. I am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, so my lessons will be tailored for use in the ELA classroom.
Lesson 1: Screencasting Lectures
There is not much to look forward to on the first day of school for teacher or student. Sure, I get to meet 140 new and somewhat eager faces, but I have to give the same epic-length presentation over rules, policies, & procedures for an hour 6 different times.
This time I implemented the "smarter, not harder" theory to my presentation. I made a color-rich presentation and recorded my narration ahead of time using a screencast tool. Once the classes began, introductions were made, paperwork was handled, I simply clicked "play." From time to time I paused it for questions, comments, and to emphasize points.
It may have freaked out the occasional visitors knocking on my door that they could hear me delivering a lesson in the room behind me while I was right there seeing to their business in my doorway.
Here is Part 1 of one of my presentation.
Overall I highly recommend this method for Day 1 presentations and other things like unit introductions that involve a lot of speaking on the part of the teacher.
Pros
1. I don't lose my voice or energy by the end of the day.
2. Nerves don't make me stumble or rush over my words! I can record from the comfort of my bed if I wanted to!
3. I know 100% that I've given the same info to all my classes and haven't left anything out.
4. I can upload the video file to Youtube and send the links to new students and parents throughout the year so they feel informed on how things work in our class.
Tech Tools in this Lesson:
1. Slideshow http://www.prezi.com
2. Narration http://www.screencast-o-matic.com
3. YouTube
Watch the demo below for more information on making a Screen Cast.
Teachers I Need Your Feedback! What types of lessons would you consider converting to a screencast? How could a student use this type of tool in your classroom?
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