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Content Areas

Discover resources and strategies for teaching core content areas. Explore tips, tools, and activities to enhance learning across all subjects.

Content Areas

myON Supports Texas with Free Digital Books

by Lori Gracey August 31, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

To help Texans, and especially their children, get through the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, myON is offering all of their more than 10,000 digital books free for a limited time. Students in the disaster areas, as well as those who were not directly affected by the storm, but are still worried about it, can relax and enjoy one of their favorite books.

The books are available 24/7 on any web-enabled device with Wifi or for offline reading with their free mobile apps. There are books available in both English and Spanish. There is no limit to the number of times a book can be read or the number of readers who can be reading the same book at the same time. And the site also provides daily news articles written just for kids. In addition, myOn has prepared a list of recommended reading for students about scary weather like hurricanes to help them understand and cope with the disaster. The books are on different reading levels for grades K-9.

Log in and password instructions are provided below. Please share this wonderful resource to anyone with children, whether they are currently in school, in a shelter, or at home.

TCEA would like to thank myON for being such a strong education partner who is willing to do whatever is needed to help our students and families out!

August 31, 2017 1 comment

Writing Tools for Chrome

by Lori Gracey August 26, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

The Chrome browser is such a powerful piece of software, and it’s becoming more prevalent every day. Whether you’re using a Windows, Mac, or Chrome computer, this browser should be your go-to for Internet access. If you have students who are using the Chrome browser, then there are some extensions and websites that you will want to recommend to them to use to improve their writing.

Grammarly for Chrome – I love this extension! It comes in both a free and a premium version. The free version will check your spelling and grammar on almost anything you write, including Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, and nearly everywhere else you write on the web. It does require that you create a free account. But with that account, you’ll get weekly emails with insights and performance stats about your writing. You can find out more here.

The premium version will check for more than 100 other types of errors and provides vocabulary enhancement suggestions, detects plagiarism, gives citation suggestions, and more.

WordCounter – While this website serves a seemingly simple purpose, I use it all the time. Apart from counting words and characters, their online editor can help to improve word choice and writing style, and, optionally, help you to detect grammar mistakes and plagiarism. In addition, WordCounter shows you the top 10 keywords and the keyword density of the article you’re writing. This allows you to know which keywords you use how often and at what percentages. This can prevent you from over-using certain words or word combinations and check for best distribution of keywords in your writing. In other words, it can help you become a better writer!

In the Details overview, you can see the average speaking and reading time for your text, while Reading Level is an indicator of the education level a person would need in order to understand the words you’re using. To check word count, simply place your cursor into the text box and start typing. You’ll see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them. You can also copy and paste text from another program into the online editor.

EasyBib Toolbar – This extension is great for secondary students and up. It will let you cite web sites with just one click. Students who use it can also receive advice on the credibility of the website they’re citing, making it a critical part of their digital citizenship skills. Cite as many sources as you need to build a fully-formatted, alphabetized, and Word-processor-ready bibliography.

Cliche Finder – Another good extension for secondary students, this one lets you paste text into the website and then have all of the cliches identified. Besides helping with their own writing, Cliche Finder is also a good tool to help students understand what cliches are and how they are regularly used in the news and movies.

Hemingway Editor – Help your students to embrace clear, clean writing like the great author Hemingway with this website. The app highlights lengthy, complex sentences and common errors. It also identifies dense and complicated sentences, sentences written in passive voice, and weak adverbs and phrases. It will show the readability level and word count, too.

MindMup 2.0 – Although this extension has a terrible name, it is a very powerful but easy-to-use mind mapping tool. Using a graphic organizer like a mind mapper is a great resource for all students and can help them become stronger writers. MindMup can be used for collaborative writing as well and interfaces with Google Drive.

Calmly Writer – If you have a student who is easily distracted while writing by all of the bells and whistles available in most word processing programs, try the Calmly Writer website. It offers a completely blank screen with nothing to think about but the writing. Clicking on the lotus flower in the left-hand corner will reveal a drop-down menu of expected word processor options. One of the preferences available is white text on a black screen, which can be good for students with dysgraphia. While there is a Calmly Writer app for Chrome, it is $4.99; the website is free.

WriteWell Online – This Chrome extension has won awards for its intuitive editor vast library of writing templates, many of them designed for K-12. Some of the included templates are:

Five Paragraph Essay
Research Paper (Analytical and Argumentative)
Short Story
Argumentative Essay
Expository Essay Narrative Essay
Cover Letter
Persuasive Essay
Lab Report
Expository Essay
Speech (Informative or Persuasive)
Book Report

It is free to use for up to five documents. You can receive unlimited documents for $2.99.

What great writing tools have you discovered that work with the Chrome browser? Please share in the Comments section below!

This blog was updated with additional resources on September 22, 2017.

August 26, 2017 0 comments

English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)

The Perfect Music to Read By

by Lori Gracey August 1, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Listening to certain types of music while reading can lead to better reading comprehension, according to the latest research. Music creates a good mood and a reader-friendly environment. It also helps you focus better and can drown out too much background noise. Of course, while some people often enjoy listening to nice ambient music while reading, it is not suited for everyone. There are people who prefer not to hear any music when they read.

What kind of music works best while reading? Instrumental, classical, jazz, and ambient music have all been found to help keep the reader relaxed and better able to pay attention to what is being read. However, vocal music can be very distracting and extremely loud music can actualy impair comprehension.

Finally, listening to ambient music can also help when studying. It is especially beneficial when trying to get the “big picture” of new content. But it can be detrimental when working to memorize facts.

One Great Music-While-Reading Tool

To encourage your students to read more during silent reading, try playing exactly the right music to match their book. Ambient Mixer has more than 57,000 free sound track atmosphere mixes on a wide variety of themes. You can also effectively mix and create your own sounds absolutely free, with no software installations required. All atmospheres are royalty free audio files and you can use them even in your projects, thanks to the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license.

Many of these atmospheres work great with novels. For example, consider playing the following:

Music Examples

Any of the Harry Potter books – listen to the common rooms of all four houses (Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor) or the Hogwarts Library or Storm on the Hogwarts Express
Star Wars – a night shift on the Death Star
Anything from Shakespeare – Shakespeare’s Writing Desk
Lord of the Rings – try In Rivendell
Beauty and the Beast – Belle’s Library
Younger students might enjoy Baby Birds Hatching or Neverland.
Try Mr. Tumnus’ House or Aboard the Dawn Treader if someone is reading the Chronicles of Narnia.
A Day in Camp Half Blood is perfect to listen to while reading any of Rick Riordan’s novels.
If you’ve got a Hunger Games reader, he/she might enjoy Hunting with Katniss or A Night in the 74th Hunger Games Arena.
And for any of the Disney stories (or while reading a fairy tale), check out the Disney choices.

The site allows you to personalize the music, adjusting it to fit your tastes. You can even create your own tracks from scratch, if you prefer, but that requires a free registration and login. You can also search by keyword or category for whatever suits your fancy. Ambient Mixer is also available on iOS (paid and free) and Android (paid and free), though these mobile versions haven’t been updated since 2014. But most people who use the tool simply access it through the website.

Ways to Use the Music Site

Since each track is made up of up to eight different channels, you can challenge your students to try and identify each of the sounds that are playing. This can really help with developing their listening skills. For example, try playing Inside Rapunzel’s Tower without telling them the name. Then ask them to jot down each separate sound that they hear. Finally, ask them to give the track their own title. Then you can reveal what the creator called it and what each channel is playing. You could also ask them to share what other sounds they would have included in the track. (By the way, if you’re going to do this activity, make sure that you let the track play for at least five minutes as some of the sounds don’t play very often.) Another activity is to have students mix a track of their own for one of their compositions, whether it’s a poem or a short story.

music

So the next time your students are reading, set the mood for them with some great background music. Or play a piece of music for them without telling them its title and ask them to write about what it makes them see and feel. You can even use some of the tracks as calming background music while doing group work, projects, or Genius Hour; there are some great nature tracks that are very soothing and restful. (Get really creative and play two tracks in separate browser windows at the same time. Try The Beginning of a Thunderstorm and On a Ship at Sea.) And there is a plethora of wonderful, creepy music that would be perfect at Halloween, as well as some amazing winter holiday tracks.

Ambient Mixer is a great resource for the classroom.

This blog was updated with new content on December 9, 2022.

August 1, 2017 0 comments

Content Areas Technology Applications

TCEA Responds: Technology Applications TEKS

by Miguel Guhlin July 27, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #12. Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic responds to questions about the Texas Technology Applications TEKS, and provides specific examples for TA:TEKS.

Dear TCEA Responds:

With the change from NCLB to ESSA, is an eighth grade technology assessment required? Our eighth grade students take Technology Applications as a class, but they have not been having to test. With Technology Applications integrated, is there an ESSA requirement to assess students?

-Deb

Dear Deb:

These are great questions that highlight the changing expectations in Texas schools. While no end-of-course is required for eighth grade students, districts must certify that they are “technologically literate” before they move on to high school. There isn’t a free assessment tool available.

Requirements

The Technology Applications TEKS (TA:TEKS) is required. Districts have three choices to meet the requirement:

Integrating TA:TEKS into the classroom
Teaching TA:TEKS in a lab setting.
Blending the two previous choices.

Should the tech apps class be one semester or two in 6th through 8th grade? The choice is left up to the District, so long as one of the options listed above is employed. The question isn’t how long should be spent teaching technology applications, but rather, what would happen if students were assessed on technology applications. The school district decides how that assessment will take place.

Looking for Districts teaching Tech Apps:TEKS?

Check with El Paso ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Georgetown ISD, Harper ISD, and Mathis ISD are only a few.

Examples of TA:TEKS Integration

Here are some specific examples of TA:TEKS integration describing what students are expected to do:

Grades K-2: Creativity and Innovation.
- 1C. explore virtual environments, simulations, models, and programming languages to enhance learning
- Schools could rely on strategies like coding with Scratch Jr. or Minecraft: Education Edition Code Builder. Augmented/virtual reality also serve as entry points.
Grades 3-5: Communication and collaboration.
- 2A. draft, edit, and publish products in different media
- Students can be encouraged to create ebooks with Google Docs to ePub export, Book Creator app on iPads, and/or OneNote notebooks exported to PDF.
Grades 6-8: Research and information fluency.
- 3B. discuss and use various search strategies
- Students can be taught how to use advanced search operators in Google Suites email.

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

ESSA’s focus is on the effective use of technology:

Support high-quality training that personalizes learning and improves academic achievement
Build technological capacity, infrastructure
Carry out innovative blended learning projects
Provide students in remote areas with the resources to benefit from digital learning opportunities
Deliver specialized or rigorous academic courses and curricula using technology

Items in bold above serve as guideposts for ESSA-related efforts.

Assessing Digital Learning Environment

Collected data could be used for the House Bill 5 report, focused on assessing a school district’s Digital Learning Environment. Each Texas district creates their own evaluation instrument and process for this. The data collected from student assessments could be used as justification for their self report.

July 27, 2017 0 comments

English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Libraries

Helping Students (and Adults) Discover New Books

by Lori Gracey July 18, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

I stumbled across a new website the other day that has me excited. It’s called Recommend Me a Book, and its premise is simple. The site offers the first page of a book for you to read without revealing the title or author or showing you the book cover. After reading the first page, if you’re hooked, you can click a button to find out more about the book.

How the Site Works

While this is not earth shattering, I was very intrigued. This resource prevents the judgment that we sometimes make based on the cover of a book, and instead draws us into the words that the author has chosen. I found myself reading lots of first pages, trying to guess what the book was, as well as just enjoying the reading experience. And then I discovered that you can select a specific genre to read, such as historical or science fiction or children’s. I spent another hour just reading the first pages of favorite children’s books that I hadn’t read in a long time, and that was wonderful!

The website shows predominantly more well-known books. You can also have it show you just book covers, much like browsing in a bookstore. Once you find a book that interests you, you can click on the cover to get the first page. There is also a link provided to Amazon, in case you want to purchase the book.

Educational Uses

I think this site would be great for kids to use and become exposed to many new books that might interest them. Simply click on Genre in the top right and then select Childrens. Click the Save Settings button to keep it there for students. They also have a Young Adult section for older students. As a teacher, I would ask the students to write their own titles for the book after they have read the first page and then compare it to what the author chose. Since the books are given out randomly, each child in the class could be reading a different first page, which could lead to all kinds of sharing activities. They could design a book cover themselves, draw what they think the main character looks like or what the setting is, and make a prediction on how the books will end. For older students, they can dissect the first page to see how the author draws us into the story. Even if they don’t find a book that they want to read, they will still be exposed to at least the first pages of many well-known books.

July 18, 2017 0 comments

Content Areas

When the Sun Goes Dark: August 21 Solar Eclipse

by Lori Gracey July 11, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

There will be a rare total eclipse of the sun that is viewable by most of North America on August 21. While a solar eclipse happens about every 18 months, it is unusual for it to be seen by so much of the world. In fact, the table below shows the last time that an eclipse was seen in specific US cities:

LOCATION	MOST RECENT TOTALITY
Anchorage	Feb. 4, 1943
Atlanta	June 24, 1778
Boston	Oct. 2, 1959
Chicago	June 6, 1806
Dallas	Oct. 23, 1623
Denver	July 29, 1878
Honolulu	Aug. 7, 1850
Houston	Oct. 17, 1259
Las Vegas	May 22, 1724
Los Angeles	May 22, 1724
Miami	May 13, 1752
New Orleans	May 28, 1900
New York	Jan. 24, 1925
Phoenix	June 16, 1806
St. Louis	July 7, 1442
San Francisco	June 26, 1424
Seattle	July 18, 1860
Washington, DC	June 28, 1451

As you can see, it’s been a while for most of us! So that makes this total eclipse a big deal. Whether school is back in session or not, we should all think about how we can share this exciting event with our students. If it is the first day of school (and it will be for many students in Texas), think about kicking off the school year with an eclipse party. If school is not back yet, you can still schedule an event and invite the community to it. That’s a great way to build a sense of togetherness as school begins again. Or check out this list to see if another group is already hosting a viewing in your city.

Check out these videos for a good overview of the eclipse. This animation is just one minute, 40 seconds long while this one is a little bit longer and provides more information. You can also see a simulation of how much of the sun will be covered by the moon in your area here by just entering your location.

NASA has some great free resources for the event, including an Eclipse Party Kit and an interactive map . The kit provides downloadable flyers, posters, and ways to share your event via social media. Of course, they also have a bevy of AMAZING science resources to help all of us better understand what is happening during the eclipse. You can download their free Eclipse Education Kit, which has a guide that outlines safe activities to do. They’ve even got directions for building an eclipse viewer out of a cereal box. And they have lessons and experiments broken into elementary, middle, and high school levels.

Vernier is also providing some excellent online resources for the eclipse. They have tips for viewing the event and are selling glasses so that you can watch safely for just $16 for a class set of 40. And ISTE has a great blog with seven resources for teaching the solar eclipse. Finally, find some additional activities to use with this epic happening here.

Many local public libraries are holding eclipse parties and offering free eclipse glasses. You can use this website to find one near you. And you can download a free eclipse book from Bill Nye and the National Park Service here.

Finally, if for some reason you can’t watch the eclipse live, here are some sites that will be streaming it:

This once-in-a-lifetime event is something that we should definitely share with our students, our friends, and our neighbors. What will you do to celebrate?

This blog was updated with additional content on August 15, 2017.

July 11, 2017 1 comment

Math Online Tools and Apps

Desmos Adds Geometry Tool

by Lori Gracey June 2, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Desmos has long been a popular name in the world of math educators. Their free, online graphing calculator is simply beautiful, and since it’s easy and works on any device, it’s perfect for the classroom. They even have a a free Android or iOS app for it, along with excellent classroom activities.

But now they’ve released a new tool specifically for geometry, and it’s just as amazing. Although not as fully featured as a website like Geogebra, Desmos Geometry is still a great resource for the secondary math classroom. It’s designed to help students understand geometry concepts through the use of drawing and diagram manipulation tools. There’s a simple tutorial video, along with a page of resources to help master the tool. And clicking the “three lines” icon in the top left-hand corner of the program will provide a number of powerful examples.

Because Desmos is so universally liked and adopted by schools around the world, there will soon be a variety of lesson plans and activities designed by teachers that go along with this new resource. That makes it an even more powerful tool.

While I am not a math expert, I still had fun playing with Desmos Geometry. And I think that, if someone more knowledgeable were there to help me, I could really learn a lot about the subject while experimenting. The tool enables students to construct and test their own theories about geometry, which is a powerful and engaging way to learn. And that’s what technology is best at, isn’t it?

June 2, 2017 0 comments

English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)ESL/ELL Libraries

Help Students Enjoy Summer Reading

by Dr. Bruce Ellis May 16, 2017

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

I enjoyed reading Susan Barber’s post on Building Choice Into Your Students’ Reading. In it, she shared several great ideas for teachers to use during the school year to promote a culture of literacy. As a followup to her article, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss resources that you can use and share with your students to promote a culture of literacy over the summer months. Yes, even now as schools are wrapping up the year, many educators are already starting to plan how they can motivate students to interact with meaningful text and, hopefully, build a deeper sense of enjoyment in reading. Below are some resources I picked especially for you for summer reading fun.

Free Books Online

Most free books are in the public domain, but that doesn’t mean that they are not relevant for our students. But that’s not the only place to find free books. Some parents and students may benefit from signing up for a free month with a particular service even if they don’t plan to extend their usage beyond the complimentary time.

Children’s Storybooks Online – This site offers web-based books for young children, older children, and young adult readers. A few have audio provided as well.
SYNC – Sync is a free summer audio book program for teens 13 and up. It begins on April 27, 2017, and goes through the summer. Each week, two complete audio book downloads are made available.
Open eBooks – Students from low-income families can benefit from these free ebooks, but the school needs to sign up first. Then educators from that school can request access codes to share with students. Each student can check out up to 10 ebooks at a time. The Open eBooks app works on iOS and Android devices.
Library of Congress Archive – With more than 150,000 books online, you will definitely want to use the search features to narrow down by topic, collection, creator (author), and/or language.
Reading Resource Project – This program that runs throughout the year provides free books (only shipping is required). Many of the sets include 100 books that can be shipped to you for $88.
Free Kids Books – Choose to read the books either online or download as a PDF to read offline.
Kindle’s Top 100 Free Books – Download and read via the Kindle app or online. Lots of selection choices.
Barnes & Noble’s Popular Free eBooks – Access Barnes & Noble’s list of ebooks that you can download and read on the NOOK app. Be sure to use the sidebar options to narrow search results by subject and age of reader.
TCEA members are also encouraged to join the iPad in the Classroom Community group where daily announcements are made about free books by Amazon as well as great apps that are available free for a limited time.

Text-to-Speech Readers

Many text-to-speech readers are available that can assist with ebooks. Your device and platform may determine which works best for you.

Acrobat Reader – Activate Acrobat’s reader to have your PDF ebook read to you. Voices are limited, but you can adjust the pitch and speed.
NaturalReader – You can download NaturalReader to listen to PDF, DOCX, Richtext, and ePub formatted ebooks.
Aloud! – This free text-to-speech app works on iOS and accepts plain text, PDF, DOCX, ePub, RTF, and HTML formats.
@Voice Aloud Reader – Designed for Android users, you’ll enjoy the extensive list of formats this free app can read aloud (TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, OpenOffice document files, EPUB, MOBI, PRC, AZW and FB2 ebooks, and more).

Summer Reading Lists

Hot off the press, these updated lists can give you and your students some direction of what author to check out, the next series to explore, and possibly a new genre to try out.

Summer Reading for ELL and ESL Students – Lots of lists curated and shared by Colorin Colorado for ELL and ESL students. Great resources for teachers and parents.
Reading List for New Students at UC Berkeley – Before saying goodbye to your high school seniors, you may want to share with them this list of books for incoming students to Berkeley.
Houston ISD Summer Reading List – Enjoy the curated lists provided by the Houston Area Independent School Library Network. Each list is a PDF, making it easy to download, share, and/or print as needed.
B&N Summer Reading – Take advantage of Barnes & Noble’s list for summer reading. Keep a journal (provided on website for download) of at least eight titles you read and you can get a free book!
NYPL Summer Reading List – The New York Public Library has nicely formatted lists for babies-PreK, grades K-5, teens, and adults.
The Ultimate Summer Reading List for 9- to 12-Year-Olds – Melissa Taylor has pulled together a great list of books that will be popular with all upper elementary and middle school kids.

After Reading Activities

Making a book more enjoyable can easily be done by including some after-reading activities. Here are few to get you started. These are great to share with parents as well!

103 Things to Do Before/During/After Reading – Regardless of the age of the reader, there are TONS of ideas that they can do to further enjoy and reflect on the book they just read.
10 Fun Post-Reading Activities – Though these activities are geared more for classroom use, students can still do a few during the summer.
Teaching Reading: 20 Activities After Reading – Pick a few of these to share with your students before they leave for the summer and challenge them to complete them and share with you prior to returning.
No Prep Post Reading Activities – These easy activities don’t require any preparation ahead of time and may be the perfect activities for kids to deepen their love for reading.
Post-Reading Activities for ESL Students – These are great activities for students to do after reading a story or book…even if they aren’t ESL students.

Please share with us your school’s reading list for the summer, your favorite book you read as a kid, or possibly a one that you anticipate reading this summer for fun. We’d love to hear from you!

May 16, 2017 0 comments

Math

Why Your Students Should Be Practicing Math with Prodigy

by Lori Gracey April 14, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Keeping students engaged while practicing their math skills can sometimes be difficult. But luckily, there is a powerful and free platform available for grades 1 through 8 that will help them achieve mastery and have fun doing it. And that platform is Prodigy.

What Is Prodigy?

More than 15 million students around the world are using Prodigy right now, a curriculum-aligned math game for elementary and middle school learners. With more than 1,200 crucial math skills covered and a guarantee that the product will ALWAYS be free to educators, you will definitely want to get your students registered to use this program. It begins with a diagnostic test for each student so that they begin working on their best level and follows up with embedded assessments and differentiation. And the teacher can see individualized reports about each student’s progress at any time.

math

Played like a video game, the platform includes the ability to create a persona, take part in quests, level up, and engage in social learning. It is game-based learning at is finest and most engaging. And the research behind the math learning is spot on, so as a the teacher, you know that your students are learning what they are supposed to be.

Getting Started with Prodigy

To begin using the program, the teacher creates an account with name, email, and password. Then you must select the curriculum you want your students to use. Choices include the Prodigy Math Curriculum, which is the default, along with Common Core Math Standards, Florida standards, and yes, standards aligned to the Texas TEKS. Set up your class and enter your students and then determine on what topic you want them to start. Then you are ready to go. You will receive a URL for each class created for your students to enter, along with a unique class code. Students will then be asked to create a character and can start playing.

More about this Math Game

Prodigy works on any device that can connect to the Internet, which makes it perfect for the BYOT classroom. In addition, there is also a Chrome extension for the game. The game even includes virtual manipulatives for the students to use, along with text-to-speech/question read-aloud features. And in case you’re wondering how Prodigy is paying the bills, they sell an optional membership to parents that allows them to see exactly what their child is working on and how he/she is doing.

In a time when some educational companies promise, but don’t deliver, and when those that do may come with a hefty price tag, Prodigy is a beacon of what is best for student learning. Create your teacher account today and get your kids engaged!

April 14, 2017 0 comments

Digital Literacy English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)

Telling Our Stories

by Lori Gracey April 9, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Storytelling is such a critical component of being human, even in today’s modern world. It’s one of the ways we connect with other people, allowing us to share our hopes and dreams, our fears and worries, and our experiences and plans. It brings us together and emphasizes what we have in common and so can help us bridge any divide. But good storytelling is not an inherited trait; it must be taught and practiced.

Teaching Digital Storytelling

As the teacher, working with your students on digital storytelling doesn’t always have to be a lengthy, involved process. Sometimes, a good story is short and somewhat spur of the moment. Students can create a very brief story about something funny that happened to them yesterday, a favorite memory around a holiday, or a wish that they have. Their story can be jotted down, lightly edited by their peers, and then created quickly using just audio or a few pictures. It can be simple, an easy way to connect with others.

Once created, it is imperative that the story is shared with someone other than just the teacher. So before assigning the work, think about how you will publish their creations. Will it be to their individual blogs or a class website? How about to the campus homepage or via social media like a class Twitter account? Can they be included in the next parent communication? Any of these solutions, and others you may think of, are great, as long as a large audience can access them.

Digital Storytelling Tools for Any Device

Regardless of the length of the story, the technology we have available in our schools today makes telling it even more powerful and far reaching. Here are some good resources for your students to use to share their stories, regardless of their device.

Storybird Studio – Wonderful storytelling resource that is free for educators. K-5 students can create picture books while secondary students write long-form chapter books and poetry. Free artwork is included, which can help start the creative juices flowing. And students can publish their stories on their website, along with reading stories written by others. A Chrome extension is also available.
Google Story Builder – No Google account or registration is required to use this tool. Students enter up to 10 characters’ names and then type in their story. They can add music from the site along with a title. Once that’s done, they are given a short URL to their published story. As the teacher, if you log in with your Google account, you can create a story starter and then share the URL with your students for them to complete. For your most advanced authors, try the Master Edition. A famous writer will start the story off for your students to complete. He/She may even drop in and add a line or two throughout the writing.
Online Voice Recorder – Record up to seven minutes of audio with this very simple to use website.
StoryTop Story Maker – Using the drag-and-drop interface, students can create simple cartoon stories using the provided graphics and their text and ideas. No account is required to create and share the stories. A Chrome extension is available, as well as a Chrome app.
Biteable – The World’s Simplest Video Maker – And they mean it. Create a free account, select a template, add your own content (including text, photos, colors, and sound), and then share it via YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. A Biteable logo/watermark is added to your finished product in the free version.
Adobe Spark – For very short stories with powerful impact, consider using Adobe Spark on either the web or via the iOS app.
My Storybook – Primarily for younger authors, this tool does require that the user have an email address and a free registration to the site.
Smore – While normally thought of as an electronic newsletter creator, Smore can be fabulous for creating short stories as well. Students can use the free version with the creation of an account. Or the teacher can purchase a license for just $59/year.

No matter what platform you choose, it is important that we teach our children how to share the amazing and inspiring stories of what they are creating and learning each day. How will you help them?

April 9, 2017 0 comments

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