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ANTON: Free Digital Activities and Games for K-8 Students

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

ANTON is at first glance, a German-based free learning app now available in the United States. The system works on a variety of devices, including Chromebooks. With over 200 interactive exercises for students in grades K-8, you can make your free account now.

“As a teacher, this app is excellent! Easy to use with scaffolded exercises to progress students through a variety of standards and skills. Visually it is not overwhelming while still engaging and has games. I love the multiple response types and organization of content. I highly recommend this app for continued support across learning standards.”

– U.S. Teacher

That’s 200+ exercises for each school subject, from math to language arts to science, and more. Plus, there is multi-language content aligned to state standards, including Texas.

image of Anton app features

Let’s dig a little into Anton to learn more about it.

ANTON login processes
Overview of New Account Creation Process for a Teacher

Wait, What About Student Privacy?

Worried about creating an account and compromising student privacy? No worries, teachers and students can create accounts without giving out personal information. If you’re a teacher, you can create a classroom and assign exercises to your class. You can even check student progress. It also appears that Anton does not use login authorization through popular services. Those services include Google, Facebook, etc.

What’s more, ANTON meets the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It also adheres to European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And, more important for some, it is free from advertising. All data is deleted after 12 months of no use (unless you have an ANTON-Plus school contract).

ANTON getting started quick guide for teachers

When I signed up for an account, I provided an email and a password. I did not see an option to skip providing my email address or school location. Students would be asked to provide a nickname, a school, and at which subject they would like to start. Students who are at least 16 years of age may enter their email address or mobile phone number in the Settings of the app.

A Short Introduction

“This app has everything. For a free app, it teaches and lets your student practice and then test what they learned,” said one teacher. You can get started with a free teacher account, choosing from human or monster avatars. Once you create your class, students can connect and start to work inside ANTON. It works as a learning management system, allowing teachers to track student progress. These features make grading and offering feedback easy. This video provides a quick overview of the login process:

You can find more relevant videos about how to use and navigate ANTON online. Here are a few you can explore right away:

Don’t be afraid to explore. Get started now.

Anton grade 1 math activity with subject menu

Grades and Subjects Available

“I like the way ANTON breaks down a lesson into very small steps but builds the lesson back up with more info with each step taken making it easier to understand the concept,” said a classroom teacher. There are a lot of amazing subjects you can access in Anton. Each is replete with instructional activities that include images and sound, like this science activity for grades 3-5:

ANTON example science activity

Here’s a quick video tutorial:

Subjects addressed for K-8 include:

  • English/Language Arts: reading, phonics, the alphabet, grammar, and more.
  • Math: numbers, counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and geometry.
  • Science: plants, animals, the solar system, and more.
  • Music: instruments, melody, rhythm, and reading music.

Of course, Spanish and other languages are included, as is social studies.

ANTON example social studies activity

ANTON Games

Love to share games with your students? ANTON offers quite a few. Every time students finish a lesson, they earn a gold coin. These coins can “buy” games that students can play. A few games from the long list include:

  • Hidden
  • Sports: Long Jump
  • Astro Bang
  • Avatar Superstar
  • Bat Cave
  • Block Puzzle

There are many more games in ANTON that students can play. Of course, they can only do so after completing an exercise.

What can you do with ANTON infographic

Is It ALL Free?

While ANTON appears to offer a lot of value at no cost, you can choose to use ANTON-Plus, a paid service. This paid service offers additional functions. In the Terms of Service, you can read:

2.8 Schools can purchase an ANTON school license and thus unlock additional functions that improve their use in school. In addition to the ANTON school license, schools can also activate ANTON-Plus for all school students and teachers.

A teacher could adapt the use of the free activities for the classroom, as well as assign them to students. Given that the activities range from K-6, the content is easy to work through.

best practice for ELL in ANTON graphic

“Intuitive app, easy to use, and creative exercises for easy understanding and learning,” reported one educator. ANTON is also available via the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and/or Amazon Appstore. If you need a cross-platform app that works in the browser, ANTON meets your needs there as well.

Try it for yourself and then watch the fun and learning begin!

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Content CreationDigital CitizenshipDigital LiteracyELAREnglish/Language ArtsWriting

What You Need to Know About Copyright

by Renee Bogacz
written by Renee Bogacz

Most people don’t find themselves breathless with excitement at the prospect of learning about copyright. If you were to play a word association game with the term copyright, you would likely get responses such as boring, confusing, unnecessary, or annoying. While those emotions might be legitimate, the truth is, understanding copyright is a necessary evil for both teachers and students. Let’s break it down into the most useful pieces of information.

The most basic way to explain copyright is this: It’s a law that protects people who create by giving them the right to control who can use their creations and how. The following are protected by copyright: 

  • Books
  • Stories 
  • Articles
  • Blog Posts
  • Song Lyrics
  • Musical Composition
  • Works Of Art
  • Photographs
  • Video Recordings
  • Audio Recordings

Essentially, if it is highly creative, it’s protected by copyright law. 

How do you know something is copyrighted?

A common misconception is that a copyright symbol must be present to show that a work is copyrighted; actually, once a work takes tangible form, it’s covered by copyright. So if you scribble a poem on a cocktail napkin, it’s copyrighted. Every picture you take with your phone is copyrighted. You don’t need the symbol, and you don’t need to officially register your work to have copyright law apply.

A common misconception is that a copyright symbol must be present to show that a work is copyrighted; actually, once a work takes tangible form, it’s covered by copyright.

How can you use a copyrighted work?

Copyright law can be pretty unforgiving. To use a copyrighted work, you would have to determine who the copyright holder is and get permission to use the work. That can be time-consuming or even close to impossible. The internet makes it more confusing because it looks like everything is freely available to use. It can be really difficult to track down a copyright holder online because so many things, especially images, get shared over and over again. So if you’re about ready to give up ever using anything copyrighted ever again, don’t fret! There are a couple of things that make it much easier for educators to work easily within copyright law!

Fair Use

One nice option is Fair Use. While not an official part of copyright law, it still allows copyrighted works to be used for some very specific purposes – one of which is education. Now, that doesn’t mean you can run to the copy machine and make copies of a novel for your students instead of buying them! Fair Use says that copyrighted works can be used for educational purposes if used in small amounts (as opposed to in entirety) and if the impact doesn’t harm the market for that item. Since Fair Use isn’t officially part of copyright law, there aren’t any hard and fast guidelines for using works and calling it Fair Use. That makes some people nervous because they just don’t know when they may have crossed a line and used too much work or used it inappropriately. 

Creative Commons

Luckily, there is another option that can be useful in the educational setting. That’s Creative Commons. This does work within existing copyright law, so it can be much clearer to understand what can and cannot be done with a copyrighted work. Creative Commons licenses were developed to give copyright holders clearly communicated control over certain aspects of their work, ranging from fairly lax requirements to pretty stringent. Creative Commons licenses indicate the following things:

  • Attribution: all licenses require you to give credit to the original creator of the work; this also allows you to adapt, remix, and build upon someone else’s work.
  • ShareAlike: this indicates that you are allowed to adapt, remix, and build upon another person’s work and then share your creation using the same licensing the original creator used.
  • NoDerivs: this allows you to use someone else’s work but you can’t adapt it.
  • NonCommercial: this allows you to adapt, remix, and build upon someone else’s work, but you can’t do it commercially.

There are actually six different Creative Commons licenses, using different combinations of the above elements. The least restrictive would be Attribution (do what you want, just give credit); the most restrictive would be Attribution-NonCommericial-NoDerivs (share someone’s work only as it is, non-commercially, and with credit given).

List of creative commons licenses

Because teachers and students alike use copyrighted materials daily for education, it’s important to have a basic understanding of what copyright is and how to work within it. Here is an excellent resource from the Learning Technology Center of Illinois that serves as a great guide for educators when it comes to Fair Use and Copyright. 

For the younger learners, simply teaching them that anything they didn’t create on their own belongs to someone else and having them share where they found it will be sufficient. As students get older, however, they should learn the nuances of copyright, become familiar with Fair Use and Creative Commons, and learn ways to formally document their use of any copyrighted materials in school projects. 

Copyright violations become increasingly severe as kids get older and become adults. Anything from a failing score on an assignment or a failed course to disciplinary measures like expulsion could happen to a student, depending on the severity of the violation and the student’s age. As an adult, it could cost someone his or her job or even result in fines or jail time. That’s why starting early instruction on copyright is so important. 

If you’ve decided that copyright is fascinating, welcome to my world! If you’ve decided that copyright is fascinating, welcome to my world! Here are a few great resources for you to keep the learning going!

Renee Bogacz is one of TCEA’s Elementary Technology Conference (ETC) speakers! If you want to learn more about teaching kids about copyright, don’t miss her session:

Kids Can Care About Copyright, Too! Think kids can’t understand copyright? Think again! Learn how to break down copyright so it’s easy to understand, and discover tools your students can use to respect copyright!

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ELAREnglish/Language ArtsReading

How to Close the Reading Gap Before Summer

by Terrie Noland, Ph.D., CALP
written by Terrie Noland, Ph.D., CALP

As the end of another school year is coming into sight, is it too late to see accelerated learning gains from students who are struggling to find success? What if there was something that could have a positive domino effect on the students who are still struggling in their classes, even at this point in the year? Closing the reading gap to improve reading can have that domino effect.

Reading is the foundational skill that permeates all other subjects. A student who struggles to read faces insurmountable challenges in any subject area, while a student who reads at proficiency engages in school subjects on a level playing field. While there is no shortage of reading supplements and tools, there is one option that can accelerate reading growth before school ends for summer.

Audiobooks for Students

For students struggling with reading proficiency, an audiobook solution designed for education, which features high-quality, human-read audiobooks and a suite of resources educators need to drive outcomes, can be the missing element to success. But how do audiobooks specifically help improve reading proficiency to close the reading gap?

  • Listening to real people narrate while following highlighted text on a screen helps students model fluent reading.
  • Using audiobooks designed for the classroom, students can read the same books as their peers, allowing them to participate in class discussions with confidence.
  • A proven audiobook solution developed specifically for schools can help students master basic reading skills and build reading independence lacking in those struggling with literacy.
  • Access to math, science, and other textbooks in audiobook format ensures students don’t fall behind in other classes and supports growth and development as the curriculum gets more advanced.
  • Audiobooks help students stay on top of classwork and promote staying in school and reaching their potential.
Screenshot of the first page of chapter 1 in the book "Wonder."
Example Audiobook from Learning Ally Audiobook Solution

Five Steps to Set up a No-Cost Audiobook Solution

But is it too late in the year to get started? Simply put– no. It’s never too late to remove barriers preventing students from succeeding. Breakthrough results can be achieved with struggling readers, some of whom have realized rapidly accelerated reading growth– with an ease of effort and time investment for educators– through the implementation of the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution.

Here are the steps you can take today to accelerate reading growth, improve reading, and close the reading gap before the end of the school year. Best of all, you can address student reading gaps and make an impact with no cost to you, your school, or your district. 

  1. Learn more about the funding the Texas Education Agency has provided for K-12 public schools and open enrollment charters to support struggling readers with the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution.
Screenshot of an example audiobook library for a student
Example Student Library in Learning Ally Audiobook Solution
  1. Enroll your school using the Texas-funded Institutional Membership Application. Once the form has been submitted, you will receive emailed instructions on how to get your account set up and get started. 
  2. Set up your school access once your account is active. Determine eligible students, identify educator roles, and assign access accordingly.
  3. Launch the audiobook library for your students. Browse titles and assign books individually or in groups. Integrate instructional strategies with the app, which allows for note-sharing, onboard dictionary, and more.
  4. Monitor student progress and tailor instruction to meet goals. Use reporting dashboards to easily track student advancement toward reading targets and monitor growth.

Make Independent Reading Time More Effective

With audiobooks available to struggling readers who need them, independent reading time will be more effective. Students can don their headsets and dive into an audiobook from the library, anytime from any device. Some suggestions to extend and explore include pairing with a classmate to discuss the story and demonstrate their comprehension in the form of a book report, giving an oral report, acting out a scene, designing a poster, playing a guessing game of “who am I,” or doing a Q&A with their teacher.

A proven audiobook solution developed specifically for students with reading difficulties can be the key to unlocking potential. It’s simple to implement, easy to set up, and proven to accelerate reading growth. And with the funding the Texas Education Agency has provided, there is no financial impact for K-12 public and charter schools in the state to offer this resource to students. 

Summer is right around the corner. Get started with this no-cost audiobook solution today.

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The title "6 Strategies to Boost Reading Comprehension" is shown on the left side of a rectangular box in blue and white text. On the right, the strategies are listed in white text.
ELAREnglish/Language ArtsReading

Six Strategies for Boosting Reading Comprehension

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

One big area of learning on most elementary educators’ minds? Reading comprehension. We all want our students to be strong readers who read for both information and enjoyment. Additionally, we want our students to become independent, autonomous readers who can support their own understanding of texts. Luckily, there are many fantastic strategies out there for improved reading comprehension. Let’s take a look at six big skills that students can build and some correlating strategies for advancing reading comprehension, increasing understanding, and building confidence when it comes to reading.

1. Visualizing

Have students close their eyes and create a movie in their minds as they listen to the story, then describe what they visualized in a class discussion or with a partner during a “turn and talk.” Students can also make drawings to represent their visualization and comprehension. For example, you can skip an illustration in a book you’re reading aloud and have students draw their own illustration as you read the coordinating page. You can do a gallery walk or have students “show and tell” with a partner, in small groups, or with the class. Then, show the students the illustration in the book you’re reading.

2. Using Context Clues

I found that teaching students to use context clues to help them understand a story better is invaluable. Reminding students that they don’t have to know every single word in a story is critical to making them comfortable with unfamiliar words and trying to find meaning on their own. Autonomy is so important! This a great post from The Stellar Teacher Company about teaching the five context clues: inference, definition, example, antonym, and synonym.

3. Making Inferences

This can be tough, especially in the lower grades of elementary when students are used to more straightforward texts! However, making inferences is a skill that students must be explicitly taught, and The Classroom Nook has some great ideas on how to teach students to infer. They suggest starting out using pictures, mystery bags, and modeling and then moving to “It says, I say, and so I infer.” They also offer a few suggested picture books for practicing making inferences with students.

4. Summarizing

Summarizing can often be difficult for students. They aren’t always quite sure how much detail, or what details, to include! I recommend teaching this skill using a text that students are already familiar with. Model summarizing yourself or review exemplars with students. You can also provide rubrics or an anchor chart to clarify the expectations for summaries. In the lower grades, this can be done orally. And in the upper grades, students can move into written summaries. Use graphic organizers or visual tools to help students understand the elements that should be included in a summary. Think, Grow, Giggle suggests three strategies to help students with summarizing:

  • The 5 Ws– Focus on answering these questions: Who, what, when, where, and why?
  • SWBSA– Using a graphic organizer, students outline information about the “somebody, wanted, but, so, and” parts of a story.
  • Story Maps– After reading, have students complete a story map outline and use it to write their full summary.

5. Monitoring Comprehension

According to Reading Rockets, monitoring comprehension teaches students to:

Be aware of what they do understand.

Identify what they do not understand.

Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension.

Source

In this article, C.R. Adler suggests five strategies for comprehension monitoring: 1) identifying where the difficulty occurs, 2) identifying what the difficulty is, 3) restating the difficult sentence/passage, 4) looking back through the text, and 5) looking forward in the text. Adler also offers clear examples for each of these five strategies.

6. Activating Prior Knowledge

A great way to start out with reading is by activating prior knowledge. You can do this by encouraging students to make connections between the text and their lives, the text and previously read texts, or the text and previously taught topics or concepts. Four strategies for activating prior knowledge are:

  • The KWL Chart– Have students brainstorm what they already know, what they want to know, and then what they learned.
  • The Power Preview– Students can preview a text, paying attention to titles, subtitles, words in bold, definitions, and any special images or text features. Students pay attention to and identify what they recognize and are familiar with already.
  • Turn and Talks– When introducing a new text, students can turn and talk to a peer about what they know about the story or topic already before discussing as a class.
  • The Brain Dump– Students dump everything they know about a text or topic on paper or using a digital tool. This can be done as a class, with a partner, in a small group, or individually.

Do you have any strategies you love to use with students for improved reading comprehension? Comment below so we can all add them to our list!

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accelerating learning
CommunicationDigital CitizenshipDigital LiteracyEnglish/Language ArtsMathematicsMicrosoftReadingSocial-Emotional Learning

What Are Microsoft’s New Learning Accelerators?

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Announcing a host of new tools, Microsoft seeks to accelerate learning and reporting in the classroom. These tools expand on their ongoing effort to reimagine education with technology. Their tools seek to empower teachers and students with coaching and progress tracking.

“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”

Source: Microsoft Blog, 01/23/2023

What will resonate with educators in Microsoft’s February announcement? These are AI-powered tools blended into Microsoft 365 products, including Bing, Teams and OneNote. PowerPoint, Word, and Immersive Reader have also been supercharged. These Microsoft 365 integrated tools, a.k.a Learning Accelerators, target critical skills, including:

  1. Reading and Literacy
  2. Information Literacy
  3. Mathematics
  4. Speaking and Presenting
  5. Social-Emotional Learning
Immersive Reader now features Reading Coach.

1. Reading and Literacy

Reading Coach and Reading Progress focus on helping “students practice fluency,” ostensibly through individualized instruction in critical literacy skills. Included in Teams and Immersive Reader, students get guided reading support. They can practice reading with exercises that aid with a variety of skills, such as:

  • Pronunciation
  • Syllabification
  • Reading Speed
  • Vocabulary Recall

Additionally, teachers are able to track students’ reading skills. This allows them to provide timely feedback that is actionable. With Reading Coach, teachers can upload a reading selection of their own or browse a catalog. The catalog allows you to filter by these criteria in search of “the perfect passage:“

  • Grade Level
  • Genre
  • Lexile Level
  • Word Count

These two Learning Accelerators offer a few more features of interest in the classroom.

2. Informational Literacy

Worried about fake news and misinformation finding their way into the classroom? You may need to be. Consider these statistics:

  • 62% of all Internet information can be fake
  • 80% of US adults have consumed fake news
  • 64% of US. adults believe that fabricated information causes much confusion about basic facts (source)

Worse, NPR reports that 80% of students surveyed believe fake news is actual news. Getting to the truth involves teaching critical thinking skills.

We tempted the AI chatbot [ChatGPT] with 100 false narratives from our catalog of Misinformation Fingerprints™. 80% of the time, the AI chatbot delivered eloquent, false and misleading claims about significant topics in the news, including COVID-19, Ukraine and school shootings.

ChatGPT generated false narratives — including detailed news articles, essays, and TV scripts — for 80 of the 100 previously identified false narratives. For anyone unfamiliar with the issues or topics covered by this content, the results could easily come across as legitimate, and even authoritative.

(Source: NewsGuard)

Microsoft’s Search Coach seeks to assist students in distinguishing fact from opinion. Their goals include assisting students with the following:

  • Forming effective search queries
  • Finding trusted sites
  • Thinking critically about search results in ad-free environments

Students can find Search Coach in Microsoft Teams. They can then rely on filters such as domains, date range, operators, and other sites. Search Coach includes NewsGuard results, a search progress component. Search Coach allows teachers to:

track the development of information literacy skills. It creates a window into students’ search activity and behaviors.

3. Mathematics

Math is not far behind reading in Microsoft’s Learning Accelerator Suite. Scheduled for release in the 2023-2024 school year, Math Coach and Math Progress (along with Speaker Progress mentioned below) will become available in Microsoft Teams. You can watch a demo of Math Coach and Math Progress in this @petrijamsen TikTok video:

@petrijamsen

Quick view of the new upcoming Math Coach #teams #microsoft #microsofteducation

♬ alkuperäinen ääni – Petri Jämsen

4: Presenting and Speaking

PowerPoint, Teams, and LinkedIn now feature Speaker Coach and Speaker Progress.

Preparing students to speak can be tough. Microsoft’s Speaker Coach and Speaker Progress offer information and analytics. Teachers and students can now measure speaking performance using criteria such as:

  • Pitch
  • Filler Word Usage
  • Pacing

Find these two Learning Accelerators in PowerPoint, Teams, and LinkedIn.

5: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Recognizing the importance of SEL, Microsoft has another enhancement for its digital classroom. Microsoft Teams, a learning management system, now has a reflection tool for students. Students are able to identify and express how they feel in “safe and fun ways” through emojis, emotional vocabulary, and a “Feelings Monster.”

With Learning Accelerators, Microsoft is making its student learning surveillance efforts more transparent. Data tracked and reported includes students, classrooms, and schools.

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interactive map radio
CommunicationCulturally ResponsiveEnglish/Language ArtsESL/ELLForeign LanguageMusicSpanish

Three Online Public Radio Search Tools

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

This past holiday season, I spent some of my time listening to music from around the globe. I didn’t have to pay a cent for it, and what fun to explore the world in an interactive audio map. Wish you had a way to listen to music from around the world? Explore online public radio with one of these tools.

Why Listen to Public Radio in the Classroom?

EdSurge offers a few compelling reasons that go beyond it being pleasant:

  • Listening is a great mode of delivery for informational “texts.” Public radio stories can be a great example of spoken academic language.
  • You can hear and interpret emotions, which gives students a powerful connection to the speaker.
  • Radio announcers use techniques in their voicing that keep you listening. They create drama with their voice.

Be sure to read the complete article for more reasons why. Others suggest that listening to radio announcers and audio content can help you learn a language.

Tool #1: Radio Garden

Radio Garden makes it easy to explore audio around the world. You can click and drag the world map on your screen to place a circle anywhere in the world you want. Here’s what that looked like as I was listening to music from Spain:

Radio Garden online public radio Spain

This service is a nonprofit Dutch radio and digital research project. The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision developed Radio Garden from 2013 to 2016. It was a project of The Transnational Radio Knowledge Platform and five other European universities (source). You can add your favorite stations to a list or bookmark them in your browser. Additionally, you can share the link to the station on Twitter, Facebook, or via email.

This site is hours of fun. I ended up visiting many locations around the globe to listen to music in English, Spanish, and others. You can guess what language I was listening to with this picture:

Radio Garden online public radio Italy

Give it a try.

Tool #2: Radio.net

Radio.net makes it easy to find public radio stations online, albeit in a less interactive way than Radio Garden.

You can type in the name of the desired country and get a list of public radio stations to explore.

This site works more like a search engine, making it easy to locate the public radio stations you want. You will be listening to music pretty quickly after you begin your search, though.

Tool #3: FMRadio Online

Another amazing music finder is FMRadio Online, which lets you surf via radio stations in the United States. But there’s more!

You can find radio stations by country flag, getting a list of radio stations for each country. I found myself captivated by local radio stations in Costa Rica, including classic songs. For any globe-trotter, a world of audio and music lies at your fingertips via your web browser.

Bonus Tip

Want to record audio from an internet radio station or any audio on your computer? Why not give Audacity a try? Look for a brief tutorial post on how to get it done next week.

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Content CreationEnglish/Language ArtsGood TeachingMathScienceSTEM/STEAM

Wonderful Winter-Themed Activities for All Ages

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

It’s that time of year. You know it all too well – the time just after Thanksgiving when everyone has had a taste of time off and is just itching for winter break. I feel antsy for it. Do you? How about your students? It’s not an easy time of year to keep everyone engaged, but here are several resources with winter activities for many different grade levels. You’ll find everything from English Language Arts and Google activities to Science, STEM, and more. Ready to find some good stuff? Let’s go!

40 of the Coolest Winter Science Experiments and Activities

Study snowflakes, grow the Grinch’s heart, make candy can slime, create an igloo and so much more with WeAreTeachers’ 40 fantastically fun wintery science experiments. Experiments for every age are offered, and these will work great at home or at school! I like these experiments because they reinforce core concepts and/or encourage creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking. Take a gander and try some out! If you’re a high school teacher in a K-12 school or near an elementary school, see if your students could lead some of these experiments for elementary students.

Winter Activities Middle School Students Will Love

Here you’ll find 25 activities on everything from probability to poetry, and they’re all geared toward middle school students. Among my favorites include poinsettia PH paper, a gumdrop structure challenge, a hot cocoa experiment, and probability with dreidels. There’s a lot here, and hopefully there’s something of interest for you and your students to try out!

Winter Read Aloud (Free Digital Winter Reading Activity)

This snow-themed reading activity on “The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder” by Jennifer Findley is best suited for grades 4 and 5. She includes free tasks cards for the story along with an answer sheet. Also, if you don’t have the book, she has a YouTube read aloud for you! The lesson focuses on questioning and includes “engaging and interesting topics like avalanches, snowboarding, ice fishing, extreme winter sports, snow globes, and more!” Sounds like something your students will love, right?

Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

This blog post is from 2017, so some features within Google have probably changed, but I just LOVE these activities from Control Alt Achieve. Each one is linked to a blog tutorial with step-by-step instructions for you and your students. Some of the activities include video tutorials as well. In this article, you’ll get links to the following:

  1. Build a Snowman with Google Slides
  2. Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides
  3. Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings
  4. Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings
  5. “12 Days of Christmas” Guided Google Sheets Math Activity
  6. Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets
  7. Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs
  8. Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Five Winter Themed and Fun Holiday Classroom Activities

These activities do require you to sign up for a free Nearpod account if you’ve not already signed up with Nearpod. This article provides you with winter themes for your presentations, a virtual drag-and-drop snowman building activity, gamified winter activities, lessons on various holidays celebrated in winter, and some winter-ific core subject lessons. You’ll want to check these out! There is something for every grade level.

Winter Speaking Activity for Spanish Class

Students love “Guess Who,” and it’s a great way to reinforce vocabulary and get in some oral language practice as well. This free download from Srta Spanish will help you do just that with Spanish language learners. You do have to input your email address to recieve the download via email. You get a printable and a digital version which are both bilingual English/Spanish.

I hope you find something useful in these activities that will spark some winter fun no matter where you live, or what the weather’s like. If you try any of these out, let us know how it goes in the comments. Happy holidays!

Additional Winter Activity Resources from TechNotes

Two Brand New Winter Breakouts and Bonus Puzzle
STEAM Powered Winter Activities
Fun with a Holiday FlipHunt
Winter Resources for Elementary
Magical STEAM Project
Celebrate Season Holiday Websites
Holiday Website, Apps, and Extensions
Five Holiday Seesaw Activities
Merry Merry Breakout
Augment Your Holiday with These iOS Apps
Making It Mery (Animated GIFs)
Tips Tricks Tech Tidbits: Holiday Resources, REBUS

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English/Language ArtsWriting

STAAR Prep: Spelling Strategies, Resources, and Downloadable Posters

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

There was a flutter of online activity after the RLA STAAR test post a few weeks ago. Teachers were discussing how spelling is included in the “conventions” section (2 points) of STAAR writing rubrics. It’s true – spelling is on the list! Let’s take a look at acceptable STAAR spelling accommodations, the STAAR Dictionary Policy, and a few spelling strategies with downloadable posters. We’ll end with a few curricular resources for teaching spelling. Here we go!

STAAR Spelling Assistance

Take a look at acceptable Spelling Assistance accommodations that do NOT require TEA approval for these spring 2023 STAAR tests:

  • grades 3-8 RLA
  • English 1, English 2
  • grades 3-5 Spanish RLA
  • grades 5 and 8 science and biology
  • grade 5 Spanish science
  • grade 8 social students and U.S. History.

Student Eligibility Criteria

A student may use this designated support if the student routinely, independently, and effectively uses this designated support during classroom instruction and classroom testing and meets the following criteria:

  • the student receives Section 504 or special education services; and
  • the student organizes and develops ideas and understands the basic function and use of written language conventions (e.g., sentence structures, irregular verbs) but has a disability that is so severe that the student cannot apply basic spelling rules or word patterns (e.g., prefixes, suffixes) to written responses.

STAAR Dictionary Policy

Dictionaries are required to be provided for students for these tests: grades 3-8 RLA, grades 3-5 STAAR Spanish RLA, and the STAAR English 1 and 2 tests. Here are some key highlights of the Dictionary Policy:

  • The minimum number of dictionaries should be “one for every five students testing,” but the recommendation is actually one for every three students.
  • Thesauruses are permitted (but not required) for the listed tests, and the recommendation (if provided) is one per five students.
  • Electronic dictionaries (including apps) are acceptable as long as TEA’s technology guidelines are followed.
  • The dictionaries provided should be what students are used to using during instruction and testing in the classroom.
  • Any student- or teacher-created dictionaries, subject-specific, and slang dictionaries are not allowed (see the policy for the list of acceptable dictionaries).
  • You can provide a dictionary in the language that’s best for the student.

Spelling Strategies for Elementary Students

Here are a few strategies that can help set students up for success when it comes to spelling in general. For each strategy, there is a visual. In addition to your word wall and phonics rules, you can hang these up in the classroom as you teach each strategy so that, eventually, students will independently choose from the strategies when writing.

When taking the STAAR test, students can use some of these with scratch paper and pencils/pens. They won’t be able to use all these strategies when taking the test, but practicing the strategies during class will help them remember to spell words correctly since the student is taking ownership of spelling rather than being given spelling by the teacher. In other words, it encourages productive struggle.

Spelling Strategy: Ask a friend to help you!
Spelling Strategy: Look it up in a dictionary.
Spelling Strategy: Chop it up!
Spelling Strategy: Stretch it out!
Spelling Strategy: Try writing it 3 different ways. Which one looks right?
Spelling Strategy: Think of a rhyming word to help you!
Spelling Strategy: Look for the word around your classroom or in your notebooks.

Click here for the editable poster templates!

Additional Spelling Resources

Scientific Spelling. This is by far my favorite curriculum for a few reasons. It’s great for students with dyslexia, and it’s backed by research, so that means it’s great for every student. Additionally, it’s cost-efficient with full teaching manuals for grades 1-8 costing just $65. Neuhaus also offers affordable training for the program either virtually, on demand, or on site. In the classroom, it is a very systematic program focusing on phonology, regular words, rule words, irregular words, and procedures. It takes about 10-15 minutes per day. On their website, they offer a lot of free resources, too. Can you tell I love this program? I love this program.

List of Top 10 Spelling Apps. Take a look at this “Top Picks” list of apps from Common Sense Education. These apps will reinforce spelling for students of all ages. Using games, quizzes, and more, students can explore new words, word construction, and take quizzes (premade or customized).

VocabularySpellingCity Beginning Spelling Curriculum. While I did use Spelling City quizzes and games for reinforcement with my students (since you can create your own lists), I’m not very familiar with their curriculum; however, I’ve spoken with several teachers who really like it. Spelling City offers K-3 and K-2 options. The K-3 Grade-Specific program gives a spelling pattern each week and includes high-frequency word lists. One thing to note – it is aligned with Fountas and Pinnell’s “The Continuum of Literacy Learning: Grades PreK-8.” The K-2 Classic program contains five-week units in which the first three weeks introduce regular patterns, the fourth week focuses on high-frequency words, and the fifth week reviews the previous weeks. In order for your students to access everything at school and at home, I do believe you must have a Vocabulary A-Z account.

Top 10 Resources for Spelling and Word Study by Reading Rockets. Here is a list of resources on how to approach spelling in a way that supports reading and all readers. They offer information on dyslexia and dysgraphia, word lists, phonological awareness, and instructional methods.

What resources and strategies would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments!

Additional STAAR and TEKS Articles You May Find Useful

Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources

STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

The K-5 ELAR TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

The K-5 Math TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

A Practical Strategy for Teaching Editing Skills

A Powerful and Easy Strategy for Teaching Text Evidence

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AccessibilityBlended LearningContent AreasDigital LiteracyEnglish/Language ArtsGood TeachingLMSMathPlanning and PreparationScienceSocial Studies

Interactive Digital Notebooks: Examples, Tips, and Templates!

by Deanna Williams
written by Deanna Williams

Students and teachers finally return to face-to-face learning to what is a seemingly “normal” start of the 2022-2023 school year. While there is not a hard and fast definition for “blended learning,” oftentimes educators struggle with student experiences and expectations in this regard. In the spring of 2020, those in education, both students and teachers alike, were thrust into a digitally immersed classroom. There were learning curves and positive outcomes, but there were also experiments and failures across all grade and content areas. Since then, students are accustomed to being greatly immersed in technology-rich lessons and activities. And they are embracing the ever-changing technology tools available. While educators have also seemingly embraced available technology, the learning curve is still there. In my district, digital interactive notebooks are paving the way for student success across the curriculum.

What Are Interactive Digital Notebooks?

Interactive digital notebooks are an innovative way for students to engage with and organize course material. Digital notebooks can be individually assigned to students or to the class as a whole. It may seem odd to have a class notebook; however, there are important lessons that students can learn through them. And for teachers, there are many different tools you can use to incorporate digital components. When first using interactive digital notebooks, it may take a little getting used to. But you quickly become accustomed to the ease of grading and appreciate not having to lug a bunch of heavy journals home. Let’s explore a couple of detailed examples!

Digital Notebooks for Literature Circles

During the height of the pandemic, and with lots of trial and error, as the technology integration specialist in my district, I designed an interactive digital notebook for AP English IV students to use with their literature circles. They learned about digital citizenship, hyperlinking, and several other skills that are needed for college and career readiness. I worked closely with the classroom teacher and the students to ensure all the components worked properly and student expectations were clear. It was exciting to see all participants eagerly engaged in feedback! Additionally, the digital notebook could be tweaked at a moment’s notice. The students were even invited to speak about their experience with interactive digital notebooks in front of school board of education members at the TASB Governance Camp (Texas Association of School Boards) in the spring of 2022.

Here is an example for you to explore:

AP Lit Circle Example Notebook

Interactive Notebooks as Planners

Seeing student success and excitement while interacting with the digital notebooks made me want to take another step. I went further to provide the digital notebook to students for daily use instead of a paper planner. This would allow the students to stay organized while also allowing teachers and instructional interventionists the opportunity to utilize assistive technology to support student learning and success. Not only is the notebook easy to access, but students also commented on how their backpacks stayed cleaner and more organized, too. The notebook’s main tool was Google Slides, but also incorporated Google Sheets for class calendar access. Hyperlinks bridged connectivity and access for students and parents from home to the campus classroom. My district currently uses Schoology as our Learning Management System (LMS). The teachers are becoming more and more familiar with hyperlinking homework, calendar events, interactive tools, etc., to the digital notebook. 

Take a look at this example for middle school:

Middle School Example Notebook – All Subjects

Digital Notebooks Increase Accessibility

There are many pros to using a digital notebook. For example, students have the ability to access their digital notebooks from virtually anywhere in the world. They just need to sign in using their school Google account. In addition to accessibility, there are also assistive technology tools within the Google Suite that students can use. Some of these tools include text-to-speech, voice typing, translation, and many others. Because there are numerous tools that can be incorporated into digital notebooks, occupational therapists in my district work with technology integration specialists to utilize assistive technology tools to ensure accommodations are effectively utilized. A couple of the main tools used outside of the Google Suite are Snap&Read and Co:Writer. Another great resource is an app called Slides Translator. It is user-friendly and includes over 60 language dialects. 

Student Voice

When rolling out a project such as interactive digital notebooks, student voice is imperative when it comes to measuring success. I held a debriefing session with AP English students to take note of what worked and what did not.

Watch the video here.

Interactive Digital Notebook Templates

There are many wonderful websites that generously share their Google Slides journal templates. Some of the most notable are Slides Mania, Slides Carnival, Slides Go, and My Perfect Presentation. These sites offer a variety of templates to choose from, with several being journal-type options. 

There is much to be said about the effectiveness of using interactive digital notebooks in the classroom. Both students and teachers will be positively impacted by the learning opportunities and use of technology they would not experience with a traditional paper journal. The personalization of student learning makes the trial and errors worth it in the end. The beauty of the interactive digital notebook is that one size doesn’t always fit all, but with a couple of clicks and tweaks, the notebook is perfect for the end user, the student.

Guess what? Deanna is a presenter at TCEA 2023! Come explore Blended Learning in Schoology, Fun Ways to Use Google Sites and Canva for Social Studies, and learn about a few of her favorite tools and apps. Register before January 10 for discounted pricing!

REGISTER NOW!
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English/Language ArtsHigher EdWriting

Six Tips to Prepare Students for College Writing Courses

by John Hansen
written by John Hansen

Many students, often with different majors outside the humanities, end up taking a required sequence of first-year college composition courses during their first year in college. Much of the time, students feel a sense of dread or apathy towards writing in general. A majority of my students in their diagnostic essays (about their strengths and weaknesses) tell me that the act of sitting down at a computer for several hours and trying to come up with the right words and sentences can be a daunting task. Here are a few helpful tips I would give to students preparing for first-year composition. If you teach high school writing, these tips would be helpful to practice early on with students to prepare them for these first-year composition courses. 

Change your thinking, mindset, and routine. 

Don’t fear writing. Instead, think of a composition class as an opportunity to improve your reading comprehension, critical thinking, and writing ability in both an academic and professional setting. These skills benefit you no matter your field of interest. Once you see its value, are you then willing to work hard and do everything you can to meet your goals? Can you allow yourself to make mistakes but see how those mistakes can help refine your writing with more practice and experience? Adjust your approach. Look at things with an open mind. Will you ask for help when needed? Are you actively seeking out every possible resource that your school has to offer (success center, resource center, library services, online tutoring, student services)? Make choices that put you in the best position to thrive. Does this mean sacrificing time with friends and family? Does it mean scheduling some time at the writing center or with an online tutor? Or does it mean sending your instructor an e-mail about your writing concerns? If you want to give yourself the best chance to succeed, then the answer to these questions is an emphatic “Yes!”

Read the course syllabus. 

Reread it again if you must. No, seriously. Please read it a few times. More often than not, a question you may have about the course (especially within the first week or so) can be found here. Have the syllabus close by for reference and highlight specific parts or lines that are important. This may include your instructor’s contact information (e-mail, phone number, office/virtual hours), course policies (late work, plagiarism, formatting requirements), course materials (textbooks, workbooks, login/access codes, and links), weekly course schedules (assignments and due dates), and specific directions for assignments (requirements and style).

Do all of the required reading and homework assignments. 

Block off some time each day—or whenever your schedule allows—to work on your course assignments (write down due dates in a planner). Allow yourself enough time to thoroughly review, comprehend, and complete the coursework. This isn’t just to get a good grade. Writing is recursive. Each assignment in a course is scaffolded and builds upon each other. For example, you might not be able to master the end-of-module summative assessment (high stakes) such as a three-to-four-page descriptive essay, unless you are doing the formative assessments (low stakes) each week in order to understand and practice implementing the five senses into your writing. Be an active learner and ask questions to yourself, your instructor, or your classmates about the course materials. Treat school and these assignments as a full-time job. Put the time and effort into every reading and writing assignment.

college writing

Know the intent of each assignment. 

Carefully review the directions on the assignment sheet (pay close attention to action words, keywords, and rules), and sometimes a posted writing sample of what the instructor is looking for in a particular assignment. Are you clear about the assignment’s expectations? Be sure you have a well-developed plan that answers what the assignment is asking of you. For instance, there are usually several questions (and subset questions) listed on the assignment sheet. They are there for a reason and should be clearly addressed in your writing. The questions will allow you to often consider content, rhetorical elements, situation, audience, purpose, point of view, organization, style, and theme.

Prepare a rough draft for all major essays, even if it isn’t required. 

This might take some extra time and effort, but you can receive really valuable feedback from your instructor, success/writing center, study group, or online tutoring service. The more eyes that review your essay, the better. This can help you identify issues with content, organization, and style. If you address these problems for the final essay, you are most likely going to see a higher grade because your final product is more polished. Good writing doesn’t happen in an instant, it usually takes some time to mature as a writer. Writing one, two, or even three rough drafts before the final draft is due is a great way to practice and enhance your skills.

college writing

Reach out to your instructor. 

E-mail, Zoom, or a learning management system message are all ways you can get in contact with your instructor. Always keep them informed of any problems you are having that might affect your performance in the class. Such issues might include asking to turn in a late assignment, illness, not understanding an assignment, or an inability to begin the writing process. Instructors have issues come up as well and are most likely open to working with you. If you don’t immediately notify your instructor of an issue, there might not be enough time to make arrangements, and it could end up hurting your overall grade in the class. It never hurts to simply ask.

These tips will set any student up for success in their first year of college. But they do require students to take initiative, ownership, and responsibility for their learning– which takes practice and support to reach autonomy. The more practice students can get with these tips before entering their college writing courses, the better prepared and more successful they will be. 

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