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elementary
Good TeachingProfessional Learning

Learning by Doing: Innovative Ideas from the Tots and Technology Pre-Conference

by Susan Meyer
written by Susan Meyer

It’s a beautiful day for learning here in Galveston, Texas at the Tots and Technology summer conference. We’re excited to empower elementary educators to transform learning with two days of innovative professional development. The conference officially starts tomorrow, but today many educators showed up excited to supercharge their Tots experience with our interactive pre-conference workshops.

These workshops are very hands-on and last three hours, allowing the participants to dive deep into the learning and content. Teachers get to experience the engagement that can come from the thoughtful integration of technology in the PreK-5 classroom. We wanted to share with you a few photos and ideas from two of these sessions for our readers who couldn’t be here in person. We hope you’ll be inspired to create some of these experiences in your own schools.

Making Elementary Collaboration Easy

Fostering collaboration and encouraging students to work together is something most PreK-5 teachers strive for. Of course, the best way to get a class or small group working collaboratively is to give them a project they can really sink their teeth into. It needs to be challenging and engaging enough that they must pool their resources to find a solution. Teachers in the “Collaborative Projects for Elementary Students” session discovered some powerful project ideas to get students happily working toward a common goal.

pre-conference

Teachers collaborating in a Tots pre-conference session.

And teachers didn’t just learn about the projects. They had a chance to try them out. They worked together in small groups and quickly got to know their fellow educators and team mates. They then moved through six stations and created projects together using different technology tools. Later, they posted their creations publicly on a shared blog, further collaborating with the larger group. You can be part of their collaboration and check out some of their creations too! Groups created animations, recordings with green screens, and more. They were given instructions to complete their project, but had to work together as a team to brainstorm how they would accomplish it with the technology available at each station.

Making Is for All Ages

At the “Making in the Elementary Classroom” workshop, educators got to try out 11 different maker places. They were introduced to some of the simplest tools for starting a makerspace, like the remarkable versatility of  reusing cardboard and k-cups. They also saw some of the more complex tools like beebots and Osmos in action.

pre-conference workshop

An aspiring maker discovering the power of cardboard.

More importantly than just seeing the technology or being inspired by new ideas for creating makerspaces of their own, they also got a crash course in what making is really about. They spent their time in the session working at different stations to create whatever they wanted. At first, they experienced some trial and error and the careful following of instructions. A teacher learning to use the 3D doodler carefully followed a suggested template to make a 3D signature. However, after working with the tool a little longer, she started to go off book. This is the true spirit of making. Educators learned not just a set of tools they can use with their students, but a way of thinking. Making is about trying and failing and exercising one’s creative energy.

Ready to Join In?

Want to experience these very workshops in person to get even more tips and ideas for the elementary classroom? Our PD team will be bringing these sessions back at Tots and Technology Arlington in July. You too can experience hands-on learning by doing, collaborate with peers, and make some incredible creations. Learn more and register here.

 

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5E Model
Good Teaching

Remix the 5E Model with PBL and Technology

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Remix the 5E Model, blending project-based learning and technology (e.g. Minecraft: Education Edition), to serve up engaging learning opportunities. These jazzed-up lessons have the power to captivate students’ hearts and minds. If you’re wondering why you should use the 5E Model with PBL and technology, keep reading. Aside from Generation Z research, which focuses on students we have in our classrooms now, research supports the idea that engaged learners retain more and apply that learning more.

Research

Here are some points that make it an imperative we remix learning in our classrooms:

  • A 2013 Gallup poll of 500,000 students in grades five through 12 found that nearly eight in 10 elementary students were “engaged” with school, that is, attentive, inquisitive, and generally optimistic. By high school, the number dropped to four in 10.
  • A 2015 follow-up study found that less than a third of 11th-graders felt engaged (as cited online by Tim Holt).

Teachers must often overcome several obstacles when initiating PBL in their school. Yet the shift to active learning involves students in open-ended, scaffolded learning opportunities. Terms like active learning are often synonymous with engaged learning. Some see engaged learning as “providing students with opportunities for practice in unscripted, authentic settings, where stakeholders (including the students themselves) are invested in the outcome” (Source). Reviewing the definition of common terms helps ground our work.

Defining Terms

Is this your first time in the kitchen? Let’s take a moment to define terms that have been tossed around.

  • Active Learning: “Active learning is generally defined as any instructional method that engages students in the learning process. In short, active learning requires students to do meaningful learning activities and think about what they are doing” (Source).
  • 5E Model: The 5E Model organizes lesson planning, focusing teacher-created activities and making them student-centric with attention given to Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate to transform learning. You can find a more detailed overview online.
  • Project-Based Learning (PBL): The PBL approach drops students into a real world problem-solving situation and engages them emotionally and intellectually from stakeholder perspectives. You can find more information about PBL online. You may also want to read this LifePractice PBL book review by TCEA member Tim Holt from El Paso ISD.

Now that definitions are out the way, let’s dive into a fun exploration of the 5E Model with PBLT, one step at a time.

Step 1: Engage with Problems

Craft an engaging scenario or problem. You need not limit yourself to problems or issues that arise in your community. Use local news, as well as news sources online such as Dogo News, Newsela, or Newseum. Combine tools like Summarize This or Read & Write to to help transition students to make their research process visible. When selecting a video or news story, search for one that is aligned to the TEKS Standards.

Here are two examples featuring Minecraft: Education Edition (MCEE) PBL Task Cards I adapted from lessons developed in TCEA MCEE workshops:

You can read more about this in another blog entry, Fantastic Voyage: Minecraft Lesson Planning.

Step 2: Explore Student Thinking with Videos

As we explore student thinking, you can quickly make thinking visible with video. Encourage students to “think, plan, investigate, and organize collected information” with either Flipgrid.com or LetsRecap.com. Both offer opportunities for students to share their reflections and research take-aways.

Don’t forget that you can also encourage students to snap pictures in Minecraft: Education Edition (MCEE), write a short description of those, and then export the images. This makes it easy to collect the information into a slide show and have students record audio reflections describing what they learned as a narrated slideshow.

Another approach includes having students fill out paper rubrics sharing their learning. Here’s one example of a rubric that fosters reflection. Students had worked on building a community in MCEE:

Step 3: Explain Learning Take-Aways

In this step, students can use a tool like Shadow Puppet EDU, Toontastic, Google Slides with Screencasting tools, or Powerpoint and Office Mix to create some type of media (e.g. audio, narrated slideshow, video) that shares their learning. The main goal is to externalize their thinking and learning process in such a way that helps others understand it.

Step 4: Elaborate with Paper Slides

In this step, have students apply their new insights and framework to a new idea. One approach involves creating a narrated slideshow with paper slides, where students storyboard their application of a newly developed problem-solving process to an existing problem. Their illustration of the problem helps them see what is happening, bringing order to chaos. Then, video record a paper slide of the process as students explain their thinking.

Here are two sample storyboards (which could be made in a comic book app or website, Powerpoint, or even hand-drawn in OneNote with digital ink. Other tools include Padlet, Google Drawing, Google Slides). It really doesn’t matter what you make it with, provided that students make their thinking visible.

Sample storyboard involving Minecraft and the “Horror” genre:

Another approach is to rely on a tool like Skype or Appear.in to bring in an expert to offer feedback on the paper slide students have created. Here are a few folks you can connect with via Twitter:

  1. Follow Twitter conversation #MinecraftEDU
  2. Neal Manegold @PlayCraftLearn
  3. Benjamin Kelly ‏@BBTNB 
  4. Garrett Z. @pbjellygames
  5. Mark Grundel @MGrundel
  6. Rachel Burkett @tisinaction
  7. Rachel Kent @RachelKTutoring
  8. IrvSpanish
  9. Connor Kropp @ConnorKropp

Step 5: Evaluate with Quizziz or Kahoot!

In this step, students are expected to take evaluation to the next level. Rather than the teacher creating a Kahoot! or Quizziz type assessment, students reflect on the process they have gone through and then create an assessment to offer others who are learning from them. The assessment serves as a reflective measure for the solution developers and for others who seek to learn from the solution or apply it.

Wrap Up

Once you have crafted your 5E Model Lesson with PBL+T, you can take a break and relax. Learn more about PBL in the Classroom at an upcoming Tots and Technology conference.

 

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connected classrooms
Educational TrendsGood TeachingOnline Tools and Apps

Achieving Connected Classrooms and Resources to Break Down the Walls

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Creating more connected classrooms can start with a single moment of witnessing how powerful the effect can be on students. A couple of years back, I had one of those beautiful, life-changing moments in my classroom that ended up shaping the way I approached education from then on. I’d like to share that story with you, give you some incredible resources, and hopefully inspire you to break down the walls in your classroom and connect your learners to various perspectives in our amazing, diverse world.

Junk Funk Meets Greatness

On May 13, 2015 the Laurens-Marathon Band performed a piece entitled “Junk Funk” at their spring concert in their small community gymnasium. The concert went off without a hitch. Lots of great music was performed. the audience was in fine form, and everyone left with a smile on their face and music in their hearts. The following Monday morning, the band director (that’s me!) opened her email to find a message from Kevin Mixon (the composer of “Junk Funk” who lives in New York). He had come across the band’s performance video that I’d uploaded on YouTube. Mr. Mixon simply wanted to give them a shout out:  

School bands learns the power of connected classrooms

The Laurens-Marathon Band

“I came across the video of your recent performance of “Junk Funk” and wanted you to know that I was honored you selected the piece for your concert. I hope it helped advance your playing skills, but most importantly, I hope you and your audience had fun with it! I was impressed that all the grades worked together and prepared the music in a very short amount of time – evidence of your achievement as musicians! And can you thank Ms. Allen for being an awesome teacher? Please keep playing your instruments; you have achieved much so far and you have many more great performances ahead. I am now a big fan of the Laurens-Marathon Bands!”

Ok, personally and selfishly, I was ecstatic – who doesn’t like to hear an attaboy everyone once in a while? But really, as an educator and someone that had taught some of these kids for eight years, I was also so pumped that my kiddos were recognized for their hard work and couldn’t share it with them fast enough. When I read the message to my students was when the moment happened.  Transforming.

As soon as I read the email, I watched the physical reaction across their faces. Their adolescent eyes popped, their shoulders straightened up a bit, and the room started to buzz with excitement. My students just had their moment of realizing they had reached an audience larger than their parents, and that this new audience dug what they had played. These kids, some of whom have never left the great state of Iowa, influenced someone in New York. Someone that was “big time.” I witnessed their enjoyment and vowed that my teaching from that moment on would strive to replicate that magic. I would break down the walls to my classrooms to connect and collaborate with others from all walks of life and perspectives. I would expand my learner’s minds and expose them to places and spaces they might not have access to normally. There was no going back.

Since this time, I have found and leveraged some wonderful technological spaces, resources, and tools to help continue to engage and amaze my students with how far their voices can travel. As promised, I’ve included them below with linked examples to get your brain muscles warmed up. Happy perusing and planning!

Social Media

Your students are probably already well versed in social media in their personal lives, but you can use these same tools to create a connected classroom and get their words and ideas beyond the classroom walls. I’ve included some helpful links for how these tools can be used by educators:

  • The Why and How of Using Facebook in the Classroom
  • 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
  • 8 Ways to Integrate Instagram into the Classroom
  • 15 Ways to Use Snapchat in Classes and Schools

Blogging and Reflection

Allowing students to reflect on their learning in their own words and to publish their ideas for an audience can provide a powerful sense of pride and ownership in their work. Here are a few tools to help them showcase their work and writing.

  • Seesaw provides a platform where students can share their work with parents, teachers, and principals.
  • 50 Things You Can Do with Google Classroom
  • The Top Ten Ways Blogs and  WordPress Are Used in Schools

Audio and Visual

Another way to bring students voices beyond the classroom is through audio tools like Soundtrap which help students create and publish their own music and podcasts. Learn ways that this tool can help students engage, learn, and socialize here. 

Students can also use WeVideo to capture, create, and share videos with people outside the classroom. They can demonstrate their creativity and abilities beyond the classroom walls. This blog shares ways to engage students using WeVideo.

My Requirements for Connective Resources

Most of these spaces/resources are not super new, but they have withstood the test of time and are Meredith-approved. What is my test? I ask myself the following questions:

  • Can students create? From scratch? From a starting-point template? (I want both.)
  • Is there an option to be reflective?
  • Is it collaborative and, if so, can it support cross-school (state, country) collaborations?
  • Will kids have easy access in school and out of school (for continued creation, passion projects, etc)?
  • Is it device agnostic?
  • Do I have the ability to monitor and provide easy feedback?

These are some of the criteria that I consider that have helped me find tools that work for my connected classroom. Do you have any great tools you want to add? If so, share them in the comments.

This is a guest blog by Meredith Allen (@msmeredithallen). Meredith is an educator and an international presenter. She currently works as an Instructional Technology Consultant and Educational Ambassador for Soundtrap. She taught instrumental music, K-7 technology, and virtual reality at a rural school in Iowa.  Meredith has a Master’s of Science in Technology for Education and Training.

 

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CORE Subjects EC-6
Good TeachingProfessional Learning

Seven Tips for Preparing for the CORE Subjects Exam

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

When you sat down to prepare for the TExES CORE Subjects EC-6 exam, did you read all of those competencies and freak out a little?  Too intimidated to start studying? Take a breath! While the CORE Subjects EC-6 exam for Texas certification can seem overwhelming, a lot of people have passed it, and you can, too. The trick is to seem like you know it all without actually having to know it all. Here are seven sure-fire study tips for the CORE Subjects exam.

Find the Weakest Link

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you love science and regularly read science-related articles or tutor on the side. Maybe you read the newspaper every day and you can talk confidently about world affairs and the structure of government. While you will still want to review these areas, you should plan to focus your energy on the domains where you struggle.

So how do you figure that out?  The best way is to take a practice test before you begin studying. When you’re done, you will see how you scored in each area and where you need to focus your studying.

Think Like a Student

Once you find which areas you need to focus on, think like a student again. Great resources for the CORE Subjects EC-6 exam can be the exact same resources you would refer your elementary students to.

For all subjects, one of the best resources for the CORE Subjects exam are old TAKS and STAAR exams and study guides. What better way to figure out what you need to know to teach students than to look at old student assessments?

Do you need a one-stop preparation experience? Then we would recommend our 240Tutoring CORE Subjects EC-6 study guide.

Hack the Competencies

How can you know which terms to commit to memory? Well, if a term is going to be on the test, it most likely will appear in the competencies, too. Read through them and mark all of the terms that are used. This way, rather than trying to master every term you ever read in an education class, you will have a nice, compact vocabulary list.

Master the Format

Test-takers of the CORE Subjects EC-6 exam regularly report that it is the test question format that trips them up—not the content itself.  Familiarize yourself with the question format and you will be halfway there. You can look at the sample questions in the TExES Core Subjects EC-6 Preparation Manual, but that will only give you a taste. This is where practice tests—and practice questions—again will come in handy.

Trust Your Brain

While you do need solid content knowledge in each domain to pass the CORE Subjects exam, the test is actually more focused on critical thinking than on your recall of facts. Rather than trying to remember everything, focus on processes and methods of teaching the content.

Also, remember that while you may not have taken math since high school, you use it every day. For each domain, there will be many questions you can figure out using your own experiences and plain old common sense. If a question asks about information you do not readily know, don’t get scared. Usually you can use context clues to whittle down the answer options.

WARNING: Be careful, though! Critical thinking questions can be a double-edged sword. It is very important that you read each question very carefully to make sure you understand what it is asking you. Just knowing what key words in a question mean is not enough!

Pace Yourself

Think of studying for the CORE Subjects EC-6 exam as a long-distance race. It does not work to sprint it, so don’t try to cram all of your studying into a few intense days. Instead, start early and do a little bit every day. By spending even 30-45 minutes reviewing each concept each day, you will increase your confidence and comfort with the content. Plan to do practice questions regularly throughout the week and to take several practice tests leading up to exam day.

Follow these tips and you will be well on your way to acing the TExES Core Subjects EC-6 exam and earning your teaching certification!

This is a sponsored post provided by Scott Rozell. Rozell is the President and Founder of 240Tutoring, which provides study guides for teacher certification exams. Scott has spent the past six years learning why people fail their certification exams and how to get them to pass. If you need it, get extra help studying for the CORE Subjects EC-6.

 

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Good TeachingLibrariesTechnical Support

Best Parodies for Teachers

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Are you a secret singer? I am. That doesn’t mean that I’m ready for prime time, but you never know when you’ll have your moment. As I travel to provide professional development to schools, I often stay at hotels. Rarely am I put on the first floor, which means I get to ride the elevator. I say “get to” because that’s where I think I sing the best. I only perform, though, if there is no one on the elevator with me – I’m a soloist, you see. I usually hum the note of the elevator ding and then warm up with a scale going up and then back down. Hopefully, I have time to continue after the warm-up and get to sing a song.

You may not be a secret elevator singer, but you will find these tunes memorable. They are made even better since they’ve been turned into parodies that we can relate to as educators. Some you might share with your class while others may be more appropriate for the start of a faculty meeting to get teachers pumped up for learning and networking. Without further adieu, here are my favorite song parodies for educators.

Image of smart phone playing musicWhat would you add to the list? Has your school or department created a parody of a song to showcase the work that you do? If so, share it in the comments below and let others enjoy your production. In the meantime, if you hear singing while you are waiting for the elevator, it might just be me.

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memoir map
Good TeachingiOS Tips and Tricks

Down Memory Lane: Memoir Maps with iPads

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Putting a narrative frame on our past—especially our struggles—promotes perspective and self-awareness that are otherwise out of reach for most people,” writes Greg Graham. This means that if you have ever experienced a trying time that left you bewildered, upset, or joyful without explanation, you should write about it. The act can be helpful. Externalizing our experiences helps us process. In this blog entry, we’ll explore this briefly as we consider what might be some valuable tools for creating a memoir map using an iPad.

Note: If you’re not sure about the benefits of concept maps and visual organizers, be sure to read this longer blog post on the topic.

In Search of Memory

“Indigenous villagers often sit together. They share the stories of their days. After each story, positive or negative, the villagers nod and say, ‘That’s a healing story.'” This account of the healing power of memory in story by cultural anthropologist, Angela Arrien, is cited in “The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story.” What healing stories could you help your students map out in a classroom writing workshop?

Imagine being able to remember a hurtful event in the past, then write about it in a way that allows you to make sense of it. You can finally go on a journey of healing, confident that at the end of the journey, you will find peace. Memoir writing is one way to remember.

…telling your story—while being witnessed with loving attention by others who care—may be the most powerful medicine on earth. Each us is a constantly unfolding narrative, a hero in a novel no one else can write. And yet so many of us leave our stories untold, our songs unsung—and when this happens, we wind up feeling lonely, listless, out of touch with our life’s purpose, plagued with a chronic sense that something is out of alignment. (Source: Dr. Lissa Rankin, Psychology Today)

Shattered: A Memoir Map

What happens when a hero goes wrong? I remember one time when the adventurer in my unfolding narrative did something he regretted. For years, the hero carried the childhood story of guilt untold.

A few years ago, I decided to map out a memoir of that event. Just the act of mapping out the piece helped me externalize my feelings so I could better manage and learn from it.

While there are various apps for mapping out your memoir, consider using one of the following:

  1. Ideament (free but $2.99 with in-app purchase) – This is my favorite concept mapping tool–and I’ve tried the expensive ones–because it’s easy to use and inexpensive. It features Dropbox support and exporting to multiple file formats.
  2. Popplet ($4.99) – The free version lets you create just one popplet, while the paid version lets you share content you create with others.
  3. iThoughtsHD ($9.99) – A powerful app that is compatible with other desktop graphic organizers.
  4. Total Recall – MindMap (Free) – A free, easy to use mind mapping tool.
  5. Penultimate (Free) – A nice app that you can type and/or “write” in with your finger or stylus.

Worth the Journey

The power of memoirs, and planning a memoir as a concept map, can engage reluctant writers in ways we seldom consider (source: A Study of Memoir). Mapping out your memoir can also help you and your students tap into a treasure trove of memory. Take a walk down Memory Lane, won’t you? It will be worth the journey!

 

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slide
ESL/ELLGood Teaching

Prevent Summer Slide with Technology

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“We need ways to stop summer slide in its tracks,” Jon said. The conversation would start the same way, “If only we had…[this or that].” Unfortunately, Jon would raise the topic in April, much too late for curriculum specialists to do anything with current projects. “Why don’t you bring this up in September?” I asked one day in mid-April. The next year, he did and added a new request. The request asked the technology department to research solutions to summer slide. Let’s take a look at some possible new solutions.

What Is Summer Slide?

Summer slide may be defined as “the tendency for students to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year.” Often, summer break serves as a prolonged break in classroom learning. This interruption has a negative impact on children’s retention and development of skills (source). Their test math scores can be one month lower when they return to school in August than in the previous May. While all children lose skills in math, summer setbacks in reading depend on the student’s socioeconomic level. Summer vacation has an even worse effect on low to middle income students. For those students, a three-month vacation results in an equivalent gap in reading scores (source). Summer gaps accumulate over the years.

How Do You Stop Summer Slide?

Mitigating summer slide remains a high priority for growth-focused schools. One of the best ways to accomplish this is keeping all students engaged in math and, for low to middle income students, in reading.  While there are various traditional approaches available (e.g. summer library reading programs, school-based interventions, home school approaches, etc.), technology can offer another alternative.

Here are several technology-based tips for mitigating the effects of summer slide:

Tip #1 – Teach measurement with Minecraft

Young learners are already engaged with Minecraft. But did you know that you can teach measurement with it? A Minecraft block has set dimensions. With that in mind, you can have students build a real structure inside its virtual world, figuring out how a real life measurement adapts to virtual block measurement in Minecraft. For more ideas, you may want to read this introductory activity. Then move up to teaching perimeter and area. If you are in a school-based program designed to halt summer slide, then consider getting Minecraft: Education Edition. Otherwise, the Windows 10 version or Pocket Edition of Minecraft will suffice.

Tip #2 – Cooking with Video

Cooking can be an excellent way to introduce students to math concepts at home (or school). Dina O’Brien, math specialist and instructional coach, suggests several approaches, one of which is shown below:

Imagine cooking dinner and having to redo the menu for five more guests and then discussing the recipe and how to double it. You can have your child sketch out the seating arrangement for dinner as well.

One approach you can take involves having your child make their thinking visible as they prepare a meal. Then publish the video online via YouTube. Use an app like Toontastic, Shadow Puppet Edu, or YouTube Capture to create the video, whether as a story or a straight recording. Another possibility involves having students refresh and “upgrade” recipe cards using the Canva app.

Tip #3 – Finding Shapes in the World

While you can find shapes in the world around us, it might also be fun to take a look at images of objects and wide open spaces. For example, NASA recently made its entire media library available to the public. Students can also measure objects using a regular ruler or iOS app like i-Ruler (free).

summer slide

Tip #4 – Stalling the Summer Slide for Reading

Stalling summer slide can involve any variety of techniques. While the tips above involved math applications, you can access a variety of reading apps featuring free content (e.g. OpeneBooks), whether audio books (e.g. Tales2Go) or text. And, eReaders are inexpensive and available (e.g. BiblioTech), depending on your locale. Check out these blog entries focused on reading and ebooks:

Tip #5 – Listening Yields Same Results as Reading

“Listeners and readers retain about equal understanding of the passages they’ve consumed,” says Melissa Dahl, citing research in this New York Magazine article, which is another key point for listening to audio books as well as reading them. Listening to audio books has benefits for students that go beyond simply reading text on the printed page. Combining the two experiences yields dividends, but don’t sell audio books short. Here are some research-based benefits of audio over text reading:

  • Fiction (which is great for second language learners) read aloud encourages your brain to picture the scenes.
  • Listening to audio books enhances listening skills as ears strain for the next word.
  • Audio book “reading” can be done on the go, which may match the needs of certain busy people in our lives.

Not convinced about the impact of listening to audio books over reading print? You may want to check out this 2016 research study as well as a newer 2019 study:

Two notable findings are that students using Tales2go attained 58% of the annual expected gain in reading achievement in just 10 weeks, putting them three months ahead of control students. Plus, the study group outperformed the control group across all measures, by three times in reading comprehension, nearly seven times in second-grade vocabulary, and nearly four times in reading motivation. These increases came after students listened for twenty minutes three times per week in the afternoon program at school, and an additional two twenty-minute sessions at home.

Don’t let summer slide hamper your children’s growth and forward movement. Take advantage of technology to close the summer achievement gap.

This blog entry has been updated with new information as of 8/29/2019 supporting the benefits of audiobooks as equivalent to those of reading.

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questions
Good Teaching

Who’s Asking the Questions?

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I saw a recent statistic that startled me. Teachers ask more than 400 questions a day (source). That’s a lot of questions! But it’s the accompanying statistic that really floored me. Ted Wragg’s 1993 research found that an average of just one spontaneous question each lesson came from the students, and that was more likely to do with procedure than with learning (source). So the “experts” who already know the content matter appear to own the learning as they control what questions are asked about it. That just doesn’t make sense!

There are a million reasons why students don’t display more curiosity in class. We’ve trained them to passively wait for the information we want them to have; they’re afraid of looking stupid in front of their peers; they don’t care about the content enough to ask; and more. That doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the students should be directing the learning by trying to find answers to THEIR questions about the content. Which means that THEY need to be asking the questions!

In the Old Days

questionsIn the past, good teachers tried to get students more curious about the learning by having them complete a KWL chart. At the beginning of a new unit, this chart has a student make a list of what he already KNOWS about the topic, what he WANTS to learn about it, and then, after the unit is over, what he LEARNED.

While this was a good first step, it didn’t go far enough. And usually, once the first two sections were completed, the student didn’t look at the chart again until the unit was over. More importantly, the teacher often didn’t look at the questions the students had about the content or make changes to the teaching and learning activities based on those questions. So it became a pointless activity.

How to Get Students to Question

Today, we see the re-emphasis on student curiosity popping up in the maker movement and in Genius/Passion Hour. These educational trends show that, as educators, we recognize that students should be driving the learning and that this happens through the questions that they have about the content. So what can we do to get them more actively and continually question what they are learning?

  1. Before starting any new unit of study, show a short teaser video to get students started thinking about the content. YouTube is your friend here!
  2. Then break them into small groups (2 to 3 students per group) to brainstorm things that they want to know. Please note that the first few times you do this activity, the questions will be few and fairly limited. Questioning is an active skill that requires lots of practice to master. To help them practice, give them topics that are of great interest to them (like the latest action film, a new musical group, or a nearby attraction) and have them brainstorm questions they would like to ask about those topics.
    1. Make sure they know that there are no bad questions and that everyone’s questions may be different because the learning is different for each person.
    2. Emphasize that, while some questions will be easy to find answers to, others may still be stumping experts. And that’s okay!
    3. Also, be sure to share with them questions you still have about the topic. This lets them know that questioning is a lifelong pursuit.
  3. The next step is to help students learn to prioritize their questions so that they are actively searching for the most important answers. Generally speaking, there’s simply not enough time in the school day to answer all of the questions they may have, especially once they get rolling.
  4. Post the prioritized questions somewhere where everyone can see them throughout the unit. This could be on the board, on chart paper, or digitally.
  5. As the questions are answered over time, make sure to mark them off on the list and celebrate their answers. Recognize the student(s) who discovered the answer first and have him/her share how they did it. Then give the students a chance to add another question or two that may have come up since they started studying.

Learning should be a celebration of finding the answers to the questions that each of us have individually and collectively. As educators, we need to take a more active role in the classroom in teaching students how to ask good questions and in helping them discover their own answers. That may mean that we ourselves are talking a lot less and that, in fact, there may be more silence sometimes in our classrooms as students ponder what their own questions are. And isn’t that what learning is all about?

 

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text to speech
AndroidChromebooksESL/ELLGood TeachingGoogle Tips and TricksiOS Tips and TricksMicrosoftSpecial Needs

Transform Learning with Text to Speech

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

One of the biggest strengths of using technology to transform learning comes from its ability to help us solve common problems. A great example of this is the current crop of text to speech solutions that are available. Text to speech remains critical for teachers and the learners they serve, regardless of age. Consider that tools like ReadItLater’s Pocket make it easy to transform web pages into spoken-text audio that is easy to consume. And the research says that listening to audio while reading text improves reading skills.

Benefits of Text to Speech

Studies show that “…listening while reading helps people have several successful reading events in a row, where they are reading with accuracy and enjoyment…listening has been shown to help with decoding, a fundamental part of reading.” Colleague Kasey “Shake Up Learning” Bell points out the benefits of text to speech for students:

  • Relieves the burden of decoding
  • Focuses on comprehension
  • Improves fluency and endurance
  • Identifies and corrects more errors

If research shows this is effective, let’s clarify some ways to actualize this text to speech, speech to text connection in the classroom.

Speech to Text

  • OneNote with Learning Tools add-in: Use the free OneNote program with the Learning Tools add-in to dictate your speech (or student’s speech) and then have it appear magically on the screen as text.
  • Google Docs: Did you know Google Docs features speech to text? It’s called “voice typing.”  Find out more. In a similar vein, consider the VoiceNote Chrome extension.

Text to Speech

Whatever your device, text to speech solutions abound. Most solutions require a dedicated internet connection since the bulk of the processing occurs via remote web servers. Let’s take a quick look at this round-up of apps, browser extensions, and computer programs.

  • OneNote with Learning Tools add-in: Use the free OneNote with the Learning Tools add-in to quickly capture images, grab text from the image (Optical Character Recognition, OCR for short), and then save that text into a OneNote page. Use the Learning Tools addition to read the “OCR’d text” to learners. Wow, that means you can grab any picture off the web, then grab text, and play it as audio.
  • Google Keep: Use Google Keep to quickly grab a picture, then grab text from the picture and save it as text. On Android devices, you can take advantage of Google’s Text to Speech engine. “From within any app that contains highlightable text,” shares John Dye at Android Authority, “you can now instantly conjure the voice of your preference to read the content aloud.”
  • Dragon Dictation (Free iOS app) – “Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages.”
  • Chrome Text to Speech extensions: Chromebook or Chrome browser user? Give these  text to speech extensions a try. Each boasts various features you can use. These extensions include the following: Announcify, SpeakIt, Read&Write for Chrome, and JustRead. See other great tools online at Eric Curts’ Ctrl-Alt-Achieve blog.
  • Voice Texting Pro (Free iOS app) – “…Speak into the microphone and convert your speech into text. Then directly send your message to email, SMS, Twitter, or Facebook. You can also send it to your clipboard (copy) and paste the dictated text in any other application.”
  • Speech Notes (Free iOS app) – “Speech Notes is a note taking app that can convert speech with the help of an internet connection. Just tap on the mic button and, once done, hit again to start converting voice to text.”
  • Voice Assistant ($1.99 for iOS app) –  This translates your voice in text and then enables you to share it with other iOS apps.

Now that you have access to multiple solutions for text to speech, speech to text, how could you transform learning in your classroom? The research is clear. What isn’t clear is how educators are adapting these technologies in the classroom. Please share your students’ success stories in the comments!

 

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genius hour
Content AreasEducational TrendsGood TeachingSTEM/STEAM

Getting Started with Genius Hour

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

genius hour quoteThere’s been a lot of discussion over the last year about implementing genius hour in the classroom. Genius hour is the strategy of giving time for students to do self-directed learning on interests that they are passionate about. Google regularly provides employees 20 percent of their work week that can be devoted to “passion projects,” believing that this will better engage the staff and make them more excited about all of their work. There is nothing magical about the “20 percent” number; it’s more important that you give students some time for open-ended learning in which they can pursue their own interests. Here are a few resources to help you get started integrating this educational trend into your classroom.

YouTube Videos

Website Resources

Genius Hour Blogs

So how will you implement passion projects in your classroom? We’d love to hear your story. And if you have a great resource that you would like to share with our readers, please drop it in the comments section below.

 

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