Tag:

ELA

Ed Tech News Roundup: Sight, Sound, and AI Tech

by Andrew Roush January 31, 2020

written by Andrew Roush

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of periodic ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy this one, and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

2020 Visions

Early in the year, experts, publications, and educators are thinking to what 2020 might bring to education.

Talia Milgrom-Elcott explores four major trends the education entrepreneur expects to play a crucial role in shaping education this year. [Forbes]
Education journalists identify five trends of their “factors that will drive education in the coming year.” [Education Drive]

Automation Nation

Former educator and education writer Jill Barshay explores the ways in which artificial intelligence can be used to make teaching more efficient — and what’s possible today. [The Hechinger Report]
Ed tech consultant Carolina Milanesi reports on the latest trends in AI, how it might drive education forward, and how it will affect the teachers of the future. [Forbes]

Listening to Learn

Recorded books aren’t new, but the rise in popularity of audio books on connected devices has also seen audio books integrated into the learning process more broadly. Now we’re beginning to measure the effect and impact of audio books in schools.

A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that listening to audio can “light up” the same areas of the brain that are used when reading. [Discover]
Journalist Melissa Pandika reviews recent research on audio books and asks the question: Does listening to a book “count” as reading it? [Mic]

… And Finally

Viral challenges have been popular for years now. Some raise money for charity, some are just for fun. Still others can cause trouble — like when an attempt at the “Outlet Challenge” caused electrical damage in an Amarillo-area school. [KVII Amarillo]

Photo: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

January 31, 2020 0 comments

Four Features to Make Better Use of Flipgrid

by Dr. Bruce Ellis January 29, 2020

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

You have probably already heard of Flipgrid and perhaps even started using it, at least to some degree. It definitely seems to be the perfect tool to support students in many ways, not to mention using it as a way to provide peer- and content-support to teachers.

As I have worked with teachers and administrators, though, it seems that most folks using Flipgrid aren’t making the most of some great features it offers. I usually hear from educators, after sharing Flipgrid as part of a larger training, that they wish they knew about the features sooner and are stoked to start using it in even more engaging ways. You could say that they caught #flipgridFever!

Update Your Profile

Begin by making sure that your profile is updated. Don’t be shy. This will allow others to better connect with you. Click on your image in the top right and select Profile. Select a photo or avatar for your profile picture. If you have a picture that has a busy background or you want to use a quick editing tool to remove the background (as I did on my bitmoji image), go to remove.bg, upload, and edit your image as needed.

Once done editing, download your image and upload it for your profile by clicking on your current Flipgrid profile image. For your account information, be sure to choose all the grades and subjects that you have experience with. Complete the most current bio description of who you are and what you do within the 256-character limit. Lastly, share how you would like to connect by providing any social media information or links. When done, click the Update Profile button. Now, let’s jump into some useful tools.

1. GridPals

GridPals is, as you may have deduced, Flipgrid’s version of pen pals. It’s a super easy way to connect with other educators and enthusiasts to further learning and improve education.

Begin by clicking on the #GridPals link at the top of your Flipgrid screen (assuming you are on a computer). Change your status from Hidden to Active so that you and others can find each other and connect. A window will pop up allowing you to edit your profile and add the location where you are. For mine, I entered Austin, Texas, United States. Click the Next button to continue. You are now able to give permission for other GridPals to contact you. Plus, Flipgrid never shares your contact email with them until you reply, so you have complete control. Edit/add any social connections if you would like and then click the Join GridPals! button. Woohoo! You are now in the GridPals group!

So, what do you do if you don’t have students? Why would you want to be a part of GridPals? Even if you don’t have students, you might be asked to share with a group of students because of your job or area of expertise. It also helps you stay up-to-date on how others are using Flipgrid in the classroom, from early childhood up through college!

2. Disco Library

Yep, Flipgrid has a disco library. Well, in layman’s terms, it might better be called a template gallery, but “disco library” is so much more hip and exciting!

In the Disco Library, you can access templates that other educators have created to spark new ideas of interacting with your students, as well as jump start your process. No need to start a topic from scratch if someone else has already created it for you. Flipgrid also lets you know the following when you enter the Disco Library:

No student videos will be shared when a Topic is added to the Disco Library.
You can edit Topic information before or after you share. Topics can be removed at any time.
Other Flipgrid educators will not see that you’ve added their Topic template and vice versa.

Using Weekly Hits

The #FlipgridWeeklyHits shares 50 topic templates that you might be interested in. You can scroll (left-to-right) through the list of thumbnails or click on the View All link to jump down to the list as a set of search results. Scrolling through the list, I have found several that spark creative ideas of how I can support students that I haven’t thought of before using a specific student standard, or support teachers with a unique area to share on a particular topic that is meaningful to those like-minded teachers. It’s almost like a PLN (professional leaning network) in Flipgrid!

After clicking on the View All link, you will drop down to the list and be able to see who the topic template creator identified as the audience, the subject area, how many times it has been used, and how many favorites it has. Just click on the topic template to get more information about the topic. If you want to use it, just select which of your grids you want to add it to.

Featured Disco Playlists are sets of topic templates provided by various organizations such as code.org, Wonderopolis, Hacking for STEM, and more. When you find topic templates that you like, either as part of a playlist, a weekly hit, or ones that you find by using the search feature, click the Add to Favs at the top of the descriptive window about the template. This will allow you to begin creating your own playlist of favorites to share with others.

Using the Disco Library

The easiest way to add one of your topics to the Disco Library is to go to the list of topics within the grid you want to share. If you want to share multiple topics to the Disco Library, you’ll need to share each one individually. And remember, no student videos currently in your topic will be included in the template.

Right-click on the Actions button of the topic you want to share and select Add to Disco Library. Your topic will be submitted to the Flipgrid team to review for appropriateness and value. You will notice your stats near the top letting you know how many topics you’ve added (once they are accepted and added), how many times they have been used, and how much video engagement (hours/minutes/seconds) has been generated.

3. MixTapes

No, this isn’t creating mixtapes on cassettes like we might have done back in the ’80s and ’90s to give to someone special. This is a whole new way of sharing — but based on the same principle.

A mixtape is a compilation of any videos that are in any of your topics, in any of your grids. Begin by adding a new mixtape, which really means creating a folder for the videos you want to add.

Once a mixtape is created, go into the various topics and locate the videos you want to add. Right-click on the Actions button of the video to add and select Add to MixTapes. Select the specific mixtape to add it to and click the Add button. Voilà! You are now on the way to being a mixtape master. Now all you need to do is go to the specific mixtape and click on the blue Share button. You can easily share you a specific mixtape via url, QR code, embed code, Google Classroom, and via Remind.

Using MixTapes

Consider making a mixtape as a study aid or glossary for your students as they review information for a major test. If you work with teachers, then consider creating a mixtape of them sharing ideas of how they are making a difference in their classroom or how they are implementing a particular strategy in their classroom that the whole campus (or district) is working on.

For example, if I’m working with ELA teachers across the district, I may create a topic in which they share how they are implementing the new ELA standards, tips or tricks they have to share for other teachers, or ways they are implementing something they learned while in our district professional development time. I could then make a mixtape of several of the videos to create a synopsis of great things that are going on, and I might share this mixtape with principals so they can get an idea of how ELA teachers at other campuses are setting an example.

4. Shorts

Shorts are brief videos, no longer than three minutes, that you (as the teacher) can create to share how-to’s, introduce a lesson, provide a video note to parents, or just share an update.

Once created, you can share in a variety of ways: by url, embed code, QR code, Google Classroom, via Remind, or download and share via Google Drive or YouTube as you might normally share a video. As when students are creating a video, you can add a filter, stickers, text, draw on the video, and even make use of Live Inking on a whiteboard or blackboard.

Live Inking is great when you have a digital pen or slate (so your writing is more legible) to use and need to create a quick tutorial video on something such as how to solve a binomial equation, explain in a simple manner what cloud computing is, or some other situation where it is helpful for the person to see you illustrate the concept or skill while hearing you talk; in this instance the video isn’t on you but just the white/blackboard is being recorded. And if you right-click on the More icon (the three dots just to the right of the record icon), you can upload a sticker, which could signal to the students the topic or subject area or could be used as simple branding of your videos.

How Do You Use Flipgrid?

So how do you use Flipgrid? Which feature(s) have you found to be the most impactful? Even if you haven’t had a chance to use Flipgrid, have you come across an innovative way to incorporate it in the teaching and learning process or in professional development? We’d love to hear from you!

January 29, 2020 0 comments

Educational Trends

Ed Tech News Roundup: Screen Time, LEGO, and Enchiladas

by Andrew Roush October 4, 2019

written by Andrew Roush

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of biweekly ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy this one, and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

Metrics and Measures

Every strategy, technique, or tool has an effect. To understand that effect, we use goals, metrics, and measurements. These are omnipresent tools for educators, but they are also changing.

In an effort to boost language skills in learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, Detroit is one of five cities launching a new program that gives young children recording devices known as talk pedometers. Instead of counting steps, these tools count how many words a child hears and speaks during the day, a metric tied to linguistic success. [Detroit Free Press]
There’s a decent chance that you’ve used Google’s suite of tools before. Today, Google is in nearly every school — Google, in fact, claims that 90 million teachers and students have used it. Now, the tech giant is quantifying their impact even more with a new “transformation report.” [EdSurge]

Screen Time

Almost everyone spends time on a mobile device, but that time is not created equal. Some things can be more useful than others. Even college choices are being made by students skimming social media.

A new meta-analysis of screen time in children and adolescents finds that overall screen time doesn’t change academic performance. But when types of screen usage were broken out, researchers found that “time spent on television viewing and video games was associated with poorer academic achievement.” [CNN]
When those adolescents consider post-secondary education, research indicates that students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, are taking to social media to check out the stats on their future schools. [Diverse: Issues in Higher Education]

LEGO Firsts

LEGO is breaking ground on projects to make the benefits of the building system available to all.

With the help of FIRST Robotics League, LEGO is launching the FIRST LEGO League Junior, a new competition for four-to-six year-olds using LEGO’s Duplo bricks to learn about architecture, civil engineering, infrastructure, sustainability, and urban planning. [STEAM Universe]
LEGOs are a simple toy to use, but LEGO sets aren’t always universal. People with special needs may not be able to access instructions that they can use. Now LEGO has made their toys more accessible with Braille and audio instructions for the visually impaired. [Washington Post]

…And Finally

The enchiladas served on Wednesdays in San Antonio’s North East ISD are beloved by students and alumni. NEISD showed their own appreciation with a digital video to connect with Tex-Mex mavens by sharing their recipe in a Facebook video.

Enchilada Recipe – North East ISD

For years we have been getting asked about our famous enchilada recipe and today in honor of ENCHILADA WEDNESDAY, we are releasing a step-by-step video guide so you can enjoy them any day of the week. Now, EVERY DAY is ENCHILA-DAY! #theNEISDway

Posted by North East Independent School District – NEISD on Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Photo: Kendall Ruth

October 4, 2019 1 comment

English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)

WriteReader: An Engaging and Effective Reading App

by Lori Gracey March 14, 2019

written by Lori Gracey

The premise behind the program WriteReader is simple but profound: students learn to read by creating and sharing books. Designed for students in grades K-5, the app, which is currently free, runs via the web and as a Chrome app.

How It Works

WriteReader is a scientifically-based learning platform that teaches children to read by writing their own digital books. It includes the following features:

Create unlimited books
Google single sign-on for fast and easy access
Integrated Pixabay safe image search to inspire and create interesting books
Provide feedback and input to students
Classroom management with easy class creation
Share and publish
Lesson plans and resources provided

Once a student’s book has been published to the classroom library, other students (and invited family members) can read them. This provides a powerful incentive to be the best author they can possibly be.

While the creators of the program have said that they will begin charging for it sometime in 2019, it is still currently free. So grab it now and get your students reading and writing!

March 14, 2019 0 comments

iOS Tips and Tricks Writing

Seven Best Writing Tools for iOS Devices

by Guest Blogger February 5, 2019

written by Guest Blogger

Recently, Apple decided to renew its focus on the educational market. The company may have lost some ground to Google and other companies when it comes to owning the educational space, but there’s no denying it’s still a major player. One of the reasons that iOS devices remain popular in educational settings is because there’s no shortage of apps and tools that can be used in the classroom.

Writing is one particular niche where iOS developers have really done an exceptional job. There are a host of apps that students can use to become better, more prolific, creative writers. Here are some of the best.

Simplenote

As its name suggests, Simplenote is a very simple tool for taking notes. These are automatically saved to the cloud and synced to other devices. This is a plus for students who tend to have papers disappear into the ether between school and home or who don’t have access to a stick drive. The tool works for iOS, and there’s also a browser version.

Simplenote is a text-only tool. Some people may see this as a drawback. However, its simplicity gives students a distraction-free utility for taking notes quickly and easily.

Canva For Education

Canva is largely marketed as a simple, graphic design tool for business. However, thanks to Canva’s education initiative, teachers and students can use this tool to create posters, presentations, reports, and more. There are over a million icons, photographs, layouts, and other images that students can access via Canva. This app is available for both the iPhone and the iPad.

Notability

Notability is a wildly popular tool among students and teachers for note taking and annotations. Students can create and share documents from Notability. They can also use the drag and drop feature to move images, text, and other files into the app.

One really neat feature is the ability to search for handwritten notes and convert them to text. When combined with Apple Pencil, students can use Notability to hand write annotations and draw directly onto their device.

This tool even works for students who are auditory learners. The app features allow you to record and play back audio. Even better, notes are synced with the audio recordings. This means that students who are reviewing their notes can also listen to a playback of the lecture

Microsoft Word

It may seem counter-intuitive to use a Microsoft App on an iOS device, but in reality, it makes a lot of sense. Many schools already subscribe to Office 365. It’s a word processing tool that many people already know how to use, and it’s easy enough for others to master. Whether your classroom uses iOS devices exclusively or you simply have a few students bringing their own, the Word App for iOS ensures that every student can access this powerful writing tool.

OmniOutliner

By creating outlines, students are empowered to organize their thoughts and create well-structured documents. This leads to better writing outcomes. It’s also a great way for them to organize large amounts of information for their own understanding. OmniOutliner is an iOS tool that allows them to create great outlines with ease.

Yes, students can use any word processor for outlining, but this tool is created specifically for this purpose. It functions especially well for students who need to create and organize lengthy outlines.

Terminology

Terminology for iOS isn’t a writing tool in the strictest sense. It’s a dictionary and thesaurus reference. Still, it has features that can most certainly help students to become better writers. The tool allows students to look up words, mark words as “favorites,” attach notes to words, and more. Students can also use the tool to look up definitions and other information on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, and Wolfram Alpha. As a result, this tool not only improves writing, it can improve overall literacy.

Grammarly Keyboard

Grammarly Keyboard for iOS is a portable editor that students can use directly from their devices. It checks writing for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Even better, it integrates with all other phone apps. As long as students have the Grammarly keyboard selected as their default, they have access to Grammarly insights. Even better, the tool provides easy-to-understand explanations for the suggestions that it makes.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve chosen iOS devices for your classroom, you’re in luck. There are a variety of tools available to help students take better notes, organize their thoughts, and otherwise produce quality written works. Check out a few of the tools here to help your students improve their writing abilities.

This is a guest blog by Daniela McVicker. Daniela is a passionate digital marketer who is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She collaborates with Topwritersreview and other websites where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their name in the online world.

February 5, 2019 1 comment

English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Writing

Unlock Your Students’ Stories with Tools to Support Creative Writing

by Susan Meyer November 20, 2018

written by Susan Meyer

Creative writing is the makerspace of the mind. A truly open assignment where students are free to follow whatever crazy directions their stories takes them? This is a priceless avenue for invention.

Right now, we’re nearing the end of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). This is a 30-day period when writers around the world write like the wind. The goal is to produce a 50,000-word novel during the month. This writer has personally started and failed the challenge three times. But luckily, I never consider the undertaking truly a failure. After all, even if you don’t hit a certain number of words, there are always things to be gained from writing stories. Writing builds confidence, encourages creativity and self-expression, boosts the imagination and problem-solving skills, and helps you learn to clarify your thoughts.

I want to share some tools to get your students writing down their craziest, most outlandish, off-the-wall stories. Here are some ideas to get started.

Spark Inspiration

Writer’s block. Sometimes the most difficult task is overcoming the blank page. Here are some tools to help your students answer the question: What should I write about?

Thanks to the collective hive mind of the internet, there’s no shortage of writing prompt generators. These provide free plots ideas to start a narrative. This site lets you choose your genre and what type of ending the story will have. And this one from Scholastic lets you choose your grade level for age-appropriate writing projects. This Google Doc option doesn’t create full plots but instead offers imaginative phrases to get those wheels turning.

For your more visual writers, check out this Emoji Writing Prompt Generator. A few randomly-selected icons might spur your students to write the next great American novel.

Finally, if you don’t want a whole plot mapped out for you, there’s this fun generator that creates the first line of a story for you. This could be a fun classtime writing activity if you assign all students to write using the same first line and discover all the different directions their stories can go!

Write Online

Once they have their idea, the next challenge is putting pen to paper. Or, times being what they are, fingers to keyboard. Typing out a story has some distinct advantages. You can easily share it with others for collaboration. It’s often faster than writing by hand. And you don’t have to worry about your only copy blowing away or getting thrown in the fireplace or some other very literary scenario. Here are a few places students can start their next writing project:

Of course, it would be impossible not to include Google Docs. This tool makes word processing in the cloud simple. Changes are automatically saved and your students can also easily share their work with you or other students for comments.

Draft is another free tool designed for online word processing. It has some unique features that make it great for young writers. It provides a word count at the bottom of the screen and lets them know how many words they are writing per day. It also allows them to make “to do” notes in their stories so they can easily come back to things they want to elaborate on more.

Of course, there are also some downsides to writing on a computer instead of in a notebook. Namely: distractions. Calmly is a writing tool that tries to keep the writing process distraction-free. When you start typing, all of the distracting menu options disappear, so you have a blank canvas to work on.

Refine the Work

One of the fun things about creative writing is you can let all the ideas flow freely and not worry about editing. Those NaNoWriMo winners who get to 50,000 words certainly don’t end up with a completely polished, ready-to-publish piece in 30 days. While the goal of encouraging creative writing might not require polishing, you can still provide some tools if your students are happy with their story and want to take it to the editing phase.

Grammarly is a free proofreading extension you can add to your web browser. It will correct typos and grammatical errors in everything from your emails and social media posts to your creative stories and poems.

Hemingway App is a way for writers to improve the readability of their work. It highlights sentences that are hard to read and offers suggestions for fixing them. Depending on their personal style, your budding writers may or may not find this useful. If they enjoy figurative flourishes and are more of a William Faulker than an Ernest Hemmingway, this might not be the tool for them.

Go Forth and Create

In the same way that students can find value in makerspaces by creating things without strict parameters, so too is there great value in free writing. Allowing students to use their imaginations to whip up whole worlds from thin air is powerful. Do you have any favorite writing tools? Please share them in the comments below!

November 20, 2018 0 comments

Content Areas Leadership

New OER ELA Curriculum

by Lori Gracey April 3, 2018

written by Lori Gracey

With the budget crunch that most districts are feeling these days, it’s important to save money where possible and where it doesn’t negatively impact the education of students. One excellent way to do this is through the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). These are free resources that anyone may use and modify.

Free Curriculum

I wrote a while back about an outstanding and free math curriculum for grades 6-8. That same company, Open-Up Resources, is now providing a complete curriculum for ELA in grades K-5. The curriculum is based around texts that students love to read and includes the following:

Student Materials – digital and print options (perfect whether you are 1:1 or still paper-based)
Teacher Materials – digital and print options, including module and unit plans, lesson plans, assessments, and embedded professional learning
Book list of authentic texts
Curriculum map
Integrated, lesson-specific supports for ELLs
Lesson-level supports for students with special needs
Family resources

The offering also includes STEM and social studies topics. And it is aligned to both state and national standards.

Open-Up is a non-profit association that earns revenue to support these development endeavors by providing professional development on their offerings. But the resources are completely free and do not require that you purchase professional development from them.

Savings

With the savings from not having to purchase a curriculum program or to pay staff to write one, districts can spend more on professional learning for staff and on technology for students. This makes this offering from Open-Up a win/win for districts, staff, and students.

By the way, Open-Up is also developing free curricula for high school Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 and for middle school language arts. All of these will be available for the 2018-2019 school year. You can request information on their website.

April 3, 2018 0 comments

Chromebooks English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Special Needs

Improve Your Students’ Reading Experience with Chrome

by Diana Benner October 12, 2017

written by Diana Benner

The Chrome browser is so dynamic that I’m often amazed at its functionality and how it can help the many students who are now reading on digital devices. If you have students who need a better reading experience or struggle with reading comprehension, then there are some apps and extensions that will help them. And many of these will be perfect for differentiating learning!

Reading Comprehension

Newsela – This is one of my favorite Chrome apps that I always feature in my trainings. Newsela features current event articles covering many subjects, each written at five different Lexile levels. With this extension, students can read the same material at an appropriate level for themselves.

TLDR: Summarize Anything – The TLDR extension creates a short summary of any web article without leaving the original page. This will help students discern the most important ideas in the article they are reading.

Word Cloud Website Preview – I love word clouds, so this is another favorite of mine! This extension can turn any content from the web into a word cloud. The word cloud can then be reviewed to summarize the content on the page or to help decipher key words used.

Readability

ATbar – This Chrome extension provides you with a toolbar that has many features including color overlays for web pages, a dictionary, text to speech, word prediction, and more.

BeeLine Reader – Bee Line Reader is another one of my most beloved extensions, so much so that I wrote a blog entry about it here. It creates a more readable version of a website by removing all of the ads and other extra distracting items. In addition, a color gradient can be applied to the page in order to guide the eye from one line to the next.

MagicScroll Web Reader – This extension turns web pages into a flippable ebook. Its unique scrolling system lets you scroll web pages without moving them. This makes it easier to read long articles without being distracted.

Mercury Reader – If your students are easily distracted, then they might want to get Mercury Reader. It makes any website easier to read by removing ads and distractions. You can also adjust the font size and color scheme of the new text.

This list is just a few of the many Chrome extensions and apps that help with readability and reading comprehension. We will be sharing many more in our upcoming monthly Get Your Google On webinars, so make sure you register for them today.

If you discovered other app and extensions that work with the Chrome browser to help students with reading, please share in the Comments section below.

This blog was updated with new content and resources on October 15, 2017.

October 12, 2017 0 comments

English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Writing

Writing Tools for Chrome

by Lori Gracey August 26, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 26, 2017 0 comments

Title and a 4 emoji writing prompt of smiley face, rocket, octopus and grapes

Content Areas Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks Writing

A New Type of Writing Prompt

by Peggy Reimers January 14, 2017

written by Peggy Reimers

I have been around long enough to see many crazy fads: pet rocks, Care Bears, Smurfs, and Angry Birds. Do you know the current fad in pop culture? Think. Think hard. You know it, (I know you do) because THESE are everywhere. Picture walking down the aisles of Walmart, CVS, Target, or your local grocery store, and what do you spy?

Emojis. Yes, you read that correctly, Emojis. These small images that represent emotions have been transformed into tattoos, pillows, slippers, Halloween costumes, and Pez dispensers. So why not use them in an elementary writing class?

One of my nightly rituals is to scan Twitter for resources, and while doing so, I came upon Eric’s tweet “Emoji Writing Prompt Generator w/ Google Sheets.” According to Twitter, Eric Curts is a tech integrationist, a geek, and a Google Apps Certified Trainer and Innovator. And he has a fantastic blog called Control Alt Achieve where he posts his educational creations. Eric used Google Sheets to create a writing prompt generator that produces a random set of two, three, four, or even five emojis at a time. Instead of providing words for a writing prompt, he used a formula in a spreadsheet to inspire kids to have fun writing a story or a poem.

According to Eric (and I SO agree), there are several great reasons for using emojis as writing prompts:

“Since emojis are images, they can be used with students of any age, language, or reading ability.
They can provide a wide range of ideas since each student will have their own interpretations of the pictures.
Emojis are very popular with students, so they will likely have familiarity with the images.
They are fun! And writing should be fun. And learning should be fun. And school should be fun!”

Using the Emoji Generator

To start using this wonderful resource:

Click here to go to the resource.
Click on the blue button, “Make a Copy.”
Your copy will open up in your Google Drive.
The copy will have the name “Copy of Emoji Random Writing Prompt Generator.”
Click on the tab to select the number of emojis you want to generate.
Press “Ctrl” and “R” to get a new set.

Other Educational Uses of Emojis

Other possibilities for the Emoji Generator:

Use the emoji generator and have students vote on which one they like the best. Graph the results.
Create a word problem using emojis.
For younger students, they could say beginning and ending sounds of each emoji. They could also verbally tell a story or write a sentence using the emojis.
Name the emoji and list its rhyming words.
Can you make the emojis fit into your life right now?

A Sample Emoji Prompt and Story

Screenshot of the emoji writing prompt with sad face, footprints, and bathtub.

Let me give emoji writing a try with a true story for my life today: “My refrigerator quit cooling this morning. I am sad. I used my feet to find my phone and called the appliance repair service. Now I need a hot bath to relieve my stress.” Give it a go; see what you and your students can write with emojis.

Featured image Emoji Writing Prompt, by Eric Curts

January 14, 2017 0 comments

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