Writing Practice: Revision Gameboard

We all know writing in the classroom is essential to building communication skills in students. But teaching students to revise their work is critical to that development and effectively understanding content.

We may be strong at teaching the thesis, or the introductory paragraph, or how to use and explain evidence in the body of an essay. Where most of us need work is with helping our students revise their work in an effort to make it (almost) perfect. The problem with revision and revising tactics (aside from the time it takes) is that students need guidance and structure in order to effectively address the issues within their essay. You can't tell a developing student to merely "look it over and make some edits."

Lisa Guardino, EdTech TOSA in El Dorado County created the below file to make it easier for students to cover the vast ground of effectively revising an essay.

We are revising arguments gameboard style! https://t.co/gk2TxLdXBh pic.twitter.com/GbBHmyzjth

— Lisa Guardino (@LisaGuardino) April 20, 2017

She's created a Google Doc "gameboard" in which students one by one complete "squares" on their board as they complete the tasks embedded within. Each square focuses on a different aspect (grammar, strong thesis statement, focusing on the audience, etc.) suggesting various tools for students to use in revising their work. You can alter the tools they use as you see fit. As each student completes the various tasks they fill the cell of the table in with a color. If done correctly, the student has fully revised their paper in a meaningful way focusing on different aspects of the writing and editing process. The more we can embed these skills in our students' practice, the stronger writers they will become.

Guardino's work is embedded below for you to view, and I've provided a link to your own copy. With your own copy you can make as many alterations as you see fit! When ready to roll these out to your students, have them make a copy of the document themselves so it becomes theirs.

With this tool, the revising part of the writing process will seem less daunting, the students get to visually identify areas of their essay they need to revise, and they can work at their own pace and pick areas to revise before others. In short, they will be given a path to success and be responsible for how effectively they use their voice.

Link to the file below

Apps I'm Into: Blended Learning, Guided Reading, & Student Organization

Just a quick rundown of some apps I've been looking at in the past few weeks. I get very Google-centric here because of their vast array of resources and the availability of them, but it's important to remember there are amazing #EdTech resources outside of the Google realm. All three of these resources are designed to be for any curriculum. They are tools every class can use as apart of their repertoire.

TES Teach with Blend Space

This is a favorite of a lot of people in the EdTech world. For Blended Learning purposes (think flipped but not completely), this resource is a big one. You can house a series of steps for your students all in one easy to navigate, and use, hub for a self-contained lesson. Add content (documents, video, images, etc.) from your computer or the web, and provide guidance for students. The resource is shareable and embed-able (as you can see below) and makes complex tasks with numerous steps easy for students to grasp.



A link to the above file if you'd like to see it in a new tab:
https://www.tes.com/lessons/C9C0J3u6cp4OPQ/rise-of-fascism-dbq-prep 

Actively Learn

I'm a huge fan of EdPuzzle for videos (forces students to answer questions about the video before proceeding) and Actively Learn works very similarly but with articles and primary source documents. Have students answer questions as they read as part of their check for understanding. Want them to discuss items while they are reading (What? Thinking...while they are reading?), create the space for them. Want them to take a poll within the document at any place to gauge their opinions or understanding? Well....lets' do that!! It's one of those products that asks you to create a classroom and have students sign into it. But it is well worth it. Ken Buck at NU has been giving it a go as of late and he reports its an excellent resource for Primary Source documents and his students' understanding of them. There are a ton of features and options and Actively Learn walks you through the process in an easy to understand way.

With Actively Learn, you set the pace with students, get them to answer all the questions in a rich manner, and allow for a deeper understanding of course material. After clicking, "Read More" check out the pic and gifs on how this looks for the student.

Google Drawing: Students Create Memes

Memes...MeeMees...whatevs you call em, students are using them. Ms. Keri Kemble at NU incorporates some great lessons using micro-writing and having students create memes is a great critical thinking activity for students to whittle down a story or concept into a singular image with limited text.

Google Drawing is a G Suite App than can help with this and the great Alice Keeler a heavy weight in the EdTech world, has a great template and step by step process on how to let students create memes to demonstrate their understanding. You set the topic/subject and push out the template and get them to create.

A great wrap up to this activity is to create a Padlet and have students post their work and comment on other's work. You can host the Padlet (through embedding) on your Schoology course or website.

Great for visual learners and those that are having trouble understanding difficult concepts covered in the class.

Check out Alice Keeler's other templates when you get an opportunity, check out her other great resources, and give her a follow on Twitter for great ideas in real time!

If you need help incorporating this into your curriculum, do not hesitate to get in touch with me!

Voice & Choice Activity: Show Me What You Know!

Student engagement is key in the 21st century classroom. Technology can help engage students but nothing beats sound lesson design and flow that piques and quenches a student's thirst for understanding the world around them.

Students invariably want greater control of their learning experiences. It's a lot more than just "What" they learn. Providing opportunities for students to express their voice and choose the method in which they express it is just one of the ways students get engaged in any classroom.

One easy-to-implement strategy that addresses this need for engagement and allows students to take control of their learning is through the old "menu option" assignment. Although not a new idea, its a powerful one and with technology the opportunities for student creativity goes beyond the traditional paper-and-pen method.

An example of this is the document embedded below from a group of teachers in the UK who literally took the "menu option" idea and used a popular restaurant amongst British teenagers as the basis for their choices.

If you'd like a copy of this doc, grab it here: Cheeky Nandos Copy

Utilizing the menu options giving students 'voice" and "choice" is an easy way to substitute assessment ideas using technology. The students will feel empowered to produce their best work if they feel they had some control over their choice. Especially when they publish their work for you and their peers to see....the focus of this post.

Show Me What You Know!
This idea comes from one of the creators of the Hyperdoc movement, Lisa Highfill. The idea is pretty straight forward - when appropriate in the curriculum, allow students to choose how they showcase their knowledge and understanding of what they have learned in order to demonstrate mastery.

If you would like to see other examples of this idea, visit her site here and while you're there poke around some of the other areas where she provides rich ideas for the classroom.

I've created one below as a Google Slides template for you all to have copies of. You will have to edit it to change elements on the file including: how students turn in their work to you, some of the resources you want to give them a choice to explore, or anything you'd like to add to personalize the assignment. After you edit it, simply copy and paste it into an already existing Slide deck, publish it to the web, or embed it in your Schoology course or on your website.

Get your copy of the above file HERE.

Give this a go and see what you get from students. Encourage them to explain themselves in a rich manner. Push them to produce their best and most creative work. Publish their work to the class, to other classes, to parents, to the world. Don't be scared you might not be an expert in any of these technologies. In fact, its best you aren't. Encourage your kids to be the experts. Learn with them. They may surprise you how much ownership they take on knowing you can help them only so far.

If you need help implementing this (or similar ideas like it) please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.