Group items tagged

"Word clouds can help students analyze documents written by others as well as documents of their own creation. By copying the text of a document into a word cloud generator your students can quickly see the words that appear most frequently in that document. Word clouds can also be used to help students see which words that they have frequently used in their own works. Have your students create word clouds of their work during the revision process of writing a story or essay. The word cloud will quickly show students which words they have used the most. Then ask them to think about synonyms for the words that they have used most often in their writings. " T/H R.Byrne

"The handy infographic below takes a look at the BELS process - Brain Essential Learning Steps. In other words, how does the brain process information in the learning process? The graphic breaks it down in terms of how to teach the material, making this a super useful reminder for teachers planning their lessons. Keep reading to learn more." The 4 Steps: Introducing material, collaborative brainstorming, students develop a learning plan, and then "take action," through writing, music, visuals, etc., and share.

"Google's Drawing program is the perfect platform to practice orthography- the skill of writing characters and symbols to create words- in language classrooms with non-Roman alphabets, such as Arabic or Chinese. Students of these languages need lots of practice handwriting the new alphabet or pictographic symbols, which is difficult to do in a digital environment. In traditional word processing programs, typing pictographic languages, such as Chinese, requires the student to change the keyboard language and then phonetically type the syllables. Characters will pop out fully formed, which is efficient and useful, but bypasses the important orthographic practice! Google Drawing presents teachers with an opportunity to digital collect and monitor their students' orthography without having to scan in and email worksheets. The Scribble Tool in Google Drawing allows the user to create free form lines and by extension hand-drawn language characters. Couple Google Drawing with a pen mouse and Chinese language students are fully prepared to complete short answer or extended writing assignments online." You could also use Google Drawing for students from pictographic language to practice handwirting English.

Tutorials and guides to using common digital programs, such as adding a picture to a word-processed document, using MS Word, save to a USB drive, etc. Some info is for Green River CC students only.

Suggestions for teachers to pre-teach vocabulary (not always a good idea), but focuses on the Marazano Process, where a definition is given and students have to restate (in writing) in their own words. Also illustrates a way to connect vocabulary to students' own lives.

"Formative assessment is a planned process in which teachers or students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they're currently doing. "In other words, if teachers or students are not leveraging results/data (from Socrative, Kahoot!, Plickers, etc.) to then differentiate instruction or learning, the app inspired dog and pony show does not qualify as a formative assessment. "Formative assessment is a process…not an event, questions on a piece of paper, or even an app. What makes an assessment formative depends on the context in which it is used." Based on a blog/book co-authored by Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy. You can sign up for more chapters free on the site. The articles represent a measured discussion of how apps and "cool tools" can be used successfully, without hype.

"When you're working in a word processor, every second you save matters. And while Google Docs may seem simple on the surface, it's practically overflowing with out-of-sight options that can help you get more done with less effort." Includes editing tips, outlining, speech to text, easy exploring with web searches, image editing, et al.

"Use this downloadable PowerPoint show, complete with script in the Notes area, to walk students through the process of creating an infographic. The show includes tips on using the tools available in PowerPoint to "build" infographics right on a PowerPoint slide and save it as an image file. Even if you do not use PowerPoint, the tips will apply in any visual tool from Google Docs/Drive Drawing to a full image editing program such as Photoshop. Please note and respect the copyright notice on this show." A nice sample lesson and ideas on constructive criticism and a customizable rubric in Word doc.

The criteria to get on this list is extremely similar to its companion list [see Best Places Where Students Can Write for an Authentic Audience]: * The work required to create the learning and/or teaching object would not be that great, and could be finished in a reasonable amount of time - a few days at a maximum and preferably much, much less. * The creating and posting process is simple - accessible both to my English Language Learner students and to me. * Posting the piece does not necessarily require any kind of ongoing commitment for communication - once it's up, it might be interesting to check-back after awhile to see if there have been any reactions (if the site is set-up for that kind of involvement), but it's really just a matter of sticking it up there in a place that gets a fair amount of "traffic" and knowing that it's likely others will read it. * There seems to be some kind of enforced standards for all the content that's posted on the site. In other words, when students explore it to see models of what others have written, it's unlikely they will encounter something that is inappropriate for classroom use.

"Mote works through a Chrome extension that makes it easy for teachers to leave students voice-recorded feedback in Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Classroom. Students don't need the Mote extension or even an account to listen to recorded feedback. It's a real time-saver and a great way to provide effective feedback. " While Nick is right that voice annotation may be a good way to explain you thoughts on student writing, I think that MS Word has a voice annotation feature. And the written notes to students are still important if for nothing else than a reminder as the student re-writes. Mote requires uploading a document to Google Docs first, though that is no big deal. Worth a try, and Nick explains clearly how to run through the whole process.