This is a neat way to start a writing class with the creating plot ideas....
One of the goals I ask teachers to set after my training is to find new ways to push students to analyze and evaluate as they learn to write.
As part of my teacher workshop on the writing process, we investigate multiple uses of student samples. One of my favorite techniques involves having student compare and contrast finished pieces of writing. During both pre-writing and and revision, this push for deeper student thinking both educates and inspires your students.
The handout has student writers analyze two fifth graders' published writing with a compare and contrast Venn diagram.
Revision is hard, and most teachers recognize it as an area of deficiency; the truth is, a lot of really great writing teachers I know still freely admit that revision is where they struggle the most.
revision shouldn't be the first of the seven elements to work on
When students like what they've written in rough draft form, they're ready to move to revision. My other six elements aim at helping students increase their pre-writing time so they both like and see more potential in their rough drafts
I believe in the power of collaboration and study teams,
Professional development research clearly cites the study team model as the most effective way to have learners not only understand new ideas but also implement them enough times so they become regular tools in a teacher's classroom.
Below, find three examples created by study teams during past workshops. I use them as models/exemplars when I set the study teams off to work.
My students learn to appreciate the act of writing, and they see it as a valuable life-skill.
In a perfect world, following my workshop,
follow-up tools.
I also use variations of these Post-its during my Critical Thinking Using the Writing Traits Workshop.
By far, the best success I've ever had while teaching revision was the one I experienced with the revision Post-its I created for my students
During my teacher workshop on the writing process, we practice with tools like the Revision Sprint (at right), which I designed to push students to use analysis and evaluation skills as they looked at their own drafts
I used to throw my kids into writing response groups way too fast. They weren't ready to provide critical thought for one another
The most important trick learned was this: be a writer too. During my first five years of teaching, I had assigned a lot of writing but never once had I written something I intended to show my students.
I have the following interactive plot element generator (which can be replicated with three coffee cans and index cards) to help my students feel in control of their options:
If you want to hear my take on graphic organizers in detail, you're going to have to hire me to come to present to you. If you can't do that, then I'll throw you a challenge that was thrown once at me, and completing the challenge helped me become a smarter designer of graphic organizers. The challenge came in two parts: 1) learn how to use tables and text boxes in Microsoft Word; 2) for practice, design a graphic organizer that would help students be successfully with the following trait-based skills:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, etc," which is an interesting structure that students can borrow from to write about other topics, be they fiction or non-fiction.
Asking students to create daily journals from the perspective of other animals or even inanimate objects is a great way to borrow this book's idea.
it challenges students to analyze the author's word choice & voice skills: specifically his use of verbs, subtle alliteration, and dialogue.
Mentor Text Resource Page here at my website, because this topic has become such a big piece of learning to me. It deserved its own webpage.
Here are seven skills I can easily list for the organization trait. Organization is: 1) using a strong lead or hook, 2) using a variety of transition words correctly, 3) paragraphing correctly, 4) pacing the writing, 5) sequencing events/ideas logically, 6) concluding the writing in a satisfying way, 7) titling the writing interestingly and so that the title stands for the whole idea. Over the years, I have developed or found and adapted mini-lessons that have students practice these skills during my "Organization Month."
Now, let's talk differentiation:
The problem with focusing students on a product--instead of the writing process--is that the majority of the instructional time is spent teaching students to adhere to a formula.
the goal of writing instruction absolutely should be the helping students practice the three Bloom's levels above apply: analyze, evaluate, and create.
Click here to access the PowerPoint I use during the goal-setting portion of my workshop.
Improving one's ability to teach writing to all students is a long-term professional development goal; sticking with it requires diligence, and it requires having a more specific goal than "I want to improve writing
"Trying to get better at all seven elements at once doesn't work;
strive to make my workshops more about "make and take,
Robert Marzano's research convinced me years ago of the importance of having learners set personal goals as they learn to take responsibility for their own learning.
Use of iPads in MGT30700 (Project Management), Fall 2010 from Aug 23-Oct 8
Report Prepared by
Corey M. Angst, Ph.D. & Emily Malinowski (MBA 2011)
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
December 21, 2010
First, our findings suggest the greatest value of the iPad may not be its ability to function as an eBook reader but instead its capacity to function as a consolidator or aggregator of information. Second, a statistically significant proportion of students felt the iPad, 1) makes class more interesting, 2) encourages exploration of additional topics, 3) provides functions/tools not possible with a textbook, and 4) helps students more effectively manage their time.
See wiki https://wiki.nd.edu/display/oitepublishing/iPad+Configuration+for+Pilot. It also includes an Enterprise Deployment Guide
I've used many mind mapping tools and find them lacking in functionality (xmind) , expensive (inspiration) or very hard to use (Free Mind). Most of these tools will not allow you to have 2 main topics and create a double bubble map (like a venn diagram). Edraw Mind Map has a very easy to use ribbon interface similar to Word 2010 and tons of built in symbols and mind mapping templates. It is free for educational use and their site has tons of video tutorials that cover all the nifty features. It's the first mind mapping program where I felt like I wasn't fighting the interface.
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to discuss how the University of Michigan School of Nursing designed and implemented a virtual hospital unit in Second Life® to run virtual simulations. Three scenarios were developed about topics that represent areas that contribute to patient safety, as well as key student learning challenges. Fifteen students completed a 6-question survey evaluating their experience. Comments indicated students did identify the potential benefits of the Second Life® simulation. The Second Life® platform may also provide avenues for learning in the clinical arena for a multitude of health care professionals. The opportunity to simulate emergent, complex situations in a nonthreatening, safe environment allows all members of the team to develop critical communication skills necessary to provide safe patient care.
It is FUN! Fun!….. I hear your sceptical exclamation!! However, it is
wonderful when students think they are having so much fun, they forget that they
are actually learning. A favourite comment on one of my blog posts is: It’s
great when kids get so caught up in things they forget they’re even learning…
by jodhiay
authentic audience – no longer working for a teacher who checks
and evalutes work but a potential global audience.
Suits all learning styles – special ed (this student
attends special school 3days per weeek, our school 2 days per week, gifted ed, visual students,
multi-literacies plus ‘normal‘
students.
Increased motivation for writing – all students are happy to
write and complete aspects of the post topic. Many will add to it in their
own time.
Increased motivation for reading – my students will happily spend a lot of
time browsing through fellow student posts and their global counterparts. Many
have linked their friends onto their blogroll for quick access. Many make
comments, albeit often in their own sms language.
Improved confidence levels – a lot of this comes through comments and
global dots on their cluster maps. Students can share their strengths
and upload areas of interest or units of work eg personal digital
photography, their pets, hobbies etc Staff are given an often rare insight into
what some students are good at. We find talents that were otherwise unknown and
it allows us to work on those strengths. It allows staff to often gain insight
to how students are feeling and thinking.
Pride in their work – My experience is that students want their blogs to
look good in both terms of presentation and content. (Sample of a year 10 boy’s work)
Blogs allow text, multimedia, widgets, audio and images – all items that
digital natives want to use
Increased proofreading and validation skills
Improved awareness of possible dangers that may confront them in the real
world, whilst in a sheltered classroom environment
Ability to share – part of the conceptual revolution that we are entering.
They can share with each other, staff, their parents, the community, and the
globe.
Mutual learning between students and staff and students.
Parents with internet access can view their child’s work and writings – an
important element in the parent partnership with the classroom. Grandparents
from England have made comments on student posts. Parents have ‘adopted’
students who do not have internet access and ensured they have
comments.
Blogs may be used for digital portfolios and all the benefits this
entails
Work is permanently stored, easily accessed and valuable comparisons can be
made over time for assessment and evaluation purposes
Students are digital natives - blogging is a natural element of
this.
Gives students a chance to
show responsibility and trustworthiness and engenders
independence.
Prepares students for digital citizenship as they learn cybersafety and
netiquette
Fosters peer to peer mentoring. Students are happy to share, learn from and
teach their peers (and this, often not their usual social groups)
Allows student led professional development and one more……
Students set the topics for posts – leads to deeper thinking
Good reasons to allow student blogging Point being if it's fun they will love doing it, while enriching their knowledge at the same time.\nA great slant on multitasking.
A collection of resources to encourage interaction and building a community of learning for educators that seek to develop their skills and create online discussions and interaction. Organized by topics targeted to faculty, instructors, K-12 educators and instructional designers.
Save important websites and access them on any computer.
Categorize websites by titles, notes, keyword tags, lists and groups.
Search through bookmarks to quickly find desired information.
Save a screenshot of a website and see how it has changed over time.
Annotate websites with highlighting or virtual "sticky notes."
View any annotations made by others on any website visited.
Share websites with g
Diigo can provide a way to enrich or extend learning about a topic.
Beyond extended student learning, Diigo can be used as a form of professional development.
Research
Teaching students to research is a common standard across all grade levels, elementary, middle school, high school, and beyond. Diigo excels as a research tool:
Students can save relevant websites to lists in their Diigo student accounts. Each saved bookmark captures the URL and a screenshot, and can be searched later.
Students can highlight important information right on the website, using Diigo. Later, when students return to the website, they find the reason they saved the bookmark in the first place.
Students can use virtual sticky notes to summarize the important points of information from the website. This activity will mimic the time-tested procedure of using note cards to summarize and organize research projects.
Students working on similar topics can create and join groups in order to collaborate.
Later, when students need to document their sources, Diigo can be used to recall website URLs for citing sources.
How in the WORLD do I do the social part of it??
This seems useful, but I'm still trying to figure out how to let the kids collaborate on Outliners and then share the Outliners with me easily. I bet there's something huge that I'm missing here...
Teaching Wikipedia in 5 Easy Steps:
*Use it as background information
*Use it for technology terms
*Use it for current pop cultural literacy
*Use it for the Keywords
*Use it for the REFERENCES at the bottom of the page!
4 ways to use Wikipedia (hint: never cite it)
Teachers: Please stop prohibiting the use of Wikipedia
20 Little Known Ways to Use Wikipedia
Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica
Schiff, Stacy. “Know it all: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?” The New Yorker, February 26, 2006
And:
Yes students, there’s a world beyond Wikipedia
**Several years ago, Nature magazine did a comparison of material available on Wikipedia and Brittanica and concluded that Brittanica was somewhat, but not overwhelmingly, more accurate than Wikipedia. Brittanica lodged a complaint, and here, you can see what it complained about as well as Nature’s response.
Nature compared articles from both organizations on various topics and sent them to experts to review. Per article, the averages were: 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia.
-0-
Follow The Answer Sheet every day by bookmarking http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet. And for admissions advice, college news and links to campus papers, please check out our
Higher Education
page. Bookmark it!
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Excellent perspective on "The 'W' Word" - use it wisely for what it is - high school and college kids shouldn't be citing any general knowledge encyclopedias for serious research - but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent uses for it.
Story StartersGrades: PreK–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8This interactive tool creates quick writing prompts to help young students delve into creative writing.
Immigration: Stories of Yesterday and TodayGrades: PreK–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8Take a tour of Ellis Island, explore an interactive immigration timeline, and meet young immigrants in this online activity!
Science ExplorationsGrades: 3–5, 6–8, 9–12With the help of audio, text, photos, and video, students thoroughly explore six science topics, from the Galapagos Islands to giant squid.Read more >
The Art of Memory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the general topic known as "Ars memoriae" or "the Art of Memory", see Art of memory.
The Art of Memory
Author(s)
Frances A. Yates
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Publisher
Routledge and Kegan Paul
Publication date
1966
Media type
Print (book)
Pages
400
ISBN
0-226-95001-8
OCLC Number
42905743
Preceded by
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
The Art of Memory is a 1966 non-fiction book by British historian Frances A. Yates. The book follows the history of mnemonic systems from the classical period of Simonides of Ceos in Ancient Greece to the Renaissance era of Giordano Bruno, ending with Gottfried Leibniz and the early emergence of the scientific method in the 17th century.
See also [edit]
Method of loci
John Crowley
Art of Memory
Watch. Practice.
Learn almost anything for free.
With a library of over 2,400 videos covering
everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 125 practice exercises, we're on
a mission to help you learn whatever you want, whenever you want, at your
own pace.
feet wet, you may want to try some of the videos in the
"Algebra I Worked Examples" playlist.
Simple
Equations
Equations
2
Equations
3
Algebra: Linear
Equations 4
Algebra: Solving
Inequalities
Algebra: graphing lines
1
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. They are complementing Salman's ever-growing library with user-paced exercises--developed as an open source project--allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World.
We are complementing Salman's ever-growing library with user-paced exercises--developed as an open source project--allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World.
"We are complementing Salman's ever-growing library with user-paced exercises--developed as an open source project--allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World. "
Khan Academy is a widely know and used cross-curricular educational video site. While there is some content for younger students, most videos are for older students and adults.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Cross+Curricular
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Despite being the work of one man, Salman Khan, this 2100+ video library is the most-used educational video resource as measured by YouTube video views per day and unique users per month.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Another topic that is covered in the 7th grade standards that provides other resource for myself and students.
British Broadcasting CorporationHome Accessibility links Skip to content Skip to local navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk navigation Skip to bbc.co.uk search Help Accessibility Help
History
Do
a timeline search. Use "view:timeline" followed by whatever you are
researching to get a timeline for that topic
Invite
others. If you have events on your calendar that you want to invite
others to join, just add their email address under Add Guests within the event.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar
template
. Have
an easy to use school year
calendar
through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions
boost.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Create
online surveys for research projects. Quickly and easily create
online surveys for any research project that requires feedback from others. The
answers are saved to your Google Docs account.
Calculate
with Google. Type in any normal mathematical expressions to get the
answer immediately. For example, "2*4" will get you the answer "8."
Time. Enter "what time is it" and any location to find out
the local time.
Calculate
with Google. Type in any normal mathematical expressions to get the
answer immediately. For example, "2*4" will get you the answer "8."
Time. Enter "what time is it" and any location to find out
the local time.
Incorporate
Google Calendar and Docs on your Gmail page. Have access to recent
documents used in Google Docs and get an agenda of upcoming activities you have
on Google Calendar with small boxes added to your Gmail page. Go to Labs to
select this option.
I'm interested to see where this conversation goes next. There's some great information and pointers here. Thanks for the blog link, Andy. I'll be keeping up with what you're writing. In just ove...