Doodle Buddy and Chatterpix Math App Smash

I know, I know, I'm all about ELA, but seriously, I had to share this.For Pre-K, Kinder, and 1st convert number sentences into images using Doodle Buddy and then have students record themselves telling the story.

Too adorable, right?

Quick steps:
1. Practice a couple times students writing the number sentences, using the stamps, and then writing the solution. DO THIS VERTICALLY! Chatter Pix Kids and Doodle Buddy are designed with cell phones in mind.
2. Have students write their own number sentence. Leaving aome room at the top.
3. Save image
4. Open ChatterKid, upload image and center
5. Draw a mouth
6. Record story
7. Add ChatterKid stickers and filters if you want (this is where the lips came from)
8. Save to device.
9. Love how adorable this is!

Easy ELA adaptation: Have students write spelling word in Doodle Buddy. In ChatterKid, student says word and spelling aloud. Multi-sensory!

Inforgraphics Made Easy

Easel.ly not only provides students with easy to create inforgraphics perfect for the classroom, it also provides teachers a very handy e-book guide. The guide shows teachers how to set up groups for students to login without providing an email address. All you have to do is create a login and they send you a link.

Additional tips and ideas:

• Have students start with a template if they have not had infographic-making experience
  
• There is already a place to insert a list of resources. My favorite resource for students to create MLA format is Purdue's OWL Lab.*
• Encourage students to link images and information back to their source material 
• Because students can get bogged down altering the aesthetics, create a classroom procedure of needing teacher approval before playing with color schemes and extras
• Because some tech- and content-savvy students finish early, I like to offer lesson add-ons for students. These are challenges for students to take and incorporate into their projects. It gives students another skill, keeps them engaged, and won't result in kids trying to rush through their work to get the opportunity to play a computer game. These are sort of like those 5 minute filler lessons that we teachers have when a class finishes a lesson early, but individualized. A great add-on for Easel.ly is asking students to Blabberize on of their images. They create the Blabberize and then hyperlink the image on the Easel.ly to the Blabberize. Students could also create a Vocaroo to hyperlink. 

*I know that many people like Easy Bib or Citation Machine, but I find that students tend to still have errors in their bibliographies AND no understanding of how to read the information in the bibliography. If I want my students to be able to use bibliographies as readers, I have to teach them how to write them. I would personally rather a student make an error in a bibliography entry they wrote than an error is one from Easy Bib. Just my two cents for my middle school ELA classroom.

Open-Ended Responses for Plickers

One of the biggest drawbacks of student response systems is that often in ELA I want my students to do more than just answer multiple choice. How to get students to write answers while still taking advantage of the data these response systems have to offer? Simple: don't put answer options down!

I create the questions like above where A is a, B is b, C is c, and D is d. In groups, have students answer the question (or in the case of the above, finish the sentence) on a sentence strip. While the view is NOT on bar graph, have students put their sentence strip next to a letter. Students can then vote on the best answer. When done, flip it over to the bar graph view. Have students talk in groups about the results and then share out.

Using Plickers for Status of the Class

Nancie Atwell's status of the class for determining which children are in which stages of the writing process can be applied to any class in which there is a multi-day and multi-step assignment.

You can create a Plicker question to represent the status options or create a blank Plicker question and ask it
on the fly. Use in art class, for PBL, writing workshop, etc.

It lets you instantly prioritize checking in/conferences, see if there are larger issues, and proactively take care of concerns before things spiral out of control. Additionally, if students need to peer conference, you have in your hand which students are looking for that and can pair them up easily.

Adding Embedded Audio Files in Formative

I'm on an audio roll! Add audio files from Vocaroo (vocaroo.com) to Formative (goformative.com).

Using OneNote for An Assignment to be Read Aloud

Many times accommodating learners who have oral administration for assignments can be challenging, not because reading assignments aloud is difficult, but because during the testing scenario quiet is often needed for other students so you don't want to disturb the class, keeping your eye on the rest of the class while also reading aloud is tricky, or sometimes students are embarrassed to ask for the accommodation. 

I was challenged by an inclusion teacher for a way to use tech to help with audio recordings and I came up with a way that is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Using OneNote from an online version of Office called Office 365 you (1) insert the assignment, (2) insert the audio, and (3) get a shareable link or QR code. Link to video.

Note: you can do it in the desktop version, but if you make it in the desktop version as of the time I am writing this, the uploaded file will not appear on the online. So we decided to solely use Office 365.

Conferencing Strategy: Award Ceremony

This is a fun little conferencing students can do with a journal entry. In groups of three, students listen as each students reads a short piece aloud. What they are listening for is what that writer does the best. The other two listeners give them awards of "Best Voice" or "Most Inventive Dialogue" or "Diction Diva" or whatever it may be. The reader draws a trophy or medal and label what they did the best.

When all three have finished, students are in charge of using their peers as inspiration and improving their writing in one of the two ways the other writer. As experts, students can discuss and offer suggestions.