Moving From Passive Learning to Active Learning With Graphic Organizers

How do we effectively convey information/content to students to ensure that they not only comprehend it, but can then represent this new knowledge in meaningful ways? How can we accommodate students that struggle with curating important information and managing abstract ideas? What strategies can we employ to aid information retention? The use of Graphic Organizers provide students and teachers with a tool to organize important ideas logically and visually. 

Graphic organizers provide student and teachers with a resource to visually present important information in a logical format that can simplify the transition of applying that knowledge. For example, a History Frame graphic organizer may be useful to aid in comprehension of Social Studies topics. A History Frame will ask students to identify when and were an event took place, the problem, the stakeholders, the key events, what was the result and what was the future impact.

Graphic organizers may also be useful for students to better understand what they already know and still need to investigate.  A KWL chart is a great resource for students to identify what they know about a topic, what they would like to learn more about and then what they have learned. This type of graphic organizer can be used for a Do Now at the beginning of the lesson and then again during the closure as they identify what they learned and would like to explore further.

There are many types of graphic organizers that can serve a variety of purposes. These valuable instructional tools are widely available on the web for free downloads. Completion of graphic organizers by students may serve as a formative assessment for teachers as they uncover the thought process of students as well as their level of understanding. English language learners will benefit from being able to visually organize small chunks of text in a logical order to complete a task or demonstrate understanding.

Here are some resouces for graphic organizer:

Write Design Graphic Organizers

Thinking Tools

UDL Graphic Organizers

Active Reading Strategies K-12

I have had the opportunity to work with students and faculty across all grade levels K-12. This experience and exposure has without a doubt made me a better teacher, observer, and most importantly filled my toolbox.

My visits to early elementary classrooms offer insight into differentiation and independent learning at a level of depth that is difficult to duplicate in higher grades. Many of the schools I have worked in implement balanced literacy programs with a focus on Guided Reading, Centers, and Reading / Writing workshop. During these early years of literacy instruction there is an emphasis on the skills of what good readers and writers do. Students are grouped by reading level and afforded the opportunity to work with their peers in small groups to learn and apply these skills.

During this time students learn pre-reading strategies such as activating prior knowledge, defining a purpose for reading and identifying text structures.  They also build skills to be implemented while reading such as questioning, making connections, managing speed, predicting,  how to infer and attack vocabulary. After reading students learn strategies such as "how to review", summarizing, and most importantly clarifying questions to ask.

These strategies, while taught as skills in early elementary, are proven to be vital for reading comprehension and learning. They are skills that should not be limited to a Language Arts classroom. Application of these skills should be integrated into all subject areas. As students move to higher grades the focus shifts from skill based literacy instruction to mastery  of content and analysis of text.

During my time coordinating I&RS teams I have worked with a number of students who struggle with reading comprehension. While the struggles manifest themselves in a variety of ways, the consensus is to develop reading skills to aid in comprehension. For that purpose i have found that the instructional strategies and skills taught in early elementary have a place in grades 6-12. All of our teachers would benefit from receiving direct instruction in "what good readers and writers do" in order to integrate these skills into their courses.

One of my favorite books regarding the teaching of reading comprehension strategies is Mosaic of Thought. While this book is typically found in elementary PD sessions or book clubs, it would be well placed in a high school as well.  US History II teachers would benefit in turn-keying instruction in monitoring meaning, activating prior knowledge, questioning, drawing inferences, imagery, and analyzing text structure.

As schools look towards increased differentiation and the elimination of levels our teachers need to fill their toolbox with strategies to reach all learners.  Recognizing that the teaching of reading strategies transcends grade levels and subjects is a great first step.

I have developed an active reading strategies chart that we share with teachers and students to aid in the development of comprehension. Active Reading Strategies Chart

Virtual Author Visits

What do good writer's do? Why not listen to them tell you. NBC Learn  has curated a number of video taped interviews with well-known children book authors. These short interviews provide an insight into their creative writing process. Current authors interviews available include:

Moe Willems, Doreen Cronin, Peter Brown and many more.  Full transcripts of each interview are also available.  It might be interesting to paste the text from each interview into Wordle to identify the common language and ideas shared by these authors?

http://www.nbclearn.com/writersspeak

Grade 5 Class Winners of Digital Earth Day Contest

The student's in Mrs. Halsall's grade 5 class in White Rock School were recognized as winners of the Glogster Edu Earth Day Contest. The contest required students/classes to develop digital posters that explore methods to go green in your community. The Glog they created contains text, images, video and audio.  Mrs. Halsall used a Flip Digital Video Camera to record her students. She worked with Mr. Walker to edit the videos and publish them on the Glog.The students were awarded a copy of the DVD Freedom by Sundance Film Festival Award Winners Josh & Rebecca Tickell.



Glogster EDU is a web 2.0 site that our district subscribes to. It provides our students with the opportunity to create digital posters. These digital posters allow for the addition of text, images, audio, video, drawings and file attachments. Students design and develop these posters and then present the content to their classmates. You can read more of my postings about the benefits of digital posters here.

 

Congratulations to Mrs. Halsall's class! You can view their Glog here. 

 

 

News Stories for Grades 1-3

In the past I have written about Tween and Teen Tribune. You can read more about them here. These sites provide news stories for students. Teachers may setup student accounts that allow them to leave comments that are moderated by the teacher.

Tween Tribune just released Tween Tribune Junior for grades 1-3.  It includes all of the same features as the other versions! This is a great resource for integrating primary source documents, current events, collaboration and student publishing into your classroom.

 

Enjoy!

National Poetry Month - Listen to Poems Read by Poets

April is National Poetry Month. While there are a number of online resources with activities to celebrate and explore poetry I really like the Poets.com Listening Booth .  The listening booth contains audio recordings of poet's reading poems. You can search by poet name or poem name. 

There are a number of benefits to having students listen to poems read by their actual poet.  This website lists an number of strategies and ideas to share with students when listening to poetry.  You may want to have your students first read the poem themselves and then listen to it read by the actual poet. That should prove to be a beneficial and enlightening exercise for all students.

 

Poet's Listening Booth - http://www.poets.org/audio.php/prmAlpha/

Listening to Poetry - Ideas for Teachers - http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/teachersTips.do

Enjoy

 

Student's Illustrate, Record and Publish

Little Bird Tales is a free site that allows teachers and students to create and publish their own digital tales.  Here is what i like about it.



Class Management

• The has a simple to use teacher interface in which you can setup classes and control access.


• Teachers manage student accounts.


•  The teacher assigns usernames and passwords to the students without the requirement of student emails.


• The teacher controls the privacy and publishing settings

 

Student Access and Story Creation

• Students can use the drawing tools to create characters, backgrounds and objects.


• You can add typed text or record your own narration with the click of a button.


• Students may import their own pictures. After importing they may use the drawing tools to add to them or annotate them.


• The site is easy to use and offers a number of options for classroom integration.

 

The options are limitless with Little Bird Tales. Students may publish a story of all original illustrations and narration or they may develop a presentation about an event, person or curriculum topic. Students may develop bird tales as an enrichment activity. An example would be the assignment to create a tale that describes how to add fractions.

For more student publishing resources please see my digital writing wiki: http://digitalwriting.wikispaces.com

Enjoy!

 

 

How to Bring Celebrities into Your Classroom for Reading Instruction?

Storyline (www.storyline.com) is a website published by the Screen Actors Guild. The site features videos of  famous actors and actresses reading children’s books.  There is an index of books to select from.

The videos display well on an interactive white board. They can also be used in a listening center. With most stories there are activity guides and extension activities.

Storyline may be used during whole group instruction as part of interactive read aloud. It may also be used in centers. Storyline may be used to model inflection, fluency, and to engage students in the process of reading.  They are able to apply the strategies that we teach them while having fun listening.  You can pause, stop and rewind. You can also display captions in order to discuss word use throughout.

Storyline is fun and interactive resource that is a great tool for any balanced literacy initiative. There a re a number of uses in an elementary classroom. I would love to hear how you use this with students. Please leave a comment below to share how you use Storlyline Online with your students.

Enjoy!

 

 

Insert Your Own Flash Content in Smart Notebook Software

The smart notebook software is a powerful and feature rich addition to any classroom. The gallery is loaded with images, backgrounds, interactive content and flash-based lesson activities. Did you know that you can add most flash activities from the web directly into a smart notebook page? Here is how it works.

First, using Google Chrome, conduct a search for the topic you are looking to explore with students and add that to the search bar. Add the phrase  "filetype:swf" at the end of the search. This will limit the search to flash based activities that fit that search criteria.

Example: Search for   fractions filetype:swf

The search will return a list of sites with flash based activities for working with fractions. Select one of the sites and open it.

After you have the site  open click on the wrench on the top right side of the Chrome toolbar. In that menu select "save page as". Save the file as a  "Flash Movie".

Open up smart notebook and navigate to a page in the file that you want to insert the flash activity. On the top toolbar click on INSERT - FLASH FILE... and browse to the flash file you saved.

Viola... You now have an interactive flash file embedded into your smart notebook presentation!

Enjoy!

Create Your Own STEM Textbook for Free!

The CK-12 foundation has introduced a new resource called the flexbook. CK-12 provides free access to textbooks for science, technology engineering, math and SAT review. They are now offering the ability to design your own "flexbook". You can read more about this initiative here. 

The web interface allows the user to select chapters from a text and then add them to your personalized flexbook. The editor allows the user to edit content in the chapter, insert text, insert images and insert videos. There are a series of easy to follow video tutorials that demonstrate how to add your own content.   Besides utilizing or editing existing chapters you can author your own chapter. The editor is very intuitive and offers a breadth of functionality.

Once you have finished curating the resources in your book you have options for sharing.

1. Share or Print as a PDF


2. Share as an online electronic book


3. Share as an HTML website.


4. Some of the books can be downloaded directly to the IPAD, Kindle, Nook Color, or Android Tablet.

You can share the book with your students by adding a link to it on your website or Moodle course.  There are a number of relevant books in the library. In many cases these books are best used to supplement the existing text and instructional materials already in place. The online textbooks utilize a number of primary source documents. They are designed to develop critical thinking skills.  You can search for textbooks that are aligned to the New Jersey standards and the common core standards.

The use of web-based, online textbooks that allow for the addition of personalized content offers a simple solution for educators to incorporate the resources of the web in one organized place.  Students, teachers and curriculum coordinators may author chapters or complete textbooks. Special education teachers may work collaboratively with general education teachers to provide flexible and differentiated content to meet the needs of their students. The possibilities are endless.

 

Enjoy

 

A Collaborative Project to Build Bullying Awareness

The students in Mrs. Bock's reading class at White Rock Elementary school wanted to work together to apply what they have learned about bullying, character counts, and the writing process to publish a book about bullying. The students and Mrs. Bock had recently been introduced to Storyjumper  through one of my training sessions. Storyjumper is a free web-based application that allows students to create and publish page turning online storybooks. The books are viewable online and can be purchased as a hard cover children's book. 

Mrs. Bock recognized that while writing in isolation on a topic that is of interest to students may be engaging, she knew that connecting with another school to collaborate on a publication would spark student interest.   Mrs. Bock successfully connected with a class from the Califon school in NJ. Together both groups of students co-authored a book that addresses bullying. This wonderful publication identifies the characteristics of a bully, integrates the six pillars of character and offers solutions for addressing the problem.

The overall project was a success. The students enjoyed applying what they have learned about bullying and character counts. They were provided with an opportunity to collaborate with another class, apply problem solving skills, and publish for a public audience. These are key skills for the 21st century. Please follow the link below to read a copy of their book.

Click Here To Read Their Book

Congratulations to Mrs. Bock's Class! Great Job!

A Technology Integration Matrix - Developing our K-12 Neo's

The University of South Florida has published a technology integration matrix that is quite impressive. The matrix is to be used as a guide to initiate a paradigm shift with regards to how we infuse technology in the classroom. The matrix is an excellent resource for all k-12 teachers to not only assess where their level of technology infusion stands, but it also provides inspiration and a road map as we look to expand our use of it in our classrooms.  The matrix provides examples for each level for each of the core subject areas. 

Here is an excerpt directly from their site:

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells".

This matrix is a valuable resource for all educators. In our district we are working to develop rubrics for classroom walk-throughs. This matrix will be useful as we develop the look-fors.  It is also a great point of reference to share with teachers as we assess and discuss technology use in our district.

Thank you University of South Florida and the department of instructional technology for developing and sharing such a wonderful resource.

Primary Source Documents in Social Studies

Primary sources are the building blocks of history. They are not limited to printed documents. They may also be artifacts, places, sounds and images. When primary source documents are used in instruction they expose students to various perspectives on issues from the past. They promote inquiry. Students engage in question asking, critical thinking, inferencing and interpretation. In many instances classes that utilize primary source documents create an environment where students engage in debates about interpretations. They will challenge each others conclusions and engage in a rich dialogue.



Instructional Value

Students who analyze and discuss primary source documents will soon realize that almost all recorded events are subjective. They will be empowered to research and defend or disprove their findings. Primary source documents are supportive of the first framework of universal design for learning as well as differentiation. By providing multiple representations of content we can individualize the learning experience of our students.

A quote from Docs Teach

Primary sources encourage higher order thinking. As historians, students can link documents to see cause and effect relationships, fit historical pieces together to understand a whole story, understand historical events in context by relating primary sources to mathematical data or geographic locations, and assess primary sources as evidence to formulate interpretations about the past.

Providing Help for Students

Reading and analyzing primary source documents may be difficult for some students. Here is a guide that will help students learn how to annotate such documents in order to understand the documents and to become active readers. Here is a guide with some strategies for reading these types of documents.

Implementation and Extension with Web Tools

Primary source documents may be provided to students in electronic form. By using Moodle, blogs or wikis students may engage in discussions about the sources in forums, collaborate on analysis, and develop presentations regarding them. By building a library or collection of primary source documents we can not only differentiate for our students but we can move to an instructional model that is not dependent upon a textbook and allows for self-directed learning.

Docs Teach - www.docsteach.org

While there are many sources for such documents, Docs Teach is one worth exploring. It was developed by the National Archives. With Docs Teach we can setup classes and assign activities to classes. Activities consist of a collection of primary source documents and a related activity.  The activities are interactive. They encourage students to apply the levels of blooms taxonomy as they work to build  and support their interpretations within each activity.  Below is a screenshot of the available activities. Click the image to enlarge.

You will also find a library of activities that have been created by other educators and shared on the site.

Enjoy!

Student Made Tutorials Using Paper Slides

What do you do when workbooks, handouts, and class problem sets are not connecting with your students? What do you do for those students who have a solid understanding of a topic before you begin the lesson? How are you differentiating for them? Can you address the needs of your advanced students as well as your struggling students with one activity?

Student made tutorials should be a welcome addition to any classroom. Students may be assigned to work independently or in small groups. Their task is to develop a video tutorial that explains a topic, problem or concept discussed in class. The completed video will be published online for all students in the class to reference as a study guide. By providing such an activity you are allowing your more advanced students the opportunity to apply their knowledge of the topic and better grasp the material by developing a lesson to teach the topic. Your struggling students will then have access to this tutorial online. They can pause, stop, rewind and replay the videos at home while working on homework or studying for an assessment.

There are a number of  options for creating tutorials. Paper Slide  Tutorials is a simple, cost effective method. It is no intrusive in the classroom and can be easily integrated in all subjects. The process is simple. Students plan a storyboard for the lesson. They prepare paper slides that will be used to present the topic. Once they are organized they will begin recording their tutorial. A Flip Video Camera or any Web Cam can be used to record the tutorial. Once completed the video can be published on the teachers website, Blog, School Tube, YouTube or any other video sharing site.

Here is a video made by a teacher for his students, introducing the process of Paper Slide Videos:

Here is a a sample project made by a student:

Are you ready to FLIP the classroom?

There is a new paradigm shift occurring in classrooms.  Many of the most innovative teachers are turning the traditional K-12 classrooms upside down in an effort to individualize the learning experience for students. They are "Flipping" the classroom in order to make classroom instructional time more valuable to students.

"Flipping" the classroom refers to a new approach to teaching in which the students view videos, podcasts or vodcasts of classroom lectures at home for homework. In the classroom, students apply what is learned by completing what is typically identified as "homework" in the classroom. 

This innovative approach to instruction offers many instructional advantages. By viewing video lectures in Math and Science, students may pause, stop, rewind at their own will. They may also engage in the lesson at a time that is right for them in their own environment.  In the classroom students are provided the opportunity to apply what was learned in the lesson. Students work through the problems during class time. The teacher acts as a facilitator by circulating the room and providing assistance where necessary. Students also work with peers  or in small groups to collaborate on problems. This model allows the teacher to be available when the students need him or her most. It creates a student centered personalized learning environment.

In a typical classroom students would sit through a lecture in order to learn the content. They would then be assigned homework for that evening. Many students who did not grasp the lecture would struggle with the homework. When this happens they would just quit or not do it.  They would return to class the next day having to learn something new. By flipping the classroom, teachers can see who is struggling and provide immediate help for those students. The application of this new teaching style has presented fantastic results in student achievement and engagement.

Where do you start?

There are a number of free video screencasts available for math and science online. One example is The Khan Academy. This site, created by Salman Khan houses thousands or screencast lectures from basic math to advanced calculus. It also includes interactive practice sessions for students to apply what they have learned.   In the video below, Salman Khan explains how he created Khan Academy and how it is being used by educators.



In our district we have access to MOODLE. MOODLE is an online course management software. Teachers can post links to videos and other online tutorials that students may access from any computer with internet access.  We also use Google Sites or Wordpress Blogs. Each of these allow teachers to embed or link to videos that students may access over the web. There are also a number of free tools that allow  teachers to record screencasts of their lectures. Screencast.com and the Smart Notebook Software all offers these features.

My recommendation is to start small. One or two a month is a great way to get students exposed to the process and to measure its impact.

Interactive Letter Writing Resource

The website Read Write Think has a fantastic tool available to help teach letter writing. They have provided an interactive letter writer.



Here is a description taken directly from their website:

"The Letter Generator tool is designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates. A sample letter is included, and students can learn about the parts of a letter by reading descriptions of each part.

Once students have become familiar with letter formats, they are prompted to write their own letter. Students follow the steps and fill in specific fields in the template (for example, heading, salutation, closing, signature, and so on). They may even add a decorative border and postscript to the friendly letter. The finished letter can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

This useful tool provides step-by-step instructions for familiarizing users with the necessary elements of written correspondence, and can serve as an excellent practice method for composing and proofreading both formal and informal letters."

They also provide a number of lessons that utilize the letter writer. They can be found here. Many of our teachers are starting to connect with schools around the world via Epals. This interactive letter writer would be a great resource to assist in the development of our Pen-Pal letters.

Digital Writing - Start with a Purpose and Audience - RAFT

If you are looking to work on digital stories with your students or would like to engage your students in the writing process the following will be helpful. In our district we incorporate the writer's workshop framework. We are also looking for innovative ways to implement writing across the curriculum. The RAFT STRATEGY is one of the strategies that we have been exploring.



The document below provides some great examples of how writing can be implemented in various subjects. Each example provides examples of non-traditional purposes for writing. You will see a variety of audiences that students may write for. My Digital Writing Wiki provides resources that can be used to create and publish these writings and stories.

Click here for the complete document

Explore the Museums of the World - Google Art Project

I have been working in instructional technology for the past 10 years. During that time I have experienced the development of some amazing instructional tools. The Google Art Project goes directly to my "best of" list of innovative web-based tools!



The Google Art Project uses Google Earth street view technology to allow visitors to take virtual tours of the top museums in the world. Visitors can navigate the hallways, zoom in on art work to see the details of the brush strokes, view information about the artist, and build a personal art collection. There are so many great features to this site . I embedded a YouTube video that provides a short introduction to this site. It is well worth the three minutes it takes to view it. The video is from YouTube so if necessary you may to use a firewall override? (Jefferson Teachers please use your firewall login to bypass the filter)

Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GThNZH5Q1yY

Search Google by Reading Level

Google has developed a powerful new search feature that students and teachers will benefit from. You now have the ability to search by reading level. Google classifies search results by basic, intermediate and advanced reading level. You can choose to only view one of the levels in your result or view all of them with an annotation identifying the level next to each.

Finding, managing and qualifying information found online is a complicated task for students to manage. It is however one of the most important skills that a student can develop in the digital age. Many elementary teachers struggle keeping students on task when searching online.  Many times i am asked how do we convince students to narrow their search results and not just trust the first 3 or 5 results that are returned on a search.  By teaching students how to narrow down search results to a reading level that is appropriate for them we provide them with results that are manageable.  When students can  make sense of the materials they are finding th

ey are more likely to look at it more critically. They will also find more relevant results on the first page of results.

To utilize this new feature you must go to http://www.google.com and click on Advanced Search next to the search bar.

Once inside the advanced search menu you will see ?a drop down for reading level. From there you can select only one level or the option to view all results with the reading level annotated.



In my example I am searching for "the civil war" After i select  "annotate results with reading level" I click the advanced search button. My search results are displayed.  There is a bar graph that displays the number of results by reading level. If you click on the reading level in the bar chart, Google will only display results with that reading level. You will also notice that each search result has its corresponding reading level written next to it.

Common Formative Assessments Using Study Island

Our district subscribes to Study Island for its grades 2-8 students. The software started out primarily as a NJ Ask test prep tool. It has evolved into much more. Although there are many features that i could highlight I would like to talk about the Custom Assessment tool in this posting.

The custom assessment option allows teachers to create online assessments for one student in a class, a group of students in a class or an entire class. The faculty member can browse through questions by topic. He or she can select a topic question and tell the system how many of that type of question he or she would like included in the test.

The software will andomize the numbers in a math question or change the text in a language arts question.  This allows the teacher to have multiple questions that assess the same skill.



By having the ability to create custom assessments, faculty members are able to quickly develop formative assessments that will help guide instruction. The fact that these assessments can be taken online, with a student response system or on paper provide a number of options.

The newest release of Study Island now allows faculty members to share the custom assessments that they create with the other teachers in their school. They have added a custom assessment library.

When implemented correctly, study island is a valuable instructional tool. The software offers numerous reports, customizable options and an intuitive interface. I must say I am very happy with our subscription.