ReFORMat Your Teaching

In two short weeks I am leading a workshop at a Google Summit in Lancaster PA about using Google Forms.  I came up with the title of the workshop, ReFORMat Your Teaching, because I want to encourage educators to think of more creative uses for forms other than assessment purposes.  Forms is a multi-faceted tool that enables teachers to collect information but what about the students?

Last year my students learned how to use forms to support their learning of key concepts.  They used forms to collect information related to online research, collected data for graphing and analysis, and assessing their peers' knowledge of concepts.

During our study of Life Structures (FOSS) I introduced the class to online search tips and tricks. Once students employed the use of these strategies to find appropriate websites concerning crayfish, they copied and pasted the links into a Google Form.  We then looked out the frequency of a particular website URL and had a great list of peer-reviewed sites to make the research process easier.




Here are some of the responses:

My students also surveyed each other by making their own Google Forms and adding options through the multiple choice format. This was a great introduction for how to create a Form on their own.  They then were able to analyze the data.  More information can be found on the class blog.

After reading blog posts from talented educators in my online PLN, I was later inspired about the possibilities of how to use Forms to enhance student learning, rather than just student assessment.  This involved student-created assessments, reading instruction, and writing creativity.

Last year's class created their own geometry test. They created the test items in a Google Doc and then drew visuals for questions using Google Draw.  Some examples of other "tests" they made are available here.

Another great use of Forms is to provided support while students are working more independently with for Reading instruction.  I created this example for a talk I did at Long Island University concerning Interventions for Struggling Readers.  I used branching to provide support for students that selected incorrect answers.  When a student was incorrect, a new page opened with an explanation with the correct answer.





My next goal is to use branching in a creative writing assignment where students do a "Choose Your Own Adventure" e-text.  Kate Petty has a great example on her blog.


Also next on the list is exploring more advanced scripts and add-ons!

Using Google Draw to add Gamification in the Classroom

I have recently been inspired by a variety of posts from my online PLN and a post that Alice Keeler wrote about using Google Draw to create Math manipulatives.  My students are memorizing their multiplication and division facts up to 12 at this point in the school year and I am always looking for new and exciting ways to motivate them to practice to pass our weekly quizzes.

My answer was gamifying this task by creating individual game boards in Google Draw. I then gave each of my students a copy using Google Classroom.  The game board  is very simple but it gets the job done.  Students can see how they are doing and move their game piece with each accomplishment. No one but me and the specific student can see where he/she are on the game board so no student has to worry about others making comments about the progress made.

Here is how I did it:

• First I used the shapes in Google Draw to create a simple game board. 

• Then I looked for a game piece by changing the search tools to only include images that can be reused.

• Once I got the game piece, this is the result.  I have provided a link to the game so you can feel free to make a copy and tweak for your purpose.

• Next, I created an assignment on Google Classroom and gave each of my students a copy.

The best part is that through Google Classroom I can easily access every students' game to check that they are accurately reflecting their progress.

So far, so good.  Now if we can stop with all this snow so we can have a full uninterrupted week of school!

Movenote for Fluency Self-Assessment

Reading fluency is critical for reading success and is a component of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  Students should have many opportunities to hear fluent reading through teacher-led read alouds, as well as, opportunities to practice for the development of greater fluency.  Fortunately resources abound for how to accomplish this task that can be found on the Internet (such as Scholastic.com and ReadingRockets.org).  Repeated readings, partner reading, and Reader's Theater all make their way into my third-grade class at various points in the year.

The third-grade Expeditionary Learning Module 1 Unit 2 focuses on developing fluency using the text Thank You, Mr. Falker as an introduction.  Later, students are also provided texts on their reading levels to practice.  When it came time for this lesson, I wondered how I could make my assessment of their fluency easier and how the students could self-assess their own fluency.

Lately, I have been experimenting with web-based programs and Chrome apps for my students to use for presenting knowledge and creating tutorials. Last year,  I used Movenote with a group of students during a Math lesson.  The students were helping a local yoga instructor with ways she could arrange 24 yoga mats in equal rows in her studio.  One of the project requirements was that they had to find a way to communicate their solution to her.  That presentation can be found here.  Movenote is easy to use and works seamlessly with Google Slides.

Once I decided to use Movenote as a way to record my students' oral fluency, the set up was easy.  I found passages from Readinga-z.com that were on each child's independent reading levels. Then I took screen shots of the texts and put each picture in separate Google Slides files. I shared the file with the specific students for which that text was appropriate (I would love to use Doctopus for this in the future).

First thing in the morning I showed a few students the steps the class would need to follow when we did the EL lesson later. I have learned to capitalize on my students' helpfulness and they provide the much needed assistance because I am the only teacher in the room.  This what they did:

1. Add the fluency Google slide to students' Drive accounts.
2. Download Movenote for Education from the Chrome Store.
3. Agree to give Movenote access to Google accounts.
4. Give permission for Movenote to use the web cam and microphone (make sure to agree to the permission request that pops up at the top by the address bar).
5. Click on the plus sign to choose the Google slide you want to use.  
6. Press record!
7. When you are done click Save and Preview... it is that easy!

My students emailed me the Movenote link and I made a Google Sheet of the links for my class. 

Students later listened to their reading and self-assessed their reading using a fluency rating sheet I got from Scholastic.  After having time to practice over the next two days, students rerecorded themselves. This week we will watch both and make comparisons. After making comparisons, we will set goals and continue reading with partners.  

Chrome Apps to Aid Struggling Readers

On Tuesday I will have the pleasure of meeting with a graduate class at Long Island University's Rockland County campus.  Janice Hurewitz, the course instructor, is my former principal and it is an honor that she asked me to join some of my other esteemed colleagues to speak.

The class is focused on interventions for struggling readers, so it is no surprise to anyone that I chose to focus on how GAFE and Chrome Apps can help.  I probably could have spent an entire day or even week talking about the ways students can benefit from interventions with Google apps.  After much debate I decided to just focus on a few options.

Below is what I came up with... (BTW I mention Padlet as a backchanneling tool, but there are so many ways that Padlet can be utilized to also help struggling readers).

The Therapist is In

In the past two years I have said, on more than one occasion, that I feel like a therapist/cheerleader more than a teacher.  There are human and affective aspects to teaching that just cannot be ignored.

While observing students over the years, I have found myself seeing sadness, self-doubt, fear, and anxiety on too many faces I care to count.  It is no coincidence that testing is at the heart of such feelings.  The rapid pace of instruction and measurement of progress with assessment result after assessment result have created a new breed of student.  This type of student may want desperately to achieve and please others but are fearful that they will not succeed.  Resulting in a student who shuts down, a student that cannot try something without assistance, or a student that acts aloof and the class clown to hide their true feelings.

Everyone wants to be successful.  We all have a need for approval and encouragement.  So I began to think of how we can get the message across that there are times in life when you are going to have work hard, persevere, and be okay with knowing you are not the best at something. The poster in my classroom that says, “Citius, Altius, Fortius!” just was not cutting it.

I began thinking how I could change the class climate and culture to foster the acceptance of failure and approximations of a goal.  Additionally, I wanted my students to know that being the first to shout “DONE!” when you think you have completed an assignment is not our end goal.  Quality over quantity.  

Two years ago I started a routine that I saw on The Teaching Channel where for the morning meeting the students have an opportunity to share how they are feeling.  Not only does this allow me to gauge students’ moods (and get a handle on things happening outside of school), it allows the class an opportunity to expand our vocabulary while developing words for self-expression.  The morning meeting also includes a time to celebrate and reflect on what they did well the previous day, and a time to make a goal for what they would like to do better today.

This summer I read Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell and I thought about the message that you have to fail in order to succeed.  I began sharing this message with my students.  It turns out that this is easier said than done.  Students have to believe that there is a glimmer of success on the horizon- the motivator- in order to persevere through tough times that pop up in the beginning of learning.

How is this working out?  Well, a student of mine expressed that she felt that things in school were going “too fast” and that others are “ahead of her.”  The day before she spent a miserable hour staring at a book and her text-dependent questions believing that she could not do it on her own and it would never get done. I reassured her that she was not the only one feeling that way. After explaining that, as a teacher, I care more about her understanding what we are doing than completing 20 more items than someone else, the most amazing thing happened… The next day, the same student was smiling when she found the answer to the first question.  She allowed herself to celebrate this “little” success before moving on to the next.

My students care about school and they want to do well… so if I have to find time in our busy day to “slow down,” embrace mistakes as learning opportunities, and celebrate the steps that lead to bigger successes, I think it is well worth it!

Reflections from an ISTE First-Timer

ISTE ended a week ago and it has taken me this long to fully process my experience.  I walked away full of notes in Evernote, many QR codes, product fliers, and bookmarked websites.  As the perpetual qualitative researcher I naturally looked for the patterns.  The pattern that binds my experiences at ISTE is the notion of PLAY.  This was not shocking to me because intuitively I knew that I thrive on play and my students certainly do too.

Flashback to this past school year...  I had the amazing opportunity of having a 1:1 tablet classroom for the month of September thanks to being a Sony Education Ambassador.  Although teaching third grade for the second year was stressful (at least I had one year of testing under my belt), I looked forward to seeing how the curriculum could be enhanced by the use of the Xperia tablets.  Curriculum drove instruction, the tablets made things playful.  You can see my blog post on my students' work here.

At the end of the school year, my school district had me pilot the use of Chromebooks in my classroom and I was elated. Not only were the kids excited about using the new, novel technology, but so was I.  I looked forward to going to work everyday because I got to "play around" with the Chromebook.  My students were encouraged to use Chrome apps to be creative, be collaborative, be critical thinkers, and to communicate.  As a result, they thought they were playing, but they were also creating the most amazingly detailed work that involved lots of reading of print and online texts, lots of paragraph writing, and lots of providing quality feedback for each other. You can see their work while studying China and Water on my website.

Ok, back to ISTE... 

Moby Sighting

 I attended workshops centered on Minecraft, augmented reality, apps, game-making with ARIS, and other web-based games.  The icing on the cake was listening to Kevin Caroll speak about how everything he ever needed to learn in life, he learned on the playground.  The obvious take-away is that play is essential for learning and knowledge development.  We thrive when we play!  Time passes quickly when we care about and are engrossed in what we enjoy.  It just doesn't seem like work!  What if entities in charge of curriculum development considered this?  When is the last time you heard a child say, they would love to play a textbook or reading program anthology?

Thankfully there are education leaders out there that are celebrating the state of play in education.  They recognize like James Gee that games are part of the "New Literacies" that are essential in today's digital age (read more about Gee's thoughts here).

Based on what I experienced at ISTE I recommend checking out these resources.

• Phillip Vinogradv's presentation from the Google for Education booth on gamification
• Changegamer is a website that promotes the use of computer games to learn about, "energy, climate change, natural disasters, the environment, economics, politics, history and science."
• AWW Web Whiteboard is a collaborative whiteboard.  Share the board and anyone can join in
• Padlet is another interactive space- shared by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellows
• Build interactive lessons with Pear Deck (works with GAFE accounts)- shared by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellows
• Make infographics with Picktochart- shared by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellows
• Marianne Malmstrom shared her resources for using Minecraft in the schools
• Tuvalabs has data sets that students can interact with to "empower your students to think critically about data, ask meaningful questions, and communicate conclusions.
• Teachersfirst is a collections of lessons, resources and units
• Denise Jaffe's site for Universal Design for Learning 
• Microsoft's Innovative Teaching and Learning site
• Teaching with Primary Sources at Governors State University has a great site and the team that presented shared their Blendspace page that contains information on how they use ARIS for game making to learn content

Of course there is so much more that I learned and experienced... Stay tuned.

We are in(to) Kahoots, are you?

     The other day Leslie Fisher posted on Facebook about Kahoot, a "game-based classroom response system."  I had never heard of it so I immediately checked it out.  Now I am hooked.

     On the website you can create a quiz, survey, or post a discussion question.  You can create questions that include images and video.  The questions are projected on a big screen and students can answer the questions on individual devices that are connected to the Internet. This may sound a lot like other websites out there that do the same thing like Socrative; however, Kahoot has some features that sets it apart.

     The first thing that sticks out to me is that students can have accounts where they can make their own Kahoot, resulting in students being in charge of forming their own assessments.  In order to accomplish this, students need to do careful research and develop thought-provoking questions that include wrong answers.  Another difference is that Kahoot can keep points for correct and timely answers (you can create questions that are not point-based).  It is very engaging for everyone because the students are competing against each other and get immediate feedback. After answering a question the site reveals the correct answer with the number of how many people chose each answer.  Students' individual devices show them if they were correct or not and provide a rank among the other players.  A major bonus is that any device works with Kahoot because it is completely web-based... no app necessary.

    This week I tried it out with my third graders who are using Chromebooks.  We are working on CCSS standards regarding Geometry, specifically polygons, and I saw that others had posted quizzes on the topic.  A Kahoot can be shared and made public for others to use or copied of so that the quiz can be modified.  It was a roaring success! My kids asked to do the quiz twice and I have a spreadsheet of their responses from both times.  There is a breakdown by student and there are tabs for each question.

Ready, set, go!

   Last night I decided to give Kahoot creation a try.  I made my own polygon formative assessment with images.  It was so easy!  We used it today and the kids cheered. This is a miracle because at this point in the year they are so burned out from testing and their brains are focused more on summer escapades.

Victory and Defeat

Here is a video of what Kahoot looks like.