Sharing Student Voices: "Where I'm From" poems using Adobe Spark

By Sandra Lee

For first quarter, freshmen created "Where I'm From" poems while reading House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. They then recorded their readings of their poems using the Adobe Spark app. While the requirements were minimal, students applied their creativity using Adobe Spark by adding images, background colors, and music to reflect their poems. We required students to use this app because we wanted them to practice speaking loudly and clearly, but we wanted them to have opportunities for practice. Since we assess students' speaking skills in a number of formal and informal speeches, it was important for students to be able to practice speaking skills such as volume and annunciation in isolation. Overall, the students exceeded our expectations as listed in a rubric and created interesting and original projects that displayed their unique personalities and backgrounds.

Check out this student sample! 

And this one!

Brainstorming in the Digital World

by Kirsten Fletcher

The following is a brief overview of different ways to use technology to brainstorm with your students. Most of these ideas came out of collaboration with my wonderful district PLC. As always, a big thank you to Sara Kahle-Ruiz for sharing her discoveries.

Schoology: Discussions

• If Schoology is already your LMS, this is a great way to brainstorm. Students don't need to learn a new app or log in to a new site. 
• Simply click on "Add Material" and select the "Discussion" feature. Then you can create a discussion question and add images or links, if desired.
• Students can respond to ideas with praise or suggestions for improvement.
• The teacher can adjust the settings to either allow students to view all responses or mandate that they post an idea before they view other responses.
• There is also a "Like" feature so students can select their favorite idea.
• In this discussion, I had students find unique advertisements for food products in French. They posted a link or an image with a brief explanation. Then classmates commented on the ads.

Discussions allow students to post images, links, and text. They can "like" and respond to posts.

Schoology:  Media Albums

• Again, if you are already using Schoology, students will have easy access to this feature.
• Simply click on "Add Material" and select the "Media Album" feature. You can give your album a title and upload your own images.
• Items need to be in a student's camera roll in order to be uploaded from an iOS device.
• Since you can not set a due date on a media album, you may not want to hide this in a folder. It is easier if it is readily visible to students.
• In a media album, students can upload photos, infographics, and videos. 
• I often have students upload video projects (from Adobe Voice or iMove) to an album. Since the album is visible to the entire class, I then have them watch a few examples and ask follow-up questions of their classmates.
• In this example, I had students search for an image of what they believed to be the biggest global challenge. They gave their image a title. Then they maintained a conversation with a partner defending why their global challenge was the most significant. The media in this case was a springboard for conversation.

Media album allows students to post images. In the browser version, they can also comment on each others' posts.

Candor

• This site is great if you want to get all the ideas out before anyone has the chance to criticize. The leader controls the amount of time that participants can create "cards", or post ideas. He/She then closes the board and participants can vote on their favorite ideas. Here is a how-to video for Candor.
• I think this might work best for professional collaboration, or teams trying to collaborate from different locations and on different schedules. Once the board is closed, all participants receive an email with a list of proposed ideas to vote on.
• Participants will need to register for a free account with Candor before they can join the brainstorm.

Participants create "cards" with ideas for a project, etc. Then when brainstorming phase is over, others can vote or comment on their favorite ideas at candor.com

Dotstorming
This is by far my favorite because it combines images, captions, comments, and voting. Plus, it is web-based so it works on both tablets and computers!

How to get started:

• The teacher must create a free account, but students only need a link to participate. 
• Create a board by adding ideas, images, or uploading from Pinterest. 
• Invite participants by email or posting a link on your LMS. (Students do not need an account.) 
• Students can click a dot to vote on an idea or concept. They can also post pictures and comment on ideas.
• The teacher can lock the board in order to reclaim students' attention. The teacher can also rank ideas by votes and move ideas around to re-order them. 
• The comment feature allows students to practice writing with targeted vocabulary or grammar, justifying their choices. 
• This is similar to Schoology media albums, but students can see each others' comments and vote on their favorites.
• There is also a chat feature that the teacher can turn on or off.

You can duplicate any board to use it with different classes. It's good to keep a template because kids can edit the content.

Students can vote, add comments, or add their own images. You can also enable the chat feature.

Tips for Dotstorming:

• If accessing on an iPad, this works best in Puffin. 
• Create a template that you DON'T share. Then duplicate it for each class so they don't change your original. 

For more detailed information on how Sara Kahle-Ruiz at RMHS used Dotstorming to engage students in discussion and writing, check out this amazing blog post by Ann Syverson Bullis.

Easier Presentations for All Subjects with Adobe Voice

By Kim Miklusak

I was first introduced to Adobe Voice through pre-service teachers who raved about the app, citing that it was so easy that kindergartners could use it!  I hadn't had an opportunity to try it out in class until this week when our American Literature class began preparing for our oral communications unit on a real-life nonconformist after having read Sula by Toni Morrison.  This will be part 1 of a blog; next week I will share out student samples and provide more feedback.

I cannot stress how simple Adobe Voice is for any subject or grade!  It's the best of a few apps all in one.  Also, it's free, which is always helpful.  The app first allows you to name your presentation and select a template if you want one.  All this does is set up key words for certain slides.  You are welcome to change, add, or delete slides to meet your goal.

There are several simple and pre-made template for backgrounds and slide transitions as well as layout design.  The downside (or upside) of this is that you cannot design these slides as you want.   You can also select music--which I wouldn't suggest if you have students speaking over it.  If you are not speaking in the presentation, you can set how long you want each slide to play for.  Otherwise the slide stays on the screen for as long as you talk.

When you want to add a photo, you are given a few choices including from your camera roll, taking a picture, or searching.  All of the search options are copyright safe!  This is a huge digital citizenship teachable moment for students.  One thing I noticed, however, is that there is not always a huge amount of photos.  I found more available for reuse through Google; I simply saved them to my camera roll.

After the presentation is done, students can record their voice if they would like.  This is the easiest option ever.  You simply hold down the record button and speak.  If you would like to record over what you just said, you just press the button again!  This is a huge bonus over other similar apps in that you don't have to re-record your entire presentation if you mess up on one slide.  The down side in comparison to some other apps, however, is that you cannot write or draw on any of the slides, which may not be a problem depending on why you are using it.

When you're ready to share, it's as easy as ever.  Among the options are emailing a link or tweeting.  For example, here is a link to the sample I made to share with my team and students.  However, the option I'm most appreciative of is the ability to save it to the camera roll because then I can upload it and have students upload them to a Schoology Media Album to share!  Now every student in class can provide feedback on all of the presentations.

I will post again next week with student samples and more feedback. 

Using Audio Recording to Improve Fluency

By Bonnie Kale

In a high school English classroom, we rarely have the opportunity to practice and assess our students' reading fluency.  After all, with the time constraints of a 50-minute classroom, it would be nearly impossible to give 25 students a chance to read aloud from a text.  What's more, we don't want to force kids to read a passage aloud in front of their peers when they have had limited time to practice. Now, thanks to the audio feature on Schoology, it is easy to seamlessly incorporate fluency instruction and assessment into our courses.  Simply create an assignment as you regularly would in Schoology.  When students go to submit the assignment, they will click on "submit audio recording." 
 
Recently, I had the opportunity to use this audio feature with my honors freshman class. Students practiced reading the prologue from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in small groups, paying particular attention to the punctuation, phrasing, rhyme, and overall purpose of the passage.  Then, students went home and submitted an audio recording of themselves reading the prologue aloud.  I was able to provide students with individual feedback about how to improve their fluency, thus, enhancing their overall understanding of the passage.  For example, I could hear that several students were pausing and ending phrases at the end of the line, rather than continuing the phrase to the end of the punctuation.   It's easy to forget that fluent reading is not a product of good reading but a contributor to reading comprehension.

Engaging students with Visuals and Infographics

Written by Linda Ashida

In a previous Collab Blog post, Rachel Barry shared numerous examples of ways we can use infographics in education.  If you missed it, please check it out!

The same week, Lisa Pokorny inspired the ITF / DTC team with a lesson plan she shared with us in which she used several infographics to engage her ELL students in varied speaking activities.

Check out her lesson and the rich visuals and infographics that she used as prompts with her students:

Activity #1 - Describe a place

Goal: I can describe the place in the photo using adjectives and nouns.

Activity #2 - Is your phone ruining your sleep?
Goal: I can listen to information being read and view a chart to answer questions in complete sentences

Activity #3 - Drinking Toilet Water

Goal: I can listen to information being read and view a chart to answer questions in complete sentences.

Activity #4 - Guess Who

Goal:  I can communicate with a partner by asking and answering questions.

Lisa conducted the lesson in our Language Lab, so as students were practicing she could listen "real time" to several responses and provide immediate feedback to the class, sharing examples of  quality responses and common errors.  

Thank you Lisa for sharing this lesson with us and inviting us to your class! 

What are some of the creative ways that you have used visuals and infographics to engage students in learning?  We'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment, or stop by and see us in the Collab Lab!