Using Powerpoint or Keynote to make make content more interactive

by Kirsten Fletcher

Digitizing your curriculum doesn't have to take enormous chunks of time. Here is a quick trick to allow students to interact with content at their own pace.

I used to do a lot of PowerPoint presentations. Sometimes I would use them to present new vocab. Sometimes I would pull out white boards and have students conjugate the verbs they saw on the screen before the answer popped up.

Then I got iPads and felt like I had to convert everything. I ditched the PowerPoints for Nearpod presentations where students could write on the slides. However, students sometimes found this cumbersome. Lately, I've discovered that I can take the same PowerPoints I've always used and simply put them in the hands of the students. This way, there is minimal prep on my end and students get instant feedback during activities. Also, once they download the presentation, they don't need wi-fi to work on it. Here's what it looks like:

• Students download either the free Powerpoint app or the free Keynote app
• Post your Powerpoint presentation as a file in your LMS (Schoology, Canvas, etc)
• Students open the presentation in the app, tap on the pencil icon, and write directly onto your presentation. 
• If students use the Powerpoint or Keynote app in presentation mode, the information will pop up in order. I like to have them write an answer to a problem, then swipe to see the correct answer and/or explanation on the same slide.

Here are some samples of my students' work:

Slide with student writing. Note the "pen" selected at the top of the screen.

The same slide after student clicked to see the answer.

Another possible use of the PowerPoint app might be to annotate an existing presentation. This is one that I shared with students. I asked them to find and correct errors in the writing. I also annotated my own copy so I could project an answer key. (Notice the drawing tools at the top of the page.)

I had students correct this writing sample in PowerPoint.

I then created a key so they could check their work.

Interactive vocab review

by Kirsten Fletcher

I heard some great ideas this week from my colleagues about creative ways to review vocabulary.

Mindy Perkins - APUSH
Mindy Perkins was looking for a quick way to review vocabulary in AP US History without creating a mountain of little vocabulary flashcards. Here's what she came up with.

She created 2 grids of vocabulary that will be on the final exam. Students seated in groups of 4. They were seated across from their partner and next to their opponent. The opponents shared an iPad and opened one of the vocabulary grids in Notability. Their partners opened the other grid on their iPad. Person A from Team 1 started by giving a clue for one of the vocabulary terms on their grid. If their partner guessed the term correctly, they colored in the word in their chosen color. If not, Person A from Team 2 gave a clue. They continued until someone guessed the word. Then Person B from each team gave clues. At the end, they simply counted up the number of boxes in their color to determine who won.

Student B game board

Mindy said that as they played, the students were engaged, excited, and on task. Since it was a student-led game, she had the time to correct definitions and clarify terms as she walked around. When the game was finished, she had students pull out their vocabulary lists and highlight any words that their group struggled to define. This allowed students to reflect on their learning in order to study more efficiently for the assessment.


Cliff Darnall - Japanese
I saw Cliff Darnall cutting apart cards with pictures for a vocabulary game that he plays, and he graciously invited me to observe his class in action. Cliff credits this idea to the 2012 ACTFL Teacher of the Year, Mr. Yo Azama of North Salinas High School in California.

The purpose of this activity is to have students using new vocabulary in context so they practice grammar structures while learning new vocabulary. To start, Cliff has students practice a model sentence that he projects on the screen.

Then, he divides his students into small groups. Each student has a vocabulary card with a picture or clue on one side and the vocabulary word on the other. The students stand in a circle holding their cards so the picture / clue is facing out and they can see the word.

Vocabulary card

At the beginning of the activity, the teacher sets a timer for 30 seconds. One student starts by reading the model sentence and substituting in their own vocabulary word, then the word of another student. For example, the sentence might read "I like Geography, but I don't understand Chemistry". The second student then says the sentence with their word first and another student's word. The conversation continues around the circle until the timer rings. The student who is still talking when the timer goes off is out. For the next turn, the timer is shorter (maybe 20 seconds) and so on until there is one winner left.

As I observed Cliff's class doing this activity, he modified it slightly for his students. Since he had extra cards he asked the student who was "out" to pick up a new vocab card and continue practicing. This particular class was not overly competitive, so they responded well to this change. Also, after a few minutes, he had groups swap cards so that they practiced more vocabulary. When he did this, he switched the prompt also.

For World Languages, this activity has a lot of advantages. Not only are students learning new vocabulary, but they are repeating sentence structures (without the boredom that sometimes accompanies rote repetition) and they are constantly practicing pronunciation and interpersonal speaking skills. Hot Potato is very guided. To use this in other subject areas, a teacher may have to adapt the activity to include definitions or sentence starters.

Check out how engaged Cliff's students are during this Hot Potato Vocab Activity !

Introducing new vocabulary, concepts

by Kirsten Fletcher

Where would we be in this profession if we didn't have colleagues who shared great ideas? I saw this on Twitter the other day, and it made me feel a little more justified in sharing ideas that weren't mine.

So in the spirit of collaboration, here are two fun ideas that I implemented recently to "hook" students into new material.



I started with a word wall. I saw a word wall hanging in Anna Izzo's classroom a few weeks ago and really liked the visual reminder of advanced vocabulary that her Italian students could use as a reference. When I asked her about it, she said the idea actually came from Mark Heintz. Who knows where he got it? Collaboration!

At any rate, Anna had students brainstorm vocabulary on a topic, look up words they thought would be useful for discussing the topic in Italian, then write them on butcher paper that she posted in the classroom. Sounds simple, right? So last week when I started my new AP theme on science and technology, we began by brainstorming, looking up words that students found useful, and making our class list. The process of writing the list generated some good discussion (and spelling practice for our class secretary).


From here we moved on to the quote activity. I learned this from Dawn Samples, an amazing world language educator and administrator who recently led a workshop at the Fall ICTFL (Illinois Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Conference. Basically, the quote activity works like this.

• I searched for quotes in French pertaining to science and technology. 
• I printed out enough that I had at least two quotes per student. 
• I seated students in a circle, and each student started with two quotes. 
• They read both, then kept the one they liked best / agreed with and passed the other. They continued reading and passing for several minutes. 
• Next, students paired up and read their quote to their partner. They had to justify why they chose it and make a connection. 
• They did this with several partners before reporting out to the class. 

I feel like the quote activity allows students to interact with material in so many ways. The reading step not only exposes them to new vocabulary in context, but also encourages them to think critically. You could even use pictures, infographics, cartoons, etc. instead of quotes. The partner sharing gives them the opportunity to articulate their ideas and demonstrate comprehension. It enhances both listening and speaking skills.

On this day, we ended the activity by adding any new words we learned from the quotes to our word wall. Since then, we have continued to refer back to the word wall with any new reading or listening activity to keep the vocabulary relevant. We have added many useful words that I would never have thought to put on a vocab list. Since the word wall is hanging in the room, I have referred to it in lower levels as well. It's never too early to expand our vocabulary!

Using Quizlet for Vocab Mastery

By Quinn Loch

Both my biology and AP Environmental Science classes have several important terms and concepts throughout each unit. Without a basic understanding of these terms, it's not possible for students to answer deeper level questions that require making connections, application, and problem solving.

One of the tools that I like to use for vocabulary is Quizlet. Quizlet is free, although a $24.99/year teacher account offers some more powerful features that I would argue are worth the money. It is available both on a web browser and on the iPad. Similar to flash cards, Quizlet offers several ways for students to practice their understanding of key terms in more interactive ways.

After making an account, students can join a class that you have set up on Quizlet and can study from "sets" or groups of vocabulary words that you have prepared. Words in a set can be studied as traditional flash cards or students can play a variety of games to help master a set of words.

My favorite part about Quizlet is the ability to see what kinds of terms students are struggling with. You can also (with the paid teacher subscription) see which students have studied a set and how they studied the set.

This feedback allows me to target specific terms and concepts that my students are struggling with in warm-ups and closers. It is also very easy for a student or teacher to "star" and isolate specific terms to study that might need more attention. Quizlet itself can also be great just as a warm up or closer.

Quizlet has a huge amount of shared sets that can be used as well, so creation form the ground up may not be necessary. For instance, sets for the APES textbook we use are readily available from other teachers and can be transferred to your classes. 

While Quizlet is just one of several apps that help with vocabulary, I find it to be one that gives me feedback that can help me modify my instruction to help students reach mastery of key terms and vocab.

Teaching Vocabulary/Root Words

by Katie Winstead (Owen)

In District 214, we teach students following the Word Within a Word curriculum. The lists we go through expose students to the various Greek and Latin root words they might come across in academic and nonacademic settings.

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Vocabulary Research

To teach vocabulary (and our root words), I have been using the LINCS strategy from Kansas University. LINCS stands for:

L - List the parts (word and definition).

I - Identify a reminding word (or a word with the root word in it).

N - Note a LINCing Story (write a sentence with the reminding word and the definition).

C - Create a LINCing Picture (draw a picture to remind you of the definition and story).

S - Study and Self-Test.

This strategy works because it makes kids into active learners that have to think and word with words instead of drills in memorizing. By writing the definition, a sentence and a picture, students are creating multiple links in their memory to help them recall what the word means. For more on the LINCS Strategy and the research behind it visit: http://www.matsuk12.us/cms/lib/AK01000953/Centricity/Domain/100/SEPGrant/LINCing-LINCS Sherrifinal.pdf

Katie's Resources:
LINCS Strategy Presentation
LINCS Strategy Cheat Sheet
LINCS Strategy Student Notes
LINCS Strategy Student Quiz 

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Vocabulary Instructional Practices

When I first started teaching Word Within a Word, the students did this on physical notecards. Once some iPads started trickling in to my classroom, however, I decided that I needed to transform how we have traditionally taught vocabulary. I modified our sheets to include a sentence with a reminding word in it, multiple examples of reminding words, as well as pictures to help students make predictions about what the root word meant.

The instructional sequence goes as follows:

1.    Students would get a sentence like this:

When learning how to drive, the instructor told me to stay on the right side of the median.

2.    Students would then need to find and underline the root word within the sentence.

3.    I then showed them a couple examples of words with the root word in it (median, mediocre, mediate) and two pictures like these:

 

4.    The class would work together to predict what the root word meant, and then I would show them the definition.

5.    The students would write down a reminding word they liked and could use in a sentence (if they struggled, they had my sentence as an example) along with the definition of the root word. The sheet looked like this:

6.    We then made note cards following the LINCS Strategy.

Here is what the whole PowerPoint presentation would look like:

For awesome Google Slide templates, check out this website: http://www.slidescarnival.com/

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Modify and Redefine Vocabulary Acquisition

I taught this way and had students make note cards until one weekend when I decided to go through 20+ flashcard apps on my iPad. I tried Evernote Peek, Chegg Flaschards, StudyBlue (which I did use for a while), Flashcards Deluxe, Flashcards+, Flash-Cards, Cramberry, A+ Flashcards Pro, and eventually found the one I am in love with: Flashcards [⁛] by NKO Ventures, LLC.

Flashcards [⁛] allows you to create a class (in the free version you can have up to 30 students and 5 decks at a time). The students can join your class for free and copy the decks you have created. I start all of my decks with the root word on the front and the definition on the back. Students then add a reminding word on the right, and on the left they add a sentence. The app even allows students to either draw a picture or add one from their Camera Roll.

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So what?

That is just where the vocabulary practice begins. Once students are done, there are many games the students can play. In the free version, that can be things like matching, true/false, and a crossword. In the paid Teacher Pro version ($49.99), you get 100 Students and 75mb of server space - along with games like Flappy Dog and Ninja! Students can also do Q-Battle and practice their vocabulary words in a competition.

When students practice on their own deck, they get to see the sentence and drawings they created. After they feel like they know the words, I have them practice on the class deck where they just see the root word and definition. This also allows them to compete and be on the top of the class leader board.

Student Feedback and Notability

By Mark Heintz

A few weeks ago, Linda Ashida posted on Katie Owen's innovative idea of sharing Notability notes to students.  You can read her post here.  Lately, I have been using this practice to increase student engagement and feedback.   Also, as the school rapidly comes to a end, time is precious.  Using shared notes increases classroom time because students are not spending time copying information from one place to another.  Therefore, more time is spend in the analysis of student work and providing feedback.

I recently used this strategy through a list of topics/terms on the USSR and CCP.  I shared the note with the students, and I asked them to move the information to either category.  They could copy the terms to place under both groupings.  When they finished, students shared their work via AppleTV. This practice enabled the class to go through the answers and provide feedback on their selections.  The entire task took only a few minutes to create and a few minutes for the students to attempt.  The discussion that followed the assignment was rich. Since the activity only took a few minutes, there was time that allowed for students to ask questions on why a term was in a specific category.  At the end, some students had a list of terms they needed to look up for further review.  Next time I do this activity, I will ask the students to use the words to draw comparisons.

Another example of this practice comes from a first year teacher, Kristen Gierman.  To help students writing, Kristen created a note that contained elements of a paragraph.  She wrote one main idea statement that the students located and move to the top of the page.  Then, the students went through all of the other statements to determine which were the best support of the main idea.  The students simply erased the ones that were off topic and moved the ones in support to the order they belonged in the paragraph.

The students shared theirs versions of the paragraph and defended the placement of the statements to the class. It was great to see the students evaluating work and seeing their rationale. Many of the students understood the necessity for clarity in their writing and often cited that as a reason to exclude some pieces of evidence. At the conclusion of the activity, the students wrote their own paragraph.  The writings were some of the strongest I have seen students create in my nine years as a teacher.  It was great to see the students use the structure, clarity, and use of strong evidence from the example in their own writing.   

Student Interviews as Assessment

By Kim Miklusak

This week I performed interviews as part of an ELL grad project in assessment to discover how students brainstorm for an AP English Language prompt.  I selected two students who are second language learners and who have struggled in different ways during the year.  I cannot overstate how useful I found these interviews!  Many teachers instruct and model brainstorming.  Some require that students to demonstrate planning for X minutes before they can write.  What I think these interviews made clear to me, however, was where specifically in the planning process students struggle.  This information will provide teachers and students with clear steps to possible solutions.

For example, my first student is a native Urdu speaker and speaks Urdu as her home language.  She exited ELL during 3rd grade.  Listening to her speak through her planning, we could pinpoint two main concerns: defining terms in the quotation and how to move from brainstorming evidence to outlining a main idea based on the prompt.  I am going to provide her with some graphic organizers to help scaffold the process better for her.

My second student is a native Spanish speaker and speaks Spanish as her home language.  She was in bilingual education through 3rd grade.  When planning, this student skipped the unknown vocabulary in the quotation and jumped right into prompt.  Once we talked through how to use context clues to define terms, the prompt became much easier.  Because she has not internalized steps to understand unknown words, she relies on "what it sounds like" and then moves on to working through the prompt.  I was able to provide her with other ways to figure out unknown words such as using her Spanish cognates.

I realize that interviews are incredibly time consuming: each of these took 10-15 minutes and could easily have run longer.  It would be impossible to do with every struggling student.  However, I highly recommend using this form of assessment for a few of your students in any subject area and grade or possibly using the iPad to require students to verbally explain their whole planning or problem solving before they write an essay or complete a math or science task in order to go back and review with them after they if need be.  The information gained was invaluable!

Determining Main Ideas in a Reading Passage

I start my AP World History class almost every day with a warm up.  I like the routine of starting off class with the students diving right into content and thinking.  Also, they know what to do at the beginning of class, which helps them start right away.  Before every student had an iPad, I left the warm ups at the door.  Each student picked the paper up as they entered the room, and the instructions were always on the sheet.  Now that each student has an iPad, they download it through the LMS I use, Schoology. 

Most of the time the warm up is a reading that builds background knowledge or addresses an AP theme that is, for a lack of better way to say it, random.  The warm ups are always short, something they can read or complete in less than a few minutes.  Then they can share with another student.  Finally, we report out as a class and then I answer any questions the students might have. The whole process takes from five to ten minutes.

I have a variety of strategies I use depending on what skill I would like to focus on that day.  Also, the variety helps keep the students interested in doing them almost every day. In this case, I used the deletion summary reading strategy.  I used this strategy because students often have a trouble determining what is important or not.  This is crucial when reading non-fiction material.  Furthermore, students will need this skill in any profession, as they will need to be able to sift through material quickly and efficiently in almost any profession.   

 I always give the students a clearly defined purpose when they read.  When using the deletion summary strategy, students cross out everything that does not answer the question or is aligned to the purpose. At the end, I have the students summarize the remaining information. 

Seeing what students delete or keep is very revealing. At first, they either delete or keep everything.  It takes several attempts for students to understand what is important. It takes time to develop that skill when reading unfamiliar non-fiction material.  To help the students, I walk through the process with the class.  After reading each line, I ask what part of the line is essential or directly related to the objective.  Then, we cross out everything we did not say.  As we do this more frequently, I will have several students share over AppleTV their attempts.  

Gamification of the classroom

Today the CollabLab welcomes Katie Owen, special education teacher at Elk Grove.  She can be reached @MsKatieOwen
 
I got an original Nintendo when I was 2. My dad bought me a Sesame Street game along with Blades of Steel. Now, years later, there are two things I know really well: my letters and how hockey is played.

I hear all of the time that kids these days do not go outside as much as they should and that video games teach them violence and bad behaviors. Educators and parents discuss how the flashes from the screen and fast paced movements are what cause students to have short attention spans and ADHD to be on the rise.

I hear all this, and yet I cannot help but think about all I learned from playing video games: 

• Video games teach sequences, strategy, problem solving and logic.
  
• Unlike passive activities (like TV), video games keep the mind active and alert.
  
• Your hand-eye coordination, fine motor, spatial, and accuracy skills improve. You make decisions faster and think quicker. 
  
• You become really good at multi-tasking and following/searching for multiple objectives.
  
•  Video games got me (and students I know) reading more. Trust me. There are a lot of instructions on those screens.
  
•  You learn to follow instructions (after you read them). 
  
• You learn to plan ahead, manage resources (never run out of Mana), and spend your money wisely (as we have all learned when we have no more money for a Kevlar + Helmet).
  
•  Which pretty much means you are learning some reading and math (sshhhhh don't tell the kids).
  
•  And the one I like the most? You learn perseverance. The number one thing video games taught me is no matter how many times you need to try a level, you do not stop until you accomplish your goal.

For even more benefits and negative effects of video games, check out this site.

So now that I am a teacher, what does this all mean? This means that I am super excited about a new idea sweeping education: Gamification. Gamification is the idea of using game-related elements in non-game situations--for example, using things like levels, points, badges, and achievements in the classroom or your personal life.

This should have been our wedding cake.

We see this a lot already in our day-to-day lives. Foursquare is an app that lets you check-in to places and receive badges and points to compete with your friends. LoseIt is a weight-loss app that helps you set goals and gives you badge for accomplishments (like minutes working out, eating vegetables, etc). Mint.com is a website that helps you track your finances and gives you an achievement bar for savings goals. Duolingo is a website/app that teaches you languages through a gamification experience (it is really fun).

To get a quick start on gamification, try apps like ClassDojo (for behavior mangagement), Flashcards [⁛] (for vocabulary acquisition), or Socrative (for quizzes) to jumpstart gamification in your classroom!

To learn more and chat with other educators, try using the hashtag #gamification along with #edchat, #edtechchat, or #ipaded on Twitter.

For a fun infographic, visit: http://www.knewton.com/gamification-education/

An interesting TEDEd video: http://ed.ted.com/on/uk36wtoI

Edutopia - Gamification in Education: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/gamification-in-education-vicki-davis

4 Ways to Bring Gamification into Your Classroom: http://blog.tophat.com/4-ways-to-gamify-learning-in-your-classroom/

Gamify Vocabulary Learning: A Favorite Flashcard App!

Today the Collab Blog welcomes guest blogger Katie Owen, a Special Education teacher at Elk Grove.  She can be reached at @MsKatieOwen

Growing up, and for many years of teaching, I have studied vocabulary on note cards. We did games with them, wrote sentences with them, categorized them, used them for seating placement, etc. It was tough to keep it new and fresh (fun fact: index cards were first invented in 1760 by Carl Linnaeus - a Swedish botanist, zooligist and physician). Once I started to get students that had accommodations to receive material digitally and iPads trickled into my room, I decided that could change. One weekend I decided to go through 15+ flashcard apps on my iPad. I tried Evernote Peek, Chegg Flaschards, StudyBlue (which I did use for a while), Flashcards Deluxe, Flashcards+, Flash-Cards, Cramberry, A+ Flashcards Pro, and eventually found the one I am in love with: Flashcards [⁛] by NKO Ventures, LLC.

Flashcards [⁛] allows you to create a class (in the free version you can have up to 30 students and 5 decks at a time). The students can join your class for free and copy the decks you have created. I start all of my decks with the root word on the front and the definition on the back. Students then add a reminding word on the front. On the back, they add a sentence and a picture (they can choose to draw or find a picture from their camera roll).

That is just where the vocabulary practice starts. Once students are done, there are many games the students can play. In the free version, that can be games like matching, true/false, and a crossword. In the paid version ($29.99), you get 100 Students and 75mb of server space - along with games like Flappy Dog and Ninja! Students can also do Q-Battle and practice their vocabulary words in a competition.

 

When students practice on their own deck, they get to see the sentence and drawings they created. After they feel like they know the words, I have them practice on the class deck where they just see the root word and definition. This also allows them to compete and be on the top of the class leader board:

Oh! We also made little avatars using Buddy Poke!