Strategy Sharing

During the September and October Strategy Sessions, some great ideas were shared. I'm posting them here so everyone can benefit!

In September, Dan Inns shared how he starts out a new unit and prepares students for new learning by using a variety of interactive technology tools:

"When we start a next section of the course, I will have students brainstorm using pollEverywhere or wordle.  We then identify key words that match with the IB Sports, Exercise and Health Science syllabus and we will do a T/P/S (Think Pair Share) or a W/P/S (Write Pair Share).  Alternatively I may ask the students to do a 5 minute exploration on a given 'word' and then feedback to the rest of the class.   I have also used Plickers with a selection of 5 questions to establish what the students already know."

Plickers allows you to set up a student response system with printed hold-ups that you can scan with your iPad or phone and easily collect the data. It gets every student participating and gives you accurate information about what each student knows. You can read more about it here and print out your own cards here.

Another great idea for implementing a modified "hold ups" strategy was shared by Doug Andrew. If you don't have physical whiteboards, Doug suggested creating a Google presentation with enough blank slides for each of the students in your class. Assign them each a slide and they can type in their answers. So innovative!

Mr. Jerry Koontz introduced Newsela to the 4B cohort and posted about it on the Schoology Strategy Sessions group. Newsela is a free website that features current news articles; topics range from politics, science, environment to social trends and quirky events. According to Jerry, "The most useful aspect of the site is that articles can be leveled to the appropriate lexile reading level of each student with the click of a button. The same article, different reading levels. The students enjoy reading the articles and each one comes with a 4 question quiz and short writing prompt.  All done online so it's easy to check progress. Although the benefits to an ELA program are obvious, this website also could be used by Social Studies, Science, Health, and Spanish teachers (articles are available in Spanish)." 

One last handy tip, brought to you by James Linzel. James wanted to display a timer for pair shares, table group discussions and other activities to manage pacing in his class, but he was not happy with having to toggle between a presentation and an online timer. He discovered that there are a plethora of countdown timer videos on youtube that you can embed in your presentation. Just do a google search for the time that you want, e.g. "3 minute timer video." Seamless!

Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas in the first two sessions. See you in November for more inspiring suggestions.