Top Tech Tip #4 - 3 iPad Apps to Assess Reading Fluency and Track Comprehension

This weeks top tip is on 3 iPad Apps to Assess Reading Fluency and Track Comprehension.  In the original post I shared 3 apps that would track fluency and comprehension. These apps are useful, but I wanted to add some alternatives for those teachers who do not have access to an iPad.  One alternative is using Evernote.  I shared some links below on how other teachers are using Evernote to track fluency and comprehension notes on students.

• Penultimate-iPad App
• Using Evernote to Record and Track Fluency
• 2nd Grader Explaining how she uses Evernote to record fluency

I hope these are helpful and I would love to help you get started using Evernote in your classroom next year.

iPad Apps for Data Collection and Assessment-Part 2

For the next few weeks I will be highlighting some iPad apps that take students thinking to a higher level.  This weeks tech tip has the apps that I shared last night at the training.  I share a few integration ideas with each app, but if any interest you please email me and we can set up a time to plan an integration project using any of these app

Educational Video Sites

Over the past few weeks I have posted ways in which you can use YouTube videos safely in your classroom.  This week I want to share a few alternative video sites that you can utilize in your lessons.  These sites allow you to search by standards, content, and grade level.  Video is such a powerful instructional tool and I hope these sites can save you time while you are trying to find videos to use in your lessons.

PBS Learning Media:
PBS LearningMedia provides you free access to videos, interactives, audio, photos, and in-depth lesson plans.

WatchKnowLearn:
WatchKnowLearn has thousands of K-12 educational videos which are organized and free to use in your lessons.

Knowmia:
This site has over 8,000 video lessons which are tailored for high school students.

Scholastic Thanksgiving Resources for K-12

Scholastic has developed a collection of many great resources to help students learn about the Pilgrims, Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving.  The first step is go to the Sign-Up/Home page and register your class.  You will receive a diary letter from different Thanksgiving characters in your email inbox during the month of November. 

The voyage on the Mayflower section allows students to take an interactive journey that the pilgrims experienced or they can tour the ship. 

 

Scholastic also provides implementation plans for K-2, 3-5, and 6-12 to help teachers use these resources effectively in their instruction. 

Finally, Scholastic has partnered with Plimoth Plantation to produce three video tours of Plimoth Plantation, a Wampanoag homesite, and a Pilgrim homesite. They will also be adding a Mayflower virtual fieldtrip.  This is a great set of resources which will bring Thanksgiving to life in your classroom through technology.

 

This following video I found on History.com.  It shows the Pilgrim's route they took and deconstructs the Mayflower.  



2 Tools to Help Eliminate Distractions Around YouTube Videos

YouTube is wonderful tool to use in your classroom.  What isn’t so great: all of the garbage that can come along with it (i.e. advertising, comments, related videos…in short-distractions). Here are two resources that will allow you to safely view and share YouTube videos without all the garbage.

YouTubeXL- This is a service that YouTube provides that lets you watch videos on large screens without the ads and comments.

Safe Share TV is a fantastic way to share You Tube videos with your students. Safe Share TV removes all distracting and offensive elements that surround a video on You Tube and allows you to share the video with a unique link. Safe Share TV also gives you the option to crop videos before sharing them.

Implementation:

• Spark interest in certain topics
• Make real world connections to various topics
• Explain concepts to students

(adapted from original post found on http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=4695)

Utilizing YouTube and Discovery Ed Videos in Your SMART Notebook Lessons

Video is a powerful tool that you can use within your classroom for many purposes.  Today we are going to focus on how to put these videos into your SMART Board lessons so you can easily access them during your instruction.  Our distritct has access to Discovery Ed and the other type I will show is YouTube.  I will show how these videos can be downloaded and embedded, and also include some implementation ideas.  Please remember when you are using a video this way that you should give credit within your lesson to the original video creator.  This is a great way to model digital citizenship to our students.

YouTube:

Discovery Ed:

Implementation Ideas:

• Create lessons utilizing videos for discussion or to build anticipation for the content
• Build your SMART Notebook documents to include these videos to avoid buffering/having them become unavailable
• A great way to have students create presentations so they can use video without having to wait to view it during the presentation (remember to cite the video)
• A way to include only the segments of a video you want within your instruction instead of having to search and find the exact spot within the video

Tech Thursdays-Croc Doc Personal and Leaving Tracks of Your Thinking

This Thursday I want to focus leaving tracks of your thinking.  This skill is taught within the Comprehension Toolkit, but is a skill all good readers should have. Croc Doc Personal is a free tool that lets you upload and comment/annote images, PDFs, and Office Docs.  This tool allows all students to be engaged in the discussion via technology.  Here are a few ways you can use this handy tool.

Implementation Ideas:

1. Upload a document/article for your class to read and have them comment and reply to each other while reading (leaving tracks of their thinking)
2. Leave feedback on student work and email them the feedback written on their document
3. Analyze a photo and leave comments on certain parts of the picture
4. Upload a math sheet and have students leave comments on how they solved various problems
5. Have students self reflect on their work first, before you leave them feedback
6. Have students leave feedback on each others work

Below I have created a video showing how easy it is to use.

Tech Thursday

Tech Thursday:

This week I wanted to highlight some ways I came up with to use the doc cams that some of you have in your classrooms.  I came up with a few ideas, but I invite you to please share some ways you use this tool for instruction in your classroom in the comments section below.

Ideas: 

1. Use the doc cam to snap a photo of a shared reading text (Comprehension toolkit, picture book, etc) and interact with it using the SMART Board 

2. Take pictures of student work to share with the entire class for discussion.  Then save these in your SMART Notebook lessons for next year so you have student samples to show.

3. Have students take pictures of their work when they finish.  This can be used a formative check to help guide your instruction for the next day.

4. Take a picture of an object with the vocabulary word written underneath of it.  This will allow students to see pictures of the object and the word simultaneously.

5. Snap photos of students work and use it to create rubrics as a whole class. (ex. quality journal entries, showing your work in math, writing samples)

Timeline Creator:

Timeglider is a free resource that allows users to create their own timeline.  According their website it is described as "Web-based timeline software for creating and sharing history.  It's like Google Maps, but for time.  This could be a great tool to make history come to life through images and links to videos or websites.  Another similar tool is Tiki-Toki which I was directed to by a student in the Options program.  This tool allows you to create a timeline, but you can include video, audio, and images.  If you are interested in either of these tools please let me know and we can plan how we could incorporate them into your classroom.

Tiki-Toki Screenshot: