Language Arts Activities
3.15.15
Polar Bear Writing Activity Using Notebook Express
On Friday, we used Notebook Express to do our writing activity.
I prepared for the activity by creating (in regular Notebook) an interesting picture of a couple of polar bears. I did this by scanning and importing a page of an informational text I have on polar bears. You could also do a Google Search to find a photo. I saved my .notebook file to my Google Drive, and shared it to my class (see Creating a Google Group).
When it was time for the activity, I showed the students how to access Notebook Express (see Using Symbaloo for Visual Bookmarks). I taught them how to open a file by clicking the "Open an existing Notebook file" button and navigating to "Shared With Me" within their Google Drive. Once there, they found the file I had created and clicked the "Open" button. Prior to this, I had not told them what we were going to do, so there were lots of gasps and "Cool!"s at this point. :-)
Since we had already played with Notebook Express for a bit on a previous day, the students already knew how to write with a marker and type using the text tool. This time I had them use the text tool to tell me "something they already know about polar bears". If they didn't know anything yet, they could use the picture I gave them as a reference. I did model by typing my own sentence on the Smartboard, but beyond this, I did not spell any words for anyone. When they asked, I reminded them to finger-tap the syllables. There was also a lot of peer-helping going on, with those who were more capable helping the strugglers. This was also the time I introduced the use of the shift key for capital letters and the spacebar for spaces. Some of my more advanced students helped others, but I am sure this is something we will have to revisit many times before it's a habit. :-)
Next, I showed them how to save their work by clicking "File", then "Save As", then the "Save" button. This caused their file to be saved back to their own Google Drive. Then they had to close their laptops and set them aside, while we read an informational text about polar bears. (Incidentally, I always place my read-aloud books under the Elmo, which makes the pictures much easier for the students to see (well, when we can get the lighting just right, that is)).
When we finished the book, I had the students open their laptops again and navigate back to Notebook Express, opening up the file they had just worked on. This time, they had to type something they learned from the read-aloud, then save the file again.
On the whole, I think the students did very well for being their first writing project on the chromebooks. It wasn't without bumps and bruises, though. I did this activity with the whole group at once. Some students needed me to repeat the directions several times, especially for opening and saving the file. The ones who got it the first time were quite bored by the third and fourth repetitions. And as we all know, bored=messing around! A couple students somehow failed to save the first time, so their first sentence was lost. I haven't figured out if they just didn't follow along, if they pressed the cancel button instead of the save button, or if they saved it in the wrong place. This is something I will have to figure out how to do more easily.
In the future, I think I will try doing writing activities such as these in small groups. Once we build up a set of apps and sites to use, I can also differentiate our final products by which app/site is easiest for each student to use.
I prepared for the activity by creating (in regular Notebook) an interesting picture of a couple of polar bears. I did this by scanning and importing a page of an informational text I have on polar bears. You could also do a Google Search to find a photo. I saved my .notebook file to my Google Drive, and shared it to my class (see Creating a Google Group).
When it was time for the activity, I showed the students how to access Notebook Express (see Using Symbaloo for Visual Bookmarks). I taught them how to open a file by clicking the "Open an existing Notebook file" button and navigating to "Shared With Me" within their Google Drive. Once there, they found the file I had created and clicked the "Open" button. Prior to this, I had not told them what we were going to do, so there were lots of gasps and "Cool!"s at this point. :-)
Since we had already played with Notebook Express for a bit on a previous day, the students already knew how to write with a marker and type using the text tool. This time I had them use the text tool to tell me "something they already know about polar bears". If they didn't know anything yet, they could use the picture I gave them as a reference. I did model by typing my own sentence on the Smartboard, but beyond this, I did not spell any words for anyone. When they asked, I reminded them to finger-tap the syllables. There was also a lot of peer-helping going on, with those who were more capable helping the strugglers. This was also the time I introduced the use of the shift key for capital letters and the spacebar for spaces. Some of my more advanced students helped others, but I am sure this is something we will have to revisit many times before it's a habit. :-)
Next, I showed them how to save their work by clicking "File", then "Save As", then the "Save" button. This caused their file to be saved back to their own Google Drive. Then they had to close their laptops and set them aside, while we read an informational text about polar bears. (Incidentally, I always place my read-aloud books under the Elmo, which makes the pictures much easier for the students to see (well, when we can get the lighting just right, that is)).
When we finished the book, I had the students open their laptops again and navigate back to Notebook Express, opening up the file they had just worked on. This time, they had to type something they learned from the read-aloud, then save the file again.
On the whole, I think the students did very well for being their first writing project on the chromebooks. It wasn't without bumps and bruises, though. I did this activity with the whole group at once. Some students needed me to repeat the directions several times, especially for opening and saving the file. The ones who got it the first time were quite bored by the third and fourth repetitions. And as we all know, bored=messing around! A couple students somehow failed to save the first time, so their first sentence was lost. I haven't figured out if they just didn't follow along, if they pressed the cancel button instead of the save button, or if they saved it in the wrong place. This is something I will have to figure out how to do more easily.
In the future, I think I will try doing writing activities such as these in small groups. Once we build up a set of apps and sites to use, I can also differentiate our final products by which app/site is easiest for each student to use.
3.14.15
Digital Word Wall
One of the first activities I did was to create a "digital word wall" for the students. This will allow them to always have access to the word wall, no matter where they are. They don't have to walk over to the wall because they can't see the words anymore. While I haven't done it to mine, yet, you could add your own voice speaking the words when they click on them.
Digital Word Wall ... On the iPad was my inspiration for this idea.
I created a new Google Slides presentation, and used one slide per letter. When I was finished creating the slides, I clicked "File", then "Publish to the web." Make sure "Link" is highlighted, then click the blue "Publish" button.
Digital Word Wall ... On the iPad was my inspiration for this idea.
I created a new Google Slides presentation, and used one slide per letter. When I was finished creating the slides, I clicked "File", then "Publish to the web." Make sure "Link" is highlighted, then click the blue "Publish" button.
Right-click on the highlighted text in the box, and select "Copy". This is the link that you will paste when you create a new tile on your Symbaloo page. (see Using Symbaloo for Visual Bookmarking).