Monday, March 29, 2021

Storydice, Inkblots & More to Get Students' Minds Churning

 Do you want to spur on your students' creativity?

Several tools under the Resources tab at Dave Birss' site can help you do just that.

Storydice (5 or 9 dice versions) can be rolled to generate elements that can be blended into an original story.  Alternatively, the dice roll could be used to help students stretch their thinking to process information through a discussion or writing.  For example, how could they use figurative and literal language to share what they know about Prohibition using the roll shown in the image below?


You could also provide variants such as the students choosing three of the five dice to use in their discussion or writing.  Using the Storydice requires the students to think creatively, providing an opportunity to help cement their understanding and perhaps, even, to have a little bit of fun.

This post by John Meehan further illustrates how you might use Storydice.

Other resources on Briss' site  (Writing Ideas, Inkblot Test, Drawing Prompts, Brain Swap, and Creativity Exercise) can be used similarly.

You may also find some of these tools could be suitable for warm up activities that could be done briefly with a quick share out at the start of a class.

If you use any of these resources with your students, let your FPS DLI team know.  We'd love to hear about it.

Friday, March 19, 2021

Verifying Originality of Student Work

Some teachers have used the digital tool Turn It In to verify originality of student work.  Unfortunately Franklin no longer has a student privacy agreement with Turn It In and it will be unavailable in the future for use with students.  As an alternative, it is recommended that teachers start using the built-in originality report in Google Classroom.  If you are unfamiliar with this feature, please see the resources below and feel free to reach out to the DLI team for further assistance.


Teachers can turn on the plagiarism report in Google Classroom when creating an assignment.




Students will be able to run up to 3 originality reports before turning in their work.


Resources:


Teacher: Turn on Originality Reports in Google Classroom

Student: Run an Originality Report on your work

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Digital Resources To Enhance Literacy Instruction

 One thing that has been remarkable about this time is the amount of open sharing that educators have done.  From Bitmoji Classrooms to teaching templates, we have embraced the notion of “We are all in this together.” 


In the coming weeks, many schools are returning to a full and in person model of learning. Many of us will be moving away from technology and students will be doing more pencil and paper tasks.  In this post, I have curated templates to support literacy instruction.  These templates are digital, and can be shared easily through Google Classroom. In addition, these can be modified for different grade levels and easily be printed and copied for students to write on or be replicated on an anchor chart.  




Magazine or Book Cover Templates ~


There are so many ways to use these in your literacy instruction.  Students can share elements of a fiction story or traits of the main character as well as share information learned after reading nonfiction




Social Media templates are motivating to students in upper grades, and can be modified for many subjects.  Ditch That Textbook has ready to use templates for creating a/an:

Thursday, March 4, 2021

DLI Launch YouTube Channel

The FPS Digital Learning Integrationist team works to provide resources to the district's teachers.  Our intent is to highlight tools, pedagogical approaches, and skills that allow teachers to enhance student learning and personal productivity through the use of technology.

As a function of that we have launched a YouTube Channel. DLI on YouTube will provide a categorized of DLI created and curated videos. We hope the channel makes video resources more accessible by being categorized in playlists such as Gmail, Google Drive, or productivity.

One feature of the channel will be Tech Tip Tuesday.  Each Tuesday, a different video will highlight a way to integrate technology or introduce a new tech tool or feature.