Tech in an ELA Class
You've heard me say it before, technology is a powerful tool that can and has shaped classrooms. It has created a vastly unique world. That's fantastic, but my biggest challenge is how to incorporate it into the classroom and curriculum that has meaning and is engaging. Because we all know making mandatory classes like ELA interesting and engaging
for students can be challenging. But Tyler Letkeman from Vincent Massey in
Brandon Manitoba has an interesting spin on engaging students. The goal is to
use tech tool to create meaningful tasks and improve the health of the
classroom for both students and teachers.
Here are just a few of my favourites he shared that I’d love
to try in my class one day:
1.
Student crafted Books
Student crafted book puts an
interesting spin on writing and writing with a purpose! It takes students
through the writing process, but with the end goal of publishing their work. When
students have a purpose for their work it brings meaning and students have a
greater tendency to do their best work when they are publishing for public
intent. It also allows students to get used of the authors craft. Book can be printed at Blurb for a very affordable
price. Now the perk of this is that it is available to peers and future students.
Students work could be identified by the initials.
2.
#bestwordchallenge
The best word challenge is a weekly writing exercise
that allows students to hone in on their word choice, communication and
expression of opinion. The challenge gives the students a picture and they must
come up with one word that best captures the image in only 15 minutes. They
then explain their choice in a single paragraph. The word choices are then voted
upon for the best one! Every week there is a new photo and the cycle continues.
Personally, it might be nice to reward the best chosen, maybe have a place to
display the image and word for the class to see.
3.
Shakespeare Social Media
This is a neat concept of incorporating teens dear love for self
expression and social media with curriculum and learning. Instagram and
Snapchat are great tools not only personally, but students can use them to
retell stuff they learned especially showing their understanding of
Shakespeare. Students can create post/snaps to retell the stories, send a snap
from a character in a scene, and demonstrate they understand different characters.
Another neat project to demonstrate understanding is to have students define
each character with an emoji.
4.
#letkememes
Memes are all the rage these days. So why not make them part of our classroom? Students can create memes as exit slips, Tyler used them to create memes about ready that would be displayed for everyone to see and then the best one received a reading related reward. Memes could also be used as reinforcer in the classroom, fill in the blank, or I’ve even seen them used with classroom expectations.
Personally, I am all game for any thing that has my students
excited to learn and try new things and look forward to hearing from you about your sweet classroom tech ideas!
Until next time,
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