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Ideas for Preparing Students for Learning with Technology
Your ideas welcomed! If you know of a great resource that should be included on this site, please send me an email.
Activating Prior Knowledge
Have students brainstorm what they already know about a topic using iBrainstorm and iBrainstorm companion apps or the bulletin board website Padlet, Murally, or GroupZap. Be creative with your prompt. i.e. Before a unit on Mexico, ask students to brainstorm what they imagine Mexican citizens might talk about. Use SpiderScribe or Popplet Lite for mindmapping what students already know about a topic and have them categorize their knowledge.
Have students create an impromptu puppet conversation about the upcoming content using the Sock Puppet app or bring actual socks into your classroom and have the students videotape a sock puppet conversation using the camera on their iPad or phone.
Use an avatar app like Tellagami or website like Voki to have students create a small talking person with their own voice or a computer-generated voice. As them to explain what they know about upcoming content in a creative format such as a news report or "personal" experience from the imaginary character's point of view.
Formative Assessment
Find out what students already know about the upcoming content. GIve students a sneak preview of some of the content they are about to learn.
Use the Socrative website/app to instantly gather information about what your students know and need to know. Play Kahoot in your classroom. Students will have fun and not even realize you are finding out what they know and don't know. Nearpod allows you to strategically insert questions into your presentation that is pushed out to your students' devices. Edpuzzle allows you to insert questions within a video to find out if the students are understanding what they are watching.
Don't have student devices in your classroom? Try using Plickers--all you need is your own smartphone to instantly collect data on what students know and don't know!
Preview
Vocabulary and Make Predictions
Use the websites Wordle or Tagxedo to create word clouds using upcoming vocabulary words. OR Have students copy and paste a text they are about to read to create a word cloud. Then have students predict what they are going to be learning about or reading about. See the video below for a great idea on using texting and word clouds for formative assessment. Click here for more examples.