Five Ways to Create Word Clouds This morning at the Massachusetts School Library Association's conference (a fun conference that I highly recommend) Pam Berger presented some good ideas for working with primary source documents and Web 2.0 tools. One of the ideas that she shared and others elaborated on was the idea of using word clouds to help students analyze documents. By copying the text of a document into a word cloud generator your students can quickly see the words that appear most frequently in that document. Here are five tools that you and your students can use to create word clouds. ABCya! offers a beautiful word cloud generator. Tagul is a free word cloud generator that offers the option to link every word in your word cloud to a Google search. Word It Out creates word clouds out of any text that you paste into the word cloud generator. Tagxedo makes it very easy to customize the design of your word clouds. Wordle is regarded by some as the "original" online word cloud generator. Disclosure: ABCya!
Cooperative Grouping | Researched-Based Strategies Related Classroom Examples Guiding Cooperation Teacher turns to technology to guide cooperative learning in a blended fourth-fifth science class. Collaborative Writing Middle school students polish skills for writing, reflection, and collaboration. Cooperative Grouping Cooperative learning is actually a generic term that refers to numerous methods for grouping students. Students understand that their membership in a learning group means that they either succeed or fail—together. Key Research Findings Organizing students in heterogeneous cooperative learning groups at least once a week has a significant effect on learning (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Implementation Grouping students to work collaboratively and cooperatively offers benefits for learners. Create the right type of group for the need. Additional Resources
The Differentiator Try Respondo! → ← Back to Byrdseed.com The Differentiator The Differentiator is based on Bloom's Taxonomy, Kaplan and Gould's Depth and Complexity, and David Chung's product menu. Try It In: French Dutch • Tweet It • Like Byrdseed • Pin It Students will judge the ethics of the [click to edit] using a textbook and create an essay in groups of three. Revised Bloom's Taxonomy adapted from "A Taxonomy for Learning,Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives" by Anderson and Krathwohl Depth and Complexity adapted from The Flip Book by Sandra N. Depth Big Idea Unanswered Questions Ethics Patterns Rules Language of the Discipline Essential Details Trends Complexity Multiple Points Of View Change Over Time Across the Disciplines Imperatives Origin Convergence Parallels Paradox Contribution Key Words Consequences Motivations Implications Significance Adapted from David Chung and The Flip Book, Too by Sandra N. Group Size One Two Three Four
PBL Made Easy With Blended Learning What is Project Based Learning? “Project-based learning is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges. With this type of active and engaged learning, students are inspired to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they’re studying.” Common Characteristics of PBL: Hands onInquiry drivenCollaborativeStudent centeredRelevantTackles real world challengesShared with larger community or audience How is PBL aligned with Common Core? Emphasizes communication Stresses real world relevance Encourages higher-order thinking skills – analysis, synthesis, evaluation & creation! Goals of PBL: Develop flexible knowledge & adaptive expertiseMotivate self-directed learningTeach effective problem solvingDrive inquiryLearn how to communicate & collaborateImprove intrinsic motivationShift to active learning Web 2.o Tools to Support a Blended Approach to PBL: Project based learning by nature takes time. Google search - search engine for finding great information.
The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It Printable PDF Version Fair-Use Policy What is a review of the literature? A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography—see the bottom of the next page), but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.
10 Free iPad Creativity Apps for Young Learners Teaching our kids to be creative is just as important as teaching them critical thinking skills.Creativity open up students mind to new learning horizons and makes them capable of tackling new and novel situations way better than any explicit instruction would do. We, in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning , strongly believe in the importance of creativity in education and we have dedicated a whole section in this blog to articles covering this topic. We have also reviewed some web tools that teachers can use to integrate creativity in their instruction and today we are going to introduce you to an awesome set of iPad apps that can do the same job but this time for young learners in primary schools. 1- Draw Free for iPad This is a great free iPad app that lets users create beautiful drawings. It has an intuitive interface and is very simple to use, ideal for young learners. 2- Pic Collage 3- Our Story 4- Scribble Press 5- Puppet Pals HD 6- Skitch for iPad 7- j2e 8- 123D Sculpt 10- Inkflow
Teaching Writing and Learning With Graphic Organizers For some reason, writing tends to be the task many students dread the most. As a result, teachers are always on the lookout for ways to make the assignment more enjoyable – or at least less despised! Incorporating graphic organizers into the writing and learning process is a great way to get students to think outside the box and engage more willingly in the process. What Are Graphic Organizers? Concept Mapping A concept map creates a visual representation of the relationship between ideas. Webbing By creating a web, students will see how their central idea is linked to supporting details. This brainstorming process is perfect for launching a writing project. Mind Mapping A mind map is the visual representation of hierarchical information. Students can replace traditional note-taking techniques with mind mapping for a much more visually stimulating result. How Can Graphic Organizers Help Educators Teach? Another great benefit of graphic organizers is their flexibility. About Steve Aedy
PCM Support Materials Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM) Support Materials and Distance Learning Opportunity The National Association for Gifted Children is pleased to offer support materials for the Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM). It is our hope that these support materials will provide interested educators with an opportunity to participate in a distance learning initiative about the PCM. What is the PCM? The Parallel Curriculum Model is an integrated framework and set of procedures for designing rigorous and highly motivating curriculum that attends to important student differences. About these support materials This web page is a collaborative effort between the National Association for Gifted Children and Project CONN-CEPT, a Javits Grant awarded to the Connecticut State Department of Education and Cheshire (CT) Public Schools. Looking for more information about PCM? Check out the following NAGC Service Publications:
Differentiator - free web app to help teachers differentiate using Blooms Taxonomy The Differentiator is a simple web app that helps you create objectives based on Bloom's Taxonomy. You simple click on the thinking skill, content, resources, product, or group tabs and then select what you want the student to do by clicking on the sub categories. For example, on the Thinking Skill tab, you can chose Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, or Creating and then a sub-term. Product tab has visual, multi-media, oral, written, and construct tabs as what the student would create as a product to demonstrate their learning. I think this is a great tool to help teachers come up with different objectives and some different activities for students to do in class. Related: Differentiation Using 21st Century Schools Differentiation with Web 2.0 Technologies
4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning 4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning by Jennifer Rita Nichols The term “21st century” has become an integral part of educational thinking and planning for the future. Educators and administrators are actively searching for ways to prepare students for the future, and the educational system has been evolving faster than ever before. Various studies have shown us that rote memorization is not an effective learning strategy, and that teacher-centered classrooms may not be the most efficiently structured ones for student engagement. However, despite learning about the skills that students will need to develop to become successful in the 21st century, as well as what beliefs about education may be worth hanging onto or throwing away, schools and teachers are left trying to figure out what their role needs to be in the education of their 21st century students. Nowadays, we don’t live in the same world. So then, what is the role of education in the 21st century? Society has changed. 1. 2. 3.