I made this using Piktochart.
Tag Archives: ideas
Rubrics: We Can Do It! (Version 2014)
We’ll spend some time today practicing writing rubrics. We’ll use a Google Doc I’ve opened for us. I will close it immediately after class and link your finished work back to this page/post. You should be able to click on the link and begin editing immediately.
The Question Matrix
The Question Matrix
Today I’m going to try to use a Question Matrix with my gr 10 applied History classes.
I am seeking a way to help them develop their inquiry process skills. Many students have never been pushed to ask questions beyond closed ended ones and certainly most have never been explicitly taught how to create thoughtful inquiry questions.
My own skills in this endeavour are limited – I know I can formulate valid research questions, but I haven’t thought enough about HOW I do this. This requires some meta-cognition my my part. Besides, the best way to learn something is to teach it to others!
I will start with a interactive lesson about questions using Pear Deck (a new tool I picked up this weekend at the GAFE Summit Ottawa). This will stimulate some discussion about what makes a good question. This will lead us to a conversation about the Matrix.
Using a series of paintings (on loan from the Canadian War Museum Supply Line) students will develop questions about what they are seeing. Students will be required to make up a question (and then find answers) for EACH of the matrix boxes.
(Possible extensions – using 2 x 6 sided dice, the matrix becomes a trip-tic of sorts. If the student rolls “1 &1”, they design a question for “What is…” or a “3 & 4” they get “Which would…”. His/her peers then try to answer the question.)
This is a bit of an adventure. We’ll see how it goes.
I also found this lesson about reading the news and using a matrix.
How NOT to Ask Questions:
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking allows an individual (or group) to keep favourite websites in a place stored on the web/cloud. This allows for several advantages:
1) Access your favourites/bookmarks from any device, not just one computer or browser
2) ‘Tags’ (or keywords) allow you to associate your favourite sites to the way you might use them and/or identify the type of resource they are. I organize mine by the courses, units and topics.
3) They are searchable by Tag.
4) You can set some social bookmarking sites to ‘automatically Tweet’ your favourite sites, or, when signed into your Twitter account, ‘favourites’ are automatically indexed in your social bookmarking site.
5) Access or join other ‘groups’ to allow you to benefit from the knowledge of like-minded folk!
Delicious.com or Diigo are great places to start.
Check out my Diigo Links on the side bar of this blog.
Diigo has some new pricing options. I paid the $2/$5 ‘social fee’ to allow a for a few more options. I have also applied for a free Educator’s account.
A former PED3183 student created a group for us. Check it out and join. I post there regularly.
What is Social Bookmarking?
But wait! There’s More!
You can always find interesting things on Reddit. The Amazing Internet Hero, CGPGrey explains it below.
Teaching History at the Intermediate Level: PED 3183
Welcome!
I look forward to my third opportunity to share best practices and historical thinking concepts with my students this year. I am especially excited to learn my teacher candidates – your new eyes and ears and creative strategies are a continued inspiration!
For class:
Pearson Syllabus 2014 PED3183A
Assignment 1: Resource Review 2014 and for guidance – Example, Due September 30
Day 1 Keynote Presentation
Canadian-History-Crossroads: History Symposium. Register by September 10th by emailing: educom@uottawa.ca
Other Ways to use this activity (as generated by my PED3183A Class):
Tops & tails:
- consider what part of the quote has “more weight” or significance
- connect significant event with a famous participant
- one event, two perspectives
- connect century to quote or event
- antagonist to his/her protagonist
- two quotes that lay in opposition to one another on a single issue
- a variety of matching pairs: two Prime Ministers, two famous Metis, two union leaders, two battles on Canadian soil etc
Quotes:
- place and rank on a timeline with both chronology and y-axis for ranking
- have students find the context in which the quote was said
- End of Unit – give examples of where the quote might have been right/wrong
- Start of Unit – students predict important issues in coming unit from the quotes
For Fun or Interest
Farewell to Carrot Cake (The Great War’s less known Contributions to society) [podcast]
500 Years of History in 2 Minutes (Wab Kinew), CBC’s 8th Fire
Poll Everywhere
I was recently introduced to the joys of Poll Everywhere. It was used in a presentation by Matt Brash, a technology consultant from the Ottawa Catholic Schools as a tool to engage learners in any setting. Naturally, as I started to investigate, I got more excited about the possibilities.
Essentially, it enables the user to solicit information from a crowd without specialized tools or counting hands for “yays”/”nays.” Audience members can text their ideas to a free number or use the online platform to fill out forms online.
Once you set up your polls (and you can do this anonymously & without signing up) you can present them on a projected screen (or not!). If you’re using Powerpoint for your presentation, PollEverywhere will even provide downloadable slides of each question or “Poll.”
How it Works:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/how-it-works
How I might use it in the Classroom:
- personal survey
- feedback on an investigation
- icebreakers (include some silly questions to keep out the inevitable goofy answers)
- Image click option can be used to have students point out details in a photo
- review for a test using open ended and multiple choice answers
- gage interest in a topic
Watch this space for more ideas generated by my 2014 faculty of Ed students!
I might just use this platform more just because I like this video so much. He does have a great vest.
The Internet is Awesome
I love the internet.
It’s true. Sure, just like everything else touched by humanity, the internet has awesome places and very, very dark places. Here are my picks for the best places for personal or educational growth.
Life and Education Inspirations
Planet Money podcast
I can’t get enough of this fantastic podcast. When I first started listening, my knowledge of economics was shakey at best. After listening for 4 years, I can understand conversations about quantitative easing, discuss the global impact of cotton subsidies and can identify the “new” ways to hit the top of the pop music charts. The bite-size 20 minute segments twice a week make listening manageable.
This year I asked my grade 12 Challenge and Change students to use analyze an episode and apply a socio-/psycho-/anthro- logical lens. They ate it up like candy. Many have become obsessive listeners. (assignment here: Plant Money podcast analysis.)
This American Life podcast
This show from NPR is representative of all that is good in public radio. Clever reporting, heartbreaking and heartwarming storytelling and the delightful charm of Ira Glass makes this the best hour on radio ever week. Don’t let the name of this show turn you off, Canadians. These stories are stories of humanity, not just Americans.
bonus: sometimes they have David Sedaris read his stories. *squee!*
The Story Globe is an awesome resource for a geographer like myself. I use it for my Challenge and Change class.
Here are two of my favourite episodes.
#1: Nummi (Episode 403) – if someone had said, “Here’s a really great podcast about a car manufacturing plant, it’s awesome!” I would have laughed in their face. I believe I did (sorry, @gduncanclark). This episode is a testament to the outstanding journalism and storytelling I’ve come to know and love with This American Life. It is a fascinating (and awesome) episode.
#2: I now hesitate to eat calamari at restaurants. Episode 484: Doppelgangers
Sociological Images
I can’t say enough about my favourite website, Sociological Images. This site is curated by Lisa Wade, a professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Numerous other academics contribute to the ever-growing bank of social scientific reflections on the world around us.
#1: Course Guide to Sociology of Gender
#2: Pointlessly Gendered Products (with a contribution from yours truly!)
#3: Rebranding the Prune (because nothing escapes the sociological lens)
#4: Heightism Most of us know about racism, ageism and sexism. @SocImages does a fantastic series of posts about Heightism – when people are judged as a result of their height.
Youtube for Learning
My favourite channels:
1) Crash Course: The Brothers Green have outdone themselves with this fantastic series of videos covering World History, world religions, American History, Science, Psychology and Literature.
2) PBS Idea Channel Check out “Bronies Redefining masculinity” and “There’s no Such thing as offline”
#3 Vihart – A beautiful union of math and art.
Great Places on Twitter
Personal Interests
I didn’t know I like astronomy. I have @Failedprotostar to remind me daily that space is cool.
Love Ottawa? Love Local History? Love Art? Love local Ottawa artist and amateur historian, Andrew King.
Education:
Russell Tarr @russelltarr – This British Ex-Pat in Toulouse, France exemplifies the marriage of History and Technology in the classroom. He loves “sharing creative ideas on Twitter & offending Mr. Gove [British British Conservative Party politician, the Secretary of State for Education].” He can also be found on Tweets as @activehistory and @classtools.
Megan Valois, @msvalois, is a local Ottawa teacher extraordinaire. She considers herself a “21st century teacher/learner.” Check out her Twitter feed or her website at meganvalois.com for great ideas for History and English as well as differentiated instruction, assessment for learning & #edtech!
The Good Doctors:
I’m pretty lucky to know some very intelligent people who have the degrees (and peer reviewed journals) to prove it! Beyond their talents in their respective fields, these Drs are also fascinating and humourous folk. Check out @thejennye (Canadian History, Women and Sport), @postWarHist (Canadian Cold War Military History) and @mittenstrings (Canadian Literature) for musings and links to amazing places and discussion about historical and contemporary issues.
Piktochart
I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to display things in my classroom. I was inspired by the following image (from @adambellow). This lead me to think about infographics and the online tool, Piktochart.
Piktochart allows creators to visualize data through the use of colour, symbols and graphs.
Infographics allow the viewer to “experience” the information on a variety of levels. In our 21st century world, we are accustomed to receiving information in small bytes. Infographics allow us to absorb information in this manner.
There are a lot of applications for our students to use this type of tools. I’m hoping to have students use something similar for a Challenge and Change analysis of demographics. It would make a great option to display results for a stats class or geography.
Once students have researched statistical information on a particular subject, they can then determine an attractive way to display it. This will touch on their ability to understand numbers and data as well as to choose essential information over additional.
The Learning Blog from the New York Times has some cool ideas.
Here are more ideas from Classroom 21.
Secondary Solutions offers some more ideas using Piktochart:
Find the one below here. It only took me about 10 minutes to create.
Final Class: You Asked
Find the instructions to the Marxism game here.
Classroom Managment:
More links and ideas for Classroom Management here.
Want to watch more Summer Heights High with our friend Jonah?
Collaborative Tools online
Padlet
This is my new favourite collaborative software.
Richard Byrne did a great little video about how to start using Padlet and why you might use it in class. He talks about using this as an assessment for and assessment as learning.
The program allows people to log on anonymously or through an account. The Wall-owner can include images on the wall – perhaps an opportunity to annotate? You can also print out the contents of the wall for sharing in hard copy.
You can also add images from your computer or using a laptop camera.
Ways you could use this in your classroom
1) Collect information during student inquiry
2) use “layout modification” to force entries to be ranked in order of posting, and use as a debate
3) use as a Graffiti wall or as part of a jigsaw activity
4) Share links and ideas on a topic
5) Ask students to contribute personal connections to a historical theme – example: How is your life at home different in 2013 than when you were 5 years old?
Here are some other ideas by Cynthia Treichler. She even includes a tutorial on her website.
Let’s Play!
hey, PED3183, Let’s share some cool resources we’ve found and play with this resource.
http://padlet.com/wall/historytips – Groups 1 – 4
http://padlet.com/wall/historytips2 – Groups 5 – 8
Today’s Meet
A colleague introduced me to a neat tool called Today’s Meet. It allows students to ask questions, make comments and get clarification from a presentation. The beauty of the site? It doesn’t require someone to log into the site and the shared link is memorable. The wall owner can set the duration of time the link is “live” to prevent access to the wall after an activity.
Students can debate with each other using this venue and thus becomes an alternative to Twitter.
The transcript option allows the presenter to save the Room after a discussion. It saves in chronological order and there’s an easy copy & paste function.
The Today’s Meet Blog has some interesting ideas as well.
The website sells itself as a backchannel opportunity.
Steph Pearson 