Characteristic #4: Students take part in a mix of individual and collaborative activities (Kist, 2005, p. 16).
This characteristic has been more evident in classrooms since the time of the whole language movement in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The difference between then and now is that the teachers and students of today have so many more possibilities to carry out these activities through the use of various forms of technology and multimedia. Let’s use this space to share some ideas and websites that involve the use of technology and multimodal learning for both individual and collaborative activities.
Starfall.com is an excellent resource for individuals to use interactive media to acquire and improve reading skills. Check it out!
The Internet Public Library is a wonderful site for individual or group research. Click on the "Kid Space" link on the left side of the screen.
ReadWriteThink.org is a site that can be used by students and teachers for many purposes. You'll have to see this one for yourself!
BookAdventure.org includes on-line assessments for many popular books. The kids can earn incentives and would be a great tool for individual reading.
This site has on-line math manipulatives that could be used in a variety of ways.
SCORE has some great ideas for extending popular literature, many of which involve the use of the Internet.
For an excellent means of integrating technology into classrooms on both an individual and social basis, visit Think.com.
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Classworks: This is a computer program that can be purchased for schools to use to
support various skills. Instead of a school ordering a few different software programs
(ex. one for reading, one for math, etc.), Classworks links hundreds of software
publishers together to provide a variety of practice on certain skills. There are many
ways to use the software, including the ability to differentiate learning based on the
ability of the child. Students can take assessments to help place them at the appropriate
level of practice, and teachers also have the ability to adjust this setting as well as create
their own units. Classworks is also nice because it includes a great deal of tracking so
teachers can see exactly what students have done on practice games and quizes. While
a lot of this program is for individual work, there is collaborative work available through
projects that teachers can enable/disable as they see fit for their students' needs. Here
are two links from the Classworks publisher's website that give more information:
Classworks
Classworks Testimonials
Webquests: There are many webquests that are already set up for children to use to
explore information on the internet in a controlled way. Many (if not all) of the
webquests could be done with partners or small groups of students. At
http://atozteacherstuff.com I found many webquests. Here is one of them:
Webquest example
Here is another website to help with webquests:
Webquests
http://teach.fcps.net/trt10/Documents/jeopardytemplate25.ppt
This is a link to a Jeopardy template. If you type the address above into your internet
browser, then you will be able to "save as" and make it your own. The game can be
used as a group review over any subject.
http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/newpoem.htm
I discovered this website through our many searches for this module. It is a poetry site,
where students can use a template to create a poem. I am using the "Pensee Poem"
template to help my students create a poem about a kite. On the site, students are
asked to fill in boxes. Above the box, there is a description. For example, the first box
on the "Pensee Poem" asks students to write a subject with two syllables. After the
students have completed the boxes, they click the "create my poem now" button, and
their work is completed.
United Streaming is a video distribution system that Beavercreek School district uses.
Teachers have access to hundreds of educational videos on a wide range of topics.
Some of the videos come with student materials to extend their comprehension of the
material.
I came across a downloadable program called Visual Thesaurus. After a word is typed in,
a web of synonms appears on the screen. It also includes the part of speech of each
word. As you move the cursor from word to word, the web grows to include more
words. This encourages students to use a variety of words in their writings.
There are many educational and interactive websites for students. I found that
www.mathplayground.com and www.gamequarium.com are two websites where kids can
play mathematical games. www.funbrain.com offers a wide variety of games for
different subjects.
http://www.aaamath.com
This site offers math practice from grades K-8. Each section has a mini-lesson and a practice session. If a problem is answered incorrectly the site shows how to correctly answer the problem.
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help.htm
This site offers practice for grade levels K-8 in all subject areas. The site provides students with a slide show explaining the lesson. Students answer questions on particular skills. If a question is answered incorrectly, the student is given another chance to answer the question. I really liked the 8th grade language arts!
Illuminations, through NCTM, is a great interactive site. One of my favorite “student tested” portions of this site is below. It lets the student work with interactive fractions.
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=11
Another great site is Raz-Kids.com. It is an inexpensive site for interactive reading. Students can click on their level (or above it they would like) and listen along while each phrase read is highlighted. Check out the link below. Click on “free sample” and go to bookroom. There you can click on the level of your choice.
http://www.raz-kids.com/
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