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Tag: creativity

Team of Huskies running

Amazing Race with Google Maps

nancy

I presented today at the Spring CUE Conference and had a great time. I was a little nervous because it was my first big conference since the pandemic, but it went well. I shared different ways to use Google tools to support world language and English language learners. You can see the slide deck here if you are so inclined.

One of the ideas I shared was an Amazing Race. If you aren’t familiar with it, here is a quick overview. Basically, students go to a map, click on a place marker, and see a challenge or task. They complete the challenge or task, then fill out and submit a form. When they submit the form, they receive a link to a new map with a new challenge. Want to give it a try? Here is a mini Amazing Race for you to play.

One of the participants asked for clarification about setting up the Amazing Race. Here you go, Gerardo!

It may seem complicated, but once you see how it all fits together, it makes more sense. I’ve tried to break it down into manageable steps. Having a planning document is key. Here is a template you can use. (Click on the blue Use template button to generate your own copy.)

Step 1: Decide on your content and identify places that are connected to that content. For example, my topic was Michelangelo, so in my example, I selected the Vatican, which contains the Sistine Chapel, and the Accademia, the museum in Florence where the statue of David is displayed. Additional locations I could have added include Bologna, where he worked for a time as a teenager, or places where his art is displayed, etc. Any type of tie in will work. On your planning document, note down each location.

Step 2: Identify what you want students to do at each location. You could ask them to explore the map, read an article, watch a video, or similar. What learning will take place at each location? Add this information to your planning document.

Step 3: Create a separate map for each place and add a marker to each one. The marker contains the challenge for each location. If you are asking students to look at an image or watch a video, you can embed them directly into the marker. If you want them to read an article or go to a website, you will need to type in that information and provide a link, if appropriate. Basically, each place marker has directions for the learning activity you identified in Step 2.Share your maps so anyone with the link can view. On your planning document, paste in a link to each map.

Step 4: Create a Google form for each place. Students will complete the form to submit their work. They may do this by simply answering questions on the form; you can use response validation to make sure that they can only proceed if they answer correctly. Another option would be to have students create something, for example, a slide deck or a Google Doc and ask them to submit the link on the form. On your planning document, paste in a link to each form. This is the link to where the students will go to complete the form, not the link you use to edit it, but you could include that too if you like.

Step 5: Tie it all together. Edit the place markers on your maps to include the link to the form for that location. Edit the confirmation message (under Presentation settings) on each form to give the students the link to the next map.

If you would like to see an example of a completed planning guide, you can visit this planning guide that I used to create the Amazing Race game linked above.

Pro tip: Create a folder in your Google Drive and save all the forms, maps, and planning documents in it so you have everything in one place.

Tagul: Amazing Word Clouds

nancy

Although it isn’t a new service, I have just discovered a tag cloud generator called Tagul, and I have to say that I love it! You may be familiar with Wordle, Tagxedo, or WordItOut, which are all very good sites (although I have been having some technical issues with Wordle lately), but if you haven’t yet come across Tagul in your internet meanderings, I encourage you to head over as soon as you finish reading this post.

Two of the things that set Tagul apart are the ease with which you can incorporate custom colors and shapes as well as the ability to link the tags in your cloud to different pages. I used the coffee cup image from the front of my website, added the text of the About Me section, and set it up so the PLAYDATE tag linked to the PLAYDATE L. A. website. It only took me a few minutes and I am very pleased by the results. Hover over the graphic to see how it works.

Tagul has several other noteworthy features. You can put words inside other words, customize your fonts (even for individual words within the cloud), export your image as a scalable vector graphic, and specify final image size, among others. Like most of my other favorite sites, it’s free, although it requires users to register with an email address.

There are many ways to use tag clouds in the classroom. Use them to highlight key words and concepts in passages from literature or famous speeches. Create two clouds using primary source document accounts of the same historic event written from different perspectives and compare them. Create custom images for report covers or website headers. (Check out this one here; it’s my first effort, but I’m pretty proud of it!) If you have another great idea, please share in the comments.

First Grade Writing with StoryKit

nancy

Just before winter break, I was in need of a quick project that first graders could do independently while their teacher and I pulled individual students to work with us. We decided to use Storykit and have them create books about the holidays.

Storykit is an iPhone app created by the International Children’s Digital Library. It works well on the iPad, but if you are looking for it in the iTunes Store, you need to look in the iPhone Apps category. It allows users to create an electronic story book that they can enhance by adding pictures, drawings, text, and audio. Books can be accessed through the StoryKit app or shared via email.

We showed the students how to create a page, take and insert a picture, and add text (about 5 minutes total), then paired them up. The children were asked to take a picture of their partner, ask the partner what he/she liked about the holidays, and then type the response using the format “He/She likes…” After the first child had taken a turn, the second partner took the iPad and created a page about the first child.

The whole project went much better than we ever expected. When there was a problem the children collaborated and solved it themselves. They helped each other spell unfamiliar words, use the camera, and troubleshoot problems. Using four iPads, the first graders were able to create pages for 26 children in just under half an hour. No adult help was required, the kids were engaged and empowered, and the resulting books were adorable.

They could have been published just as they were, but later that week, to complete the project, the teacher had the students draw cover pages, which they photographed and added to their books. She also worked with small groups on the spelling. Had she wanted to, she could also have asked each child to record a sentence. The books were saved on the iPads for the students to read and were also shared with the families via email. Here is an example (children’s faces blurred for privacy).

Screenshot of book

I could see this project being used in many ways at different times of year. It could be a “get to know you” book for the beginning of a school year. Kindergarteners could create an “I see” sight word book, perhaps with pictures the teacher has already added to the camera roll.