Nearpod for Common Core Comprehension Lessons

In first grade we used the free app Nearpod to practice the comprehension strategy Making Predictions.  Nearpod is a digital tool that lets you create or upload content and push your presentation out to each user's device.  With this tool everyone is able to see the same presentation on their own device.

My favorite feature of this digital tool is that it allows you to add activities into your presentation.  You can ask an open ended question, poll your audience, ask quiz questions, and more--without ever leaving the app.  The paid version gives you even more features, but you do get a lot of great features for free!

For our Making Predictions activity I created a new nearpod and then uploaded one of the great videos I found on YouTube from Story Cove.  I picked a short folktale, one that was great for making predictions.  I used Quicktime on my iMac to trim the video up to the point where I wanted students to stop and predict.  Then I added in one of the activity slides called "Draw It".  On this slide students drew and wrote about their prediction and then sent it to me, where I could review all of the student submissions from my screen.  After watching the final portion of the video students were asked if their prediction was correct and to use text evidence to prove it.

Slides:  Introduction slide, first part of the video, prediction slide, final part of the video, and text evidence slide.

Student prediction.

Student prediction.

Evidence example.

I could see using this tool for many other comprehension strategies as well.  The best part is, instead of having just one or a group of students raising their hands to answer the question, EVERYONE gets to be involved and practice the strategy! :)

Embedded PARCC Practice

Let's take a look at a quiz I created on Google Forms that has PARCC-like questions.

I really like how the quiz felt very much like those challenging, deep-thinking PARCC questions and yet still let me use the content that I teach.  Take a look and you'll see how well my important, life-skills content meshed with the test prep to make the activity feel worthwhile.

First Question:  Students practiced a multi-select item.  Their teachers and I have already pointed out to them that when they see a square to the left of their answer choices that means there is more than one answer they need to select.

Second Question with Part A and B:  I used section headers in Google Forms to make a two-part question.  I saw lots of these on the PARCC practice tests and decided it was definitely important to practice.  I also embedded the video we used during the lesson and marked where the content was in the video by giving students the time markers in parentheses.  This question relies heavily on using the context clues given in the video as each answer choice could seem correct if you don't watch the video.  This matched the style of the PARCC questions perfectly.  Part B asks for text evidence so we could practice our Language Arts Common Core skills within the context of my digital citizenship unit.

Final Question:  Again, we practice a multi-select item with this question.

Take a look at my last post about the using Google Forms for PARCC practice to find out more about how Google Forms helps us practice PARCC-like questions.

PARCC and Google Forms

Google Forms has a lot of similarities with the PARCC test, which makes it an excellent tool for embedding PARCC practice into your lessons.

Multiple Choice vs. Multiple Select
In one type of question, students will be required to select the ONE correct option from multiple choices.  In another type of question, they will need to select multiple choices.  Both the PARCC test and Google forms use circles to represent answer choices that have ONE correct option and squares to represent answer choices where students are able to select multiple options.

Left:  PARCC TestNav 8 Tutorial, Right:  Google Forms

Videos
The PARCC test may require students to watch video clips.  Students will need to know how to play, pause, and move the slider to start the video at a certain point.  Google Forms will help your students practice this skill as it allows you to insert YouTube videos into your form.
*Warning:  At the end of the video, You Tube shows suggested videos.  These suggestions may not be appropriate for your students.  However, I believe it is worthwhile to teach students what to do when inappropriate content appears online vs. avoiding this tool.

Top:  PARCC TestNav 8 Tutorial, Bottom:  Google Forms

Drop Down Choices
Students will need to know how to use drop down menus to answer one type of question on the PARCC.  The "Choose from a list" question type on Google Forms allows students to practice this type of question.  However, it's not a perfect match with the example question provided by the PARCC TestNav 8 Tutorial.   You'll see below that the example question from the PARCC tutorial has students writing a number sentence using multiple drop down choices whereas in the Google Forms example students are only able to select from ONE drop down menu per question.

Top:  PARCC TestNav 8 Tutorial, Bottom:  Google Forms

Writing in a Box
A colleague of mine shared with me that students were required to write in a box on the PARCC pilot test they took last year and thought they had to make their response fit into the box.  What they didn't realize was that if they kept writing scroll bars would have appeared that would allow them to compose a longer response.  This question type is available as "Paragraph text" on Google Forms.

Google Forms in Your Daily Lessons
Here are some quick ideas for incorporating Google Forms into your lessons.

• Make a quiz
• Record results from a lab
• Respond to reading
• Survey your class
• Create forms as a class to gather data for analysis
• So many more great ideas shared here by Tom Barrett

How to Create and Share a Google Doc

First, log in.
Then, click Create and Document.

Now, title the document and share it.

Type in the person's Google account that you want to share it with.

Google Docs auto-saves!  You won't lose your work.

Games Around the World

First grade is learning about games around the world.  We read two texts in our Wonders series Friends All Around by Miela Ford and TIME for Kids: World Games.

This book shows friends in different countries.

This digital text has links to click that take you to a map.

We also watched this video from students in Lebanon.

And looked at this blog with pictures of students playing at a school in Ireland.

Finally, we created our own presentation to show how we play!



Use the comments below to compare and contrast the games we play and the games played in other countries OR write to us to tell us games you play.

VoiceThread for the Common Core

What is VoiceThread?
VoiceThread is easily my favorite web tool for our youngest learners. This tool lets the user upload pictures and videos into a slideshow and uses these images as the topic of an online conversation. VoiceThread users can add voice, text, or video comments on each slide. They can even draw on the slide as they comment. This feature works really well on the iPad app because students just use their finger to draw right on the screen.

How is this a good tool to help meet the goals of the Common Core?
The Common Core are our standards for learning in English Language Arts.  They set goals for each grade.
All grades have goals for speaking and listening.  With this tool students can describe their ideas using visual displays and add more drawings to make their meaning clear, build on others' ideas by responding to their comments, and ask and answer questions to clear up any confusion and deepen their understanding of the topic.  Those are the same goals we see in the Common Core.

Take a look at the kindergarten standards here.  

Take a look at the first grade standards here.  

Take a look at the second grade standards here.

Depending on how students use this tool they may hit on even more standards.  Students may be working on vocabulary standards like my first graders did in this VoiceThread:

Or they may hit on comprehension standards like my students did when they drew the pictures they visualized as they listened to a story and then found evidence from the text that showed where the images were generated from:

Finally, these VoiceThreads can be shared, like I did with the ones above!  So they can be used to communicate and collaborate with other people that are far away.  In fact, our next VoiceThread is titled Games We Play and we're hoping that classrooms in other countries watch it and add comments to help us compare and contrast the games played in different countries.

Text Analysis Using Google Docs

The best thing about Google Docs is that it lets us share a document with others.  Two or more people can work on one document at the same time from different computers and they can see the changes their group members make as they happen.  

Check out a video of two people working on the same document here:

My second favorite thing on Google Docs is the comments.  We can use the comments to look at and think about a text together and ask/answer questions.  

Our fifth graders did this with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Take a look:

Before the lesson, I typed up the Pledge of Allegiance and added a picture of the flag. Then, I wrote comments that defined words and asked questions.  You can see words that have comments are highlighted in yellow.  During the lesson we read the text and comments together, and then the students replied to my comments.  Some students not only answered my questions, but also read their friends' comments and replied back to them to continue the conversation and ask their friends questions about what they wrote.  100% of the students were on task and involved!

Video by Dina Kravets CC by 2.0