Learn, create share is the pedagogy we follow as part of the Manaiakalani cluster so it is important that as teachers we not only model this process, but also remember to give our learners time to share their work.
The infographic (our skills challenge to make using only a google doc) above reflects the takeaways from todays session that I will be taking back and ensuring my learners are able to use. In addition to this I will be using these words when we open new documents in G Suite. "Locate your folder - open a new doc/presentation etc - write your name followed by the learning title." Starting a new doc in folder helps to ensure all work is shared with the teacher. If Chrome and Drive are to be effective they need to be set up well.
- Comments tool/Assign to: A great tool for encouraging student led reading comprehension by assigning questions and responding to assigned questions.
- Voice Typing: A great tool to help learners of all ability levels.
- Scavenger Hunt: A fun way to practise skills.
- Explore Tool: Enables web, image and drive access within Google docs.
- Table of Contents: Provides visual links to headings and subtitles in a doc.
- Overview: Save page 'real estate' by adding links to headings and subtitles on the side of the doc.
- Shortcuts: Time savers... command + shift + B (opens bookmarks bar), command + shift + T (opens a new tab), command + Z (adds a doc to your Drive without making a copy), command + shift + v (pastes without formatting). Command for Mac/Control for Chromebooks
My teacher takeaway from today is the zoom feature. Being able to enlarge the words or images I want my learners to focus on while I'm talking to them will be so much more effective than asking them to focus on the cursor. The pathway to unlock this feature is:
System preferences - Accessibility - Zoom (my settings look like this...)
DFI Cohort 2 2019
Update:
Today (4/6/19) I challenged my students to create their DLOs using only Google Docs. I noticed that my instructions were a lot more detailed and specific following my day at DFI. It was interesting that this challenge was met with 'Why can't we just use Google Draw?'.... I explained that I wanted to introduce them to the explore tool so we set about creating our DLOs following the same set of challenges that we had at our DFI session. This was a huge success with one group choosing to use the draw tool to create their images, and several powerful conversations taking place as to which definition best suited the purpose of the task. What I noticed most about my instruction was that it was explicit and I was able to problem solve quickly which meant that momentum was not lost.
The image below was my instructional exemplar that was created so that I could model how to use the explore tool.
Here are a few examples of our completed DLOs:
Today (4/6/19) I challenged my students to create their DLOs using only Google Docs. I noticed that my instructions were a lot more detailed and specific following my day at DFI. It was interesting that this challenge was met with 'Why can't we just use Google Draw?'.... I explained that I wanted to introduce them to the explore tool so we set about creating our DLOs following the same set of challenges that we had at our DFI session. This was a huge success with one group choosing to use the draw tool to create their images, and several powerful conversations taking place as to which definition best suited the purpose of the task. What I noticed most about my instruction was that it was explicit and I was able to problem solve quickly which meant that momentum was not lost.
The image below was my instructional exemplar that was created so that I could model how to use the explore tool.
Here are a few examples of our completed DLOs:
Our next challenge was to use the voice to text tool to write our information reports. I set this as the challenge component of our collaborative writing task and judging by the feedback was very well received due to the novelty factor, as well as how it helped my learners notice where punctation was needed. Mele and Marieta's example below reflects what we did in this lesson. Click here for the link to Mele's blog post.
Hi Robyn
ReplyDeleteZooming is a function that I also realised that I'd forgotten was available last term. Unfortunately for the kids and their Chromebooks, if they change the resolution on their screens they lose so much screen real estate. I like to tell them to use the zoom option on the Google app they're using or on the Chrome browser since it's more quickly reversible.
The voice typing feature is one that I've come to be very familiar recently. It's quite good and particularly useful for those learners who have problems spelling, writing coherent sentences, or typing quickly.
Thanks for the feedback Greg. I can absolutely see the potential of the voice typing and plan to add it into my phonics program. I can't believe I forgot about this feature! The zoom feature I planned to use from a teaching perspective. I realise how many times I ask the groups I'm working with to follow the cursor which is frustrating I'm sure, so this will make things so much easier :)
DeleteHeya Robyn!
ReplyDeleteYour inforgraphic is so informative, especially for someone that isn't great with technology. I'm still learning myself so for someone like me, I would definitely find use of it. I love how you got your children to do this task as well, I think I might do it for mine :)