Discovery Education

Discovery Education is well known for its engaging videos targeted towards different subjects and age levels.  These videos can be used very effectively as writing and/or discussion prompts.  Discovery Education also contains a set of tools for teachers that will help them manage their chosen videos and even contains entire lesson plans as well.  Teachers can assign videos for students to watch, assign writing prompts, build and assign quizzes based on the videos, and even assign entire lessons which are ready-to-use.  The use of videos can be more engaging for students and can act as a starting point for a multi-media project where students use the information from the video to conduct further research using multiple sources such as websites, books, etc.  Teachers can access many of the Discovery Education videos by simply searching Youtube.  Use of the other tools will require an account that must be set up by the school on DiscoveryEducation.com

 This tool meets the following elements of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment:

 Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology

• Do students use technology as a tool for communication, research, and creation of new works?
• Do students find relevant and reliable sources that meet their needs?


• Do students take risks and try new things with tools available to them?


• Do students use a variety of tools correctly and efficiently?

 Design and share information for global communities that have a variety of purposes

•  Do students use inquiry to ask questions and solve problems?

• Do students critically analyze a variety of information from a variety of sources?


• Do students take responsibility for communicating their ideas in a variety of ways?

 Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneously presented information

• Do students locate information from a variety of sources?


• Do students analyze the credibility of information and its appropriateness in meeting their needs?


• Do students synthesize information from a variety of sources?


• Do students manage new information to help them solve problems?


• Do students use information to make decisions as informed citizens?


• Do students strive to see limitations and overlaps between multiple streams of information?

The following video will give you an overview of how to use Discovery Education

Tween Tribune

A fourth grade teacher told me about this site.  This is an excellent web site for students to practice reading, comprehension, critical thinking, and interaction with their peers.  The site contains news articles about many current event topics.  The articles are broken down by grade level, so the reading will be appropriate for your students.  Students can read articles and post responses.  Teachers have the option of setting up a class and assigning specific articles to read, and can also preview students' posts before they go live.  This is a great way to work on critical thinking exercises.

 This tool meets the following elements of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment:

Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology

• Do students use technology as a tool for communication, research, and creation of new works?
• Do students evaluate and use digital tools and resources that match the work they are doing?


• Do students find relevant and reliable sources that meet their needs?

 Design and share information for global communities that have a variety of purposes

• Do students use inquiry to ask questions and solve problems?


• Do students critically analyze a variety of information from a variety of sources?


• Do students solve real problems and share results with real audiences?


• Do students publish in ways that meet the needs of a particular, authentic audience?


• Do students consciously make connections between their work and that of the greater community?

 Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts

• Do students use tools to communicate original perspectives and to make new thinking visible?


• Do students communicate information and ideas in a variety of forms and for various purposes?


• Do students communicate information and ideas to different audiences?


• Do students articulate thoughts and ideas so that others can understand and act on them?

Check out the quick video overview of Tween Tribune below.  You can also check Youtube for lots more tutorials on using this website.

Padlet.com

Padlet is an interactive bulletin board tool.  It is extremely easy to use and can be used in many different ways.  Teachers can create a board to foster a class discussion.  The teacher can post a question, picture, video, or any combination.  All students have to do is log on to the page and then click to post a "note" to the board.  This tool can also be used as a space for students to collaborate on a project.  Because it can be accessed from any computer with internet access, the students can use it for asynchronous collaboration.  It also gives a record of each student's input. 

This tool meets the following elements of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment:
Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology

• Do students use technology as a tool for communication, research, and creation of new works?
• Do students, independently and collaboratively, solve problems as they arise in their work?

Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought. 

• Do students work in a group in ways that allow them to create new knowledge or to solve problems that can’t be created or solved individually?


• Do students work in groups of members with diverse perspectives and areas of expertise?


• Do students build on one another’s thinking to gain new understanding?


• Do students learn to share disagreements and new ways of thinking in ways that positively impact the work?


• Do students gain new understandings by being part of a group or team?


• Are students open to and intentional about learning from and with others?

Take a look at how easy it is use Padlet

Lingro.com

The coolest dictionary ever

Lingro.com is a fantastic tool for ENL (English as a New Language, formally ELA, ELL) students, but can also be extremely helpful to any student.  All a student has to do is open a webpage from the Lingo home page, and Lingo makes almost any word on the webpage "clickable" with a full set of definitions for the word.  Students can use Lingo to look up any word they don't know, or they can translate the word into one of eleven different languages.  This will help ENL students to read on their own and learn English as they read.

This tool meets the following elements of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment:

Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology

• Do students evaluate and use digital tools and resources that match the work they are doing?


• Do students find relevant and reliable sources that meet their needs?


• Do students take risks and try new things with tools available to them?


• Do students, independently and collaboratively, solve problems as they arise in their work?


• Do students use a variety of tools correctly and efficiently?

 Design and share information for global communities that have a variety of purposes

• Do students critically analyze a variety of information from a variety of sources?


• Do students take responsibility for communicating their ideas in a variety of ways?


• Do students choose tools to share information that match their need and audience?

 Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneously presented information

•  Do students manage new information to help them solve problems?

Click the link below to see a quick video on how to use Lingro

Lingro

Quill.org helping students with proofreading

Quill.org

This website helps students practice proofreading, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization all while practicing their reading skills and learning new information.  Students can begin by proofreading a passage, then Quill will review their edits to show them what they got correct.  This is where it gets powerful.  A custom practice session then opens to help students review the grammatical concepts that they got incorrect.  Teachers can set up a class and work on different grammatical concepts.  The best part is that each student can work at his/her own pace and only practice the concepts that they need.  It meets the following elements of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment: 

Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology

• Do students use technology as a tool for communication, research, and creation of new works?
• Do students evaluate and use digital tools and resources that match the work they are doing?
• Do students, independently and collaboratively, solve problems as they arise in their work?
• Do students use a variety of tools correctly and efficiently?