Sunday, March 12, 2017

Slice of Life Story Challenge #12 - DigiLit Sunday - Blended Learning


It's the March Slice of Life Story Challenge at Two Writing Teachers!


I'm also participating in Margaret Simon's DigiLit Sunday link-up today.

     Margaret's theme is today is blended learning.  She included this definition by Beth Holland: "True blended learning affords students not only the opportunity to gain both content and instruction via online as well as traditional classroom means, but also an element of authority over this process."  I love using digital tools with my gifted students.  They are quick to tackle the various processes and challenges technology presents, and they enjoy finding out what each tool can offer.  Student experts quickly emerge, and they help out classmates as needed.

     I feel much the same way as Margaret in that I'm not sure I've completely switched over to blended learning yet, but technology sure has made things more interesting.  I use Google Classroom almost exclusively - no worries when the printers jam in my building since I hardly ever make copies of anything - yay - and I've flipped some instruction.  We read a lot of material digitally and use tools such as Storybird, Animoto, word cloud generators, and of course, Kidblog, to enhance our writing. I know some of this is technology-rich instruction and not truly blending learning (thanks, Fran McVeigh, for alerting us to this distinction).  However,  I'm always trying to strive toward Franki Sibberson's blended learning style of teaching.  She teaches kids about all kinds of digital tools, and her 3rd graders make decisions on which tools to use for various purposes.  Some day...

     Recently, it was time to culminate our 6th grade Social Responsibility and Leaving a Legacy unit (I throw "Redemption" in there, too).  Traditionally, I would create a mind map on those theme topics together with my classes on the Smart Board at the beginning of the unit and would add to it as we go.  I still like that method, but this time, I asked kids to work together in pairs or groups of three and use digital tools to display their thinking.  My requirements were they they had to write 10 thesis statements or ideas/concepts about the theme topics and then add another layer of 3 claims and explanations/evidence around each of those.  I gave them choices about which digital tool they used: Bubbl.us, Mindmeister, or Coggle.  They quickly tried them out and made decisions about which they preferred, and got to work.  They had to use our readings and experiences throughout the quarter (novels, biographies, online and magazine articles and short stories, read alouds - the stage version of The Diary of Anne Frank, The Seventh Most Important Thing, and Freak the Mighty - and our #ReadWalkWater fundraising event following A Long Walk to Water).  They could also do extra research to add to their thinking.  The extra bonus of these mind maps is that they are great rehearsals for essay writing!

     Creating these mind maps took a long time, but it was worth it.  They would never have written that much if it was only on paper, and if I had created it with them, we wouldn't have had the diversity of thinking that resulted when they worked collaboratively.  The technology allowed them to do some creative organization and think in patterns.  Here are some of the finished maps - unfortunately I'm having issues with Mindmeister right now, so I can't include those, but Coggle and Bubbl.us are represented here (I can embed Coggle - just move your cursor around the image to see all the parts, but not Bubbl.us, so those are going to be hard to read, but you'll get the idea).  Later, I discovered Popplet and Thinglink.  Also good mind map creators! 













10 comments:

  1. I'm still struggling with technology enhanced and blended learning. Thanks for some insight to help my thinking along.

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  2. I love the idea of letting kids choose their tools. I work with struggling learners, and sometimes they choose whatever seems easiest--but sometimes they surprise me! Bubbl.us looks a lot like Popplet; do you have a preference for one over the other?

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  3. I've been teaching since 36 mm film, so I've seen the evolution of technology and have gone along for most of the ride. Now half my teaching schedule is dual credit and AP, so I use less technology in those classes because the two colleges I work for have traditional expectations. Still, I've been experimenting with infogrphics in my general speech classes. I offered the use of two online infographic tools for creating listening mind maps last week: Canva (suggested by a student) and Pick to Chart (used by a student last trimester for a persuasive speech. I haven't yet used others, which is not ideal.

    I'll definitely check out Coggle as I think it might be a good option for kids as they learn outlining.

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  4. These are so fascinating! Love how each group embraced your challenge in a different way. Will be bookmarking this to ponder for my 7th graders ...

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  5. Super cool, Holly. You're giving me a ton to think about here. I have access to Chromebooks, but not daily. Hoping to be there next year so I can make it a more natural part of our classroom.

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  6. Holly, I am totally intrigued by your students' mind maps. I'd love to talk with you more about this. I can't access your blog at school, so I want to email you so I can connect my kids to this kind of learning. Thanks!

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  7. I love this, Holly. It reminds me of my last year in a 5th grade classroom, when students had BYOD. Working with a technology support person in my district, we figured out how to create rubrics that allowed students to know what knowledge they needed to demonstrate, and then it was on them to decide how to show what they knew. Rubrics of learning were a game-changer for me.
    Love the mind maps and their depth!

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  8. these are great! I love seeing their thinking and I love that they had the opportunity to figure it out. Thanks for introducing me to new tools too!

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  9. These are amazing, Holly. I've used Bubbl-us and MindMeister, but Coggle is new and seems very good. I'm impressed with the content your students have included. It is wonderful to have the collaboration. Thanks for sharing so much!

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  10. Holly, allowing your students to think beyond traditional ways via mind maps has led your students to draw conclusions about their learning. I like what you set out to do and the work that followed-all leading to meaning making.

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