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How could you design the physical environment of the classroom, including technology, to be conducive to student-centered learning? by Adri Acosta

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How could you design the physical environment of the classroom, including technology, to be conducive to student-centered learning? by Adri Acosta

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What does a student centered class look like?

1. As we walk around the room we should see students working on assignments and projects with the teacher facilitating.

1. Students get to explore their interests

2. Students should be working as a group and building on each others knowledge - this enhances cooperative learning and student collaboration in the classroom.

3. Both the student and teacher should be working hand in hand to achieve mutual learning goals, creating a partnership between the teacher and student.

4. Example of student work should be found in the classroom - projects, posters, and writing samples - to allow students more ownership of their work.

5. Students should also be comfortable using technology in the classroom - this technology should be used to help students solve problems, just like in the real world situations

6. The classroom should not be a quiet place, students should be debating ideas with each other so that they can be given a voice and feel empowered. This is facilitated by the teacher by providing students with choices in their assignments.

Tips for the classroom

1. Try to teach ‘big’ ideas to your students - allow students to discover the details of these big ideas for themselves.

2. Give students the opportunity to evaluate their own learning - these reflections can be part of the teachers grading and assessment.

3. Performance based, as well as authentic assessments are an integral component to this style of learning as these types of assessments are what students will be confronted with in a real world environment.

4. The teacher should be moving around the classroom to allow for formative assessment of students' progress in the class.  Asking friendly questioning, facilitating higher order thinking, and this is all done without grading the student.

1. Allow Students to Share in Decision-Making by placing students in the center of their own learning they need a voice in why, what, and how learning experiences take shape.
2.  Physical environments for student based learning

1. See video - https://youtu.be/MdymI61hLPY

3.  Using technology in student based learning classes.

Sources

1. ASCDInservice. (2019, October 1). Five Elements of a Positive Classroom Environment for Students Living with Adversity. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttp://inservice.ascd.org/five-elements-of-a-positive-classroom-environment-for-students-living-with-adversity/.

2. Beichner, R (2008). The SCALE-UP project: A student-centered active learning environment for undergraduate programs. Invited paper for the National Academy of Sciences.

3. Cotner, S., Loper, J., Walker, J. D., & Brooks, D. C. (2013). “It’s not you, it’s the room”— Are the high-tech, active learning classrooms worth it? Journal of College Science Teaching, 42(6), 82–89.

4. EdTechReview. (2013, April 23). What is GBL (Game-Based Learning)? Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://edtechreview.in/dictionary/298-what-is-game-based-learning.

5. Educationrickshaw. (2018, February 7). Learner-Centered Experiences Through the Lens of Technology. Retrieved October 21, 2019, from https://educationrickshaw.com/2018/02/07/learner-centered-experiences-through-the-lens-of-technology/.

6. Edutopia. (2018). Game-Based Learning. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://www.edutopia.org/topic/game-based-learning.

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Dr. Robert Beichner is an award-winning professor of physics at North Carolina State University and is receiving the Prize for his work at the post-secondary level. He has changed how students learn in the science classroom not only on his home campus, but at the more than 100 institutions of higher education that have adopted SCALE-UP, an approach that uses digital technology combined with innovative teaching approaches centered on hands-on activities and roundtable discussions.

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Create a safe learning environment that is conducive to learning and respectful of everyone in it. Use learning environment rules positive,short,  to the point.

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How would you design the learning tool kid of your students online learning environment? by Vicky Acosta

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How would you design the learning tool kid of your students online learning environment? by Vicky Acosta

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How does PLTW define Online Learning?

Online learning is characterized by a structured learning environment designed to enhance and expand educational opportunities, providing instruction that is teacher-led, and may be synchronous (communication in which participants interact in the same time space such as videoconferencing) or asynchronous (communication that is separated by time, such as email or online discussion forums), and accessed from multiple settings (in school and/or out of school buildings).

It is essential for you to develop and maintain organized physical and online workspaces that promote maximum efficiency and help you locate what you need more readily. Being efficient in managing your time when teaching online may be the key to balancing your work and personal life.

Create a Physical Space

●      Choose space that will allow for quiet and privacy.

●      Consider a door with a lock or a “do not disturb” sign if you live with others.

●      Make sure your space is clean and organized, so you can focus on your students and their learning.

○      Reflection Questions:

■      What do I need for my physical space?

■      How am I best supporting myself in my physical space in order to best serve my students and colleagues?
Create an Online Space

●      Make sure you have high speed Internet service, antivirus and malware protection software to protect your system(s).

●      Clear your virtual desktop. Get all those icons off the startup menu that make your system run slower.

●      Scan paper documents, when possible, and place them in folders.

●      Use clear file names so you can easily retrieve them later. Alphabetize file names and be consistent in your filing system.

●      Get the folders for all the classes you teach set up and organized as soon as possible.

●      Create bookmarks for frequently-visited websites.

●      Archive emails in folders labeled with the course name and term.

●      Create shortcuts on your desktop for programs, folders, and websites you use frequently.

●      Use a calendar with deadlines and note priorities.

●      Set up a solid organizational and workflow email management strategy so you can stay engaged with students and other stakeholders on a daily basis.

●      If you use the same email accounts for work and non-work, consider opening a separate account to maintain boundaries on your time.

○      Reflection Questions:

■      What do I need for my online space?

■      How am I best supporting myself in my online space in order to best serve my students and colleagues?
Cultivate Health and Wellbeing

●      Set up your space to be ergonomically sound.

●      Make sure to take breaks to rest your eyes, wrists, and back.

●      Get up and move your body and stretch periodically. Set a timer as a reminder.

●      Make sure you have good light in your work space.

●      Maintain an upright posture. Slumping and rounding your shoulders can lead to fatigue more quickly, especially when sitting for long periods of time.

●      Drink lots of water and eat healthily.

●      Get dressed for work.

●      Establish healthy boundaries by using a calendar to block work and non-work time.

●      Establish professional connections with fellow teachers online to ask questions, share best practices, and check in on well-being.

○      Reflection Questions:

■      How am I taking care of my health and well-being?

■      How am I setting boundaries for myself to maintain my health and well-being?
Set a Routine

●      Maintain a routine.

●      Establish goals for the day.

●      Check and answer email.

●      Compose a weekly group email to the entire class. For the first week, request a response to ensure your messages are received and get students started interacting with you via email. For younger students, this might be through web conferencing or phone calls with caregivers.

●      Check and answer messages.

●      Grade student work.

●      Make phone calls to caregivers, mentors, and students to build support for helping the student be successful.

●      Send regular updates to caregivers.

●      Track student progress.

●      Help students learn time management skills through use of any pacing elements available in your learning environment.

●      Make expectations clear.

●      Reach out to colleagues to seek the wisdom of those who have lived and breathed online teaching before you.

○      Reflection Questions:

■      What goals am I setting each day, and are they realistic?

■      How am I spending my day? Is it as efficient as it could be to maintain a healthy work/life balance?
Establish Online Learning Environment Schedule, Rules, and Procedures

●      Do not recreate what is done in the school and classroom schedule-wise. Instead, in online and blended learning environments, transition your interaction with students from whole group instruction to a combination of one-on-one meetings with students as well as small group meetings. This allows you more targeted time for differentiating and meeting the needs of each student based on where they are.

●      Chunk content in smaller pieces (15-30 minutes)
when possible.

●      Make your expectations clear for the online learning environment from the start to save you time and energy down the road.

●      Remember that many of your students are new to the online learning environment, so you will have to guide them in terms of appropriate behavior, your expectations, and protocols.

●      Create a safe learning environment that is conducive to learning and respectful of everyone in it.

●      Keep your learning environment rules positive, short, and to the point. If possible, co-create them with your students.

○      Reflection Questions:

■      How am I creating a safe learning environment where everyone feels respected?

■      Knowing that it’s best practice in online learning not to recreate what I do in my in-school learning environment, what am I doing to establish a schedule that works for myself and my students online?
5 Strategies To Improve Your Online Teaching

1. Engage With Your Learners Online
Without your physical presence in the classroom, it’s vital that you establish a virtual presence at the very beginning of the eLearning course. Online teachers need to be engaging and supporting students right from the start and for the duration of the course, to maintain an effective learning community.
By establishing your teacher presence, you’ll show students that you’re both visible and available. You’ll also be welcoming them to their new learning community – just as you would in any traditional classroom.

Engage with your learning community through online posts, forums or social media – when people see teachers putting time into discussions and engagement, they’ll be more encouraged to participate themselves. Through this engagement, you’ll also develop professional relationships with your students and make their experience far more personal and memorable.
2. Create A Supportive Learning Environment
As an online teacher, you have an opportunity to create a supportive online community for your learners.
The best way to achieve this is through encouraging both teacher-to-student engagement and student-to-student interaction. Dr Judith V. Boettcher, PhD and author of A Faculty Guide for Moving Teaching and Learning to the Web, suggests the following strategies:

At the start of your online course, get the ball rolling with a personal introduction post, and encourage participants to contribute their own short bio or introduction to the group.

Create an open forum or discussion board where learners can post to request help and assistance from each other, developing peer-to-peer support.

Set up small groups, similar to traditional study groups, for supportive mentoring of fellow learners.

These strategies will encourage learners to work together as an active learning community, which brings benefits to all individuals involved.
3. Use A Mix Of Learning Tools For Better Engagement
As Dr Boettche says, “the variety of activities that are now possible online makes it possible to create many types of effective learning environments.”

The best online teachers use a combination of both synchronous and asynchronous activities, creating a blend of traditional online learning styles with newer, more collaborative audio and visual tools. Working with a mix of activities makes the content more interesting and exciting, increasing student engagement with both the teacher and other learners.
4. Provide Ongoing Feedback
Feedback is an essential component of all effective learning environments – including online.

As an online teacher, your feedback will help to create an eLearning experience that is informative, engaging, and motivational for the learner. Your feedback should be continuous during the eLearning process, with constructive feedback offered as soon as possible so that students can clearly identify which behaviors or skills need to be improved. You can encourage group feedback through collaborative exercises, which also helps to promote peer engagement.
5. Make eLearning Content Mobile
It’s wise to acknowledge the importance of mobile learning for online teachers, with students and employees now accustomed to using their mobile devices for learning.

Mobile learning holds key advantages for learners, allowing them to access up-to-date course materials and relevant content anywhere, anytime. With bite-sized pieces of information available to be digested quickly and easily, learners can work through course materials at their own pace, assisting both performance and productivity.

Make sure your eLearning content can be easily accessed via smartphones, laptops, and iPads to maximize your teaching methods. You’ll also be demonstrating to your learners that you’re in touch with the needs of today’s modern workforce and its relevant technology.

These 10 sites have earned distinction as the best online learning tools for kids out there.

1. ABCMOUSE
2. READING EGGS
3. STARFALL
4. PBS KIDS
5. BRAINPOP
6. CURIOUS WORLD
7. HIGHLIGHTS KIDS
8. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS
9. COOLMATH
10. FUNBRAIN

Resources:

How to Create a Successful Online Learning Environment (pltw.org)
https://knowledge.pltw.org/s/article/How-to-Create-a-successful-online-Learning-Environment

5 Strategies To Improve Your Online Teaching - eLearning Industry

Top 10 Best Online Learning Tools for Kids in 2022 - Best Kid Stuff

By Vicky Acosta

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How can you implement assessment so that it enhances student-centered learning?

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How can you implement assessment so that it enhances student-centered learning?

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Designing assessments to be student-centered also develops metacognitive skills that transfer beyond individual classrooms and that push learners forward on personalized pathways for growth. We recently launched the second Quick Wins series delivering three weekly emails focused on making learning visible and actionable for both students and teachers through student-centered assessment. These Quick Wins prioritized three strategies that equip students to exercise agency while ensuring flexibility and access for anytime, anywhere learning.

Types of Achievement Targets

Knowledge Targets. Teachers expect students to master some content. This is more than

memorizing facts. One masters content when one gains control over it; when one understands

and is able to retrieve the specific material for use as needed. Control is gained by either building

into one structure of knowledge, by learning it outright, or through the effective use of appropriate reference materials. In other words, knowledge can be used equally effectively from either source.

Reasoning Targets. Rarely do we (or should we) ask students to master content merely for the

sake of knowing it. It’s virtually always the case we want students to be able to use the information to reason and solve certain kinds of problems. It’s incumbent upon us to define precisely what we mean by reasoning and problem-solving proficiency. In order to help students master effective reasoning, we must first ourselves be confident, competent masters of the judgment criteria.

Skill Targets. In most classrooms there are things teachers want their students to be able to do.

Instances for which the measurement of attainment is the student’s ability to demonstrate certain

kinds of skills or behaviors, for example, elementary group activities, middle school science lab,

high school public speaking or presentations. In all of these cases, success lies in “doing it well.”

The assessment challenge lies in being able to define in clear terms using words, examples, or

both, what it means to do it well.

Product Targets. Yet another way for students to succeed academically is through creating

quality products – tangible entities that exist independently of the performer but that present

evidence in their quality that the student has mastered foundational knowledge, requisite reasoning and problem-solving proficiencies and specific production skills. Examples might include a term paper, a school shop project, and/or science lab reports.

Dispositional Targets. This final category of valued targets is quite broad and complex and

includes those characteristics that go beyond the academic into the realms of the effective and

personal feeling states, such as attitudes toward something, sense of academic self-confidence or

interest in something that motivationally predisposes a person to do or not do something.

Examples could include the student’s attitude or feelings towards the teacher, the content, the

assessment methods, etc. Since these effective and social dimensions of learners are quite

complex, thoughtful assessment is essential.

Assessment Options

Selected Response Assessment. This category includes all of the objectively scored paper and

pencil test formats. The respondent is asked a series of questions, each of which is accompanied

by a range of alternative responses. The respondent’s task is to select either the correct or the

best answer. These might include multiple choice, true:false, matching, short answer, fill-in items.

Essay Assessment. In this case, the respondent is provided with an exercise (or set of exercises)

that calls for the preparation of an extended written answer. Respondents might be asked to

answer a question or to provide an explanation of the solution to a complex problem.

Performance Assessment. In this case, the respondent actually carries out a specified activity

under the watchful eye of the evaluator who observes performance and makes judgment as to the

quality of achievement demonstrated.

Personal Communication Assessment. One of the most common ways teachers gather

information about day-to-day student achievement in the classroom is to talk to them. We don’t

often think of this assessment in the same sense as multiple choice or a performance assessment,

but on reflection, it can become clear that certain forms of personal communication definitely do

represent assessments of student achievement.

Assessing 21st-Century/Success Skills

We know that some of our students collaborate better than others, just as some students have more global empathy than others. If we assess for these success or 21st-century skills, we can provide experiences and instructions that foster those skills and allow our students to grow in areas that are more than simply content knowledge or skills. Teachers can use rubrics and other assessment tools to let students know what these success skills look, sound, and feel like. In addition, they can use these assessment tools for self, teacher, and expert assessment. While some students may really know math content, for example, they may need support in building their grit, and we can make the classroom meet their needs in a targeted way.

Assessment can be a powerful force for knowing our students and creating a classroom that can meet their needs. We simply have to move past the baggage that comes with the term assessment, and understand that it can mean a lot of things. We can assess for content and skills, yes, but we can also assess for passions, interests, success skills, and the like for the purposes of the right instruction at the right time.

Sources: https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/52102993/Student-Centered-Classroom-Assessment_Stiggins-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1661034231&Signature=hJC5P68CeWgfWtJBpigTXsNRkklyx1-CkEL5TOwV01l0HFKZTU4BTfVu061ePTEB~q~1dgDZ15owIQmRC7BfBK9QZhA2wEB-kKLpNDr91OvePwS9Z2g~izRP8FJQb6iX-mTmMkUXmdQ9zdJqSeUF7B8p3SM1UA8Gm32234hjiDwCaljahXPJaIu05VF4Lf53od~vHFs9NdnRPiqAL-qiTIZdvHo05DvWSRxWmv3TCmOne3rvC5Qa-fNMp2Aa7xuWjBF9CG8ICynF96dmTe0vtO9iWYlGU-Vp15XX-NnJD0b6nOZA0Y8FrYPLjvmbIhhnGTBrHwi-QmQSj7lujqDB4g__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA

https://studentsatthecenterhub.org/resource/assessment/

https://globalonlineacademy.org/insights/articles/three-quick-wins-student-centered-assessment-strategies

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6. What student -centered approaches or techniques include physical movement as a central element?  By Yadú Peinado

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6. What student -centered approaches or techniques include physical movement as a central element?  By Yadú Peinado

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It is well known about James Asher's work on the teaching approach of "Total physical Response" in the language learning classroom (1969).  He concluded that first language learners used both hemispheres of the brain to learn their native languages. Left hemisphere is where language develops and Right hemisphere is where movement is controlled.  Asher realized that for second language learners, physical movement was helpful for their learning.   Can this concept or theory also be true for all types of learning and not just language learning?  I believe so.

When students stay seated and don't move, it is really easy for them to wander in their minds.  Movement helps them to have a clear mind, motivates them and increases interest ( yourtherapysourse.com).   It also makes it easier for them to learn topics in core subjects like math,  reading comprehension.  And it is also healthy for children to be active throughout the day.   Another positive aspect of physical movement in the classroom is "brain-breaks". It is really hard to stay focused for a long time, physical movement helps the brain take a break from over thinking.

How to incorporate physical movement into a student centered lesson:
1.  Kinesthetic exercises as "Brain breaks" (indianlioneducation.com)

2.  Learning centers.  This is done with different ( stations ) in the classroom.  Each station has a different task that can be planned as differentiated learning.  This technique is great because students move around the classroom and do different tasks at the same time.

3.  Reading corner.  If the classroom is big enough, there can be a section of it that can be used a reading sanctuary.  This motivates students to take a book and read.

4.  Walk and talk activities. This technique allows for student to student interaction which can be great to develop critical thinking and communicative abilities.

5. Taking the lesson outside if possible.  Students love going outside the classroom and it allows them to breath fresh air and to view assignments from a different perspective.

Our biggest challenge as on-line teachers is to incorporate movement into our lessons nevertheless it is necessary.  "TPR" approach doesn't have to stay just in the language classroom, it can be adapted into different subjects.

Bibliography:
Asher, J. J. (1969). The Total Physical Response Approach to Second Language Learning. The Modern Language Journal, 53(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/322091

10 Brain Breaks para las clases online - The Indian Lion (indianlioneducation.com)

Making Movement a Part of Your Classroom Culture | NEA

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What student-centered approaches or techniques can you use to address differentiation? by Ernesto Uribe

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What student-centered approaches or techniques can you use to address differentiation? by Ernesto Uribe

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Student-centered learning is a philosophy of education designed to meet the needs of individual students.

A student-centered learning model has four main characteristics:

voice,

choice,

competency-based progression, and

continuous monitoring of student needs (Harrington & DeBruler, 2019).

What is Differentiation, Exactly?

Differentiation is often confused with, or used synonymously with personalization and individualization of learning. But differentiation has some key and important differences. For clarity, when we talk about personalization we are talking about students having their own, unique learning goals. When we discuss individualization, we’re talking about the differing pace at which students move towards a shared learning goal.

With differentiated instruction, learning goals remain the same for groups of students, but the materials they are working on, and the methods being used to instruct, are tailored for their unique learning needs. Content, process, or environment can be differentiated, and ongoing assessment and adjustment are crucial aspects of differentiated instruction in the student-centered classroom.

We focus on two specific areas of differentiation: content and process.

-----Content-----

These are the materials a student needs to learn or have access to in order to gain needed information.

Reading passages at varying Lexile levels. Add your own readings or PDFs to any premade assignment, which include leveled readings for elementary and middle school students.

Adaptations made to the same reading passage.
Vocab words might be bolded or linked to visual image.

Adaptations to the same writing prompt. Some prompts may contain more information or vary by difficulty.

Organizers added to assignments.       Some students may have access to organizers to help them plan and draft their writing.

Sentence stems added to assignments. Especially helpful for English learners, sentence stems can guide a student’s understanding of the assignment and support their progression towards a shared class learning goal.

Additional resources added to  Assignments.
Attaching a PDF, vocabulary lists, or link in an educational video from YouTube.

------Process------
These are the activities and methods through which a student engages in order to make sense of or master the content.

Different levels of scaffolded supports. Some students may gain access to graphic organizers, multiple choice questions, or sentence stems.

Audio or video instruction.
Not all students learn best through purely written instruction. Especially when not live in the classroom, using audio or video to record an instructional lesson can help to remind, reinforce, and engage students.

Audio or video feedback.
Students thrive when a personal connection is created or reinforced. Connect with your students in a personal way by recording an audio or video message while grading.

Live Feedback.
This feature allows you to reach students in the moment while they write to facilitate conferencing and causal feedback.

Adaptations made to directions and instructions.
When differentiating assignments you can choose to provide differing information, offer different instructional strategies, or create levels of complexity in your instructions.

Benchmark assessments.
Not only can students practice writing and learn how to give feedback in Writable, but you can use data to assess or run assessments. Assessing student progress in order to adjust learning supports is a key component to differentiating instruction.

Now Environment and Product are important to so lets consider.

Environment

Even your workplace can be different. Decide your goals. Make a difference in the visuals and presentation, have a positive attitude, and tailor the atmosphere needed while giving instructions for the assignments.

Product

Assess & Adjust

Differentiation is a journey, and one of the most important tenets of differentiation is regular assessment of student learning, and adjustment of a student’s learning materials to help them continue to reach towards the common learning goal

“Differentiation is classroom practice that looks eyeball to eyeball with the reality that kids differ, and the most effective teachers do whatever it takes to hook the whole range of kids on learning.”

CAROL ANN TOMILSON Educator, Best-Selling Author, & Differentiation Expert

At the end I left a poster for the teachers that has activities instructions

References:
https://michiganvirtual.org/research/publications/student-centered-learning-in-principle-and-in-practice/
https://www.writable.com/2020/09/06/how-to-customize-learning-for-a-student-centered-experience-in-the-classroom-or-virtually/
https://teach-now-cohort.fandom.com/wiki/What_student-centered_approaches_or_techniques_can_you_use_to_address_differentiation%3F_and_what_student-centered_approaches_or_techniques_include_physical_movement_as_a_central_element%3F-_Susan_Granberg#:~:text=There%20are%20different%20strategies%20when,I%20found%20helps%20explain%20it.&text=Instruction%20Skills%2C%20With%20Experiential%2C%20Individual,%2C%20Direct%20Instruction%2C%20Indirect%20Instruction.
http://poster.4teachers.org/view/poster.php?poster_id=424539

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7. What are some student-centered approaches or techniques for reading?

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7. What are some student-centered approaches or techniques for reading?

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A learner-centered approach views learners as active agents. They bring their own knowledge, past experiences, education, and ideas – and this impacts how they take on board new information and learn.

Student Centered Approaches/Techniques for Reading:

1. Questioning – Good readers ask purposeful questions before, during, and after reading to determine meaning or further understanding.

2. Imaging (Visualizing) - Readers use a variety of sensory and conceptual processes (mental mapping) to understand texts. They imagine the sights, sounds, smells, see motion, hear dialogue and develop meaningful ways to develop their understanding.

3. Predicting – Predicting involves the use of text clues and the students’ prior knowledge as they make logical forecasts about what will occur next in the text.

4. Inferring - Inferring is a difficult strategy that separates good readers from poor readers. High-level thinking is needed when students use text clues and prior knowledge to draw conclusions about past and present events.

5. Making Connections – Good readers use their schema or prior knowledge to help them understand the text. When reading, they make connections to text, experiences or general world knowledge.

6. Monitoring – Keeping track of comprehension is what monitoring is all about. When students monitor their comprehension, they check to make sure they are visualizing, pay attention to unknown words, and notice when they do not understand text or are even not paying attention to what they are reading.

7. Summarizing – Summarizing is a difficult and complex strategy for many students. They need to separate the important parts of the text from the unimportant details as they tell the text in sequence. Summarizing is also the big picture, author’s message, theme and main idea all rolled into one.

8. Evaluating – Good readers are like little judges, weighing and evaluating before, during, and after reading. They evaluate whether they liked the text or not and how they did as readers.

Fun Free Apps

Woices.com Location Based Audioguides- students can create tours about various locations around the city. Have them research the history behind a place and tell the story behind that place for others to listen to when they visit.

Animation Creator HD Lite For IPad- students can create their own animations for a story. They can use this app to create the characters for a story and even add audio. Have them create dialogues, flesh out characters, or create graphic novel type stories with the animations they create.

IAnimation I App- instruct students to take a series of pictures for a story they will be creating. Students can use this app to animate these stories, then string these together for a digital story.

Bubble And Pebble Story- kids will love helping these lovable characters undergo adventures. Kids can then create their own Bubble and Pebble drawings of a new adventure then share these stories and drawings with their peers.

Toontastic – students can create stories based on cartoon characters.

Journal Jar – students simply shake this app to get a writing prompt. Give them about 5 to 10 minutes to come up with stories based on this prompt.

StoryKit App- students can create detailed books about their lives, what they imagine, or change the ending of a classic story. This app allows students to take old classic books like the 3 Little Pigs and edit the pages. Students can even tell the story from a different point-of-view.

Fotobabble App- students take a picture and tell the story of that picture. Have students take a picture of their favorite place and talk about it or if you are reading a story, have your students take a picture that reminds them of a scene from the story and explain why they chose that picture.

VoiceThread- students can post videos, drawings, images and more then have their classmates comment on what they upload.

Choose Your Path Free – students finish this Choose Your Own adventure type of story.

Videolicious- have students create video stories about themselves. They can try a 3,2,1 introduction where they list 3 places they would like to visit, 2 of their hobbies, and 1 embarrassing moment.

Posterous- have students create poems or audio stories.

Sock Puppets- great for collaborative stories in pairs.

Puppet Pals

Animoto Video Creation App

Shmuppet – students create a podcast or tell a short story with a puppet and send them to their friends via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Bunsella Bedtimes Story- students narrate a children’s story and send to a children’s class in the local elementary or a younger brother or sister or for children in another country. They children then can respond to these read stories.

Audioboo- create a podcast of local news around the school

Create A Comic Android App- students can create comics about any topic you choose

App Store – Narratavius Story Engine – Interactive Fiction And Text Adventures- a choose your own adventure story

MindBlowing App For Idevices- students collect audio and video clips as well as images under any theme. This is a multimedia mindmap app.

Talking Tom & Ben News Reporters- students create dialogues that reflect any news item worldwide and around the school. Kids will love when Tom and Ben report that news.

Sources:

1. Cranage, S. (2008). Student-Centered Reading Strategies . Retrieved from https://ed.psu.edu/pds/teacher-inquiry/2008/cranages.pdf.

2. Heick, Terry (2022). Teach Thought University, Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/student-centered-teaching/

3. Lawless, Caroline. (2019). Learner-Centered Approaches. Retrieved from https://www.learnupon.com/blog/learner-centered/

4. https://sway.office.com/dtwBKIQzoLMEGpU6?ref=Link

5. Maine Department of Education. (2013). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/xxx0P_euuSw

6. Terrell, Shelly. (2012). 20+ Fun Free Apps that Promote Student Centered Learning & Literacy. Retrieved from https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/4583

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Learner Centered Literacy:  Owning Their Own Reading

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What are some student-centered approaches or techniques that are based on or require collaboration? by Estefania Del Angel

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What are some student-centered approaches or techniques that are based on or require collaboration? by Estefania Del Angel

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It's known and considered from a constructivist perspective that social factor on learning is kind of essential for meaningful learning, besides providing the learners with team-work social tools and skills to face future academic and working scenarios in a better way.

This happens, among many mechanisms, through:

- involving listening to others
-considering different perspectives and approaches
-developing critical thinking
-respecting others workspace and being responsible for our own workspace as well
-time management
-learning to ask and give help

This way, student-centered collaboration strategies for teaching are a great ally in lesson planning if we want to give an extra or vary some dynamics in the classroom time to time.

For this purpose we can implement some types of activities like the following examples:

Project-Based Learning:
Students are generally given a task or problem that needs to be solved in a creative and innovative way using the resources provided, following a previously learned design process, and within a specific time frame. Students must work in a group, generally, to complete the task and they are responsible for how the work gets completed just as long as the objectives are met. At the end, students are usually checked for their understanding in several "thinking skills.

Jigsaw:
Students "master" and become "experts" on specific learning topics. They then share that with their classmates in smaller groups or even for the whole class.

This happens by dividing the group in smaller teams, then assign each team a smaller section of a larger task

Each team learns and "master" the information by searching, studying and sharing between with team, and then as "experts", they share with other teams.

Finally they return with their team to share what they learn with the other teams.

Fishbowl:
This is useful for training students on critical thinking and productive discussion, as well as improing skills like listening, collective solving and problem reflection.

Steps :
1. Selecting a topic for the fishbowl
Almost any topic is suitable for a fishbowl discussion. The most effective prompts (question or text) do not have one right answer, but rather allow for multiple perspectives and opinions.  The fishbowl is an excellent strategy to use when discussing dilemmas, for example.

2.  Setting up the room

A fishbowl requires a circle of chairs (“the fishbowl”) and enough room around the circle for the remaining students to observe what is happening in the “fishbowl.”  Sometimes teachers place enough chairs for half of the students in the class to sit in the fishbowl, while other times teachers limit the chairs in the  fishbowl. Typically six to twelve chairs allows for a range of perspectives while still allowing each student an opportunity to speak.  The observing students often stand around the fishbowl.

3.  Preparation

Like many structured conversations, fishbowl discussions are most effective when students have had a few minutes to prepare ideas and questions in advance.

4.  Discussing norms and rules of the discussion

There are many ways to structure a fishbowl discussion. Sometimes teachers have half the class sit in the fishbowl for 10-15 minutes and then say “switch,” at which point the listeners enter the fishbowl and the speakers become the audience. Another common fishbowl format is the “tap” system, where students on the outside of the fishbowl gently tap a student on the inside, indicating that they should switch roles. See the variations section for more ideas about how to structure this activity.

5.  Debriefing the fishbowl discussion

After the discussion, you can ask students to reflect on how they think the discussion went and what they learned from it.  Students can also evaluate their participation as listeners and as participants. They could also provide suggestions for how to improve the quality of discussion in the future.  These reflections can be in writing, or can be structured as a small or large group conversation.

Sources:

[TeachLikeThis]. (2013, November 14). How to do a Fishbowl - TeachLikeThis [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkWl9b0FZSE

[DavidLeeEdTech]. (2015, May 12). Introduction to Project Based Learning (PBL) Process [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08D0dBGIzYQ

Myriam Cifford @ TeachThought. What Are The Best Collaborative Learning Tips And Strategies For Teachers?
. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/collaborative-learning-tips/