Learning Strategies Padlet by Ben Prescott

Journal Entries

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 16:50:44 UTC

The overall goal of journal entries is to make writing seem less intimidating to students. This can be used for routine writing at the end or beginning of class. Students can have prompts to write personal things, or prompts related to whatever we are doing in class. The latter option is a great way to review as well.

Finish the story!

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 16:56:45 UTC

Sometimes, reading in class isn't enough. In order to show that you understand the development of the plot, characters and themes, writing an alternate ending or finishing the story is needed. This strategy is a great way to show that you understand these items, especially if you set parameters around what students should include in their writing. This might look like referencing how a character has developed in the story in order to show further development in the students' writing.

Write a narrative story using vocabulary words.

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:01:45 UTC

If students are in need of a creative writing assignment and vocab review, this combines both into one. It is important to set guidelines for this assignment, such as a set length and a clear beginning, middle, and end to the story. The students should also be expected to use the word in a way that shows they understand its meaning. If needed to hit other standards, the teacher could suggest that characters develop during the story.

Words in the Wild

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:07:20 UTC

Once the vocabulary terms are given to students, they can be tasked with finding these words "in the wild." Meaning, if the students see these words outside of their class, they need to photograph it and bring it in to class for extra credit. Students may need to write a brief statement over where the word was found, what does it mean and how the word was used in the "wild."

Linear Array

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:09:44 UTC

On a line, the student should show the progression of a word's meaning from one extreme to the next in a minimum of five words. An example could be:

glacial -> cold -> cool -> tepid -> warm -> hot scalding

Vocabulary Interview

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:14:53 UTC

A student should write interview questions using each of the vocabulary words. Students should use these vocabulary terms to show that they understand the term. This assignment would pair great with the text that is being read in class. The student can pick a character from the text to interview, which will serve as a great way of understanding character development through a text.

3 -> 2-> 1

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:16:11 UTC

Students should use:

3 words/phrases to describe the word

2 intellectual, quiz-style questions related to the word

1 connection you have made to the word

Frayer Model

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:18:30 UTC

Students should make a box with four corners for each word. In the upper left box, there should be a definition and a part of speech. In the upper right box, there should be an analogy for the word. The lower left box should have a sentence that would give a context clue to the word's meaning. In the lower right box, there should be two synonyms and antonyms for the word. The students should repeat this process for all of the words.

Graffiti Vocab

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:25:10 UTC

For a fun and creative assignment, students should turn their vocabulary words into grafitti. They should depict the word in a grafitti style and have connections to what the word means. Students should also write a brief statement explaining each part of drawing and its symbolism to the word.

Rap Battle

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:27:01 UTC

Students should be placed with a partner to rap battle with. They can participate as themselves or be given characters. The students are required to use a certain amount of vocabulary terms in their rap battle. As always, students must show that the understand the meaning of the word as they use it in their battle.

6 Words or Less

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:28:50 UTC

When learning new content, it can seem overwhelming at first. New ideas need to be broken down into the nuts and bolts of things. This should be the case for reading. Whether you want students to summarize plot, theme or characters, ask students to do this in 6 words or less. This makes students focus on what is really important for the summary, which makes them go back and think through content.

Halftime Summary

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:28:57 UTC

Taking a break in the middle of reading is a great time to review what has happened thus far. In the middle of reading, teachers can ask students to consider the highlights or important parts of the reading. Students can also use this information to predict the outcome of the story before it is finished.

Common Songs

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:30:53 UTC

Teachers should review the terms that students need to know. Once this occurs, the student must find some songs that they think is catchy. After that, the student must re-write the lyrics to show the meaning of a vocab word. They can do this for a set number of vocab words or all vocab words.

Wear a Word

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:37:32 UTC

Students should be given a word to wear as a name tag throughout the day. When they first get these name tags, they should walk around and introduce themselves to every student. After that, teachers and other students can walk up to them and ask them who they are (meaning, what does the word mean and how is it used?).

Casting Characters

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:49:34 UTC

For plays, it is a lot more fun for the students to be casted into roles to read rather than reading it on their own. On days when there is more time, students can use the class period to prep themselves on acting the scene out in front of the whole class.

Story Board

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:56:06 UTC

If we need students to summarize but feel as if the students are struggling with their writing, teachers can use story boards. Students can be given a designated number of panels to draw their stories. They should focus on the key events that summarize the story within these panels and create pictures that prove this. At the bottom of each panel, they can write 1-2 sentences that explains the drawing.

Make a Playlist/Soundtrack for the reading

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 17:59:11 UTC

For a fun and creative way to summarize a text, students can make a playlist/soundtrack. There should be a set number of songs that the students need to select and there should be a description for each song and why it fits in this text's soundtrack. The songs should largely match in theme to the text or characters.

Gallery Walk

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:02:07 UTC

Students can create large posters that detail either the characters or plot of a text. Guidelines would need to be implemented for the gallery walk, including references to the text, it's themes and character development. Once these posters are made, students can walk around these posters to gain a sense of what happened in the text.

Body Biographies/Autopsies

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:07:05 UTC

In order to better understand characters of a text, students can create body biographies/autopsies of each character. This requires a large poster and a marker. Students will need to make an outline of themselves to create a body. They can then break down the character's thoughts and motivations (head), how the spoke (mouth), their actions (hands) and more.

STEAL Acronym for Indirect Characterization

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:10:27 UTC

For students to understand indirect characterization, students can use the acronym STEAL. This acronym outlines the character's

S- Speech

T- Thoughts

E- Effect on others

A- Actions

L- Looks

By filling out details for each letter, they can learn more about the characters as they are indirectly described in text.

Podcast Interview with the Author

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:12:46 UTC

Students can pretend that they have their own podcast and want to interview the author of a given text. Students need to ask questions about theme, plot, characterization and more. The students should also have potential responses from the author's point of view, as they will be acting out their part as well.

Writing with a Graphic Organizer

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:14:29 UTC

While it may seem simple, giving students a graphic organizer to help organize their thoughts will help their writing tremendously. This should focus on the overall structure of writing, rather than the content. There are other ways to improve the content of writing, such as the T chart

Writing using a T-Chart

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:19:30 UTC

A T-Chart is a very simple tool to use in order to decide what side to take on an argumentative, informational or persuasive essay. The graphic organizer allows students to see both sides of an issue, therefore making a thesis statement easier. This step should be mandatory in the planning phase of writing.

Warm-Up

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:21:15 UTC

When students walk in, they should have some kind of task to complete that is a review of the previous lesson. This helps students begin the transition towards starting the new class. During this warm-up, teachers can implement any of the strategies provided in this board.

Ticket out of the door

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:22:13 UTC

Students should be given a formative assessment at the end of a lesson to see what they have retained during the day. This could be a pop quiz or an activity mentioned in the reading, writing or vocab sections of this Padlet.

Individual Student Whiteboards

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:25:56 UTC

When reviewing content, asking questions to the class can be boring. In order to get the class engaged, students can have their own whiteboards to write their responses on. Once time is up for answering a question, the students can hold their boards up to reveal their answer. This is a great way for students to not feel embarrassed by what they think, since no one should be looking at another's board. This also helps the teacher see what students do and don't understand.

Stump the Teacher

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:28:13 UTC

To review content, students must be broken into groups of five. Once they are in their groups, they can create a list of 10-20 questions regarding content. After they have created their list, the students must then narrow their list down to the 5 hardest questions that they have. They can then ask these 5 questions to the teacher to see if they do not know the answer.

Ball Toss

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:30:39 UTC

Students can sit in their own desks and review content from a lesson. Once they have reviewed, one student will receive a ball from the teacher and is tasked with saying a term, example or idea from the lesson. Once they do this, they can pass the ball to someone in the room who will continue saying related things to what the first person said, until someone has nothing left to say. At the end of each round, the teacher can briefly review anything that they missed.

Trashketball

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:32:45 UTC

Students can be broken into two groups. One by one, students will be called up to compete against a member of the opposite team to correctly answer a question. If the answer is correct, they get a point and an opportunity to shoot a paper ball into a trashcan. If they make it, they get another point. If they miss, no extra point is awarded.

Summarization TikToks

benleeprescott — 2023-11-18 18:34:26 UTC

Students can use TikToks to create skits or copy trends to show that they understand the content of a text. The TikTok needs to at least reference one important part of the story or character. This should be accurate and school appropriate.