Welcome to our digital class discussion
Your assignment is to find a good example of digital media
(like www.newsela.com) and post it to our class blog. In addition, you will write a paragraph about why you selected the example that you did and how it
would be an effective tool in today’s classroom for supporting content
literacy. Your paragraph should include a hyperlink to your example and anything else you think might be relevant to teaching the class about this option.
I have found www.thinkcerca.com is good example form digital media similar to www.newsela.com. ThinkCERCA allows the teacher to assign lessons that are level specific, and they can attach assignments to the reading. The student is able to highlights areas and make notes, as well as the article having an embedded dictionary. The function I thought was the most interesting is its 'Build an Argument Area'. This creates an outline for the student to build their argument on the subject including their: claim, evidence, reasoning, and counterargument. This allows the student to begin building the skill of writing argumentative essay, as well as critical thinking. This option does require you sign up, but it is free. I believe this could be practical teaching tool.
ReplyDeleteI chose this website because it teaches English for free. It’s a great beneficial tool for individuals of all ages. The following website is a good example of digital media:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/. It offers the viewer multiple choices of learning literacy in an organized, professional manner. The tabs are clearly labeled and easy to navigate. It would be effective in the classroom because it can be used as a helpful teaching tool for the students to better understand the content; and it allows the students more technology time and experience to meet the ISTE standards. The site includes grammar explanations and exercises; vocabulary explanations and exercises; tests; quizzes; games; a dictionary; worksheets; and a writing tab with information in regards to writing skills and writing techniques such as poems and creative writing. Also, it has a read top news tab that allows the viewers to read world news headlines. It incorporates a students tab with tips on how to do well on exams; a parents tab with tips on how to help their child learn English; and a teachers tab with sample lessons.
The website I found is called http://www.themediaspot.org. It is a website that promotes media literacy by using collaborative production. It has media projects, digital media tools, and notes from people that work in specific areas. It was designed to promote project-based and student-centered learning for grades K-12. It can also be used for any place where there is learning taking place. It also is useful to continue professional development credits for teachers. The design of the website is easy and accessible. It is not hard to navigate. By clicking on the tabs, you can check out the different media projects and tools that are posted. I think that this website would be useful for teachers for all content areas. There are projects and tools listed that address all content areas, such as English and social studies.
ReplyDeleteThe website that I chose is a called Snappy Words. This website can be found at http://www.snappywords.com/?lookup=smart Snappy Words is an online Thesaurus that can be used many different age groups. This website has the ability to spit out multiple words that may mean the same. This is a great literary tool to encourage student to expand their vocabulary. For instance if you had a student who put the word “nice” in their writing. They could come up with words such as Gracious, Courteous, and polite. This would offer a variety of words to use within their writings.
ReplyDeleteThe website I chose is called American Memory. The link to the American Memory website is http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html. This website includes photos, sound recordings, and maps. This website includes a collection finder, as well as a search engine. This website provides learning activities that build on information literacy skills. This website also includes "history of the day" that lists events in history that happened on the current date. This website helps students build on their information literacy skills while also providing accurate facts from history.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was a long term sub I came across a few online digital media that would have been nice when I was in Secondary School. One that the students and I both enjoyed was Kahoot! It is a fast and effective way for teachers to assess the content literacy of their students. The way it works is the teacher logs into https://getkahoot.com/ and makes as many questions about the content he/she teaches. The teacher will receive a pin. Then the students goes into https://kahoot.it/#/ with phone, tablet, or laptop to enter the pin and create a nickname. The students compete against each other to answer to see who answers the question correctly the fastest. At the end of the game the top 5 students nickname appears on the screen. I like this website because any teacher in any content area can use it and it something different other than pencil and paper assessment. I also like that on the website there are sets of questions from other users that the teacher can use for his/her class. I think it would work well to encourage them to study new vocab that comes along with every content area.
ReplyDeleteI chose pbs.org as my website. If you click on the teacher portion, it opens up to various forms of digital media. The media can be sorted by grade and subject matter and by different standards, such as Common Core. The media can also be filtered by type, such as: video, interactive, documents, etc. There are also lesson plans that can be formulated by teachers that students can access. There is also a student view so students cannot see what the teachers see. I believe this is a very informative and user-friendly site that can be used in several different ways.
ReplyDelete