Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Hi Martina,
I like the different ways and subjects you have come up with for “Wordclouds” and also the variety of uses for ‘Digipuzzle’. Outlining it’s uses as a whole class teaching tool, a learning centre tool and a tool to support digital inclusion shows the versatility of this website.
Thanks for sharing, Fiona.
Hi Francesca,
I love the incorporation of Speechify when covering the narrative genre. By enabling the children with literacy difficulties to listen to the text you are hugely increasing both their ability to access the material and their enjoyment of the lesson and text they are reading-huge positives!
Fiona
Hi Martina,
I feel children who are used to a multi-grade setting are really well placed to adopt a UDL approach without too much upheaval. As you point out, they are often working independently on ‘busy work’ and with some careful planning this busy work could be replaced/ extended by more focussed topic work in a learning centre.
Time to plan is undoubtedly a barrier to all new initiatives but I think you are taking the right approach by acknowledging the challenges you are facing and trialing it at a time when you have the greatest amount of support- this will hugely increase the chance for success.
Fiona
Great that you are so open to the benefits of adopting a learning centre approach and you are absolutely correct in identifying its merits as both a motivational tool and reinforcement strategy.
As you say, guidelines, structure and clear planning are essential before introducing the approach in the classroom and using Google Docs as a collaborative planning tool with your SET would work really effectively for this. Best of luck with it!
We have used ‘Spellings for Me’ for the past few years and found it great Paraic. Like every approach there is ‘no one size fits all’ and we have had mixed success with it over the years. One huge plus is the break away from the traditional mindset of rote learning and Friday test to a continuous assessment approach which is individualised to each student. The downside to this, at least in our school, was the pressure this placed on availability of devices at particular times of the year and the time constraints this led to. Overall, I really like the approach to word study/ mnemonics etc. that the programme encourages. We are going to introduce ‘Words their Way’ to our younger classes this year as an alternative approach and will be interested to compare both programmes!
Fiona
We have used ‘Spellings for Me’ for the past few years and found it great Paraic. Like every approach there is ‘no one size fits all’ and we have had mixed success with it over the years. One huge plus is the break away from the traditional mindset of rote learning and Friday test to a continuous assessment approach which is individualised to each student. The downside to this, at least in our school, was the pressure this placed on availability of devices at particular times of the year and the time constraints this led to. Overall, I really like the approach to word study/ mnemonics etc. that the programme encourages. We are going to introduce ‘Words their Way’ to our younger classes this year as an alternative approach and will be interested to compare both programmes!
Fiona
Hi Majella,
It is essential with any new approach, such as the learning centres, to very clear guidelines, for both students and staff. That said, once systems are in place and everyone can see a clear structure for the new approach and how it is implemented, a shift in mindset can be also easier to achieve. As you have pointed out, a one size fits all approach does not work to cover all our students needs so we all need to be more flexible and open minded in our approaches to meet all the needs and demands of the modern classroom.
Fiona
Yes Yvonne, some of the timeline generators are excellent, did you have a favourite? I quite like the eStory one, the history timelines have a very “Google Arts & Culture” feel to them and there is also a new Fiction option where children can generate a story by choosing a theme and adding key events/ titles etc. I can see senior students really enjoying some of the elements of this website.
Great idea to link to a school padlet Majella or you could add some of your favourites to a class padlet for easy access for your students. Lovely to find some new ideas for teaching tables, we all have the tendency to over rely on the familiar so its nice to have some fresh ideas for September!
