February 20

All About AI: Mizou

One of the promises of AI in Education is custom tutorials for students. I’ve seen a few examples of this, but one that shows promise is a site called Mizou https://mizou.com/ . This site has some ready-made chatbots that users have created and shared (like what you see in Kahoot and Quizlet). There is a filter at the top of the page that allows you to search by grade level and subject. Some are great and some not so much, so you should test them out before assigning them to students. Once you find one you like, you can send it out to students and they can engage with it. Some are more exploratory- they can learn about a subject by chatting with the bot. Others are more like tutorials- questions are posed that they need to answer but the exchange is more conversational and the questions adjust according to the user responses. There are reading level adjustments and audio supports (it has a microphone for speech to text and the responses have a “play” option so they can be read to you). It even grades and records their exchange.

The best part is that you can create your own chatbot based on a topic of your choice and your own resources.  This would be a good way to address PLC questions 3 and 4.

This tool is student friendly, doesn’t require them to login, and has good privacy policies. The free version allows 50 student sessions a day, so if you are a secondary teacher, you might want to stagger student use of it so you don’t hit the limit.

Check out these videos to find out more:

Short video intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KsylUN8AM

Creating your own chatbot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dKo86NxZWY

Longer video if you want to do a deeper dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrhq_xe_HJ4&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.controlaltachieve.com%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ

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February 19

Website Worth Sharing: Google ReadAlong

If you’re missing MyOn, you might want to check out Google’s Read Along website https://readalong.google.com/ . This site includes hundreds of leveled stories, many from Heggerty. Diya is the AI generated assistant who helps students out. It is designed for students to read along (after they allow access to the microphone) and it gives them stars for the words they get right. The words are clickable for when they get stuck. I’ve gone through several and it isn’t without errors. I’ve found a few mistakes with pronunciation and text, but you still might find it worthwhile for student practice.  There also is a concern that “a” is not the one you usually see in primary text, so emerging readers might find that difficult. Overall it is an easy to use site with audio supports and many books.

This site might be a great independent reading activity for when you are working with small groups or as an extension for students who need a challenge. It also has Spanish language settings for our ML students.

You may see references online about an integration with Google Classroom and Read Along that includes teacher tools and access to student reports. Unfortunately, that is only available with the Teaching and Learning upgrade for Google (currently $48 per user annually).

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February 6

Website Worth Sharing: It’s Lit series on PBS Media

ELA Teachers,

You might want to check out the 5-15 minute videos that are available on the PBS “It’s Lit” series. There are 13 videos in Season 1 and 19 videos in Season 2. There appears to be something for everyone including an interactive story map that students can complete online*. Each video comes with Support materials for teachers and students and a link to add them to Google Classroom (these might make good emergency sub plans!).

*You might want to test this out first. I completed it and tried to download the final product and it just kicked me back to the main page. Might be a temporary glitch- hard to say. That would be frustrating for students. If you click on the “pancake” menu on the upper left there is a printable/ pdf  version.

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January 10

Website Worth Sharing: Short Answer

I discovered a new tool that helps students better construct quality short answers to open ended question while “gamifying” the process. It’s called Short Answer https://myshortanswer.com/ , and students respond to your question prompt and submit their answers through the Short Answer portal (they enter a code to join your question, kind of like Kahoot).

After all answers are submitted students will see 2 anonymous answers side by side and they have to vote which one best matches the criteria which you provide (Strong topic sentence, accurate data, citing sources, referring back to text, descriptive language, etc.). They will then get two more answers to compare. At the end the answers that get the most votes rise to the top of the leaderboard. There are a variety of ways you can set this up with the end goal of helping students determine what makes a quality short answer. The basic version is free and this was designed by a teacher. Here is a video showing how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8OY_gstPHQ

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October 21

21st Century Kids: Media Literacy Lesson Resources

I think we can all agree that it is an important topic to explore with our students, especially since we no longer have Library/Media Specialists who teach these lessons to our students.

PBS Shared an article that explores the importance of teaching Media Literacy. It is an informative read with lots of great resources, but here are a couple of highlights:

The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) defines media literacy as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication. It is a broadened definition of literacy that includes media beyond text and promotes curiosity about the media we consume and create.

So, why teach digital and media literacy in an already jammed-packed content-filled curriculum with limited time? Well, for starters, media literacy is literacy. Media literacy doesn’t need to be “another thing” to teach. Instead, I see it as another way to teach. It’s not another thing to teach, but a redefinition of something we all know and are most likely already addressing in the classroom. We simply need to be more intentional in doing so.

“We are in a freaking revolution. We bank differently. We date differently. We shop differently. We choose a Chinese restaurant differently. We do our research differently. We figure out what plumber to come to our house differently. But school is stuck in the past. What we need to do is… think hard about what the school curriculum really needs to look like in an age when we come to know the world through a screen.” Research Sam Wineburg.

PBS Media has lessons that are a quick and an easy way to incorporate Media Literacy into your instruction (they would even work for sub plans). These are standards based lessons and have quick videos and teacher support materials like handouts (Click on the lesson and look at the right side of the page.) Scroll down for screenshots and links to their lessons.

Common Sense Media has a great collection of News and Media Literacy lessons also: https://www.commonsense.org/education/collections/essential-news-media-literacy-skills-for-students

PBS Media Lessons:

Fact Checking Fundamentals: 3 lessons for grades 6-12

Evaluating Sources

Recognizing Fake News

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September 20

Websites Worth Sharing: Media Literacy and Election Resources

If you are looking for teaching resources for Media Literacy and examining election information, you might want to check out some of these sites.

News Literacy Project: https://newslit.org/

Misinformation Dashboard: https://misinfodashboard.newslit.org/

Rumor Guard: https://www.rumorguard.org/

OSPI Resources: https://oercommons.org/curated-collections/1381?__hub_id=1

Civic Online Reasoning Website Guidance: https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88124?__hub_id=1

Deepfakes: Exploring Media manipulation https://oercommons.org/authoring/56539?__hub_id=1

 

AllSides for examining Bias (I really like this site which will take a news story and show how the Center, the Left and the Right present it): https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news

 

PBS Media Election Central Resources: https://opb.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/election-collection/

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October 25

Websites Worth Sharing: MyOn Alternatives

I know many of you no longer have access to MyON this year. If your students are missing reading online books, here are a few options for them.

Unite for Literacy: https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

This one has the option of having the story read aloud or not and many books have Spanish and Ukrainian print options. Click on the “English” pencil icon on the top left to change to Spanish or Ukrainian and see which books are available in those languages. There is also narration available in MANY languages. Click on the Globe icon at the top to see all of the options.

Loving to Read: Has over 1000 free books for a variety of levels Preschool-Third grade and up. This one does NOT have audio options which is good if you want to transition your students to reading on their own without the audio support. https://loving2read.com/

Epic Books: Epic has over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and learning videos, but it requires that teachers set up an account and can be a bit more complicated to navigate. https://www.getepic.com/educators

Vooks: Animated books in a video format https://www.vooks.com/pages/educators/ . Free for teachers, but you have to create an account and it appears to only work for teachers- so would be a whole class activity. Don’t want to hassle with an account? Check out their Youtube channel which has many of their book videos available. https://www.youtube.com/@VooksStorybooks/featured

Wilbooks: Mostly non-fiction books for Pre-K through 3rd. The interface is a bit clunky (but sure to expand the reader to full screen), and there isn’t an audio option, but this is a good way for students to conduct research like animal reports. Not all resources on this site are free, so stay away from the menu on the side and stick to the one in the middle.  https://www.wilbooks.com/free-resources-free-online-books

Project Gutenberg: These are books in the public domain, so they are older, and the interface is very basic- but there are some wonderful classic stories for more advanced readers like Secret Garden, Treasure Island, and Black Beauty. The free Read and Write toolbar can be used to have these stories read aloud. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/20?sort_order=downloads

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October 25

Websites Worth Sharing: Phonics Resources

I had a teacher request online phonics resources. This is what I shared with her:

Phonics Hero– Their core curriculum is free for teachers, but you have to create a Teacher account to access this. There is an add-on phonics curriculum

Weblink: https://phonicshero.com/free-for-teachers-new/

Phonics games: https://phonicshero.com/phonics-games/

The paid curriculum- you can get a trial

https://phonicshero.com/no-prep-phonics-lessons/

Teach Your Monster to Read:  https://www.teachyourmonster.org/

PBS Media– search results for ELA/K-2/Reading Foundations

https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/search/?rank_by=recency&selected_facet=subject:1880,2104&selected_facet=media_type:Interactive&selected_facet=grades:K-2

Some samples:

Word Walls- https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/124f0c1d-e1c9-4476-8fec-8403c1fa640d/word-walls/ (on the side you’ll see word walls 2- these are sight words)

Zach and Friends: https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/d83ce154-e598-43d0-bf7a-ee96d200a3fb/zach-and-friends/

Read Write Think– Here are some of their primary interactive activities for phonological awareness: https://www.readwritethink.org/search/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/type/643/grades/796/grades/796/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/learning_objectives/788/type/651

Starfall– Most teachers are familiar with this, but I’ll add it as a reminder. https://www.starfall.com/h/ltr-classic/

I know some teachers who use the free version of SplashLearn: https://www.splashlearn.com/features/teachers

Have a favorite of your own to share? Paste a link in the comments below.

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May 3

Extensions with Exploring: Draftback

If you assign essays and suspect that a student is using an AI tool, such as Chat GPT, you might want to look into Draftback, an extension that will show you, keystroke by keystroke, how an essay is written. Google Version history (In a Google Doc got to File>Version History>See Version History) will show you when a block of text comes in all at once, but Draftback will show you in real time whether the essay was typed or whether a block of text was copied/pasted.

I have blocked Chat GPT and other AI tools (you can unblock them in Classwize, if you’d like to have your students learn more about them) but there isn’t anything to stop them from accessing these tools on their home computer and pasting it into a Google doc. By looking at Version History and using Draftback, you can observe their process to confirm your suspicions when a document seems a little too polished and generic for a particular student.

Here is the extension you can install: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/draftback/nnajoiemfpldioamchanognpjmocgkbg

Here is a video on how to use it. It’s short and informative, and I think you’ll find it worth your time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRFmGI3bYWs

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February 6

Website Worth Sharing: Parlay for Round Table Discussions

If class discussions are a part of your curriculum, you might want to check out Parlay https://parlayideas.com/how-it-works/  to help you conduct and monitor class discussions both verbally and in a written format.

It works with Google Classroom so you don’t have to worry about creating classes. It supports both written and verbal discussions. There is even support for having online discussions in a Zoom-like environment. In the written mode, the students are anonymous to each other in their comments (but not to the teacher who will see who said what- which should be emphasized from the start). At first I questioned why they would do that, but it makes sense because the students would weigh the ideas on their own merit and not based on who said it. One of the advantages to having a digital discussion is that all students, not just the outgoing ones, are able to have a say. Another benefit if that you, as the teacher, have a record of student contributions to use as a formative assessment tool.

I like that it teaches students how to participate respectfully in an online dialogue.

You can create your own “round table” discussions, or use one of the pre-made discussions found in the Parlay Universe.

Parlay used to have a free trial model, but they have moved to a totally free basic version account that will not expire. There is a premium option that provides more reporting options and unlimited discussions (basic limits you to 12, but you can delete one if you want to add another).

Here is an introductory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e74BPgyiLqo

Directions for a written round table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A6_SYBtJJc

Directions for a verbal round table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kht0Sn3ZJPE

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