Book Share/Talk HyperDoc

 Literacy Studies students recently completed their work in a HyperDoc taken from cubeforteachers.com.

This book share/talk document encourages students to think beyond plot and summary and instead consider their own thinking as they read and connect their reading to broader topics. (You can grab the template HERE.) Students also create a hyperlink for the image associated with their book of choice. While they used the Unsplash add-on to insert copyright-free images in a recent Slides project, students this time used Pixabay Free Images add-on in the HyperDoc.

To encourage collaboration in the HyperDoc, all grade-level students on a given class day shared their work in a single document. Before we even began inserting book cover and Pixabay images, classes engaged in discussions about good digital citizenship when multiple users share a document. We even had the chance to see how seemingly innocent clicking around in a Google Doc can have an impact; once, all of the directions were inadvertently deleted, and in another class, a student accidentally deleted an entire column in the table. :) Everything a teachable moment and retrievable and fixable! :)

Students' work occurred over 3 days' time: one day to introduce the HyperDoc, install the Pixabay add-on, and begin filling in individual rows of boxes; one day to complete your individual row, including inserting the hyperlink and commenting on others' work; and, a final day to wrap-up anything not yet completed.

The students' choices of websites to hyperlink to their images was pleasantly surprising! While some chose to include links to official authors' websites and book trailers, other students searched for topics and themes related to their books. On students' final work day, many took advantage of the time to scroll the document and browse the related content. Below are screenshots taken from some of the HyperDocs:

First Week Flashback: STEAM in the Library

In this month's First Week Flashback, we take a look at some of our STEAM activities from Literacy Studies classes.

Citation

Over the last several years, students have had access to a variety of materials and activities to explore and make. In 2014, students could choose to participate in Library Lab, a before-school activity that included electronic choices and hands-on manipulatives for students to enjoy and explore. (You can read about it HERE.) Two or three days a week students could choose from things like origami, LEGOs, Marble Run, coding, and gaming.

Over the years, Library Lab became something students might choose to do during their study hall time, but most recently, these sorts of opportunities have become part of the Literacy Studies class that nearly all students take. Using book fair profits and receiving a State of Iowa Scale-Up STEM grant have allowed for additional opportunities for students. Several times a semester students can choose from materials such as:

                • Spheros            • Cubelets

                • littleBits            • Felting

                • 3D pens            •  3Dux Designs

You can see some of their making and exploring below:

With the sudden end to in-person learning at school, students weren't able to enjoy all of the second semester STEAM days planned, but hopefully this fall they can continue to explore and make with these and additional items, like Root Robot, Makedo Construction materials, and Makey Makeys. Stay tuned!

Using Google Slides to Build an "App"

Recently seventh grade Literacy Studies students completed a long-term assignment that combined fiction books with nonfiction reading in our AEA databases. My colleagues Lacey Sedrel and Melissa White recommended that students use Google Slides to create what appears to be an app so students could show what they learned in an unusual way. Thanks to Gina Rodgers and and Amber Bridge, digital learning consultants from Grant Wood AEA, who shared their presentation "Google Slides: The Swiss Army Knife of Google Tools" at a fall technology conference session that Lacey and Melissa attended. It was the inspiration for students' work for this unit.

First, students used our Destiny catalog and Destiny Discover to identify nonfiction topics associated with a fiction book of their choice. Students also talked with one another about common books read to get feedback on nonfiction topics not listed as subject headings in the catalog. We also used our class read aloud Solo by Kwame Alexander as an example:

What we noticed was that several nonfiction topics we identified with the story weren't listed as subject headings, such as adoption, Ghana, guitars, and music. Ultimately, students would choose two nonfiction topics from their reading to become the basis of their research in our AEA databases.

Once fiction books and nonfiction topics were solidified, students worked in Slides to create their "apps." Along the way, students learned a few new tricks in Slides--namely, how to orient their Slides vertically and how to link Slides within the presentation to one another. The template from which they worked included five Slides:

1. Front page
2. Home screen
3. Fiction book
4. Nonfiction topic #1
5. Nonfiction topic #2

Students' nonfiction topics became the focus of their work in our AEA databases. Students briefly worked with SUPERSearch, which allowed us to discuss how to narrow a search and search particular types of resources.

Students also returned to familiar databases like Britannica and CultureGrams to complete some of their work. 

Students turned in their work through Google Classroom, but we also shared our links with one another using Padlet. This allowed different classes to see their classmates' work and read about a variety of topics. 

Accessing one another's projects and viewing the work in presentation mode allowed students to move through Slides as though they really were using an app based on the fiction book. Below are some Slides from students' work:

Finally, students responded in a Google Form in a ticket out after looking at one another's projects and reading about several books and nonfiction topics.

Podcasting, Part II

Once Literacy Studies students had a basic understanding of podcasting elements--specifically related to fictional, storytelling podcasts like The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel--we provided students with options, opportunity, and time to explore a wide variety of both fiction and nonfiction podcasts.

Students had class time to listen to all/most/part of a podcast, and in preparation for a sharing out activity, they completed a Google Slide that included podcast information, a recommendation, and a visual retelling using emojis. 

With their recommendation and visual retell Slides, students shared their podcast reactions with one another in a variety of ways, including rotating partner groups, small groups, and with the full class. 

Examples of students' work appears below:

Finally, students also completed a Google Form that generated a full-class list of recommended podcasts to be shared on our library main page later. With one click from our library page, students will have access to student-recommended podcasts arranged by genre, all for their browsing and listening pleasure.

Digital Breakout, Round 2

After a successful digital breakout last fall (you can read about it HERE), it was time to design another breakout for Literacy Studies students. And thanks to Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook and guest contributor Mandi Tolen, tips and hints were available to help shape a new breakout for students. (You can read the blog post HERE.)

Photo by John Sting on Unsplash

With students more than one quarter into the school year, some find themselves in a bit of a reading slump. One of the goals of the breakout was to share book ideas with students, along with more traditional breakout goals like problem solving, team work, critical thinking, and communication.

The title of the breakout was "Let's Talk About Reading," and students merely scrolled the Home page of the Google Site to find two photographs of our own library. 

Clicking on the "obvious" elements in the photos, students accessed a variety of clues to help them determine the combinations to four different locks. (One of the elements was a dummy clue that took students to a humorous video related to books.) A Google Form embedded in the Site on a second page allowed students to enter a response, and they immediately received feedback from the Form to know if their response was correct.

So what kind of clues did the students access? One was a Google Slides presentation that included six of the most popular series in the library; another was a Google Doc that included the YALSA Top 10 titles from 2019. Students read a blog post related to five historical fiction titles, as well as a poem related to books. Working in small groups, students worked to determine as many lock combinations as they were able.

Later in the year, Literacy Studies students will work through a combination breakout--one that incorporates the physical locks and box that they used for an earlier breakout *and* the digital components they used for this breakout. Stay tuned for more problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking!

Using Digital Gallery Walks as a Response Tool

Now that we're into the swing of things, Literacy Studies students have been working on a variety of activities, including a quarter project related to work in their reading classes.

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash

Sixth graders completed Google Slides explaining and supporting the genre of their independent reading books while seventh graders applied literary terms to one of their own independent reading books. Once their work was complete, it was time for our digital gallery walks!

If you're unfamiliar with a digital gallery walk, Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook explains it as "collaboration on their feet" and "...lets students display, share and discuss work much like a visit to an art museum. (You can read the full blog post and explanation HERE.)

Literacy Studies students have an extra opportunity with their gallery walks by writing comments related to their classmates' work. Their gallery walk comments reflected what the assignment asked of students.

After the day's gallery walk, I collected students' responses, not only so I could read through their work, but also to leave my own comments on students' papers. Now students have feedback from me through Google Classroom and in written form on their pages, as well as feedback from their classmates related to their work.

Stay tuned for more examples of digital gallery walks with variations on students' response activities!