Mrs. Bond

NJASL: Google Forms in the School Library Program

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 00:47:00 +0000

Hello NJASL! Are you ready to talk Google Forms? Today we'll look at how Google Forms and related add-ons can support library management, facilitate instruction, and help you stay organized. You may access the slide deck and links through the participate app or right here:

All links embedded in the slide deck can be accessed through this OneTab link.

My #OneSmallThing

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 21:21:00 +0000

Teacher2Teacher has a super simple activity that has the potential to positively impact your classroom or school in a big way: One Small Thing.

#OneSmallThing is based on the simple idea that a BIG impact comes from focusing on one small change at a time.

I get to see almost every student each week through library/media classes, classroom visits, or just walking through the halls. Every day I see students learning great things, persevering through challenges, and being kind to one another. I commit to sharing my students' awesomeness with their families!

Visit Teacher2Teacher to download an implementation toolkit that includes tips for success, suggestions for including colleagues, goal ideas, and templates.

Cool Tool: Bookcision

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 22:48:00 +0000

I love my Kindle. One of my favorite features is the ability to sync highlights across devices. Depending on my purpose for reading, I will often reorganize those highlights in Evernote so I can quickly refer back to the best ideas and practices.

Long ago I was able to see my highlights through the web browser, then copy and paste them into Evernote. At some point Amazon restricted the ability to copy this content. Not wanting to retype my notes (I am a happy highlighter), and not finding a workaround, I went back to print books and post-it notes. Not the most efficient method for needs, but it was better than nothing.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon Norbauer's Bookcision. This bookmarklet captures the precious highlights (with location) into a copy friendly format. Chrome users can also download the page as text, XML, or JSON. Notes are not captured, and in my experience have caused error messages.

To install, simply drag the button to the bookmark bar. To capture your highlights: open the book through Amazon Cloud Reader in your browser, click the bookmarklet.

International Top Spinning Day (October 11)

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 11:00:00 +0000

International Top Spinning Day is celebrated annually on the second Wednesday of October (Spinning Top and Yo Yo Museum). Here are a few quick resources to help you and your students celebrate this day:

Wonderopolis has a great article on What Makes a Toy Top Spin.

PBS Kids shares a simple Bottle Cap Spinning Top that would be a great addition for a makerspace.

Thrifty Fun shows how to make Penny Spinners with easy to find materials.

Looking for an extra challenge? Make your own origami spinning top:

Factitious

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Factitious is a free-to-play current events game developed by the American University JoLT team. It connects topical issues in the news with critical information evaluation skill practice.

Choose Quick Start to Jump right in and begin evaluating articles. Alternatively, select Full Start to create an account (email only, no password) to save progress. Some basic information will be asked: age, gender, education, and media savvy self-assessment. Note: email addresses with two or four character domains are not accepted.

Players are given an article to read and evaluate. Articles come from genuine news and satire sites (e.g. The Onion). The name of the article's source is hidden, but can be easily seen by clicking a button at the end of the article. It may be helpful to share the "Tips for detecting fake news" page or your preferred evaluation guide with students (CARP/CRAAP, RADCAB, 5W's) to help guide the process.

Players receive instant feedback for each response. The main article source is linked and described; the article's source material is also mentioned when available. Players can click the link to go directly to the originating website to verify the Factitious evaluation.

As an extension to this activity, consider submitting articles for inclusion in the game.

H/T To Test Your Fake News Judgment, Play This Game/NPR

National Punctuation Day (September 24)

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 11:00:00 +0000

September 24 is National Punctuation Day! The founder's website describes the day as "A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis." How will you recognize this day with your students?

Songs

The Punctuation Song (CoolRules.com)
The Punctuation People Theme Song (Dave Jay Gerstein)
Exclaim! (Grammaropolis)
Quote Me (Grammaropolis)
Colon: The great organizer (Grammaropolis)
Full stop (Grammaropolis)
Punctuation (Grammaropolis)
Question mark (Grammaropolis)
End marks (Grammaropolis)

Images and Infographics
Have your students make their own punctuation infographics. Use these for inspiration:

Games

Semicolon Wars (Mrs. Nussbaum)
Extreme Sentence Surgeons (Mrs. Nussbaum)
Punctuate the Sentences (BBC)
Punctuation Paintball (Discovery Education)
The Magic Key (BBC)

Tools
Test online grammar tools to see how how they work on finding and correction punctuation errors:

Grammerly (Chrome and website)
Ginger (Chrome and website)
Punctuation Checker (website)
Gregory's Writing Site (website)

Books
Greenwich School teachers are invited to stop by the Media Center and select from GES's favorite punctuation books.

Google Forms: Delete Responses

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you want to clear all responses from a Google Form. Maybe you were trying out a new Form, or you want to reuse a short assessment from last school year. Even if you delete the data from the associated spreadsheet, the Responses tab will still show previously collected data. With just a few quick clicks your Form data will be cleared:

Open the Form in the editor.
Click to access the Responses tab.
Click the three stacked dots in top right corner of the tab (next to the Sheets icon).
Click Delete all responses.
Confirm that you really want to delete all responses (there is no undo for this).

Google Calendar: Import Events with CSV file

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 10:30:00 +0000

Google Calendar is instrumental in keeping me, and those who work with me, on track. To prepare for the new year I enter weekly lab, library, and coaching events. I also enter my club schedule (several 3-5 week sessions and 1 year long). For the weekly events I add the first and repeat the event until the last week of school -- easy-peasy. But club schedules are more varied, and often interrupted by early dismissal or no school days. That leaves too much room for error, especially for those of us who are number challenged.

The simplest and quickest solution I have found involves a spreadsheet (doesn't it always?).

Open your preferred spreadsheet software.
Enter your preferred headers. Only Subject and Start Date are required.

Subject (event name)
Start Date (format: 12/01/2017)
Start Time (format: 9:30 AM)
End Date (format: 9:30 AM)
End Time (format: 9:30 AM)
All Day Event (enter True or False)
Description
Location
Private (enter True or False)

Add your event data. (For my clubs, I copy paste the dates from the my planning spreadsheet.) Keep in mind that how content formatting is very important -- when in doubt, set the cell formatting as "text" to ensure the software does not automatically reformat dates or times.
Save the completed file as CSV (comma delimited).
Go to Google Calendar.
Click the down arrow next to Other calendars. Select Import calendar.
Locate and choose the recently created CSV file.
Select the calendar where events will be added. (Tip: to test, create a temporary calendar and import events to ensure correct formatting.)
Click Import. If successful, your events should not appear in Calendar. If you see an error message, visit this Calendar Help page for troubleshooting support.

Looking for more? This Google Calendar help page has step by step instructions on how to create and import a csv file.

Prodigy: Fantasy Math Game

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Prodigy is a freemium interactive math tool that integrates game-based learning and teacher friendly management and reporting tools. Teacher and classroom accounts are completely free; parents have the option to upgrade to access non-essential/non academic game content.

Teachers may create student accounts, or students can create their own and join the class with a teacher provided code. Usernames and passwords are automatically generated -- a negative for districts that use standard logins. Students can access the games either through the website or the Chrome app.

Games allow students in grades 1-8 to play games and practice Common Core aligned content. The game interface reminds me of Nintendo DS games -- there is a dialog box at the bottom of each screen where Noot (a fairy like creature) guides the new Wizard (student) through the game. Limited reading is required, although the game is intuitive and easy to follow. Students can play through all skills at their own pace, or teachers may create assignments based on single or multiple skills. On screen tools such as pencils, counters, fractions, base blocks, and coins help students work through their response. Incorrect response result in hints that explain how to find the correct answer.

Students can interact with other players, although this is limited. Game names are completely different than real life names; no personal information is shared or shareable. Teachers can monitor progress and usage through several reports: weekly activity, standard coverage, topic coverage, student usage, and student progress.

Support is easily accessible and plentiful:

Zendesk powered Support links to common topics, an active community forum, and a support ticket for unique issues.
Resources page links to videos, upcoming webinars, presentations, and additional resources.
The Prodigy blog has great resources for implementing Prodigy and game-based learning in the classroom.
Browse play throughs at ProdigyGame YouTube channel.

On the School Sites: Picture Book Month

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 11:30:00 +0000

This week our School Sites are celebrating Picture Book Month! Students will be asked to vote for their favorite picture book.
Middle school students will write-in their favorite titles and/or authors. Elementary students will have a ballot comprised of the top 10 favorites (based on circulation records for the past 4 years, excluding multiples in series or authors):

Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Chippy Chipmunk by Kathy Miller
Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Hooray for Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
Houdini by Kathleen Krull
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.
Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey
Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt

Resources:

Blog posts share activities for readers of all ages (Picture Book Month)
Short list of activities and games for picture books (Picture Book Month)
Teacher's Guide: Why Picture Books Belong in Our Classrooms (Picture Book Month, PDF)
Teach with Picture Books (independent blog)
Using Picture Books to Teach Plot Development and Conflict Resolution (Read Write Think)
Teachers Find Many Reasons to Use Picture Books with Middle and High School Students (School Library Journal)
Picture Books for Older Readers: A Panel Discussion (Publisher's Weekly blog)
Teaching Language to Pre-K–12 ELs Through Picture Books (TESOL blog)

Digital Citizenship: Email Security

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 12:00:00 +0000

G Suite accounts provide access to more than just email -- your login gives access to files stored in Drive, private Sites, and saved passwords in Chrome. It is not just your data that could be compromised, it is also student, colleague, and district information. Don't be the weak link in your school's security chain: protect your password, read popup and other messages, think critically about what email messages and links are asking you to do. Anyone can be fooled, even the most "tech savvy" professionals: This is the email that hacked Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief.

If you have any doubts about a message, forward it to your district technology team.
Carefully read all messages. Rarely does a reputable company send a message with spelling errors or odd logos.
Hover over links to see if they are legitimate. Put your cursor over a link; look at the address that appears in the lower left corner. A common trick is the include a legitimate looking address in the url.
Avoid shortened URLs from unexpected sources. Google (and other sites) will not use URL shorteners, especially regarding security. If an email asks you to check your settings, manually type the true address (not the tinyurl or bitly) in the address bar.

On the School Sites: Election Day

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 12:30:00 +0000

Like many schools across the United States, our students have been exploring the presidential election process in their classrooms. Teachers have carefully navigated the news reports in order to keep the focus on media and political literacy. It was interesting to hear the older students discuss the challenge in differentiating news from gossip, and how all of that impacts their view on the candidates (and the election process).

Since the election takes place early in the week, our front page media is lighter on election, heavier on fun.

The elementary school site presents a retelling of a silly election story: Doreen Cronin's Duck for President (as retold by Miss Yumi).

Middle school students can bop along with Flocabulary's Presidential Election Process.

On Tuesday the middle school will have a mock election where the will cast a vote for President. Based on "population," each homeroom has been designated 1 or 2 electoral votes. Will the homeroom teachers follow the will of the students? Or will they vote for their preferred candidate?

Media Literacy Week (Oct 31-Nov 4)

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Bond) — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 12:39:00 +0000

On the School Sites: Apples and Cavities

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 19:39:00 +0000

In celebration of apple picking season, the elementary students have Ten Apples Up On Top sung in the style of Jason Mraz.

In anticipation of the candy-filled holiday Halloween, our middle school students can learn something about tooth care from the TedEd video "What Causes Cavities?"

Digital Citizenship Week

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:30:00 +0000

Digital Citizenship Week is upon us once again! Below are the plans for my district as we recognize the skills and dispositions that lead to good digital citizens.

Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use. When discussing digital citizenship we often focus on one of the 9 Themes: access, commerce, communication, literacy, etiquette, law, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, and security. This week will focus on Digital Citizenship as a whole:

Teachers

Video: Living in a Digital World
The Staff Intranet houses in-depth resources for the 9 themes of Digital Citizenship.
Take this quiz to see how test your knowledge about teens and social media.

Elementary Students

Video on the school site: Super Digital Citizen.
Grades K-2 will practice being a good neighbor in the computer lab.
Grades 3-5 will discuss how to share our opinions respectfully (anytime, but especially online), how we feel when someone disagrees, identify appropriate ways to respond, and decide when to involve our trusted adult.

Middle School Students

Video on the school site: 458 minutes.
During advisory, middle school students will determine the rights and responsibilities of digital life and consider appropriate responses to real-world scenarios.

Parents will receive this newsletter:

On the School Sites: Week of Respect and Critical Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 22:10:00 +0000

Elementary School: Last week, like all schools in New Jersey, we recognized the Week of Respect. The Media Center shared a school-wide program that involved a Kid President video and opportunity to respond. Students were asked: "What is something nice that we can say or do to show our respect?" All students and staff were invited to respond in a Padlet. I was able to export the responses from Padlet, then import them to Tagul to create this word cloud:

Middle School: This week's front page shares a video from the TedEd YouTube channel. Critical thinking is a critical skill. We are asked to make so many decisions each day, somethings we don't give them enough thought.

Quick Tip: Rescue a Stalled Computer

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:22:00 +0000

Today I met with my middle school tech club. Each week, before we begin our long-term projects, we review technology support tricks that can be used to help our teachers and peers in the classroom. Today's topic was how to revive a stalled computer.

Have a little patience. Sometimes things don't work as quickly as we'd like. If an update is downloading or installing, the computer may run a little slower. If the user has 15 tabs open in Chrome, things will slow down a bit. If the internet is slow or near capacity, the pages will sometimes take a bit longer to fully render.
Control-Shift-Escape opens the Task Manager (Windows OS). From this menu you can locate the stalled program and close that one specifically. Be careful when choosing apps/programs to exit -- some of them are essential to the functioning of the computer.
Last Resort: Force power off and restart. You've been patient. You attempted to close locked apps, tabs, or windows. You were patient while waiting for any response from the computer. The last resort is to press and hold the power button until the device shuts down. Give it a moment, then restart.

Digital Citizenship: Etiquette

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 01:07:00 +0000

Digital Citizenship is not that different than Real Life Citizenship. As technology continues to be absorbed into our daily lives, the line between online and offline behavior blurs. The anonymity of the internet, or even the inability to see the author, sometimes creates situations where participants behave in ways they would not in Real Life.

The "Core Rules of Netiquette" were developed by Virginia Shea and published in her 1994 book Netiquette. These rules connect the elements specific to the digital world with those in the real world, reminding us that good citizenship is important no matter where we are. In 1994 the internet as we know it had not yet been made public, and the idea of having a computer in your pocket was limited to SciFi. Yet these rules, grounded in good Real Life Citizenship, still apply in 2016:

Remember the Human: While the internet may be digital, the people behind the words and images are human.
Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life: Be respectful, give credit where due.
Know where you are in cyberspace: An extension of know your audience, understand the rules and expectations of the group before participating fully.
Respect other people's time and bandwidth: "You are not the center of cyberspace"
Make yourself look good online: Present the best you. Consider how your words or images can be taken out of context.
Share expert knowledge: Participate! There are communities and forums for educators at all levels, subjects, and teaching style. Be sure your PLN includes digital resources.
Help keep flame wars under control: Don't feed the troll, and he will likely get bored and go away. If that doesn't work contact the site owner or a person in charge.
Respect other people's privacy: We don't snoop through other people's drawers, so don't snoop through their email.
Don't abuse your power: Those in charge of other's access to view and share must not take undue advantage of that responsibility.
Be forgiving of other people's mistakes: If you decide to point out a mistake, do so politely and privately.

Links direct to the excepts from Netiquette as available at the publisher website.

Quick Tip: Full Screen Mode in Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 11:30:00 +0000

It may be helpful to view apps, presentations, videos, or other items using the full screen (no tabs, menu bars, etc.). This can be especially helpful when working on a smaller screen, where every pixel has high visual value. It may also be helpful when presenting a website, document, or other content through an interactive board, projector, or large monitor. The below options will engage or exit full screen mode in Google's Chrome browser.

To engage full screen mode:

Press F11 (PC), located on the top row of the keyboard.
Press the 3 dots below the x in the upper right corner.
Choose the full screen icon, located at the right end of the Zoom options.
Press the Full Screen Key (Chromebook), located on the top row of the keyboard.

To exit full screen mode:

Press the Escape key (top left corner of the keyboard).
Move cursor to top of screen, go to View, choose Exit Full screen.
Press the Full Screen Key (Chromebook), located on the top row of the keyboard.
Press F11 (PC), located on the top row on the keyboard.
Alternate-F4 (PC). Note that this will actually close the Chrome window completely.

Digital Citizenship: Password Security

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 10:44:00 +0000

This week's Digital Citizenship topic is Security, specifically password safety. We are reminding students and staff:

Choose a secure password; Strong Password Generator and DinoPass are easy to use password generators.

Teacher accounts have access to confidential data; don't be the weak link.

Passwords are private. No sharing with friends or classmates.
Keep written passwords secure; avoid post-its on the monitor, never write on the board.
Do not say passwords out loud.
Learn to type your username and password quickly.
Always logoff shared computers; lock personal computers when not in use.

We shared this graphic with staff:

At the elementary school, we have the P455w0rD Rap:

The middle school reminder includes a comic playing on the Rumplestiltskin's "secret" name:

Video: Life after Death by PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 11:00:00 +0000

How we present our ideas is just as important as what we have to share. In this video, teacher Diana Neebe presents research-based principles of multimedia learning.

Consider these questions as you watch: Are you using the right tool for the job? Does your presentation style match your teaching style? Do you ask students to create presentations, when you really want a detailed outline? Do you assign presentations that are never actually presented?

Google Drive: Set Expiration Date for Shared Files

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Google announced a new feature for Google Drive, the ability to set an expiration date for shared files and folders. When the appointed hour arrives (11:59pm on the set date), the recipient's comment and visibility privileges are automatically revoked.

This feature will not work when the recipient has Edit access, which includes Google Forms collaborators. The expiration date is also not available for blanket shares (public, anyone with the link, or all within domain).

To set an expiration date:

Share a file or folder with individual users or a Google Group email address.
Once file or folder is shared, hover over the blank space between the username and level of access. A stopwatch will appear.
Click the stopwatch to open the options.
Choose 7 days, 30 days, or select a specific date. Note that you can return to this window to cancel the expiration.
Click the blue Save Changes.

Google reports that this will rolled out gradually. We are starting to see it in GTSD, If you don't see it yet, be patient, it will be available to you soon!

Classroom: Automated Notifications and Your Overwhelmed Inbox

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 10:30:00 +0000

I love Google Classroom. Each of my Library/Media classes, and my Media Medics group, have a Classroom. I am able to be more efficient in sharing and receiving information, links, documents, and comments, so I can be more present while my students are present.

While the Classrooms allow me to more easily keep classwork and student work more organized, I have found two areas of frustration:
inefficient navigation and an overflowing inbox.

Inefficient Navigation
The simple solution would be for Google to allow a list view, as opposed to the block view. Until that happens (fingers crossed), I alternate use between two keyboard shortcuts:

Control-F: Search the page for a specific keyword or phrase.
Control-Minus: Zoom out, making screen content small and therefore showing more of the boxes.

Overflowing Inbox
Classroom automatically generates a message each time an assignment or question is posted. After the first grade level assignment, my inbox swelled with automatically generated notifications about postings and comments. The amount of information was so overwhelming that I decided to disable all Classroom notifications (via Classroom Settings page).

However, Classroom also lets me know each time a student sends a private message. With 20+ active Classrooms, I am not checking each assignment or section on a daily basis. For this reason I re-enabled the feature, and the deluge of messages that clutter my inbox. At this time, notifications are all or nothing. Perhaps at some point Google will allow teachers to enable or disable choose notification types (fingers crossed).

Until then, here are the steps to create a Gmail filter that automatically move these messages into a new label/folder and out of your inbox:

Open Gmail.
Click Gear icon, choose Settings.
Click Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
At bottom of list, chose Create a new filter. A small popup will appear attached to the Gmail Search box.
Paste "classroom.google.com" (without the quotes) in the From field.
Click "Create filter with this search" link (lower right corner of box). Gmail will perform a search using this criteria, you should only see the automated messages sent from Classroom.
In the popup box check the box to Skip the Inbox (Archive it).
Next check the box Apply the label. Click the dropdown for this option, choose New label. Enter Classroom as the label name, click Create.
Click the checkbox to Also apply filter to matching conversations.
Double check your settings, then click the blue Create filter button.
You will see the new Classroom label/folder in the left margin. Click that to see your filtered messages.

If you want to get really fancy, it is possible to flag notifications for Private Comments differently than other messages. Add "Private comment" (without the quotes) to the subject field (step 5 above).

Google Docs Add-on: Revision Assistant

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 10:30:00 +0000

Revision Assistant is a free add-on for Google Docs. This simple yet effective tool inputs formatted proofreading markings into a Document. These marks are tracked in the sidebar, making it a bit easier for teachers to evaluate and assess punctuation and grammar. Students will not be able to quickly click Resolve (Comments) or Accept (Suggestions) to ignore or incorporate corrections.

Marks are divided into two categories:

Conventions: apostrophe, capitalize, colon, comma, exclamation point, hyphen, insert, lower case, omit, period, question mark, quotation, semicolon, spelling, and spell out.
Structure: accuracy, comma splice, fragment, paragraph, run-on, space, and transpose.

This add-on also allows reviewers to gather existing Google Doc comments into a table at the bottom of the document. While there is not connection to the original document location, these comments become preserved and printable.

Only the teacher or editor needs to have the add-on installed to add the marks. To install this add-on:

Open any Google Doc.
On the menu bar, click Add-ons.
Choose Get Add-ons.
Search for Revision Assistant.
Click the blue +Free icon and follow the steps.

Cool Tool: Flocabulary (subscription required)

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Bond) — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Free is my favorite, but sometimes paid tools are worth the cost. For me, Flocabulary is one of those tools. If you are a current subscriber or considering a trial, here are few ideas on how to use Flocabulary in the classroom.

The Week in Rap? Let me walk you through the steps: Video shows how the Week In Rap is made each week. Share with students as a way to show all that goes into creating a professional media information product.
Grammar Videos: Watch videos on big grammar topics to reinforce important concepts. Use these videos to inspire students to create their own musical product.
Vocabulary Implementation: The Word Up Project teaches interdisciplinary Tier 2 words to boost reading skills across the curriculum. Engaging videos, exercises, games and quizzes provide a comprehensive resource for direct vocabulary instruction. Word Up is research-based, CCSS-aligned and proven to raise scores on state reading tests.
Writing Academic Rhymes: Guide your students to develop higher-order thinking skills through high-interest writing. Once students have listened to Flocabulary songs and learned information in any subject area, they can synthesize what they've learned by writing their own rhymes.
Worth 1000 Words: provides an outline for a simple activity to develop student media and information literacy skills. You can follow as written, or work it in to existing lessons as a way to engage students in a discussion about why certain media elements are selected (can also do this with Scholastic readers, book covers, CNN student news, textbooks, etc.). By comparing and contrasting information and media elements between stories/broadcasts can help students identify reliability, currency, authority, and bias. As they engage in academic or independent information seeking, this is the criteria students will use to evaluate their sources.

Looking for more ideas? Visit Teaching with Flocabulary to find links to teacher resources for using Flocabulary to support learning in all content areas.