Posts Tagged: english


17
May 12

More slow writing – suggestions please

Thank you for all the fab feedback on Slow Writing. Most of the recognistion really belongs to David Didau and David Riley. I am just the maven that stole the idea from one David and gave it to the other. Now we need a few more. Here is what we have so far;

“must be just one word.”,”must end with an exclamation mark!”,”must contain alliteration.”,”must contain an assertion (opinion presented as a fact).”,”must contain a rule of three.”,”must contain an embedded subordinate clause.”,”must start with the word ‘Although’ / When / As.”,”must contain a colon.”,”must start with a connective.”,”must contain a metaphor.”,”must contain a statistic.”,”must be written in the passive voice.”,”must be 15 words in length.”,”must contain brackets.”,”must focus on the sense of smell/taste/touch/hearing.”,”must be sarcastic.”,”must start with a present participle.”,”must contain only three words.”, “must contain a semi-colon.”,”must be a rhetorical question.”,”will start with an adverb.”, “must contain a simile.”, “must start with an imperative verb.”, “must use repetition for emphasis.”, “must contain emotive language.”

 

@ parenthetic commas; one word sentence; start with 2 adjectives (Hot & tired...); powerful verb (no adverb); fronted adverbial
@Lallysticks
Shanti Lall

 

Any more ideas woudl be appreciated.

Next @Laura_Suths would like personalised or language specific tasks prompts. We will try and get to it soon Laura but for now its the end of a long and busy day.

This is brilliant but could we make one that could be entirely personalised. For example, one to be used when teaching persuasive writing?

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Popularity: 9% [?]


15
May 12

Slow Writing

BBP2It started with David Didau’s (@learningspy) blog post. BIF! Then onto David Riley (@David_Triptico), Triptico creator and education app designer.  BAM! (The man’s talent are for hire BTW.) Then it was back to my Year 8 ‘Creative Writing’ class for testing this morning and POW! With a thumbs up and a green light, from both the students and the my own humble opinion, the Slow Writing app is now online and available for you to use and contribute to.

http://www.triptico.co.uk/slowWriting.html

As David Riley says….

Feel free to share it with others if you like the resource and feel that it could be helpful. Any updates/changes/additions etc let me know and I will try my best to sort them.

SW1 SW2 SW3

Here are David Didau opening slow writing prompts:

  • This sentence must be just one word
  • This sentence must end with an exclamation mark
  • This sentence must contain alliteration
  • This sentence must contain an assertion (an opinion presented as a fact)
  • This sentence must contain a rule of three
  • This sentence must contain an embedded subordinate clause
  • This sentence must start with the word ‘Although’ / When / As
  • This sentence must contain a colon
  • This sentence must start with a connective
  • This sentence must contain a metaphor
  • This sentence must contain a statistic
  • This sentence must be written in the passive voice
  • This sentence must be 15 words in length
  • This sentence must contain brackets
  • This sentence must focus on the sense of smell/taste/touch/hearing
  • This sentence must be sarcastic

And as this David says…

These are all the ones I’ve used but I’m sure I can think of others.

Cheers, David

Any suggestions, are most welcome. Leave a comment, Tweet them or send them direct to either David, I we will hopefully grow the app. And while you are at it, do look over the Triptico suite. As I have said many times, the most design friendly, attractive teacher resources available for FREE.

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Popularity: 19% [?]


8
May 12

Prezi now accepts PPT

Having read David Didau’s ‘The evils of powerpoint‘ here is a timely reminder that visual impact counts. Prezi has taken the presentation arena by storm and it keeps on getting better. The product itself is intuitive to use, makes full use of connected media and design savvy. It makes your presentations look good, just do not over do the pathways. Now, you can import one of your PowerPoint files into Prezi, using the new PowerPoint Import feature (smart move IMHO), and with just a little TLC you have another way to engage your learners.

I agree with a lot of what David is saying, I certainly subscribe to his sentiment.

Do:

  • Have a task (or something inspirational) displayed on the board to focus the attention of students as soon as they arrive in your lesson (check)
  • Know what you want to say about each slide you use without having it written on the slide and then boring your students by reading out a list of bullet points (check)
  • Do feel free to add to and adapt slides as the lesson progresses – Powerpoints, like lessons, should evolve and change to match your students’ progress and understanding (check)

Don’t:

  • Use more than 3 sides per lesson (fail)
  • Use slides which fail to make a visual or emotional impact (check / fail)

What is the magnet for? It is to help me make a connection with the learners, it is a cue prompt. A student almost always asks what it is there for and I get an opportunity to reward bravey. Powerful stuff.

  • Use someone else’s Powerpoint. This is always a dreadful error – even reusing a presentation that worked wonderfully with a class you designed it for least year is unlikely to be successful. The most awful Powerpoint crime is to download something from a resource sharing site and palm it off on the poor suckers you’re pretending to teach. We’ve all done it and hopefully we’re all rightly ashamed, but there really is no excuse to keep doing.

I rarely use other peoples PPT, I may customise them, is that a check? There is a reinventing the wheel counter argument there, as well as an integrity one.

As for Powerpoint abuses – over crowding. Keep it visual, keep it simple.
One of the key benefits Prezi, that I know David would support is that it provides an overview of the learning, or learning journey. Designed on a ‘canvas’ Prezi enables you layout it all out there, to create a learning pathway, to revisit certain slides, or redesign the lesson if required. Another positive.

Go on, give Prezi a go.

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Popularity: 15% [?]


31
Jan 12

ipadio: Hexagonal Learning

I am not going to write a SOLO taxonomy thinking post, I do not know it well enough, I haven’t I explored it far enough nor taught with it in mind. But I will. However the hexagonal tessalating idea, now I am up for that. I may even combine it to shoeless teaching. There’s lots of other excellent uses for hexagonal learning. Tait Coles, Chris Harte and David Didau are already ahead of the game. These guys have put together a useful Prezi, share Teachmeet videos and shared class footage. The practitioners have already provide some very compelling evidence so perhaps I can help in a different way?

Here is a hexagonal learning template and four reflections from today’s lesson and a few more images.

  1. Group’s of 2 were productive, 3 seemed to be engage and discussing the hexagons, 4 seemed a little strained.
  2. The students wanted to ‘finish’ the task and they wanted to know if they had got it right. In the second lesson, I really emphasised that first they needed to decided on the hexagon associations. That there was no ‘right’ answer and that they would need to be able defend their solutions.
  3. The students did not see discussion and justifying the hexagon placement as learning.
  4. The best thinking came about when I challenged their hexagon placements.

Listen to my latest phonecast

You heard the student feedback, here is their work. I did keep the cut-out hexagons for next time. I think I will soon have a draw full of hex learning activities. Bring on the novels!

 

Popularity: 24% [?]


10
Nov 11

ipadio: Facebook Status updates

Listen to my latest phonecast

Slides

 

Popularity: 6% [?]