Infographics

• Visual representations of information

• “Data Visualization” - sets of data will be displayed in a unique way that can be seen and universal conclusions can be made by all viewers

PLC - Infographic Google Slide Presentation

Sample Rubric

Additional Resources:

·      http://www.piktochart.com

(free education subscription gets 7 basic themes/20 uploads)  

Guide

·      http://infogr.am/

(creates interactive charts)

·      https://www.canva.com/  

(online canvas with drag/drop capabilities)

Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to your own desktop to use as you wish. - Wordle

Connective Writing

My recent reading of Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms has uncovered the term “connective writing.”  This was a new term for me to explore and proved to be of great concern for my current and future middle school students.  Connective writing is a new writing genre where in which the writer’s purpose in writing on a digital platform is to elicit responses from his or her audience in a digital conversation using digital tools, process, and publication mediums.  This conversation essentially turns into a collaborative effort to strengthen the piece of text and build the understanding of the topic/subject of the text to all involved.  This type of writing must also include openings and opportunities for the intended readers to respond and generate new and interesting insights regarding the topic so that further collaboration can occur.  By building this network of readers and writers, the connective writing process flows continuously through the elements of reading, thinking, writing, reading, thinking, writing, etc.  This continuous process requires that the readers and writers constantly synthesize the original ideas with those brought forth through responses and reflections.

The following links are short videos of Will Richardson discussing connective writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpAKWHQonyw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dNEDI3RFrw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfEXkZW3KtU

Socratic Seminar

Diagram of Seating Arrangement

Read Write Think: 

Socratic seminars are named for their embodiment of Socrates’ belief in the power of asking questions, prize inquiry over information and discussion over debate.   Socratic seminars acknowledge the highly social nature of learning and align with the work of John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, and Paulo Friere.

Elfie Israel succinctly defines Socratic seminars and implies their rich benefits for students:

The Socratic seminar is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions.  Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others.  They learn to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and civilly. (89)

Israel, Elfie.  “Examining Multiple Perspectives in Literature.”  In Inquiry and the Literary Text: Constructing Discussions n the English Classroom.  James Holden and John S. Schmit, eds.  Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2002.

Additional resources to check out:

Read Write Think

Teaching Channel - video

Facing History and Ourselves

Paideia - Active Learning