Word Clouds

There is another good news for visual learners: word clouds. Students can go to www.wordle.net to create their own clouds. All they need to do is to paste text into Wordle and the corresponding word cloud will come out automatically. 

I would like to apply this digital tool to language arts classroom. For ELLs, teachers can encourage them to choose one topic they are interested in, such as school, friend, technology, etc. Then, students can list down all the words coming up from their mind when they think of the topic of their choice. ELLs may not have a broad range of vocabulary, so teachers should allow them to consult with their classmates or check dictionary. Finally, they are going to type in all the words and make their own word clouds.

Don't forget to let your students share their word clouds with the whole class and post their works on their blogs. 

Assessment for Financial Literacy Class

I would like to design an investing activity in which students act like a mutual fund manager,  responsible for managing their fund’s portfolio trading activities. They will play a simulation game on The Stock Market Game, everyone being allocated $100,000 to start with. Whenever students buy or sell certain stocks, they have to post on blogs the decision-making process behind every trading. Therefore, their blogs serve as shareholder letters, explaining why they choose certain companies, and what intriguing stories are behind their business. Students are encouraged to comment on their peers’ blogs, raising questions about the decision-making process.

Through playing the simulation game, students will find out their recent performance compared to their previous one (last month, last quarter, etc.) and to their peers’. The former comparison is what Prensky (2010) calls “ipsative assessment”, in which students are being evaluated according to their best record (p. 176). The latter part refers to summative assessment: ranking and comparison are being used.  Posting blogs and inviting counterparts to make comments involve peer assessment and self-assessment. This way, they will receive feedback from others and learn from their peers’ investing philosophy.   

References
Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real learning. London: Sage Publishers.

Mind Mapping: Process for Appeasing Your Angrier Wife

I used Gliffy to do this map; organizing your thoughts and presenting them in a map is very easy right now with the help of Gliffy. It has a variety of diagrams for you to choose and allow students to invite their peers to collaborate on the same work.

I chose the flowchart option to create a diagram depicting the process for appeasing your angry wife. This graphic organizer is meant to make your spouse laugh since it vividly demonstrates your full understanding of her inner world. I believe she will appreciate this "e-understanding."

Seriously, I would like to make use of this digital tool in my financial literacy class. Students will be divided into different groups, and they need to summarize their understanding about how to spot a high-growth but low-profile company in stock market. Later, students are encouraged to use Gliffy to share their thought process with the whole class. 

My Storybird

I am using Storybird to create my own story:

http://storybird.com/books/hannibal-the-most-dangerous-bear/

Storybird is very useful for Language Arts class, especially for developing students' writing skills, creativity, and the ability to connect the dots. ESL/EFL teachers can assign their students to create their own visual stories on this website with various categories for them to choose. Students can work individually and in pair to experience the process of being an author. Affording young pupils a sense of authorship is a strong motivator for them to participate in class.

Lik any other Web 2.0 tools, young authors are able to share their works with people all over the world. This is real and contexualized education because they write for real audience, and their writing is situated within self-selected context. Let your students create now!

Animoto: Connect The Dots

Animoto is very user-friendly for creating a professional and appealing video. All you need to do is put in photos, music, and words of your choice, and Animoto will combine every ingredient and magically transform it into an awe-inspiring dish. In the past, speaking of making our own video, we were terrified by its tedious and arcane process; however, with Animoto, even a digital novice can feel confident in creating a video that used to be thought of as a professional work.

I think that in the future, “easy but complicated’ is the tenet for all Web 2.0 tools. The tenet means “hot” digital tools must be easy for users to operate, while their final products are complicated and sophisticated. These technologies are so understanding that they allow you to use simple languages but are also able to capture your unspoken ideas in your head and present them. Animoto just does that, which is the reason I like it so much.



Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Guiding Questions for Financial Literacy Class

For a financial literacy class, the main theme could be the stock market. First of all, I would set up an overachieving question that is open-ended and encourages multiple answers, such as “Why does the stock price of a company go up and down?” The aim of this overachieving question is to help my students understand what skills they are required to learn. Then, students can work individually or together to investigate the possible reasons for the stock price fluctuation and share their findings with their peers. They will find out that in the long run, the consistent growth of earning is the robust reason for the stock price’s moving up, and only a good business has the capacity to demonstrate the consistent growth of earning.

The more detailed incremental question for the main theme might be “How can we identify a good business?” This question is situated in local context. Students are required to look for  a good business in their neighborhood and share their observations that this business is lucrative. From an overachieving question to a supporting question and from why to how is the better way to create guiding questions:

The best guiding questions are generally about a why followed up with a how. Even when we are teaching specific skills, the why should come first. “Why did we have a civil war, and how an we help prevent other such wars?” “Why do we have seasons, and how can we predict when they start and end?” “Why are some numbers irrational, and how can we calculate with them?” (Prensky, 2010, p. 85)

Relating supporting questions to local context, students are able to explore real places that are close to them and their funds of knowledge.

 

References
Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real learning. London: Sage Publishers.

Use Social Networking in Your Class

Three ways to use social networking in class? Here are some ideas:

1. Facebook: I would like to ask my students to create a facebook

page featuring their favorite character; then, they will sign in Facebook to

create a new identity and try to fill in their page with pictures, audio

clips, videos, and any links related to this character. They need to

comment on their classmates’ pages as well.

    

2. Twitter: Group students according to their interests and have them

decide a topic they want to research on in their interested area. Then,

follow a famous figure in this field on Twitter. Last, present what they

have learned from this person’s tweets in front of class.

3. Twitter: Ask students to report a piece of news related to social

justice in their life every day to learn how journalists report news in

concise words.