Thank you for attending my workshop this month!
If you weren’t able to make it, check out my presentation Free iPad Apps for the K-5 Classroom:
Tag Archives: reading
iPad Grammar: Phrasal Verb Machine
22 Mar
Perfect for upper elementary and middle schoolers, The Phrasal Verb Machine is a fantastic free app for grammar practice. Students can create their own phrases and watch each one animated (with an accompanying definition and example too!). After playing around with the machine students can test their knowledge with exercises that pair pictures and examples.
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan using this app!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle for teaching ELA in the classroom! (Here’s bundle #2 and bundle #3!)
MindSnacks: Kids Vocab
18 Mar
I’m always looking for ways to improve my students’ domain specific vocabulary. Kids’ Vocab by MindSnacks is a new app that is engaging and rigorous. It provides a pronunciation guide, practice games, and lots of colorful graphics. Kids’ Vocab includes free levels and the option to upgrade – check it out!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan for using this app in your classroom!
Here’s a bundle of Common Core aligned iPad lessons in case you’re teaching different skills this week!
People HD for Biographies
18 Feb
Biographies are a great way to get students excited about Social Studies. People HD provides information on different historical figures, a timeline of their life and famous quotes. The list could be more diverse, but I think it presents a great opportunity to have students research and create their own entry.
Here’s a Common Core aligned lesson planthat is perfect for biographies!
Check out this Common Core aligned lesson plan for another biography activity!
iPad MadLibs
30 Jan
Forget about the way you completed Mad Libs as a child – there’s an app for that! The official Mad Libs app offers 21 free stories that can be used to reinforce literacy skills. Have students identify parts of speech and create their own fill in the blank story.
Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!
Wordmover for Poem Creation
25 Jan
This free app acts like the magnetic words you might have on your refrigerator. Created by the National Council of Teachers of English, Wordmover allows students to manipulate words on their screen. Choose from the list they’ve provided and add your own words to create phrases, sentences or poems. I think this app would be perfect for a poetry station or a challenge activity for fast finishers.
Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app!
The Answer Pad: iPad Bubble Sheet
28 Dec
There are so many free assessment tools that I love and if you are in a 1:1 classroom you have to try The Answer Pad!
The Answer Pad allows you to set up an electronic answer sheet to a test you’ve already created. Students can then “fill in” their multiple-choice answers by using the TAPit app or The Answer Pad website. The best part of this assessment tool might be the ability to assign a Common Core Standard to each question. That way when a student answers a question I know if they’ve mastered each skill. Students can also show their work using a scratch pad on the app before submitting their answer. Watch their tutorial for a complete breakdown – this is a must have for a 1:1 classroom!
Famous Faces: Funny Movie Maker
7 Dec
This app might seem silly but there are lots of ways to use Funny Movie Maker in you classroom. Use a picture from your camera roll and insert your mouth or entire face to make the image come to life. Try reading the Emancipation Prolamation using Abraham Lincoln’s picture. Have students replace the face of Susan B. Anthony with their own and read a journal entry they’ve written from the perspective of a suffragette. Students can email their videos to you or save them to their camera roll. Try it out in math or science as a fun way to record steps for problem solving or documenting an experiment.
Check out my common core aligned lesson plan using this app!
Here’s another common core aligned lesson plan using this app!
More QR Scavenger Hunts!
5 Dec
I love using QR code scavenger hunts to introduce new topics to my students!
Whether we’re getting ready to compost, about to start a unit on deforestation, or need a quick overview of topics like Lewis and Clark, the Dust Bowl, the Trail of Tears, the Gold Rush, the Great Plains, the Bill of Rights, Amazon Rainforest, Inuit or the Mayan, Inca and Aztec Civilizations, QR scavenger hunts are a great way to get students excited and engaged.
Click on the links above for QR code scavenger hunts with Common Core aligned lesson plans on each topic!
What’s Trending? Try a Wordle
26 Nov
Lots of websites display images of popular search terms, tags, or keywords to show what’s trending on their site. I love using Wordle, an online tool that takes the most popular words from a text and displays them according to how frequently they appear. You can copy and past text from an article your class is reading or an encyclopedia entry.
After students in my class emailed their essays on deforestation in South America, I copy and pasted the text into Wordle. Now I can display what’s trending next to a bulletin board of student work!
Wordsalad is an app that let’s you do the same thing straight from your iPad!
Try Wordle using current events!
Draw Your Own Graphic Organizer
23 Nov
Graphic organizers work in all subject areas. There are lots of apps I like, but Grafio Lite allows you to design your graphic organizer by drawing the shapes on your screen. Can’t draw a perfect circle? Me either. The shapes autocorrect and allow you to duplicate in case you want four ovals on your graphic organizer that are the same size.
Check out my common core aligned lesson plan using this app!
Here’s another common core aligned lesson plan using graphic organizers in the classroom!
News Sources for the iPad
12 Nov
Current events have an important place in my classroom and I’ve said it before – there are a lot of great apps to help your students explore the world around them.
Here are a few news apps for the iPad that are worth trying out in your classroom:
Check out this common core aligned lesson plan using these apps in your classroom!
Idioms on iPads
15 OctPushing students to the next level in ELA often involves an understanding of idioms.
English Idioms Illustrated and Idioms Lite are two great apps that can help bring idioms (age old sayings) into modern times.
The free version provides illustrations for idioms starting with A and B – you’ll need to upgrade to access the rest
This app acts like a database of idioms, easy to search and navigate
Check out my lesson plan for using these apps in the classroom!
Graphic Organizers: Idea Sketch
11 OctGraphic organizers work in all subject areas and students can create their own using the Idea Sketch iPad app. I love it for creating story maps, brainstorming and taking notes.
Check out my lesson using Idea Sketch in the classroom!
One more common core aligned lesson plan using graphic organizer apps!
Here’s another common core aligned lesson plan using graphic organizers in the classroom!
Fluency and Presentation Practice: Teleprompter
4 OctWe’ve all watched news anchors deliver top stories and presidential candidates give speeches, but have you ever used a teleprompter?
iPrompt is a free app that turns your iPad into a teleprompter! Add text that you’ve written yourself or copy and paste a famous speech from the web. Customize the size of the text and the speed it moves on the screen.
Whether you want your students to practice a speech or to practice their reading fluency, this app isn’t just cool it’s an effective teaching tool.
Check out my lesson plan on using iPrompt Pro in the classroom!
iBooks Reading Guides
20 SepOne thing I love about iBooks is how easy it is to take notes and organize your thinking.
I use iBooks to prepare reading guides for student book clubs. If your students are reading classic texts (Treasure Island, Jane Eyre, etc.) these books can be downloaded for free. If my students are going to be reading in a book club with hard copies of a text, I’ll purchase a copy on iBooks so I can prepare a reading guide for them. Here’s how:
- As I’m reading I’ll highlight a piece of text and add a note. This note will be a comprehension question I think that students should be able to stop and answer when they finish the chapter.
- I can access all of these notes (comprehension questions) in one place, no matter when or where in the book I stopped to record them.
- All of these notes (comprehension questions) can be emailed together, and are already organized by chapter.
- I will give this list to students at the beginning of a book club with the expectation that this will guide their reading responses and group discussions.
Highlight any word and you’ll have the option to add a note.
Press the “Share” button to email your notes.
All of your comprehension questions will be organized by chapter.
Check out my book club guide for The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.
Sticky Notes for a Tech Friendly Classroom
23 AugThe Sticky Notes app has taken technology integration in my classroom’s Reader’s Workshop to a brand new level!
This free app allows you to organize sticky notes, customize the size of the note, change the font, text color, and the “paper” color of the sticky note.
In this example, the student writes the date and page number of where they stopped in their current book. The purple notes are for wonderings/questions, the yellow notes are for answers to their questions, and the blue notes are for connections. I allow students to “stop and jot” their notes using this app during our Reader’s Workshop time.
Not only does this save paper and eliminate all the post-its that end up on my classroom floor (or the bottom of my shoe), it integrates technology into our Reader’s Workshop while still using the traditional paperback books that fill our classroom library.
Students can also take a screen shot of their sticky notes and email you their work. This would make a great bulletin board item too (no more post its falling off!)
Check out my common core aligned lesson plan using Sticky Notes in the classroom!
Here’s another common core aligned lesson plan using Sticky Notes in the classroom!
One more common core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!
I Can’t Live Without… Dropbox
14 AugYou might have checked out my presentation on using Dropbox with the Noterize app earlier this year. If you haven’t started using Dropbox I don’t know what to say… I can’t live without it!
What is Dropbox? Dropbox is a free service that let’s you share files over a wireless network. Download the software on one computer and files can be accessed from multiple locations…including an iPad.
You can drag and drop files to your Dropbox just like you would move a file from one folder to another.
View my Dropbox presentation for step-by-step instructions on how to add new documents straight to your Dropbox.
It would take me all day to list the number of apps that allow you to access your Dropbox: PaperPort Notes, Evernote, Educreations are just a few. They allow you to import PDF files, pictures and more from your Dropbox into their app. This allows you to use and modify your own content.
If you have a class set of iPads, you can download the Dropbox app on the student iPads and everyone can link to your Dropbox account – now every student has access to the same material. (Rubrics, reading passages, activity sheets…you name it!)
I attended a great presentation by NYC educator Adam Stone where he discussed setting up a video library for his ASL students using Dropbox. Check out his blog post!
Access your Dropbox in Educreations to import pictures for presentations or to annotate in this “simulated interactive whiteboard” app
The Dropbox app allows you to access a variety of files on you iPad. I set up my students with the app and access to our class account so they can view rubrics, import activity sheets into other apps, and more!
Summer Reading Log
4 JunScholastic is offering a Summer Challenge for students! Students can use the Scholastic Summer Challenge website or their Reading Timer app to keep track of their reading all summer. The app allows students to set a timer for their reading and log their minutes each day. For parents, the app includes tips, book lists, and articles.
I’m encouraging my students with access to the Internet this summer (even at the public library) to set up an account and keep track of their summer reading!
Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle for teaching ELA in the classroom! (Here’s bundle #2 and bundle #3!)
Current Events in the Classroom
13 MayContent can come alive in the classroom when you connect instruction to current events. Students of all ages like to feel like they have a grasp on what’s happening in the world around them and there is always a way to make curriculum-to-world connections.
NBC Nightly News has an app that features up to the minute video clips on events of the day. If I saw a segment on polar bears on a Wednesday night, you can bet that by Friday my students have seen that clip too and are recording their connections to our ecosystem unit on arctic climate change. Segments from the show can be projected onto your classroom’s “big screen” or explored individually by students on their own iPads.
(Make sure to preview each segment before showing the class. Even though they might hear about a news story at home, all clips are not appropriate for the classroom).
Check out my common core aligned lesson using current events apps!
My iPad Lesson Plans
Check out my Common Core iPad Lessons!
