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Helping ELLs Make Connections to Literature Using Google Drawings
Working with English language learners and helping them to see text-to-self connections can be difficult. Join us to explore how you can use independent reading opportunites and Google Workspace's Drawings to help your ELL students identify with their own personality.
Using Book Creator to Create Digital Stories for ELLs
Digital storytelling is the perfect way to engage your English Language Learners. Join us for this session where we will review the power of digital storytelling and discuss the benefits of storytelling for your students. We will then dive into Book Creator, a website for creating digital books that incorporate drawings, narration, video, and so much more. We will explore how to get started with this digital tool and brainstorm ideas for your students to bring their stories to life. We will also explore digital story topics and examples that are sure to engage your English Language learners. Let’s get creative with this literacy tool to support our students with their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills!
Using Google Workspace to Support Emerging Writers
Writing is an essential skill for every student, but it doesn't have to be frustrating. Join us as we explore how Google Workspace for Education can inspire your students to become independent writers. We will take a look at some ways you can use the Google applications to build great writing habits in your students.
Many of us have a word wall posted somewhere in our classroom to help our ELL students learn vocabulary. What if you could bring your word wall into the 21st century? Join us as we explore and create digital word walls! In this session, we'll show you everything you need to create digital word walls of your very own and highlight the benefits for your English language learners.
Using SMART Board to Support Literacy
Looking for more engaging literacy lessons? Well, look no further than your SMART Board. There are many features on the SMART Board that can bring your literacy lessons to the next level. You will learn how the SMART Board can foster comprehension, engagement, and collaboration among your students. Come explore how to use SMART Lab to quickly create literacy activities.
Having Students Show Work with Kami
Kami is a great tool for annotating and marking up PDF documents. Through Kami, students can show their work in nearly any subject. In this course, we'll show you some great ways to use the features and tools in Kami to help students show their thought processes, justify decisions, and work out problems step-by-step.
Virtual Pen Pals for ELLs with Flip
Note: Flipgrid is now Flip! There have been many updates to the functions and look of the platform. In this session, you will notice some differences between the video and the current version of Flip. We are aware of this and are working on updating our courses to reflect these changes.
Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is an interactive web tool that is perfect for engaging your students in learning. In this session, we'll explore how we can use Flip to connect with other classrooms and students worldwide! We'll learn how GridPals can be used for finding pen pals at the appropriate grade level, and discuss the benefits of pen pals for ELLs to promote writing, speaking, and listening skills. We will also explore how to create unique topics for students to make connections, build conversation skills, and collaborate.
Utilizing Google Workspace for Summer Reading
Ready to transition your summer reading program to a more digitally-based process? In this course, we'll share tips on using different applications within Google Workspace (formerly G Suite for Education) to structure a summer reading program and push out materials. We'll also share book lists and reflection activities to keep students reading during the summer months and prevent that summer slide!
Digital Journal Activities for ELLs Using Google Slides
Join us as we share scaffolded activities to encourage journaling and allow ELLs to work at their own English language development level. We’ll also explore how to use Google Slides to encourage your ELLs to complete written accounts or photo entries that keep a record of their lives during this momentous time in history.
Blogging is an accessible method of writing and communicating to a wide audience. Join us for this session as we explore Blogger, a platform that allows you to publish and share your own blogs. We will explore the basics, and then talk about how to get started with content creation, and how to engage students across grade levels and subject areas.
Socratic Seminar Using Microsoft Teams
A tried and true method of discussion and critical thinking, the Socratic method can be a great way to engage students in dialogue even while learning digitally. In this course, we will take a look at how to use the Socratic method with the tools and features of Teams to engender thoughtful, open debate.
Expanding ELL Vocabulary Through STEM
Are you struggling to find the right tools to bridge the gap between STEM and ELL vocabulary? We know that teaching ELLs outside of the English classroom can be challenging, but communicating through STEM subjects can make it that much easier! In this session, we'll discuss strategies to increase acquisition of academic English language through STEM and NGSS across all grade levels. We will also learn how STEM literacy and English Language Learner literacy can be used productively together.
Tools to Support Literacy in Science
Looking for ways to support disciplinary literacy in your science classroom? Want to help strengthen your students' scientific reading and writing skills? Join us as we share tools and strategies that can help students understand and explain phenomena, analyze data and graphic displays of information, and communicate their findings and understandings with others. Watch your students think, read, evaluate, and communicate like scientists!
Creating Interactive Vocabulary Lists Using Thinglink
Vocabulary lists are used in almost every classroom and rarely offer any interactive engagement for students. Join us as we talk about Thinglink, a website that allows students to create interactive displays and virtual tours that connect the tactile world to the digital world. With Thinglink, we will show you how to make vocabulary lists with your students that are interactive, informative, and meaningful.
Enhancing Literacy with Pixton Comics
Join us as we explore using digital comics as a literacy tool for your classroom. In this session, we'll go over some key features of Pixton, a comic creation tool perfect for engaging your students and bringing enthusiasm to virtually any subject.
Picture This: Teaching STEAM Through Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are perfect for connecting STEAM and literacy learning! Engage your students with hands-on engineering challenges that use the beloved classic fairy tales, as well as some modern ones.
Building Phonological Awareness
Join us as we take a look at unique tips and tricks to promote phonological awareness in your classroom! In this session, we'll review phonological awareness concepts, and how to identify if a student is struggling in this area. Then we'll focus on several literacy apps that can engage your early learners while building a foundation for success with reading. We'll also cover some creative classroom activities that take your students from noticing words to reading, speaking, and writing their own.
Increasing STEM literacy is essential in the 21st century classroom, but often, subject-specific teachers do not know how best to reach ELL students. In this course, we will discuss strategies for teaching content area skills while encouraging literacy and language skills to ensure that all students are getting the most out of the material.
Wouldn’t it be great to have super tools on the web that would help you tackle teaching skills like vocabulary building, main idea and summarizing? What if we said we will share our favorite web resources for teaching your students how to mind map and brainstorm to organize their ideas and plan their work around a particular topic or subject? Join our team as we share our favorite web resources to facilitate instruction in the classroom and take your literacy classroom to a well-developed Common Core classroom.
Avoiding Negative Transfer for ELL Students
Our ELL students have so many different literacy components to focus on, confusion is bound to occur. While negative transfer is a natural occurrence, there are many ways we can avoid it. Join us to discover some ways to help our students make the transition to a new language as smooth as possible.
Tech-Infused Learning: Ozobot and Perspectives in Literature
Enhance your language arts classroom with Ozobot! We'll show you how to use this line-following robot to explore different points of view in literature. You'll learn how to boost your students' character analysis — and their coding skills. This course is aimed at high school level literacy, but you can easily adapt it for younger readers and ELLs.
Introducing STEM Role Models Through Literacy
Why are role models so important? Some reasons to have a role model include inspiration, learning how to overcome struggles, and garnering the traits of a successful individual to become the best version of you. It's important to provide students with numerous opportunities to find role models for themselves. As educators, we may sometimes want to suggest role models for specific behaviors and characteristics we think our students would benefit from — like opening up the world of STEM, for instance. Join this session to learn about some elementary level literacy resources you can use to introduce STEM role models to your students.
Literature-Inspired STEM Activities for the K-2 Classroom
A picture is worth a thousand words, and that's why picture books are perfect for connecting STEM and literacy learning! Engage your K-2 learners with hands-on engineering challenges that use children's literature as a launch pad. Do you want to see your young learners asking questions, demonstrating skills to tackle a problem hands-on with their peers, or designing – and even redesigning – a product or idea? Join us for some fun as we dive into our favorite stories and guide our Kinder-Engineers to “redesign” the story. From creating protective attire for Humpty Dumpty, to developing a new home for the three little pigs, with these best practices and example activities, you will soon be integrating STEM into your storytelling time!
Using the SMART Board for Early Childhood Literacy
In this session, we will look at how literacy teachers can inspire and motivate students using online resources and technology through the SMART Board. We'll take a look at some tips and tricks you can use to make decoding and phonics simpler for your students. We will explore different online resources in order to create lessons and then dive into the SMART Notebook software to explore various features you have access to in order to build custom activities with your students such as the gallery and SMART Speller. By the end of this session, you will come away with multiple skills to begin generating differentiated multimedia lessons for whole class instruction and center use.
