Best Learning Games of 2013

Larry Ferazzo, of Edublogs, lists what he considers the best learning games of 2013. They include World Geography Games, Inca Investigation, The China Games, Plan It Green Live, Broken Picture Telephone, Jay Is Games, Earth Picker, Lifesaver, Room Escape Maker, GR8CTZ—Great Cities of the World, and LocateStreet. This is the second of the 2013 lists. The first list features Wonderground, Pursued, GeoGuessr, Depression Quest, The Republica Times, Breakaway, Quandary, and Review Game Zone. The Edublog includes links to the recommended games. You’ll also find links to the best games of previous years.

Big Bird’s Words: eSchool News App of the Week

It comes from Sesame Street, works on Apple and Android devices, and features Big Bird, games, and fun. Big Bird’s Words, an eSchool News and Metro Bistro App of the Week, encourages children ages four and up to learn vocabulary and read written text.  The App ($.99) uses Big Bird’s wonderful Word-O-Scope to get children hunting for words in their real-life environment. Finding words is fun, especially when they get to use their devices’ camera to click on images of the words—like cereal on their breakfast table. Wired Magazine recommends it as a great app for children who are just starting school. Take a look at the demo reel from Qualcomm to better understand what this app does.

Young Students Write Novels

During November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNaWriMo)

Although, adults are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel during November, the count is flexible for children. Grade 1 teacher Lily Jones decided to have her young students write novels. The idea was that they’d each write their own novel and all the words written by each student would be totaled. The goal for the class was 5000 words. Jones’ students learned about chapters and characters and enjoyed the freedom of writing fiction. The students didn’t master the art of creating chapters and plots, but they came up with delightful stories and saw themselves as novelists.  Jones went on to help create the NaNoWriMo curriculum for Kindergarten through Grade 12 students. You may want to put some of the NaNoWriMo ideas to work in your classroom this month and throughout the school year. Give your students time to create a story of their own, either using word processing or getting it down on paper. They’ll be proud of their accomplishment.

Grammar with Tech

The TL Advisor Blog is always packed with useful information, like Ozge Karaoglu’s suggestions for great grammar tech tools.  Some of those recommended are the Grammar Ninja, Free Rice, Road to Grammar, and Grammaropolis. There’s also Noredink.com (No Red Ink) where you can create classroom materials featuring apostrophes, fragments, hyphens, subject-verb agreement, and all those confusing words such as its, it’s, accept, except, affect, effect, than, then, and loads more.

Sophia Learning—32,000 Tutorials

NetTrekker has added Sophia Learning to its list of resource content providers. With access to Sophia, students can access tutorials in subject areas such as mathematics, science, English, fine arts, social studies, and foreign languages. For those interested in college credit while in high school, there are nine self-paced Sophia courses. The Sophia offerings not only helps students get a head-start in their studies, but also gives teachers the flexibility to add courses and enrichment to their classrooms. All of the Sophia high school, college readiness (ACT Prep, Refresher, College Success) and college courses are free.

StraightAce: English, Writing & Mathematics

StraightAce Learning, by Benesse, provides a review of mathematics, writing, and English (grammar and vocabulary) topics for Middle School level students and encourages students toward positive study habits. The programs can be used on computers and with mobile devices as long as there is Internet access. When using StraightAce, students are given “targeted” practice that is fun to use and supplementary to the regular curriculum. Teachers can track student progress as their students move through programs that feature hundreds of topics (105 in writing, 450 in math, and 105 in English) and thousands of assessment questions (1,050 in English, 4,500 in math, and 1,050 in writing).

Grammar Gorillas: Parts of Speech—Still Important

Practice in reading, speaking, and writing is essential for today’s students, but have we forgotten to include the rules of grammar and word use in Grades 1-5? Often, when I review Reading and Language Arts programs for software awards, I find great practice in reading and writing, but almost never in grammar.  Students who come from families who speak correct English, start steps ahead of others, but all students seem to profit from elementary school lessons targeting parts of speech and sentence structure.  If you are looking for digital material emphasizing grammar for young students, you might want to try searching for links at 19pencils.com and learni.st.com. Funbrain includes Grammar Gorillas games for beginners (nouns and verbs) and advanced students of grammar (all parts of speech). The Texas Computer Education Association provides an iPad list of grammar and vocabulary apps for all grade levels. A few other places you may want to look for grammar lessons for your students are Thinkonline, Softschools, Appfinder, Funeducationalapps, and LearnEnglish Grammar.

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

Check out Samantha Morra’s “8 Steps to Great Digital Stories” in order to get ideas for integration of oral storytelling into your classroom. The author believes that digital storytelling is the “21^st Century version of the age-old art of storytelling.” The difference is that today students can share their stories via video and the Internet worldwide.  Students, however, need a plan of action to help them tell their stories. Morra provides one as she suggests you lead your students through a series of steps that includes thinking of ideas, developing storyboards, gathering input, creating products, and getting feedback. She also notes that great digital stories are usually personal and concise, follow a script, use available materials, involve collaboration, and are based on universal story elements.

Don’t Forget Grammar Girl

When Grammar Girl’s podcast first came out, we looked to her to help us and our students with grammar. Maybe, we even have her book in our classrooms and offices. The good news is that Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty is still around reminding us about such grammar goodies as there’s a difference between i.e. and e.g., how to know when to use affect and effect, and that “different from” is preferred over “different than”. You’ll find her on iTunes, on Facebook, you can subscribe to her newsletter, you can order her audio books, and you can access her Quick and Dirty Tips online. Did you know that Grammar Girls says it’s okay to use sentence fragments on Twitter—if the meaning is clear.

Digital Storyboards

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) book Serious Comix: Engaging Students with Digital Storyboards, by Eydie Wilson, shows how struggling learners progress by creating their own comic books. Wilson used the technique when teaching students with special needs in New York City; her book details how it helped them improve in reading, writing, and analytical skills. “Illustrating a story,” according to Wilson, “helps students with visual literacy, which in turn helps them express their thoughts” and create their storyline.