Five for Friday - Resources I Just Had to Share

This week while working on the resources for the monthly Digital Teacher Challenge in my district, I spent some time digging into Apps.  Our theme for February is Get Appy!  I concentrated on apps for all different tools as we have Chromebooks (Chrome Webstore and connected Apps), iPads (iOS Apps), and Android Tablets (Google Play Apps).  Through this research I came across so many great resources both app and web-based, I thought it was a shame not to share here as well!  So here's Five for Friday!


Read with Me - This great app helps teachers to assess fluency in students using custom options.  Some of the custom features available in the app are the ability to add your own miscues, name the miscues in a way that makes sense and the ability to count or not count the miscue in the score of the student.  Additionally the reports look to be quite complete.  They are integrated with Google Sign-in and Schoology.


FlipQuiz - This jeopardy style review game is a simple fee way to make review games with kids.  Find quizzes already built or create your own.  You can add answers to the game board if you choose so that you can be hands-free and host the game as you walk around the room.  Because all the answers are built in, you have the ability to send students a link to the game and they can play and review at home!  This is a free resource but with the PRO version you will  will get in-game score keeping, the ability to add your personal images, and many other features.

Hstry -This great resources allows you or your students to build a historical timeline rich with media (images, video and audio) in addition to the engagement features of commenting and quizzes or checks for understanding.  Timelines can then be shared and easily embedded on a website or blog using the embed code generated on the site.  With the free service you can have 200 student timelines.  Explore this amazing timeline from their site on Life in the Colonies.

Algebra Calculator  - This great resource is a calculator that gives a student step-by-step help on algebra problems.  Students can use this to enter a problem and instead of the calculator generating just the answer, it generates each of the steps to get to the final answer with a short explanation of what those steps entailed.

Periodic Table - Chemistry Tools  This is a free interactive app for exploring chemical elements and their dependencies in the periodic table.  The app allows students to see the elements in various ways and makes the periodic table interactive.  See the elements, details, atomic structure, boiling point and more.  Student s can sort by properties, classification or state.

Fluency Supported.....Digitally

Oral reading fluency can be so difficult to assess naturally with students as well as time consuming.  As an educator collecting running records from students I have often wondered about the students who get nervous reading aloud to me and how that affects their performance.  Then I heard about Fluency Tutor by Texthelp, and I can't wait to see it in action.

Fluency Tutor is an online tool, available in the Chrome Webstore as an app for both students and teachers, that supports oral reading fluency and comprehension.  The software incorporates Lexile-leveled passages for students in elementary and secondary levels.  Students are able to work independently to practice reading, record and submit assessments and monitor their progress.  Educators can assign specific passages to practice or assess, collect and listen to the students' submitted work and then mark or score them when time allows.  Teachers can set targets for students including Correct Words Per Minute and Lexile levels.  Parents have the ability to listen to the information the students have recorded as well.
After learning more about this resource, I wondered about that shy or those that get anxious about reading in the corner or hall to their teacher of reading specialist.  This resource seems like it would break down this barrier for many students.  I am excited to explore this software with students!

A great tutorial is included below:

Ever felt like it was "Too Long Didn't Read (TLDR)"?

Sometimes we all need a little help.  Time is short and we need to get to the point.  Sometimes you just want to get the general gist of something before you invest too much time in a resource or topic. That is what TDLR can do for you!  This week, Todd Bugnacki (actually his daughter shared it with him first), shared TLDR and it intrigued me.  I looked into it and this is what it is all about:

This is an extension for Google Chrome.  An extension is a feature or functionality that can be added to your browser (Chrome) that will allow it to do something it does not normally do.  TLDR or Too Long Didn't Read is free in the Chrome Webstore here when used on a webpage, will create a summary of any web article that your browser is displaying all while staying on that page.  The extension will appear as an icon to the right of the address bar in your Chrome browser once you add it.  The user has the ability to choose how condensed the summary is of the page.  Choices span from a summary, short, medium or long version of the page.  These versions map the length of the article from 25%, 50%, and 75% of the original article length.  Information from the reviews also indicates that it supports German, French and Spanish as well..  

Summary in Medium 

The use of this tool for personal reasons seems endless as we seem to take in so much more of our information from the web.  News, media, etc. can be time consuming to take in and a shortened version might be a real time saver.  I am curious how you might make use of this resource in the classroom or if it might hinder learning.  Feel free to comment regarding this below.  

A brief tutorial for the use of the extension from the makers of the extension is below.  

Putting the Pieces of a Digital Story Together

Last week I began working with a great group of K-2 teachers to explore digital Storytelling.  We used the presentation and link below to explore the parts of a digital story.  Each of the participants will be building a digital story next time we meet. As the K-2 teachers are using iPads we are focusing mostly on the use of iPad apps although some to the resources are also accessible on the web or through Google Apps.  Just sharing the presentation I used as well as the site that was created to support the learning.

Booktrack Classroom

Reading on a digital device is what you make of it, but reading on a digital devices that has an enhanced effects is really fun!  That is what Booktrack Classroom is all about.  This great site allows a teacher to create a book or essay to be published  for students with enhancements in the form of a movie-style soundtrack and sound effects.  Studies cited on the website indicate that there is a significant increase in comprehension and engagement for those students who read using Booktrack.  Booktrack is an app in the Google Chrome Webstore!

Creating an account, class and students seems to be simple.  See blow for information on Terms of Service.  I am excited to see how this can be used with text from a site such as Newsela with the added soundtrack enhancements to engage students with text right at their level.  Another really great tool natural to reading text using Booktrack is that you can adjust the pace of the track to provide the reader with a more successful pace of reading.  Students that create and publish their own writing through this site can then add a soundtrack to their own work, adding interest and excitement.  

The Terms of Service on this site indicate you cannot create and account for kids under 13 although that is unclear as the teacher blogs are very clear about its use with kids at the elementary level.  I have written the help desk for clarification to see if that only applies for the creation studio or if it apples to all around use.  I'll update this post if I hear back.  

Here's a great video that will give you an idea of how this tool works: 

TweenTribune - News Resource for Classrooms

I am super excited to share the fun resource supporting non-fiction, current events and teaches some great tips for online commenting all rolled into one resource.  More and more we see that people are getting away from a newspaper subscription and reading content online.  As more and more schools move toward a 1:1 environment, the collection of online media seems to be growing.  The trouble is that you need to find resources that will keep kids safe, allow them to learn how to use them in a secure way, and provide content at their age level taking consideration for content and reading level.  I believe that TweenTribune by Smithsonian will do that.

TweenTribune is a moderated comment sharing community where a teacher when registered for free, and assign educational content to students.  Students log in using a screen name and have the ability to make comments of which the teacher moderates and can choose to post on the Teacher's TTribune page, or publicly in the TTribune site.  Articles come from reputable sources such as AP, local newspapers and TV stations.  They are vetted for grade and reading level.  TTribune is very clear about the teacher gaining permission from parents to create accounts for students under 18 years of age, and also that they collect no information about the students, email addresses, etc.
Creating an account is simple.  The account automatically creates a list of classes of which you can rename.  Adding students is simple and I love that they encourage you to use a safe naming system when you create the user names as shown in the screen capture below: 


 Once you have created an account and have students registered, you can begin to select articles.  The articles are fantastic as they are sorted by grade span, have Lexile levels listed and a quiz should you decide to use it.  As shown, you click "Assign" and the article will be placed on the class  list of readings.



This resource is so great for kids and teachers to use.  As far as I can tell you cannot assign a different article to different kids and I wonder if the best way to differentiate would be to create different classes to accommodate different groupings.  TweenTribune is all supported via a free app for iOS.  This video will help you to learn about it, or create and account and explore!