A few months ago Google started rolling-out a rubrics tool for some Google Classroom users. To get access to the rubrics tool your domain has to be enrolled in the Google Classroom Beta Program. I was fortunate to get access to the beta a couple of months ago to test Google Classroom rubrics. At that time it didn't offer the option to reuse rubrics so you had to create a new rubric for every assignment that you gave. Fortunately, that is changing as Google has announced that those who have access to Google Classroom rubrics can now reuse rubrics.
You asked, we listened! If you're in the #GoogleClassroom rubrics beta program, you can now reuse rubrics from any of your classes. Pro tip: add other teachers to your classes to use their rubrics too. Try it today, or sign up for the beta: https://t.co/c4a7UVRecBpic.twitter.com/ZXVhdg1bwO
In last week's episode of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast I answered a question about tools for creating sorting games. The Dust Bin game template from ClassTools was one of the tools that I suggested using for creating a sorting game. The template lets you create a review game in which students sort answer choices into four categories. It's a template that is easy to follow to quickly make a review game for your students to play. In the following video I demonstrate how to use the Dust Bin game template from ClassTools.
For many people the hardest of starting a writing assignment is choosing thinking of things to write about. This is particularly true when it comes to starting creative writing assignments. Fortunately, there are many good tools and websites that teachers can use to generate writing prompts. Likewise, there are lots of good websites that offer creative writing prompts for students. Here are some of my favorite tools for creating story starters and favorite sites for finding story starters.
500 Prompts on The Most Dangerous Writing App
The Most Dangerous Writing App is a website that provides a blank canvas to write on for a minimum time of your choosing. The catch is that if you stop writing before the time is up, you lose your work. 500 writing prompts are provided for those who need a little inspiration to get started. In the following video I demonstrate how to use The Most Dangerous Writing App. Update: November 2021, this tool is no longer available.
Create Story Starters in Google Sheets Flippity offers a few templates that can be used to create random story starters. One of those is a mix & match template that can be used to combine words or phrases from up to ten categories. Click the shuffle button in the mix & match template to generate a story starter. This video provides a demonstration of how that template works.
Flippity also offers a random name picker Google Sheets template. While it was designed to randomly select a student's name from a list, you could list story prompts instead of names in the sheet and have it display a random story prompt every time the picker is shuffled. Here's a video about how it works.
Flippity MadLibs is another Google Sheets template that can be used to create story prompts. As the name implies, it can be used to create MadLibs-style fill-in-the-blank stories. Watch the following video to see how it works.
Emojis as Writing Prompts Update November 2020: This tool is no longer available.
Emoji Prompts uses emojis as writing prompts. To generate a prompt just go to the Emoji Prompts site and click the blue "and then" button to add emojis to the screen. Students can write stories inspired by the combinations of emojis that are displayed.
Writing Sparks Writing Sparks offers timed writing prompts to share with your elementary school students. Students can respond to the prompts by writing on paper, in a word processing document like MS Word, or by writing on the Writing Sparks website. The Writing Sparks website provides students with templates to complete as they respond to each writing prompt. In the video that is embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use the free Writing Sparks service.
Scholastic Story Starters Scholastic Story Starters is a great tool that students will enjoy using to create short, creative fiction stories. Scholastic Story Starters offers four story themes; fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, and scrambler. To create a story on Story Starters a students picks a theme, enter his or her name, chooses his or her grade, and spins the big wheels of prompts. The student can spin the wheels until he or she finds a prompt he or she likes. After the prompt is selected the student can write his or her story using the letter, postcard, notebook, or newspaper format provided by Scholastic Story Starters. When the story is finished it can be printed.
Microsoft Forms offers a good way for teachers to create online quizzes and surveys. Over the last couple of years Microsoft has steadily added more and more features to it. File collection is the latest feature to be added to Microsoft Forms.
File collection in Microsoft Forms lets you create questions that students or parents respond to by uploading a file. Microsoft Forms supports the collection of audio, video, image, PPT, Excel, PDF, and Word files. You can specify the file type that you will accept as a response. You can also specify a maximum file size that you will accept through your form. I learned about this new feature through a Tweet from Mike Tholfsen. His Tweet including the demo video that is embedded below.
NEW! Microsoft Forms now supports attaching files to your response 🎉 Choose the number of files, size limit, & file type.
File upload is a new feature and is being rolled-out to Microsoft Forms users over the next few weeks.
Applications for Education
The file upload option could be a great way to collect samples of your students' work in one place. This could be a great way to have students turn-in things like spoken responses to questions. Have them record with a simple tool like Vocaroo then upload their audio recordings to your Microsoft Form.
Padlet has been in my list of top collaboration tools for nearly a decade. I started using it with my students back when it was still known as Wallwisher. There are many ways to use Padlet from simply providing a place to share text notes to using it as a place to collect video samples from students. Late last week Padlet added another way that teachers and students can use Padlet. That way is to collaboratively create maps.
Padlet's new mapping tool is rather easy to use. To access it simply open your Padlet account and create click "make a Padlet." You'll then be taken to a list of template options including the new map option. Select the map option and you're ready to start building your custom map.
After selecting the map template you're ready to start adding multimedia markers to your map. To add a marker you can either drag one onto the map or use the search tool to have a marker added to a specific location.
The markers that you add to your map can include all of the types of media that you can add to any other Padlet wall. That means you can add pictures, videos, text, links, audio, and even documents to the markers on your map. Padlet even has built-in tools for recording video and audio. Students could use those options to record themselves talking about the places that they're adding to their maps.
Finally, like all other Padlet walls, the maps you choose to make in Padlet can be made collaboratively. There are a handful of ways that you can invite students to collaborate on a map. Those invitation options include sharing a public or private link, using a password-protected map, invitation via email, embedding the map into other websites, and sharing via QR code.
If you have never tried Padlet, watch my short video tutorial to learn how to get started.
