YWP TIPSLETTER - 4.17.2012 -- Strategies for End of Year l

Submitted by ggevalt on Tue, 04/17/2012 - 11:39

Notes from the Underground  

4.17.2012

An ongoing series of Tips Letters -- at minimum once a week -- for users of the YWP Schools Project digital classrooms: Tips, links and a proven exercise to use. 

Q u i c k   T i p s

So you are either on vacation or about to go on vacation and then comes The  Time After Spring Break, translation: OMG So Much to Do and So Little Time to Do It.

1. Use your YWP Schools Site to do an exercise -- a portfolio or standards assignment you need to get done -- and don't use class time. Sound crazy? Why not assign a piece on the site, provide resource links and materials and give your students several weeks to accomplish it. Tell them they must give each other feedback and do revisions. Tell them you'll check in when they have done at least three revisions. It's a hard step to take, but teachers who've done it have found time because they spent less in-class time than normal on that assignment.

2. Use the site as warm-ups to writing. Create a series of Photo Prompts (see below) and given them 7 minutes to write and 7 minutes to comment. Once a week or, if you can, several times a week. Keep them writing.

H o w   D o   I ??

Using the "Portfolio View" option. If you haven't checked out this link, give it a go. This will pull all work by student name or by Tag and put it into a format that allows you to easily copy and paste it to your schools Portfolio Management software or, even, to a Word file for the student to save.

NOTE: If your site has a Doc or Txt option in an orange box on the bottom -- ignore it. Using it is more complicated than just cutting and pasting.

THE STUDENT can use this as well

E x e r c i s e   I d e a s

(cut and paste onto your site)

Photo Prompt. (Upload images to your Exercise. We have assembled some good ones here that you can download to your desktop and then upload to your exercise: http://ywpschools.net/photoprompt

 

Choose one of these photos. Look at it closely by clicking on it to make it better. Then create a blog entry (TIP: Hover your mouse over the 'Blog Entry' link and RIGHT click it and select 'Open in a new Tab' so you can have your blog on one tab and your photo on another.)

Write a story, poem, essay or reflection on the photo you have chosen. You have seven minutes to write, so don't do much self-editing. Just think of what you want to do and go. This exercise is good to help you understand the importance of just getting the idea out -- without worrying about spelling or where you'll end up or, even, whether you will finish.

After you are completed, please comment on two other students' pieces, telling them what engaged you, what you wondered about and, even, what you'd like them to expand.

 

Some links to photo sources:

Images - Resources

The National Archives is the granddaddy of all archives and has some amazing material over and above images -- historic speeches, videos, documents, etc. A fantastic digital resource for use in all manner of things.

Here is the link to the National Archives Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives

 

Shorpy.com has some fantastic antique photos of all sorts -- some odd, some famous. It has collections of Dorothea Lange, Lewis Hine and Ansel Adams, much of it in the public domain.

Other sources of photos:

 

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