Milobo’s Musings

Bloom’s Taxonomy. It’s one of those things we know we should think about when planning lessons and activities, but matching it with the right tools and activities can be tough.  In this post, I thought I’d share with you one favorite tool that matches with each level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Remember
Memorizing isn’t a bad thing – it’s often the first step to higher order thinking.  If you don’t know the vocabulary, you can’t join in the discussion with real meaning.  Quizlet (http://quizlet.com/) is a website that helps students practice and memorize vocabulary by creating flashcards and playing games.  You can create groups of students and share your card sets with them or they can create and share sets with the rest of the class. Want to hear more about Quizlet?  Listen to the podcast created by CHS students last year as they interviewed Anthony VanGessel about his use of Quizlet.

Understand
Summarizing and outlining content to emphasize the important ideas is an effective way to demonstrate understanding.  Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/edu/) allows students to create virtual posters that include video, audio recording, images and text.  The templates are engaging and interactive and allow students to show their creative side while demonstrating content understanding.  Take a look at an example from Cyndy Murphy’s class where students outlined information about the history of atomic research.

Apply
Sticking facts into your brain isn’t that tough, it’s trying to use those facts to make meaning that can be a big challenge.  Why not try a web simulation?  You’ll find lots of them linked at this simulations site from the Kent ICT website.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!  In honor of the day, I thought I’d share some of the things I love on the Internet…especially the two sites that I can’t live without.Thought #1 – Customizing the web with iGoogleiGoogle (http://google.com/ig) is a customizable homepage for your web browser.  In addition to adding links to your most commonly used web pages, today’s news, and world maps, you can find tons of content that relates to your subject area.  Now, there’s something new awaiting you every time you open your browser!  I have two tabs set on my iGoogle Account, one for stuff I use often (like my GoogleDocs, Email, PCHS web links, and a Weather Radar widget) and another with education resources (like Today in History, Art of the Day, Word of the Day and more)…Thought #2 – Bookmarks are Del.icio.usThis is a site we introduced during the summer institute, but it’s one I truly can’t live without.  Del.icio.us allows you to store all your web bookmarks online and to share them with others.  The best part is being able to “tag” each bookmark with multiple keywords so they’re easy to find.  I have over 1000 bookmarks that I share online – you can bet that when I email you a link, I’ve also usually added it to my Del.icio.us account.  I also love being able to view the bookmarks of my network of friends and fellow teachers – under the “My Network” Link I can access the links of 19 of my buddies, while 30 people are following my links….pretty cool!  You can check out my Del.icio.us at http://del.icio.us/milobo  Thought #3 – Just because I like youIf you need a pick-me-up….if you need something to make you smile….here’s the site for you..http://www.chriscummins.com/like/Until next time, think happy thoughts! 

This week, I thought I’d share a couple of tools to assist as you integrate reading into the curriculum (and to help you get started on your own reading list!)

Thought #1 – Reading and Readability

When working with reading material for students, it’s often tough to decide if the material is a match for their reading level. If the reading level is too tough, they’ll not be able to understand the content. On the flip side, if it’s too easy you’ll wonder if it’s challenging enough for them. With textbooks, you can be reasonably sure that the reading level is appropriate for the level of the course you are teaching, but with websites that’s not always the case. However, there are tools on the web to help!

JuicyStudio’s Readability test (http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php) is the tops! Enter a website’s URL and almost instantly, you’ll be able to get statistics on the number of words per sentence, average number of syllables per word as well as three different Readability Indices:

In addition, their site gives the average readability level of several types of print material and gives explanations of how Readability levels are calculated. While their site is really geared toward helping web designers tweak their sites, they’ve created a tool that any teacher can make use of well!

Thought #2 – Reading and Connections

Every Christmas, each of my teenage Nieces and Nephews can expect a book and bookmark as a Christmas gift from their favorite aunt….
While the bookmarks (which happen to be Giftcards for iTunes) are probably their favorite part of the gift, I’m happy to say that all of them are also avid readers. During the year, whenever I chat with them, we talk about the books they’ve read and liked during the year. For example, this year, one of my Nieces raved about Lois Lowrey’s book, Gossamer, so for Christmas I’d like to get her a book that’s similar in nature.

By going to the site What Should I Read Next (http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/) and entering the book’s title or author, I can quickly get a list of 10 other books that she might like. There are also links to the books in Amazon so I can quickly read a review to see if the book I select sounds like a good match. If you’re a book lover like me, it’s a great tool to expand your own reading list too!

Another interesting site to try is Whichbook. Instead of entering the name of a book or author you like, you instead use sliders to select the style of book you think you’d like to read. Want a book that’s a little sad, very unusual but has an optomistic twist? Take a look at the book recommendations from WhichBook. Chances are you’ll come up with a list of books that aren’t on your usual list – the site is UK based, so the suggestions you see aren’t the same ones you keep hearing hyped on other reading lists.

It’s challenging to teach students how to evaluate web sites. Touchgraph (http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html) is a great tool to help them understand how connections between sites can help determine the intent of the site’s author. Touchgraph works with Google’s Related Site feature to show connections between sites. Entering a search term into Touchgraph’s Google Browser creates a concept map style graph of the first 10 sites returned by Google along with the top 10 related sites for each of those sites. Links between sites are easy to see and explore more deeply.

One of my favorite examples for teaching site evaluation skills is to do a Google search for the name “Martin Luther King.” Included in Google’s sites is the site martinlutherking.org, a site which purports to tell the “true story” of Dr. King’s life…. By using Touchgraph to do the same search, students can see that one of the sites listed as a related site to martinlutherking.org is stormfront.org, a white supremacy  site.

Double-clicking on the Stormfront link expands the graph to include 10 sites similar to stormfront.org. Now the intent of the site becomes much more clear as the similar sites include links to David Duke, America’s Nazi Party and JewWatch…

Touchgraph is also an interesting tool to explore book selections – their Amazon browser (http://www.touchgraph.com/TGAmazonBrowser.html) allows you to enter the name of a book or author and explore Amazon’s related book suggetions. It’s a great way to get kids to explore reading selections – they can enter the name of a book they liked and then see related books they might find interesting.

Enjoy meandering Google and Amazon with Touchgraph!

It seems like Google Earth mashups are everywhere, but just in case you need one more, here’s my latest find. Wayki (http://www.wayki.com) is a site that allows you to add markers and photos to a map without a lot of effort. Wayki would be a great tool to use to create virtual field trips or even scavenger hunts with your students.

My nephew Jacques and his second grade class just finished the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. In the book, Stanley is mysteriously squashed by a bulletin board accident and decides to take advantage of his new found flatness to mail himself to California. After Jacques’ class finished the book, they each created their own Flat Stanley and mailed them off on adventures around the world. Like any good aunt, I wrote a letter to the class about life in Florida and also sent a box with pictures and seashells we collected at the beach. However, I also used Wayki to document our adventures and sent the link to the class so they could virtually follow Flat Stanley on his travels. Now, the places mentioned in the letter came alive on a map for the class! If you want to check it out, the first link is here – http://www.wayki.com/?item=1180058098

The one thing I wish for is the ability to add hyperlinks to the map points so students could go quickly from point to point without having to copy and paste the URL into their browser – hopefully that feature will be in an update in the near future.

My other thought for using Wayki is to create scavenger hunts. Imagine giving students a starting point on the map along with clues as to how to get to the next point. It could be a great way to combine geography with other subjects.

Share your ideas for using Wayki with me!