Grade 5 TechSpot
Tricks & Tools for Immediate Classroom Implementation
Volume I | Issue I 09.15.2014
Welcome!
Schoolwide / Post-Its
Launching Unit / Mentor Texts
Want to create/design/print your own Post-Its? See below...
Social Studies
Explore the new world as a European power in the 15th Century by funding and sending expeditions out into the unknown. Hire captains, build ships and outfit voyages to learn of the wonders of the new world. Expeditions can be dangerous however, so be careful or else Europe may never hear of your discoveries! European Exploration: The Age of Discovery could be a great way to get students interested in the expeditions of early European explorers. To extend the game you could have your students research why some explorers in the game have higher navigation, cartography, and shipkeeping rankings than others.
Newsela & Google Drive
A common challenge exists: finding non-fiction content at reading level. This is an especially pressing concern for teachers incorporating the CCSS Standards into their curricula. Given that varied reading levels may exist within a single class, it can seem virtually impossible to have all students access the same content in a way that allows them to comprehend the material. Creating differentiated reading groups may seem equally unrealistic since it is impossible for a teacher to work with multiple students or groups all at the same time.
Though it is possible to create classes and push out content from within NEWSELA, by incorporating Google Docs, we can address the second challenge of allowing teachers to virtually be in multiple reading groups, and with multiple students, all at the same time. By disseminating the content to your students as a Google Doc set to Comment Only, you create collaborative, leveled reading experiences!
With Google Docs, you can leave comments as reading prompts to which your students can reply as well as give them the opportunity to highlight and comment on the text themselves. As a teacher, you can then take part in all of the virtual conversations as well as see what connections your students are making to the content.
Set-Up Process
From a teacher’s perspective, here is how to make this all happen.
- Find an article from NEWSELA that you would like for your students to read.
- Create Google Docs for your desired reading levels.
- Copy & Paste the contents of the article, at reading level, into the Docs.
IMPORTANT - don’t forget to model good digital citizenship for your students and cite the original article. - Share the Docs as Comment Only.
- Watch your students start reading from any device (laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, even smart phones)!