Oakland Schools Digital Learning
April 2022 Newsletter
In this issue you will find
- Poetry month resources
- Lesson resources for Earth Day
- A link to Radiooooo where you can play songs from around the world and the past 100 years for free
- Spot & Dot - Tic Tac Toe for sight word practice
- Keyboard shortcuts for Google Slides
- Information about Reading Progress, a tool to use for student reading fluency, available in Microsoft Teams
- Resources for poetry month and research projects from the Michigan eLibrary
- A fun brain break activity
- Links to reading and math video lessons for K-6 as well as a science and history lesson for 4-6 from the Michigan Learning Channel
- Quick links to some great resources from Discovery Streaming
- A free professional learning opportunity from the Oakland Schools Digital Learning team
- A template to use with your students so they can create questions for Kahoot reviews
- Information about a possible long-term loan of a Breakout EDU style box of locks and other equipment
Please reach out if you have questions about any of the information in this newsletter.
~Laura and Vinos
Poetry Month Resources
- Begin each day or class period with a new poem. Find poems at the Poets.org website.
- Have your students practice tone, pitch, volume, and inflection by selecting a favorite poem from the list and reading it aloud to the class.
- Students can practice alliteration and create a poem using a list of alliterative words that they generate with this lesson from PBS Learning Media.
Ideas for Secondary
- Invite your students to email letters to award-winning poets as part of this year's Dear Poet Project
- Challenge students to create a poetry notebook and write one poem per day.
- This interactive lesson from PBS Learning Media uses "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou to help students discover how literary techniques such as figurative language, imagery, and symbolism contribute to the meaning of a poem.
More Ideas for Writing Poetry
You can provide your students with several models for creating different forms of poetry via the interactive tools found on Read, Write, Think. Students can use these tools to get step-by-step guidance for writing Theme Poems, Acrostic Poems, Diamante Poems, or Haiku Poems. The interactives are designed for different grade level bands, but don't let the suggested levels stop you from trying one with your students. You can assign a style of poetry or have each student select a style they want to use and have everyone write an original poem.
Your students could then read their poems out loud to the class or record a video while reading their poem. Flipgrid or Screencastify would work well for making the videos.
If you work with older students, share some of the Favorite Poem Project videos with them. The Favorite Poem Project, cosponsored by Boston College and the Library of Congress, is dedicated to celebrating, documenting, and encouraging poetry's role in Americans' lives. Besides watching and listening to citizens read poems they love, each video also provides background on the reader and information about the poem's importance to them. Below is an example of one of the videos from the Favorite Poem Project.
Earth Day - Friday, April 22, 2022
Earth Day 2022
The theme for this year's Earth Day is, "Invest in Our Planet." One hundred ninety-three countries around the world have their own versions of Earth Day celebrations. In many places Earth Day forms part of Earth Week, a longer period of climate awareness that includes many activities and student-led campaigns. Earth Day 2022 will be the 50th anniversary of the event.
Celebrate Earth Day & Poetry Month Together
Free Earth Day Resources from Discovery Streaming
Digital Resources
Radiooooo
Elementary Resources
Spot and Dot - Tic Tac Toe
Google Workspace
Google Slides Tips
Want an object nudged a bit on your slide?
- Select shift + right arrow to move the object one pixel at a time.
When layering objects, use the following shortcuts. Select:
- Ctrl + up arrow to bring an object forward
- Ctrl + Shift + up arrow to bring an object to the front
- Ctrl + down arrow to send an object backward
- Ctrl + Shift + down arrow to send an object to the back
- Ctrl + G to group items so that you can move them around the slide all at once
- Ctrl + Shift + G to Ungroup the items
There are many more shortcuts available for Google Slides, including text and paragraph formatting! To see them all, press Ctrl + / and a list of the shortcuts will open on your screen.
Microsoft 365
Reading Progress in Teams
Reading Progress is a free tool designed to help students build confidence and reading fluency through personalized reading experiences built into Assignments in Microsoft Teams.
Teachers can upload a reading passage from a Word or PDF document, or quickly select sample texts provided by ReadWorks. Students read the assigned passages aloud and submit recordings. The teacher can select students from their class to assign distinct passages based on their reading levels or interests, and allow for multiple attempts.
Teachers can utilize Auto-detect for AI-powered estimations of student errors. Teachers can always overwrite the suggested errors and Correct words per minute and Accuracy Rate adjust automatically. Teachers can listen as many times as needed and jump to any word in the passage. Whether the auto-detect feature is used for quick review or teachers manually code errors, valuable data is collected into Education Insights dashboards, helping identify trends and plans for next steps for instruction.
Michigan eLibrary
Resources in Poetry & Short Story Reference Center
There is nothing like an engaging poetry lesson in the spring of the school year, especially during Poetry month. 😃 Baseball favorites like Casey at the Bat and spring classics such as Emily Dickinson’s A Light Exists in Spring are among the thousands of both popular and lesser known poems—old and new—found in Poetry & Short Story Reference Center provided free to us through the Michigan eLibrary. Beyond the poems, however, there are dozens of resources specifically designed to support instruction, interpretation, research, and the understanding of poetry.
Poetic Forms, Themes & Techniques
If you’re on the hunt for some examples of acrostic poetry, blank verse, parodies, satire, or even nursery rhymes, then you will want to check out the link to Poetic Forms, Themes & Techniques found in the Browse section. The ability to search by themes such as courage, fear, and freedom as well as techniques that include allegory, allusion, couplet, iambic dimeter, and parallelism makes this an incredibly helpful resource.
Periods, Movements & Schools
Searching for poems or poets from a particular period or movement has never been easier. Also found in the Browse section, the Periods, Movements & Schools tool allows you to find poems specific to Abolitionism, American Realism, Chicago Renaissance, Gilded Age, Harlem Renaissance, and Romanticism among hundreds of others.
Poem Analyses
With poems listed alphabetically and the ability to search by title, the Poem Analyses feature offers a summary and brief analysis of individual poems. Analyses of Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe, Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Harlem by Langston Hughes, and Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll are just a handful of the hundreds of analyses available.
Keep using Poetry & Short Story Reference Center to search for your favorite poems, but don’t forget that there is a ton of information in there to help you with classroom instruction too.
Points of View Reference Center
When seeking information from multiple perspectives, Points of View Reference Center has curated resources to support over 400 issues such as Concussions in Pro Sports and Voter Identification Laws. Each year there is also a set of material specific to the National High School Debate Topic.
Each topic includes an overview, a point, a counterpoint, and related books, articles, and media. A Guide to Critical Analysis is also provided for each issue. Students seeking research material, will appreciate the depth of this eResource.
Brain Break
Online Jigsaw Puzzle
The puzzles provide additional features that allow you to modify the puzzle you have chosen, some of which will make the puzzle more challenging.
Puzzles can be modified in the following ways: (Buttons to modify the puzzle will show up in the middle of the puzzle when you open it or by using the stack in the top left corner.)
- Full-screen display
- A wide choice when selecting the number of puzzle pieces for a puzzle (make it easier or harder)
- Jigsaw puzzle progress is saved automatically so you can return later to an unfinished puzzle and complete it (make sure to save the link)
- The ability to display only the edge pieces (a great way to start solving)
- The ability to easily move multiple pieces with the capture & release feature (connected pieces move together)
- Rotatable puzzle pieces (to challenge your players)
- Multiplayer mode so you can collaborate on a puzzle with family and friends
- The ability to open any photo directly from your hard drive as a jigsaw puzzle
The image below shows the modification icons that are available when you first open a puzzle with the collaboration button selected (people icon). The "Invite other players" dialogue box is open and requires a nickname to identify you to other players before creating a link to share.
Michigan Learning Channel
The Michigan Learning Channel (MLC) is a statewide public television partnership offering instructional content to support the education of students and to provide alternative resources for families and teachers. The instructional content is aligned with Michigan’s educational standards and follows widely accepted sequences for mastering skills throughout the school year.
The lessons, generally about a half-hour each, are presented by a diverse group of educators and delivered as if the teacher is in a classroom setting. Most programs have supplemental educational activities and resources to build on the lesson.
Kindergarten
- Read, Write, ROAR!: "Goods and Services and the Letter G" and "The Job Site and the Letter J."
- Math Mights: "Break Apart Numbers" and "Label Story Problems."
1st Grade
- Read, Write, ROAR!: "Communities Then and Now" and "HelpING Our Community."
- Math Mights: "Make Sense of Equations" and "Write Equations to Match The Strategy."
2nd Grade
- Read, Write, ROAR!: "Long Vowel Patterns and Two-Syllable Words" and "Archaeology and -le Words."
- Math Mights: "Sort and Name Shapes" and "Draw Shapes."
3rd Grade
- Read, Write, ROAR!: "What are R-Controlled Vowels?" and "R-controlled Vowels and "I Am" Poems."
- Math Mights: "Name The Parts of Fractions" and "Describe Parts of Fractions."
4th - 6th Grade
- Extra Credit: "Native American Heritage" and more.
- Story Pirates TV: "Alex Gets Spooked" and "Alex Keeps a Secret."
- Math Park: "3-Digit Numbers" and "Greater Than? Less Than?"
- DIY Science Time: "Magnetic Racer."
MLC Summer Programming
Looking Ahead to Summer 2022
The Michigan Learning Channel is gearing up for summer! They will have resources, virtual events, and activity books all free and online. Learn More
Discovery Streaming Resources
April is Financial Literacy Month
Discovery Streaming has a wide variety of resources you can use to equip your students with the knowledge, tools, and practice they need to make informed financial decisions and reach their goals and dreams. Use the links below to explore these comprehensive curriculums complete with videos, self-paced modules, and cross-curricular activities.
- Cha-Ching Money Smart Kids (K-5)
- Pathway to Financial Success (6-12)
- Discover Venture Valley (6-12)
- Econ Essentials (9-12)
- Financial Literacy Channel (K-12)
- Money Channel (K-12)
April Activity Calendars
The April Activity Calendars in Discovery Streaming are now LIVE. These ready-to-use activities will help you plan lessons and provide engaging experiences for your students. Below is a favorite from each calendar:
- Question Words (K-2): Students learn about question words while investigating plants.
- Comparing Numbers with Decimals (3-5): Help students practice comparing numbers with decimals and learn about money.
- Earth Day Choice Board (6-8): Use this activity to let your students learn about a variety of issues affecting the health of planet Earth
Free Professional Learning Opportunity
KAHOOT! GAME-BASED ONLINE ASSESSMENT
Kahoot is a fun, learning game made with a series of multiple choice questions that may contain images, videos, and diagrams. It works on any device with an Internet connection. The teacher displays a question and possible responses via a computer connected to a projector or other large screen display. Students respond to the questions on their own devices by tapping or clicking the shape that matches the correct answer. Correct responses and speed result in the points awarded to each player. A leaderboard can be displayed after each question if desired.
In our free, self-paced, online course you will learn to create your own Kahoots; learn to duplicate and use Kahoots made by others; learn to use Ghost Mode where students compete against their own or other classes previous scores; and learn how to create a Blind Kahoot to use as a teaching lesson.
If you would like to get started using Kahoot in your classroom or learn more about using it, register for "Kahoot! Game-based Online Assessment." Note: This course is available only to educators working in an Oakland County school. You will be guided, via video and text-based tutorials. It is expected that it will take 5 hours to complete the course. This includes the time you will spend using Kahoot! with your students. If you complete all of the course requirements you can apply for 5 SCECH credits ($10 fee).
Student-generated Questions for Kahoot Review Games
If you are already using Kahoot, consider asking your students to design Kahoot questions that you can use to create a variety of review activities. When your students develop the questions, they must think critically about the content they’ve covered and how to use that content to create questions. Have your students work together in a shared slide deck to create their questions. If they are looking at each other's questions they are already studying. 😃 You can review the questions in the slide deck and select the best ones to include in your future Kahoot review games.
Breakout EDU Box with Locks
Oakland Schools Digital Learning Team Information
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Oakland Schools Digital Learning Consultants
Laura.Cummings@oakland.k12.mi.us
248-209-2283
Vinos Kassab
Vinos.Kassab@oakland.k12.mi.us
248-209-2229