Slaughter's Tech Moment
Let's Go Deeper with Visual Thinking
Video Writing Prompts
To become better writers, students need to write more. The more practice students get in writing, the better they will get at expressing themselves. I am not saying that it is a magical thing that takes place or that it will "poof" happen. Key factors in improvement are engagement, a feeling of the freedom to express themselves, and an opportunity for them to share their writing with others.
Are you looking for ways to make it more engaging for your students to write daily or weekly? Teacher Hub provides Featured Video Writing Prompts. Students watch a video that gets them excited about a topic, and the teacher chooses the appropriate grade level prompt.
Some things to think about during writing:
- Allow students the opportunity to read their writing to a peer before they bring it to you for feedback. If you have an online classroom environment, take advantage of suggested edits, comments, and discussion. Allowing students to collaborate on a writing piece, especially when it involves pictures and videos, can open a door to deeper thinking.
- Allow open discussion both with you and peers with things like rewording and revision. Teach students how to have constructive discussions with their peers by modeling it.
- Focus on putting in deposits (finding positive things) before making withdrawals (showing what needs some work).
Resource for teaching writing to a prompt:
Some Great Resources for Visual Prompts and Discussion Ideas
Search Pinterest- Writing Prompts
Visual Writing Prompts
This is a great resource for elementary, middle, and high school. They have some very interesting writing prompts that are sure to ignite imaginations.
Resource:
Start with a Picture Talk
Before starting daily writes, teach students how to have a discussion about pictures and videos. Dr. Courtney Kisat had some great thoughts on picture talks at a conference I attended.
Resource:
How could you use this video to teach writing? YouTube is a great source of inspiration for teachers.
Resources for this video prompt:
Creating a YouTube List
Once you begin using videos for lessons, it becomes an addiction. There are so many very good quality videos on YouTube to include in your class. Unfortunately, there are some very bad things on there as well. I will be sharing some more tricks for including videos from YouTube and other sites in a later Tech Moment, but let me start with suggesting a YouTube Playlist.
A playlist is like a collection of videos that can be organized into topic, unit, purpose, etc. Creating a playlist can help save teachers time searching and cataloging video resources. A playlist allows teachers to share a collection of videos with one link, and they will play in the order set up by the teacher one after another.
Resources:
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My passion is teaching, my interest is technology, and I am a Google Certified Educator. Teaching and technology go hand in hand. Technology will never replace good teaching, but imagine the possibilities by embracing it.
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