Slope and Intercepts Review with ThingLink and Zaption

Before the holiday break, I had taught my classes about slope and intercepts.  Twelve days later, I did not expect them to recall anything about either of these concepts, so I planned a "Slope & Intercepts" review for the first day back. 




In the beginning of the school year, I had set up a "Know Your Fractions" review using ThingLink and ThatQuiz.  It was a self-paced review where students watched a video tutorial that I had created using Explain Everything, worked on some practice problems, and then took an assessment with ThatQuiz.  I decided that since it worked so well, I would use ThingLink again for this review, but as for the assessment piece, I changed from ThatQuiz to Zaption.

For those of you not familiar with it, Zaption allow you to create interactive videos by inserting text, images, or drawings, and assessment pieces such as open response, numerical response, multiple choice, checkboxes, or draw responses into the video of your choice.  You can also restrict viewers from skipping forward, allow them to skip backwards to review, and require viewers to answer all questions.  Zaption calls the final product a "tour".  You can share your tours by providing the link to your viewers or embedding it into a website.  (While my students used their Chromebooks to view my Zaption tours, Zaption also has an iPad app.)

notes were found throughout the videos 

questions were found at the end of each video

So I reused my own tutorial videos that I had created a few years ago, added some notes throughout the videos, and then 3-4 questions at the end of each video (you can add them at any point during the video, I just chose to place them at the end).  Zaption saves the analytics from your viewers' sessions so you can see how they did later on.  I kept an eye on the analytics as my students were completing each video so I could be proactive and meet with each student to discuss their errors and prevent them from repeating their errors on the practice problems they were to complete after the videos.  I also used the analytics to compile a list of the top 4 errors that were made by all of my students.  I used these 4 problems as my 'Do Now' for the following day to address the common errors with the entire class.

overall statistics for the tour

statistics per question

I really like the way Zaption made my videos more engaging and interactive, and the fact that it collects data for me.  One of my goals this year is to use data such as this for my formative assessments in order to address student error as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Zaption made this super easy!

Flipped Classroom without the Flip

(This is an update to my July 23, 2014 post "Fraction Review with ThingLink".)

Fractions is one of those concepts that my students always struggle with.  It's not something I should be teaching according to the eighth grade common core curriculum, but it's a skill they really need for some of the other topics this year.  In the past, I have spent way too much time reviewing fractions (like a whole month!), so this year I decided to take just one week and have the students use my "Know Your Fractions" ThingLink for an independent self-paced review.  It's sort of a flipped classroom model without the actual flip -- they weren't watching videos at home and coming to school to practice and apply what they learned.  Instead, in class everyday they watched the video(s), completed practice problems, and took one or two ThatQuizzes.  Some of my students were able to complete the classwork without any help from me, but for those who needed me, I had more time to devote to helping them than if I had been teaching a whole group lesson. 



This concept of self-paced learning worked so well with my classes!  The students were all very engaged in the lessons, did well with the practice problems, and the classroom management was a breeze!  They all knew the routine and moved from one activity to the next with minimal direction from me.  Some of them even went back and watched the video again if they were having trouble before they asked me for help.  The class completed a section per day, with the exception of "Fraction Operations".  I actually split up that section into two days, one for adding and subtracting, and the next for multiplying and dividing.  Each day there were a few students who finished the classwork early, so I had some additional activities for them.  

I will definitely use this again next year, with a few tweaks.  I did not have a review of simplifying fractions, which all of my students could really use.  I actually took a day off last week from my ThingLink lessons to review simplifying fractions before they moved on to the next topic in the ThingLink.  I will be adding simplifying to the first section of my ThingLink which is currently just "Equivalent Fractions".  I will also be switching the "Mixed Numbers" section and the "Fraction Operations" sections so that students will be able to write their answers to the operations problems in mixed number format instead of leaving them as improper fractions.  I don't know why I didn't think of these things when I created this, but we learn from our mistakes, right?

Even though this went super well, I would not use this style of instruction all the time.  It was perfect for these review lessons, but as for teaching a new concept, I really prefer the more traditional lesson for my special education students.  When I asked them what they thought of learning like this, they all said they liked it, but I miss the interaction with them and the class discussions we have in my usual style of teaching.  

Another added benefit of this flipped-but-not-really-flipped style is that I was out sick on the last day of the fraction review, but the lessons went on as planned without a hitch.  I wonder if they even knew I wasn't there??? 

Fraction Review with ThingLink

At the beginning of every school year, I spend several weeks reviewing basic math concepts like fractions with my students to recover from the summer slide. With so many new concepts to teach during the year, I really hate to waste so much time on fractions, a concept they have learned and reviewed for many years in a row. There's never enough time to teach my students all of the 8th grade Common Core Standards that they need to learn before state testing. 

This year, since my students will have 1:1 Chromebooks, I'm planning on trying something new. I created this ThingLink as a way for the students to review the fraction topics at their own pace. I purchased enough pairs of earbuds from the dollar store, in case someone doesn't have their own, so they can listen to the videos I made with Explain Everything that are linked in the ThingLink.

There are 4 numbered sections for the students to move through, "Equivalent Fractions", "Fraction Operations", "Mixed Numbers", and "Fractions & Decimals". In each section is a video (or two) to watch. Then I will have some practice problems for them to work through, which I will use as a formative assessment to see if they are understanding on their own. If they are still struggling, I will be able to give them one-on-one or small group instruction to go along with the video instruction. Once they feel they have mastered the topic, they can click on the link to take a quiz which I created in ThatQuiz. (This is not the actual ThingLink I will use with my students. I have another copy of it which has different links to the ThatQuiz quizzes that my students must sign in before they can take. This one has practice quizzes only so you can try them out.)

Since this is self-paced, I anticipate a few students will finish before the rest of the class. I will have some extension activities, possibly word problems, for them to complete. Stay tuned... I'll let you know how this independent learning works out!

I updated my ThingLink on 7/26/14 for the #TLChallenge. This week's theme was "Turn It Up a Notch with Sound". Our challenge was to use Audioboo to add sound to our ThingLink and incorporate UDL (Universal Design for Learning - check out this video for more info on UDL). I used the Audioboo sound clips to read the directions in each section to my special education students who might have difficulty reading them on their own.

ThingLink Challenge Week 6

The ThingLink Challenge this summer has been so much help to me in becoming more adept at creating and applying ThingLinks. (Click here to read my last post about the ThingLink Challenge and how to join us!)

We are in week 6 of the challenge now. There are so many great ideas coming from all the teachers involved. Visit our showcase to get some great ideas for yourself. Susan Oxnevad (@soxnevad) even had a Twitter chat about ThingLink this past Thursday which was amazing! (Search for the #1to1ipadchat to find our tweets.)

What I have found very useful is learning that we can embed our ThingLinks into Padlet walls. I have used ThingLink and Padlet separately in the past, but combining them is a perfect blend of technologies, and so easy to do!

Here is my week 6 submission. The theme for this week was "ThingLink Unplugged". We were to create a ThingLink with the ThingLink mobile app to demonstrate how we can create ThingLinks without the internet, then upload them to the web when we return to an internet connection. This could be used during a class field trip, or just an indoor or outdoor excursion around the school. Soooo many possibilities my head is spinning!  What would you do with ThingLink?

ThingLink Teacher Challenge

Susan Oxnevad (@soxnevad) has organized the "ThingLink Teacher Challenge 2014". (Touch the image above to see the "nubbins" appear. Then touch each one to discover information about ThingLink and how to join the challenge.) This is a great opportunity for teachers to learn how to create and use ThingLink in their classrooms. Teachers and students can create interactive images that connect to either text, a photo, a video, or a link to a website. (Click here to read "3 Reasons to Take the ThingLink Teacher Challenge This Summer".)

Here is my Week 1 Challenge entry:



It's not too late to join!  Click here to be brought to the sign up form.

Next week's challenge is to "design your digital self" -- I can't wait to create this one!

Thanks Susan for organizing this fun summer professional development!


To see all of the participants' entries, flip through the slide show below: