Actively Learn

Actively Learn

There are many resources available for educators floating around the net, but the volume can be overwhelming for those interested in implementing the use of technology in the classroom. Shifting through the apps, programs and websites to find activities and curriculum for students that will transform the learning environment can take a tremendous amount of time - time that a busy teacher can't spare.  Yet finding and curating these resources is essential if educators plan to turn the digital learning environment to one of transformation and redefinition.

I recently learned of a new website called Actively Learn.  This site provides a platform for creating rich, critical thinking and cross-curricular activities that can be shared out easily with students.  The real beauty of this site is that, for once, the key to a successful lesson lies in the teacher’s ability to create meaningful discussion questions or connections rather than in the bells and whistles the tech provides.  And….the site is easy to set up and use. 

I was impressed with the amount of materials available on the website, albeit not all are free. They range from grade 2 to grade 12 reading level and include Shakespearean Plays, Poetry Collections, Myths, Current Events, Social Studies, Science and Healthy Living.  Documents scanned as PDFs can be uploaded and URLs to articles on the web can be posted.

Adding Discussion and Comprehension Questions

Educators can easily turn each article or text into a critical thinking activity.  As the students read through the text, they come across short answer and multiple choice questions, notes and links to other media that have been personalized by the teacher. They cannot continue reading the text until the activities are complete. One of my favourite features is the ability to match documents and direct students to other media so that they can compare, contrast and make connections to what they are reading.  It takes the learning experience into a category far beyond that of worksheets and computer-generated quizzes.  There is a grading component that will show individual student and class progress on the assignment.


Another great feature is the ability of students to add comments to the text as they read.  Students can share comments with their classmates or keep them private for the teacher.  I see this is an excellent way to encourage students who are reluctant to ask for clarification or share ideas and give them an opportunity to participate more actively in the process.  Another positive for me is that rather than providing handouts, the students are functioning and learning the paperless environment.

When teaching, I try to focus on skills such as making connections, inferencing and critical thinking.  So how do I plan to use Actively Learn?  Some early uses could be:

• personalizing learning - students can have different articles and activities personalized on an topic

• literature circles - students can add their discussion questions, vocabulary, comprehension and connections to the document itself prior to meeting in groups.  Students can preview the activities, share their thinking and then meet in the literature circle groups for extension and other activities

• poetry unit - pointing out connections to students, comprehension checks, short answer questions all while sharing with the classroom

• students who leave school on extended vacations. They would be able to continue interacting with their peers and would be able to take family visits without missing learning opportunities.

Will students be engaged?  I believe so. 

NextLesson - A Recommended Resource for 21st Century Learning

Current trends in education support the development of collaboration, critical thinking, inquiry and acquisition of 21st century skills.  While there is huge cache of lessons, materials, poster and memes available, in many cases, educators may find it difficult to imagine what this would look like in the classroom.  The challenge for educators is weaning themselves away from the textbooks and worksheets and substitute quality activities to their students without a great expenditure of time and frustration. 

NextLesson (http://www.nextlesson.org/) is a great resource for educators committed to trying these new approaches - whether they are early adapters or newly on board.  NextLesson is a resource that supports teachers trying to engage students.  Website based, NextLesson provides a vast database of projects, lessons and performance tasks, all of which is searchable by subject, grade level and 21st century skills.  (I like being able to search using criteria such as collaboration or self-monitoring.)

A few years ago I had the very great pleasure of attending a Keynote Speech given by Dan Meyers, a noted mathematics educator.  His advice was to encourage inquiry, collaboration and critical thinking through math instruction and activity.  I was thrilled to find many of the lessons available on NextLesson are adapted from Meyer’s 3 Act Math activities - providing the inquiry questions, resources and guidance for the activity. 

NextLesson’s newest offering are their Performance Tasks & 21st Century Math.  The idea is to provide real life scenarios with real data and real challenges.  The lessons are ready to go and require little or no preparation on the part of the teacher.  A good example is the Spoonful of Sugar series for Grade 6 Math.  Students are given the assignment from the point of view of a nutritionist interested in raising awareness of the sugar consumption in children.  Students do the math - complete charts, compare rates and rations and graph the result.  They are challenged to apply critical thinking to analyze the results,  They are given a final challenge that involves research and critical thinking, exposed to a glossary that includes diabetes and given job background information on nutritionists including salary, training and job outlook - a nice comeback for that “Why do we need to learn this?” question.   I like that many of these performance tasks involve students in cross curricular activities.  Some even require that students have read a book….a great way to connect literacy and numeracy  

Another great resource is the lesson The Box Project:  What can you make with a cardboard box?   As someone whose students participate in the Cardboard Challenge, Genius Hour and other design activities, this introduction to project based learning is a great jumping off point for inspiring students to use boxes for something completely different.  This lesson includes a supply list, step by step guides, resources, planning and reflecting sheets and more.  These can be adapted to any other theme including projects for Genius Hour.  

The downside of NextLesson is that while many of the resources are free, to get full access there is a monthly fee.  Despite that, there are many free options available - using data from the Android App Store, Minecraft, CSI Investigations, NBA, NFL and the Cost of Smoking.  Why do we need a resource like this?  It is because educators are being asked to re-create the classroom, often with little or no support.   This is the replacement for the binder handed to you by an experienced teacher and well worth checking out.  I strongly urge every educator to check out the website and try a performance task with your class.

Promoting Inquiry in the Classroom - Exploring Ecosystems

This is a great hands-on science activity that can promote inquiry and understanding of the scientific process.  Students can explore different ecosystems (forest, meadow, beach, mountain) and gather data and evidence at each site in order to compare environmental factors such as plant life, animal life, humidity, wind speed, temperature and amount of light.  It would be best if the ecosystems are close by, for instance a forest and a meadow, in order to have the data collected at the same time and under similar conditions.  Have students measure and record the conditions in different ecosystems.  They can choose to use instruments such as thermometers, pH Meters or litmus paper, hygrometers (to measure humidity), compasses and cameras.  If students have access to smartphones or tablets they can use many available apps for altitude, barometers, pH and other measurements.  Google Earth will also allow them to pinpoint the location of the ecosystem using latitude and longitude and there are weather apps and resources that can also use.  Students can record their findings and display them in graphs, spreadsheets or an annotation program, such as Explain Everything, to share their results with others.  I have curated a collection of Science and Math measurement apps, many of which can support these activities.  These activities provide opportunities for students to make curriculum connections to the processes of Science, using Scientific instruments, measurement, graphing, understanding ecosystems and the integration of Numeracy into Science.

Use inquiry questions to support and guide student learning.  These questions need to be both open-ended and ones that require investigation, experimentation and collaboration to answer.  Smarter Science has created a question matrix to help frame inquiry questions.  Some examples are:

•  What evidence do you have?
•  What did you expect to find and why?
•  How was it different than other ecosystems?
•  What patterns, similarities and differences did you notice?
•  How can you explain these patterns, similarities and differences?
•  Why did you chose these instruments to work with?

This type of activity helps students develop their communication skills and the ability to share their observations and results with others.  This lesson is one of 5 included in my iBook - 5 Inquiry Activities.  The iBook can be downloaded for free from iTunes.