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What about Web Apps

Page history last edited by martha_martin@gecdsb.on.ca 12 years, 1 month ago

 

We believe that students are dying to explore applications on the 'Web, and that doing so will increase their engagement in whatever they are learning, including in Literature Circles. We have tried to introduce some of these applications ("apps") into our Lit Circles in a variety of ways. (At the bottom of this page, we've included instructions to insert your embed codes into your wiki pages, so your work shows up!)

 

Voki

- a Voki is a small widget or plugin students create using the free program by the same name. Their Voki is made up of an avatar they design, and the text they've created for the avatar to speak. They can create a Voki in the persona of a character in their novel, or perhaps as a newscaster, reporting on the "events" of the novel. They can even create a personal Voki, which they can use to give a brief book review, section review, etc. Vokis can be embedded on the wiki under "Add Link."

 

 

 

Wordle

- Wordle is an app that takes any words typed by the creator and turns those words into a visual graphic. The creator of the visual can make some words turn out larger than others, by repeating that word in the given list (the more repeats, the larger the word). Students can play with the finished product for some random colour schemes and rearrangements, personalizing them a bit more. Wordles are great for character descriptions, summaries of a section of the book, or the whole book. Wordles can be embedded on the wiki under "Add Link."

 

Wordle: Lizzie

 

Bubbl.us

- this is another free app that allows students to play with making connections between characters in a visual way, describing characters, or any other webbing idea you might have. ("Smart Ideas" would be a curriculum software option in a similar vein.)

KerPoof

This free program is made by Disney, and it allows kids to do all sorts of things. I have yet to use it with students (only heard about it recently), but it looks great. For the teacher's guide, click here.

 

 

Twitter

- I think everyone will know what Twitter is! We thought it would be fun to have the Lit Circle groups have to work together to come up with a "Summary Tweet" for each of their sections of the novel. They had to argue about what the best words would be, to include all the key elements that happened, without going over the 140 characters. They had great discussions while they were doing it, and they provoked a great deal of interest.

 

 

Fakebook

- Fakebook is a free online app created to allow students to make up artificial Facebook accounts for characters in their novels, or historical figures they are studying. While it doesn't match the latest incarnations of Facebook, and it isn't as user-friendly as we'd like, kids still really enjoy playing with it. If you keep all students in the class using the same password (perhaps your class code), they can go into each other's "Fakebook pages" and "comment" as other characters in the book.

 

 

Animoto

- This is a great application for students of all abilities to use. It requires them to find at least 10 images online or scanned, and be able to import them into the free program. They can then select music to accompany what becomes their 15 second visual extravaganza of rotating, flipping, shrinking, and transitioning photos. Students can embed the link to their "Animoto Trailer" on their wiki easily. They can select images they feel depict their novel, their character, plot events, etc.

 

 

Flipbook

This is a really fun application we just heard about. It lets students make an animated "flipbook" of 100 screens or less. We hope to try this as another fun activity from our list of choices and see what the students create. A simple graphic summary? An animated illustration of the setting? Who knows?

Museum Box

This is another new application we just hear about. We have sometimes asked students to create a "Novel Museum" as a culminating task for a literature circle, alone or with the group. This application gives students the option of doing so online -- which looks really fun! There are all sorts of teacher guides and examples. Check it out!

 

 

How to Embed Plugins on a Wiki - here are the instructions for inserting "Embed Codes" into your wiki pages. 

Comments (1)

martha_martin@gecdsb.on.ca said

at 4:41 pm on Feb 2, 2012

Oh, cool~

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