|
|
Below you will find a list of ideas on how to use Gaggle.net
in an instructional setting.
| EMAIL |
- Teachers can send everyday lessons/assignments via e-mail.
- Teachers can use the “write new e-mail” screen just for the “say it” tool to help students assess their own writing.
- Students writing e-mails, blog entries and message board posts every day supports good writing skills.
- Allow students to write as many e-mails in a day as they would like with the stipulation that it MUST follow a formal or friendly letter format every time which includes proper salutations, capitalization, usage and punctuation.
- Once a day or week, the teacher checks one random e-mail from a student to assess and score via a rubric.
- Gaggle reinforces keyboarding skills every time it’s used.
- A teacher can send different writing prompts to differently leveled groups of students to keep anonymity among lower and higher readers.
- Completed writing assignments and journal entries can be turned in via e-mail, thus reducing paper waste.
- Set up peer editing between ‘writing partners’ via e-mail. Those partners can be in the same class, same school or at some other school in the district.
- Use the “Track Changes” tool in Microsoft Word for editing students’ writing and attach and send the writing via e-mails.
- Writing projects and samples can be e-mailed to parents so that they can stay abreast of their child’s progress.
- Use e-mail to deliver the Daily Oral Language to students.
- Some students are more motivated to do their homework if they have Gaggle tools to do it with.
- Partners can write a story together via e-mail where one writes the first three sentences and sends it to the partner who continues with three more, and then back and forth until the project is finished.
- Partner writing via Gaggle can teach cause and effect, sequencing and a focus on collaborative story writing.
- Progressive story, writing where the last sentence is written first and shared back and forth between partners until the beginning is finally written and the story completed, teaches a high level of sequencing skills while using Gaggle.
- Teachers can deliver content at different levels such as a scaffolded article that must be listened to using the “say it” tool and summarized by students.
- Story problems can be delivered and collaboratively solved by students as they send step-by-step solutions back and forth to each other until the problem is solved.
- Students can send out a set of directionsto classmates via e-mail, their blog or a message board to their classmates about how to build a three dimensional object.
- Students and teachers can access primary sources such as “experts” in a field via e-mail or invite these experts to join a discussion on their class message board.
|
| DIGITAL LOCKERS |
- Students can store assignments and works-in-progress in their digital lockers.
- Students can access work stored in their digital lockers from home.
- Students can collaborate with classmates by making certain files downloadable for a project partner.
|
| BLOGS |
- Students can use their blog as their writing journal.
- Teachers can enter student blogs and delete or re-write students’ entries.
- Students can use their blogs to write about current events.
- Multiple subject area teachers can have their students use their blogs for each of their class assignments, as long as the entries are separated by project titles.
- Students can use their blogs as a question and response venue for literature they are reading.
- Weblinks to student-discovered resources can be inserted into a blog or message board for their teachers and classmates to access.
- Students can check their blog entries with the “say it” tool before they post them.
- To stay informed about their student’s writing skills, parents can have “read only” or “write” access to their student’s blog or the class’ message board.
|
| MESSAGE BOARDS |
- Teachers can lead “Global Discussions” among just their classes, the whole school or or with any other classes around the district.
- Teachers of younger grades can create a question and answer message board on a certain topic that is shared between their 2nd grade “novices” and 5th grade “experts”.
- Teachers and students can use message boards to facilitate surveys of other students for research purposes.
- Shy students are possibly more likely to participate in a discussion held on a message board than they are to raise their hand to participate in an oral discussion.
- Posting on message boards gives students time to think about and digest the material presented earlier in class.
- As student’s read each other’s posts they learn from each other and are more motivated to continue to share.
- Teachers can use message boards to post assignments, year-book deadlines, etc.
- Message boards can be used for homework help so students post questions, read each other’s questions, and the teacher can facilitate collaborative learning.
- Teachers can make “student moderators” by asking more highly skilled students to answer other student’s questions on the message board.
- Have a higher grade-level class moderate a message board for a lower grade level class.
- Teachers can take on a character via a message board and answer questions about that person in first person, as if they were “Ben Franklin”, for example.
- Students can each have their own message board for a “first person” project and while in character as a historical figure, answer other students’ questions.
- Book clubs and reading groups can have their own message boards and have the teacher moderate to facilitate literary knowledge.
- ELL students can have their own message board where they can have discussions at their language level perhaps discussing favorite colors, foods and activities.
|
|
|
|
 |
