Explain Everything

Many of my students have begun to use Explain Everything as a means of communicating their thinking in mathematics.  It provides kids with the opportunity to record their thinking in a variety of ways (i.e. orally, visually, and in writing).  It also lets students record and then listen back to their own explanation so that they can self-assess to determine if they have clearly articulated their thinking.

Strengths: Students find the app easy to use, they can use the "screen capture" function from other apps (such as "Geoboard" or "Protractor") and embed the pictures into their Explain Everything file, then annotate their work with arrows, captions and other 'bits' of information.  Students can write directly onto the screen or use the keyboard option (this is important when you are working with students who lack fine motor control.  When students can only write directly onto the screen, they end up using up the screen space very quickly, making it difficult to organize their work).  Students can audio record their thinking at the end of the working time or while they work at solving the problem so that I can "listen in" to their thinking at my convenience.  When it comes time to consolidate, there is solid documentation of what has been tried so that others can benefit from the problem-solving that has occurred. 

Limitations: We haven't figured out how to edit the audio so that long pauses and unnecessary dialogue can be deleted.  It would be helpful to have access to a shape creator and other math components on screen so that students could be very accurate without importing from other apps.  

Students are able to share their work with me via Google drive as an MP4 file.  

Persuasive Toy Commercials using IMovie

In December my class worked on creating a toy and a commercial. Our focus was on persuasive techniques found in toy commercials.  I  use this as an introduction to persuasive debate and writing.
Step 1 -We watch several toy commercial (I have them all in one notebook) and discussed and recorded the persuasive techniques used by the advertisers to sell the toys.  We also considered the audience for each toy (parents, moms, age of the targeted child, etc.)  As we looked at each commercial students were asked to record details about each persuasive technique.  Amazingly the students found even more techniques then were listed on the placemat.

Step 2 –Students worked in pairs to preview a commercial.  Their task was to find as many persuasive techniques as they could and present their ideas to the class.  This lead to further discussions on persuasive techniques and audience. (and it was fun!)

Step 3 –Students were put in groups of 3 and 4.  (I assigned the groups because I was observing to focus on collaboration.)  Each group received a paper bag with exactly the same items as all the other groups.  The task was to create a toy.  Students were encouraged to use their imaginations.  They could have toys that did impossible things (fly to Mars and back, make breakfast each day, etc.)

During this process students worked together and planned.  Many groups used the ipads to take pictures of their ideas.  They wanted to make sure they had created the best toy they could before using the glue.

Step 5 –Students used Ipads to create their commercials.  It was great!  Students knew they need to make a commercial that was one minute or less and that they needed to use as many persuasive techniques as possible.  They loved this!! And it was so much fun!!  They even put Bloopers at the end of their commercial video.  Students were able to work, come to me for feedback, and then go right back to work.  I was able to generate comments and marks for media, art, drama, oral communication, and learning skills and I could observe them throughout the process and watch the videos after for a final mark.  Many students had never used IMovie before so my advice was to “play with it” and you’ll figure it out and of course, they did.  It was great to see some students who struggle at many things quickly become experts on the software.  One student in particular finds it difficult to complete any task and does not like to work with others created a great commercial with his partner.  Without the Ipads and IMovie this would not have been possible!!