This has been my favorite assignment this semester by far. Teaching kids to write is hard enough, but convincing them to prewrite and create outlines and do prep before the final writing product can be just as tough because it is viewed by many students as extra work. After exploring Inspriation, Kidspiration, and Insiredata I had a lot of fun just watching the different ways that teahers and students can be creative within the prewriting process. Typically, when teaching a graphic organizer via webs, groups, or concept maps everyone is asked to draw and or write to express ideas. Through this program everyone is an artist and can create their own graphic organizer to meet their needs using favorite images, colors, shapes, and font styles. As a teacher uses the program on a regular basis and the students become more comfortable you have the opportunity expand the student options, such as uploading personal images into their library. Students must be comfortable when using the computer. Over the past two months I have learned that comfort level is very important when trying to work efficiently and effectivly on the computer. This enables students to become more familiar with funtions on the computer outside of the Inspiration/Kidspiration program and not be afraid of trying and adding new and innovating ideas. The walk throughs that are provided when visiting the program provide good visial instrution for understanding how to and teach the use of Kidspiration. I was very impressed by the program and I am excited about including it into a classroom setting with my future students.
Question: Are there templates that are provided for me to view or use when beginning?
Answer: Yes, there are templates provided for areas in Reading/Writing, History, Science, Math, and others that do not fit in a specific catogary. There are over 75 built in templates to help build standards based skills across the curriculm.
Question: Can Kidspiration work for my First graders and English Language Learners?
Answer: Absolutely. There are many examples for all grade levels. Kidspiration is designed for K-5 classrooms. Within the program there is a voice command as you apply your curser over each icon. It says the name of the icon for the student as their arrive on it. This works great for early readers and English Language Learners by allowing them to hear and recognize where they are to avoid mistakes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment