Edutech for Teachers

Cool Tools for the 21st Century Classroom

Spotlight on Strategies: 6-Word Stories

February23

spotlight on strategiesEven though there is always a mind-boggling amount of invaluable info shared on the Discovery Education Network (DEN), one of the best resources available is the Spotlight on Strategies (S.O.S) series, a must-see DEN favorite designed to provide teachers with simple yet effective instructional practices for using digital content to support student learning.

To date, there are 70+ teacher tried and tested strategies featured on the DEN blog and now thanks to Lance Rougeux, Vice President of Learning Communities and Educational Consultants at Discovery Education and all-around DEN tech guru, I will now be featuring these techniques on my space. Two thumbs up to this guy!

So, enough of that… Let’s fast forward to the good stuff…

This week’s spotlight: 6-Word Stories, a digital media strategy that focuses on summarization skills related to an image. Check out this simple but effective idea below.

Background

According to Reading Rockets, “Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read.” By narrowing the number of words allowed, we require students to focus on the most important ideas and concepts of the content being shared.

Example

» Display a Discovery Education image such as “Family on Bike Trail. (Of course, Discovery Education images are the bomb, but if you do not have a subscription to this amazing resource, then any photo will do the trick.)

» Have students discuss what they see, guess what happened right before the image was taken, and predict what will happen next.

» Explain to students that they need to individually summarize the photo in 6 words or less.

» Have students share their summaries. Discuss similarities and differences.

» Pro Tip: Have students bring in their own pictures or draw images that represent the current topics being covered in class and have classmates create 6-word stories. Using these images, have students write creative stories with the 6 word caption as the title. Use iPiccy.com to create a collage or add captions on photos.

Challenge

» Select a video, image, or reading passage that corresponds with your current curriculum.

» Have students discuss what they see, guess what happened right before the image was taken, and predict what will happen next.

» Explain to students that they need to individually summarize the photo in 6 words or less.Have students share their summaries. Discuss similarities and differences.

Click here to snag a PDF version of this super cool strategy.

So, there you have it—another S.O.S. trick to add to your edtech toolbox. Stay tuned for additional ways to activate learning in your classroom…

Like what you see? Then be sure to check out other ideas in this series:

» Reading Between the Lines

» ABC Summary

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Hey, edu-tech gurus!

Looking for some technology integration ideas to enhance your classroom lessons? Then be sure to check out my "Tech Tips" for the latest and greatest Web 2.0 tools, applications and web sites that can be incorporated into activities and/or projects. Although some posts may not be applicable to your content area or grade level, be sure to check back often as I will be varying ideas in order to provide resources across the K-12 curriculum.

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