I’m Marion from Mentoring in the Middle, and I’m delighted to be guest blogging on Rachel Lynette’s Minds in Bloom! Rachel was one of the first bloggers I started following way back when I was a blogging newbie, and she continues to serve as an example of what good blogging and product-making look like.
Every grade presents its challenges to keep students engaged, but with the upper grades, I find it’s really important to find ways for kids to think more deeply and analytically, especially online. There are lots of cute apps out there, and some of them are engaging, but they don’t always push kids in the direction I think they need to go. Or I need more information than they can provide.
I’ve written about some of the apps that get used regularly in my classroom. All are free (free is good!), and all are tried and tested by my sixth graders!
Bookopolis is a site I learned about from the Nerdy Book Club blog. If you don’t already follow that blog, you need to. Stop. Take a break from reading this, and go follow them. I’ll wait. Back already? Okay, this site has won a number of awards recently, including one from the School Library Association. It’s easy to see why. You sign your students up with a teacher ID and password, and then students can post and read book reviews, create a virtual bookshelf of books they want to read, and they can even keep track of their reading time. Mine don’t do that, but they love, love, love to post their reviews when they’ve finished a book, or when they see I’m busy and they’re in that “I don’t know what to read next” mood, this is their go-to place. You can’t go wrong with this site!
There are a lot of things to like about Quizizz! One of my favorites is that it’s self-paced. That means you don’t have to wait for your slower students before you can move on to the next question. It’s very easy to assign Quizizz as a center or as one of several rotations you want students to work through. This is the perfect “ticket out the door” or assessment to see whether what you’ve taught has “stuck” with your students. And because you can easily download the report to see the level of understanding, it’s super easy to form small groups for those kids who didn’t master the skill as well as they need to. There are lots of public quizzes you can use, or you can create your own.
Kahoot is by far one of the most enjoyed games played by my students. This app serves a slightly different purpose. Although it can show you whether or not a particular skill has been mastered, I find students enjoy it best when they play on teams. That may be because we aren’t 1:1 with technology yet, but for now, it seems our students enjoy the collaboration and competition that comes from teamwork. Like Quizizz, you can create your own quiz or use one that’s been made by someone else.
Are you looking for good nonfiction articles for your students to read? Do your students read at different levels? (Really, do I need to ask that question? Of course they do!) Newsela is a great resource, put together by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and several professional journals. It is filled with high interest articles written at multiple levels so that it meets the reading needs of all of your students. Some of the articles have short quizzes, but what I love the most is that all my students can be reading and discussing the same topic. You can search by category and by level, and many articles are available in Spanish.
TweenTribune is very similar to Newsela but comes out of the Smithsonian. Its articles are also leveled and can be read in Spanish. There are quizzes for some of the passages, also. What I especially like about it, though, is that students can comment about the articles in a safe, online community.
A year ago, I was just hearing that Schoology was being used at the high school in our district. Now, it’s a regular part of my classroom instruction. Small group is reading a novel together and needs to research some background knowledge? Put it on Schoology. Students want to enter a poetry contest? Let them post their poems on the discussion board for feedback and comments. Want students to do a quick Ticket Out the Door? Put it on Schoology. Want to flip your classroom instruction? Post it on Schoology so students can watch from home or school. Want to email a student in another grade or building? You guessed it, Schoology. The possibilities are endless!
Feel free to read more about what happens in my sixth grade classroom by following my blog or my TpT store. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about using free technology in your classroom!
Marion and her husband are recent empty-nesters, with two daughters in New York City and a son about to move to western PA. She is a teacher-blogger, TpT author, avid reader, runner, and almost-all-foods lover!
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