This site is a great way for students to use photographs in their creative writing. Using the public domain stock of photographs available on flickr.com, students are able to create comic strips with a series of photos and text bubbles. For example, if a student wanted to make a comic strip about dinosaurs, they would have to search 'dinosaur' in the upper left corner and then click and drag a result they like into the center of the page. It's an innovative way for students to integrate someone else's pictures and their own words to make a story. I would use this in the classroom as an independent brainstorming technique for creative writing projects; using pictures is an effective, visual way to storyboard the sequence of a short story. Before letting the students use the application on their own, I would have the class help me create a story using pictures on a whiteboard.
This site is perfect for building vocabulary and philanthropy at the same time! As a class, playing Free Rice is always fun and enriching. Using the whiteboard again, students could work in groups and have buzzers; when they know the definition of a word, they could buzz in and earn points toward class participation. Independently, students could play free rice during class and write down any words they had a hard time defining. As Gunning suggests, the students could use those words in a skit to help apply those words in a personal context. The great thing about Free Rice is that when you define a word incorrectly, they ask you to define the word again later on to help reinforce the meaning.
I have never seen a site like Bubblr before, and it would not have been my first thought for an English classroom, but I love your ideas about using it in the classroom. I can really imagine kids getting excited about using the site to help brainstorm and get creative. I would think that the site would be exceptionally helpful for students who are more visual than linguistic. Thank you for sharing something a little outside the realm that we usually think of in the English curriculum. Using the whiteboard would be a good way to introduce using the site; if you don't already have a SMART Board, I hope you get one soon, because it would be a great asset when introducing and using Bubblr.
ReplyDeleteFree Rice is definitely a wonderful site for students to practice vocabulary. We often allow students to use this site during slow days in Tutorial. We rarely receive any complaints that they have to play a game that promotes learning. I love the idea to play the game as a class.
ReplyDeleteAnother site I found, Vocabulary.com, may be another site for you to check out. Though it does no have a philanthropic aspect to it, this site allows students to create a personal account with age appropriate vocabulary and track their progress. I think using your lessons with this site would be perfect way for students to create their own, or a class, set of vocabulary to work on throughout the year.