Happy New Year ... Take Your Students for a Spin!
- Mar 10, 2016
- 4 min read
2016 is off to a great, cold start in Charlotte, NC, but here's a fun (free) tool that might really warm up your students with some interactive learning. This handy tool is not an app....but it will run on iPads. (See below for directions on how to add a bookmark icon to your iPad home screen so you can access the site with just one tap.)
This engaging tool is called the Random Name Picker and is from Classtools.net. It might sound like just another way to randomly call on students in class, but that's not all it's good for.
This tool is a spinning virtual wheel which is usually used to randomly select a student for responding to questions or participating in class, etc. You can put in your own list of students and save it. Then you can reuse (or edit) your saved list.
I use this tool in a different way--as a virtual game spinner... which takes the place of dice (which often find their way off the table and onto the floor, landing in some inaccessible spot, of course).
I like to have students play games in my ESL classes (and students love them, too).
Games:
--are great ways to have students interact with language and content (& each other!)
--are applicable to any subject or skill
--enable students to practice language & fully participate in a safe, affective-filter-lowering way
(especially important for English Language Learners)
--make learning fun for everyone
So, for board games, instead of putting student names into the Random Name Picker, I just put in numbers (for point values) and sometimes choices like "extra spin" or "move back 1 space."
It's quick and easy to make new game spinners to match whatever game you're playing, or to edit old spinners. If you save your spinner with a password, you'll get a link to it and can always use it again.
IDEA: for the higher levels of Bloom's -- create, synthesize, evaluate
Have your students work in pairs or groups to create their own games based on a unit of study. They design the game ... they design the spinner. Then have a "game session" where groups play each others' games.
IDEA: for vocabulary enrichment and making connections...
Put in thematic categories (weather, animals, plants, American symbols, etc.) instead of numbers or names. Students spin and name something that fits in whatever category the spinner stops on. For more advanced students, also tell why/how the answer fits into the specified category.
IDEA: for letter identification, phonemic awareness, phonics...
Put in the letters of the alphabet. Students give the letter name ... or the sound of the letter ... or a word that begins/ends with that letter ...
IDEA: rhyming words (students give a word that rhymes with whatever the spinner stops on)...maybe they get an extra spin if they can name 3 or more words that rhyme with the target word
IDEA: sight words (students read the word the spinner lands on)
IDEA: homophones (flower, flour), homonyms (write, right), homographs ('bow' tie, 'bow' with respect)
IDEA: for reading -- comprehension, retelling, etc.
Put in categories related to a book students are reading (characters, setting, problem, solution, detail, beginning, ending, point of view).
IDEA: for math --
Put in numbers. When the spinner stops on a number, the student has to tell 3 different ways to make that number. For example, the number 12... 9+3, 8+4, 5+7. Or mix it up... 9+3, 14-2, 3x4.
IDEA: for math --
Put in numbers. Spin for the first number, for example, 21. Spin again for the second number, for example, 15. Students are in pairs or groups. Each pair/group works with these same 2 numbers to create a word problem. The first group to create a correct word problem gets a point ... or, each group which creates a correct word problem gets a point.
IDEA: for science -- solids, liquids, & gases
Put in examples of each state of matter. Students tell which category the spinner choice belongs in. OR ...
Put in the states of matter. Students give examples of the state of matter the spinner stops on.
IDEA: for science -- water cycle
Put in the stages of the water cycle. Students describe what happens in the stage the spinner stops on. OR ... Students tell what happens before, or after, the stage the spinner stops on.
IDEA: for geography -- landforms
Put in landform words... river, mountain, lake, etc. Wherever the spinner stops, students give the features of that landform....or give an example of the landform....or tell where it can be found.
The ideas are really endless! Give it a try with your students. Then, please leave a comment below to share your great ideas with the rest of us.
Click here to read more about this tool in Free Technology 4 Teachers, a blog written by Richard Byrne.
REMEMBER: Although this free tool is not an app, it will run on iPads. See the following directions on how to add an icon to your iPad homescreen for one-touch access.
HOW TO ADD A BOOKMARK ICON FOR THIS SITE TO THE HOME SCREEN ON YOUR iPAD:
1. Using the Safari browser, go to the web address of your specific spinner.
2. Tap the "share" icon in the top right corner. It's the picture of the square with the up arrow.
3. From the pop-up menu, find "Add to Home Screen" which is the black square with the white plus sign in the middle. (You may have to scroll the bottom row of choices to the left to see this icon.)
4. Tap on "Add to Home Screen."
5. Tap on "Add" in the top right corner of the pop-up box.
6. The "Random Picker" icon will appear on your iPad's home screen. So, now, all you have to do is tap on it to go right to your spinner. EASY!!
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UPDATE 3-10-16:
Just ran across this site, "Technology Rocks Seriously" (http://www.technologyrocksseriously.com/2012/04/student-selectors-grouping-tools.html#.VuIucI-cHIU) with a post 'STUDENT SELECTORS & GROUPING TOOLS. She describes other digital tools, like the spinner above, which can be used with all kinds of lists--vocabulary, characters in a story, numbers, letters, story elements, questions to answer, antonyms & synonyms, etc., etc., etc.
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