To Kill a Mockingbird

Students in Ms. Salazar's 8th grade Language Arts classes are reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.  She offered extra credit opportunities for the students, and one of their options was to use smore.com to advertise anything about Maycomb, Alabama, as it is portrayed and described in the novel.  Here are two samples made using the website smore.com.

Reviewing "To Kill a Mocking Bird"

Ms. Salazar's students reviewed their knowledge of the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" by answering questions in teams about the book using Socrative.  Ms. Salazar used the results to remind students of important details of the novel and gave them opportunities to tell what they thought certain details might be important as the story develops.  Students were thoroughly engaged with the activity and are ready to continue in their student of this classic novel.

ELA Explores the 1960s

Ms. Copley's and Mrs. Mark's 8th grade ELA classes recently researched the 1960s as part of their book study, The Contender.  Students then displayed their research findings in glogsters, or virtual posters.  They used these posters to present their research findings to the class.

BrainPop helps with Clauses

Mrs. Porter is using the netbooks and Brainpop as a station in her room to help students understand what clauses are and how to use them properly.  Students take a quiz at the end of the video and email the results to the teacher.  This activity is in part of their writing unit in preparation for the STAAR Writing exam coming up in a few weeks.  Brainpop is a subscription service paid for by the RMS PTA this year.

Mrs. Pickle's Class Uses Cell Phone to Discuss Literature

Mrs. Pickle recently explored allowing students to bring their own technology (BYOT) in class to discuss the class Novel, The Outsiders.  Students answered multiple choice and short answer questions about the chapters they had just read through the use of Poll Everywhere and their cellphones, tablets, or school provided netbooks. After each question,  Mrs. Pickle reviewed the responses and asked the students to explain their choices as she led the classroom discussion.  Students loved seeing their answers pop-up on the screen and were anxious to defend their opinions to the question.  This activity provided the students and teacher with instant feedback and gave all students a chance to voice their thoughts and opinions about the characters and the story.  Look for more BYOT opportunities in Mrs. Pickle's class soon!