I did an activity in a middle school math class last
week where the teacher created a “Problem of the Week” sheet which had a
different problem for every class taught. We then had the students work
with a Partner, solve the Problem for their class period, and
post it on a Padlet (an Internet Bulletin Board). Students were to
explain how they solved the problem, as though the person reading the
explanation was being taught the concept for the first time. Students posted their explanation on a Word
Document, saved it, and then uploaded it to the site.
We locked and password protected the site so that
students could only see their own class’ work until the end of the day. They were to then go home and finish the
other class’ problems for homework…but not for posting.
Using the Padlet allows students to work outside of
their classroom and also share their work with parents. The Padlet allows you to Monitor and Control
the contents of the wall before it becomes live on the web, as well as allowing
the teacher to set a password, create a unique web address, and keep the site
Unlisted or Private.
As a “twist” to this activity…students within the
class can be paired up, with each group working to solve a different
problem…then at the end of the period, students posted their work to the Padlet
board representing the problem they worked on.
Students went to the Interactive White Board, having the Padlet up on
the screen, and shared with the remainder of the class, how they solved their
particular problem.
The nice thing about this type of activity is that
it can be used over many different disciplines different types of activities,
and at varying grade levels. On the
Padlet you can post pictures, Word Documents, PDF’s, URL’s, Power points, Photo
Story presentations and videos.
The great thing about
this activity is it really registers high up on the scale as far as their Communication
& Collaboration with audiences outside of their classroom, Critical
Thinking and Problem Solving to engage in open-ended learning experiences
that require higher order thinking skills, Creativity & Innovation
by having the students apply existing knowledge to create ideas and products…Research
& Information Fluency to use information and resources to accomplish
real-world tasks.
This free tool can be
found at www.padlet.com
Keith
