Learning as a Journey - Helping Students Become Their Own Teachers

I recently finished the video below with help from Brenda June. Brenda is a friend and a middle school math teacher from my district. It's designed to give some simple tools to students that they can use to be self-sufficient learners.

It's a result of many discussions over the past couple years about our classroom experiences and ideas about learning that we've discovered from many sources. Most notably, we were both greatly inspired by Jo Boaler's Mathematical Mindsets and John Hattie's work.

The video (which will eventually be the first of two) provides some simple images and ideas comparing learning to a journey. While that's nothing new, we hope the simple visuals provide a concise, effective way to present it to students.

It includes our "3 Big Questions" that can help students identify their next step and it provides our take on a familiar four-point scale for students' regular self-assessment.

I also created this Google Slides presentation, which provides a space to write the learning target and success criteria for a lesson. There are summary slides for the 3 Big Questions and the four-point self-assessment scale.

We have received some helpful feedback from our students. We would love to hear any thoughts about the video from other teachers. Please send me an email or comment below about its usefulness or how we might improve it.

A couple other notes:

• I used Camtasia to create the animation. What a great program! Many thanks to TechSmith for providing a copy through their program for Google for Education Certified Trainers.
• Most images in the presentation came from Pixabay. 
• This video is part of the grant funded project Brenda and I started in September. You can read about our project for MACUL here.

Short Music Video Project for Middle School

Here's a quick music video project we did for our middle school Computers class. We used iPads with the Pixlr app, GarageBand and iMovie.

The video that students produce will be very short and the song will be very simple. Here's a sample one I made with my family. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, but students will probably take at least two class periods to work through everything.

All of the directions can be found in this document. It links to the sample video and to four tutorials. We assigned it in Google Classroom and the students were editing pictures and making songs in no time!

Here are a two notes:

• I made the tutorials as a series of slides rather than capturing the iPad while I used the apps. It was a shortcut that leaves out some details, but I like the students to have to explore and learn the apps rather than watching every single tap.
• Our iPads are shared between classes, so each one has a generic Google account on it. We encourage students not to sign in on them with their own accounts. That's why the final steps explain that the students must share the files with their account. If you have a different setup, you will want to modify those last steps.

It's really easy to add some class content to this project. Just have students sing a simple chorus or make a short rap about what they're studying. They could hold signs in the pictures or use text features of Pixlr or iMovie too.

I'll be glad to hear feedback if you get a chance to try this fun activity with your students!

Math Video Lessons - Grant Funded Project for Middle School

This year I'll be working with Brenda June's 6th grade math classes to create video lessons. It's a plan I submitted in May as a proposal for a MACUL grant. I was excited to learn they accepted our proposal. Brenda and I started working with the classes last week.

I will be reporting regularly on the progress, so I won't go into great detail here. The basic idea of the grant is we will post several video lessons that have been created by me, Mrs. June and the students. In building our video portal site, we will also be developing a classroom brand.

The photo above shows the equipment we were able to purchase with the grant. We have two iPads along with tripods and mounts. We also got an iRig Studio microphone and a Dell Chromebook.

We will be using the Explain Everything app to record the tutorials and then edit in some standard bumpers to the beginning and the end uisng iMovie. We hope to incorporate live video in time too. Besides math videos, we will make some that feature growth mindset and study skill tips.

Last week we took two class periods to work on a very basic video lesson. We use the ShowMe app on the middle school's set of iPads. Normally we won't work with the whole class at one time as we create the videos, but we wanted everyone to see the process form start to finish. As we suspected, a lot of the lessons were rough, but I was very impressed with the students' excitement as they worked!

Next up, we will decide on a name for our video lessons and we will begin building the site for the portal. Brenda and I will get things rolling with a few lessons. We will start working with the first group of students soon.

Ongoing Comic Project for Everyone

Here's a exciting project we started this week.

I had assigned my usual comic projects in the middle school Computer class and a couple girls really got into the idea of making a story. So I suggested we make an ongoing story to post on our school page along with a survey to let everyone make suggestions on what happens next.

So comics, cliffhangers and everyone can play a part. How fun is that?

Here are the few pages we came up with to kick things off. I also made a short Google Form that asked for suggestions about what the girls should find in the storage room. I gave them a chance to vote for if the thing they find should surprise them right away or if it should take awhile.

We got several votes in the first couple days and the girls are planning the next part of the story. I look forward to seeing it play out over the next several weeks.

When the story is done, I'll post an update.

Updated Comic Activity with Google Slides

Last week I assigned my popular creative comic assignment to the middle school Computers class I've been working with. I posted about and shared a similar assignment earlier this year.

This time around it was just as engaging for the students. I decided to extend it with a second part that required them to take their own pictures for the comics.

Part 1 introduces students to the simple process of making comics using real life photos and Google Slides. They don't have to take pictures for this part.

Part 2 has students make an original comic from scratch using photos they take. We use iPads in our middle school and each iPad has it's own G Suite account associated with it. So the assignment directions refer to that.

You can find the full two-part assignment as a free download here from Teachers Pay Teachers. The PDF download links to the two parts as PDFs and as Google Docs, so you can edit them to fit your needs.

If this activity looks interesting, be sure to see my full ebook (only $1), Creating Comics with G Suite Apps. In it, I explain additional publishing options and I have several tips for making a successful comic project.

New Free Resource on TPT - 3 Simple, Quick Tech Projects for Showing Off the Learning Beyond the Classroom

I recently posted a document I used in a district PD session called 3 Simple, Quick Tech Projects for Showing Off the Learning Beyond the Classroom. It's available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. It will take you through three tech projects you can adapt for any class.

I've written about each of these projects elsewhere on this blog, but this "hyperdoc" will take a teacher through each one and provide additional ideas for application and reflection. I also included some directions to help the teacher practice sharing their projects on a Google Site.

The three projects are:

• Combining text and images to make "digital posters" 
• PDF ebooks
• Audio recordings

Most of our district uses Chromebooks, so that's the preferred tool for this. I do refer to some apps and activities you can try on iPads too.

You can download the resource from this page. If you like it, please consider leaving a review and check out the other resources I have there.

Our PD session was three hours long. The teachers who participated didn't complete all of this activity, but you can pick and choose parts of it, doing each one a little at a time.

Three Presentations at miGoogle 2017

I'll be leading three sessions this year at the miGoogle conference. This is the Michigan Google Education Summit and it will be held at Fenton High School in Fenton, Michigan on November 8th and 9th. Be sure to check it out at this link if you are interested in attending.

As of this posting, they don't have the schedule complete. Here are the links to the sessions I'll be leading. (I'll add some previews and session resources to these documents as we get closer to the date.)

• Show Off the Learning with Google Drawings
• Show Off the Learning with Google Sites
• Recording and Publishing Google Slides Presentations

Hope to see you there!

Three Essential Tech Skills for Teachers with Chromebooks

I was at a small conference this week at our ISD. That means I spent a lot of time preparing sessions, presenting and chatting with colleagues. I realized I keep coming back to a few "essential skills for teachers", so I thought I'd compile my resources for them here.

These are not directed to teachers on the cutting edge of tech integration. They are for those many teachers who have Chromebooks, but mostly use them for research and managing assignments in Google Classroom. 

All of these appear on my blog somewhere else, but I'm combining them here along with some next steps or extended activities. And I added some essential reading at the end too.

Skill #1:  Getting photos and video from a phone or tablet into Google Drive

I'm still amazed at how many teachers don't use this. They (or their students) try to email files or even send them in text messages. If you can get a photo or video to Google Drive right on your phone, you have a bridge between the real world and your tech projects. From Drive, you (or the people you share them with) can open the images and videos on a Chromebook and use them in countless ways.

Here's my blog post and video tutorial about this. The video is just over a minute long, but I've seen this make a big difference for teachers.

Next Steps or Extended Activities

• Most apps have other ways of sharing out the files. I didn't include it in the tutorial because of all the possible variations, but experiment with it on your phone. Can you get the content from your favorite apps into Drive? If so, it offers great options for projects on the Chromebooks.
• The Google Slides and Docs apps on phones and tablets will allow you to insert the pictures directly into the document or slideshow. Imagine having a team working on the slides while another documents the activity by taking pictures. One teacher I showed this to last summer told me it's now a Day 1 activity for his middle school science classes.

Skill #2:  Making a PDF eBook Using Google Slides

PDFs can be viewed easily on any device. Teachers and students who can turn their slideshows into PDFs have a great opportunity for showing off the learning beyond the classroom. 

While it can take awhile to make attractive pages in Google Slides, the few clicks necessary to make a custom sized PDF only take about a minute. From there, the creation options for communicating to the world are endless.

Here is the blog post and tutorial for this. 

Next Steps or Extended Activities

• Mostly the next steps here are just to improve the design of your ebook. For example, more attractive images, better layouts, etc. This comes from exploring the different tools in Google Slides and learning about good design.
• I've helped very young students create presentations in Google Slides. Even in kindergarten we had success with it. Of course, you have to provide more structure in early grades. For example, in that project I built the slides and put clipart on each one. The students just moved the graphics around to design their pages. In third grade we made ebooks and gave the students more freedom. There I simply created a blank slideshow and changed the dimensions of the slides as shown in the tutorial above. Then I shared it to groups through Google Classroom and they added the content collaboratively.

Skill #3:  Making a Recorded Slideshow with Screencastify

I created this tutorial several months ago, but it was clear at the tech conference this week that many agree with me. Screencastify is the screen recording tool of choice for a Chromebook. I love how it records the screen and goes immediately to Google Drive.

In my district, I encourage all teachers and any student in grades 6 - 12 to use that tool along with Google Slides to make a "recorded slideshow". It's a good first step in screen recording that lets teachers communicate a lesson or other information. And students can use it to show what they've learned.

See my tutorial here for complete information on this important process.

And here is my free Tech Project Pack about the process. It contains information and resources to help teachers integrate it into any subject.

Next Steps or Extended Activities

• My tutorial is about recording a presentation as you click through the slides, but really you can record anything on the screen. You could introduce a website, a skill using a new tech tool or (by recording the camera) you can even capture live video. The paid version of Screencastify allows editing of the video to some extent and many other good tools are out there to make professional recordings. Camtasia is my favorite, but it is costly.
• Explore tab recording in Screencastify. It gives you more tools as you record.
• The same process can be used for digital storytelling. Imagine making the pages of a story in Google Slides, then recording it while telling the story and clicking through the pages. For young students, the whole story could be told with just a single slide or even a single photo.
• Students can also use Screencastify to record their explanation of a problem. For example, they might use Google Drawings to create a visualization of a math problem, then they could record themselves explaining their thinking. 

Required Reading for Every Teacher Who Uses Technology

Be sure to see my post from earlier this summer about Liz Kolb's Triple E Framework. It is the most practical, research based model I've seen for directing or evaluating effective use of tech in the classroom. As my post explains, her website contains a lot of valuable information, but her book is well worth reading. It's called Learning First, Technology Second.

So that's my current list of essentials. If you have questions or suggestions to add to the list, please add a comment below or send me an email.

How to Use the Google Drive App to Transfer Photos or Video from a Phone or Tablet

This is an essential skill for showing off the learning that takes only a few minutes to master, yet I regularly encounter teachers and students who can't do it. Take a minute to watch the video if you're still using USB cables or email (or worst of all, text messages) to get your files to a computer.

If you have photos or video on your phone (or you want to take some) to bring them into projects or share them with others, learn to use the Google Drive app. It's so easy!

It's the bridge from the real world to your projects. I've seen teachers get excited when they realize the possibilities this opens up for creative classroom projects.

This short video tutorial shows everything you need to know.

How to Make a PDF eBook Using Google Slides

In class and for my personal use, I have created PDF "ebooks" using Google Slides. It's a simple method that can make attractive files that are easy to share.

There are essentially two steps:

1. Make a slideshow in Google Slides. This will take the longest. And it can take a very long time depending on how attractive you want it to look and how many pages you'll be creating.
2. Download it as a PDF. This takes about 10 seconds. Literally, it's just two or three clicks.

I made the tutorial for this process. It doesn't go into great detail about how to do the layout, but I show a few things briefly about the most important tools you'll use.

If you don't want to watch the entire thing, click the links below to open a new tab at that section of the video. I highlighted the two key ones for anyone familiar with Google Slides in general.

Contents:

1. Process overview 
2. Making a New Google Slides Presentation
3. **Changing the dimensions of your pages
4. Basic tools in Google Slides
5. Example of how the book will look before download
6. **How to download the PDF
7. How the PDF ebook will look
8. My blog

Win a Free Gift Certificate from Teachers Pay Teachers

I originally hoped to give away some review copies of my updated ebook, Creating Comics with G Suite Apps, but Teachers Pay Teachers doesn't have an easy way to do that.

So, I decided I'd give away three $10 gift certificates to their site and I'd simply ask the winners to consider purchasing and reviewing my (normally $4) ebook. Of course, if you win the drawing, you can use the $10 to buy whatever you want from the site.

To enter for a chance to win one of the gift certificates, you only have to answer one simple question about your plans for (or your questions about) tech activities in the upcoming year.

Click here to enter the drawing.

Please enter the drawing only once. I will draw three winners at random on July 21, 2017. If you win you'll be notified by email directly and I'll announce the winners in my next newsletter.

Resources for Sale

I'm taking some time this summer to update and upgrade some popular resources and put them on Teachers Pay Teachers.

First I added this free download about how to create recorded slideshows. I consider that to be an essential skill for teachers and students.

I also added the new version of my ebook about making comics with G Suite apps. That resource is based on my most popular conference session. It's a proven process that I've seen ignite a classroom as students discover the fun of creating. The normal price for the ebook is $4.00.

If you already have the free version I used to offer on this blog, you'll want to know I added a suggested rubric for the comics in the new edition. I also made some minor changes to the section about video projects.

If you have followed my work on my blog or elsewhere, I would greatly appreciate you at least downloading the free PDF about recorded slideshows and giving an honest review. That would help many other teachers discover them.

Essential Summer Reading - The Triple E Framework

I first heard about Liz Kolb's Triple E Framework and the accompanying book in her interview with Vicki Davis. I was intrigued. The more I looked into it, the more I'm convinced this is something every teacher should study over the summer.

What is the Triple E Framework?

At the core, it's a simple idea with just a few important resources. I'll sum it up here and include some links.

As any teacher is aware, adding tech to a lesson doesn't necessarily make it better. It might make it a lot worse. Even if the students are actively using the technology and having a great time completing the lesson, it doesn't mean they're learning the content at a satisfactory level.

Liz Kolb addressed this problem by giving us a list of research-based practices and standards that sum up how to best integrate tech. As you might guess, it's based on three E's:

• Engage - This is authentic engagement with the learning goal (not just the tech).
• Enhance - This is about choosing tech that adds value to the learning experience.
• Extend - And here we look at extending the learning beyond the classroom, to the students' personal lives.

The way Kolb defined those three aspects of learning with tech resonated with me immediately. She was putting into words so many things I witnessed and felt as I worked in dozens of classrooms over the past five years. What I love about her work is that it's clear, practical and backed by research. 

And she relentlessly emphasizes the learning goal of the lesson over the tech. As obvious as that might sound, we all know that's not always what happens when a teacher or administrator discovers some new tech tool.

All of this can be found in her book, Learning First, Technology Second.  I'll say more about the book below, but the good news is everything is open source and it's freely available on the Triple E Framework website. Here are some key parts you'll want to look at:

• Overview - This page defines those three E's above, but it also lists the nine questions that teachers should use to guide lesson planning or evaluation. The video on this page provides an excellent summary.
• Rubric for Lesson Design - This is a simple, free tool that allows a teacher to score a lesson based on how it measures up on the nine questions. Every teacher should use it until they've memorized it!
• Lesson Planning Template - Here's the same information in a slightly different format for lesson creation.
• Instructional Strategies - We know any tech tool will only be effective when it's supported with quality teaching. Here are three lists of strategies that can support tech for each of the E's.
• Case Studies - Here are some examples of putting the Framework into action at various grade levels.

What about the book?

I ordered the Learning First, Technology Second right away because I knew I would want the full story. It didn't disappoint!

It provides a lot more detail that what you'll find on the website. Several examples illustrate exactly how the rubric should be used to effectively evaluate a lesson. There are also many more examples of quality lessons in the book.

I most appreciated the chapter on effective instructional strategies that support good use of technology. Rather than just listing them like they are on the above website, the book explains a number of important ones for each of the three E's.

I read the book quickly, but I'll return to it many times for these examples and lists.

Here are a few things that stood out for me:

• For true engagement, students need a social aspect. Try to leave room for "co-use", either between students or between the student and teacher, when tech is being used in the lesson. That means two students on one device might be better than 1-to-1 and some conversation about the learning goal should be happening as they use the tool.
• Up to 70% of apps that are promoted as educational have no research behind them to support the claim. We can't assume the tech alone is accomplishing anything as far as real learning. Teachers must be sure instructional strategies are in place when the students are using the tools.
• Every lesson doesn't need to score high on all three E's. What matters most is that a teacher naturally begins to evaluate tech use in light of the Framework and looks for opportunities to improve in each area.

My only regret about the book is the title. I think it might make it too easy to dismiss. After exclaiming about how much I love the Triple E Framework, I showed the book to another instructional tech and he was less than impressed. Looking at the title, he said, "Yeah, but we all always say that." 

I agree that the heart of the Triple E Framework is to make the learning goal first priority, not the tech. I just hope educators will not stop, thinking they'll find nothing new. The wealth of practical ideas in the book is well worth exploring, even for those of us who have been proclaiming, "Learning first, tech second," for years.

Twitter Chat About Playing Games and Making Games for Learning

On April 18 I moderated #6thchat. It was an excellent hour of discussion about playing and making games for learning. I wrapped up with a video and question about my Game Design Project Packs.

Here's the Storify archive. I realized afterward I didn't always use #6thchat on my replies, so they won't appear hear. You can see all replies if you expand a tweet that's part of a conversation.

Using Games and Game Design in the Classroom - a Twitter Chat on 4/18

I'm excited to say I'll be the guest moderator of #6thchat on April 18, from 9:00 PM -10:00 PM, EST.

The title of the chat will be Playing Games and Making Games (of all types) for Learning. Where will we go with such a broad topic? To give you an idea, here's some of my background in games and education.

I've loved playing games all my life. For as long as I remember, I've had a passion for learning new ones and for creating my own.

I have created some simple computer games, but board and card games are by far my favorite. My most popular designs have been party games and couple of them have been enjoyed by people all over the world.

As a former high school math teacher and now as an instructional tech coordinator, I shared my interest of all these games with students throughout the 23 years of my career. From digital to traditional, strategy board games to party games to role-playing games, I've explored their potential for learning, both in and out of the classroom.

I've used them as warm-ups, for creativity exercises and for critical thinking activities. I have also helped several teachers lead game design projects based on course content.

I'm convinced of the power of games when it comes to teaching and learning. At the same time, though, I've seen them used ineffectively in the classroom. I know it's possible to make a fun, popular game activity that doesn't result in the learning we need to see.

It's from this cautious optimism that I generated list of questions for the chat. I hope you will join us on 4/18 as we discuss effective ways to use games for learning!

And it won't be the primary focus, but I will talk about my Game Design Project Packs. Check out this post and the quick video below if you want to learn more about this fun activity for deep learning.

Another Fun Middle School Computers Lesson - Making Comics with Google Slides

I've been posting some of the creative projects we used in our middle school Computers class. (See this post on simple podcasts and this one on animation.)

Those of you who regularly follow my work will be very familiar with the basics of this one -- Comics with Google Slides!

When we did this in class, the excitement level went through the roof! Many students in my district have learned this process already, so some took their own pictures instead of using the ones provided in the directions. You can modify those as necessary for your class.

Click here to get a copy of the Google Doc that contains the directions for students. It links to this sample comic.

Those directions take students through the process of creating a comic. It uses some of my resources that you can find on my Comics page.

Also, this video tutorial is referenced in the directions. It shows the basic process.

And in case you missed the header image above, remember you can get my free ebook about making comics like this by joining my monthly newsletter list. Please click here to sign up.

Fun Animation Project with Chromebooks

This simple animation project from our middle school Computers class proved to be the most engaging one we've done so far. I'll post all the videos, the directions and some tips below so you can easily adapt it for your class.

We used the Stop Motion Animator app on Chromebooks. (They finally released an update for the app after a bug had made the previous version unusable for several months.)

Students had a ton of fun with this project! They watched my simple tutorial (below) and were making animated videos in no time. A few groups didn't want to stop at the end of class!

You can see in the photo that our students used Lenovo Chromebooks with the reversible camera. It allows them to easily capture images on the table in front of the device. If you have Chromebooks with cameras that only face the user, it's a little more challenging to get pictures of objects on the table and see the screen at the same time. (Here's a blog I came across that shows how one teacher addressed this problem.)

Here are the simple example videos that I created for the project:

• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3

And here is the short tutorial that shows how to use the app:

This document contains all the directions and links to the above video files.

And here are a few tips and things to consider:

• I didn't mention in the video that the spacebar is the shortcut key for capturing a frame and that the Undo button will delete the last frame of the animation.
• In my tutorial I neglected to emphasize the importance of slight movements of the object from frame to frame. I also didn't state that it looks best if the camera stays in the same place. Consequently, some students made a very choppy series of images. It sort of hinted at action, but I wouldn't call it an animation.
• We had a little trouble with the app when we tried to load a previously saved video or when we were recording audio. Usually restarting the app or the Chromebook solved it.
• You'll notice the directions refer to a contest for the best animation. I selected five videos from those submitted and posted them on our school's homepage. Students could vote (using a Google Form) for their favorite. Here's the winning video, created by one student who won a snack and soft drink for his efforts.

I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as ours did! If they create videos you'd like to share, I'd love to see them and show them to our class.

Recording Podcasts with TwistedWave in Middle School

Here's a relatively short project we used in our middle school Computers class this week. It takes students through the planning, recording and editing of a short podcast. We used TwistedWave on Chromebooks.

Here is an example created by a pair of our students. While there's plenty of room for improvement, this was a good first attempt at an audio recording. What I loved most about the project was how students got excited about their podcast topics. You can hear that clearly in that recording.

Here is the assignment document. It includes all the directions and it links to the video below. I created that video several months ago and posted it elsewhere on this blog. It serves as a good tutorial for anyone learning to use Twisted Wave.

A couple notes about the project:

• In order to use TwistedWave, we required the students under the age of 13 to return signed parent permission forms. Even though they sign in using their school Google accounts, I felt this was important after contacting TwistedWave about their Privacy Policy.
• After assigning this project, I added a part at the bottom of the directions about the important differences between this simple recording and professional podcasts.

Show Off Any Project Using Google Sites

**A newer version of this post can be found by clicking here.

Regular readers and anyone in my training sessions has heard me repeat it. "Show off the learning!"

There are lots of ways to show our best work, but doing it online is certainly one of the best. In my district, many teachers assign a lot of real world products rather than digital ones. That's great, but when I talk about sharing work online, they feel they have no options (or they happily think they're off the hook!).

This week I created a short document and video tutorial to give them one easy way to show any product digitally. It makes use of the new Google Sites, which I absolutely love. 

Google Sites doesn't have a ton of options, which means students won't lose time finding just the right font and background image. 

So imagine students made a physical "something" in class. You could give the students these directions and they'd create a web page that shows pictures or video along with text, showing off what they made and learned. 

Here is the full video tutorial:

And here is the single page of steps that you'd give the students. Notice most of the steps link to the exact place in my video tutorial. That way they don't have watch everything if they're stuck on only one part.

Some things to note:

• You must tell them what you expect to see on the site. My steps and tutorial only show the how. It directs them to you for the what.
• Students would need to take pictures or video of their project, then upload those to Google Drive first. I didn't show that in this tutorial, but it's very easy if they have the Google Drive app at their phones. I consider this to be a survival skill in today's world. I'm working on making a good video to show this process.
• You'll see in the video that images don't always work like they should. I show a workaround if your students experience that problem.
• Some students forget to do the sharing step (labeled as #1 on my list). If that happens, you won't be able to see their pictures or video when you look at the site. 
• Step #7 is another common pitfall. Students often will send the link to their side of the website instead of the published version. It is clearly shown in the video, but they need to pay attention.
• I didn't address adding multiple pages in my steps, but it is very intuitive to add a new page. This could be great for organizing information about a larger project.
• Note that my final step tells them to turn it in through Classroom. If you use a different process, you'll need to modify that.

Creativity Game with Google Slides - Abe & Einstein

This post contains a link to the template you need to play this game, but you'll also want to see this post  which explains how to run these creativity games with your class using Google Apps.

My most popular posts on this blog are the creativity games and exercises. Over the past year I have been translating some of those ideas into a Google Slides format.

When played as a classroom game, this one allows 3 - 5 creative students to compete to make up what two random well known people would say if they met. For example, what would you overhear in a chance meeting between Spider-man and Santa Claus? How about Harry Potter and Justin Bieber?

The whole class participates by voting on their favorite response. The creative thinking required for this game can be a challenge, but I've seen middle school and high school students have a lot of fun with these games.

I also have suggestions at the end of this post for other ways to use the activity, possibly with less time or allowing more students to create the fun answers.

First, here's the flow of the game when used with the whole class. There is a video that shows this process below.

1. Choose 3 to 5 students to be the contestants in the game. They should sit at the front of the room. They'll need either paper or a computer, depending on how you want them to share their riddle answers with you.
2. The slideshow for the game (at a link below) is displayed so the class can see it. It will usually be on the game slide, slide 2.
3. The teacher draws two random names from the group and displays them for the contestants to see.
4. The contestants get two minutes to write a few lines of what those people might say if they met. Each student sends his or her lines to the teacher.
5. The teacher reads them to the class and they are entered in the game slide so the students can see them.
6. The students in the class now have the chance vote on the their favorite haiku (using a classroom response system or possibly Google Forms).
7. Points are awarded to the contestants based on the number of votes they received.
8. Steps 2 - 6 are repeated three or four times, then scores are totaled to determine a winner.

Here is the Google Slides presentation that you'll need to play this game or to do any of the activities listed below.

Click to have a copy of the Google Slides presentation added to your Google Drive. 

Video Overview

This 4 minute video shows how to play these creativity games with a class. It contains a different game about answering a riddle instead of writing dialogue, but the process is the same. (If you're interested, here's the post about that game.)

Tips and suggestions for other ways to use the activity

• Obviously this chance conversation should be brief. Students should try for 2 - 4 short lines.
• To indicate who is talking, students can use initials. So using the Spider-Man and Santa Claus example, a student could write:
• SC:  Hey Spider-man, can you teach me to crawl walls like that?
• SM:  Sorry Santa, lay off the milk and cookies then check back when you look this good in tights.
• You might not be able to fit the whole dialogue in the boxes on the game slide. Read the full submissions from students, but for voting, t's usually sufficient to just sum up it up a few short words to help students remember each one.
• Usually the students make funny conversations in this game, but you could require different criteria for the "best" one.
• Have some things to show the rest of the class or to talk about while the contestants write their dialogue. See my post about creativity exercises to get some ideas that will involve everyone.
• It's easy to change any of the names that I made for the game. Just draw one out and double click on the text. Use names of people related to what you're studying in class. Or pick names of people at your school, like your principal or the custodian. This gives the students a chance to practice being funny while still being respectful. Note that I did put "Your Teacher" in the mix!
• You can have the rest of the class write their own ideas for dialogue too. After the vote, have some of them share what they wrote if they want.
• If you don't want to devote much class time to the game, just draw two words at the end of class and have all students make a haiku for homework. You can select your top 5 and have them vote on the best one as a warm-up in a later class.