Description: Engagement is at the forefront of every educator's mind. Wouldn't it be nice if every student could be engaged, challenged and working at their own pace when reading? Wouldn't it be even better if they could also get real-time feedback from their teacher, and you as the teacher could get real-time feedback from them? Actively Learn is the program that can accomplish all of that.
Outline: Demonstration highlighting the features and benefits of Actively Learn, showing everything that teachers can do with this free resource. I will start by sharing my journey with Actively Learn and why this program truly is a way to reach every student when it comes to reading comprehension, analysis and engagement. I will then show participants the ease of setting up their own accounts. I will end with participants actually trying the program (me loading them into my class so they can see what a student will experience, and then I will have them load an assignment and see the ease of creating and modifying a text).
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Discussion: a 5-minute facilitated, quick-start conversation to kick off the lab session
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I will go show the participants my journey with Actively Learn. I will also ask the participants what struggles with comprehension and engagement are occuring. I will also ask them to describe what good reading comprehension and engagement would/could look like to them.
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I will also discuss how this technological tool can really help the students collaborate around a passage (both with themselves and the teacher)
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Demonstration: a 20-minute presentation or interactive demo
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I will have participants join my Actively Learn sample class that will already have a passage loaded in. They will engage in reading, annotating, comprehending and analyzing a passage with my guidance as the teacher. I will also walk them through the process as the teacher (giving real time feedback, monitoring progress and encouraging participants to respond to each other’s posts).
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Innovation: a 20-minute lab session for participants to process, discuss and apply the concepts and practices shared
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Participants will engage in creating/modifying their first Actively Learn assignment.
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Participtants will begin by creating a free educator account
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Participants will then create/add classes to their account (via Google Classroom)
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Participants will choose a passage (article, story, play, poem etc) from the free content and add at least one teacher direction and two teacher questions (following the model used in the demonstration).
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Participants will leave with one passage/assignment that is “school ready” by the time they leave the session.
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