Leveling UP

Howdy! Let me take a quick moment to introduce myself. My name is Meredith and I am a Spanish teacher in southern Minnesota. This is my eleventh (I think!) year teaching, and I have taught both math and Spanish, from grade 7 all the way to college in my eleven years. I have a young family, so I am constantly attempting to balance my teaching and home life albeit poorly. However, I am giving myself plenty of grace this year because, well, COVID, and the whole teaching in-person, hybrid and distance learning (I can now check all three!). 

I currently teach with the SOMOS curriculum and include Señor Wooly, lots of music, novels, and cultural topics interspersed throughout the year. I am SO thankful for the freedom and flexibility that my administration  and department have provided me! 

With the craziness of this year, I have tried many different tech resources. Some favorites are Nearpod, Blooket, Gimkit, Google Slides, and Jamboard. While many of these resources overlap with some features, I have been able to adapt each for my classroom and utilize them daily. 

Today is all about JAMBOARD and how I have utilized Jamboard to get students to LEVEL UP their writing. This activity could really be done on ANY collaborative board, like in Nearpod or even with a Padlet. 

Have you used Jamboard yet? I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Jamboard - it can be AWESOME, but also be warned that a student could accidentally press the Clear Frame button at the top and everything can clear… My roomies can also get excited about resizing and changing color of their stickies, so once they have submitted a response, I ask them to turn their computers around until we move to the next page. If you have used Jamboard, do you have any suggestions to improve Jamboard functionality in your class? 

For this activity, you want to start with a good PQA (Personalized Question and Answer). A focus of the current unit (SOMOS Unit 4) is the verb toma (s/he takes), so I asked if students take a particular class. Therefore, on the first page of the Jamboard, students responded to the question with a full sentence. I provided the sentence frames “Sí, tomo la clase de… “ and “No, no tomo la clase de…”

As we moved through the pages of the Jamboard that featured different classes, students were asked to level UP their writing as they were comfortable. For each class, I added a way they could level up. This included when their class is, who the teacher is, what the class is like, if they like or do not like the class, etc. It was SO helpful for students to be provided with these specific ways to add detail to their writing and be given low-pressure ways to practice their writing.

By the end of the Jamboard, students were writing 2-3 sentences using connecting words and with very few grammatical errors. While grammar was NOT emphasized, students were producing grammatically correct language in their responses. Check out this language!

I also used students’ input as a jumping off point for further discussion AND for a Write and Discuss once I was done! 

If you are interested in a copy of the Jamboard I used, check it out here - it will force a copy for you. ENJOY and HAPPY JAMBOARDING!