Pins of the Week - formative assessment, real life literacy, writing prompts, tabletop twitter and introverts!

An interesting beginning of the week here at Little Green HQ: an abscess gone horribly wrong, pain (so much pain), a trip to the doctor's, antibiotics and a few days on the couch prescribed for me. So, not much time to collate today's pins, but I am a trooper (a whiny trooper, but a trooper just the same), and I have pressed on to find some excellent pins to share with you today! Here we go!

Formative Assessment

http://goo.gl/4Ga0Fa

What a great idea for conducting a formative assessment of your students' grasp of your current topic! This links to a blog post from The Elementary Math Maniac, that gives several great ideas for formative assessment in Mathematics. Of course, the ideas can be used in a number of subject areas too, so a win for everyone!

Real Life Literacy

http://goo.gl/1MStRM

Don't you just love all those spelling and grammar mistake posts you see on Pinterest and Facebook? Don't they make you feel so smug about your own grasp of the English language? Have you ever thought about how you could use them as a lesson on proof-reading for your students? Laura Randazzo did, so she created a resource for us all to use, and it is available for download at Teachers Pay Teachers for a mere $3! Well worth the investment.

Writing Prompts

http://goo.gl/TJpyvQ

I do love a good writing prompt, and this one is sure to have your students inspired. Have them tell this story and watch them exercise their creativity.

Tabletop Twitter

http://goo.gl/scTMfP

Ok, so it isn't exactly Twitter, but it is a fantastic idea from Lori at Conversations in Literacy. Print out an excerpt from your current text of study that is sure to get students talking, glue it to a large sheet of paper, then have students silently write their thoughts and respond to the thoughts of others. Did I mention the word 'silently'? Sounds like a winner to me!

Introverts in the Classroom



My final pin of the day is an excellent video from TED by Susan Cain. As an introvert myself, I can attest to the validity of what she says in her talk, and her ideas for helping ALL students, not just the introverts, think more deeply and creatively are absolutely inspiring. Are you failing your introverts? Please, please, please watch this video to find out! You can find the video on the TED website here.

All these pins and more can be found on my Pinterest boards.

Well, I'm off to try to recover. Have a great week!