Use Google Slides to write a ‘Çhoose your own adventure story’

This is the presentation given at the GEG West Coast today in Cape Town


 

Doing some research on 'Çhoose your own adventure stories'

I have always been interested in getting my students to write stories and present them in different ways. So when someone mentioned these 'Choose your own adventure stories' on a blog post the idea appealed to me very much. Since we are a Google Apps school I thought that I would use Google Slides and a Grade 6 class to explore this way of writing stories. It seems that you can use Docs, Forms, Slides or YouTube Annotations for writing these stories!

What is a Choose your own adventure story?

“Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome.” (Wikipedia)

These are some of the posts I looked at before plunging in:

1. Going Google with Primary Students: “Choose Your Own Adventure” in Google Slides by Rolland Chiliac
http://goo.gl/Zro3VO

This is a great post by Rolland Chidiac showing how he went about getting his class to write these types of stories. He has a blog where he outlines the process in more detail: http://goo.gl/mFkq1i I rather like his story structure diagram that he shared with his class.

Here are some of his classroom examples:

• The pool party: https://goo.gl/ppYRca
• The lost dog: https://goo.gl/hgGBav
• Gomez meets a ghost https://goo.gl/QqiB9A (his own example)

2. ‘Using Google Apps to Make Interactive Stories’ by Sylvia Duckworth
http://goo.gl/QAgwel
Sylvia Duckworth has tried this process using Google forms, Google Docs, Google Slides and YouTube annotations. She gives a useful diagram on how the story could be structured.

Sylvia has a Google site with the details of the task she sat: https://goo.gl/rCslF3. Sylvia provides a linked template that one can use for a ‘Choose your own adventure story’. https://goo.gl/YjNzDo

3. 'Creating Interactive Choose Your Own (Google) Adventure Stories 'by Jonathon Wylie https://goo.gl/zcNHZq
Jonathon Wylie also showed how to get going in all four applications (Slides, Docs, Forms and YouTube annotations) on his blog in a post entitled 'Creating Interactive Choose Your Own (Google) Adventure Stories' https://goo.gl/zcNHZq This is what he says about Google presentations: “Want to try something different? Try using Google Presentations. Instead of creating pages, like you would with Forms, you create slides to tell your story. This gives you a little more flexibility in the visual design of your story, but it also opens up more options in terms of the media you can include…namely video. Slides can be linked together via the link function that you may normally use to insert a hyperlink, only this time you select “Slides in this presentation”

Jonathon Wylie also shows how to link the slides once the story is completed:



4. Choose Your Own (Google) Adventure Stories” by Tony Amsler
https://goo.gl/y8zQ3p
Tony Amsler gives detailed instructions on this process on a Google Sites page entitled, “Choose Your Own (Google) Adventure Stories” He demonstrates the story by creating an example about copyright!



5. 'Choose your own adventure with Google forms' by Michelle Armstrong https://goo.gl/WvgT0X
Michelle gives a presentation on how to write this kind of a story using Google forms. https://goo.gl/WvgT0X . I like the graphic she uses to explain the process:

Michelle also provides a link to a great linked slides template created by Chelsey Eminger https://goo.gl/PwQUXl

6. Classroom examples

• Mrs Pice’s Grade 4 class gives some useful instructions on the process in this video, plus a display of all the stories http://goo.gl/tdu9OT
• Here is a Grade 2 class’s selection of Christmas stories https://goo.gl/kpz6IA

7. The process in writing a choose your own adventure story

1. Show students some sample stories:
2. For example: Mrs Coopers Third Grade class: https://goo.gl/5ESgeK
3. Decide on a template to use. Illustrate the process via a graphic. https://goo.gl/w7ocVy
4. Use a mindmapping to plan the story An example is Mindup https://www.mindmup.com/#m:new
5. Decide on an assessment rubric and show it.
6. Once the story is written – each slide needs a heading – link the slides together.Show how they link: The key is linking all the slides together https://goo.gl/xY1a36

Happy writing!

On Saturday morning (14th May) I attended the Cape Town Maths Day at Grove Primary along with 50 other teachers. The focus was on exploring Maths digitally so we were asked to bring along a laptop.  The program was great. We each received a wonderful goodie bag that included a Sharp calculator. The program
“By the end of the day, you will gain an excellent understanding of how to incorporate digital learning in your classroom, some fantastic practical tips and free Goody Bag to take home with you!

• Matific: Incorporating Technology In The Classroom
  Presented by Lynn Ross, Matific Country Manager
• Sharp Calculators: Calculator Skills For Primary School Maths
  Presented by Tal Moore, Calculator Support Specialist
• Living Maths: Tech For Techno Peasants
  Presented by Steve Sherman, Chief Imagination Officer

1. Matific: Incorporating Technology In The Classroom
Presented by Lynn Ross, Matific Country Manager

Lynn Ross opened the Matific presentation by enquiring about how teachers felt about using technology in the classroom. The majority felt very nervous about it. They felt their students knew more than they did. Mathific (https://www.matific.com/za/en-za) is a great online Maths program linked to the South African CAPS. There is a 30 day trial and a membership costs R120 per year. It caters for Grades R - 7. The terminology used for getting around the website is episodes, worksheets, playlists and lesson plans. Here is a screenshot from Grade 5:

This was a great presentation - very impressive. Below is a slideshow of some of my screenshots.

2. Sharp Calculators: Calculator Skills For Primary School Maths
Presented by Tal Moore, Calculator Support Specialist

This was also a great session presented by Tal Moore. We opened our wonderful calculator gift and played a lot of games one could do in the classroom - drill, tables etc.

Great dem plus a free calculator from Sharp calculators at the Maths Day pic.twitter.com/mJM7WNOPgP

— Fiona Beal (@fibeal) May 14, 2016

Great calculator fun on our free Sharp calculators at the Cape Town Maths Day pic.twitter.com/9Udc8fVbWO

— Fiona Beal (@fibeal) May 14, 2016

3. Living Maths: Tech For Techno Peasants
presented by Steve Sherman

Presented by Steve Sherman, Chief Imagination Officer This was an amazing presentation. Steve Sherman from Living Maths is a vigourating, entertaining presenter who really held everyone's attention. He spoke on gamifying maths and showed us what fun it could be. The Living Maths website has so many wonderful free resources to use under the Resources section on their website. Today's resources were shared via Symbaloo https://goo.gl/7kmcJr .

Plenty of fun and many great resources for gamifying Maths content presented by Steve Sherman of Living Maths pic.twitter.com/fGOx5akPir

— Fiona Beal (@fibeal) May 14, 2016

We played Jeopardy, Who wants to be a mionnaire, Kahoot and Plickers all adapted for Maths.  Steve Sherman is also a great photographer and he took loads of photos which he has uploaded to an album on the Living Maths Facebook page https://goo.gl/vKv1qD.

Duncan Smith took us through writing a review on SchoolAdvisor https://www.schooladvisor.co.za/.

                               
The final presentation was from a Grove Prmary teacher telling us how he uses Mathific in his classroom.
               

Then...a lucky draw from School Advisor and the day was over. 9 - 11.30am. It was short and sweet but a day well spent.

27 Ways Teachers Can Enhance Retention and Knowledge Transfer Infographic

I saw this great infographic advertised on a post '27 Ways Teachers Can Enhance Retention and Knowledge Transfer Infographic' http://goo.gl/RDkbrV with a Creative commons license for reposting. I want to remember all these great ways to enhance retention  so am reposting.

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics