This document discusses how digital resources can help make student thinking visible. It provides examples of using Skitch, Educreations, Popplet, Padlet, and Socrative to informally assess student understanding. For Skitch, students took photos of Roman cultural influences and annotated them. Educreations allowed students to present images and explanations demonstrating their grasp of concepts. Popplet and Padlet helped assess student organization and thought processes. Socrative created quick quizzes and polls to analyze group and individual needs. The document encourages exploring how these tools could document thinking in one's own classroom. It also considers when and how to use the tools, and how to work with shared devices.

1. Making Thinking Visible with Digital Resources
Diana Beabout
MS Humanities
Shekou International School
dbeabout@sis.org.cn
Twitter: dianabeabout
Blog: www.coetail.com/dbeabout
Diana Beabout
MS Humanities
Shekou International School
dbeabout@sis.org.cn
Twitter: dianabeabout
Blog: www.coetail.com/dbeabout
2013 ACAMIS EAL Spring Conference
Shekou International School
(Shenzhen, China)
April 19-21, 2013

2. Focus
• As educators, we are constantly assessing our
students’ understanding of their learning to inform
instruction and evaluation. When we can see and
hear how our students are processing and making
meaning of concepts and skills, we can provide
more targeted instruction and support for their
success. In this session we will explore way
teachers and students can us applications and web-
based resources to demonstrate and document
thinking and learning.

3. Agenda
Background
Share examples of student work
Time to Explore/Plan
Share out
Considerations
Feedback

4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32066106@N06/4885853065/
Background:
-taught Social Studies, Language Arts and ESL in the United States for 16 years.
-2nd year at SIS
-enrolled in COETAIL course
-currently teaching MS Humanities
-grade 6 students have been 1:1 ipads since December 2012 and grade 7 since
April 2013
Making Thinking Visible:
I drew the idea for the focus of this workshop from Andrew McCarthy at Learning
2.012 in Beijing. In his workshop, Mr. McCarthy referenced the book Making
Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and
Independence for All Learners by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin
Morrison of Harvard’s Project Zero. I decided to focus on one of the core
questions of both the presentation and the book:
“How can we document student thinking so that both teachers
and students are better able to understand and develop it?”
-students have to show us their thinking & learning so we can adjust instruction
and provide targeted support
-we’ve always done this, with or without digital tools
-I will share some examples of how I’ve used a few apps and online resources
for informal assessment of students (individuals and classes)

5. SKITCH
A photo annotating app
Task: After a study of the influences of ancient Roman culture on modern life,
students were asked to take two photos (with their iPad) of examples of Roman
cultural influences in their homes and communities. Then annotate the photo using
Skitch including the following information: location of photo, description of photo,
how item is related to ancient Roman culture.
*I used this task to assess students’ ability to apply to information to a real-world
example.
Skitch is available for the following platforms:
•iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
•Mac OSX
•Android
•Windows Desktop
•Windows 8

9. Educreations
recordable interactive
whiteboard app
Task: As we were studying factors that effect the spread of beliefs and ideas
(‘grows’ & ‘slows’), students were give 30 minutes to find two images (one to
represent a ‘grow’ and one to represent a ‘slow’) and use Educreations to
present the two images with an explanation of how they represented the
concept.
*I used this informal assessment to assess how well students could explain
the concept in their own words.
Note: There is no ability to re-
record audio without starting over.
Alternative Apps
Show Me (free)
Screen Chomp (free)
Explain Everything (paid)
iPad app
also web-based at
www.educreations.com

10. Educreations
recordable interactive whiteboard app
Example 1: From her
presentation, I could
assess that this student
had a good grasp of the
concept as she explained
both slides thoroughly in
her own words.
VIDEO AVAILABLE ON
NEXT SLIDE

11. Educreations
recordable interactive whiteboard app
Example 2: This student
explained choice of
images and his
explanations also
demonstrated he has a
good grasp of the
concepts. However, I
noticed he used a few
words incorrectly
(assassination and
abandon).
VIDEO AVAILABLE ON
NEXT SLIDE

12. Educreations
recordable interactive whiteboard app
Example 3: Although the
images and explanations
illustrated the concept,
this student just repeated
examples used in class
(as we studied Christianity
in Ancient Rome). He
would need to apply the
concept in a different way
for me to feel confident in
his understanding of it.
VIDEO AVAILABLE ON
NEXT SLIDE

13. Popplet
*An interactive graphic
organizer
*Available as an app on
iPad (Lite version is
free/Paid version is
US$4.99)
*Web based version also
available. (popplet.com)
I have students do brainstorming or organization of ideas
on popplet so I can assess their organization and thought
process and where there might be gaps.

14. Padlet (www.padlet.com)
Questions about Big 6 Research Rubric http://padlet.com/wall/4q4z5d7nyl
Formally known as Wall Wisher, Padlet is basically ‘digital paper’
where ‘digital sticky notes’ can be posted. A wall is created and then a link can be
shared with participants. In addition to text, links and files can also be added to a ‘sticky
note’.
Update: Padlet recently introduced a new format called “Streams” where ‘sticky notes’
are posted chronologically.
After going over the rubric for an upcoming project, students posted
questions and concerns on this ‘padlet’. They did not have to put their
name on their ‘post’ so students would feel comfortable posting their
questions. I was then able to go in and sort the ‘posts’ and see what
students needed further support and instruction in. I noticed a lot of
questions about vocabulary in the rubric and some instructions that
needed to be clarified.

15. Socrative
student response system
Free Teacher app and Student app for iPad
Web based version (www.socrative.com)I use Socrative to
create short quizzes,
polls and exit tickets.
Results are
immediate and go
into a spread sheet
for further analysis of
group and individual
needs.
There is also an
option for ‘live
results’ that can be
displayed to the class
(without identifying
individual students).

16. EXPLORE
How could I use one of these apps
or resource to demonstrate and
document student thinking and
learning in my classroom?

17. Considerations
When to use?
When would it be beneficial to use any of these
apps &/or online resources?
Workflow?
How will I collect student products? (besides email)
Shared Devices?
How could I use any of these apps &/or online
resources in a shared device setting?

18. THANK YOU!