Skip to main content

Caption This!



Earlier this year, Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) wrote an awesome blog post titled "Caption This! A fun, deep-thinking Google Drawings activity." The blog post was co-authored by Laura Steinbrink (@SteinbrinkLaura) and it included an explanation of four different activities that could be created using Google Drawings or Google Slides. They also provided templates, tips, and examples of how to use each of these activities in the classroom. (Click here to read the original post.)

I tried the "Caption This & Comment" activity for a Martin Luther King Jr. unit we were doing in class. In order to build some background knowledge, students completed a few different activities:

  1. Google Arts & Culture: I tried to hook students' attention by having them explore images related to King. They chose one image that stood out to them and they shared it on a collaborative Padlet board with an explanation of why they chose it. 
  2. YouTube Playlist: I created a playlist of 5 different short videos about King. Students chose 2 - 3 videos to watch, and then they wrote a post on a digital discussion board that included one thing they learned and one question they still had about King's life. 
  3. Newsela Article: Students read and annotated an informational text about King's life. I used Newsela so that students could read it at a comfortable level. They shared one of their annotations on our class Flipgrid. 
After they completed these activities, they moved on to the "Caption This" assignment. I created a template for them to copy in Google Slides. 

They did a really great job! I will say that this involved A LOT of feedback and one-on-one conversations, especially for their explanations on Slide 2. However, it was really powerful to read those explanations and get a real idea of their understanding and learning. 

 Here are the links to some student examples:

 Student Example #1
Student Example #2
Student Example #3

I really enjoyed this activity, and my students did, also! I am definitely going to revisit it next year with some different units. 

 Have you tried the "Caption This!" activity in your classroom? How did you use it? Or, how could you see yourself using in the future? I'd love to hear from you!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Virtual EdTech Coaching Sessions

  I'm really enjoying these virtual tech coaching sessions with teachers across our district! Here are some takeaways about coaching virtually: 🤝 Building relationships is still key to effective coaching. I try to look for things a teacher has on their desk or wall that I can see in the camera. This helps start a conversation about something meaningful to the teacher and starts our session on a positive note. ❓ Ask lots of questions rather than jumping in with a solution. I like to ask, "Can you please share your screen and show me how you would typically do/get to ____?" rather than telling them where to click right away. It helps me learn about how they navigate digital tools. 📧 Follow up the conversation with an email. I like to include a short video with a quick tutorial about something specific they talked about during the session. It helps demonstrate that I was actively listening and that I'd love to keep the conversation going and keep working together. What...
Post a Comment
Read more

#OneNewThing: Adobe Spark

This week I tried using Adobe Spark Video for the first time. I'm enrolled in Tony Vincent's ( @tonyvincent ) Classy Videos course, and our assignment this week was to create a narrated slideshow.  When you first log in to Adobe Spark , you can choose which type of product you want to create: I chose to create a video to persuade students and parents to attend our upcoming Back to School Night. Adobe Spark provides some templates for you to use, or you can choose to create your video from scratch.  I used the "Promote an Idea" template for my project. Once you have chosen your template, it's time to start creating! There are some basic menus inside of the video creator. These allow you to choose things such as layout, theme, and music.  You can also add narration to the slides by pressing the red button with the microphone icon at the bottom of each slide. I wrote up a brief "script" for each slide so that I wouldn't forge...
Post a Comment
Read more

First Week of School

We just wrapped up our first week of school! I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know our new 5th grade students! Here are some of the activities we did to start building our classroom culture and learn more about each other: "All About Me" Google Drawing Students learned how to use some of the basic features of Google Drawings by creating a Drawing about themselves. The basic requirements were that they include their name, a picture of themselves, and text/images that describe their personalities or interests. I created an example to give them an idea of what it could look like.  I used this activity last year, and I really enjoyed what my students created. However, I decided this year to give them more time to just play with and explore the tools in Google Drawing. I feel like this really paid off because students were able to discover how to use some of the tools and share with each other instead of just relying on me to show them how to use it.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more