Our ELA and ELL teachers were scheduled to conduct a Super Saturday session for ELL students. They had requested that I support them with some apptivities that would focus on unfamiliar vocabulary. The passage (written by Mr. Wayment) was originally included as a handout. I simply converted the document to a PDF, gave it a public URL in Dropbox, and suggested it be completed in an app like Neu.Annotate PDF or PaperPort Notes. Not only does integrating the iPad provide the teachers with an engaging paperless lesson, apps like PaperPort Notes also provide a way for students to provide responses both in written and auditory form. Consider having students answer the following question “Do you think it was right or wrong for the people at the wake to laugh about things that Mr. Ortiz had said and done?” using the voice recording feature.
Follow-up activity: This involved students illustrating their own “common words (see page 17 & 18)” vocabulary word from the list. This would include the word, a definition of the word, using the word in a sentence, and a visual representation of the word. The visual could be a picture of the student portraying the word (if the classroom has an iPad 2) or a hand-drawn illustration in an app like Doodle Buddy. Students had the choice of the following words (howl, wail, cry, moan, sob, chuckle, snicker, giggle, guffaw, and explode with laughter). The final product would be assembled in Popplet Lite. An extension could be using Popplet Lite to place each of the words on a spectrum of intensity (e.g. howl to explode with laughter). Also visit Taxonomy of Ideas for a framework.