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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
April 4, 2015 1:30 AM
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Last month I attended a talk put on by the Book Promotion Forum on transmedia storytelling. As Reid Mihalk, a “sex and relationship role model,” put it, “Leaving a comment on a blog isn’t enough anymore.” Here are 15 ways you can use transmedia storytelling to expand your story’s audience, followed by a list of 25 different media you can use to tell stories.
15 Ways to Engage Your Audience
1. Design smart phone and tablet apps to engage younger readers in your story.
2. Turn a mystery book into an online scavenger hunt.
3. Create YouTube videos about your characters.
4. Be a curator of content. People will follow you to stay up-to-date on a topic.
5. Get news coverage by helping others.
6. Serialize your fiction. Serial fiction is making a comeback.
7. Join Facebook and Google+ groups related to your topic.
8. Help your community find you (Reid wears Sex Geek T-shirts).
9. Give stuff away for free. People will then pay to have all that information in one handy dandy place.
10. Get readers invested in your project through a Kickstarter campaign.
11. Give a percentage of your proceeds to a charity.
12. Read Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday.
13. Ask questions. Get people to participate.
14. Treat people who email you like gold. They may become that true fan who tells everyone about your book.
15. Remember that transmedia isn’t about being goofy. It’s about being aspirational and inspirational.
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 26, 2015 1:09 PM
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Argument is inescapable. It's at the heart of all career-based writing. I'm talking about the professional debate, the cover letter pitch, the interview, the grant application, the executive summary. Because argument appears in so many situations in life beyond school, students need to experience it not just as a separate skill in writing class but as a skill that's crucial to all content areas.
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 26, 2015 12:51 PM
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How do we help students connect writing to their lives outside of school? How do we motivate students to write and share their thoughts? How do we bolster their perception of writing while helping them continue to strengthen their skills so that they can communicate their ideas and visions to make the world a better place? Graham and Perin (2007) believe that students' motivation, affect, and effort in writing will increase when students engage in assignments with an authentic or meaningful purpose.
In my middle school classroom, a slight shift in how I plan activities within a unit helps me create purposeful assignments that students complete enthusiastically. Although the skills and concepts are the same, the assignment expands the audience for students' work. My students are more motivated and more readily connect to the true purpose of writing—to communicate—when they have a larger audience than just their teacher. Here are four ways I've reframed activities to help students write for a purpose."
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
March 26, 2015 12:19 AM
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There’s an ongoing argument in the technology world about whether tablets and smartphones are more focused on consumption than creativity. As time has gone on, though, the number of apps helping us do more than passively read, watch and listen has grown. Many also fall into a longer heritage of technology that democratises activities like film-making, photography and music-making. Video and photography apps now contain editing features based on those used in professional software, but made accessible enough for anyone to use in a couple of taps, and music-making apps are reducing the barrier to making listenable sounds. In all cases, this isn’t about you suddenly becoming a professional just because an app is holding your hand – instead, it’s about opening up the experience of artistic creation to a wider audience.
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 15, 2015 1:54 AM
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I contend that play is also the work of many writers. Much has been written about the traits or craft of writing, best instructional practices, and specific methodologies that serve so many important purposes. Paying serious attention to serious play taught me something more, though: these traditional approaches, while powerful in their own right, often alienate those who need to move, make, and game in order to write well. We’re losing these writers in schools and in our communities. They have important things to say and critical contributions to make.
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 15, 2015 1:32 AM
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"Create your own learning theme in minutes by using open content."
This video shows how. -JL
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
March 12, 2015 6:38 PM
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by Pam Mueller & Daniel Oppenheimer
Abstract "Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is increasingly common. Many researchers have suggested that laptop note taking is less effective than longhand note taking for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’ capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning."
The full article may be downloaded from this website without cost. -JL
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
March 12, 2015 1:52 PM
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"Our second podcast discusses strategies in student created screencasts using Explain Everything. We discuss Math tutorials, procedural tech tutorials, and possible applications in a project based planning framework. For extension, we interview Reshan Richards, creator of Explain Everything."
Jim Lerman's insight:
Great page demonstrating the use of podcasts as the organizing center of language arts projects. Note particularly the video titled "Part III Synchronous and Asynchronous Collaboration. In it you will see the podcast recording "studios" the students constructed out of cardboard boxes and packaging material. Terrific idea!
Lots of great ideas and links are contained in this post.
I believe that every writer needs a dedicated space for creative work, especially teachers who write. Here’s what I know: teachers put in more time for less pay than many professionals from other fields. Many also spend all day giving themselves to the children they teach only to come home and give themselves to the children they are raising. After they tuck everyone into bed, they often crack open their lesson plans or dive into student work that requires their immediate feedback.
Via John Evans
Today's post offers five of the most common sentence structures that we see in argumentative writing.
Via Lynnette Van Dyke
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from The Funnily Enough
March 9, 2015 1:22 AM
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The most ironic thing about complex characters in fiction is that the essence of what makes them so wonderfully complicated is actually incredibly simple. Complex characters are complex for one reason: dichotomy. That one word is the solution to all your character problems. Cliched stereotypes? Fixed. Dysfunctional character arcs? Done. Boring personalities? No more!
Via mooderino
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
March 6, 2015 12:29 AM
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A survey of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers finds that teens' research habits are changing in the digital age
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 5, 2015 1:14 PM
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The Interactive Knit Book demonstrates examples of knited electronic elements such as switches, sensors, speakers, and heaters that cause colour change. This book was compiled as the result of the EIT ICT Connected Textiles research done at the Design Research Lab at the UdK Berlin.
The samples in the book were knit by Sara Diaz Rodriguez, the demo circuits designed by Hannah Perner-Wilson and the research supported by Katharina Bredies.
The samples in the book were knit by Sara Diaz Rodriguez, the demo circuits designed by Hannah Perner-Wilson and the research supported by Katharina Bredies.
I love the project that enables the knitting of a speaker and playing it with a paper piano...yes, really.-JL
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
April 2, 2015 4:54 PM
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So how can math teachers who haven't worked their own writing muscles lately smoothly and authentically incorporate writing into their classrooms? I asked MfA master teacher and author Gary Rubinstein that very question. He came up with four tips that, frankly, can be used by any writing-tentative teacher:
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 26, 2015 1:03 PM
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description by ASCD Express (click on headline or image above, scroll to bottom of page for video)
"Eleanor Dougherty, author of the ASCD book Assignments Matter (2012), explains how students become better writers when given opportunities to write frequently, investigate structure, write from a prompt, deconstruct models of good writing, and read to build academic vocabulary and learn narrative technique."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 26, 2015 12:48 PM
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I needed to find a way to reach every writer in the room. It wasn't enough to simply deliver instruction like a bag of take-out dropped at their feet. I needed to make them part of the production from the ground up. To do this, I enlisted the help of a colleague who was willing to take on a project neither of us had tried before. We would combine our classrooms to create a "publishing house" that would publish magazines for a real audience. What better way to motivate our students than to actually create a product for real consumers
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
March 25, 2015 11:49 PM
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"Engaging, multimedia-rich digital stories can capture the attention of students and increase their interest in exploring new ideas. Combining storytelling with powerful digital creates a truly authentic learning experience that helps students develop a wide range of intellectual skills."
Very nice selection of tools. -JL
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 15, 2015 1:44 AM
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I was really impressed with how quickly everyone picked up how to make a stop motion video and the creativity involved. All of the students who experimented with stop motion animation were able to create a finished product, and most did it in 30 minutes or less. This is a great, engaging, creative activity for our Makerspace!
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 14, 2015 1:34 AM
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"Think your handwriting is pretty neat? Well here’s your chance to share it with the world by turning it into a font, and it gets better, it’s free to do thanks to the good people at MyScriptFont.com The process is quite simple, though you will need access to a printer and flatbed scanner."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 12, 2015 5:32 PM
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Our award-winning iPad app motivates and empowers students to create self-published books that demonstrate their knowledge. The program leverages your school's technology investment, supports project-based learning and provides lesson plans that align with Common Core or State Standards for each grade level.
Do your students suffer from writer’s block? I’ve found a cure for what ails them: Writing Challenge for Kids, an app by Literautas. After reading several positive online reviews, I tried this app with my students and got results that surpassed my wildest expectations.
With this app, the task of brainstorming a story introduction, scenes, and characters becomes a game. Working against the clock, students respond to specific prompts that guide them through the story-writing process. It’s fun, it’s fast, and, as the name suggests, it’s challenging. Read on to discover if this challenge is right for your students.
Via John Evans, Frank J. Klein
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Daily Magazine
March 9, 2015 1:27 AM
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With tools like Socrative, Kahoot, Zaption, Chatzy, and Plickers, teachers can use tech for immediate feedback about how students are learning and understanding the lesson.
Via Elizabeth E Charles
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 6, 2015 12:45 AM
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description by EdSurge
"If you're stumped about how to inspire your high school students to write, check out Write the World. The site offers prompts for writing from nonfiction opinion to flash fiction to poetry. Aspiring authors in your classroom can earn badges, join a topic-specific group, and become part of a writing community. Note:Write the World is only appropriate for students age 13 and older."
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from :: The 4th Era ::
March 6, 2015 12:13 AM
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"How to sculpt an environment that optimizes creative flow and summons relevant knowledge from your long-term memory through the right retrieval cues."
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Una Guía para Autores deTransmedia