Saturday, October 22, 2016

More Google Forms Little Learners!

Check out this Google Form listening center activity designed for primary-aged students! 


Why use digital listening centers? Here are a few reasons:

  • Students get opportunities to practice listening skills while hearing a wide variety of literature read aloud by fluent models.
  • Forms work on most any device and don't require login.
  • Little learners get watch YouTube videos without actually having to navigate through the YouTube website and all of its (sometimes questionable) distractions.
  • This can be an independent, yet still meaningful learning activity during your Literacy Centers - allowing you time to work with other small groups.

In this example using the story Halloween Mice, by Bethany Roberts, even very young students can offer a quick "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" opinion of the story. 




After the students listen to the story and vote, the class can examine and discuss the results:




Here is another sample using the story "Yoko" by Rosemary Wells. It goes a little further by adding some questions about the story to the end. The use of images as answer options keeps the activity accessible to early or non-readers.



Want to learn how to do this yourself? Here's a quick YouTube tutorial:




Tips for little learners:

  • Keep it simple! Use just 1-3 response questions!
  • Use the shorter videos - 5 to 7 minutes.
  • Use images as your answer options.
  • Deliver the form in Google Classroom or with a QR Code.
  • Including a short-answer question/prompt allows for authentic writing opportunities and practice at the keyboard.
  • The website JustBooksReadAloud.com has curated over 700 YouTube read-aloud videos, which can be sorted by author, length, reading level, and topic. 
  • Using a headphone splitter, multiple students can listen, even if you have just one device!