Saturday, September 21, 2013

Apps Supporting Common Core State Standards

Chambers, Julia

Cohen, S. (2012). Apps meet the Common Core State Standards in writing. Teacher Librarian, 40(2), 32-39. Retrieved from http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk//launch.aspx?eid=f50f51d4-ce9b-4584-8a0a-68b19c3eb9e7

In this article, Media Specialist Sydnye Cohen looks at seven of the new Common Core State Standards for writing and discusses how teacher librarians can introduce tools and collaborate with teachers to help teach and assess student’s learning along the way. The following outline identifies a particular CC Standard and then supplies the author’s suggested online tools that can aid students in mastering the standard.

Writing Standard 1: Write arguments using valid reasoning and relevant evidence.
            Apps
  • Subtext: an app for online reading, great for collaborative reading, sharing annotations, and providing opportunities for students to synthesis directly following the text)
  • Gale Access My Library (AML): an app that uses Gale databases to find vetted, relevant evidence
  • Diigo: social bookmarking app useful for gathering resources with annotation capabilities
Writing Standard 5: Develop and strengthen writing by planning, revising, editing, and rewriting
            Apps
  • Lino: graphic outlining that enables student to see linear and non-linear connection between ideas
  • iBrainstorm: outlining that allows students to type in text and draw
  • Popplet: outlining/organizing using text and images
  • Noodletools: a subscription writing/researching tool for taking notes, creating an outline, and citing sources in the correct format
Writing Standard 6: Use technology to collaborate, produce, and publish writing online
            Apps
  • Google Docs: collaborative editing/publishing
  • Voice-thread: students combine still and moving images with voice and text to create online stories
  • Pen.io: publish text and images; saves to the Web
  • Paperport: publish text, images, voice, and handwriting and save as a PDF or share in Dropbox
  • Visual Poet: pairs images with works for 3poanel poetry
Writing Standard 7: Research to build and present knowledge
            Apps
  • Pearltrees: students vet websites and curate the web for better access to what they need
  • Google Scholar: offers opportunities to evaluate information on the Internet
  • Diigo: gives students opportunity to categorize information, highlight and annotate it for meaning.
Writing Standard 8: Gather information from a variety of print/digital sources, assess credibility and integrate information while avoiding plagerism.
            Apps
  • TED: always credible with multi-module formats
  • iTunes U: resources created by educators
  • Noodletools: (see above) allows teachers/librarians to assess students at every stage of research and writing
Writing Standard 9: Draw evidence from text to support analysis, reflection and research
            Apps
  • Diigo (see above)
  • Evernote: allows annotation of texts online
  • Subtext: best app for reading online
Additional Common Core State Standard for History, Science and Technology: Ability for students to see conflicting viewpoints, introduce differing claims about a topic, organize reasoning for an argument logically.
            Apps to distinguish opposing claims:

  • News 360: students can search for a topic and see multiple viewpoints; can customize to see news from the left vs. news from the right
  • Flipboard: students search by topic, then use higher order thinking to sort into pros, cons, and unbiased views.
I found Cohen's outline of CC State Standards for writing to be very helpful, as well as the corresponding app suggestions. Because several apps supported more than one standard, I was most curious to further investigate those as a starting point.

CA-Common Core Assessments
ET-Standards
IL-Media Literacy

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