Easy Writing Prompts with Discovery Education Streaming

The emphasis on cross-curricular writing has many non-language arts teachers scratching their heads to come up with authentic writing assignments that tie into classroom instruction. Discovery Education Streaming (formerly United Streaming), a subscription-based multimedia database, has a great writing tool to help any subject teacher tie writing into classroom activities. It's the Writing Prompt Builder - one of the My Builder Tools found on the database.

The Writing Prompt Builder enables a teacher to design a writing prompt around DE Streaming media, such as a video clip, still image, or audio clip, post it electronically for students to access and complete, and return the results to the teacher electronically for viewing and assessment. A Writing Prompt Builder assignment is completed in five steps:


Step 1 - General Information Name the writing prompt and select the type of writing you want students to use. The choices are: analysis, descriptive, expository, narrative, and persuasive. Select where you want to save the writing prompt assignment (the My Contents folder is the default); select the subject area and grade level. Multiple grade levels can be selected. Click Save/Continue.


Step 2 - Select Media Select the media you wish to use as your writing prompt. You can choose a short video clip or a still image from the DE Streaming collection. The students will view the clip/image, and respond to it according to the directions you provide. If you found a video clip or image while searching the database, it can be added automatically as a writing prompt by checking the box next to the media, and selecting Writing Prompt from the drop-down menu next to Add Selected Items To: , then clicking ADD. Click on Save/Continue to proceed to the next step.




Step Three - Customize Text Create a title for the writing prompt. You can modify the font, style, size and color of the title text. A preview of the title will appear in the Preview Title box. Now, compose the writing prompt activity itself in the text box. For instance, after asking students to watch a video clip on the September 11th terrorist attacks and its influence on the Patriot Act, you may type - "Do you think the Patriot Act supports or interferes with civil liberties? Support your response with three reasons why." The text in the body of the assignment can also be edited using the text editing tools above the text box. You can use these features to liven up the appearance of the text, or to make it more visible to visually impaired students. Click on Save/Continue to proceed to the next step.

Step Four - Preview Review your spelling, etc., and make sure the video segment/still image loaded correctly and, if it's a video, launches correctly when you click on the screen image.
Click on Save/Continue to proceed to the next step.


Step Five - Assign This step provides the teacher with the information students need to access and complete the writing assignment online. Most teachers will provide access to their students by using the Assign By Code or URL feature, because no previous data entry of student/class information is needed for this method. Click on the tab labeled for it to see the information for both methods you can use to have your students access and complete the assignment.
You can provide access to the assignment by: 1.) providing the Assignment Code for the assignment and the URL for the assignment site. An example would be - "WHB4E-68T3: Assignment Code, http://assignments.discoveryeducation.com/"; or 2.) providing the Assignment URL, which includes the code and does not require students to enter it to begin the assignment. An example of this would be: http://assignments.discoveryeducation.com/?cdPasscode=WHB4E-68T3.


Once each student completes the writing prompt assignment, the results will automatically be forwarded to your My Contents folder on the Discovery Education Streaming site. If you prefer not to read them electronically, students can print a hard copy of the assignment once it is completed to hand in.

Students complete the assignment through the Student Assignment and Assessment Access site provided by DE Streaming. They log onto http://assignments.discoveryeducation.com/, enter the Assignment Code provided for the assignment, type in a first and last name, then click Go.

The Discovery Education Streaming database houses over 10,000 full-length educational videos, broken into tens of thousands of short video segments, and over 20,000 still images to use. They are searchable by subject area, grade level, and state standards, which makes them an ideal resource as a writing prompt!

Posterize Your Wiki With Glogster

Okay, you've created a wiki, and picked a template that fits your style, but you'd like to make it stand out from the all the other wikis. Well, with a little time and effort, and the Web tool, Glogster, you can create a unique and memorable wiki home page. Glogster lets you create a digital poster using their graphics and/or your own. You can place hyperlinks to the pages in your wiki in your poster so wiki visitors can click on the poster to open up your wiki pages, or they can use the traditional navigation bar. To view an example of what an embedded Glogster poster looks like as a wiki home page, visit my tech integration wiki at http://butlertech.wikispaces.com. Try it, and wake up you wiki home page and make it truly your own.


Here's how you can personalize your home page using Glogster:

1. Create your wiki first, because you'll need the wiki page links when creating your interactive Glogster home page. If you add pages later, you can link to them and update your Glogster creation to include the new links.
2. Go to the Glogster link above (this is the educational Glogster site) and create a glog. If you want to include links to other wiki pages on the Glogster poster, you will want to have your wiki opened and minimized so you can open it quickly to copy and paste the URL for each page into the glog. I used text links, such as "Google Docs" and linked each one so the link opens that specific wiki page.
3. Once you've finished your glog, click Save and Publish from the Glogster options. Select Classic Glog. Choose the categories that suit your glog, select Public, and then click Save.
4. When the next dialog box opens, select View this Glog. Once your glog opens to view, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link to Embed to Web Page. You will need to copy the code from the bottom box. This is the code you will embed on your wiki home page.
5. Open your wiki home page, and embed the code according to your wiki instructions. In Wikispaces, go to your home page and select Edit this Page. Select the icon in the Editor Toolbox for Embed Widget. Select Other HTML. Paste the code from your Glogster page into the dialog box, and click Save.
6. If you use an image or background pattern for your personalized glog and you want the frame of your wiki to match the background of the embedded glog on your wiki home page (like I used), visit http://gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com/ and follow the directions for Adding a Background Image for Frame.

If you add another page to you wiki at a later date, you can still include a link to it on the embedded glog home page by opening up your glog in Glogster, editing it to include the link, then saving the edited glog. Your wiki page will include the new link the next time you open the wiki or when you refresh it if it's already opened.

For a video tutorial of the above instructions, view this You Tube video: