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I am working on framing my daily language lessons for my gifted students in grades 5 and 6 using WONDER. Here is a form for creating your own Wonder lesson. Wonder template for ELA (2) This framework will lead my students to explore Wonderopolis, an amazing educational site, as well as help them respond to real-world content. These frames are aligned to the Common Core Standards and use pre-AP skills.
I worked on the Thinglink Teacher Challenge this summer. I wanted to put my Wonder framework into a Thinglink image. I used Starling Murmurations as the Wonder for this experiment. I also tried PollDaddy to embed two polls, one for a definition and one for a question. I put in links with each of the Wonder activities. These activities include
- W- Exploring the wonder
- O- What is your opinion?
- N- Notes, find words of awe and wonder
- D- Define phenomenon
- E- On Tapestry, rewrite phrases to create a logical sentence.
- R- Response to reading: Summarize and article.
Here is the link to Thinglink:
Have you ever wondered about Starling Murmurations?
I wonder if Thinglink will make the work of Wonder more motivating or more time-consuming. Will Thinglink be a useful tool in my classroom or not worth the time it takes me to create one? All this remains to be seen as I begin working with my students this year. All in all, trying new applications is challenging and fun, so I hope my excitement translates to the children.
What new technology will you try this year? Don’t forget to link up.
Reflections on the Teche 
I LOVE Wonderopolis and so do my students. I think your kids are going to find this very engaging and I can see them eventually creating their own Thinglinks. Don’t you think when we show excitement about something new, it become contagious for our students too? I’ll look forward to hearing about what your students think about these new tools (Thinglink and your WONDER frame).
I love the WONDER template! I would like to use Wonderopolis more in my classroom this year, too, so this is very helpful!
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Margaret, thank you for opening my eyes to new wonders (via Tapestry). I think the Wonder Template you created is a good tool for me to share with teachers this year. Thank you. I am humbly submitting my try with Tapestry – first attempt but need far more work with the tool.
Carol, your link isn’t working. Tapestry says you haven’t created any stories yet. Please try again. I want to see what you have done. We all have to start slow. We are here to support each other.
I imagine that you will be letting kids choose their own wonder topic, right? The template for yours looks good. Will there be a class group so they can view each others & make comments? You know that our school does the individual topics, but one teacher also did what he called “wonder journals”, to help students begin to improve the depth of their questioning. It was successful & he always said his students loved doing it, just brief looks at their own “wonderings”. Then when Wonderopolis came along, they enjoyed exploring that too. This Thinglink will be interesting to see how it goes, Margaret. What a lot of work you’ve put into it!
My colleagues and I have created the first nine weeks of wonders to lay the groundwork. Our students will definitely be pursuing their own wonders as well. Thinglink is so user friendly that students can easily learn how to use it. I am still wanting to create a connected learning environment for my students to connect with others. When your school starts, let me know if you have some upper elementary students interested in sharing their work.
Thanks for replying, Margaret. I need to work with Thinglink myself-finally was accepted, so time to explore so I can share with everyone. I depend on the teachers as to sharing, so I’ll let you know of course.
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Great idea for writing and Wonderopolis! Thanks for sharing! You inspired me to think about writing as well: http://whatelse.edublogs.org/2014/08/10/digilit-sunday-clmooc-writing/
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[…] Sunday! DigiLit Sunday is a Sunday post on literacy, an invitation by Margaret Simon, to share literacy strategies and tools for the classroom. This week’s list of […]