Finding your One Little Word

January 4, 2015 by margaretsmn

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The Cyberspace Teacher Blogging space is full of Little Words. This is a wonderful tradition that I have been doing for three years. I want to pass this one to my students. I found Tara Smith’s OLW lesson for her 6th graders and put it on an Emaze to use with my students this week. I also used Mary Lee Hahn’s acrostic poem as a model for my students.

http://app.emaze.com/@AOFLCWZL/one-little-word

I plan to use this lesson on Monday and have the students Slice about their words on Tuesday at our blog site. You are welcome to use this presentation as well with your own students. Let me know if you do.

I made a Tagxedo with my word using all the synonyms that came up for me. I chose the tree as a symbol because the oak tree was my inspiration for my word.

I encourage you to try these activities with your students. Please join in the DigiLit round up with your link.

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Teaching | Tagged acrostic poetry, Emaze, OLW, One Little Word, tagxedo | 13 Comments

13 Responses

on January 4, 2015 at 2:35 pm | Reply Tara Smith

Love this, Margaret! We are going to revisit our September OLW’s on Monday – may I share this with my kiddos? A haiku would be the perfect way to collect our thoughts about our OLWs (and such fun, too!). You amaze me!
- on January 4, 2015 at 2:43 pm | Reply margaretsmn
  
  Absolutely use it! You made the charts. I stole them and put them in an emaze. Collaboration at its best!
on January 4, 2015 at 3:02 pm | Reply Holly Mueller

This is great, Margaret, and I just may use it! First, I have to make sure I know how to use all the image-creators you added to the presentation. 😉 I’ve been wanting to create Animoto accounts for my students for awhile now (I worked with my 4th graders who are now 6th graders on creating book trailers on Animoto, but haven’t done that since – I need to do it again!), so this would push me to that. Not sure if I’ll get to a DigiLit post today (the only digital thing I’ve been working on is creating Quizlets for PARCC vocab – not very exciting!), but I will try to get back on it next Sunday! I’m going to try to write a late Celebration post instead. Since this is the last day of break, I need to reflect over the last two weeks. 🙂
- on January 4, 2015 at 7:19 pm | Reply margaretsmn
  
  I bought the lowest membership and allow my students to use mine so they can get longer videos. It’s an easy site to use. All my best for your week back.
on January 4, 2015 at 3:06 pm | Reply Catherine Johnson

I love trees, that is super! I’ll have to try this.
on January 4, 2015 at 3:57 pm | Reply Stacey Shubitz

This is an INCREDIBLE resource, Margaret. I can’t wait to share your Emaze with others!
- on January 4, 2015 at 7:20 pm | Reply margaretsmn
  
  The ideas came from Tara. I love how Emaze makes them stand out. Please share!
on January 4, 2015 at 4:08 pm | Reply Cathy

Margaret,
I love your image with all of your thinking around your #olw. I must say I was “emazed.” I keep seeing “prepare to be emazed” and thought it was a digital play on words like email. Now I see I have a new app to play with in the coming weeks. Julie just hooked me with Canva — and now this. I’m going to be busy. Thanks for hosting — and for the great information.

Cathy
on January 4, 2015 at 4:30 pm | Reply jarhartz

I love every bit of this post Margaret! And I’m bookmarking it to use with my students. I tried canva today as my very tiny diglit work. I’m trying things on my Chromebook too to see how it goes. Importing images is a challenge for me on it. There is a way just not sure yet.
on January 4, 2015 at 6:51 pm | Reply Kimberley

This is fabulous. I also love the idea of choosing OLW and then finding other words that mean the same thing. What a great way to work on vocabulary. High level stuff!
on January 6, 2015 at 11:38 am | Reply Reaching for Creativity | Reflections on the Teche

[…] « Finding your One Little Word […]
on February 24, 2015 at 6:16 am | Reply Janet Ilko (@writin4change)

Love this idea! As we revisit our one word for my students, I am going to use your idea to create a word picture. So wonderful and will build vocabulary for my EL writers.
on January 5, 2016 at 11:33 am | Reply #SOL16 and Revealing #OneLittleWord16 | Resource - Full

[…] it here from Ruth Ayres (2008) and even see how Margaret Simon used it with her students in 2015 here. You can also read some early announcements of words here, here, here, here, and […]