About the Quick Lesson Ideas
The Quick Lesson Ideas by the Thinkspiration Ambassador, Sarah Cargill, provide brief ideas on how you can incorporate visual thinking tools into the lessons you already have on your schedule. These posts will include step-by-step guides, product tips and creative uses for visual thinking and learning.
Understanding the difference between cause and effect and how the two relate to one another is an important academic and life skill. Understanding how to create a cause and effect diagram and when to use it helps students understand why events occur and predict what will happen in the future.1 Visual thinking cause and effect diagrams make comprehension of events easier to see and grasp. Using visual thinking tools such as Kidspiration®, Inspiration® and Webspiration Classroom™ make the process of creating and expanding upon cause and effect diagrams feasible in a classroom setting.
In this Quick Lesson Idea you’ll learn:
- When to use cause and effect diagrams as a thinking and learning strategy
- Tips on creating and using visual thinking diagrams to show cause and effect
- Where to find additional resources on cause and effect in Inspiration and Webspiration Classroom Read more »
Webspiration Classroom™ service is a great tool for taking notes. Students can quickly jot down ideas during a class lecture, while reading a book, when researching for a paper or more. Taking notes in Webspiration Classroom can help students remember key points and help keep you organized.
In this Quick Lesson Idea you’ll learn how to help your students:
- Decipher times when it is beneficial to take notes in Webspiration Classroom
- Take effective and efficient notes in Webspiration Classroom
- Use the Webspiration Classroom Student Resources for tips on notetaking
- Use their notes for additional purposes
For classrooms that engage in a back-and-forth student-teacher work flow for assignment distribution, draft review, revisions and grading, here’s an idea on how to streamline that process using Webspiration Classroom™ service. The web-based tools that Webspiration Classroom offers can help cut back on the amount of loose-leaf papers that students and teachers need to haul to-and-from the classroom. It can also create new ways for teachers to easily provide students feedback on assignments quickly and efficiently, guiding students throughout their learning process. So, keep reading to improve the student-teacher work flow process in your classroom!
In this Quick Lesson, you will:
- create an assignment online
- post or distribute an assignment to your students
- instruct your students to retrieve and turn in an assignment
- and provide feedback and return assignments to your students in Webspiration Classroom.
On our website, we talk about how Webspiration Classroom™ service can improve the student-teacher work flow. In Webspiration Classroom, you can create assignments to post or distribute to your students. So today I’m going to talk about the specific tools in Webspiration Classroom that can help you achieve this and truly improve the way you plan your lessons and manage assignments.
With Inspiration®, InspireData® and Kidspiration®, we’ve provided some excellent resources to help teachers get started and continue using visual learning across all subject areas in the classroom. These tools include things like lesson plans, video tutorials, templates, activities and examples. It’s important to us to help educators feel fully equipped to integrate our visual learning technology tools into their curriculum.
That’s why with our new, online writing, visual thinking and collaboration tool, Webspiration Classroom™ service, we’ve done this – and more. A Webspiration Classroom subscription includes both Educator and Student Resources to help you and your entire classroom get start with visual thinking, writing, collaboration, peer review and more. So, check out how you can make the most of these resources. Read more »
Monday, April 4, 2011, your Webspiration® Public Beta account converted to a 30-day trial of our new paid services. Now you’re wondering: How can I transfer all of my documents and account information over to Webspiration Classroom™ service or WebspirationPRO™ once I sign up for one of these services? I’ve got the answer! Here’s a few easy steps to help you through the process.
Networks bring people together to brainstorm big ideas, exchange information, discuss activities, solve problems, deliver advice and more. These small communities and teams can improve and create a wide range of subjects or breathe fresh ideas into old ways. In the education community, we call these groups – that expand our knowledge and bring new ideas in our reach – our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). Creating a PLN can connect you to people and information that help you accomplish your goals. We understand this. This is why we’ve made it easy for you to further develop your PLN.2 Read more »
Before joining Inspiration® Software, I was exposed to a few visual learning strategies as pre-writing and brainstorming tools. In fact, I would argue that many of us who are not formal educators or studied in this area have informally used visual learning techniques at some time or another without ever knowing the proper name or purpose for them. After a couple of weeks on the job, I quickly discovered that visual learning and thinking is a complex strategy that includes numerous models that truly cannot be identified with interchangeable terms. A web is not the same as a mind map, idea map or concept map. These are in fact different visual thinking models that were developed by various individuals for very different functions and purposes. This Quick Lesson Idea will help you spot the difference between a Buzan-looking map or Novak concept map. Keep reading to learn more… Read more »
Peer review is an important step in the writing process and can be a valuable step in enhancing critical thinking skills and learning. It encourages students to do their best work since fellow students, not just the teacher, will be reviewing it. It also provides insight, knowledge and different perspectives from colleagues and fellow students also engaged in learning and understanding the same material. In addition, reviewers benefit and learn by having to think critically about another person’s work. In a past post we discussed how Webspiration Classroom™ service can help your students through each step of the writing process. Today I want to explore how Webspiration Classroom can facilitate students peer review sessions for writing and other work. Read more »
Whether it’s planning a multimedia video project, writing a play, envisioning a story, creating a comic or preparing for a presentation, storyboards are great educational tools to practice the planning of a formulaic story.3 This activity exercises students’ planning and visual thinking skills while they develop a comprehensive idea for a story’s main elements in a graphic organizer. Today I want to walk you through, step-by-step how Webspiration Classroom™ service can help your students create a storyboard and work collaboratively.
- “Cause and Effect Mini Lesson by Diana Dell, Ed.S.” Teaching and Learning with Technology: Diana Dell, Ed.S. – Instructional Technology Specialist for the Valley Park School District. Web. 15 June 2011. <http://www.mrsdell.org/causeandeffect/>. [↩]
- “YouTube – Sketchy Explanation: Starting a PLN.” YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. Web. 21 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqSH5TMYlz4>. [↩]
- “Creating a Storyboard.” Willamette University. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. <http://www.willamette.edu/wits/idc/mmcamp/Storyboard_handout.htm>. [↩]
