Student Voice Threads

                                                     Voice Threads

 1.)         I found Alyssa Pantano’s voice thread for descriptive writing to be especially effective for teaching purposes.  First of all, it had a very clear and focused introduction.  Slow and very clear speech makes it very easy to understand.  Also, when speaking during her introduction, you can tell that she was very thorough and mindful of the students, and the questions that they may have.  With the first slide, she kept the task simple, yet, gave choices to the students- they could either ask a question, state what they hoped to learn, or say why they thought it was important to work with another.  Giving the students options is always a great idea, and can help prevent them from being stuck on a task at hand.

           With the second slide, she provided visual support, listing descriptive words that the students could use in making their descriptive sentences.  What I really liked about this is how she incorporated the draw tool.  Not only did the students practice making descriptive sentences, but they were also able to learn another feature of Voice Thread.

          I really enjoyed the final activity, the descriptive writing, using the picture prompt.  Not only did she use a great picture, which could provoke endless responses, but she set up the writer very well with to get them started on their writing.   Having a response already started, it made for a very smooth and quick transition to actually writing what the man saw on the other side of the fence.  I think that this activity was exceptionally well done.  All in all , a great job!  A clear and straightforward introduction and tasks that build on one another that gradually get more demanding.

 2.)         Another Voice Thread that I enjoyed was Meng Zhang’s.  Focused around descriptive writing, it used pictures to prompt student responses.  The first picture was of a busy city, and the second, a supermarket.   The students were to select someone in each picture and describe them using adjectives.  In addition to practicing writing , students were to practice using the drawing tool, as well, to indicate which picture they were describing. 

              As being effective for teaching what I liked is the fact that the students had the opportunity to choose what they wanted to write about and the fact that the pictures could be interpreted in so many different ways.  Also, something else that I thought was effective was having modeled responses so the students knew more or less exactly what they were to do.