Low-Tech
Tools
About
Sticky Notes
Removable sticky
notes come in many shapes, colors, styles and sizes. They range from
tiny sticky flags to poster-sized sheets. Some sticky notes have lines
and others are created from a sheer material that reveals the text underneath
it. The possibilities for using sticky notes seem to be as limitless
as the types of available sticky products.
Suggestions
for Classroom Use:
- Ask the students
to mark key points in a text with sticky notes and then use them to
write notes and summaries on the pages.
- Students can
use sticky notes to highlight or add information in a text or draft
of a paper.
- While brainstorming,
students can write ideas on sticky notes and then organize those notes
into subtopics, color-coding each category.
- Sticky notes
are a great tool for creating rough drafts of timelines or concept
maps.
- Students can
write vocabulary words on sticky notes and keep them inside a notebook
or text.
- Students can
use sticky notes during a peer editing session to highlight and comment
on parts of a draft.
- If your students
keep journals, have them periodically review what they have written
and find ideas that can serve as "seeds" for writing. Have
them record these ideas on sticky notes and file the notes in the
back of their journals to be accessed as needed.
- After students
identify a main idea for a paragraph, they can record on sticky notes
answers to the following questions: Who? Why? What? When? Where? and
How? After reviewing the ideas on the sticky notes, teachers can encourage
students to write more descriptive texts.
- To help students
capture details about an experience related to the senses, have them
respond to the following questions on individual sticky notes: What
did I see? How did it smell? What did it taste like? How does it feel
to my touch? What sound does it make? Students can discuss their ideas
in pairs and then return to their writing to add more details.
About
Highlighters
Two types of commonly
used highlighters are pens and tapes. Highlighting pens now come in
a variety of shapes and ink colors, providing more possibilities for
a comfortable fit, easier handling, and visibility. Some pens also feature
erasable ink. Highlighting tape, which comes on a dispenser like adhesive
tape, is easy to use. Once placed on paper, it can easily be lifted
and reused without leaving a mark.
Suggestions
for Classroom Use:
- After applying
highlighting tape or sheets to parts of a text or rough draft, students
can write notes on the highlighted area. Once they have finished,
they can remove all of the marks from the paper.
- Highlighters
lend themselves easily to color-coding. For example, various colors
can be used for identifying different types of language or thematic
elements in a story.
- Help students
isolate the most important ideas in a passage by giving them just
two or three segments of highlighting tape. The tape can easily be
repositioned, if necessary. This technique will help students to avoid
“over highlighting.”
- Use highlighting
pens to encourage students to edit their choice of highlighted words
or passages. This helps students to avoid excessive highlighting and
enables them to zero in on the most important parts of the text.
- Erasable highlighting
pens can be used to quickly mark unfamiliar words or confusing passages
in a text.
- In preparation
for writing summaries of stories, have students read the stories together
orally in cooperative groups. Each student should have a different
colored highlighting tape and a different aspect of the story to locate,
e.g., the characters, setting, or events. When students hear or read
the element they are looking for, they highlight the text. Later,
they share the information before writing summaries.
Return
to Technology Tools Chart · Top of Page
About
Correction Tape
Correction tape can
found on dispensers like adhesive tape. Correction tape goes on dry (without
fumes) and can be written on instantly. It can be found in various widths:
1-line, 2-lines, or several lines wide. Removable correction tape can
be repositioned several times on a page, making it ideal for activities
that require parts of a text to be temporarily concealed.
Suggestions
for Classroom Use:
- While reviewing
a student’s written work, the teacher can cover up misspelled
words with the tape and then later have the student make corrections.
- Correction tape
can be used to simplify or isolate a passage of text by covering adjacent
words or phrases.
- The wider form
of correction tape is ideal for group activities that are written
on chart paper. White mailing labels can also be used to cover large
areas.
- Correction tape
can be used to cover up passages in an existing text for rewriting.
Example: Ask students to revise the beginning or ending of a famous
tale.
- Ask students
to read through a draft of a written piece and look for places that
need more vivid language. Have them cover up the general adjectives
and replace them with more descriptive ones.
- If a student
has trouble staying within the lines while writing, correction tape
can help provide a tactile boundary to guide the student’s hand.
Return
to Technology Tools Chart · Top of Page
Home
· About STAR Tech
· Leadership ·
Using Technology · Resources
· Help
|
