Work in Progress
Please pardon our progress while we refine the look and functionality of our new ALEX site! You can still access the old ALEX site at alex.asc.edu. If you would like to share feedback or have a question for the ALEX Team, you can use the contact form here, or email us directly at administrator@alex.state.al.us.

NOTICE: The old ALEX site at alex.asc.edu will not be accessible on March 31st. Please contact administrator@alex.state.al.us if this may cause an issue with a scheduled event/deadline.

Learning Activities

Overview

Voki is an online learning resource that allows the user to create a customizable avatar that will star in a short video clip.  The avatar can be placed in a variety of settings, and students can record the script for the avatar to say.  There is also a text to speech component of the program where students can choose a voice style and then type the script for the avatar to perform.

Activity Learning Objectives

The student will create a short video that will be shown to classmates for the purpose of giving a brief description of the latest book they have read.  The presentation should include a short synopsis of the plot and a a simple introduction to the main characters in the novel.

These videos will be helpful as students are selecting books in the library for their personal reading and will give students a fun technology tool to use in the place of a traditional book report.

Activity Assessment Strategies

The teacher will require the following components in the Voki presentation:

  • Book Title
  • Author
  • Main Characters
  • Plot Summary
  • Persuasive closing

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will demonstrate prior knowledge of content area vocabulary.

Students will use digital tools to produce a word cloud poster.

Activity Assessment Strategies

1.  Determine if the students have prior knowledge of the content area vocabulary (i.e. literary terms, science vocabulary,historical events, etc.).  

2.  Ask students to discuss their word cloud vocabulary choices.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

In this learning activity, students will watch a video clip from the movie, Far and Away.  The scene is a reenactment of the Oklahoma Land Rush.  Students will watch this clip to be able to visualize what the Oklahoma Land Rush was actually like.  Students will then pretend to be a man or woman involved in the race for land and write a journal entry describing their experiences that day.

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will be able to describe social and economic influences on United States' expansion prior to World War I, specifically the Oklahoma Land Rush.

Activity Assessment Strategies

The journal entry should be used to assess students comprehension of the Oklahoma Land Rush.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

Scholastic StudyJams Hearing video can be used to introduce or reinforce the teaching of the ear structure and function. There is an included link to a post-quiz to assess learning.

Activity Learning Objectives

The student will:

  • investigate how animals receive information through their ears. 
  • investigate how animals process and respond to sound information. 

Activity Assessment Strategies

Teacher observation of the quiz results and the student sketches will be used for assessment.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

The Xtranormal video depicts a discussion about the causes of the U.S. Civil War between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. Both presidents are represented by cartoon avatars that resemble each president. **Because the video is from YouTube, instructions for how to address potential school site Internet blockages are listed in the "Advanced Preparation" section of this page.

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Summarize major legislation and court decisions from 1800 to 1861 that led to increasing sectionalism including the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Acts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision
  • Identify causes of the Civil War, including states' rights and the issue of slavery
  • Describe the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, on the abolitionist movement
  • Describe the founding of the first abolitionist societies
  • Recognize key Northern and Southern personalities including Abraham Lincoln

Activity Assessment Strategies

During the lesson, teacher will compare student answers to the answers provided by President Lincoln. 

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

This video promoted by the Ad Council is designed to make teens aware of the potential dangers of sharing and posting personal information online and communicating with unfamiliar people.

Activity Learning Objectives

The students will view the short one minute video that shows the potential risks associated with posting personal information online.  This video shows several examples of how one girl faces negative attention from her personal posts.

Activity Assessment Strategies

The teacher will evaluate the effectiveness of the video by engaging students in a debriefing discussion about how posting personal information online can have negative effects for the individual involved.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

The video is a concise and entertaining way to introduce students to basic geometric shapes. 

Subject Area

Grade(s)

K

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will correctly name basic geometric shapes. 

Activity Assessment Strategies

The teacher may play the video again while pausing as each shape is introduced to elicit the shape names from students. This would work as an informal evaluation.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Content Standard(s)

Overview

In this learning activity, students will relate to the experiences of new immigrants to life in the United States by following the immigrants' footsteps by taking a virtual tour of Ellis Island.  The digital tool includes first-hand stories told by people who came through Ellis Island and historical photographs and films.

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will be able to describe the immigration process through Ellis Island and early experiences of new immigrants' life in the United States.

Activity Assessment Strategies

Students' will be assessed by their knowledge of Ellis Island in the letter.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

The tool used is a video from schooltube.com. The video shows students taking on the roles of influential African Americans in the United States. At the end, the students are reciting the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr.  

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will be able to create a skit (in small groups) of a scene that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. Must use one piece of technology to present.

Students will present the scene to the class.

Students will write a reflection of the scene they presented and include why it was an important part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Activity Assessment Strategies

To assess the skits, a rubric will be used. A rubric will also be used to assess the students' reflections on their skits and the Civil Rights Movement.

Rubric maker

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

Overview

In this learning activity, students will identify key Alabamians who made contributions to science, education, arts, and politics by creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers through the Read Write Think Printing Press.  The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers. Teachers and students can choose from several templates to publish class newspapers, informational brochures, and flyers announcing class events. Text added to the templates can be modified using a simple editor, which allows students to choose text features, such as font size and color.

Activity Learning Objectives

Students will be able to identify Alabamians who made contributions in the fields of science, education, the arts, politics, and business during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Activity Assessment Strategies

Students will be assessed on the completion of their newspaper, flyer, brochure, or booklet on the famous Alabamian they chose to research.

Activity Acceleration and Intervention

Aligned Standards

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