How To Start Making An Interactive iPad Lesson on Frolyc
When I was first introduced to Activity Spot I was enthralled with its capability and was eager to get started. After all I have been writing lessons for over 30 years and I prided myself in trying to make them constructivist, fun and engaging. I quickly registered and opened my first authoring link. But something happened. I became paralyzed. I couldn’t decide what to do next. I wanted to make a lesson for fifth graders but couldn’t conceive how to lay out my six pages. How could this happen? I have written for Scholastic, Pearson, Learning A-Z and the state of Texas yet I found myself with a huge writers block. I could not get off square one when this was something I was so motivated to do.
A voice inside my head said simplify, simplify. Make it easy Di something even a kindergartner could do. So, instead of making the best interactive plan in the whole creation I started thinking what was the easiest most needed lesson I could make? You see I ha made the classic mistake of not reading the direction first. In this case I had not familiarized myself with the systems tools. I just assumed it would come to me, or I could figure it out as I went. For me, this approach wasn’t working.
So I thought, “What is something every kindergarten teacher teaches at the beginning of the year and so would love an interactive lesson for her students to do?” I came up with numbers and letters. Finding 4 was my very first Activity Spot lesson. It only uses one template - the drawing template. I found the drawing template to be the most versatile, constructivist and easiest to use. I wanted the students to “show what they know” and the drawing template allows for this.
So I had up to six pages to fill and I started thinking, “What do you want children to know about four? What opportunities for learning do you want to open?” I found that putting information in a table helped me organize my thoughts.
Once I got my flow down this simple procedure made it easy for me to explore the other templates. My second lesson was “I Know the Sound of B”. In this lesson I was ready to explore using the capability of linking to videos to build background. Next, I wanted the children to be able to show me what they learned, that they indeed listened to the video so I added the concept map, multiple choice and word search templates. I discovered that I could drag the pages on the sides and reorder them. That was great because I made mistakes and changed my mind about the sequencing.
I would periodically go ahead and published my activity and view it through the test ID that the system gives you even though I was not completely done. I did not care that the activity was not complete as I thought the odds of anyone finding it right away and using it were slim. It was more important to me that the activity actually played out how I envisioned it.
Once I like the flow, I published my first activity and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. I was stoked now and went on to create three more lessons that sitting.
So, my advice in making your first activity:
Start with a very easy concept that you know well (it is OK the topic matches content in grades below where you teach)
Limit your activity to one or two templates.
Make a concept map, a page flow, of how you are going to execute your lesson.
Publish it a couple of times to check that the flow is what you envisioned.
PUBLISH IT!
Once you have done one lesson, the second is a breeze and you can start right away making lessons targeting the needs of your students and your classroom.
Happy lesson making!
- By Katherine Burdick
First appeared on Kathy Burdick's blog.
To view all of Kathy Burdick's interactive activity creations for Activity Spot iPad app, click here.
