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Whirlwind lesson gives teacher, students new learning tool
I can't believe I did this . . . and with twenty three fourth
graders and two parents looking on!
Elizabeth Kadish, a fourth grade teacher in Flint Lake, Indiana,
threw caution to the wind last November and took the plunge with
Inspiration. After only fifteen minutes of training on Inspiration and
thirty minutes to rethink her plans, she scrapped her original lesson
plan and jumped right into one using Inspiration. Mrs. Kadish admits she
has never considered herself to be ìgood with technology,î but that
she can be successful if given good, detailed instructions. Using
Inspiration, it took only a fifteen minute introduction and a little
imagination for her to see how it could apply to her curriculum.
Her first lesson, created on that whirlwind day in November, was a
language arts lesson focusing on parts of speech. The lesson provided
both an introduction to Inspiration for her students and a review of
different parts of speech. After quickly introducing and reviewing the
main features of the program, the students themselves worked through the
rest of the lesson. After opening a new document in Inspiration, Mrs.
Kadishís students typed in ìParts of Speechî as their Main Idea.
Using the Create tool from the toolbar, the students added ìNounsî as
a subtopic of ìParts of Speech.î Again using Create, the students
created three bubbles from ìNounsî and filled them with their own noun
examples. (Story continues below picture.)
Inspiration makes learning parts
of speech fun and easy!
Just ask Elizabeth Kadish and two of her fourth grade students.
Some of Mrs. Kadishís students continued on in the Diagram view, adding
subtopics from ìParts of Speechî for verbs and pronouns, and then
using the Format pull-down menu to customize font size, color, and
format. Then, using the color tools along the bottom of the window, the
students used colors to show relationships between the different parts
of speech.
At the same time, other students switched to the Outline view, using
a traditional, linear format to add verbs, pronouns, and examples for
their parts of speech. These students, too, could customize the look of
their outline by clicking on the Properties tool on the toolbar.
Regardless of how they finished their work, all of Mrs. Kadishís
students successfully completed their parts of speech projects . . . and
all loved using Inspiration to do it. In fact, since their first
introduction to the program, they have asked to use Inspiration every
week during their computer lab time!
This program fits nicely in a classroom with a wide range of ability
levels, says Mrs. Kadish. We have since used the program every lab
session. We brainstorm, do math problems, and analyze characters. The
students love it and I feel very comfortable with it, even with only a
fifteen minute introduction!î
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