Tech Tuesdays: Pechaflickr — A Twist on Narrative Writing

by Kathryn Nieves

I’m always looking for mini-activities to help engage my students during narrative writing. Narrative is usually the genre they are most excited about completing and they are usually eager to try mini-tasks and activities to extend their story writing practice. Pechaflickr offers a quick and easy activity to help students practice their narrative writing skills and can serve as an engaging “extra-time” challenge for your students.

Pechaflickr is a website that challenges students to make connections between images in order to create their own story. It connects to the photo-sharing website Flickr to choose random images. When you log onto the website, a student or teacher can type in a random keyword. Then, the website generates 20 random images connected with that search and rotates through them every 20 seconds. The concept of 20 slides in 20 seconds comes from the presentation strategy, PechaKucha. Pechaflickr allows students to practice their improvisational skills. As the pictures rotate, they can determine new twists and turns for their narrative, while still maintaining the original plot.

When you log onto the website, you can use the search bar to type in a random keyword or phrase.

Clicking “play” will open a pop-up window and the 20 by 20 activity will begin. The website goes through all of the tags on Flickr and chooses 20 random images that have that tag. Since this is freely available on the internet, once in awhile something unrelated may appear in the results based on the tag used. However, for the most part, the tags accurately reflect what is displayed in the image. As always, it’s good to be on alert in the rare chance that something inappropriate appears.

You can also customize the 20 by 20 rules. You can change how many slides appear and the amount of time that each slide is on the screen.

While a relatively simple tool, Pechaflickr could be a quick activity to get students thinking on their feet. For students learning vocabulary and language, it could also be a good way to determine the connection between images. It could also be a collaborative writing opportunity, where students have to work together to determine the connection between the images and compose a narrative. Even though Pechaflickr is not a new tool, it could be something interesting to bring into creative writing and narrative units.

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Attention NJ ELA teachers: Would you like to write for the NJCTE blog? We would be happy to publish your ideas and insights about your practice or resources you’ve had success with, etc. We welcome original pieces or those that have been posted elsewhere. Please send queries and contributions to njcteblog@gmail.com.

Congratulations to Teacher for the Dream Award Winner Lynn M. Love-Kelly

Please join NJCTE in congratulating Lynn M. Love-Kelly, one of two winners of this year’s NJCTE Teacher for the Dream Award.

Lynn M. Love-Kelly is a secondary English teacher in New Jersey. Mrs. Love-Kelly is one of the recipients of the National Honor Roll’s Outstanding American Teacher Award in 2006 and 2007, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2002, 2005, 2006 and member of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society. Mrs. Love-Kelly has 23 years of education experience with a BA in English from Douglass College, MS in Education with a specialization in Literacy Learning from Walden University, Ed. S in Teacher Leadership from Walden University and is currently pursuing her Ed.D in Teacher Leadership from Walden University. During her educational career, Mrs. Love-Kelly has provided college guidance counseling and New Teacher Training, and served as an AP English Literature and Composition Teacher, Lead Teacher and high school newsletter advisor. In addition to working with teachers in private schools, she has supported the professional development of urban teachers from Trinidad and Africa. Mrs. Love-Kelly has presented professional development workshops on infusing technology into diverse classrooms and time management. Throughout her career, she has taught developmental writing and reading courses at Passaic County Community College. Mrs. Love-Kelly has 11 years experience as an Adult Basic Education/GED English Prep Course Teacher within the Essex County Schools of Technology district. Mrs. Love-Kelly currently assists the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English (NJCTE) as a writing judge and is one of the 2018 recipients of the NJCTE Teachers for the Dream Award.

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Attention NJ ELA teachers: Would you like to write for the NJCTE blog? We would be happy to publish your ideas and insights about your practice or resources you’ve had success with, etc. We welcome original pieces or those that have been posted elsewhere. Please send queries and contributions to njcteblog@gmail.com.

Tech Tuesdays: CopyComments for Google Classroom

by Kathryn Nieves

For Google Classroom users, the Docs and Slides “comment” feature is critical to providing effective feedback for students. Many teachers use this tool as a way to provide personalized comments for their students, helping to highlight areas to revise or point out areas of success. However, if the teacher wants to provide a template for students to complete, the students are unable to see this comments section. There is a new Google Chrome extension that allows for this type of assignment, though: CopyComments for Google Classroom.

CopyComments can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store. Once a teacher has marked up a Google Doc or Slide presentation with comments, it is ready for use. It is important to make sure the comments are directly connected to the specific text you want the student to use as a reference. In the example below, I gave guidance and extra support to help my students through a paraphrasing assignment that I wanted them to complete.

Next, you would have to assign the Doc or Slide presentation to students on Google Classroom. Click “Create” and then “Assignment.” Fill in your title and optional instructions. Then select the Google Drive icon and upload the assignment that you just annotated with comments. Make sure to click “Make a Copy for Each Student.”

The assignment will automatically be viewable in the Classwork tab on Google Classroom. However, if you were to open a student assignment, the comments would not be there. Instead, you have to click on the CopyComments icon on your toolbar. You must sign in and allow the extension to operate on your device. Then, the extension will have you select the class and the specific assignment. The extension will only register assignments that have comments already embedded into them. Select the assignment and then click “Copy Comments.”

The pop-up window will close down when it has finished copying all the comments into the students’ attachments. You can check to make sure it worked by going into the assignment and opening a random student’s attachment. You should be able to see the comments that you made before you actually created the assignment.

This extension is useful for providing additional support to students as they complete a task. It could be helpful for using a template to complete a writing assignment or clarify directions or requirements on a project or test. Rather than being used for feedback after an assignment, these comments could be used to help students during the actual completion of an assignment. CopyComments for Google Classroom is a relatively new extension, but can be extremely useful in supporting students in the classroom.