Piecing Together EdPuzzle

EdPuzzle is a fantastic tool that allows you to customize ANY video to serve as an interactive lesson!   All you need to do to use EdPuzzle is to choose a video (or upload your own) and add your own multiple-choice questions, voiceovers, stop points, open-ended questions, etc.  Can you say 1:1 WOW??!?!

EdPuzzle allows you to pull videos from YouTube and customize them to use in your classroom for assessment, instruction or comprehension checks.  You can even assign the videos to students that you've imported from Google Classroom,  and score their performance within the EdPuzzle Gradebook.  Best of all, EdPuzzle promotes sharing!!  If you have a video that you KNOW can support student learning, you can see how other educators have used that video, what questions they've added to the video, and use or modify it for your students. 

Here's an example of an Edpuzzle creation I used this year in to help teach characterization: 

Video Editing Features

EdPuzzle has a FREE Basic account, and in that account you can locate videos from YouTube, crop the video as you see fit, and then edit those videos with your OWN Voiceovers, Audio Notes, Open Ended questions, Comments or Multiple Choice Questions. (For my example I use a Cause and Effect Lesson featuring the ADORABLE Ormie the Pig.)

Crop a Video: crop a video down to just the important stuff.

Voiceover:  Record a voice over in a particular section of a video to explain an important concept in a way that you prefer.  

Audio Notes: Get your students' attention - pause the video for an introductory comment, to explain a concept in more detail, or just to make sure they're not sleeping.

Questions:   Add three styles of questions to your videos!!  1. Open-ended questions. These questions are perfect if you want your students to give a free response.  2. Multiple-choice. Here you can select which answers are correct and incorrect. Test your student's understanding with all kinds of question formats, like true/false, single answer, multiple answers and more. These are graded automatically and results are in the Gradebook section of EdPuzzle. 3. Comments. This is your tool for telling your students anything you need them to know about the video. Add context, give instructions or add an interesting fact!

Learn More About EdPuzzle

Need Help Finding Video Ideas????

For YEARS I've been using Animated Short Films as instructional tools in my ELA Classroom.  I simply provide students with a link to a video, and give them with a worksheet with stop points to answer questions and guide their understanding through the video.  Check them out here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Animated-Shorts-for-Reading-Instruction-BUNDLE-2402866

Eliminate the Need For a Worksheet!

What I LOVE about EdPuzzle, is that it can pretty much eliminate the need for worksheets 😃  With so many classrooms converting to 1:1 platforms, it's nice to know that there's a better option!!  I have now taken the stop points that I created  in these printables, and converted them to EdPuzzle activities for my students!  If you're trying to get inspired or just getting started with EdPuzzle, download these activities to help you get started.  Here you'll get ideas for videos to use to support your reading instruction, questions to insert into EdPuzzle and you'll be glad you were:

Flip Flip Hooray!!

The flipped classroom concept has intrigued me now for over a year but I have been challenged to find a way to make it happen in an ELA classroom.  The mathematics classroom seems to have been the forerunner into this concept where instruction occurs via video lessons viewed at home by students and hands-on assistance with problems and concepts takes place in the classroom.  Knowing the Flipped Classroom idea had merit, I decided to 'flip' the instruction of vocabulary in my classroom, leaving time for sharing, games and interaction rather than rote copying of definitions, synonyms, antonyms, etc.

Here's How I Did It.

Step #1.  Registered Students with Edmodo and created class(es)

Step #2.  Generated/Located Vocabulary Videos.

• Use existing videos like the ones at wordahead.com
• Create your own using apps:  videoscribe      educreations
• Create your own using Web 2.0 Tools:  xtranormal.com      voicethread

Step #3.  Upload.  (I used SchoolTube as it interfaces nicely with Edmodo)

• A video I created using videoscribe 

Step #4.  Assign Video via Edmodo
Step #5.  Provide students with a notetaking sheet
Step #6.  In class, share and play games.  I have my students come share their sentences and illustrations under the document camera.  We discuss, edit and make suggestions.  They LOVE this.

Game Ideas

Here is a small selection of some of the games we play in class to help us interact with our WOW words.

Swatslapper game:
Use this Smartnotebook file.  Write Synonym/Antonym on the chalkboard.  Read synonyms and antonyms for the W.O.W.word.  Students SWAT the correct answer with a flyswatter.  Keep score using Smartnotebook file.

Vocabulary Bingo:  
http://yoursmarticles.blogspot.com/2011/12/vocabulary-alpha-bingo.html

I Have, Who Has:  
Create sentences that describe the key word.  "Mary completed her homework". Another student should have a card that says "Mary was conscientious".  On the back of the second student's card there should be a new sentence/example.  If done correctly, every student will have a match and it will create a chain eventually leading back to the starting person.

Search it:
Teams search for AS MANY related words to the W.O.W. word as possible.  Eliminate teams Boggle style  (if another team has the word, it gets crossed off)  The team with the most unique words wins.

Hop On It: 
 Create 2 sets of  hopping mats...one that says synonym, one that says antonym.  Have students line up and  'hop' on synonym/antonym when a word is read.

Now that's some Flipping Smarticles!