MIT - Using Questions and Google Expeditions to Inspire Writing

Using Questions to help your Writing

We are looking at Explanations for this next term of learning (after Covid19). Explanations usually start with a question or at least answer a question.

I have included links to Google Expeditions and other experiences that could also help the students by inspiring writing.

With this in mind, I created another video and slide set about using Questions to help with writing. This slide set help children to understand the purpose of a question and what questions start with.

 

Questions are a great way to start a narrative or explanation as they focus the writer and reader on the same topic. Eg.

When was the first time you had bacon and eggs for breakfast? 

Already you are thinking back to the last time you had bacon and eggs, you may even remember the first time. I remember it was our go-to breakfast before a day of snow skiing on Mt Ruapehu.

Why is the grass green?

If you don't already know it is to do with the passing of light through objects, whereas the sky is blue due to the refraction of light on the particles in the atmosphere. Two great questions to write explanations about.

Here is the set of slide I used

Another Resource on Questions

MIT - Using Google Expeditions

This term we are studying water and the ways we use it.

Google Expeditions is an app you can download for your phone or iPad and it has The Water Cycle showing the basic steps of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. Being an expedition each image showing a different step can be rotated and explored from different angles with an explanation of what you can see. Although students can't use this through chromes the teacher can cast to a Tv or through a projector.

It will be interesting to see how this explorative tools will help students to write an explanation about The Water Cycle. I will also investigate to see if I can find other ways such as virtual tour through waterways to show students how and why we need water.

Of course, there is Youtube too.