More and more in the remote teaching world, we are sending students to a host of links for learning. In the course of a week, students visit dozens of website pages, documents, videos, and other programs. With prolonged exposure, this constant clicking can cause Link Fatigue.
Prevent Link Fatigue!
That’s not actually a thing; I just made that up.
Even so, the struggle is real. We want to provide as many engaging resources as we can for students. There is so much out there to share! At the same time, it should be simple for students and families to access everything without visiting ten separate documents to do it. Streamlining helps teachers as well. With time in short supply, you don’t want to be constantly creating a brand new template from scratch. And finally, if you’re anything like me, you also want it to look pretty.
Below are three strategies for creating appealing landing spots that you can reuse each week: Hyperdocs, Google Slides, and the Google Gameboard.
The Hyperdoc
Hyperdocs have been around for some time. At first blush, a hyperdoc seems like just a document with links, which fundamentally it is. However, upon closer inspection you realize it is much more.
The learning in hyperdocs comes completely from strong teacher planning. A great hyperdoc is designed to lead students through a learning process from engagement, to application, to reflection and extension. Essentially, we are virtually guiding students through a well-designed lesson plan.
One Possible Learning Process
Every hyperdoc you create won’t follow the exact same flow, but here is an example design I like to use:
- Hook & Engage (essential question, KWL, class discussion)
- Explore (video, close-read, teacher lecture)
- Explain (quick whole-class check for understanding, brainstorm response)
- Practice (collaborate with peers, complete practice problems)
- Apply (create something)
- Reflect (respond to what you learned)
- Extend (provide resources for learning more)
I always find when I focus on the process as I create a hyperdoc, the lessons are so much more engaging and rigorous.
Are you hooked? The Hyperdoc Academy is your go-to spot to learn more and find examples.
The Google Slide
When you’re ready to change up your hyperdocs and add more images, I suggest using Google Slides. Slides is an easy, collaborative tool for creating visually engaging landing spots.
The beauty of this tool is you can upload any background image (including the Bitmoji classroom you spent three weeks making because those tiny book covers are so cute). The background image is then “locked,” so it can’t be moved or accidentally deleted.
A Sweet Example:
The exploration above (from our Grade 5 Expressions, Equations, and Coordinate Graphing unit) is created in Google Slides. Each cupcake is linked and takes students to the components of their exploration:
- Vocabulary Preview: the green cupcake takes students to a Google Form survey. Students rate their familiarity with key terms for the unit. Bonus: you get all the answers in one spreadsheet to see what your students know before the unit even begins!
- Cupcake Graph: since the unit is cupcake themed, the purple cupcake takes students to a Google Doc graph to weigh in on their favorite cupcake flavor.
- Video: Clicking the yellow cupcake takes students to a video of a book that will be referred to throughout the lesson.
- Response Sheet: the blue cupcake takes students to their Google Classroom, to respond to a discussion about the book they just listened to.
Ready to Create an Interactive Slide?
If you want to create your own engaging landing spots via Google Slides, CLICK HERE for a help doc with tips and tricks.
The Google Gameboard
Even if you’re a Google Docs kind of person, you can still make your link documents visually appealing.
Would you believe that this gameboard was made in Google Docs? All it takes to make this via docs is to change the background color and add a table!
After that, anything goes! Add in the links, spice it up with a few images, and you are ready to share. In this gameboard, I’ve added links both in the text and with some of the the images.
CLICK HERE to see the gameboard and access the links.
Hope this makes your planning and prepping easier!
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