Artifact 2: Lino to Give Book Reviews and Find Text Features

              A big piece of this class for me was understanding how to use technology in formative assessments and in student collaboration.  My students were reading fictional books in their guided reading groups and I wanted them to be able to share about the book with others, but we didn't have a lot of time to do a final project, because of course I have more standards to teach.  One quick and easy way I found for them to be able to share with each other, but also give me feedback as to how they liked the book was using Lino.  Each group was asked to give their book a star rating and tell why.  Students loved using the star graphics and getting to see their rating on the board.  When we showed each board, the other students were able to hear about the other books that were read in our class.  Here's a board from the group that read the Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.

               Another Lino board my class worked on was identifying nonfiction text features.  This was a great formative assessment.  It gave me a quick visual of whether or not my students could find text features and correctly name them.  Plus it gave students an easy way to share their work with the class.  Check it out!