Spiral
Spiral is an interactive learning platform that teachers can use for quick assessment, student collaboration, interactive video, and flipped classroom activities. Probe deeply by discussing an essential question or a video with students in real time. Use the Team Up feature and monitor progress as students create collaborative presentations about current events, novels, or math and science topics. Show exemplary responses with the class as they create so that they can see models as they work, and cut down on the conundrum of "Who did what?" by viewing each student's contribution on your screen.
Grade assignments automatically or individually, and check whole-class understanding by viewing question-by-question statistics. Want to have students work independently or flip your classroom? Create an assignment, and then send students the link for them to access it at school or at home (with the Teacher Pro version). Finally, sync your classes quickly with Google Classroom to enhance learning and provide variety.
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Tips for Great Group Work in the Classroom
Group Work Roles That Promote Shared OwnershipEditor's Note: Spiral was acquired by Discovery Education and is no longer available as a standalone product.
Spiral is a multi-use platform that allows teachers to create interactive learning experiences, pre-planned or on the fly. Basic account setup is easy and free, and it stops short of trying to do too much by offering just four types of activities: Quickfire, Clip, Team Up, and Discuss. Quickfire allows teachers to assign a quiz or ask a question. Teachers can send back inadequate responses immediately and ask students to improve and resubmit responses. Clip allows users to create interactive videos, stopping periodically to check understanding or discuss content. Team Up allows teachers to randomize or assign teams and have students create presentations that hold each member accountable. Finally, Discuss allows users to participate in interactive presentations by asking questions, sharing pictures, and responding to others.
Teachers can sync classes from Google Classroom and create activities within Spiral or using G Suite. The paid version offers more features, such as the ability to flip your classroom by giving students access to assignments at home.
Spiral allows teachers to freely create learning activities that inspire the four C's -- creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking -- while promoting understanding and accountability. Teachers can quickly assess students' understanding of concepts by asking open-ended questions and seeing all answers at once. Teachers can also ask a student to improve an answer with one click, enhancing the learning strategies of iteration and feedback. The ability to launch and populate learning activities within seconds prevents lost instructional time, though creating effective content will take a good amount of effort from teachers up front.
Spiral's integration with any internet-connected device is a plus for both one-to-one computing and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments. Teachers can share assignments and collaborate with other teachers from within the tool, too.
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