Tracy Enos is an 8th Grade teacher from Rhode Island, United States. I met Tracy in the #2ndaryELA Facebook Group where she is an active contributor and freely shares her ideas and passion for teaching. One of the topics she has frequently mentioned is HyperDocs. Today’s post is written by Tracy to share her knowledge and excitement for bringing this technology to your classroom.
The lessons we bring to our students must be designed with these kids in mind. We’re not talking about end-of-chapter questions or one-size-fits-all assignments. We’re talking about providing engaging experiences, breaking down the walls of our classrooms, seamless individualization, and authentic learning.
The district that I teach in has been one-to-one with Chromebooks for the past 3 years. I started to think past whole-class lessons, where every student worked on the same task together, to more of a student-centered experience. With these technology tools, it was almost like having 7 Miss Enos’s in the room to help out multiple groups/students at the same time.
I learned about blended instruction, the combination of technology, face-to-face, and collaborative learning. What struck me was the power of having students control:
space (where the learning takes place)
pace (how fast the learning moves)
process (what the learning experience looks like)
product (how students can show what they learn)
In its simplest form, a HyperDoc is a Google Doc that is used to present a well-designed lesson plan to a student all in one place. Links and resources are housed in one document (or even Google Slides, or a Google Drawing, etc.) for easy reference and modification. The format is extremely flexible, but the point is to create an engaging learning experience.
My first attempt at creating a HyperDoc was creating a “Playlist” for students to work through. These were basically a list of activities on a Google Doc for my students to complete. Since I pushed them out through Google Classroom, they could be individualized any way we needed. Using a variety of formative assessments and collaborative tools, I could accompany each student as they progressed on the journey. You can take a look at an example here for teaching Argument Writing.
- Beyond just offering templates, their website offers a place where teachers donate HyperDocs that they’ve created to anyone looking for inspiration.
- I would also suggest picking up the Hyperdoc Handbook to learn much more than this simple definition and really dive in.
- For more examples, here is a padlet to many fantastic HyperDocs that teachers have shared.
- Here are some of my recent creations: Introduction to Fairy Tales (for a Genre Elective Class), short stories “Zero Hour” and “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury.
- I’ve also created a padlet for English/ ELA teachers specifically to curate and share HyperDocs.
- A quick HyperDoc checklist from Alice Keeler’s blog
- Read more about HyperDocs Classroom Management in this follow-up blog post.
I think it’s safe to say that we all want to create engaging learning experiences that our students will remember and that will prepare them for the world they live in. I would never suggest only teaching with HyperDocs. HyperDocs are just another piece you add to your teaching repertoire. As teachers, we want to continue to ask “What would be best for my students at this time?”. It is easy to get overwhelmed by technology and buzzwords. Only when we have a strong foundation, can we then be a springboard for our students to leap into their future.
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