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Using Robots to Show, not Tell in Writing

Over the last few weeks, I worked with four classes of 5th graders to improve their writing skills. In our work, we used the Sphero Bolt robots and emojis to explore how to show, not tell, in a personal narrative. Students started by choosing 1 emoji to represent the emotion through lights, sounds, and movements on the Sphero Bolt. Then, they had to use 3 emojis to create a story and represent the emotions with - you guessed it - lights, sounds, and movements!

Photo Credits: Vicki's Tech Hub

Photo Credits: Vicki's Tech Hub

Video Credits: Vicki's Tech Hub

    You might be wondering where the writing improvement comes in. Well, research says that students who verbally articulate their thoughts and talk through ideas produce more vivid writing (Aktas & Akyol, 2020; Arrimada et al., 2019; Mills & Levido, 2011). By verbally articulating their emoji story first, students better understood how to express emotions in their personal narratives. They then completed their 1-page written personal narratives in less than 15 minutes! This task usually takes students 30-40 minutes, and at least 15% of students still need additional time to finish their written work. 

    After exploring how to show emotions in a story, students experienced retelling a fairy tale with the robots. They used lights, sounds, and movements to retell 1-2 lines in the fairy tale Pinocchio. The kids were really creative when programming their robots. One set of students programmed the front LED light to match Pinocchio's nose as it grew. Another set of students programmed their robot to travel in circles and perform a repetitive dance (using the loop block), signifying Pinocchio's time at the circus. A third group of students programmed their robot to sway side-to-side and make throw-up sounds with the top LED matrix fading to green to show Pinocchio getting seasick while out in a boat! I would LOVE to post a video of this activity, but my district has a strict policy on student images in social posts, and all the videos I took showed students' faces. 😢

    The retelling of Pinocchio helped students see how to use adjectives to spice up a story and show how characters feel. On their formative assessment, students wrote longer and more descriptive personal narratives! I call that a win. 

How can you use tech to spice up student's writing? 

References
Aktas, N., & Akyol, H. (2020). Effect of digital writing workshop activities on writing motivation and development of story writing skills. International Journal of Progressive Education (16)3, 270–287. https://doi.org/10.46281/aijssr.v5i1.462

Arrimada, M., Torrance, M., & Fidalgo, R. (2019). Effects of teaching planning strategies to first-grade writers. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(4), 670–688. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.1225

Mills, K., & Levido, A. (2011). iPed: Pedagogy for digital text production. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 80–91. https://doi.org/jstor.org/stable/41331577



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