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Simple instructional strategies that incorporate digital media in meaningful, effective, and practical ways.

Access more of these strategies at links.DiscoveryEducation.com/sos

SOS Packet 7Did You Hear That?

Puppet PicturesPMI

Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt



Materials: sound clip, paper, writing utensil

1. Introduce this strategy to your students by playing 2 sound clips (e.g., breaking glass and a dog barking). Do not reveal the sound effect to students. Students respond by closing their eyes and visualizing what they hear. Ask them what they see, know, and wonder about the sounds.

2. Provide time for students to write a story incorporating the 2 sound effects.3. When their stories are complete, have students share stories in pairs.4. Select a few students to share their stories with the whole class and play the

sound effects as they speak.

Did You Hear That?A single note from a song can take us back in time, and the creak of a darkened home can send our hearts racing. Though sound is directly related to our sense of hearing, it can also create mental images. “Creating mental images requires more mental energy and therefore leads to deeper processing than creating graphic representations, drawing, or sketching. When students create mental images, they must hold them in their working memory while elaborating on them, questioning them, and drawing conclusions from them. The effort required to visualize and manipulate mental images creates a more permanent and more deeply processed record in the brain of the content being studied.” (Marzano, R.J., & Helflebower, T. Teaching & Assessing 21st Century Skills)

This strategy is an effective way for students to draw conclusions about mental images and elaborate through descriptive, narrative writing.

• Use a web tool or computer program to record students’ narration and insert sound effects as appropriate.

• Have students find sound effects from their favorite children’s literature stories and perform and/or record a dramatic reading.



Materials: images that match key vocabulary or concepts from your current curriculum, glue, popsicle sticks or straws, paper, and writing utensils

1. Print out a series of images that represent concepts of your unit on full sheets of paper.

2. Print out images of your students, or allow students to draw images of themselves.

3. Have students cut out the images of themselves and glue them to popsicle sticks or straws. This will allow them to move their picture around in front of a background image to create puppet pictures.

4. Have students preview images, select 3 they feel best represent what they are studying, and then write a narrative about the topic including key vocabulary.

5. When students share their stories, they should use their puppet image in front of the printed images as they narrate. You can display this on your projector or students can record using a digital device.

Puppet PicturesThe use of puppets is a fun and creative way for students to connect with new vocabulary. Students may strengthen their vocabulary by putting new terms into their own words and using “Vocabulary’s CODE” (Connect, Organize, Deep-process, Exercise), which helps students “master crucial concepts and retain new vocabulary terms.” (The Core Six Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core)



Images from Discovery Education, as well as pictures of your students, help students connect with new vocabulary terms in a puppet show format. This strategy is an effective way to assess what the students understand about the different components of your unit and encourages the use of new vocabulary and creative writing.

★This strategy is courtesy of DEN STAR Conni Mulligan.

Special Thanks:

Consider using green screen editing programs and apps like Doink.com, PhotoBooth, or WeVideo to create green screen movies of your puppet show.

Have students create puppets of original super heroes or other characters, in addition to photos of themselves.



Materials: video segment, blank paper and/or chart paper, writing utensils

1. Introduce this strategy to your students by providing them with a sample PMI chart and explaining that they will take notes during a video as described below.

§ P: “Plus” things they like§ M: “Minus” things they do not like§ I: “Interesting” something they find intriguing

2. Explain to students that they will draw a PMI chart and categorize their feelings about ideas from the video using the chart. As the video plays, pause every few minutes to provide students time to take notes.

3. After students have watched the video, facilitate a group discussion and have students share what they put in each column.

PMIPMI is an effective brainstorming strategy that can be used to weigh the pros and cons of a decision. According to MindTools.com, “PMI stands for Plus/Minus/Interesting and is a useful improvement to the ‘weighing the pros and cons’ technique that people have used for centuries.” Trying to reach a decision isn’t always easy, especially when there is no clear answer. As students explore options of a complex decision, implementing this strategy with digital media can help them organize their thoughts.



PMI (Plus/Minus/Interesting) is an effective brainstorming strategy that can be used to weigh the pros and cons of a decision.

Sample PMI chart:

Looking for a way to help students working on life skills or social skills make better decisions? Use the PMI strategy to role-play how to brainstorm as part of the decision-making process.



Materials: video segment, pre-selected vocabulary words from segment

1. Display pre-selected vocabulary words to students.2. Have students work in pairs to discuss the words to ensure they have an

understanding of what each one means.3. As a whole group, call on students to share what each words mean by

providing an example. 4. Explain to students that you’ll be playing a segment with these words

embedded. Each time they hear one of the vocabulary words spoken, they should clap once.

5. Begin the segment and pause after you hear the first clap. Ask students to share what word they heard, what it means, and how it was used in context.

6. Repeat each time a word is used for the first time. 7. After the segment is complete, ask students to share other vocabulary words

they heard that support their understanding of the big idea.

Vocabulary Scavenger HuntUtilizing video segments provides a wonderful opportunity to provide content to students in auditory and visual cues. This helps bridge gaps in experience to real life situations for students who have had less exposure to certain topics. To transform media from being a passive learning experience to an actively engaged opportunity, teachers can create scavenger hunts for important vocabulary. This strategy allows students to focus on the most important content of the segment.

This strategy is a great way to identify important academic language in any unit of study and develop vocabulary skills.

• Have students create a glossary of new vocabulary words.• Have students create a digital display in Discovery Education’s Board

Builder of the vocabulary words from your current unit of study.

sos packet 7 - wordpress.com · of the printed images as they narrate. you can display this on your...

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