Amplify Writing With My Short Answer

Empowered Learner

Overview

Short Answer enhances writing across the curriculum by making it fun and easy to embed gamified writing practice in any subject. Short Answer provides your students with the immediate feedback they need through social, engaging peer feedback activities and offers you deeper insight into what your students know.
There are different levels from free to premium depending on the features you wish to use with students.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Be able to write a descriptive paragraph using vivid details, adjectives, and sensory language.
Be able to submit their paragraphs to myshortanswer.com for gamified feedback and improvement suggestions.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Words:

1. Paragraph: A paragraph is a part of a writing or speech that develops one point or gives the words of one speaker.

2. Sensory: Sensory is an adjective that means of or relating to sensation or the senses.

3. Adjective: An adjective is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.

4. Hook: A hook is a literary technique that grabs the reader's attention within the first few sentences.

Pre-planning

To prepare for this lesson:

Short Answer is free, but it also offers premium subscriptions. Here is a rundown of Plans & Pricing - Short Answer
Keep in mind that while this lesson can be done as written, it can be a great lesson to accompany any writing activity.
To get started, watch this video on getting started: Getting started with Short Answer - YouTube
Below are descriptions and tutorials for the three gaming activities. Look and see which one you would like to do with your students.

All In Activity - All-In Explained - YouTube
All In Tutorial - All-In Preview | Arcade

Battle Royale Activity- Battle Royale Explained
Battle RoyaleTutorial - Battle Royale Preview | Arcade

Pair It Activity- Pair-It Explained
Pair It Activity Tutorial - Pair-It Preview | Arcade
Here are some tips for Writing Activities - Writing.pdf
Go over the steps for the activity. Students will need a digital device to type their paragraph on.
Once you decide which activity you would like to do with students, set up your activity on myshortanswer.com.
Click on CREATE QUESTION. Put this topic in the question box
Write a descriptive paragraph using vivid details, adjectives, and sensory language.
Short Answer will prompt you to upload any document, such as a rubric, if you so choose.
You will then be prompted to pick scaffolds. You may also skip this part.
Short Answer will then prompt you to pick 1-3 success criteria (free version) for your students to use when evaluating each other’s responses.
Click next.
Review your question or prompt to ensure everything is correct. This is your opportunity to change anything. If everything looks good, click CLEAR and EXIT.
Your question will be saved and ready for you to launch when ready.

Accommodations

See the Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4student website in the Teacher Resources.

Steps

Directions for this activity:

1. Provide students with a hook. Show an image of a vibrant scene (e.g., a beach, forest, or cityscape).

2. Here are some Sample Free to share and use images. Feel free to pick your own.

3. Ask students, “What do you see, hear, smell, and feel in this picture?

4. Discuss with students and explain how writers use descriptive language to paint pictures in the reader’s mind.

5. Highlight adjectives, sensory details, and figurative language (e.g., similes).

6. Model for students: Write a short descriptive paragraph about the picture on the board.

Example: The golden sand sparkled like tiny jewels under the blazing sun. The salty breeze carried the sound of crashing waves, and the air smelled fresh and clean. Seagulls squawked overhead as children’s laughter echoed across the beach.

7. Break It Down:

Circle adjectives (golden, salty, fresh).
Underline sensory details (sparkled, smelled fresh, squawked).

8. Next, give students some guided practice. Some suggested prompts could include:

A rainy day
Your favorite place
A magical forest

9. In pairs, have students brainstorm sensory details for the topic (e.g., What does it look, sound, smell, feel, or taste like?). Write ideas on a chart or in notebooks.

10. Give students time to write independently. Students will need to type their descriptive paragraph on the chosen topic.

11. Encourage them to use at least:

3 adjectives
2 sensory details
1 simile or metaphor

12. Open up Myshortanswer.com and go to your questions. LAUNCH your selected question.

13. Project the join code for MyShortAnswer.com that you created.

14. Students will join the game using the join code.

15. Students will submit their paragraphs by uploading their paragraphs for gamified feedback.

16. The teacher should circulate the room to assist students with submissions and provide additional guidance as needed. They aim for “Level-Up” badges by improving their writing based on the feedback.

17. Give students time to revise their paragraph based on the feedback from myshortanswer.com. Wrap-Up (5 minutes)

18. Reflect:

Assessment Options

Different options for assessing the students:

Observations
Check for understanding
Evaluate students’ paragraphs for the use of descriptive language.
Monitor improvements after feedback from myshortanswer.com.

MITECS Competencies & ISTE Standards

MITECS: Michigan adopted the "ISTE Standards for Students" called MITECS (Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students) in 2018.

Empowered Learner
1.1a Students set learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process to improve learning outcomes.