Boom Cards Archives

How Do I Use Boom Cards in My Drama Class?

Teachers are creative beings and love an intriguing teaching method. They are busy searching out new ways to reach students on a day-to-day basis. “To build a better mouse trap.” I always say.

When the pandemic closed our schools, teachers scrambled for digital lessons. Folks, they were amazing! While everyone is extolling the virtues of our front line workers (and they are amazing), teachers should almost be included with them!

Did anyone even notice how quickly, smoothly and expertly the teachers pivoted to on-line learning? I even shifted gears in record time and I’m not in the classroom. See how: Drama Lessons for Home-Bound Students or During the Corona Virus Quarantine

Teachers are rock stars!

What are Boom Cards?

Boom cards are self-grading that are gamified and provide teachers and parents the data they want. A teacher can use them for remedial instruction, review for a test or direct instruction. They are awesome. If you haven’t seen Boom Cards, check them out here: Boomcards.com

What are their strengths?

Digital task cards (in this case Boom Cards) build a skill base for the twenty-first century learning tools.
Digital task cards are flexible.
They can be used on a wide variety of devices.
They are a paperless resource–save those trees and ink.
They are similar to all other digital task cards or digital apps.–they are easy to use and understand.
Digital task cards are easy to share, give feedback and grade.

Teaching with Games

How Do I Use Boom Cards in My Drama Class?

While I was researching this post, I found this rationale for teaching with games from ACD.org a website for administrators, principals and teachers says:

In classrooms showing the greatest gains, teachers did specific things. To get similar results, teachers should games for these reasons.

Use inconsequential competition. In general, students like to compete as long as the stakes are not high. During a two-week unit of instruction, a teacher might organize students into teams of four students each. Teams might play games four or five times during that unit. Each time they play, the first three teams to complete the game receive points (for example, 3 points for the first team to finish, 2 points for the second team, and 1 point for the third team). At the end of the unit, the teacher adds up the points for each team, and the three teams with the highest number of points get some inconsequential but fun reward, such as coupons to buy juice from the vending machines in the cafeteria.
Throughout the year, the teacher should reorganize the teams so all students have the experience of winning and losing. However, teachers must not factor game points into students’ grades for the unit. The points and rewards are simply for fun.

Target essential academic content. If games do not focus on important academic content, they will have little or no effect on student achievement and waste valuable classroom time. The most efficient way to maintain an academic focus is to organize games around important terms and phrases. For example, during a unit on dance moves, a dance teacher might identify terms and phrases such as axial movement, line of gravity, movement phrase, and nonlocomotor movement. Questions and answers would involve information important to these terms and phrases.

How Do I Use Boom Cards in My Drama Class

Debrief the game. The most common error teachers make when using games is to add up team points and move on. The whole point of playing academic games in the classroom is to provide opportunities for students to examine important content in a lively and enjoyable venue. To stimulate analysis of important terms and phrases, a teacher can ask students which questions were difficult to answer and why.
For example, suppose that during a game of Pictionary in a mathematics class, students had difficulty drawing an image to represent the Fibonacci sequence. At the conclusion of the game, the teacher would ask students about their difficulties with this item. The discussion would serve as a brief review of the defining characteristics of a Fibonacci sequence.

Have students revise their notes. One generalization that applies to learning all types of content is that students must have opportunities to revise their understanding of the content as time goes by. When a game has ended and the class has discussed difficult terms and concepts related to the content, the teacher should give students time to revise their notes. A teacher might ask students to look over what they have previously written about this content in their notes and make any necessary changes. This might involve correcting misconceptions or adding new information that the students were unaware of.

Pretty wonderful, huh? Here is another post about using games in the classroom: Games + Teaching Method= Our Students Win!

HOW DO I USE BOOM CARDS IN MY DRAMA CLASSROOM? If I were you, I’d assign Boom Cards for distance learning or use them as differentiated instruction in the classroom. These are suitable for middle grade students. You could introduce the unit with the Boom Cards, assign them as homework for those with WiFi access or make them part of the lesson for the day.

As of this writing, I have nine sets of Boom Cards and hybrid blended classroom lessons.

Each set includes:

20-40 Cards
Questions for Each Section

The hybrid boom cards PDF include:

Letter to Teacher
Rationale
Warm up
Procedure
Links
Enrichment Activities and more!

I was a little hesitant to embark on the digital task card wagon. Theater is usually taught in real time on a stage. Plus, it’s very experiential. We learn on our feet so to speak.

When I discovered Boom Cards I really had to think outside of the box and consider how a drama teacher could use digital card instruction. Honestly, it wasn’t difficult to see how to use them–there are a myriad of ways as I mentioned above.

As a student, I would have enjoyed and appreciated learning through Boom Cards, especially with math concepts. Beginning at about third grade, I was rotten at math. Our teacher became sick and the substitute who finished the school year took over. When I didn’t understand multiplication, she left me in the dust pretty fast. I understand why, though. She was overwhelmed with the responsibility of finishing the year for someone.

Just think what these Boom Cards might have done for me?

Bookmark this post, because if you know me, you know I’ll add more sets as I have time.

Have you taught with Boom Cards? I’d love to hear about it. Contact me DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net

How to Use a Hybrid Lesson in Your Drama Classroom Tomorrow

I’m a creative and imaginative person. If you follow my blog, you’ll know that when I was ten years old I decided I would direct Mary Poppins in my backyard and have my father hire a helicopter to fly me into the yard near the forsythia.

Yes, I’m that kind of creative.

I get an itch in my fingers if I’m not creating something. Usually, I can appease this creative itch by cooking something new or coloring in a coloring book or developing a new product for drama teachers.

Author Susan Vreeland thinks, “Painting feeds the eye just as poetry feeds the ear, which is to say that both feed the soul.”

I agree. Without being creative and imaginative, I am pretty unhappy.

Yet, even with this new interest of mine in developing drama education resources, I was becoming a bit stale.

I’ve been making drama lessons and adapting some of my former lessons for two years. Two years and 220 products later, I have created quite a library for the busy drama teacher to use. If you are interested in checking them out, grades second to twelve, go here: Dramamommaspeaks Store

Enter Boom Learning

Among the many resources I used in my classroom in the past, recently I’ve learned how to make word walls, growth mindset posters, one pager assignments, word searches, short biographies, Broadway musicals units, Google slides, etc.

Lately, I’ve been interested in digital task cards. These puppies are HOT in the education market. There’s great interest in using them in the classroom because I think we all know our students are going to have at least six months to a year of distance learning.

Because of this, I thought about what I could create for distance learning in particular hybrid learning.

Boom Learning is a website of digital task cards for all subjects and grade levels. They are called Boom Cards. Here is their description,

“Boom Cards are interactive lessons created by teachers like you. Using our platform, you can easily create Boom Cards to use in your class, or sell them in our marketplace. made for teachers and parents Teachers can use Boom Cards in the classroom or parents can use them at home.”

I have to say these digital task cards are really cool. Teachers assign the cards and the students work through a set. Without them realizing it, the students grasp a concept (through short games) or practice a skill.

Hybrid Learning and Differentiation

As I mentioned, I’m a creative person. I got to thinking………………is there some way to teach both through digital task cards AND through instruction from the teacher?

Of course!

As usual whenever I blog, I searched the internet and found this helpful definition of Hybrid Blended Instruction from Schoology.com says:

“Beyond differentiation in terms of content, process, product, or modifying the traditional learning environment, blended hybrid learning combines face-to-face instruction with some form of “computer-mediated instruction.” Blended hybrid learning “has the opportunity to provide personalized instruction with some element of student control over path, pace, time, and place.” Thus, it is a mode of instruction that adds a significant amount of student agency to learning that is not otherwise possible through in-person differentiation, which still occurs synchronously and, in practice, largely at the direction of the teacher.”

How do I use hybrid blended instruction in my drama classroom?

Primarily, this hybrid blended instruction could be used with drama subjects which could be best taught with limited but not limited to topics such as the history of scenic design, stage properties, lights, costumes, etc.

The first hybrid lesson I developed was my Costume Design with Fairy Tale Characters. I adapted parts of my PDF lesson to make it.

Drama Lesson: Costume Design with Boom Cards!

For Distance Learning–

It’s a three-step process. First, the teacher assigns the student to view a portion of a video which demonstrates the costume design concepts. Next, she assigns the Boom Cards! for the student to study prior to the assignments. Finally, the teacher charges the student to design a costume for a fairy tale character and complete the creative writing assignment. This lesson can last one or two days.

Included in the PDF product:

Letter to Teacher
Rationale for Teaching Costume Design
Costume Design Template (Female)
Costume Design Template (Male)
Writing Assignment Sheet
Writing Assignment Sheet Examples
Sources
Video Links

Included in the Boom Cards! product:

16 Boom Cards which include the history of costume design
True/false questions to secure the learning as the student progresses through them

For the Blended Classroom

This is a definite paradigm shift for a drama teacher. We are used to doing all the teaching ourselves. However, if other teachers in a school are using digital learning in their classes the students may adapt quickly to our use of them.

What are the benefits for the teacher?

It frees up your time to take attendance, speak to individual students about their progress in class, take a break for! a few minutes!
The digital task cards are self grading. A teacher checks the students’ knowledge on a subject without having to grade another set of papers. Yet, they are continuing to teach the students.

What are the cons to the Hybrid Blended Classroom?

According to Schoology.com

“….the blended hybrid classroom must bring true computer-mediated instruction into the mix, creating learning outcomes that aren’t possible through traditional methods. It takes technology infrastructure, planning, and hard work to make that ideal a reality.”

In other words it is going to take some time to prepare the lesson, accept the paradigm shift and conquer! In the long run, I think you’ll be glad you did. Until then, lean on me for help.

Hey, if I can do it then so can you?

If you would rather use just the digital task cards without the hybrid lesson, you can find them here:

Here are three sets of digital task cards which may come in handy for you. (Tap on them to see their entire description.)