Debra Segiet has been posting her students’ Google Drawings creations on Twitter. I asked her to write something about her use of Shapegrams. You can read what she wrote below, and below her writing is a gallery of some of her students’ “home work.”
My name is Mrs. Debra Segiet and I teach Creative Technology and Project Lead the Way to students in grades 6-8 at Churchville Middle School in D205 in Elmhurst, IL. My 6th and 7th graders have my courses for 7 week terms in Creative Tech. My PLTW students and my 8th Creative Tech have my course for a semester. Besides coding and robotics, part of the 6th grade curriculum is to teach Graphic Design. I have been using Google Drawings with my own homegrown projects to do just that. I also use it in 8th grade for students to create Google Doodles of themselves using a tutorial created in 2014 by ptrsnja and to create a product that they animate in Google Photos.
I began using Shapegrams this year with my 6th graders. They LOVE them. I like the fact that they learn from someone besides me through the medium of video instead of just my modeling. They are so excited when I challenge them to make the product their own. They are constantly competing to see who can come up with the most creative expression of their learning.
What I like the most is they are learning life skills like creativity, problem solving, and collaboration alongside the graphic design skills—and they are having so much fun! That is how learning should be fun, hence engaging! They also are thrilled when I show them my Twitter posts of their work and all the likes from the Twitter community (and especially Tony’s praise as the creator of Shapegrams)! I have four newcomers in my class who are bragging how much they are loving what they are learning from Shapegrams because the videos are accessible in several languages by using the closed-caption feature in YouTube.
I appreciate Debra taking the time to share! Her students’ “home work” is remarkable. 👍
After recreating the picture in a Shapegram, I encourage teachers to invite students to put their own creative spin on the picture—either as a new drawing or as an addition to the one they made in the Shapegrams document. Read From Directed Drawing to Creative Expression.