I am always excited to talk and share about hyperdocs, playlists, and choice boards. These differentiated and personalized learning opportunities for students are utilized with each unit I teach in 8th grade English. I am sharing my slide deck for #FETC23 in New Orleans for my Mega Share presentation on Monday, January 23rd. Participants will learn about hyperdocs, playlists, and choice boards and the capabilities these blended learning teaching strategies have to offer.
Hyperdocs and playlists are Google docs/slides/drawings filled with hyperlinks to a variety of structured learning opportunities. HyperDocs and playlists can be a useful tool for in personal learning, distance learning, and even blended learning opportunities for unit of study and multi-day lessons. Hyperdocs and playlists promote a self-paced structure that enable students to take charge and choose different activities that align with the learning objective of the Hyperdoc or playlist.
Teachers can enhance their teaching toolbox to support the diverse learners in the classroom with hyperdocs, playlists, and choice boards. I will also share digital platforms and apps to support the diverse learners to create meaningful classroom experiences that promote reading, critical thinking and digital literacy. So, it is up to educators to provide students with a plethora of tools and strategies so they have the opportunity to choose which will best help them reach their learning goals.
Below is a list of different playlists, choice boards, and hyperdocs I have created for my middle school student and share in the slide deck above. Feel free to make a copy of these and adapt for your own classroom use. Please be sure to credit those whose materials you are using, adapting, and borrowing.
Students are reading books with themes of identity as our last unit this school year. Student outcomes include
Recognize how people and characters define themselves as individuals through multiple complex factors, including culture, family, peers, and environment, and that defining oneself is a complex process
Read texts of various lengths to analyze content and structure, and cite evidence
Respond to texts (orally and in writing) coherently and thoughtfully
Develop and support claims with textual information
Participate in small-group and whole-class discussions
Students selected from five (5) choice novels:
Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson – Newbery Honor
Acclaimed author Renee Watson offers a powerful story about a girl striving for success in a world that too often seems like it’s trying to break her. Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way, which Jade has. Every day she rides the bus away from her friends to the private school where she feels like an outsider. She’s tired of being singled out as someone who needs help or someone who people want to fix.
Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Nevin
Libby and Jack get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both angry, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel.
Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – A National Book Award Winner.
A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. She has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy. (Some mature topics throughout the book.)
The Truth As Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor – National Book Award Finalist
Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.
Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri – 2021 Michael Printz Award
An autobiographical novel, middle-schooler Daniel, formerly Khosrou, tells his unimpressed and at times cruel classmates about his experience as an Iranian refugee. Modeling his storytelling on Scheherazade and not beholden to a western mode, Daniel Nayeri writes a patchwork of memory and anecdote. He layers stories upon stories to create a complex, hilarious, and devastating understanding of memory, family, and perspective. This book is a complex read due to the interweaving of stories in past and present and suggested for advanced readers.
I created this identity playlist to help student meet learning targets and draw connections text to self, text to text, and text to world.
This is just a highlight of some of the slides. To get a copy of this playlist you can access HERE.
Instructional Playlists are individualized digital (hyperlinked) lessons and assignments for students to follow. Whereas a hyperdoc could be one lesson or inquiry unit, a playlist provides students directions for an entire unit. Students can work through these hyperdocs and play lists at their own pace. The teacher might provide dates to help students keep pace and not leave the assignments until the last day. Additionally, since every student gets a copy of the playlist on Google Classroom, the playlist can be individualized to support the diverse learners in your classroom.
This contemporary dystopian playlist is a three week unit that is driven by students reading and book club discussions. Playlists are perfect for blended learning classrooms. Playlists are like full lessons that involve combinations of whole group learning, online learning, face to face opportunities, online learning with individual collaboration and small group learning. When you enter my 8th grade ELA classroom students spend the first ten minutes of class time reading their contemporary dystopian text and then responding in their Reader’s Notebook. On Reading Workshop days students get longer reading time in the classroom. If we expect students to read we need to give them the time to read in our own classes. For this unit, since it is only three weeks we are focusing in on the setting of the dystopian society and characterization. Students will learn about the Hero’s Journey and types of dystopian controls. Students will have multiple opportunities to work in their book clubs to share their thinking about their reading and learn from one another.
If you are new to creating playlists and hyperdocs, note that packaging is key. Think about aesthetics and the visual effect of the playlist. Make sure the organization is simple, clear, and accessible to diverse learners. Provide opportunities for student collaboration and inquiry based learning. Try new approaches to student learning. So what are you waiting for? Try out a playlist with your next unit and let me know how it goes.
Playlists are a series of activities focused on specific content and matched to student needs. The intent of playlist-based instruction is to differentiate instruction while providing students control over various aspects of learning, including path, pace, or modality.
Hyperdocs are interactive digital documents where all components of a learning cycle have been pulled together into one central hub. Within a single document, students are provided with hyperlinks to all of the resources they need to complete that learning cycle.
Choice Boards or Learning menus as Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning defines “are a form of differentiated learning that gives students a menu or choice of learning activities. It is simply a menu of choices from which students can choose. Student choice is the big idea behind learning menus and choice boards.”
Here is a list of different playlists, choice boards, and hyperdocs I have created in the past three years for middle school students (and showcase at edtech conferences). Feel free to make a copy of these and adapt for your own classroom use. Please be sure to credit those whose materials you are using, adapting, and borrowing.
This year I have created three different playlists or hyperdocs specific to aspects of World War 2. I want my students to understand about American history in order to be reflective of our current social and political climate. The first hyperdoc in this series focused on Japanese Internment and made connections to Anti Asian Hate today. The second hyperdoc focused on the Holocaust and shared data on anti semitism that is prevalent today. The final hyperdoc highlights race and gender among military members who served in the armed forces. Many Black Americans, Native American Indians, Japanese Americans, and Women were discriminated yet still participated in the War efforts.
I began with a National Geographic documentary about a 92 years old, World War II paratrooper Les Cruise is one of the last surviving veterans who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day.
After viewing the short documentary students answered these questions in their ELA Notebooks
Although the United States Armed Forces were officially segregated until 1948, WWII laid the foundation for civil rights and women’s rights. American minorities felt a contradiction in the wartime experience. While they were fighting overseas to save democracy, freedoms at home were still limited for people of color. Strong racial prejudices, centuries old, still existed in the United States, and racial conflicts on the home front escalated during the war years. The hyperdoc addresses these concerns and highlights the contributions of Black Americans, Native American Indians, Japanese Infantry, and Women’s helping hands on the Homefront and overseas.
This 14 slide hyperdoc has four different chapters to help students understand the role of minority military personnel. Grab a copy here. Students have choice readings, videos, and web explorations about Navajo Code Talkers based on an online exhibit from the National Museum of the Native American Indian and a web quest on women’s contributions to the American Armed Forces.
DO Ed Tech – Calm, Connected, Compassionate is an annual conference sponsored by NYSCATE. This year’s virtual conference hosted over 50 sessions on topics including District Leadership, Next Gen Learning Standards, SEL, STEM, Digital Fluency, Family Engagement, Career Development, IT Services, Community Resources, and many others. The keynote speaker was Dr. Monica Burns, ClassTechTips creator. I was honored to present a session on Building Epic Hyperdocs, Playlists and Choice Boards Peloton Style. Call it a Playlist, Hyperdoc or Choice Board – they are similar in their objective: to allow teachers to organize a unit or lesson in a clear fashion, front load student work so students can work at their own pace and even choose their own learning adventure. Participants learned how to build awesome playlists that support diverse student learners for in-person and remote learning.
Here is a link to my presentation slides and below I link all the hyperdocs I shared throughout the session.
The following post was written as a guest post for Ditch That Textbook. You can also read the full post on the Ditch That website.
Peloton is a fitness powerhouse brand. It started with a bike connected to a monitor back in 2012 and now has expanded its equipment, subscription fitness classes, and apparel business into a successful lifestyle brand. Whether you are one of the multi-million passionate users or not, educators can take lessons from Peloton’s business model and the fitness instructors themselves in order to spread happiness and deep learning into our classrooms remotely and in person.
Our job as teachers is to inspire and lead our students to success. Playlists, choice boards and hyperdocs are part of the blended learning model that help create active student learner opportunities. We can use our playlists and hyperdocs like Peloton instructors to personalize, connect, and embrace our community members – our students.
Here are four tips for building Peloton style choice boards
1. Create thought provoking learning experiences
Instructor: Ally Love
Ally Love (@allymisslove) is one of the most diverse instructors in her music and classes. She is “thoughtful, thorough, and tough.” My favorite classes are her “Sunday’s With Love” because she states, “it is about movement that is thought provoking.” Her motto is “if it is hard – good.”
As teachers we want to create learning experiences that are thought provoking and thorough. When designing your playlist or choice board choose thematic activities that get students thinking like Ally Love. Create learning opportunities that allow students to explore, reflect, and dig deep into a topic.
Check out this hyperdoc created for the Centennial of the 19th Amendment that provides students opportunities for students to listen, view, and learn about a topic so they can evaluate and reflect on how this information impacts the decisions and actions they make today.
Here are four tips for building Peloton style choice boards
1. Create thought provoking learning experiences
Instructor: Ally Love
Ally Love (@allymisslove) is one of the most diverse instructors in her music and classes. She is “thoughtful, thorough, and tough.” My favorite classes are her “Sunday’s With Love” because she states, “it is about movement that is thought provoking.” Her motto is “if it is hard – good.”
As teachers we want to create learning experiences that are thought provoking and thorough. When designing your playlist or choice board choose thematic activities that get students thinking like Ally Love. Create learning opportunities that allow students to explore, reflect, and dig deep into a topic.
Check out this hyperdoc created for the Centennial of the 19th Amendment that provides students opportunities for students to listen, view, and learn about a topic so they can evaluate and reflect on how this information impacts the decisions and actions they make today.
2. Learn to lean into the discomfort
Instructor: Tunde Oyeneyin
Tunde Oyeneyin (@tune2tunde) is one of the newer instructors for spinning and her “Speak Up Ride” on June 3, 2020 is a must for everyone as it reflects on our turbulent times today. Tunde wants you to “lean into the discomfort” as she speaks up and out about racism, white privilege, and moving forward together. This ride is so powerful, I want to emulate powerful lessons that are grounded in our everyday lives like her. Another thing about Tunde’s rides is that she talks about her 70 pound weight loss and how she did it in micro-steps.
Many of our students come into our classrooms looking to make giant leaps in reading, writing, and thinking. Tunde reminds her riders that if we want to see growth, every baby step we make will lead to bigger gains. When curating your playlist, provide smaller steps for everyone to reach success. Moving from point A to point B might require some students to choose one path and another student go a different route.
Choice boards can be simplified for students by the number of selections and modifications in order to accommodate diverse learning styles, needs, interests, and skills. Choice is important. On this Dystopian playlist there are required tasks and then a few added opportunities for students to level up if they choose.
3. Set your students up for success.
Instructors: Cody Rigsby and Jess King
Speaking of modifications and scaffolding, Cody Rigsby (@codyrigsby) and Jess King @jesskingnyc) will tell you that they are “setting up for success.” Teachers need to do the same for students, set students up for success and modify with no pressure. Additionally, Jess and Cody always bring fun and surprise to each class. The popular songs these instructors include on their playlists set the pace for the class.
Take cues from Cody and Jess by adding a little fun and games to your playlist with VR field trips, Kahoots, and collaborative activities. Peloton has started introducing rides that couple instructors together for double the engagement – learning is not an isolated event or experience and when we are designing choice boards and playlists, don’t leave out collaborative opportunities.
This vocabulary HyperDocwas created for teachers to help understand the role of vocabulary in content area classrooms. After teachers were able to explore and reflect, they collaborated to create a product to share with the whole group their new understanding.
4. Offer activities that honor student voice and agency
Instructor: Christine D’Ercole
Christine D’Ercole’s (@iamicaniwillido) catchphrase is, “I am. I can. I will. I do.”– Enough said. Christine is a pro track cyclist who is all about changing your inner monologue and empowering you to love yourself. Many of her rides she will tell you “it is not about the leaderboard or the numbers, but the fact that you are here.” I associate this with number and letter grades because so many of our students use number and letter grades to define who they are.
Christine reminds riders not to focus on the numbers. Similarly, let’s move away from too many tasks that distract from real learning. Offer activities that honor student voice and agency. This poetry playlist allows students to choose which assignments they want to complete. Students are empowered when they are given choice and know their voice will be heard.
These are only a few of the teachers you will meet through Peloton, there are so many others who are just as awesome and provide engaging opportunities both physically and mentally. Peloton’s recipe for success comes from its instructors and the Peloton community. We all get on our bikes and treads for different reasons but our instructors have us coming back for more.
As teachers we are committed to our students, building a safe classroom community where students come back because they are engaged, empowered, and inspired. Like Peloton, we can create opportunities for our students to discover their true potential through the power of playlists and blended learning opportunities.
Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) of Ditch that Textbook writes “a quality hyperdoc or hyper slide should: Share the day’s lesson and objectives, provide links to content, activities, and assessments, differentiate using those resources that provide students a choice over process and content, provide a common place where students can turn in work, and look good and seem well-themed” (2019).
I have been creating and using hyper docs (or playlists) with my students for a few years now and I love that they allow me to organize a unit or lesson in a clear fashion, front load student work so students can work at their own pace and even choose their own learning adventure. During remote learning, I have been using hyper docs weekly to give my students easy access to lesson material and interactive reading and writing experiences. On April 27th I blogged about the first week of a WW2 hyperdoc I created and want to share how this reading inquiry has evolved in the past four weeks.
Each of the hyper docs has the same theme and format to indicate the unit. I added a screencast link to each hyperdoc to provide an overview of each element on the doc with specific directions students can access by clicking the “play button.” I have differentiated the unit allowing students to select their WW2 book, fiction and nonfiction choices. As I reflect on this unit, I will add more differentiated options by product as well as content.
For Week One I wanted to build student’s background knowledge about WW2 and the Holocaust. I began with an anticipation guide on a Google Form and daily readings from Actively Learn. At the end of the week, students completed Hexagonal Thinking Maps (borrowed from John Meehan’s book EDredaline Rush, 2020) to make connections and show their understanding. Here are some examples of the completed work.
For Week Two, student began reading their independent reading books and I created a Podcast on Anchor for students to access a Read Aloud of Refugee by Alan Gratz in 30 minute blocks. My special education co-teacher has also been reading aloud and recording The Boys Who Challenged Hitler and posting on Google Classroom. Additionally, this hyperdoc provided two virtual field trips for students to explore Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel and the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Washington, DC through Google Arts and Culture. Students wrote reflections on Padlet and Google Forms.
During Week Three, students viewed an online production ofThe Diary of Anne Frank: A special presentation created by artists in isolation produced by The Park Square Theater in Minnesota, available online until May 24th, 2020. Park Square was set to open its 21st production of The Diary of Anne Frank to over 12,000 middle and high school students when shelter in place orders took effect. When it became clear that there was no way to assemble to record the staged version, the cast began rehearsing and recording a Zoom reading of the play. It was released on April 21, Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
These virtual experiences have been vital to help understand this time period and see, hear, and experience the rich artifacts from history. Students also took a virtual tour to Anne Frank’s Secret Annex in Amsterdam and created their own concrete found poem based on the themes emerging in their independent reading books. Students responded in a Flipgrid the lessons learned from Anne Frank as we continue to self isolate.
This week, as well finish up our WW2 independent reading books, students are looking and author’s craft and drawing larger text to world connections. I created a flipped lesson on Authors Craft and Style. I want students to look deep within the surface of their text. Proficient readers are continuously drawing connections between the text and the world, and I have students reading an article about the rise of Hate Groups in the US today to compare to the rise of hate and anti-semitism prior and during WW2. Next week, students are working on a One pager about their WW2 independent reading book. There are no tests or quizzes, only opportunities for students to share their learning and understanding.
When designing hyper docs I keep the following in mind:
Engage: Hook your students, get them engaged, and activate prior knowledge.
Explore: Resources, such as videos, virtual field trips or articles for students to explore more information.
Explain: Simplify and clarify the learning objective for students. By creating a screencasts my intentions are to provide explicit directions students can return to at any time throughout the week for clarification.
Apply: Students create artifacts to demonstrate learning through Google Forms, Padlet, Google Drawings, and Flipgrid.
This weekend I read through John Meehan‘s book EDrenaline Rush (Dave Burgess Publishing, 2020) and took copious notes. I have seen John’s classroom materials on Twitter and we have conversed in different gamification twitter chats. Whether it is his Fortnite Battle Royale or Great Gatsby Break In, Meehan has great energy that he ignites in his high school classrooms. The world is our inspiration and Meehan has taken inspiration from Disney World, Spartan Races, Escape Rooms to engage his students in deep learning and active learner centered classrooms.
This year was the first year that I participated in a Disney Marathon and spending the weekend in Disney with 20,000 other people for the marathon weekend I was immersed in the magical powers of Disney. An avid marathoner himself, Meehan begins his book deconstructing the architecture of Disney’s Magic Kingdom based on his own experiences doing the Disney Marathons with his family. He breaks down not only the culture that Disney creates but the experiences that fuel each storyline in the different parks and rides. Meehan calls for classroom teachers to use Disney as a model to build and sustain a positive and engaging culture with students.
The book also covers Escape Rooms, races, and scavenger hunts as a means for learning experiences because learning is an experience that is fueled by curiosity. The book is filled with many games and lessons that provide students with exciting learning adventures that spark their sense of wonder. Based on my reading, I created a playlist for our WW2 independent reading unit to provide background knowledge. The format what something that “Miss Ryan” shared on Twitter two weeks ago and now I cannot find her tweet or Twitter account where she posted her own Progressive Era Playlist, but the design was inspired by her. Her playlist offered an audio link to hear the teacher go over the work. I love the audio or visual support for learners. I also added an audio button that links to a screen cast providing further directions and explanation about the playlist assignments.
I know that this is reading heavy for week one and the readings come from Actively Learn. I might switch out a reading or two for an Edpuzzle video or web quest. The first activity is a Google Form and anticipation guide that asks students whether they agree or disagree with the following statements:
I would help someone I saw in trouble, no matter the danger.
Prejudice leads to violence.
Apathy is a critical issue in our society. *Apathy means to not care.
Everyone should always conform to the laws of society.
The bystander has an obligation to help a person in distress.
Violation of human rights in another country is none of our business.
The bystander who does not intervene is as guilty at the perpetrator.
For the final assignment for the week I have included a Hexagonal Thinking Map, adapted from EDrenaline Rush as a “show what you know” activity. The hexagonal thinking map is a collaborative discussion activity for making connections between concepts and visually presenting those connections to represent the big ideas of a topic. Students have a set of hexagons, each with a term dealing with World War II and the Holocaust. The challenge is to link the terms to present an organized and annotated representation of the this time period.
With your hexagons, students will need to …
Categorize – As you make links with all of your hexagons, you should categorize them by color. Make sure to make a key on the graphic organizer to show the different categories.
Synthesize – You’re going to take each of the hexagons and see how they combine to create your understanding of WW2. Each hexagon should touch at least one side of another, and you should be able to annotate their relationship – cause-and-effect, turning points, change in continuity, testimony.
Summarize – Using your categories, develop a succinct and complete definition of your understanding of World War 2 and the Holocaust. Your definition should be one or two complex sentences.
Evaluate – Did America do too little in WW2? Did they do just enough? Were they too slow in responding to Hitler? Did they go too far dropping the atomic bomb? Consider the actions of the perpetrators, bystanders, allies and pass judgment in some form or another. This could be ranking individual actions, summation statements, or anything else you develop.
I edited a Google Drawing Hexagonal Thinking Map from Ditch that Textbook so that all my students could annotate their own thinking and understanding from the readings this week.
A third assignment I am providing during the WW2 unit is the #Hashtag Hunt inspired by John Meehan. The teacher provides themed hashtags for students to look for during reading. For example, when students begin reading their independent reading books about WW2 and the Holocaust I want them to make note of the following hashtags and go on a text hunt – find places in the text and direct quotes that support these themes and ideas. Here are a few of the hashtags I have created:
#NaziLies – Examples of Nazi propaganda and laws utilized to maintain power
#WW2Destruction – Examples of destruction caused by actions of WW2
#Allies – Examples of actions from allies who helped protagonist
#Resistance – Examples of acts of resistance from the protagonists
#Dehumanization – Examples where the protagonist is reduced to an object and no longer considered human or worthy of human dignity
#Liberation – Any example where the protagonists are brought out of their situation and able to live freely again
If you are into games and gamification to fuel an active learner centered classroom, you are going to want to read Edrenaline Rush. I know that you will be inspired by John’s stories, games, and activities that engage students and inspire them to be innovative, critical thinkers.
Educators are teaching remotely now that school are closed due to COVID-19. My focus for my students and children is staying healthy under this stress, fear, and anxiety of the current situation. Whereas grade are important, mental health is my primary focus. I do not want to cause more stress, fear or anxiety that children might already be feeling working from home, confined to their home, and away from their friends.
As educator and author Kelly Gallagher stated on his website, “The last thing I want to do with my home-bound students is to load them down with brain-numbing packet work. So this lesson plan was designed to honor student choice, student agency, student voice. This is not the time to give students chapter quizzes on their at-home reading of 1984.”
Similarly, I want to provide my students with opportunities to read, write, and reflect. I have created a poetry playlist for the next few weeks so that my students can read poetry, learn about different poets, and then write in response to the poem. I want to inspire them to write their own poetry.
April in National Poetry month but these poems and poets can she shared any time of the year. I am sharing this three week poetry playlist with teachers to use and adapt for their own classroom.
I ask students to respond to each poem. Students are asked to write one page (or more) in their Battle of the Books Notebook or Writer’s Notebook, capturing thoughts, questions, comments, and connections about the poem. The directions I provided are based on a poetry one-pager posted online by #NCTE:
Write the title of the poem and author’s full name
Quote a line from the poem and explain what you believe it means
Draw 5 images from the poem and caption the imagery that inspired each
Create a boarder using a key phrase
Select a main idea of the poem and relate it to your own life
Define 2 important words from the poem (Definitions should be in your own words)
Quote a phrase or line – make a personal connection to it
Explain why a friend might want to read this poem
Add color to all the images
On the page adjacent to your response, write a poem or free write inspired by the poem
Do you have a favorite poem or poet to include on the playlist? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
The Teaching Factor 