Rachel Davis - Discovery Education Tech Book

Discovery Ed - Tech Book

Ms. Rachel Davis

As eighth graders enter Ms. Davis' Social Studies class at New Century Middle School, they know they are in for an engaging experience. As class begins, students open their Chromebooks and log in to Discovery Education. 

Discovery Education has a Social Studies Techbook which is phenomenal. The digital Techbook, aligned to the North Carolina Essential Standards and Common Core, allows teachers to transition to a digital classroom while actively engaging students to read, write and think critically. It reaches all learning modalities as it incorporates text, audio, video, images and digital investigations. 

In addition to the Techbook, students use a variety of other tech tools including Edmodo, Moodle, Schoolnet and Google apps. Students use Kahoot to create their own review questions to quiz their classmates. They have also used Movenote and PowToon to create informative presentations.

As I watched the students interact in the discussion, some were taking notes "the old-fashioned way -- with paper and pencil while others were carefully color-coding the notes they were typing in a Google Doc/Slide. This form of differentiation was powerful for the students. What was powerful for me was that EVERYONE was taking notes and remember, these are 8th graders!


"The Techbook is easy to use and we use it as we take notes or create quizzes for each other," Blake explained.

"I have been using the Techbook for two full years in all three grade levels, 6, 7th and 8th. It definitely  has streamlined my research for lessons and resources. One thing that I like is that students have the ability to change the reading level which allows for differentiation and greater student success. The translation feature allows non-English speaking parents to assist their students with homework assignments. The exposure to primary source documents deepens the knowledge and understanding of many historical concepts. When it is time to assess, the Techbook offers constructed response and higher level thinking questions that I can amend and incorporate into my test."

The closing activity was Six Square Review. Students "danced" around the room until the music stopped and then collaboratively shared answers.

Ms. Davis is an 8th Grade teacher at New Century Middle School. She has been teaching in Moore County for four years. New Century has had their Chromebooks for about seven months. 

*The Social Studies Techbook is a paid-subscription. All Moore County School teachers have access to Discovery Education! Be sure to explore for ideas for your own classroom!

Discovery Education

Edmodo

Kahoot - Getting Started

Movenote

Powtoon

Student Samples: