Students want and need to be in control of their learning. Wixie provides a natural tool for them to take charge by sharing and communicating their thinking through their own unique combination of text, voice, video, and images.
Here are a few additional ideas you can use to encourage students to take responsibility for their learning as they use Wixie.
Using Wixie's Choice Boards
Wixie includes a range of choice boards to let students determine how they would like to show their learning. From number sense to art, from STEM to social-emotional, from comprehension to kindness, choice boards can present students with a range of ways to respond to a classroom topic or task.
Share the URL to the Wixie choice board with students and they can select the option they want to use.
Create Your Own Choice Board in Wixie
You can create your own choice board in Wixie by adding images and text to a page and then adding hyperlinks to these objects that connect to the URL of the template file.
Pro Tip: Before you begin creating the choice board, capture and collect images and URL links for the templates you want to connect.
Open a blank Wixie file, an existing choice board, or a template with the number of options you want to provide, such as this 6-box grid. Add images and/or text labels for each option.
Use the Arrow tool to select the image or text box and paste the URL to the template file in the Hyperlink field at the bottom of the tools panel.
Repeat this process to link text and images on your choice board.
Select the Arrow tool on the tool palette and drag across all objects on the page to select them. Go to the Edit menu, choose Properties, and select Lock.
This will ensure that when students choose a hyperlink, it will open automatically in a new tab and they can simply begin using Wixie to start the project in their account.
Since students only need to view the choice board, you don't have to assign the file. Simply paste the URL to the choice board into an assignment in your Learning Management System, such as Canvas or Google Classroom.
If you prefer students work from a blank page in Wixie, you can also print and share a choice board or tic-tac-toe style grid in Wixie with ideas for ways students can demonstrate their learning.
From Choices to Choice
Using choice boards in your classroom provides students with options, but ones you are controlling. To truly empower voice and choice in your classroom and give agency to your learners, put them in charge of deciding how they will demonstrate learning and represent what they learned.
Curriculum and Template Libraries
Teach your learners how to take advantage of the thousands of graphic organizers and project templates in Wixie's Curriculum and Template libraries.
When students log in to their Wixie accounts, they can browse the templates from the lists on the left side of their Wixie home page or search using the field at the top.
At the beginning of the year, you can assign or collect the templates you want students to use for a performance task or even to organize research. But as they learn how to use t-charts and timelines, create comics and public service announcements, transfer responsibility for learning to students by asking them to choose the template that matches their needs and project goals.
Progress from product to prompt
Students need to know that they can create an eBook or infographic, but after demonstrating knowledge using products you choose, work as a class to develop a list of products they could (or even should) make.
Let students know it is their responsibility to choose the "product" they will create to best communicate their ideas to inform, raise awareness, or change the behavior of the audience for their work.
Wixie projects that ask students to demonstrate learning by adding text, images, voice, and video are naturally different for each learner and showcase their unique voice. Over time, release more and more responsibility for thinking, choosing, and designing to give agency to your students and empower them during the learning process.
