Cube Creator

There is a great online tool I found while looking for brainstorming tools for another class. It is called "Cube Creator" from "read write think" and it is great to help students construct their ideas before writing a short story, paper, or a biography. I know this tool would've been very helpful when I was in school because I had difficulty putting all my thoughts into a written assignment. This tool doesn't only help organize your thoughts, but it also helps summarize the information you have constructed.

                                      

There are four different tools that a use can use the "Bio Cube" helps students to write a biography. It allows students to develop an outline on the person by placing their work into chronological order. The best part about this tool is it actually asks prompts about the person. For example, it asks about their background, significance, and personality. I understand that students may find completing biographies to be a daunting task, but this tool makes it so much easier. By asking the appropriate questions, this generator will appeal to students as a guided approach to organize their information and how it should appear for their assignment. Students may also find that this tool works well to construct autobiographies too. Students are asked frequently, especially in elementary school, to compose autobiographies so this tool would be essential to chronologically organize your personal timeline, interests, and personality.

 

The next cube that students can work with is called the “Mystery Cube.” Students can use this cube to help them sort out context clues provided in stories to help them better comprehend texts. Again, this is a tool that can be used especially in elementary school, but also in middle and high school for higher end texts that might be confusing for a student to understand what is occurring in the plot. This tool helps with the mystery genre, which can include many classic pieces of literature read in middle and high school and beginner novels like “Nancy Drew” and “The Hardy Boys,” which are still frequently read in elementary schools today. The best part about this tool is that it helps students identify the key elements of the genre, sort summarizing text, and also provides students with vocabulary from the Mystery genre. This cube also prompts students to answer questions about the setting and characters to also help with comprehension.

 

The next cube is the “Story Cube” which I think is essential for all Language Arts teachers. I am going to use this cube for everything! My students are going to be able to tell me the elements of a story backwards and forwards. This tool helps students to identify and organize characters, which is incredibly helpful. The tool also helps students to cite and explain the elements of the story they are reading. It also prompts them to explain what their favorite part of the story was and why? I think this tool would be helpful for book reports or simply for reinforcement during and after reading a text.

 

The last cube is the “Create Your Own Cube” which can be used for every class! I think that this would be helpful for almost every lesson and it would engage the students with the information they are learning and help them organize their thoughts and information. This would be helpful for History class to report on a possibly current event. In Science class, students could organize the stages of Meiosis and Mitosis and their biology course. The possibilities are endless and this tool is fantastic! I think students may also be as excited as I am over this Cube Creator.  

 

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/cube_creator/
http://edutech4teachers.edublogs.org/2012/04/05/synthesize-with-story-cube/