Case Study - English Language Learners Use Drawp for School at Meyerholz Elementary, Cupertino, CA
Students Use Drawp For School To Learn English At Meyerholz Elementary In Cupertino Union School District
Case Study
- District name: Cupertino Union School District
- School name: Meyerholz Elementary
- Superintendent name: Dr. Wendy Gudalewicz
- Teacher: Lisa Dabel
- Grade: Fourth
With more than a million K-12 English language learners, California makes English language development (ELD) a top priority. In 2015, the state adopted a new ELD framework for K-8 students to incorporate English learning components into every curriculum area. In Cupertino Union School District, English language learners (ELL) receive 30 minutes of dedicated instruction per day in small groups.
Lisa Dabel, a fourth grade teacher at Cupertino Union School District’s Meyerholz Elementary School, uses the Drawp for School iPad app and district-provided ELD curriculum from ELAchieve.org with her ELL students. Dabel has noticed three major areas in which Drawp for School has helped with teaching and learning English:
- Personalized Learning
- Interactive Collaboration
- Student Engagement
EASY PERSONALIZED LEARNING
Dabel finds Drawp easy to use and personalize. “It’s an easy tool to modify for these lessons, to use it for exactly what I need to, with little preparation on my part,” she said. She uses the Drawp app to take photos of content, add Voice Sticker notes of the standard pronunciation of keywords, and then asks students to record their own Voice Sticker recordings in the assignment canvases in Drawp.
“With Drawp, I can take a picture of the [vocabulary] poster, add Voice Sticker notes and make an assignment. Students can then listen to the word when they push the button on particular vocabulary words such as ‘rainy’ or ‘cloudy.’ They can listen to the correct pronunciation to learn the vocabulary, record their own Voice Sticker notes for that vocabulary and turn it in, and I can listen to and hear if they are understanding the correct pronunciation of the vocabulary words.”
INTERACTIVE COLLABORATION
Part of Dabel’s curriculum includes giving directions to build a robot. Students don’t know what their robot drawing will look like until they finish following directions. Dabel explains, “It was great for them to be able to follow the directions using the Drawp app to create their picture. Instead of just the teacher giving directions, they’ll give each other directions and take turns. The first person will say, ‘Draw a blue box,’ the next person will say, ‘To the right of that, draw a red rectangle,’ and together they create a picture. It’s much more interactive for them.”
When Dabel’s students are working on various personalized drawing assignments with Drawp they like to swipe to share work with their friends and see what their friends are doing. With Drawp, teachers can monitor collaboration from their dashboard.
Student Postcard Assignment - Created with Drawp for School
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
The personalized content, interactive audio features, and built-in collaboration encourage students to be more engaged. Dabel assigns students to create postcards from different countries and it’s easy for them to draw, add photos or text, and add Voice Sticker recordings to their postcards. If a student is from Russia, for example, they can add images from St. Petersburg, add photos of people fishing in Russia, as well as other activities that are unique to them.
DRAWP IS EASY, SAVES PAPER AND IS MORE FUN
Dabel said that Drawp for School benefits teachers by saving time and saving paper. She adds, “It’s easy for me to take a picture of the assignment and make it into a [Drawp digital] canvas, so that’s been great.”
When asked about the benefits to students Dabel said, “Definitely it’s more engaging; it can be personalized; it is interactive for them; they can use it together in a group; and they can add their own Voice Sticker notes. It’s beneficial for the students to be able to review the Voice Sticker recordings, and to hear how the words should sound, practice on their own, and then listen to both and compare.”
Dabel concluded by saying that Drawp is more fun for students and added, “Specifically talking about ELD, I find Drawp a lot more powerful than other tools like Educreations and Explain Everything. It just seems easier for students to use with the Voice Sticker notes and the blank canvas or an assigned canvas. So for ELD, I think it’s a better tool.”
ABOUT DRAWP FOR SCHOOL
Drawp for School is a workflow management platform with built-in design tools, swipe-to-share collaboration, and unlimited cloud storage for teachers and students. Its interactive design features motivate students by turning any assignment into a creative learning experience—enhanced with drawing, painting, Voice Sticker and text notes. Drawp can be used with all subjects, and saves time for teachers by automatically distributing, collecting, organizing, and storing assignments.
CONTACT
- School@MoondropApps.com
- www.DrawpforSchool.com