Setting up and playing a Shout It Out! activity

Create a class-wide brainstorming session where students contribute text or images to a page that appears on the classroom display.

This activity facilitates classroom discussion and helps the class generate and organize ideas.

Here is an example of a Shout it Out! activity where students share interesting facts about different animals as an icebreaker at the beginning of a biology lesson.

This example was designed as an open brainstorming session, but you can also define categories if you have a more structured activity in mind.

Follow these instructions to create your own version of this activity. When you’re done, tap Preview to see how the activity will appear to students.

  1. Click New to start creating a new lesson file.

    OR

    To add the activity to an existing lesson, open the lesson in Editing mode, browse to the page that you want the activity to follow and click Add and select Shout it Out!.

    The activity’s editor opens.

  2. (Optional) Add a question to display to your students.

  3. Select a contribution format. You can choose Randomized or Categories, based on the type of dialog you want to encourage with your students.

    If you selected Categories placements, you’ll need to give names to the categories that will contain student contributions.

  4. In the Contributions section, select either Text or Images as the type of contribution students will make.

  5. Enter the maximum number of contributions allowed per device. This feature ensures everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute and prevent more talkative students from dominating the discussion.

  6. In the Student Names section, select whether to Show or Hide student names. Keeping contributor names private can encourage greater participation.

  7. Click Next.

  8. Select a theme for your activity and click Finish.

    Tip 

    Select Custom Theme to upload your own background image.

Important 

Before students can connect to the activity, they must join your class. See Helping students join a class.

  1. If the lesson that contains your activity is not already open, find it in your file library and open the lesson that contains the activity.

    The lesson opens in Delivery mode.

    Tip 

    To start a Shout It Out activity on the fly during lesson delivery, in the Delivery mode command bar, select Add, and then select Shout It Out! Activity from the options that appear.

  2. On the activity page, select Start.

    The Shout It Out! activity panel opens on a new page, and students are automatically connected to the activity. They stay on the activity page until you select Pause or End.

  3. Tell students to begin contributing, and then guide a discussion as their responses appear on the display.

    • Depending on how you have set up the activity, students will contribute either text or images.

    • You can interact with student contributions in a variety of ways as you guide discussion.

    Tip 

    To pause the activity for additional discussion or classroom management, tap Pause. An Activity Pause notification appears on each student’s device. To continue, tap Resume and students can make contributions again.

  4. When the activity is complete, tap End. Student contributions are saved in the lesson file. If you don’t reset the activity, you can close the lesson and return to it later to review your students’ contributions.

Tips 

The activity controls appear on the left-hand side of the page:

  • Use Activity settings to display the class ID and see a list of connected students.

  • Use Reset to erase activity data and start over.

  1. If the activity has categories, the students will be prompted to select one from drop-down.

  2. Students enter their contributions in the text window that appears on their devices when the teacher starts the activity.

    Contributions can include up to 150 characters including spaces. You can contribute the number of times specified by the teacher.

  3. Tap Send Response to send your contribution to the activity page.

    Your contribution appears on the activity page.

  1. When the teacher starts the activity, the Activity response window opens on student devices.

  2. If the activity has categories, the students will be prompted to select one from drop-down.

  3. Tap Select an image.

  4. Browse to and select an image, then tap Open.

  5. Tap Send to send your contribution to the activity page.

    The image contribution appears on the display at the front of the class.

  • At the classroom display, select and drag student contributions to move them around on the page.

    For example, if you set up the activity with two categories for students to contribute to, you may want to move a student contribution from one category to another.

  • If you want to focus on individual contributions, enlarge an image or text contribution by tapping it.

    When the item is enlarged, you can use the arrowsNavigation Arrows to cycle through all student contributions in this expanded view.

    To return an item to its contribution size and leave the expanded view, tap outside the item, or tap CloseClose in the top right corner of the item.

  • You can delete a contribution by dragging it to the Recycle binrecycle bin image at the top left corner of the activity page.

    After a contribution is deleted, it cannot be retrieved.

Use the results of the class or small group submissions as a springboard for deeper discussion. Students quickly see that diverging opinions can be valuable and that peers can have insights that they might not have had themselves.