Using Emojis in the Classroom

USING

EMOJIS

IN THE

CLASSROOM

by Dr. Monica Burns

Contents

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

An Introduction: What are Emojis?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

Do Emojis have a place in the classroom? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06

Emojis in the ELA Classroom: Retell a Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Emojis in the Social Studies Classroom: Historical Tweets . . . . 13

Emojis in the Science Classroom: Infographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Emojis in the Math Classroom: Word Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Emojis and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Using Emojis in Book Creator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Examples of Emojis in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Monica Burns

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, EdTech & Curriculum Consultant and founder of the blog ClassTechTips.com. She is the author and co-author of numerous books including Tasks Before Apps, #FormativeTech, and
Taming the Wild Text.

Monica is a big fan of Book Creator
and has introduced it to teachers and
students across the world!

favorite emojis!!

Monica's

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WHAT ARE EMOJIS? AN INTRODUCTION

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Emojis are small digital images or icons that represent words, ideas or concepts. You can find emojis built into a variety of digital tools, often through their keyboard.

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Anyone can access emojis from the web using a tool like emojicopy.com. Some tools, like Book Creator and Flipgrid have emojis built right into their platforms. This makes emojis easy to add to something a student or teacher creates.

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FUN FACTS

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The WIRED Guide to Emoji provides a great overview of the history and background of
emojis.

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Emojis first appeared in the late 1990s on Japanese mobile phones

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Oxford Dictionaries chose emoji as their 2015 word of the year

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Emojis are different than emoticons which use characters on a keyboard like :-)

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The Unicode Consortium
considers new emoji every year

Do Emojis have a place in the classroom?

Emojis are more than just fun!

These visual representations are powerful when used purposefully in the classroom. Students can add emojis to a digital space to share a feeling, communicate tone, or tell a story that transcends just one language.

You might use emojis with students every day, or you might bring them into a few different activities over the course of a week, month or unit of study.

A School Story

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Teachers can use Emojis when …

Creating anchor charts with visuals

Organizing information for students

Giving students directions

Supporting vocabulary instruction

Students can use Emojis when …

Summarizing an event

Writing a story

Sharing their feelings

Connecting to a theme

Setting a mood

In this book we’ll explore some ELA, Social Studies, Science, and Math connections as well as how emojis may connect to your social-emotional learning goals this year.

Emojis in the ELA Classroom

RETELL A STORY

In the English Language Arts classroom, emojis can play a role when students retell a story. From kindergarteners to high school students, your expectations for how students summarize a story will vary greatly. You can use emojis with students of all ages and tweak the task to make sure it is aligned to your expectations.

A Classroom Idea

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