Using Emojis in the Classroom

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

WHAT ARE EMOJIS? AN INTRODUCTION

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.

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.

FUN FACTS

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

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

Oxford Dictionaries chose emoji as their 2015 word of the year

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

The Unicode Consortium
considers new emoji every year

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Do Emojis have a place in the classroom?

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Emojis are more than just fun!

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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.

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A School Story

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Teachers can use Emojis when …

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Creating anchor charts with visuals

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Organizing information for students

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Giving students directions

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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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ACTIVITY SEQUENCE

After reading (a novel, news article, picture book) ask students to summarize the story.

Have students brainstorm the type of visuals that connect to their story.

Students can share their summary with a partner, write it on an index card or add it to a Google Doc.

Students can choose five to seven emojis to retell their story.

TIPS

Students can write a paragraph or record their voice to explain their emoji choices. Have students print their emoji summary on sticker labels and add them to the back cover of a book in a classroom library.

The Tortoise & The Hare

Student summary

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