Finding ways to motivate older students can be difficult. You want to be age respectful while also providing instruction that is cognitively appropriate. I created this Facebook activity as a way to increase student motivation during writing activities.
Students can write a status at the beginning or end of the day. The teacher can write the morning message as a status. Students can “Like” the status, they can use an emoji to show how they are feeling, check-in at their current location, or tag a classmate.
Click here to download the activity.
This is the main board for the activity (it is called “Facebook”). The other files are pop-up boards.
You can select the message display box and begin typing on a traditional keyboard or you can use the tool bar at the bottom of the board.
The ABC Keyboard inserts letters onto the message display.
You can select the Number Keyboard on the bottom left hand corner of the ABC Keyboard.
Next to the key for the Number Keyboard, you will find the button for the Emoji Keyboard.
Back on the main toolbar you will also find the Tag Keyboard. You can edit this keyboard by replacing the picture and text in the button. The buttons are already programmed to type whatever text you put in them into the message display.
Next to the Tag Keyboard is the Location Check-In Keyboard.
You can edit this keyboard by changing the picture or text and double clicking a picture to adjust the button actions. Double click the “Type Message” action and you can change the text that will be entered into the message display. Select OK twice to program the action.
Lastly, you can select the “Like” button and the number in the button next to it will increase by 1.
Click here to download the activity.

