You will need the following:

1. The EduProtocols Random Emoji Generator.

2. A quiz program: We suggest Socrative for this EduProtocol.

Start up a Socrative Short Answer quiz.

Once the students are logged in, the fun begins. Socrative Short Answer quizzes literally take 5-10 seconds to set up. You may use the Socrative Short Answer quizzes for all kinds of one sentence, open ended assignments.

1. Explain the concept of pursuing an idea. Staying on topic is what defines a paragraph. If you pursue a new idea, it’s time for a new paragraph. And for this activity, we are only writing one paragraph.

2. Click the Start Over button on the Random Emoji Generator page until the class yells “yes” to pick the first emoji. This begins the game. Give students about a minute or two to get the first sentence typed out.

3. Then hit the And Then button. Another random emoji appears. Repeat this until each student has five sentences typed. When they have five sentences, they hit submit. (Not sooner!)

4. When everyone is done, select Start Vote in Socrative, and the students and you can read everyone’s paragraphs.

5. It’s great for them to immediately admire one another’s work. It’s easy to give pointers immediately. Try completing one more paragraph right away. The Start Vote option in Socrative is magical, because all the students see all the work immediately – no “collecting” or handing in.

The Random Emoji Power Paragraph can have endless permutations, making it effective for most any grade level. Once kids can snap off 5-6 sentences on point (should take about 6-8 reps), I will add twists like tense, POV, literary devices, appositives and so on. I can scaffold their writing in a myriad of ways, and the combination of random emoji and fast feedback via Socrative is a total win for kids and teachers.