Category Archives: Language Arts

Surprise + Interest = Action!

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Colchester Teachers Explore SBAC for the First Time

As I walked around taking pictures and Tweeting at Thursday’s inservice, one expression was prevalent as teachers got their first glimpse of the new Smarter Balanced Assessment: Surprise and Interest. This quickly turned into great discussions about how we were going to get our kids ready for this Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT)

Surprise + Interest = Action!

 

What instructional shifts did you notice while exploring SBAC that you could change right now?

 Here are some resources you might use to dig deeper:

 

 

Wonder Blogging

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Last week I attended Dynamic Landscapes. I was asked to participate in a group session that morphed into the ending Keynote on Thursday afternoon. Each of 11 educators had 20 slides and 5 minutes to highlight a project happening in their district. My area colleagues shared everything from Google Hangout to Getting Global with Students to Robotics!  This was the largest crowd I had ever given a technology talk, and I was terrified! Just to add to the stress RETN was filming us, too! It turned out to be a wonderful experience, and I wanted you to benefit from my presentation even if you weren’t able to attend! 

I decided to highlight Wonder Blogging with my 20 slides. Wonder blogging was developed by Natalie LaRose (2nd grade PPS) and a teacher in Chicago, IL, Ashley Merced. Natalie and Ashley began their collaboration by doing a Mystery Skype. From there, it blossomed into a blogging project using the fantastic site, Wonderopolis. Below is my presentation. Click here if you’d like to see the whole presentation with all 11 educators. So, what is Wonder Blogging? I’ve outlined their process below:Prep:  Decide which wonder to use.  There is a new wonder every day, but you can search for topics that relate to your curriculum by category, too.  Your students will use this ONE wonder all week.

Monday:

  • Introduce Wonder  . . . Read wonder and a snippet of the answer to HOOK your students.  Tip: Post this on your blog for students to refer to as they think about their ideas.
  • Brainstorm possible answers with class.  Tip: post three examples for students to help them.  Rule: No copying answers from blog post, rather use to generate ideas.
  • Blog during Daily 5:  All students blog (min. 2 sentences for 2nd grade) for 15-20 minutes. (CCSS Writing Anchor Standard 2: Write Informational/explanatory texts; Writing Anchor Standard 6: Use technology to produce and publish writing)
Tuesday:
  • Blog during Daily 5: Students visit their buddy’s blog (in Chicago or Vermont) and writes a comment.  Students are encouraged to ask a question or add new information.
Wednesday:
  • Wonder Wednesday:  Whole class watches Wonder video (included in most wonders) and close read the text-based answer discussing concepts and ideas presented. (CCSS Reading Anchor Standard 1: Read closely to find out what the text says explicitly; Reading Anchor Standard 7: Integrate content presented in diverse media and formats; Language Anchor Standard 6: Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain specific words)
  • Blog during Daily 5: Students return to their original blog post.  In a NEW color, they add new information based on the video/text-based answer on Wonderopolis. (CCSS: Writing Anchor Standard 2: Write Informational/explanatory texts; Writing Anchor Standard 6: Use technology to produce and publish writing; Writing Anchor Standard 8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; Language Anchor Standard 6: Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain specific words)
Please visit Ms. LaRose’s students’ blogs and check out their Wonderopolis work!

 

Wonder blogging is catching on in our district!  Please let me know if you would like support getting started Wonder Blogging, finding a buddy class (somewhere in the world), or exploring options for next year.  Request integration support!

Creating eBooks on the iPad

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Second grade classes at Porter’s Point School are creating interactive books on iPads with illustrations, text and student narration.

They began by creating original art using Doodle Buddy.  Doodle Buddy is a fun and functional art app kids can use to create digital art.  Preloaded backgrounds, stamps, stencils and a variety of drawing tools support students of all artistic abilities.

Once their images are saved to the camera roll, they are used in Book Creator to create an eBook.  Importing images and adding text & narration is a snap!  This is a simple, yet powerful eBook creator.

This video tutorial shows you book creator in action:

To publish books, there are a few choices.  Books could be emailed in PDF or e Pub format.  e Pub files can be read on a variety of mobile devices (not Kindle).  PDF files can be uploaded into a site called Issuu.  This site allows you to upload pdf files and turn them into digital magazines, books or newspapers.  These digital creations (less audio content) can then be embedded into teacher or student blogs as a turn-page digital book.  PDF files can also be printed to provide a hard copy of student work.

I created the book below showcasing Mrs. Hooper’s class using Doodle Buddy to create their images. This is the ePub file.  Open this blog post on your iPad/iPhone and click the link to open in iBooks. On Android devices, you can use the Nook, Google Play and Sony Reader apps (all support ePub format) to add student books to a mobile device. Parents will love saving their child’s work on their mobile devices and sharing them with friends and family!

This is how a book looks like when it’s emailed as a pdf file and uploaded into Issuu.  The embed code provided can be used to create an interactive ebook on your site or blog.

Tripline Class Project

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Tripline is an interactive mapping site designed to document vacations with imagery and Google map technology.  Students can create interactive journeys to document the setting(s) of a novel, important places in our community or photo-documentaries of people and places they are learning about.  There’s a free app for the iPad, too.

In the example below, I created a Tripline for Kathy Bonfigli’s 3rd grade social studies unit: Where in the World?  Her students will survey the community using Google Forms to find out where their favorite places are in Colchester.  Using the data from their survey, 3rd graders will work in groups to add their location.  Tripline allows students to  . . .

  • Choose a location and add a pin
  • Upload pictures for a slideshow of their location
  • Write a description about the location

Once every group adds their pins, background music can be added to the tour.  Now you’re ready to share the link or embed into your blog, site or presentation.

I worked with Kathy to “digitize” this 3rd grade unit integrating technology and the new iPads!  This was just one project we developed for her unit.  We created a Google Site to share the pieces of this project.  It shows samples of each project.

Would you like to integrate technology into a unit? 

Interested in using Tripline? 

Wondering what “embed” means?

I can help…Request Integration Support!