Final Project
Waiting for SlideShare conversion...stay tuned.
All files referred to in PowerPoint are available on my Documents page of my Language Arts Wiki via Google.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
12.08.09 Personal Reflection and e-Portfolios
12.08.09
As I viewed my course blogs, I was reminded of some ideas that I had forgotten I wanted to implement in my classroom. The blog review was a reminder that simply thinking back on my semester was not sufficient to recall all details. I can only believe that the same phenomenon would occur with my eighth graders, too. An wiki, blog or e-portfolio could help students with reflection and concrete proof of growth. Since we want students to become more reflective and accurate of assessing their work, the e-portfolio, wiki use or blog use is a way to help foster that skill.
As for my own work, I am most proud of my podcast, and PowerPoint because they were time consuming but worth wile so that I could use in my classroom. I was most frustrated by the FlickR slideshow because of its limitations with editing (inability to rearrange images). I was and still am unsure of Diigo highlighting and commenting, but am working on it so I can teach it to my students for a research project in January. The most fun digital writing experience was the comic creation and role play. They both forced me to look at information in a different way and both allowed me to be creative.
Students loose items or leave them in at home all the time (final copies, flashdrives, etc.) so having an e-portfolio in combination with Google Docs can alleviate those issues. The bonus of the e-portfolio is that it can be used throughout one's elementary, middle and high school years. As I viewed the Australian student's 5-6 and 7-8 years portfolio, I thought about the use of it in my students' middle school career. As a district, we could require a k-12 repository of their academic career. Flashdrives get filled and lost, so this seems the better route.
Some projects that I would ask students to share on their wiki/portfolio are academic, study habit, social and physical goals they have for the quarter, semester or year via audio or typed venue. Middle school is about the 'whole child' so looking beyond academic goals is necessary. I would then ask students to use their work to assess how they are making progress on their goals. Another area would be for all final papers, presentations and projects. All (vlogs, podcasts, blogs, research, imovies, voicethreads, etc.) can be electronically produced or linked. These would also be utilized for conferences, ideally, student-led conferences.
I do have 2 concerns or questions I still feel need to be addressed in this course: 1) how to teach attribution of sources in a very electronic culture of drag, drop & dash to the next... 2) Formal, academic writing versus digital, 21st-century writing. As a state, for college entrances, AP writing and high-stakes testing we assess writing based on a traditional multi-paragraph essay format, traditionally 5, how does that translate or equate to the type of writing we have completed/test driven in this course. Others thoughts?
As I viewed my course blogs, I was reminded of some ideas that I had forgotten I wanted to implement in my classroom. The blog review was a reminder that simply thinking back on my semester was not sufficient to recall all details. I can only believe that the same phenomenon would occur with my eighth graders, too. An wiki, blog or e-portfolio could help students with reflection and concrete proof of growth. Since we want students to become more reflective and accurate of assessing their work, the e-portfolio, wiki use or blog use is a way to help foster that skill.
As for my own work, I am most proud of my podcast, and PowerPoint because they were time consuming but worth wile so that I could use in my classroom. I was most frustrated by the FlickR slideshow because of its limitations with editing (inability to rearrange images). I was and still am unsure of Diigo highlighting and commenting, but am working on it so I can teach it to my students for a research project in January. The most fun digital writing experience was the comic creation and role play. They both forced me to look at information in a different way and both allowed me to be creative.
Students loose items or leave them in at home all the time (final copies, flashdrives, etc.) so having an e-portfolio in combination with Google Docs can alleviate those issues. The bonus of the e-portfolio is that it can be used throughout one's elementary, middle and high school years. As I viewed the Australian student's 5-6 and 7-8 years portfolio, I thought about the use of it in my students' middle school career. As a district, we could require a k-12 repository of their academic career. Flashdrives get filled and lost, so this seems the better route.
Some projects that I would ask students to share on their wiki/portfolio are academic, study habit, social and physical goals they have for the quarter, semester or year via audio or typed venue. Middle school is about the 'whole child' so looking beyond academic goals is necessary. I would then ask students to use their work to assess how they are making progress on their goals. Another area would be for all final papers, presentations and projects. All (vlogs, podcasts, blogs, research, imovies, voicethreads, etc.) can be electronically produced or linked. These would also be utilized for conferences, ideally, student-led conferences.
I do have 2 concerns or questions I still feel need to be addressed in this course: 1) how to teach attribution of sources in a very electronic culture of drag, drop & dash to the next... 2) Formal, academic writing versus digital, 21st-century writing. As a state, for college entrances, AP writing and high-stakes testing we assess writing based on a traditional multi-paragraph essay format, traditionally 5, how does that translate or equate to the type of writing we have completed/test driven in this course. Others thoughts?
Monday, November 30, 2009
12.01.09 Giving Feedback
Chapter nine of Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis, and other Digital Tools describes three forms of electronic feedback: intertextual, text editing and footnote (comment) features (Beach et. al 193). I have used the track changes option of MS Word in a previous career and found it challenging at times to sift through all the different types of changes. I am trying to imagine my 13- and 14-year olds attempting to comprehend it. It is visually messy and sometimes distracting.
From my experience students do like to conduct text editing electronically or on paper. Colors are easy to see and clear comprehend, unless you have a color-blind student, then other editing can be incorporated (undline, double underline, etc.).
The other feature that I was not aware of was the commenting feature of Word. How cool is that! Highlight a word and insert a comment so the student can scroll over and receive detailed information instead of my cryptic AWK, which only tells them it is a whacky sentence or unclear. Now, I can give further, FAST information as to what AWK really means. I can also show them how to fix it, if needed, instead of using the "track changes" feature.
From classroom experience, peer reviews aren't always effective if the person you have reviewing your writing isn't literate in how to alter or improve writing. Online feedback allows ALL students to see what others say, different ways in which to say the same ideas in one's writing and helps provide scaffolding for academic language used in writing. I have used clock partners that students will routinely work with to help facilitate peer reviews on paper, but recently, I have asked students to use the clock partners to provide online formative feedback through Moodle postings of drafts and as summative audio feedback for a VoiceThread biography.
I created a rubric for the poet biography voicethread project that I am attaching here. It resembles the rubrics we use in the Wayzata district at the middle school level, specifically 8th grade, so students are already familiar with the format. It incorporates the 6-traits of writing and some of the digital writing features also needed (bullets, headings, color use, image use, etc.). Another aspect that is often a part of writing is transitions, but when you are creating an audio/visual product, one still needs transitions to move the viewer through the text. In my case transitions are provided via audio prompts and through slide order.
This was the first year I created this assignment and assessment, so I now have some examples that I can show to students next year that allow them to assess it using the rubric before they begin their project. This ensures we all understand what is what and how to aim for the minimum, mid-level or excel for more, as there will be 3-5 examples to view, discuss and work as a group to assess.
From my experience students do like to conduct text editing electronically or on paper. Colors are easy to see and clear comprehend, unless you have a color-blind student, then other editing can be incorporated (undline, double underline, etc.).
The other feature that I was not aware of was the commenting feature of Word. How cool is that! Highlight a word and insert a comment so the student can scroll over and receive detailed information instead of my cryptic AWK, which only tells them it is a whacky sentence or unclear. Now, I can give further, FAST information as to what AWK really means. I can also show them how to fix it, if needed, instead of using the "track changes" feature.
From classroom experience, peer reviews aren't always effective if the person you have reviewing your writing isn't literate in how to alter or improve writing. Online feedback allows ALL students to see what others say, different ways in which to say the same ideas in one's writing and helps provide scaffolding for academic language used in writing. I have used clock partners that students will routinely work with to help facilitate peer reviews on paper, but recently, I have asked students to use the clock partners to provide online formative feedback through Moodle postings of drafts and as summative audio feedback for a VoiceThread biography.
I created a rubric for the poet biography voicethread project that I am attaching here. It resembles the rubrics we use in the Wayzata district at the middle school level, specifically 8th grade, so students are already familiar with the format. It incorporates the 6-traits of writing and some of the digital writing features also needed (bullets, headings, color use, image use, etc.). Another aspect that is often a part of writing is transitions, but when you are creating an audio/visual product, one still needs transitions to move the viewer through the text. In my case transitions are provided via audio prompts and through slide order.
This was the first year I created this assignment and assessment, so I now have some examples that I can show to students next year that allow them to assess it using the rubric before they begin their project. This ensures we all understand what is what and how to aim for the minimum, mid-level or excel for more, as there will be 3-5 examples to view, discuss and work as a group to assess.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
11.17.09 Comics
11.17.09 Comic creation
I looked at Ann's example as well as her students of poetry comics. Because I am teaching that unit now, I thought I’d see what I could create. I chose ToonDoon for no particular reason and got to work. I decided to use “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost for my poem to comictize because I thought the cartoon characters could be fun with the poem’s text. One of the characters available was George W. Bush. Now, I’m not a big fan, so it got my mind going on how I could use him with the poem. I then thought about political situations connected to Bush and problems we encounter today due to his course of action or not. I wanted to choose Iraq and Afghanistan but couldn’t find their flags, so I chose another continual, generational conflict: Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I think the text of “fire” and “ice” suits their conflict because of peace talks off and on again, missile launching and suicide bombing. Bus no longer fit, but then when I tried to comictize Netanyahu and Abbas, it didn’t look anything like them, so I plunked Bush in the final frame.
I’m quite happy with my result, but there were some frustrations along the way I encountered. I wanted more frames than the templates offered. I wanted 8 frames, but was limited to the 3. I couldn’t find ways to add others. I also wanted to be able to make Abbas and Netanyahu more realistic looking than the ToonDoon options provided. I don’t like that the hair options don’t’ mold to the head shape. Weird. Lastly, I wanted the bubbles to be more flexible so that they hugged the text more than they did.
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/1132036
Some thoughts about student use: I think it’s fun to choose a character and facial expression for them, but I think that each frame should show some change as the text is added. Having the same character(s) and expressions each frame doesn’t really show what comic strips do.
Another concern, if using them as political cartoons, is offending others. I know this genre often does and will, but as I was creating my cartoon, and elected not to use the revised images of Abbas and Netanyahu, I was wondering if my Jewish or Arab students would find it insulting and disrespectful. Some guidelines on the subject would need to be created, but in a way not to limit the political voice. I think about what happened to Van Gogh, a Danish man, who created a cartoon of Mahamoud, which many Islamists found insulting and disrespectful, to the point of death threats.
As for teaching ideas, it is a great way to teach irony, sarcasm and visual choices to make a point. Once again, audience analysis is key. Creating realistic scenarios so that students could even use research they find and combine them with visuals that support their message which could then be sent to various groups or even our media outlets.
I looked at Ann's example as well as her students of poetry comics. Because I am teaching that unit now, I thought I’d see what I could create. I chose ToonDoon for no particular reason and got to work. I decided to use “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost for my poem to comictize because I thought the cartoon characters could be fun with the poem’s text. One of the characters available was George W. Bush. Now, I’m not a big fan, so it got my mind going on how I could use him with the poem. I then thought about political situations connected to Bush and problems we encounter today due to his course of action or not. I wanted to choose Iraq and Afghanistan but couldn’t find their flags, so I chose another continual, generational conflict: Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I think the text of “fire” and “ice” suits their conflict because of peace talks off and on again, missile launching and suicide bombing. Bus no longer fit, but then when I tried to comictize Netanyahu and Abbas, it didn’t look anything like them, so I plunked Bush in the final frame.
I’m quite happy with my result, but there were some frustrations along the way I encountered. I wanted more frames than the templates offered. I wanted 8 frames, but was limited to the 3. I couldn’t find ways to add others. I also wanted to be able to make Abbas and Netanyahu more realistic looking than the ToonDoon options provided. I don’t like that the hair options don’t’ mold to the head shape. Weird. Lastly, I wanted the bubbles to be more flexible so that they hugged the text more than they did.
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/1132036
Some thoughts about student use: I think it’s fun to choose a character and facial expression for them, but I think that each frame should show some change as the text is added. Having the same character(s) and expressions each frame doesn’t really show what comic strips do.
Another concern, if using them as political cartoons, is offending others. I know this genre often does and will, but as I was creating my cartoon, and elected not to use the revised images of Abbas and Netanyahu, I was wondering if my Jewish or Arab students would find it insulting and disrespectful. Some guidelines on the subject would need to be created, but in a way not to limit the political voice. I think about what happened to Van Gogh, a Danish man, who created a cartoon of Mahamoud, which many Islamists found insulting and disrespectful, to the point of death threats.
As for teaching ideas, it is a great way to teach irony, sarcasm and visual choices to make a point. Once again, audience analysis is key. Creating realistic scenarios so that students could even use research they find and combine them with visuals that support their message which could then be sent to various groups or even our media outlets.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
11.10.09 podcasting reflection
I love making podcasts. I took a class in our district’s Academy to learn the process. We were able to make a podcast to use in our classroom. Since I teach To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I decided to create a podcast to provide background information on Jim Crow laws and life in the South during the 1930s. I added music and photos to enhance the audio and learned a few things: always use the LARGE photo option, as the images get distorted and bleary if you only use the thumbnail version and don’t go for perfection; just get going. I have put into practice the first, but am still working on the second.
I think there is a lot of room for podcasting in my classroom. Absences could be quickly podcasted, mini-lessons on any topic, or examples of reading fluency could be recorded.
Students could also podcast their book discussions and I could then evaluate the quality of their “talk.”
I have recently used my podcast as an example of a book talk for my students. They are in the process of creating book talks as individuals, pairs or trios about a favorite book. These can be played on our school news, so there is a real audience, and I would like to have them connected to our media center book search. How cool would it be to look for a book by genre or author (using tags from our podcast) and then be able to listen to a or many students reveal their feelings and thoughts about it?!?
My current podcast was fun to produce, but frustrating in uploading it to MM. I am quite happy with my enhanced podcast. It is a book talk about Thirteen Reasons Why, incorporating music and images, but I can’t get it to MM as my Garage Band creates an m4a file, which is not recognized by MM. I thought by stripping the music and images and leaving my vocal track, I could import it into iMoive, but no such luck. So I have added to my knowledge that if one uses images in a podcast and wants it to be viewed outside one’s laptop/PC, then one needs to record it in iMovie. I also learned that there is just a audio recording fuction (no isight camera required) in iMovie. So lesson learned. In the meantime, you can only view my enhanced podcast if I email you the file.
During our class, Pete noted the lack of need for images with a podcast. I disagree. I think middle school students would be more in tuned with audio supported by images. I know I am. Granted, I don’t need to look on my iPod to see the images, but if I am at a computer or in a classroom and just listening to a cast, I would prefer to listen and see something, too.
I think there is a lot of room for podcasting in my classroom. Absences could be quickly podcasted, mini-lessons on any topic, or examples of reading fluency could be recorded.
Students could also podcast their book discussions and I could then evaluate the quality of their “talk.”
I have recently used my podcast as an example of a book talk for my students. They are in the process of creating book talks as individuals, pairs or trios about a favorite book. These can be played on our school news, so there is a real audience, and I would like to have them connected to our media center book search. How cool would it be to look for a book by genre or author (using tags from our podcast) and then be able to listen to a or many students reveal their feelings and thoughts about it?!?
My current podcast was fun to produce, but frustrating in uploading it to MM. I am quite happy with my enhanced podcast. It is a book talk about Thirteen Reasons Why, incorporating music and images, but I can’t get it to MM as my Garage Band creates an m4a file, which is not recognized by MM. I thought by stripping the music and images and leaving my vocal track, I could import it into iMoive, but no such luck. So I have added to my knowledge that if one uses images in a podcast and wants it to be viewed outside one’s laptop/PC, then one needs to record it in iMovie. I also learned that there is just a audio recording fuction (no isight camera required) in iMovie. So lesson learned. In the meantime, you can only view my enhanced podcast if I email you the file.
During our class, Pete noted the lack of need for images with a podcast. I disagree. I think middle school students would be more in tuned with audio supported by images. I know I am. Granted, I don’t need to look on my iPod to see the images, but if I am at a computer or in a classroom and just listening to a cast, I would prefer to listen and see something, too.
10.27 iMovie making
I brought in tons of photos of my niece from my sister’s wedding, pregnancy, niece’s birth and then her last 18 months to incorporate into an iMovie in class. It was a disaster in terms of quantity of photos, excessive amounts. It made me think about the importance of choice and answering the question: “What do I really want to convey?” Something that should guide every movie maker’s work.
Instead I chose to use myself as the subject and add in those who are important to me. I’m not thrilled with it, but I wanted to question what our society thinks….beauty and age, how we judge others by it and what is really expected by a number. I used my 40th birthday photos from last August to show the elemental beginning. I think it is a decent start, but has a long way to go.
http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embedqt/48370
Instead I chose to use myself as the subject and add in those who are important to me. I’m not thrilled with it, but I wanted to question what our society thinks….beauty and age, how we judge others by it and what is really expected by a number. I used my 40th birthday photos from last August to show the elemental beginning. I think it is a decent start, but has a long way to go.
http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embedqt/48370
October 13: wikis
I have used wikis in my classroom at a very introductory level. I have syllabi posted, links, expectations, etc., and I have used it for online literature discussions as a differentiated way for students across classes and teams to have a richer discussion than they could with me or with only one other student in their class. I required students to post a minimum of 3 high-level questions using Blooms Taxonomy, one discussion topic per chapter, and 2-3 vocabulary words per chapter. Students were able to create their own novel dictionary with vocabulary words, have discussions which were pertinent to them, and get their questions answered or challenge others.
I’d like to repeat this process with a larger group, 143 students and with multiple books related to the theme of prejudice. I’d also like to add an online roleplay where students assume the role of a character from the book and/or outside fictitious character and discuss a specific question from their point of view. I found our course’s use of this powerful and think my students could gain a great deal from stepping into another’s shoes/POV.
I’d also like to have students keep a blog with post-discussion reflection that I could subscribe to.
Another wiki use would be to discuss a controversial topic and be required to take sides and post one’s links to support their opinion with research. This would be a great way to bridge understanding of rebuttal concept and help students to write a collaborative research paper before they are expected to write one of their own.
I’d like to repeat this process with a larger group, 143 students and with multiple books related to the theme of prejudice. I’d also like to add an online roleplay where students assume the role of a character from the book and/or outside fictitious character and discuss a specific question from their point of view. I found our course’s use of this powerful and think my students could gain a great deal from stepping into another’s shoes/POV.
I’d also like to have students keep a blog with post-discussion reflection that I could subscribe to.
Another wiki use would be to discuss a controversial topic and be required to take sides and post one’s links to support their opinion with research. This would be a great way to bridge understanding of rebuttal concept and help students to write a collaborative research paper before they are expected to write one of their own.
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