Course Reflection

As I reflect on this course, Technology to Enhance Literacy, I can say I really have good thoughts.  This course allowed the MET students to apply some of the tools we have been learning about in previous courses.  With only three classes left, it is all starting to come together.

We created our own digital story as one assignment.  The digital story did take us a few weeks to complete, but we got to see how it would be for students in our classroom to do the same.  It was time consuming, but well worth it.  I can't wait to see how creative students will be in their writing with a digital story.

The infographic was fun to create.  Many students are visual learners.  It will be exciting to watch how they create something visually themselves.

During this course, we were able to have discussions through our blog again.  I always like seeing what my classmates have to share.  I have gained some new tools and ways to enhance literacy through these discussions. I look forward to what I will take away from the next three courses.

Infographic Project

For my MET class, I was required to create an Infographic using the tool of my choice.  I chose to use Glogster EDU.  Check out my Infographic Project on Genres.  I will use this Infographic when introducing my students to what a genre is, genre names, and how students need to read equal amounts of fiction and nonfiction.  I enjoyed creating this Infographic and hope to create more for my students this year.

Digital Story

This week, I published the Digital Story that I have been creating over the last few weeks in a MET class.  During one of our Reading Units in 2nd Grade, I will use this digital story as an example for the students.  They will get to create their own digital story after watching this video.  I learned a lot about digital story creation during this process.  I am excited to see what my students will create. Let me know what you think after viewing my digital story.

Digital Storytelling Process

                                                                                                           

For our blog entry this week, the MET students were asked to respond to one of two questions.  I chose to respond to question number one:  Reflect on the Digital Storytelling Process thus far and how it relates to the Writing Process.  Discuss your highlights and struggles, if any.

    WRITING PROCESS       DIGITAL STORY WRITING PROCESS                                                                                                               

Digital storytelling is a way to tell a story using technology.  Even with the technology, they are still a story and stories have to be planned, researched, and written.  The texts for digital stories are shorter, but students still need to follow the steps of the writing process to create good scripts.  The students will enjoy putting the stories together with the images and music on the computer because they like playing on the computer.  Before they get to this fun part, they have to do the writing.  The visuals are an important part of the digital story, but the thinking and writing is what any story is built on.  The process will help students see themselves as writers, get the writing done, and finish with a strong story (even before they add the visuals). 

For the current course I am taking, I am creating a digital story.   The instructor is having the students follow the writing process for this.  I have created a graphic organizer with my topic and ideas plus a draft with my script.  In the following weeks; I will peer edit with a group in my class, revise on my own, create and publish my digital story for others to view, and reflect.  I am glad the instructor is having us create our own digital story.  We need to understand the process and know how to create one if we are going to expect our students to do so. 

I have decided to do my digital story as an example for my students.  My digital story will be a model for them to use later as they create their own.  Since I work with 2^nd Graders, they will need one on one help as they go through the writing process for the digital story.  I want them to have the basics when creating a digital story for the first time.  They will need to focus on finding their topic, researching their topic, what main things they want to say, and putting the images and words together.   Later on; as they create more digital stories, they can start working on great beginnings and endings.  Since I will have a diverse class this year, I might have them work in groups for this first time.  This would allow them to support each other as they go through the process.  If I did it this way, the group would have to have a season name given to them in advance.  I could have the seasons in a bucket and they could draw one.  My original plan was to have them create their own individual story about their favorite season.  I could even create a class digital story where each student provides an image with their own narration.  I guess my concern is I don’t really know how much support they are going to need with creating their first digital story until I start working with them in August.  I am creating this digital story to go with our first reading unit.  In the end; I want it to be workable for all, enjoyable, and involve learning in the process. 

Do you have any ideas I could use with 2^nd Graders as they create their first digital story?  

Classroom Website

For our MET class this week, the students were asked to respond to one of three different questions.  I chose to respond to question 3. (Many teachers have a classroom website with varying levels of success.  How have you made your classroom website more useful to students, families, and other educators?  What gaps still remain?)

I created a classroom website many years ago and didn’t do a lot with it.  I few years back I was introduced to Weebly.  It is a free website generator and easy to use.  Feel free to take a look at my classroom website. 

Over the last year, I have tried to make my website a useful collaborative tool for my students, parents, and community.  An improvement that I made recently was putting a purpose statement on the home page of my website.  Anyone who visits my site now knows why I’ve created it and how it can be used. 

My classroom website is used by students on a daily basis.  On the desk top of every student computer, right in the middle of the screen so it is visual to all, there is an icon for our classroom website.  My website has a page with the student rules.  This includes the rules for the building, the classroom, and when they are using technology.  I have all the links to items they will need each day.  There are links to practice spelling words, practice reading, check AR progress, take AR tests, find the level of a book,  practice math facts, view my team teacher’s website, and play fun games.  I always make it known to the students at the beginning of the year that they can only get on the links listed on my website unless we are doing research and I give permission for other links.  I want all links to be safe and age appropriate.  As I learn a new tool appropriate for students, I add it to the links page.  I use the Smart Board to show where the new link is located in the website and allow students practice on the Smart Board how it is to be used.  During the fourth quarter of the last year, I added Twiducate. It was our own private social network right in the classroom.  Students got to feel like they were tweeting as they answered questions and solved problems.  I plan to start it at the beginning of this year so I can do more with it.  As part of a class assignment during last semester, my class website became my class Ning and I added a discussion forum for my students.  I have not used this yet with students.  This will be a goal for this year. 

There are several items on my website that parents can use.  They are able to view the class schedule and the newsletter that goes home with students weekly.  There is a contact information page for parents.  It contains my plan time, my classroom phone number, and a forum to contact me by email.  I have a link on my link page that displays the common core standards if parents would like to know what we are expected to teach.  I go over my webpage during information night at the beginning of the year plus the site address is in my newsletter weekly; however, I’m not sure how often my parents use it.  This is something I would like to improve. 

I team teach with another 2^nd Grade Teacher.  She teaches Math to both our classes and I teach ELA to both classes.  As I mentioned previously, the link to her website is on the links page of my classroom website.  I want my students to have all her tools available on a daily basis also.  My grade level and I collaborate a lot through grade level meetings, email, and with our Google Drive as we share items; but not so much through our websites.  This is probably the biggest gap that needs to be filled on my website.  I do have plans to add every 2^nd Grade teacher’s website address to my webpage.   I need to add more content areas also.  I believe my website will always be a work in progress and changes will need to be made on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis as I learn new ideas and gain new tools. 

After reading this post and viewing my classroom website, what are some ways I can make it more useful for students, parents, and other educators?  

Incorporating Literacy into Content Areas

I am a 2^nd Grade ELA teacher, so literacy is what I do every day with students.  As a teacher, it is my job to build students’ comprehension, writing skills, and overall skills in communication.   If I do this, I am covering reading, writing, and speaking.  

At the elementary I work at, we use units to teach our reading and writing.  Social Studies and Science has been embedded in these units also.  Using the skills and standards in the units; the ELA teachers in 2nd Grade come up with engaging and effective strategies to get students to think about, read about, write about, and talk about the content we are teaching in the Units. 

For reading, I do a lot of read alouds in my classroom.  It is important to model previewing a text, reading for a purpose, making predictions, making connections, and thinking aloud.  If a teacher is using strategies for prereading, during reading, and after reading often enough in front of the students; these should rub off on the students to do these on their own when reading.  My students have thirty minutes of independent reading each day.  Our school has a great library and I have a large classroom library.  My students have a zone they have to stay in if reading a book they will test on; however, students need choices on book selection if you want to keep them engaged in reading.  I expect my students to read half fiction and half nonfiction.  They have to write the genre of each book they read in their reading log. 

To cover some of the speaking, I use Kagan structures throughout daily lessons.  I will have students talk to each other for one to two minutes about a skill taught.  I can walk around during this time and do a quick informal assessment.  At the end of the two minutes, some will share what they heard.  Listening is important also.  Sometimes, I give some time for students to share what they wrote.  At the beginning of the year they are somewhat hesitant, but love doing this by the end of the year.

For writing, students do some kind of writing every day.  There are times they are asked to respond to a prompt.  They have a folder that they keep their writing in.  If they are not responding to a prompt, they are continuing a writing they already started in their folder.  It might be a narrative, informative/explanatory, or opinion writing that they are adding to.  Sometimes, they are starting a new writing.  To make it fun for students, I include informal and formal writing activities. The students research alot of the topics for Social Studies and Science that are included in the units.  I give them prompts to respond to as they learn a topic. The students also write a research paper with assistance on some of these topics.  Some of the topics have included researching one of the seasons and a famous person from the wild west.  

I teach in an inclusion classroom most years.  Within this inclusion class, I have advanced students, IEP students, proficient students, and struggling students.  I set my room up each year into Kagan pods.  Each pod is divided up into the abilities I just mentioned.  A student sitting next to or across from a student does not have the same learning ability as them.  When paired together for a Kagan structure, they can help the other.  I teach a lot of my skills and standards in guided groups.  These groups are divided up into abilities.  I give assignments or read books according to their abilities plus challenge those who need it. 

Here is a  video I found that introduces seven free  technology tools teachers can use in most content areas to embed literacy skills into their instruction.  Some of these tools really engage the students to think at a higher level.  Do you have any new ideas for incorporating literacy into your content area? 

Wiki Project

For class this week, our assignment is to locate, evaluate, and reflect the effectiveness of two wikis.  While looking, I found a Wiki Grading Rubric.  This rubric was created using VictoriaA. Davis’s ideas on an effective wiki.  I used elements from both of these to evaluate the following two wikis. 

Wiki 1:  Mr. Mendell’s 4^th Grade Class Wiki is found at http://mendell.wikispaces.com/Mr.+M%27s+4th+Grade+Wiki.

Wiki 2:  Mrs. Harju’s 2^nd Grade Class Wiki is found at http://harju.wikispaces.com/home. 

Both wikis contain collaborative effort.  Wiki 1 has a page where students can add a virtual sticky note explaining how to make reading more interesting.  There are pages to upload several items like book shares and glogs.  For one page, a group is asked to work together to create a web quest about their trip to Yosemite National Park. Wiki 2 has pages on the wiki for students to upload and present. They can work in groups or pairs to create fairy tales and fables with Puppet Pals. There are several pages in the wiki where students can add digital stories, stories using Storybird, and discussions on their own Kidblog.  Each student has their own page for sharing.  On each student page; there is an introduction video, name glog, and various projects they have created during the year.  I saw student contributions throughout both wikis. 

There is great visual appeal in wiki 2.  Wiki 1 has many graphics, but needs more color and more variety in fonts.  He used the same layout on most pages of the wiki.  The home page of Wiki 2 has a very colorful glog from Glogster EDU.  There is graphics and videos on both wikis.  Wiki 2 is more appealing to the eye.

Wiki 1 and Wiki 2 have a table of contents and headings on each page.  Wiki 1 even contains a table of contents other pages, not just the home page.  Wiki 1 does a great job of explaining what is expected of the students on each page.  Wiki 2 could use more detailed explanations to the students.  Wiki 2’s table of contents is difficult to use and follow.  It took me several tries to locate some things.  Her students are probably pros by now; however, a new visitor might struggle to locate items. 

Both wikis hyperlink sources and give extra information on topics.  Wiki 1 even has a page where students can post links or favorite resources. 

I feel the purpose of both these wikis is for the students to gather information, share information, and collaborate with each other.  Wiki 1 explains what a wiki is on the home page.  Wiki 2 lists the rules and provides a link to the acceptable use policy on the home page.  I would like to find a way to put these in one wiki.  Even though Wiki 2 is more eye catching, I feel the students would get more out of Wiki 1.  This teacher thoroughly explained all assignments and projects. 

I gained some valuable ideas for my own wiki.  What did you learn while researching classroom wikis?