Ever wonder why students seem to remember rules, operations, or facts when put to a catchy tune? Have you ever wanted to create or find a song for that concept that just seemed to be too difficult for some to remember or learn? After becoming quite frustrated that some of my students in my word study group were not catching onto the “vowel consonant-e” pattern, I began to think of a way in which I could get it to “stick.”
A colleague of mine recently found many songs on YouTube that related to various concepts, including word study. In previous blog posts, I have commented on using YouTube for science or social studies, but also wanted to make readers aware of the songs teachers can use during Language Arts.
As always, it is best practice to view the complete video before showing them to students. It is also best practice to monitor the advertisements and commercials that tend to come with some of the videos on the site.
Word Study Videos:
The Electric Company: Veronica Jackson’s “Bossy R”
Super “e”!!!! (hip children’s song by Mark D. Pencil)
Vowels Save the Day
Short Vowel Song
Song About Contractions: A Contraction has an Apostrophe by Miss Jenny
Contraction Rap 1st Grade
Teaching By Magic- Homophones
Song About Compound Words: Compound Word Whiz With Miss Jenny
Prefixes and Suffixes
Eight Parts of Speech!
Parts of Speech Music Video
It was amazing how many different videos were on YouTube related to these various concepts! The visual and audio aspect of learning is captured during these types of learning experiences, and can really impact a particular child’s understanding. When all else has failed and you are about to pull your hair out (haha!) just remember to think outside of the box, or use modern technology to help you out! It is amazing what our kids remember and connect to in this generation…good luck and rock on!
Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is how to continuously engage my students in their learning. Ok, let’s face it, that is something I’m constantly thinking about. I bet we all are! We want our students to be invested and interested in what they are doing, and when they are engaged with the material they are working on, great things happen.
Motivated learners are the ultimate and I’m finding that on Big Universe, my students are naturally motivated and engaged. Recently, I posed a writing challenge to some of my students. They are currently working in groups on writing and publishing an ebook on a math concept of their choice. With very little assistance from me, all the students (10 of them) are collaboratively working every moment they can during the day.
Still some of my students have really found a hook into reading through the variety of books on the site. One girl has built a bookshelf of history books to peruse. Another has great fictional books about adolescence – chapter books that she keeps returning to at various times in the day. One boy has built a heafty bookshelf on all sorts of topics and loves sharing it with others by sending messages to his classmates.
It’s a new type of engagement with literacy, a 21st century engagement where students interact with technology and social media in a safe environment and share in the enjoyment and excitement that literacy can bring.
At least once a week, our class takes a trip to our Computer Clubhouse to use the computers and Big Universe freely. My students covet this time and are very disappointed if the time is cut short. Many read a new text, some work on writing an ebook and of course they all want to send messages to each other both personally and virtually. During that time, we are working on balancing out what we do. In our 30 minutes, I ask that students don’t just take advantage of the social media features, but find something that will engage them for 10-20 minutes. It takes some stamina building, but the kids love the practice because of the pure motivational and engaging value of working online.
The other day, while up in our Computer Clubhouse, after taking an online test, my students excitedly went on to Big Universe. They love spending their free time there: browsing books, creating images and finding friends. That’s what their focus seemed to be that particular 15 minutes. By the time everyone was done with the test, the whole room was buzzing with happy kids. I actually had wished later that I had recorded the sounds in the room.
“Look at all my friends!”
“Look at this friend. He has over 300 books on his shelf!”
“Mrs. Peterson, you NEED to be my friend!”
The SHARE part of Big Universe is a great feature and I like to encourage the students to use it. First of all, it is a very safe environment. Many of the kids’ names are in code, the social network is confined to Big Universe users and the comments students can make are limited. In fact, they choose a comment to leave for a friend from a drop box.
I find that the students are showing some nice camaraderie online that can sometimes can be lost in person. Everyone wants to be everyone’s friend. It’s nice to see!
Another great thing about the SHARE tab is that you get to see what other readers are up to. The boy who became friends with one who read over 300 books was so excited. So, I told him to check out the books he was reading. My student happily went back to his computer and started to read one of the books on the boy’s shelf. He took the recommendation as an exciting adventure: to read what someone across the country thought was a great book.
It was fun to see my students get excited about social media in the classroom in a very safe and educational environment. My hope is that this healthy interaction with other people online will help them see the possibilities of online collaboration in the future.
~EMP
During the next trimester of my school year, I’m plan to begin focusing on concepts related to writing fiction stories. My students and I spent the first part of the year working on writing conventions, personal narrative topics, beginning/ middle/ end, and the writing process that they would continue to work with throughout the rest of the school year.
To begin the new trimester, I’d like to also introduce various types of reading genres to my students so that they can distinguish between the main characteristics of each genre. I’d like to start with fables since these stories can also be broken down into literary elements such as characters, setting, problem, solution, and lesson/moral.
After we have identified the defining characteristics of the genre, it will be important for my students to take time to understand how to identify the moral or lesson of the story. A complete collection of Aesop Fables can be found on the Big Universe Learning website, and can also be assigned to students for independent reading.
Fable Defining Characteristics:
- Short story.
- Teach a moral or lesson.
- Characters are animals that act/speak like humans.
After ample exposure to the Fables, my students will begin creating their own “modern” fable using the Aesop Fables as a mentor text or guide. Students will be encouraged to create a modern lesson, or use a lesson from Aesop Fables and create modern details to support the main idea of the story.
In the past, this type of writing experience has always served my students well since it requires them to be specific in describing the characters, setting, problem/ solution in order for the lesson or moral to be implied to the reader. These type of stories also tend to be shorter in length which encourages students to maintain on topic, and provide details to support the main idea of the story without going off on tangents.
I recently visited the website, www.kidsfables.com where they have published “Tips” for students to consider when writing their own fables. In addition, this site is devoted to publishing student fable writing that meet specific qualifications.
When preparing my students to write their own fable, I also plan to use a website which helps to create a visual process regarding how to write fables. The site contains specific details broken down into student friendly terms, such as how to pick proper moral for the story, how to choose the animal characters that would relate to the moral, and other story elements and story parts.
Once their story is complete, students will be instructed to create a visual story map for the beginning/ middle/ end, by hand drawing the images and scanning them onto the computer; or, by using a program such as Pixie, which allows students to “draw” pictures on the computer. Then, the students will record their oral reading of their individual fables while displaying each picture on the computer using the Quick Time screen recording function. These projects can then be uploaded to their blogs on www.kidblog.org for their parents and peers to view.
The “moral” to this story is to always encourage your students to have fun when writing!
In the coming week, my students will be learning all about the landforms that exist on our planet. Making this type of learning become more visual, I again turned to my trusted www.biguniverse.com account for help! I began by searching for books using the keyword, “landforms,” and was pleased to find many interesting books that I could assign to students and use in a whole class lesson on my interactive white board.
After looking at many of the titles listed below, I realized that not only are these books recent publication, but many of them can be found at my local library. However, rather than having only one or two copies of the book for my entire class, I now have a copy for every student by using Big Universe Learning. Additionally, these titles can be accessed at home for students who are absent (which tends to happen around cold and flu season!), students who need information front loaded, or students who wish to do independent study projects outside of school.
Suggested Titles on Big Universe Learning- Landforms
Looking at Landforms by Ellen Mitten (This title can also be found in Spanish on Big Universe Learning to support ELL students.)
Investigating Landforms by Lynn Van Gorp
Mountains by Emily K. Green
Rivers by Emily K. Green
In addition to visiting www.biguniverse.com to search for books, I also visit a site to find activities and lessons that I can do with my students on the interactive white board. My favorite site to visit (which happens almost daily now!) is SMART Exchange. This is a site which holds Lessons and Activities for nearly any subject or content area. The great part about these resources is that they are mainly created by teachers who are currently in the classroom. When I’m teaching a concept, I search by keyword, and find amazing resources. After previewing the activity, I can download it onto my computer to use at a later time. I can use the activity in its original form, or I also have the ability to modify the activity to meet my instructional needs. Using this resource has saved time trying to create new interactive lessons from scratch. Additionally, most of the postings are visually stimulating and offer interactive activities/ games to be used by the class.
Note: SMART Exchangerequires a teacher to set up a FREE account in order to access these amazing resources.
To begin this unit on Landforms, I also send an email to all of my parents with links to YouTube videos about Landforms. This is a great way to inform parents regarding the content their child will be learning in the coming days. For this unit, I plan to send my parents the following link:
Landforms- Educational Songs By The Obies
This week, I worked with one of my guided reading groups on using nonfiction conventions to support comprehension of informational text. I began by assigning the text Why Animals Live in Hives, which can be found and assigned to students on Big Universe Learning’s website. The students in this group were able to read the text prior to our group meeting date, and become familiar with the content.
Once we met as a group, we began to dissect the informational text and analyze the various features. During a pre-assessment opportunity, I became aware that these students were not strong in using section headings, table of contents, and the glossary to support their comprehension of the text. Throughout the lesson, we examined the informational text and discussed these specific features.
After our initial discussion, the students began working in pairs on specific activities related to nonfiction conventions.
Nonfiction Activities:
- Creating questions based on the table of contents.
- Determine the main idea and supporting detail of each section.
- Locate the definition of the important vocabulary related to the topic as found in the glossary.
- Answer literal comprehension questions, which required locating specific information/ facts in the text.
- Reflective questions, which asked the student to determine the most important fact in the text and provide reasons why they determine it to be the most important.
Once the students are finished with their partner activity, we will discuss their answers, and discuss how using nonfiction conventions can support comprehension.
The final application of their learning will be in the form of an independent study project. Students will determine a topic of interest, create six questions related to the topic (teacher support and guidance), and then obtain informational text related to their topic. From this point, they will determine the answers to their questions from the informational text. Students will then display their learning through a technological program of their choice and present to the group.
Note: www.biguniverse.com has many informational text titles to choose from when planning for your guided reading groups. It is very simply to assign the text to the whole class, or a specific group of students.
This year, my professional goal setting has expanded to include 21st century learning skills that are at the forefront of educational news and educator professional development. The idea behind 21st century skills and incorporating them into classrooms is to utilize technology to help students build those skills necessary for the future. Information related to 21st century learning skills suggest that classrooms should include creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration.
Obviously, blogging has become a major part of my professional dialogue through Big Universe Learning, and I have seen first hand the impact that blogging can have on my teaching development and continuous sharing of innovative ideas. I wanted to provide my students with the same type of opportunity to communicate and collaborate with their peers in a 21st century form. (The site that I use for classroom blogging is www.kidblog.org since it is extremely user friendly and easy for primary age students to understand.)
When initially setting up our classroom blog, I introduced the concept to my students through examples of how people use blog sites in their everyday lives. Then, as a class we determined the topics and expectations that all blogs should follow. In addition, we discussed in great detail the information related to Internet safety.
Internet Safety Concepts:
- Understanding that the Internet is viewable to the public (Regardless of being password protected.)
- Students should never use their first and last name, and the location in which they live or go to school on a blog post.
- Students should never put a picture of themselves on a blog post. However, pictures of objects related to the main idea of their post are acceptable.
- Comments written on the blog site should be appropriate, and the comment should be directly related to the main idea of the blog post.
- Students should only sign into the blog site with their unique username/ password. Using another student’s password information without permission is considered “hacking” into their account.
Each student’s first blog post was a controlled topic which helped to introduce the students to all the features of publishing a blog post, as well as, viewing their peers’ postings and leaving appropriate comments. My students created “Transitional Phrase Stories” titled “A Day in My Life,” which helped to introduce them to their peers, while also meeting academic content standards for Language Arts.
From this first blog posting, students have been encouraged to post blogs related to the agreed upon topics. (Personal experiences with family, sporting events, books and vacations, etc. Or, students can blog about concepts that we are learning about in the classroom. Our blog topic list is ever expanding.) To my surprise, many of my students have not only enjoyed posting new blogs for their peers to read, but have also left meaningful and creative responses to others’ postings. All comments are subject to teacher approval, making it easy for educators to monitor comments for appropriateness. Additionally, each week I post a blog related to literature or a learning concept, and encourage students to leave comments to promote an online dialogue. Not only are my students visiting their blog at school, but many of them are also logging on at home!
This week, I posted the following blog topic:
“We have been using www.kidblog.org for a few weeks now, and many of you are becoming comfortable with how to post and leave comments. Think back to your experiences with this site, and leave a comment to reflect on the following question: What do you like most about blogging?”
Popular Student Comments:
- “I like reading what other kids blog.”
- “I like being able to talk to my friends.”
- “I like it because I can talk to my friends at my house.”
- “Sending comments to friends about books.”
- “I love sending comments.”
- “I like it because I can talk with my class when I’m not in school, and it is cool to blog with my class!”
- “I like it because you get to blog and send comments.”
- “I like it because my friends can read what I write.”
Classroom blogging has greatly impacted my students’ willingness to share ideas, communicate and collaborate creatively, while also meeting reading and writing academic content standards! I hope my experience encourages other educators to take a risk and introduce students to the world of blogging!
Last week, my class began experiencing a 21st century pen-pal opportunity with a primary grade class from a neighboring district. I’ve encouraged my students to converse with pen pals in previous years; however, this year their pen-pal experience was quite different.
After attending a professional development session this summer regarding 21st Century Skills, I wanted to adapt my pen-pal activities to align with the skills of creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration. A great part about today’s educational world is the influx of technology in classrooms that can be used to address these skills. 21st Century learning is not only about using technology, but the learning skills developed while using technology.
This year, our first interaction with our pen-pal class was through Skype. The other classroom teacher and I met previous to this Skype session to set a timeline of events and curriculum alignment. During our Skype session, the class got to see each other, briefly share about our classroom, compare the two classrooms, and learn about the subsequent activities that would follow.
In the following two and a half weeks, each classroom will be reading Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure by Jeff Brown. Students will be working on comprehension activities such as main idea/ details, summarizing and sequencing events. After the completion of the text, the students will create their own “Flat Stanley” adventure in their respective elementary schools.
Students will place in small collaborative groups where they will be responsible for designing a creative adventure for Flat Stanley. Each group will write a script, record their adventure using a classroom Flip Camera, and then insert the video into a class Keynote (power point) presentation. Within each group’s scripts, they will be using concepts such as transitional phrases, telling time concepts, and fluency/expression when recording.
At the end of the two and a half weeks, the two classrooms will exchange presentations. We will view each other’s presentation in order to learn more about the schools and get to know the “adventures” that happened to Flat Stanley. Then, we will Skype again and discuss the presentations. At this time, students can ask questions and offer affirmations related to the presentations.
From the beginning, my students have been extremely excited, interested and motivated by this project. This project encompasses many of the 21st century learning skills that all students should have the opportunity to develop while attending school.
While on a recent trip to Northampton, Massachusetts, I began to think about how people use literacy everyday. My husband and I love visiting local “hot spots” while traveling. While this trip was quite short in duration, it wasn’t short of enjoyment. Before traveling, my husband and I found information related to the town, restaurants and local entertainment. Understanding how to use practical travel literature is an important task, and can be a valuable lesson in the classroom.
Prior to going on a class field trip, try to provide information about the location and activities they will experience during the trip. Many locations offer brochures or have websites that describe the site. Just as adults seek this type of information when planning trips, students should have the same experience. Or, when the class returns from the trip, the students could create their own travel brochures highlighting the important information and activities that they gained during the experience.
While reading literature to students, try visiting http://www.googlelittrips.org/ to help connect the location of the story to a real location on earth using Google Earth. This site is FREE and contains a variety of text to choose from. The site contains a video tutorial for novice users, and encourages teachers and classrooms to create their own “lit trip” to contribute to the site. This technology has created a way for teachers to bring the outside world into their classrooms by making connections to great books.
Making literacy practical and pertinent to everyday life creates a strong argument that it is extremely important. Regardless if your class is leaving the school on a trip or not, traveling literacy should hold a place in your classroom and your students should experience the world around them!
The world lost a pioneer this month. I know that this is an unusual topic for our Blog, but bear with me, please. Michael S. Hart passed away on September 6, in his home in Urbana, Illinois. While not exactly a household name, Mr. Hart has changed the way that we teach, read, and share information. You see, Mr. Hart was credited with inventing the “eBook” in 1971. An amazing four decades ago, while he was a student working on computers at the University of Illinois, Mr. Hart was given access to a network-connected mainframe computer, with the goal of improving his skills. Grateful for this opportunity, he looked for a way to repay the university, and apparently, as he often said, he was just at the right place at the right time. While shopping for groceries on the Fourth of July, he was given a fake parchment reproduction of the Declaration of Independence. He thought that, if he put it online, it would not only preserve the information, but would allow the people on the small network to access it at any time. That single document was followed by thousands more, as Mr. Hart recruited hundreds of volunteers to help him manually type or scan thousands of classics in the public domain and copyrighted works they had permission to reproduce. Mr. Hart began to build the massive library known as Project Gutenberg, named after the 15th-century inventor of the printing press. (Langer)
And so, the digital book was born.
It seems unbelievable that a self-described “truck driver who got loose in academia”, (Langer) would become the force behind the shift that would rock the publishing world. It makes me wonder what they next step in publishing might be, and whether, somewhere on a college campus, a student has already begun the shift. Will we be content with eBooks and portable readers, or is there another dimension to books that we can take one step further? Since the books are the content, and not the format, how can they be produced to become even more accessible and appealing to the world’s readers? If Mr. Hart can conceive of the digital library while the Internet was still in its infancy, and generations before iTunes was conceived, perhaps we cannot even see the next shift in reading. However, I think that we will be much more receptive to changes in the way we read, now that Mr. Hart has paved the way.
Source
Langer, Emily. “Project Gutenberg creator Michael S. Hart dies at 64.” 8 September 2011. The Washington Post. 10 September 2011 .
