Joanna’s Blog

I teach 24 third grade students. They are learning to be creative writers by using the Writing Workshop model. This model consists of five stages: prewriting, drafting, revision, editing, and finally publishing. This teaching model fits well with my beliefs about pedagogy. I appreciate activities where students work at their own level, but are able to learn from each other to find solutions to problems.  The writers workshop model is very constructivist in nature as it provides for a great deal of cooperative group and partner work.  Teachers function as coaches by leading mini lessons and by holding individual conferences with students to guide them as they work to discover their own strengths and weaknesses as writers. My students had already learned about where writers get ideas and had been collecting story ideas for several weeks.  They were ready to move on to the next stage of the process, revision.  My lesson plan focused on the revision process in the Writing Workshop. I also believe that technology can be used to enhance the teaching and learning process and was interested in how it might work for Writing Workshop.  I decided to add a new technology component to my writing workshop, the use of Flipvideo cameras. I began creating the lesson by considering my essential questions and several of the Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations for Writing Process guided the lesson. My big idea questions included:

1. What strategies do good writers use?
2. How can the writing process help me to be a better writer?
3. What are the steps in the writing process?

4. Why is revising my work important?
5. How can I use the writing traits to improve my writing?

This lesson was actually adapted from several mini lessons to include a technology portion and to include student self reflection and assessment using the Six Traits of writing. The Six Traits of writing is a common assessment tool used to improve writing.  The traits have been identified as the elements that make up “good” writing. The majority of the lesson used social constructivist strategies.  Students spent a great deal of time conferring with writing partners and giving each other feedback.  I spent time guiding students and coaching them on how to use cameras both individually and in small groups. I had to instruct them on major functions such as the on/off button, play, delete, and how to flip back and forth from one video to another.  There was a great deal of active engagement throughout the lesson. Social constructivist activities drive most of my lessons and the use of buddies for writing encourages collaboration and creative thinking.  I taught several mini lessons on becoming better storytellers and learning to revise writing to make it even better. Following the lessons, students used FlipVideo cameras to record themselves and their writing partners. Then they watched themselves and commented on each other’s work as well as their own.  The purpose of using this technology was for students to both see and hear themselves as storytellers. We also discussed how using technology, such as the Flipvideo camera, could help them improve their writing by allowing them to see themselves as “real” storytellers. I reinforced this point during individual conferences throughout the lesson.  Much of the lesson included reflective activities to encourage metacognition and to encourage student creativity. I hoped that if they could hear and see themselves in the act of storytelling, they would identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing. We also watched other famous storytellers on videos or online and it was fun to watch my students attempt to imitate the mentor authors. Using technology in the writing process is a new way to spark student learning.  This seemed to inspire them to take steps in revising their work.  The final culmination was when they watched themselves in a classroom video production following completion of their final drafts. They graded themselves using a rubric that used “kid friendly” language.  I expected that each student would be able to grade themselves using the rubric and be able to explain the positives of their story and mention a few goals for their next piece. I found that students were harder on themselves than I would have been! They were very quick to point out areas where they had done well, but they were honest to find areas where they would try to do even better on their next story.

One constraint was the fact that I only had six cameras so I could only have half the class working on this at a time.  I had the other half work on writing in their notebooks during that time and then we switched. No one seemed to be upset by this and it worked out well.  The actual filming and peer conferencing only took about 15 minutes.  Students found immediate success using the cameras and became experts in no time. I spent a very minimal amount of time working with small groups to teach them the basic functions of the cameras, including on/off, play, record and delete.  I also showed them the zoom feature and how to adjust the audio levels.  They had bit of trouble holding the cameras still and this made some of them harder to watch than others. I might purchase tripods in the future or suggest that kids rest their arms on a table while filming.  Noise in the room was not an issue. The cameras seem to record what is closest and so as long as the room was fairly quiet, background noise wasn’t a problem. I allowed kids to film in the hallways for their final drafts and this made them even better.  I might take more time in the future to have kids make a simple backdrop for their videos.  This would be very nice for the final copies after they complete the editing stage in the process. Not only would their papers be picture perfect for publishing, but so would their videos!  This is an idea for my next lesson as I plan to continue with the cameras all year for Writing Workshop.

My third grade students loved this project. I have taught it before but have never adapted the lesson to this degree. There were many affordances during this lesson.  Incorporating technology seemed to add an element of excitement and motivated hard to motivate students in a way that I hadn’t really expected. I had students who usually have melt downs during writing beg to write! They wanted to use the cameras so they knew they had to be ready to film.  This meant having some idea of what they wanted to tell. They worked harder on rewriting their work so that they would have more of a story to tell, thus have a longer video! Students were eager to work and to write after the activities.  They were able to describe what the revision process meant and what strategies authors might use to revise their work.  This became evident when we were reading other books outside of writers’ workshop and students made comments about the author’s craft. Comments included, “He uses lots of details,”; “She began the chapter with dialogue.”; “I am excited to read more because the author is giving me so many details and I don’t need any pictures.”  I was really pleased with how well the lesson turned out. It was also helpful to have taught the lesson before without any modifications or implementation of technology. I had always thought the lesson was very thorough as I had taught it previously, but when I took extra time to think about “thinking” and “learning” I was able to modify it to meet the needs of more of my students and to really incorporate the technology component. The main modification I made for students with writing disabilities was to scribe for them as we watched their video together. This was very beneficial because we could play the video back and continue to make changes as we went along in the actual writing.

In summary, I was very pleased with the outcome of my lesson.  I learned a lot and so did my students.  I learned to really think about why I am teaching something. I also discovered how letting standards and essential questions guide my teaching is very helpful.  I was so aware of teaching and learning.  I made an effort to include constructivist activities and opportunities for self evaluation and peer feedback.  I hoped that this would trigger metacognition. I wanted my students to see themselves as writers and storytellers. I wanted them to see that they could make their “good” writing “great” writing and that this didn’t mean they had not done a bad job the first time, but they had done an amazing job with work and reflection.  As I think back to my adventure in CEP 800 and what I’ve learned about learning, I can see where thinking about how my students would learn and what I could do to enhance the lessons really paid off.  The added technology component was essential in the learning process in that it really took students to a new level in self reflection.  I could see where this group of students was getting more out of the lesson than previous classes.  I was also reminded that lessons can and should be modified and adapted to fit my needs and the needs of all of my students.  Incorporating technology is just one way to add excitement and to encourage creativity. Technology can add an additional piece to the learning process.  Students crave technology.  When teachers can use it, they should use it.  We must find ways to captivate our students.  Using Flipvideo cameras was a new way to do this.  Students loved being filmed as much as they loved being behind the cameras.  I have several teachers begging me to show them how to use the cameras and asking for the lesson!

A Journey Through Third Grade Social Studies

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Music selection,  “Hearts Stronger than Steel” (dedicated to the Heroes of 9/11)

by Chuck Brown

Used with permission from Chuck Brown.

Healingpiano.com

This was not only a learning experience in student understanding but also one of learning the many uses and applications for Audacity and podcasting in general.  Please enjoy my podcast!

My Student Understanding of the Water Cycle

Music, courtesy of  House of Velvet, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Reflecting on CEP 812

I have learned many things about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology during this course.  As a career teacher of over 25 years, I think that I have been reminded how important it is not just to “teach it” but why I am teaching it. I found the four areas of teaching to be very helpful.  Stopping to consider who is learning, who is teaching, the curriculum and the setting are the main points to consider.  Integrating technology doesn’t mean adding computer games. It means applying pedagogical thought as to why I am integrating the technology.  I learned to think about different kinds of instructional software.  I will be taking more time to decide if the software I use is tutorial, drill and practice, discovery/ exploratory environment/ problem Solving,  a simulations or an educational games and is more entertaining.  There are many math simulations available, including free software on the web that I really need to take advantage of.  Instead of taking out cubes and geometric shapes (not that hands on learning isn’t necessary or can be replaced by computer simulation) students can use the computer to manipulate shapes and problem solving puzzles. Reading about the Digital Divide made me realize how many school districts put technology on the back burner! I thought all schools were “hooked up”.  I read that there are other reasons for not having adequate resources other than lack of funding. Judy Salpeter,  “Inside the Digital Divide” (Tech and Learning, March 15, 2006), notes that other factors “include geography (with the South particularly committed to technology investments and the western part of the country lagging behind); the type of community (rural communities now tend to have better access than urban ones); and district size (with large districts having lower student-to-computer ratios than small districts with comparable socioeconomic makeup)”. I was surprised to see that the South is more committed to technology than the western parts! I would have also assumed that larger districts would have more computers per student, especially in rural communities. I teach in a rural community and must admit, we have excellent technological resources.  I also appreciated the opportunities to review the NETS for both students and teachers. When writing my Lesson Plan on Fair Use and Copyright I researched the NETS and aligned my lesson plan accordingly.  Being aware of standards in technology as well as other state standards drives the importance of how the technology is meeting the curriculum.  Again, why am I using technology in my classroom?  This course has really made me think.  Integrating web-based technologies has made me realize that I am just beginning to experience the vast wealth of material and the resources available to me.  I also need to understand the pedagogy that supports the use of those resources.  I thought I was fairly tech savvy before I began this course. I have learned so much that I believe I will need to rethink my goals! I had only heard of podcasts prior to this course. A vodcast was foreign to me.  It was very exciting to learn to use Audacity and to create my own podcast for my blog. I was thrilled to be able to use my student video work to create a vodcast as well!  It became something that I could apply to my teaching immediately and my students benefitted tremendously.  Integrating web based technologies was made more powerful by the internet research that I did.  I was able to find so many resources on digital storytelling and blogging. By working with my SIG I experienced online collaboration.  Using Delicious Social Bookmarking as a bookmarking tool opened up a new door for me.  I realized that I had to step away from my reliable Google searches.  There is so much more out there! What an “ahaa”.

I am pleased that I was able to meet some of my personal technology integration goals.  I hoped to be able to learn to make a podcast and to be able to have more tools available to me to use in the classroom. I was able to write two grants for FlipVideo players and was awarded both of them. I also helped write a grant for MP3 players for listening centers with two colleagues this summer. They saw my summer students using Audacity and we realized how great it would be to use MP3 players with our students in listening centers.  I am going to go one step further and have my students read into Audacity and record books for younger students. This will be great fluency practice for my students and benefit younger students at the same time.  We were just awarded the grant!  I am able to share what I learned with them as we attempt to read books on tape for our students by our students using Audacity.  I have been able to provide some technical advice. I plan to use much of what I have learned in this course for our next project.  This is a bit of an adaptation from my own digital storytelling and is more focused on reading fluency. I am incorporating technology in my classroom!

I have added a few goals for my integration of technology.

• Provide more opportunities for my students to use technology to demonstrate knowledge and understanding across the curriculum
• Share my knowledge with other staff members
• Incorporate technology into as many lessons as I can, but have a strong sense of “why” I am using it
• Incorporate student blogging into a daily writing routine
• Use my new FlipVideos for readers theater, buddy reading, storytelling, vocabulary practice, and more!
• Use Audacity for book recording, word work practice, math facts practice, buddy reading, and more!

I really enjoyed working on my techquest project. Somehow though, I feel like I’ve just begun! I am already thinking of how to do more with video storytelling.   I have found myself using technology for so many class projects but never really considered, in depth, why I was using it. I may have thought using assistive technology was good for the kids, made their learning more meaningful or accommodated them in some way, but I really never thought about the standards or benchmarks I was addressing at the same time. I certainly never did any research into projects or looked for other teachers who may have tried something like what I was doing before.

In the future, I hope to share my excitement and energy using digital storytelling with my colleagues. I also plan to use some of the information that I found while researching my project to enhance my own plans and take my techquest further. I also plan to do some research before I start to plan my project. It’s helpful to find information that relates to what I want to do because it not only validates my own work, but it cuts down on time spent creating lessons.  If I can find out what has worked for others or has not worked well, I can adapt it to meet my own needs.  I will also have sound reasons for doing the project in the first place. If it meets standards and benchmarks, I have a strong reason for implementing it.  I learned a few things about looking for information as well. I learned about a few new search engine tools that are more focused on educational issues, including Webcrawler and realized that I rely on Google too much. I have been limiting myself because I have hesitated to step out of my comfort level. Yes, I’ve learned a few lessons.  I also learned that kids can be their own best teachers! I think I may have figured this out before but this project really highlighted the way kids can figure things out themselves with a bit of guidance on the sidelines. When they are given the opportunity to take charge of their own learning, they really rise to the occasion.

When I repeat this project I do plan to begin early in the year. I want the kids to be able to get started learning right away and continue using video (and audio) throughout the year for all sorts of projects. I am hoping that they will be able to ask me if they can use audio or video to show me what they know about subjects. I’d like them to see video as a means to express themselves and share with others, not just a novelty. It would be really exciting to see them use it to explain math concepts or science units for example. I have only started to get creative!  I can’t wait to see what will happen next with more time to explore.

Project Implementation Blog Entry

This is my podcast on my project implementation. My project was to use Flipvideos to motivate my ELL students to write more this summer. My students struggle with language and I hoped to provide them with more opportunities to work on language and conversation skills while they worked on improving literacy.

• click here to hear my techquesti-project-implementation-podcast

Examples of two student podcasts reviewing what they learned from this project.

• click here to hear student1podcast
• click here to hear student2h podcast
• click here to hear student3 podcast

Here is a video clip of a group of students working on their project.

• projectvideoclip

Photos from the project!

ESL students are most often reluctant to speak in groups due to language barriers or lack the motivation to use the language skills that they have. They benefit from the use of technology such as voice recording and video recording. Adding a video recording device to an otherwise ordinary writing assignment can make a big difference in motivating the hard to motivate student. Suddenly the student is a filmmaker, not just a writer. The students are in charge and responsible for their own learning and progress. Students are encouraged to make revisions to their writing when they see their work on a screen before them. They hear their voices, watch their body language, and become confident in handling a camera and making decisions about filming. Use of video in the classroom is thought provoking. Students take in their own work both auditorily and visually and this makes a real impact on how they respond to it. It’s creative, involves the whole body and brings an element of real life to their work. Students are allowed to create scenes, backgrounds, scripts and props. This brings in a differentiated aspect and allows everyone to show their strengths. Video recorders are becoming easier and easier to operate. They are also very affordable. Flipvideo cameras are simple to use even for the youngest students. They are durable and their operation is basic. There is no searching through hours of video tape. Each segment is saved like a still photo (or like songs on an MP3 player) for ease of location. Students can record and easily delete just what they want to delete and start again! This provides for many opportunities for reading fluency and language practice. They can be plugged into television sets for group viewing with just one cable. Setting an end goal of a finished product sets everyone in motion to create a presentation they can show to parents, friends, and community. It is a big source of pride.

The Plan

I plan to address the needs with technology by allowing students to write scripts, videotape each other, blend their videos into one for final presentation and uploading it to a webpage to be viewed by parents and community.

Step 1: A grant will be written to purchase five Flipvideo cameras.  (This has been done and the grant was approved.)

Step 2: Students will begin by writing short narratives about their lives. This may begin in a role play situation where the teacher asks the students questions about their lives.

Questions may include:

What is your name? How old are you? What do you hope to be when you grow up? How will you prepare for this? What do you miss most about leaving Texas? Do you want to continue working on farms?

Step 3: Scripts will be created from the narratives. Students will work in teams to read and question each other.

Step 4: Using Audacity, students will record themselves reading their scripts. They will become familiar with reading fluently and being reflective of their tone, voice quality, speed and phrasing.

Step 5: Flipvideo cameras will be used by students working in teams to create short clips of their scripts. Students will learn basic video skills such as zoom in and out, centering the subject, background, looking at the camera and using an appropriate voice. Improvisational filming can be done to encourage language development. Older students will film younger students in an effort to create confidence.

Step 6: Videos will be viewed by the class on the monitors for class comments. Playback will be done daily so that growth can be seen by the students. Suggestions will be made for editing and revision purposes. Students will videotape themselves again for a final version.

Step 7: Videos will be edited, background music will be added using the Flipvideo software or Moviemaker. Videos will be collected and merged into a longer video for viewing at a special banquet for parents and community members. The video will be uploaded onto a Summer Migrant Program web page.

Step 8: Students will write reflections about using video to tell their stories. Pieces will express what they learned about video taping, writing, editing, and revising.

How this project addresses the four common places of education.

This project will address someone teaching.  Teacher may demonstrate basic use of cameras and hardware.  Teacher may guide students as they teach each other and learn from each other. Children will be learning from the teacher, themselves, and from their classmates. This project incorporates effective strategies.  The use of cooperative groups is noted as one of nine powerful instructional strategies by Robert Marzano.  Students working in small groups offer feedback to each other. Students also set goals and receive continous feedback. Students also recognize that the amount of effort they put into the projects determines their achievemement. Jere Brophy states that students need sufficient time and opportunity to practice what they are learning. The teacher can get them started and then the students take off from there. Scaffolding students task engagement is another strategy. In this project the teacher provides guidance and examples and then allows the students to work independently on their videos or recordings. Curriculum needs in literacy and language arts are addressed through the use of writing, role play, and reading fluency. This is a project in building literacy skills as well as technology skills. According the Michigan Educational Technology Standards and Expectations this project addresses the following:

By the end of grade five students will:

Basic operations and concepts

• Know how to use basic input/output devices and other peripherals (e.g., scanners, digital cameras, video projectors)

Technology productivity tools

• Collaborate with classmates using a variety of technology tools to plan, organize, and create a group project

The setting can be a classroom or any setting where filming can take place. Students could even bring the cameras home to film family members.

I began my search using the standard Google. I entered Flipvideos to support ELL learners. I turned up several interesting hits. One was a Donor’s Choose request from a teacher who planned to use Flipvideos for filming her students performing Reader’s Theater. She planned to have them use IMovie to publish them. Her major goal is to improve literacy with cutting edge technology. I also got a hit for a blog by Peter Pappas on Publishing, his entry titled, Students can create videos to teach us “how to” caught me. He supported the ease of use and struggles ELL learners have. I learned about LULU for self publishing. I read about a principal in Michigan who had published books by classrooms using LuLu. Parents and others can buy the books! What a surprise. I had never heard of LuLu. I moved on to try Monster Crawler search engine. I hoped for more projects with similar objectives to my own. I found a great hit titled Telling Stories using Drama and Multimedia with ESL Students. I found a project that had very similar goals. The project is titled Public Service Announcements and uses a public service announcement format to allow students to “express themselves in ways that are relevant to them.” The examples shared had themes of discrimination and of acceptance and inclusion. I found a fantastic resource called What’s My Story Using Drama and Technology for Storytelling. This provided me with a slideshow of how to plan a digital storytelling project. I learned about Bubbleshare and Voicethread by viewing it. I’d heard about Voicethread but really didn’t know what it was. This site linked me to Voicethread and I was able to check it out with a purpose in mind. How could I use this with my Digital Storytelling project? I also found Creating Lifelong Learners that was a great resource for ideas as well as some case studies. I learned that Google is great, but that Monster Crawler has even more! This was the first time I had used Monster Crawler and can see how it is a valuable tool. I feel that I found several interesting resources through my internet research. I know that I can find more if I change my search criteria even more. I have been putting an emphasis on digital storytelling with ELL students and I decided that maybe I needed to search for digital storytelling with all students. That pulled up a Wiki on using digital storytelling with Flipvideos. This was very helpful and gave me lots of ideas for my project. This led me to a film school for videopodcasters! I typed in effects of digital storytelling on students and picked up some more great resources. One that was very informative was General Video Making Resources for Children from the Kenton County School District a district in Kentucky. It was very thorough and will be an important resource to come back to. I also found a site by Kristy McGeoph, who received an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship to write her PhD thesis on digital storytelling in second language teaching and learning, also through the University of Sydney. She has created her own site to share her research findings. I was excited to read about her success with digital storytelling with students learning a second language. I was pleased with my search results and have been able to apply ideas, suggestions, and techniques to my Techquest.

Migrant students need avenues to share their voices in positive ways with the school, their home and community while working on their literacy and language skills. Our school serves a special migrant student population each year. Our racial demographics are 95% caucasian, 4% migrant Hispanic, and 1% other. We run a special summer school program for our migrant students for six weeks every summer. The age range is 3-11. At the age of 12, most of our migrant students choose to work in the fields to help their families earn extra money. We have a short window of opportunity to work with our students. Our program tries to make learning fun, challenging and effective. The students who attend are often tired, hungry, and unmotivated to spend their days in summer school. Literacy and language skills are two major areas of concentration for ELL students. Students are often very apprehensive to speak English around their general education peers. They often sit silently and are hesitant to become involved in activities that require language. Migrant students need to speak, listen and be heard. They need to understand that what they have to say is valued and important to their community. They need practice switching between Spanish and English in both language and culture. Finding ways to motivate them to practice their language skills becomes a challenge. They don’t hear the problems with their English because they are translating from English to Spanish or Spanish to English. Students need many avenues to practice role play, reading poetry, readers’ theater, writing, and just speaking in casual conversation. Sharing what they do in school is another area of concern. Migrant parents value education for their children and want to be involved but working in the fields makes it almost impossible to attend events where their children perform. Communicating successes is difficult because many migrant parents speak little or no English. Students need opportunities to share their work in both English and Spanish. We need to expose our migrant students to technology and its application to school and learning. Technology may be one avenue that can provide migrant students with new ways to share their unique voices. Technology can be a tool for the expression of language that builds bridges between students, homes and communities.

This looks like it’s going to be a great class. I have so many ideas.  I am getting my Techquest problem identified and it just so happens that while working with my migrant students this summer I have found a real problem and I can’t wait to use technology to address it.