Pop-Up Book Poetry Project

One of the units my student teacher took over was poetry and she had this great idea (from her own sixth grade experience) to have students create a pop-up book of their poems. It was pretty fascinating to watch (from my distance) the kids work on creating 3D books and they came out pretty neat. She used this site of pop-up creation techniques from Robert Sabuda.

I grabbed some images from some of the books and made her a video for her portfolio.

Peace (in the pop),
Kevin

More use of Glogster: Independent Book Report

We just finished up an independent book unit and students had to choose some way to present their final thoughts about the book they chose. A few of them used Glogster, and I sort of wish more had. My room is filled with posters, which are wonderful but soon to be sent back home. This report by one of my students is well-done, and is about the 38 Clues series. Notice how she used a good design that combines the media with text and your eyes flow over the page. She “gets it,” I think.

Peace (in the glog),
Kevin

Emily Dickinson Lives!

Yesterday, thanks to the work of our school librarian, we had a special poetic visitor arriving from the Great Beyond. An actress who performs as Emily Dickinson (who lived in nearby Amherst) spent time with my students yesterday morning, talking and acting as if she were Emily Dickinson. She talked of her life and of her writing, and while it is hard to keep sixth graders in Spring in their chairs for (for them) an obscure poet, they were mostly attentive.

My student teacher is doing her unit around poetry (ack, I really miss teaching poetry this year), so the timing was right. As the librarian and I agreed, our kids need a variety of styles of performances (we had Mordicai Gerstein not too long ago and he was drawing, and laughing, and energetic with them).

And plus, who better to bring back from the dead than Emily Dickinson?

I’ve always like this poem of hers:

AFTER a hundred years
Nobody knows the place,—
Agony, that enacted there,
Motionless as peace.
Weeds triumphant ranged, 5
Strangers strolled and spelled
At the lone orthography
Of the elder dead.
Winds of summer fields
Recollect the way,— 10
Instinct picking up the key
Dropped by memory.

Peace (in the poems),
Kevin

Delivering the Books: from Massachusetts to New Orleans


A few months ago, we held a benefit concert at our school called Concert for Change, in which we collected money donations for the Pennies for Peace organization and collected books for New Orleans schools still struggling to rebound from Hurricane Katrina. One of my students spearheaded the book effort, and I assumed we would ship the dozen or so boxes of books, but he and his mom surprised me by saying they intended to deliver the books personally.

Last week, during our vacation, they did that, driving from Massachusetts to New Orleans to bring the books to a school that they had identified through their church organization. What a great learning experience for him. He brought back some pictures, and I made him this Animoto video as a gift of thanks. He also brought his Flip, so I am looking forward to seeing what he captured on there, too.

Peace (in the thoughtfulness of students),
Kevin

PS — Here is some footage from our Concert for Change:

A student who “gets it” with Glogster

My students love using Glogster for projects, but most don’t quite understand how to balance the design with information, so as I am reviewing a batch of environmental projects that one of my classes has completed (they had to choose a topic, research some facts and add their opinions to a Glog), I am trying to grab some exemplars that use design elements with facts to make a strong point.

Here is one project about Giant Panda Bears by one of my students that I really like:

Peace (on the virtual poster),
Kevin

PS — I wrote about Glogster and virtual posters recently over at the Learn NC website.

An Essay Brainstorm: If I Were in Charge …

Last week, I had my students working on the dreaded Five-Paragraph Essay Project, which is a line item on our new Standards-based Progress Reports and so I must have them working in this genre. I am not a huge fan of the Five-Paragraph Essay — I find it very restricting and when in life will they ever write like this, other than in school? (I once did a series of Boolean Squared comics against the essay). But, I recognize that the essay genre does allow us to teach format, writing with constraints, and also, most importantly, organization of ideas.

My students worked on essays around the theme of improving their own community. I had them imagine that they were put in charge of the town. What needs improvement? How would you make that change? We talked about the way our town makes decisions, the form of government (Select Board and Town Meeting), and how the community is involved in making changes.

We then brainstormed possible ideas that could form the body of their essays, and I found it a wealth of great ideas.

  • More sidewalks for pedestrians
  • Build more energy-efficient buildings
  • Develop more enertainment/commercial areas
  • Street lights on side-streets
  • More crosswalks
  • Better public works (snow plow, paved roads, etc.)
  • Need bike paths
  • Preserve open space
  • Protect local animal habitats
  • Need animal shelter
  • Small medical center/hospital (emergency care)
  • Public transportation
  • New equipment/expanded service for fire and police
  • Sports equipment
  • More areas for housing/real estate (and new roads)
  • Flower gardens/community gardens
  • More recreational areas (Swimming, athletics, etc.)
  • Public space (like Look Park or Stanley Park)
  • Bike Path
  • Beautification project
  • Slow down building construction
  • Support police (new police station)
  • Medical center/hospital
  • Small airport
  • New technology for the schools
  • Bigger public park
  • Less gas stations
  • More tourist attractions
  • Combine Southampton with Easthampton/Westhampton

A few students asked if they could send their essays to Town Hall when they were done, and of course, I said “Absolutely!” and I meant it. The more authentic the audience is, the better the motivation for writing.

Peace (in the form),

Kevin

When Students Make Search Stories


The other day, I wrote about the Google Search Story Creator, which is a pretty nifty digital story generator that creates short videos based on queries that you put into Google (and, the site is yet another reason for us to use Google, meaning more eyeballs on their advertisements).

Yesterday, as we wound down the week (and a day after an exhausting Quidditch Tournament — my class did not win, but they came together nicely as a team), I decided to use class time for catch-up and play. My students are finishing an essay project and those that were done, I brought to the Google Search Story site.

First, though, we talked about how you might use it to tell a story and not just plug in random search terms. I told them to invent a character who is behind a computer. What is going on? What does the viewer need to know, and just as important, what does the viewer need to figure out on their own?

And I put this up on our whiteboard:

  • You have only seven lines of search, so narrow your focus;
  • Develop your search story around one theme/one idea;
  • Don’t just create a story of random search entries — really try to tell a story — make the reader/viewer figure out the story (think of it like a puzzle that the reader/viewer has put together)
  • Match the music with the story — sad music should not go with a happy story.

I then created a class YouTube account for those stories that seemed to show good thoughtfulness, and we have been sharing the more than 20 video stories over at our classroom blog site. The use of a YouTube playlist has been most helpful because you can embed the whole playlist. (What you see above here is a modified playlist with the one story that I did as a sample — An Apple for the Teacher — and then a handful of student stories. I personally like the iPod story. She “got it” when it came to using the site, I think.)

Peace (in the story),
Kevin

Ice Ice Baby: Quidditch is Coming

Tomorrow, we hold our annual Quidditch Tournament at our school, where the four sixth grade classes face off throughout the entire day (yep, all day) in a series of Quidditch matches. The kids are excited and trying to keep them focused on the classroom … a bit difficult. My team is Dry Ice and they picked their theme song to be “Ice Ice Baby,” which I realized yesterday as I was downloading it is now 20 years old. I find it funny they chose that song, which is played as they run into the gym before screaming crowds of other students and family members.

We’ve been working on art and writing around Quidditch for the past two weeks – using expository writing to explain a play on the field or descriptive writing to describe the craziness of the day of Quidditch; making t-shirts and posters for the wall; and more.

I don’t know if we will win the Quidditch Cup this year, but I do know that my class has really come together in the last few weeks in ways that they had not come together earlier in the year. That makes me a happy teacher/coach.

Peace (with the snitch),
Kevin

PS — here is how we play the game:

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Writing about Glogster


An article that I wrote about using Glogster and other online postering projects (Digital posters: Composing with an Online Canvas) was published yesterday at the Learnnc website (and also, at its companion site, Instructify). I tried to show the possibilities and also, the rationale for using an online postering site.

I hope folks find it useful.

The Glog above is part of an environmental unit that we did around the reading of the novel, Flush by Carl Hiassan.

Peace (on the posters),
Kevin

Powerless: A Prezi of Reading Responses

Most of my students are embarking on a month-long independent reading project where they get to choose their own books, do a project at the end (I made Glogster one of the options and I bet a lot of kids are going to use that …. mark my words) and answer some basic questions about theme, character development, plot, etc.

They also have to keep a reading journal and I am really pushing them away from summarizing the text, which they all seem to want to do even though I say, “I have probably read most of your books and I don’t need to know what happens in the story. I want to know what you think about what is happening.”

To help them, I do provide a list of possible entry ideas to help spark their writing, including connecting their lives to the story in the book, pulling out quotes or passages and reflecting on them, and asking questions about where the story is headed. But I know a lot of them will struggle with these critical thinking prompts, so yesterday, I modeled some responses based on the book I am reading in class (I read while they read) that was recommended by my friend, Tony. The book is Powerless by Mathew Cody.

I put my sample responses into a Prezi and walked my students through my thinking process, and I already saw some positive results in quality of responses. It reminds me of how important it is for me to share my own thinking and reflecting, and make that process as visible as possible.

Peace (in the prezi),
Kevin
PS — here is an interview with the author of the book: