This is the first in a series of posts about the ways in which my students shared out their Environmental Persuasive Essays via technology and media elements. Here, some students worked on Glogster to create a multimedia companion to their essay projects. The goal was to have a media project that complemented the persuasive stance of their essay writing.
The Environmental MultiMedia Poster Collection
Peace (in the podcast),
Kevin
(Note: I am scattering some of our essay podcasts throughout this post)
Let me back up.
Yesterday, I showed my students how to use Garageband to create podcasts. The idea is for them to create a podcast version of the Persuasive Environmental Essay Project they had just completed. The essay was to be their script. Once the podcast was done, they were to go to a Voicethread that I have set up, and upload the audio file.
Which isn’t to say that a lot didn’t get done. Many of my students in the four classes did the tasks I gave them: create a podcast and upload it into our Voicethread. But I need to catch up with a few students in the next week and see if I can help them finish up what they started.
Today, the media projects are due, and I am already seeing some fantastic work in multimedia expression, and I wonder what else will be coming into the classroom. This partnership of essay writing, multimedia composition, and podcasting/publishing really ties together so many strands that I find important.
Peace (in the play),
Kevin
I’ve never quite been a big fan of the five paragraph essay, although I am required to teach its beginnings to my sixth graders and I do see the merit of developing an idea over a longer stretch of time. Today, my students will come to class with their essay projects built around a persuasive stance on an environmental topic. They have worked hard on the writing, and the last thing I want to do is be the sole audience for their work.
I keep coming back to a term that a keynote speaker used in a recent conference (it may have been Alan November) about technology giving young people the means to leave behind a “legacy” of ideas for other students following in their footsteps. I really love that concept, and that remark reminded me of one of the things that technology can do: provide an authentic writing space that doesn’t disappear when the school year ends.
So, today, my students will be learning how to use Garageband for podcasting (some, for the first time). They will record their essays with their own voice. Then, we will head back to Voicethread to upload those podcasts on a thread that I built around their environmental topics. And we won’t be done yet. Along with publishing the Voicethread at our classroom blog site, we intend to publish the work at the Voices on the Gulf site (which we have been using sporadically this year as our inquiry focus touched on environmental issues) and possibly, over at the revamped Youth Voices site, which now has a space for elementary students.
We’ll also be finishing up and publishing the various “media” and technology projects that are associated with the essays, giving more depth to the traditional five paragraph essay venture. Students are working on glogs, videos, powerpoints, and more.
These various components around composing — technology, publishing, voice, audience — are really motivating many of my students during a time of the year when their motivation often sags a bit. I’m very proud of their work, and best of all — so are they. And their voice is part of the Legacy they will be leaving behind at the end of the sixth grade.
Peace (in the legacy),
Kevin
The media projects that my students are working on as a component of their persuasive essay assignment are starting to come to a close this week. Many are using Glogster.edu for creating a media experience that complements the message of their essay (this correlation idea was at the heart of our class discussions yesterday — how to align the message of an essay with the message of a multimedia project).
Here is one student example about Rainforests:
And here are a few Powerpoint Presentations — one on saving Armadillos and the other on water pollution:
And finally, one boy is looking into why bats are disappearing and he used our BitStrips Webcomic site to do his project:
Peace (by looking at the world),
Kevin
As my students wind down their work on their persuasive/environmental science essay projects, they are also beginning to work on the accompanying “media project” that will complement the message of their essay through some other means. It may involve technology, but it may not, too. Right now, some are working on Glogs; some are working are webcomics; some are developing Powerpoint presentations; others are shooting and editing video; and others are doing some traditional posters and 3D projects (one girl is developing a model of the three worst nuclear disasters in the world).
I shared the three samples that I did with them last week for my essay on Fuel Cell Technology. What I wanted them to see is that while the platform may change, the message of supporting research into this alternative fuel is something that remained constant. How to use media to create a rhetorical, argumentative stance is what this is all about.
Here is my Glog:
Here is my Webcomic:
Here is my Powerpoint:
Peace (in the argument),
Kevin
I’ve posted a bit about our environmental essay project (with the companion media component), noting how I have assigned myself the same project as they are doing it, too. The idea is to make my own writing more visible for them, so I am constantly sharing out how things are going and using the comment feature in Word to share my reflections with the students. My aim is also to have them assess me with the rubric I will be using to assess them. How interesting will that be, eh?
The other day, I finally finished my essay on Fuel Cell Technology. I shared it with my students yesterday, stopping many times as I read it out loud to talk “outside the paper” about approaches such as “loaded words,” use of background information and plagiarism, how to form an argument, and summarizing thoughts with some final points.
I am hoping it helps them as writers, although I had to remind them that I have been writing for years — sometimes, professionally — and my essay is merely an example, and not necessarily the model. No, that’s not right. I guess I am worried that my essay might intimidate, rather than inspire, my young writers.
I purposely did not “dumb it to down” for the classroom of sixth graders. I wrote as I would write about a topic, as a writer. But I know some of my kids were thinking, “I can’t write like that,” so I placed extra emphasis on them writing to the best of their abilities, and my belief if them as writers with something to say. Still, I have this nagging feeling that I set a bar some of them (not all, certainly) will have trouble reaching. I only got this feeling after I had shared, though.
I’m curious to know what you think about sharing our own writing with our students? Can it intimidate them? Inspire them? Do we “change” our writing to reflect where they are at, as writers? Or do we write as writers, and show them our skills? Please chime in. I need a little help thinking this through.
Anyway, here is my essay, with notes:
Fuel Cell Technology Essay (With Notes)
Peace (in the thinking),
Kevin
It’s not often that the perfect resource lands on your doorstep just when you need it, and yet, this year, the magazine Time for Kids has seemed to be consistently doing that. Perhaps it because we are doing so much work around environmental issues, but the magazine for students has been a wonderful resource for my classroom. (No, I am not a paid flack for Time, but really, for five bucks a year, this magazine is a steal, particularly when it comes to non-fiction reading and current events.)
Yesterday is a prime example. I’ve written about our work around developing a persuasive essay on an environmental theme. We’ve done the brainstorming, and the graphic organizing, and today, they will begin the writing of the introductory paragraph. I was looking around for some reading to keep exposing them to environmental topics when, bam, here comes my supply of Time for Kids with a double issue all about the environment. It was jam-packed with interesting articles on rain forests, the Everglades, endangered animals, kids who are making a difference and more.
We read through a few of the articles, sparking a lot of discussion around the balance between environmental projects and economic growth. One feature in particular was helpful — the opinion piece on the phase out of incandescent light bulbs in which both sides of the debate laid out their case. This is exactly what they are doing in their essays, so we were able to pick apart some of the rhetorical devices and weighed words used when making an argument to persuade the other side.
Meanwhile, today, as they start working on how to begin their essay in an interesting way, I am going to share my opening paragraph on my own essay I am writing (with them) on Fuel Cell Technology. I have used the comment feature in Word to make notes to them about what I was thinking as I was writing — a sort of meta-writing made visible. A lot of my students were feeling as if they weren’t sure what goes into an introduction as opposed to what goes into the body of the essay.
Here is what I will share with them:
Opening Paragraph Sample for Essay
Peace (in the world),
Kevin
As a small group of students and I work to organize a benefit concert to raise funds for Japan, I have been trying to keep them interested and knowledgeable and engaged in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. We’re going to be working on paper cranes and more.
Recently, I brought our classes to a site created by Google called Messages for Japan that allows you to write a message to the people of Japan. The site automatically translates English into Japanese, and then pins the message on a global map. The kids were pretty interested in the language conversion (we talked then about how Google’s technology does that) and in reading other messages from around the world.
Here are some of our messages, and the conversion.
Peace (for the people of Japan),
Kevin
The Monday after spring vacation is always an odd day, as kids re-adjust to the routines even as they are staring at the end of the school year not long down the road (I think, for us, in about eight weeks). And let’s face it: it’s a bit odd for me, too, to get back into my rhythm of teaching.
As usual, I was up way too early, thinking about the day’s plans and how to engage them back into our work. I decided we’re going to hold off for a day on digging into the sections of the novels they were to read over vacation (The Watsons Go to Birmingham and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle) since I know there are going to be some who did not read or did not remember to bring their books home. This gives them an extra night to catch up before we head into the center of both stories.
We will likely spend a bit of time working on our graphic organizer for our Environmental Essay Project as I work with them on organizing thoughts on the wide range of topics they have chosen to write about. Later this week, the real writing begins and I want them to have as many organizational strategies as we can muster to keep them focused.
So, what will we do, then?
Poetry.
I won’t get to our official poetry writing/reading unit for another few weeks, but still — it is April. I think what I will do is pull out Walt Whitman’s O Captain, My Captain and read it to them. We used a Time for Kids article before vacation to learn more about the Civil War and we talked a lot about President Lincoln’s role, and assassination. (And who can resist the classic scene in The Dead Poet’s Society, right? Poetry is of the heart).
And then, I am going to pull out some of our Poems for Multiple Voices, and see what kind of cacophony of words and voices we can create with poetry as a class. (And in a bit of a connection to my book review the other day of Practical Poets, I have a whole collection of poems for two voices that celebrate mathematical ideas which are a hoot to read.)
We’re easing back into learning …
Peace (after the break),
Kevin