Category Archives: my classroom

Storyboards with Digital Science Picture Books

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I have found that pre-writing is a key to quality of work from my sixth graders. They have to have time and a means to brainstorm and organize their thoughts before they rush into the actual writing. And when you add technology to the mix, this is even more important — otherwise, they get so deep into the technology, they forget to pay attention to the story.

This week, as my students work on the start of a Digital Picture Book on Cell Mitosis, they are hard at work with two pre-writing strategies.

First, they have to map out the storyline from beginning, middle and end. This plot design (in the form of a concept map tool) is something we work with a lot during the year, so it is now natural for them to “see” the whole story as it might unfold. I say “might” because I remind them that stories may change as they start the actual writing and better ideas come along or if they get a burst of new inspiration. The draft is not super-glue for the idea, just velco (hmmmm, not sure if that metaphor works, but I will keep it there for now).

Next, they work on storyboards for their books, showing the sequence of events with both visual and written descriptions. This is not a time for all of the details that will go into the books, but it is a time for seeing the possibilities. I like storyboarding because it allows me to have a good conversation with my students in a way that allows us to follow the story development visually.

Here is one of the storyboards — they will explain the phases of mitosis in much greater scientific detail in the final book:

I can’t wait to see this one as a final book.

Peace (in the digital world),
Kevin

Using a Complex Science Concept for Writing

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This week, as my sixth graders move forward with planning out a digital picture book that uses the concepts of a fictional journey/adventure story while also explaining the phases of Cellular Mitosis, I have to admit I was worried that the complexity of the science would overwhelm the writing of the story.

I guess I was wrong. Yesterday, after looking at some digital books from past years and a few other mitosis-related works (see this fun music video and also this voicethread sent to me by my friend, Maureen), they were incredibly excited about getting started. The air was buzzing with ideas and storyboards began to take shape.

What are some of the ideas?

  • A mad scientist uses an invention to shrink characters, who enter into a cell and must experience the phases of mitosis;
  • Contestants on a game show have to not only answer questions about mitosis, but they also get zapped into a cell to experience it, and only a few contestants make it out alive — kind of like Mitosis Survivor;
  • One team is doing a Mitosis Musical, based on Grease, High School Musical and some other movie and they are going to write songs for each page of the book;
  • A few stories revolve around a boring teacher blabbing on and on about mitosis so that the character snoozes and dreams they are in a cell and that’s where they learn from experience, only to “ace” the test when they wake back up in class;
  • and more … much more.

Wow! I was pretty impressed, and these are just a few of the ideas. The storyboards will be done in the next day or so, and then they get to work on the laptops, designing their own art, writing the story first in Word and then, after mini-lessons with animation and other interesting things in Powerpoint, moving to construct their story as a digital document.

If you are interested, you can view the project overview, the project checklist and the scoring rubric that we are using for the project.

More to come next week …

Peace (in cell division and creation),
Kevin

Cellular Mitosis Digital Picture Books

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Today, I began the initial work with my sixth graders on creating digital picture books that will integrate knowledge of Cellular Mitosis into a fictional adventure story. They will be using MS Powerpoint as their platform, with animation, audio, hyperlinks and video embedded into the books.

Today, we looked over Magic School Bus books and talked about the use of layered literacy (I didn’t use that term, of course, but that was what I was getting at), and then we watched a video of one of the Magic School Bus shows, and we talked a bit about the difference in media. I want them to think critically as viewers, so that we can then make the shift to critical composers/writers.

Tomorrow, I hand out a packet with instructions and they will begin some initial brainstorming on story ideas and maybe even push into some storyboarding. I will even show a few samples of digital books from past years. In the past, my students had more freedom for curriculum topics, but I am working more closely with my science teacher partner this year to get deeper into understanding mitosis, so we’ll see how things fare as we move along.

Here are some math books, turned into videos, from a few years ago:

Peace (in pictures),
Kevin

The Quidditch Rap Song

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Today is the Quidditch Tournament in our school. A few years ago, I wrote a song to celebrate our game and last week, I updated it, using a music loop software for the music. Then, I made a music video. Yesterday, I had all of my students listen to it and I had all 80 of them help me sing the chorus. Yeah — it was messy, but messy fun.

Here is the video and then below, you can listen to the song with my students singing the chorus:

Listen to the Q Rap with Students

Peace (in flying snitches),
Kevin

Blogging Across the School District

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Next year, my students leave the comfy confines of our elementary school to attend the big regional middle/high school. For some, this transition causes much worry and concern. They wonder about lockers, about bullies, about the food, about getting lost in the building, and more. (Funny — it’s the same worries I had when I was going into middle school).

Last year, a teacher at the high school and I talked about finding some ways to use technology to allow my students to ask his older students questions about the transition to the bigger school and connect them together some way.  We are both teachers in the Western Massachusetts Writing Project network, which made our collaboration all the more easier to get moving along.

This week, we got the project off the ground. We’re using a WordPress blog and his tenth graders began some introductions, and then my sixth graders did some responding and questioning (such as, in which class do you dissect the rat?).

We’re hopeful this blog will help ease the transition, but also open up doors for more collaboration among them as writers. I know my pal, George Mayo, is about to launch the SPACE online magazine again this year (see last year’s version), focusing in on poetry and multimedia verse, and I can see using our shared blog space for some collaboration and review before publication.

It’s exciting to be using technology not just for global projects, but also for local projects. And I had a great time remembering many of my former students who are now in that tenth grade classroom, remembering their sixth grade year.

Peace (in connections),
Kevin

Quidditch Artwork and Student Imagination

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I shared this over at PhotoFridays (a day late) but this is a photo collage of some of the artwork being done by my students for our upcoming Quidditch Tournament (in two weeks!). I love how it all looks together.

My motto for our team: Riptide — a force that you can’t resist.

Peace (in art),

Kevin

(video) Slice of Life: So you wanna play Quidditch?

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(This is part of the Slice of Life project)
This is a slice, a few days removed, as I have finished up the Quidditch video project that we shot with kids last week. The idea here is to begin to share our game of Quidditch with other schools and to celebrate playing the game for 10 years at our school. This project was fun to edit, if a bit time-consuming, but I like the final product. I realized early on that the video footage of the kids playing the game was too hectic to really understand from an outsider’s standpoint, so I moved to use still shots with the voice-over from the book.

Eventually, this will find a home at our school website, with written explanations to go along with the video.


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Peace (in golden snitches),
Kevin

Student reflection on digital story project

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As our digital story project wound down last week (and as I slowly watch them for assessment), I had my students take a quick online survey (using Google Docs) to get some feedback about the project. This was the first time I have done this digital story (using narrative paragraph writing about a memory object) and I wondered what their perceptions were about the creative work they had accomplished.

Here are the results:

My reactions: the results show that there was a high level of interest and engagement in this project (something I saw clearly in the classroom), that many students prefer working within the realm of multimedia, that the end product brought them satisfaction, and that some of them are now making movies and digital stories on their own.

In fact, in parent teacher conferences last week, a number of parents remarked on the positive remarks students were giving and how many of the kids were going home to make their own digital stories on the home computer. I love how the skills from school can transfer to home because it shows that the learning has meaning and value for them.

I also had a box for advice to me on how to improve this project. Most talked about wanting to make their own music and not have to choose from PhotoStory (yeah, I understand). Others said they could have used more class time. A few suggested longer stories next time. But this one comment hit my heart because it shows the power of the story this student told (and it was powerful):

To have to memory be happy not sad. When I was recording I had to keep from crying. It was hard. When I listened to the final story, I was crying.

Peace (in reflection),
Kevin

Slice of Life: A visitor

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(This is part of the Slice of Life project)

I was delighted to have a visitor to class yesterday — Maureen T., a friend from my Twitter network who works just west of me, came to my school to hang out for a bit and see what was happening in the classroom (and then she went down the hall to hang out in Gail P.’s kindergarten class). Maureen came at a good time, as we were working on our digital story projects. She got a good glimpse of some of the work now unfolding at a pretty good pace.

It’s nice to know that the virtual connections can sometimes evolve into something richer and we had some excellent conversations about teaching at our schools, about how difficult it can be to get teachers to integrate technology into the classroom, and how much students stand to gain from using digital tools to express themselves. It’s true — we were a two-person choir singing to ourselves, but still …

And here is a little gift: some of the memory objects that my students have brought in and are using for the core of their digital stories.

Peace (in connections),
Kevin

Slice of Life: When Stories Go Digital

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(This is part of the Slice of Life project)

Yesterday, my classes began their Digital Story project in earnest and it was a bit hectic, but wonderful to watch them so engaged. In a nutshell, they have written a personal narrative paragraph about an object that holds special memories and now they are merging the image, the audio of their writing, and music into a short video with PhotoStory3 (a free download from Microsoft, folks, and well worth the effort).

There are stories about pets, about blankets, about gifts from long-lost relatives, about stuffed animals, about awards, and more. Wonderful, rich topics.

This is my first time with this project, so it is worth reflecting a bit, right? Here are a few things that cross my mind:

  • We’re building off prior knowledge. They have been working on writing paragraphs for a week or two and we have used technology plenty this year. The leap to a new software platform, which might cause adults to stumble, is no big deal for them. They get it, quick.
  • Writing is at the heart of the story. It may be digital, but the writing comes first. Today, I explained that the writing is the center of this piece and that they should see themselves as “composers” — drawing the pieces of music, audio and image together in one coherent piece of work. I think most of them got it.
  • Make the story personal. These narratives are rich for them because they chose the object, and they have the memories. The subject matter really comes from their heart and they are invested in telling a good tale.
  • Show a sample. I showed them the Grandmother’s Tea Cup story last week and then shared another paragraph sample that I wrote about the first saxophone I ever got and how it moved me into music in a way that remains with me to this day. They need to know that we are writing with them, exploring the same terrain.
  • Give them time to play. Last week, I showed them the software and let them go at it. I gave them some photos and told them that they were to play, tinker, experiment and have fun. Get it out of the system. Explore. Then, when we began the project, they could focus.
  • Share the scoring rubric. It’s not all fun and games. To help focus their learning, I shared out the rubric that I created so they will know exactly what I am hoping for. The rubric’s areas include writing, voice, and production (as in, just because you can do something cool and snazzy doesn’t mean you should do it — make sure the music and the production “fits” the story and complements it, not takes away from it.) I never want the grading to be a secret to them.
  • Time to work. I allocated plenty of time this week, I think, knowing that technology takes longer than we suspect. But, I was surprised at how much progress was made in one single class period. Some of them will be done sooner than I anticipated, I can tell.
  • Alternative Activities. I need to come up with this one. No doubt, I will. Let’s see now …

Peace (in stories),
Kevin