Final Project

I plan to do my final project on incorporating digital story telling, podcasts, and blogs into the independent reading unit. My hope is that this will make their independent reading more interactive, fun, and hopefully give students ideas of books or genres that they may or may not want to read. I have always felt bad that I am the only person that ever gets to read or see their work in these portfolios. By having these available online, and assigning blog partners, they will have a broader audience and more feedback from friends and family. I decided to create a rubric using rubistar on digital storytelling. I was amazed with how easy these sights are for teachers in creating rubrics. Here is my rubric below: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1665189&

Here is my project:

Every semester, students are expected to choose an independent reading novel. The main requirements are that the book they choose is something they are interested in and is at their reading level. I always state to students, if they don't know, ask me. They also cannot read books they read before, however.

For this semester long unit, I dedicate Fridays every week for reading, writing, creating their blog, mind mapping, and their creative projects. Since students learn and master things at different stages and ability levels, this works well because students can work at their own pace independently. The final unit portfolio is due one week before the semester ends.

In this blog, you will see what is expected of students during this time. We will spend time the first couple of Fridays having them set up their blogs and reading their books. The expectations are clear and straightforward.

Students should come prepared to work independently. Every week, they should blog about their book. In this section, they can share what they like, or dislike, what is confusing, and funny. They should however have four of these posts every week. I will be responding directly about their progress by way of posts on their blog. They will also be expected to comment on their blog partners posts 4 times a week as well. This shows me that they are grasping the ideas of their book and sharing these thoughts with a partner.

The next requirement for this semester long project is that students keep a mind map of all the main characters in their novel. They should include anything they learn about these characters such as how they look, act, feel, think, and how others perceive them.

Lastly, students will be responsible for presenting and creating what I like to call their Creative Project. Within the blog, you will see examples of things students can do such as create a movie, create a mural, and create a comic strip just to name a few. This part of the unit is really geared at applying what they have learned from the novel in a creative way that highlights other strengths the student might have as well. In order to receive an A they must keep a detailed work log that entails the date, time, and what they did every time they worked on their project.

All rubrics for this unit are conveniently displayed on the right hand column of my blog. I have also created examples of the mind mapping, journal entries, as well as sample Creative Projects as well. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Creative Project Presentation List

The following list contains a few topic ideas that you can use for your creative project. If you do not like any of these options on the list, you can create your own with prior approval of me. Keep in mind that your project needs to be a minimum of three hours of work for an A as well as keeping a detailed work log. Your work should include the date and time that you worked on your project, and a good size paragraph explaining what you did during this time.

• Scene performance: select three scenes and record them using Youtube or create an I-Movie or use Windows Movie maker. I must see the video BEFORE you present to the class (See Digital Storytelling Rubric).
• Create your own puppet show (See Puppet Show Rubric).
  

• Research the author of the story. Did anything you learn about the author help you better understand the story? Does it parallel his/her life? (See Research Rubric).
  

• Make a new book cover for the story. You should include a summary of the story, at least five reviews from people who have read the story, and at least one colored illustration (See Book Jacket Rubric).
  

• Create a mural, collage or find clip art or images from Flickr or Creative Commons that represent characters, scenes, themes, symbols from the story and explain the importance of each (See Collage Rubric).
  

• Create a blog that talks about important scenes, characters, happenings within the book and share it with the class (See Web Design Rubric).
  

• Create your own podcast/radio show that deals with the story. Must view before presentation.
  

• Write an exchange of letters between a major character and one other in the story. Have them discuss a common topic. Remember: Each character must remain consistent with his/her established character (See Writing Letter Rubric).
  

• What if? Speculate what would happen if certain events discussed in the novel had happened differently. Rewrite the ending (See Research Writing Rubric).
  

• Create a sequel to the novel (See Research Rubric).
  

• Update. If the characters lived now, what would the character be doing? How would they survive, and how would their lives be similar or different? (See Research Rubric).
  

• Write the script for a 'Talk Show" and videotape it to show to the class. Must see prior to presentation. (See Talk Show Rubric).
  

• Write several diary entries reflecting a day in the life of a character from the story (See Letter Writing Rubric).
  

• Describe a character in the story by explaining how they would be or how they would be treated in modern day society (See Research Rubric).
  

• Write a local newspaper account of a certain episode (See Newspaper Rubric).
  

• Pick an episode from the story, making it into a graphic novel or comic strip with appropriate captions and bubbles of dialogue and thoughts (See Comic Strip Rubric).
  

• Choose your own topic with prior approval of me.

Movie Trailer

One creative project choice students have is to compare the novel to the movie. They can then create their own trailer based on the novel. Here is the movie trailer of the book I am currently reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

PowerPoint Presentation

Students could also choose to create a PowerPoint presentation for their Creative Project that either shows important themes, symbolism, motifs, characters throughout the novel and find images that represent each. They should have at least five slides. Here is an example I did on the book Lonesome Dove.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Mind Map Assignment

Another assignment that will be expected of students is to create a mind map for each main character throughout the book. I have created one here as an example on the book Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Lonesome Dove Comic Strip

This is another example of what students can do for their Creative Project. Here I have created a a comic strip that highlights the important themes, settings, or happenings within my book. If interested, start an account at toondoo.com.

Lonesome Dove Journal 2

Every day that students read their independent novel, they will be expected to write a journal entry about what they read. They should include what they like dislike, character development, themes, etc. Here is an example of what I would expect.

Now that the crew is finally headed towards Montana, it is interesting to see if they will be able to survive the elements such as wind, rain, and dust storms. It is somewhat funny that the men in this small calvary are mostly inexperienced in cattle driving, and have already come to terms that many of their livestock will be lost in making this trek. I believe McMurty does a great job describing what it would be like trying to steer a team of horses and cattle through a dust storm, and poor inexperienced Newt has trouble seeing anything in front of him. There also seems to be three plots going on throughout the book this far. There is the Call, Newt, Deets, Pea, the Irish men brigade, Jake Spoon and Lorena, and the Texas rangers that are trying to catch Jake for the murder of their one and only dentist. I believe at this point in the novel survival is the key element here.

Will they survive the elements and start a cattle business?
Will Jake and Lorena's relationship last and/or will Lorena ever make it to San Francisco? Will Roscoe find July and tell him his wife has run off?
Will July and his step son find Jake?

In a way there are all of these sub plots going on at once, but surprisingly enough, the story is making more sense that it did before.

The book that we are currently reading for my book group is called Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty. I have been told by both my father and father-in-law that this was a great book that looks at what it means to belong in a family. My father-in-law liked it so much, that he bought the whole mini-series on tape.

I already was hesitant to read this book, since I know it is a western, but being in the group I decided to try to give it a chance. Who knows, maybe I will really like it. So far I am 200 some pages into it, and I cannot say that I am particularly fond of the writing style or the plot. The first 100 pages is very slow, there is very little character development, and the most I have gotten out of it is that these men are cowboys without a purpose.

Part of the reason I think that I may be having trouble connecting with the book is that there isn't many female characters. The one character named Lorie, who is the known prostitute in Lonesome Dove, is the only parts that seem to be interesting to me. Their trip to Montana might be something worth reading because everyone likes the adventurous renegade without direction or a plan. In fact, if they do run into some Indians or comanches, this book might take a turn for the better.

One of the main characters Jake I seem to like. He is supposedly a ladies man and a clean freak who shot a dentist and is now on the run. Call, the Captain, has not been established as much of a character yet, but that may change.

So far I see the prominent themes being cowboy life, survival, and prostitution. Stay tuned for my next update. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.

Rubrics:

• Book Jacket Rubric
• Letter Writing Rubric
• Journal Writing Rubric
• Mural Rubric
• Puppet Rubric
• Collage Rubric
• Comic Strip Rubric
• Research Paper Rubric
• Newspaper Rubric
• Talk Show Rubric
• Poster Rubric
• Making a Game Rubric
• Character Log Rubric
• Web Design Rubric
• PowerPoint Rubric
• Digital Storytelling: Creating Movie Trailer or Video Rubric

Reflection on e-portfolios

Throughout this course, I believe I have learned a lot in regards to technology tools that I did not know before. I think that the blog/portfolio idea would be very beneficial in the classroom. I think students could blog about what they think they understand from class, what they are having problems with, what they like or dislike. they could also use their blog as a way to do a critique of a novel and replacing the paper journals we were used to having. This would also be beneficial because they could have feedback from other students, parents, and myself.

I believe I would have students create a class blog. In this class blog, they would be expected to find one current event and report on it. They would respond and write about the literature we are reading, publish their creative projects through youtube, and also use the digital storytelling tools. I cannot say that there is anything that I couldn't use from this class in the classroom.

The Culture of the Swiss

I chose to use slide rocket for my presentation. I did it on the culture of Switzerland. Very easy to do. I didn't seem to have any real problems with this software at all. This would be great for students to use with literature where they can teach the class a specific part of the story, research the different medal winner books, and even share what they liked or disliked within the novels they read. The teacher or students could even create a collage presentation asking the students or classmates why certain images were chosen and what they symbolize in the bigger sense.

My Podcast

For my podcast, I decided to record a news show highlighting the third grade presidential election at the International School of Zug. My daughter Coretta is running and thought this would be a neat reminder. In the classroom I think that podcasts could be great for students to interview people, fictitious characters from novels, talk show about literature, etc.

Same Sex Classrooms

PRO Expert: Being a teacher for the past eight years has given me a little insight into the way in which students learn, particularly how boys and girls differ in learning styles. This lead me to look at the possibility of real differences within the brain that might attribute to this. According to the Medical Education Online article "the frontal and the temporal lobes are significantly larger in women." These two lobes are responsible for language and communication skills. It is clear that in the classroom setting girls are much more verbal and have an advantage in being able to express themselves. Another difference discussed in the Medical Education Online was that the parietal lobe is bigger in men. This area targets logic and mathematical abilities including spacial relations. Moreover, women have a large, deep limbic system (compared to males) which is the area of the brain that controls emotions. this then explains why women are more in touch with their feelings and feel more connected to others. Overall, men tend to be more left brained and women tend to have greater access to both sides. In knowing this, it is evident that the biological makeup of both males and females are different, therefore require different learning styles.

According to Leonard Sax, the founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, "general expectations in most classrooms, that students raise their hands, work cooperatively, ask for help, and refrain from disruption, are easier for girls than for boys to meet. This is why he feels so may male students are falling behind." I know for me, I noticed this change a lot in the classroom. Girls tend to be prepared, organized, quiet, and attentive. Girls tend to raise their hands more and share ideas. Boys on the other hand tend to be inattentive, have trouble sitting still, are less apt to volunteer or share their ideas, and disrupt class more frequently. As a mother of both a girl and a boy, these fundamental characteristics are clear. My girl and boy are definitely programmed differently. My daughter's strengths are more verbal and written language, and emotional whereas my son is more physically active, into everything and anything he is not supposed to be in, and has trouble sitting still. In knowing this, I would be more than willing to at least try same sex classrooms.

Furthermore, if same sex classes are to work, it will take more than just segregating the sexes. It will also take teachers to change their mind set and teaching style as well. For girls, a teacher may look at the emotional connections, cooperative learning, and for boys there would need to be a louder more hands-on approach to learning. Sax further states that "teachers will need new training and need to have natural empathy for one gender style over the other for this to work." Based on my findings and where our students are in the world from a global perspective what do we really have to lose?

Digital Story Writing

For my assignment this week I chose to experiment with creating a comic strip.  I believe that this technology would be very useful when reading a novel where students could base their comic off of important scenes from the novel, re-create the scenes to fit modern day, rewriting the ending...the possibilities are endless. If you were teaching a unit on short stories, instead of writing a short story, you could have them experiment with writing a comic strip including the elements of a short story.  I chose to do my comic strip using scene selections from The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Here it is:

Wikis in the Classroom

I have never used a wiki in the classroom before, partly because I didn't really understand the significance of them or how they could be used in the classroom. Being uneducated in the wiki's many uses, I looked at it as something similar to a blog or a website. Upon further examination, I realize the one function that makes the wiki especially different is it's ability to have students edit and revise whatever they are working on and it does not require them to necessarily be in the same place.

I see it working well with an independent reading project where they could have people who read the same book share the things they liked or disliked about the novel. I think it would also be beneficial if students were working on a group project or group paper because they could edit, delete, or add comments as they collaboratively work together.

I see wikis being useful when students are doing literature circles with a specific group. They could assign roles in the wiki, write down what each person will be responsible for, share their insights or ask questions to the group where they might need more clarification. Because of this, I decided to create my wiki around the theme of literature circles and how students could use this site for collaboration and discussion. Each page could be about the following: roles and list the specific roles they can choose from, character analysis, plot summaries, and likes/dislikes about the novel. Here is the link to my wiki: Literature Circles Forum

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

Here is a Voice Thread on the history and growing up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. I find that Voicethread is a great tool to archive history, photos, loved ones in a way that other medias can't. To me, having your great grandfather, father, mother, aunt tell about their lives would prove to be a very important part of any genealogical archive.

From a student perspective, they could create a collage, share a book review, do a character analysis, look at settings in a novel and present their finding using Voicethread. it would also be a great "Get to know You" exercise the the beginning of the year.



Here is a slideshow that I recently did about my family in Switzerland. I chose to show a family member following a place we have traveled because I felt it flowed better than showing all of the family and then the places or vice versa.

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Create a Free Slideshow

Mind Mapping

Here are my two attempts using mind maps in classroom. I think that they can be beneficial when lecturing in front of the class about key issues in a novel, for students who are brainstorming possible writing topics, looking at characterization or plot in a story. The possibilities are endless.

I believe that blogs can be used for independent reading projects where students can summarize their thoughts on the book they chose to read. They can then have blog partners that will read and respond to their plot overview and critique of the novel. They could publish their final projects here as well.

I think blogs can be useful for teacher in place of creating a website. A place that can have useful links for the class or upcoming assignments or projects. Here is one educational blog I have created for the classroom: Media and the Holocaust. I am unsure what my topic will be for my final project, but my husband and I are planning a trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp, so it may center around this.

RSS Feeds, Web Browsers--What is Most Accurate and Why?

As for search engines, I tend to use google the most. Not really sure why, I guess I just like the browser. They have also came out with a faster browser called google chrome as well which works best for my older computer (my back-up to my apple) as well. I also use safari if for some reason google is down.

When I am searching for news, I tend to use the NPR site or the BBC news site. I personally find them to be the most accurate and give more of a global perspective which I like. If I want to research music, I like the 89.3 The Current site.

As for researching outside of that, I look at the website and look for it's authenticity based on the topic. For example, when my students are doing research on the Holocaust, I have them look at the National Museum of the Holocaust Website. This is a credible site that gives information on survivors, concentration camps, influential people of the time period, archive pictures, etc. I always tell my students to look at the sites credentials. If it is someone's blog for example, this is not as credible as National Geographic. I try to focus my eighth grade students towards sites that aren't blogs because who is to say they are an "expert" on the topic. I explain to them that you or your friends could write a blog on the Holocaust, and it may or may not be credible, but who is to know?

On my google page that I have set up on my desktop, the feeds I have subscribed to are google reader, google newsreel, BBC News, Teacher's Magazine, Web MD Health, and People. Now the feeds that I subscribe to on a daily basis reflect my interests and what I what to be informed on. The feeds I would choose for research, would depend on what I was researching at the time. For the Holocaust, I would ask students to subscribe to the following: Teaching Tolerance, the National Holocaust Museum site, The Jewish Virtual Library, and No Way Out Reader's Theatre. Google newsreel is also great to use and can have it put on to your blog and it will pull feeds from any topic you wish. The only problem with using Google newsreel is that you must make sure that it is current information. My husband was telling me about a story that Google reader put out and it didn't have the date on the article. So many people saw this particular article, and noticed the company was doing poorly and many people pulled their stock from it. I think as a teaching tool, especially with eighth grade students, Google newsreel could be used as conversation starters in the beginning of class looking at these articles with a critical lens. Is this particular article credible? Why or why not? Does it have a date when it was published?

The Use of Blogs in Every Day Life and the Teaching Profession

Since I am currently living in Hunenberg, Switzerland and recently moved here in August, I wanted a place to record my thoughts about cultural differences I see, my experiences as an ex-pat, as well as record milestones of my children for family and friends back in the United States.  I first started blogging when my son was about 6 months old.  If any of you are interested in checking out my blogs, they are positioned to the right under My Blog List which includes The Life of the Bieter Family, Destination Imagination, Media and the Holocaust, Poetry Jam, and Flowers for Algernon.

From a purely educational standpoint, the blogs I have created help students stay connected with one another, give them a voice and a medium where they can be creative, give them a place to publish their ideas and their work, and a new way to learn from one another.  I feel by implementing blogs into your coursework and student evaluations, it is not only meaningful for the reasons above, but also saves time.  By students being able to log on and respond to a few blogs from people in the class and give feedback is fast and efficient.  Likewise, as a teacher, it is a fast and easy way to access student knowledge and see their work without lugging a bunch of paperwork home with me each night.

Some ways that I think digital writing such as blogs can be a hinderance, is that it can take away from the personal aspect of talking to someone on a one to one basis, and I guess is less personal.  In my opinion, however, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

More specifically,  I would like to learn in this class how to better and more effectively create and use podcasts in the classroom and any digital medium for that matter, and utilize these new tools to enhance the work I have already begun.