A Lesson Implementing the Use of a Double-Entry Journal

End of Year Projects Using Goanimate

Goanimate, a website which allows users to create animated videos, was one of the Web 2.0 innovations that I worked with this semester.  Originally, I had planned to use it to introduce a unit on the Romantic Period in British Literature.  My students and I enjoyed Goanimate so much, that I decided to incorporate it into our end-of-year projects.  The academic plan requires that students create presentations this quarter, and in the past I have had them create Powerpoint presentations on British authors.  To no surprise, this activity has not evoked much excitement in the students who create them or those who have to watch them.  This quarter I decided to allow students to create presentations using Voki, Storybird or Goanimate.  The presentations must reflect a deep level of comprehension of one of the literary selections we read this year.  Students were able to choose which literary selection and which Web 2.0 resource to use.  So far I have been amazed by the enthusiasm and creativity that is being displayed, and the videos are thoroughly entertaining.  Here are two examples:

Student Sample One - The Wife of Bath's Tale

Student Sample Two - The Pardoner's Tale


I have creates a rubric and additional resources for this project.  These are available on my Googlesite page:

Goanimate page on my Googlesite.

Thematic Unit - 90 Miles to Havana

My team and I have been working on a webquest with an anti-bullying theme.  The webquest consists of before, during and after reading activities that 7^th grade students will complete as they read the novel 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis.  The before reading components provide students with background information about the Cuban Revolution, which is the backdrop of the novel and introduce the essential question, “What are the tactics that a bully uses to control and manipulate others and how can victims reclaim power from a bully?”.  During reading activities are designed to increase student engagement and comprehension and to increase vocabulary knowledge.  Many activities incorporate Web 2.0 resources such as Edmodo, Timetoast, and Wordle.  After students have finished reading they will investigate additional bullying resources on the internet and will work together as a class to produce a bullying awareness newsletter that will be distributed throughout the school.  We believe that middle school is such a pivotal point in children’s lives to consider the seriousness of bullying that this is an activity that will benefit every student in school.

Here is a link to our webquest:

http://90milestohavana.weebly.com/

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Unit Plan

Here is the unit plan that I described in my post about Jum Burke's book, What's the Big Idea?.  I converted the file from a pdf to an internet-based program called Youblisher.  It's not a terrible lesson, in fact it was quite effective at enabling my below-grade level students to comprehend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but I know that this lesson was not designed around a true "essential question" so I am submitting this as my "before" documentation.  I hope that after I have read Jum Burke's book I will be able to share a truly thought-provoking lesson designed around a meaningful essential question.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Unit Plan

The Hand of Fatima Lesson

Here is a lesson I created for my 12th grade intensive reading students using Prezi.  We were reading a short story called "The Hand of Fatima" by Elsa Marston.


http://prezi.com/pdlbj3il4nxk/the-hand-of-fatima-by-elsa-marston/?auth_key=d2b6882e02d4ef03365a1c5134ddea93db73d53d&kw=view-pdlbj3il4nxk&rc=ref-20909127

Webquest

Here is the link to the webquest I created for Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

http://msetzoldswebquestonalongwaygone.weebly.com/

Choices

Our school used the Edge textbook program, which is published by Hampton-Brown.  Each unit is organized around a theme, such as loyalty.  Each unit includes three trade books, each at a distinct difficulty level.  I believe that motivation is such an important component to reading that I feel the need to provide my students with a choice, rather than requiring students to read a book based solely on the lexile level.  I believe that students will gain more from reading a book that is somewhat “easy” than they would by pretending to read a more challenging book that does not appeal to their interests.  On the other hand, a student might be capable of reading a more challenging book than would be expected if the motivation is there to try.  Restricting students’ choices based solely on a lexile ranking is one of the most frequent complaints I have heard from students, teachers, and parents about the AR program. 

I encourage student choice by introducing each book with a youtube video trailer and asking students to jot down notes about each book as they view the trailers.  Then I ask them to rank the books in order of preference.  I review their choices, and try to allow each student to read his or her first choice book.  If I notice that a student has selected a book as a first choice that I think could be too difficult, I explain this to him or her.  Then I will show the book and ask him or her to “take 5” – read about 5 fingers length of text aloud and count how many errors are made.  If a student makes more than 5 errors in that length of text, the book is probably too difficult.  At that point I would strongly encourage the student to make another choice. 

The books my students had to choose from most recently were Two Badges by Mona Ruiz, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Wave by Todd Strasser.  Below are two of the trailers I used to introduce these books.