A digital graphic organizer that is very beneficial for elementary students as a pre-writing strategy is Popplet lite. I used popplet lite to create a concept map about a personal narrative. The main idea of the concept map is Disney World. Then it had 5 ideas branching out of Disney World describing my summer vacation. I then listed my favorite ride, food, characters and then the ocean. Having this concept map can help the students be creative when writing. By students making the concept map it will help them with their ideas as they are putting these ideas down with pictures and text.
Popplet Lite is a great app to make a concept map. Students are able to have as many boxes as they want. Inside the boxes they can can add text, draw their own picture, or access pictures from the library or even take a picture of a drawing they already did. However, with the free version of Popplet Lite you can not get pictures from the web. If necessary, you can buy Popplet Lite for $4.99 and then get pictures from the web. Once the popplet (concept map) is finished you can share the popplet by exporting it by emailing as a PDF, emailing as JPEG, or saving it as a JPEG. This app is very easy for students to create and for them to express their ideas in an organized way.
I envision teaching writing using traditional and new literacies by having students to using storyboards. Allowing the students to still traditionally write the narration, sketch a picture, and then choose from a media list for each page. To me I think using both traditional and new literacies is going engage the students more when it comes to writing. Using storyboards can help the student be creative and organized with their thoughts.
Below is the Popplet I made as an example:
I used the app Educreations to create a screencast to share with my students at home. I created a screencast on how to add with regrouping. The screencast that I created with Educreations can be used at home for the students and parents when they are working on homework. This is a great resource if the students get stuck or forget what they learned that day in math. Allowing students to have this resource that they can access at home is very beneficial. Also, it helps parents to see what their student learned that day and also it can guide them in helping their child. I will use screencasts a lot in this same way but also introduce it to my students in the classroom. Students can then work on problems with partners and share their understanding with others. I can see this becoming a huge resource in the future! Using screencast can be used in many different content areas as well!
Educreations screencast of Adding with Regrouping!
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/adding-with-regrouping/30010442/?s=PXVOOx&ref=app
Last Tuesday, I was very fortunate to help two different resource teachers use Shadow Puppet with their students. Shadow Puppet is a great app to use with all students. Shadow Puppet brings out the creativeness of students as they make videos, slideshows and presentations. Students are able to use their own pictures from a camera roll/album or they can search for pictures or clip art within the app. A cool feature that students can do with their videos, slideshows, and presentations is that they can add music, narrate their project, add text to their slides. To me the most exciting feature of Shadow Puppet is how easy it is to share the student's project with friends, family members, and staff by the having many options of sending it. This includes a link, email, Facebook, Twitter, and so much more!
The first hour I worked with Susan and her students (2nd graders!) who were working on their animal research projects. Before using Shadow Puppet the students had their project written out on paper and then pictures to go along with each slide. The students could choose to add their picture they drew or find pictures on the app. Once we had the pictures ready to go the students narrated their project for each slide. Each student had a cover slide, habitat slide, description of animal, what the animal eats, interesting facts, and then a closing slide. Students read from their paper for each slide. The projects turned out amazing. The best part of using Shadow Puppet is how excited the students were to use it and how proud they were of their project!!
The next hour I worked with Paula, a student teacher, and the students (4th Grade!) who were working on their persuasion essays. Each student had a different topic. The student who I worked with had the topic of "Why Don't Teachers Let Us Use More Technology in the Classroom." These students had the same concept of having a layout already made of their topic and reasons. Student had to find pictures within the app to connect to their topic. Students would be using less pictures for their presentation but doing more talking to persuade the audience. The students did a fantastic job finding pictures to connect to their topic to make their audience engaged!
I definitely can see myself using Shadow Puppet in the future and hopefully in my future classroom!!
It is very important to teach students the importance of using technology effectively. Technology plays a huge role in student's lives now but will be a bigger factor in the future. As teachers we can give the students the skills necessary for appropriate use of technology. Below are three areas I feel are most crucial to incorporate into second grade curriculum.
1) Staying Safe Online-Students need to understand that they should stay safe online by choosing websites that good fro them to visit, and avoid sites that not appropriate for them. An important part of this area is students recognizing if they should ask an adult they trust before they visit a particular website. teachers we can provide websites to students that are safe and effective for them to use for various subjects.
2) Screen Out the Mean- Students learn that children sometimes act like bullies when they are online. They explore what cyberbullying and what they can do when they encounter it. As teachers we need to make students aware of what online behaviors could be considered cyberbullying, explain how to deal with a cyberbullying situation, and the importance of engaging a trusted adult when they experience cyberbulleying.
3) Keep It Private- Students learn that many websites ask for information that is private and discuss how to responsibly handle such requests. Students will review what information is private and should not be shared without a trusted adult's permission. Most importantly students will understand that they should never give out private information on the Internet and learn how to create effective usernames that protect their private information.
