Welcome to the bi-monthly Digital Storytelling Carnival. Lots of new posts to check out if you haven’t already. Thanks for stopping by. Classroom Ideas Caught On Video, Bob Sparnkle suggests several ideas for integrating video production in the curriculum. Wildlife documentary filmmaking by Scott Floyd. Split screen inspired by Radiohead by Dan Meyer. Let Them …
Category: Open Court Reading
Travel Brochures
For units on travel, foreign lands, and journeys, how about having students write a postcard from whatever location you’re studying from the point of view of the people you’re studying. For example, First Grade Journeys and Fifth Grade Going West. Students can create a postcard, a travel brochure, a postcard, a letter, a mock myspace …
Advice for New Edubloggers
They Link Me, They Really Link Me For the first time, I made it on a list of top Edubloggers, this one by Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrelevant. The list is based on technorati authority, which for the uninitiated is calculated based on how many blogs link back to your blog. It’s not an exact …
Apple Summer Camp
If you know anyone between the ages of 8-12, they’re invited to go for free to a three hour Summer Apple Camp to learn to make movies, music, or take photos. What an awesome opportunity to empower your children at just about any Apple Store for free! I wish I could go. Pass this on …
Symptoms Not the Cure
An Oregon teacher duct tapes a child to a chair because he couldn’t stop getting up. Although this is example is obviously extreme, it seems typical of a lot of classroom “discipline” strategies. Similar to a lot pharmaceuticals, we treat the symptom and not the cure. Our problem stops but the cause of the problem …
Computers: They’re Not Just for Games Anymore
Now that testing is over, I’m being asked a lot if I know of any games that students can play on the computer. Let’s be clear, I like games as much as the next guy (here and some for language arts and here some for math) but I wish that we could shift our thinking …
Comprehension Strategies: Part Two Where Are We Going Wrong?
The strategies we use with our reading program are: Asking Questions Clarifying Predicting Visualizing Summarizing Making Connections Download Reading Strategy Posters Nevertheless, in most classrooms students understand predicting and that’s about it. Or students can clarify when the teacher says, “Clarify” but they’ll rarely choose to use the strategy of clarifying on their own. Where …
Comprehension Strategies: Part One Why?
Explicit teaching of comprehension strategies is a part of both currently approved reading series in California and will likely be a part of whatever new program is adopted. I speak for myself, an English major, when I say that I initially found the teaching of strategies to be silly. I mean, I just read stuff …
Google Literacy Project Page
Here’s an interesting page which gathers literacy movies, blogs, lessons, etc that are contained on Google’s Pages: http://www.google.com/literacy/ It also asks you to share what you are doing.
Mimi Gets the Last Word
True to form, my grandmother wanted the last word. I have been cleaning up her apartment and found this note right inside her dresser addressed to me and dated from 1997. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before but I just found it and it warmed my heart. Dear Mathew, I want to …