Hi, My name is_____and I am visiting____ 4th graders create digital postcards

I had the pleasure of working with my building's Instructional Technology Specialist this morning. She suggested a project where the fourth graders would use the Tellagami app to share what they have learned about the National Monuments they are studying. I am always looking for ways to incorporate my five iPads into the learning environment and this proved to be a great use.

Lincoln Memorial

The classroom teacher organized and managed the research process and had the students write a brief paragraph on their monuments.  The classroom teacher also oversaw the creation of the actual postcard art. 

This morning, with the classroom teacher, the ITS and me, the students worked in pairs to practice reading their scripts, time each other to ensure the script was less than 30 seconds, and then create a Gami (Tellagami video). To create the Gami, Angie, the ITS introduced and modeled using the app. The students then helped each other create an avatar, take a picture of the postcard art, and record the script. After evaluating the recording (and rerecording it if necessary), the students published the Gami.

Here are a few examples. 

Supreme Court


Vietnam War Memorial

This is an user-friendly and fun. The students have just enough options for the avatars and the buttons and directions are clear and easy to follow.  More importantly, the fact that students only have 30 seconds to record ensures they focus on the salient facts. I am looking forward to using this app more next year.

People who made a difference....in seventeen syllables

The fourth grade teachers and I were planning on collaborating on a biography unit, but schedules and testing got in the way.  Last week, I found myself with two weeks of classes left with a biography idea still floating about in my head.  

I adapted the unit and trimmed it down. The district curriculum has the students exploring the character traits and obstacles of the biography subjects as well as how the time and place played a role in the person's life. I dropped the time and place element and had the students focus on the character traits and obstacles. The students also determined why the person made a difference. The process was a bit rushed and a bit messy, but it was also beautiful and rich.  (All the projects are below!)

Class One:
In groups of four and five established by the classroom teachers, the students chose and read a biography from a preselected collection.

I decided to see how spare the students could be in synthesizing the biography. Could they do it in seventeen syllables? The students the used the Haiku template from ReadWriteThink. They brainstormed keywords about their person and then crafted a Haiku poem that captured the essence of their person - the person's personality traits, accomplishments, or obstacles that he or she had to overcome.

Class Two:
I reviewed the project expectations and modeled creating an Animoto movie.

The groups evaluated and edited their Haiku poems. After approval from me, they used Animoto to bring create a visual and musical presentation of their Haiku. Like their work on the personality beverages, the students understood that the goal was to find a theme, images and music that supported the text of their Haiku as well as what they knew about their person.

As I said, it was a bit rushed, but I am proud of the work these fourth graders created. Hare are people who made a difference, in seventeen syllables:

Nelson Mandela

Eleanor Roosevelt

Horace Pippin

Abraham Lincoln

(these are two separate videos)

Jacques Cousteau

Albert Einstein

John Appleseed Chapman

Babe Ruth

Bass Reeves

Esther Morris

Henry Box Brown

Sylvia Earle

Juliette Gordon Low

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Joseph Boulonge

Mercy Otis Warren

Booker T. Washington

Nikola Tesla

Bob and Joe Switzer

Alexander Calder

Haiku Poetry created with Storybird by Fifth Graders

The fifth graders will be writing Haiku poems about their school experiences for their graduation performance. As a way to scaffold this assignment, I worked with them to create Haiku poems. I reviewed the structure of a Haiku and then went over the assignment. The students had to create a Haiku with one of these themes: summer, reading, school, library, or books. The students used the template from ReadWriteThink. After creating a Haiku, the students could choose from one of four technology tools to present their poems. I had created examples for each form. They can be found on the assignment page.

Here is my poem created using Storybird.

Here are the students' Storybird poems.

Haiku Poetry Created with ReadWriteThink by 5th Graders

The fifth graders will be writing Haiku poems about their school experiences for their graduation performance. As a way to scaffold this assignment, I worked with them to create Haiku poems. I reviewed the structure of a Haiku and then went over the assignment. The students had to create a Haiku with one of these themes: summer, reading, school, library, or books. The students used the template from ReadWriteThink. After creating a Haiku, the students could choose from one of four technology tools to present their poems. I had created examples for each form. They can be found on the assignment page.

Here are the student projects:

Haiku Poems Created with Animoto by 5th Graders

The fifth graders will be writing Haiku poems about their school experiences for their graduation performance. As a way to scaffold this assignment, I worked with them to create Haiku poems. I reviewed the structure of a Haiku and then went over the assignment. The students had to create a Haiku with one of these themes: summer, reading, school, library, or books. The students used the template from ReadWriteThink. After creating a Haiku, the students could choose from one of four technology tools to present their poems. Examples of the brainstorm sheets can be found at the bottom of the post.  

I created examples for each form. They can be found on the assignment page.

Here are the Haiku Poems expressed with Animoto.






















summer



Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life Haiku



SUMMER