"I loved this project. Can we do another one?"

The fourth graders presented their picture book biography projects today! 

The students did a fabulous job of practicing their presenting skills by speaking slowly, looking at their audience, and speaking in an engaging manner.

After the presentations, I asked the students to reflect on the process and share their feedback. I already know something that I would change next time: I would ask for evidence from the text as opposed to talking about quoting the text. Here's what they had to say:

Mrs. Reed, you should also know that...

I think we should use google docs more because it's fun!

Can we do this again?

We should have more time to work

You did a good job explaining the project and over all it was fun.

THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

I think you should do these types of things more often!

I liked this project.

We need more time to do the project.

That you did a great job

It was a little complicated when you said something like command, shift, 4 and how to get the link to a website and stuff related to that. 

I wanted to do google slides but my partner said no.

I liked this project but I wish we had more time          

This was fun

I would like if we could do more presentations

I loved doing something different in Library 

You should make sure everything's clear

It was really fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved this project can we do another one?

I really enjoyed learning about how to create the presentation 

We didn't have time to do quotes in the book otherwise we would have done them.

You should make sure everything's clear

We need more freedom while making our biography slides. 

This was such a fun project, we should do it more!

I had too little time 

I liked this project

I think that this was a great learning experince and I hope to to it again

We should have more time to work on this and make it more complex.

We did not have enough time to finish

This project was really fun!

I wish we can choose partners.

We should do another google slides presentation

We should do it again

I love to read books about famous people

It was super fun!

I liked doing a google presentation

I want to do this more

That you should do this project forever

I like making this presentation and I would really like to do it again

This was fun

You should do this type of project more often.

Library should be 30 minutes longer. :D

This was awesome and so much fun! :D

I want to do this project again next year but with a different person to study so I could learn about them too.

I wish I could make a google presentation

I liked this presentation project

Lots for me to unpack here, but I think it was a hit!

These are the women with whom my fifth graders want to spend an afternoon

I would go back and do this part differently if I could.

That's an interesting way to start a blog post, right? 

Teaching is a naturally reflective practice and ten minutes into this last part of the fifth grade Women's History Month unit, I realized that I should have made a different choice.

I thought it would be interesting to have the students explore each other's projects - afternoons with women who inspire- and then choose three additional afternoons to join. I thought this would expand their knowledge and understanding of the contributions women have made. You can read more about the project on these posts: March Madness: Women's History Month Style and Which Women Would You Like to Spend the Afternoon With?  Just looking at each other's illustrations felt flat. Their excitement was lost in translation. I wish I had had the students show their illustration of their afternoon (using the ELMO) and talk about why they had chosen those specific women and the location.  The students engaged in the activity in earnest and part of my goals were met, but adding the public speaking component would have made it better.

After all the choices had been made, I went back and tallied the names of the women included in the most popular afternoons. The women most often included are: Michelle Obama, Amelia Earhart, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Blackwell, Marie Curie, and Sally Ride. Others who appeared in multiple afternoons include: Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Ellen Ochoa, Mae Jemison, Rosa Parks, Harriett Tubman, Maria Mitchell, Clara Barton, Frida Kahlo, Emma Watson, and Mary Cassatt.

The most popular places to host this afternoon? My students would meet their women in these places: NASA, Hot Air Balloon, Starbucks, Living Room, Hospital, Operating Room Lab, Space, Civil Rights Museum, Airplane.

Here's another look at some of their finished art:

Picture Book Biographies Inspire and Inform

Here are a few of the finished biography presentations of my fourth grade students. You can read about the project on this blog post, Identifying Personality Traits and Finding Evidence. 

This last step in the process had the students practicing digital literacy and being good digital citizens. 

They practiced presenting information on a slide, finding images that would support that information, citing their sources, ensuring that their message did not get lost in the medium (both substance and style matter). 

They will be presenting their slides to each other this week and practicing their public speaking and presentation skills. Their last task will be to reflect on the process and the project. 

First Grade Biographers Read, Create, and Share.

This is what first graders gathering information and sharing their knowledge look like in my library. 

This is what their finished projects look like and sound like:

After watching the videos, students shared something they learned with an elbow partner. Next, they shared something they would change about their own slide and how they felt when their slide was on the screen. Here are some of the words they used to describe how they felt: proud, scared, sad, embarrassed, excited, brave, and uncomfortable. We had a much deeper discussion than I anticipated. I reminded the students that this is a learning journey and explained that they would have many opportunities to practice these communication different skills.  

How we got here. As with my fourth grade biography project, this one is taking longer than expected due to snow days and vacations. Three of the four classes have finished the project, watch the final slide show, and reflected on the whole experience. 

Week One: 

Show students projects from two years ago. Remind students how to access and navigate PebbleGo.

Students explore biographies in PebbleGo and find a person they are interested in both learning about and then sharing that information with others.

Week Two:

Students read or listen to biographies a few times and answer questions on information gathering form. Students create a sketch for their KidPix slide.

Week Three: 

Introduce KidPix

Students Explore KidPix

Students begin sketch

Week Four:

Students complete sketch and use voice feature to share what they learned.

Week Five:

Students watch slide show of the projects and reflect on the process.

Examples of information gathering form: