I'm currently teaching 2nd grade, and this year we will be departmentalizing our instruction. I will only be teaching language arts, so I chose to adapt a lesson and project that I currently do with my 2nd graders to incorporate social media. When I think of social media, Facebook and Twitter automatically come to mind, but there are many sites that allow for online interaction. I'm choosing to use Voice Thread for this project. It is a Web 2.0 tool that I became familiar with during another EDIM course, and would LOVE to use it with my kiddos this fall.
Lesson Plan for Tomie dePaola Author Study Culminating Project (Multi-Day Project)
Goal: As a class, we've been studying Tomie dePaola as an author and illustrator. We're learning from him through both our reading and writing eyes. The goal of this project is for students to choose a favorite Tomie book, analyze it with the given criteria, illustrate four pictures to match their descriptions using paint, create a Voice Thread digital story, and comment on the digital stories of at least 2 other classmates.
Objective and Relevancy: TSW analyze Tomie dePaola as an author, construct a reflection of what they've learned, and respond to the learning of their classmates in order to properly share opinions with others and integrate technology into their learning.
Procedures: (After finishing reading/discussing several Tomie dePaola books and analyzing them as readers and writers.)
1. Ss choose favorite Tomie dePaola book and respond in their journals to the following prompts:
* What is your favorite Tomie dePaola book.
* Who is your favorite character in that book and WHY?
* What is your favorite part of the book and WHY?
* What is the author's message?
Sample Template for Student Prompts
2. Ss illustrate a rough draft in their journals to make a picture for the following slides:
* Design a new book cover for your favorite book.
* Draw and label a picture of your favorite character.
* Draw a picture to represent your favorite part of the book.
* Draw a picture to represent the author's message of that story.
3. After T has a chance to correct steps 1&2, take Ss to computer lab to paint their four pictures using Paint. T troubleshoots as needed and directs Ss how and where to save the pictures they are drawing.
4. T guides students through the Voice Thread process of uploading photos, recording their voices, and sharing the links with the teacher. (See example Voice Thread created about Tom. All pictures included in the Voice Thread were painted by yours truly using Paint.)
5. After T compiles links to all Ss Voice Threads, Ss spend a day in the computer lab commenting on fellow classmates Voice Thread projects.
Closure: Back in the regular classroom, Ss and T dialogue and reflect on what they learned from completing the project, what their favorite part was, and one thing Ss enjoyed hearing another classmate learn.
Assessment: completed projects, observation, q&a, student interaction on other's Voice Threads
I've completed a project similar to this with my 2nd graders in previous years. It's a LOT to bite off with 7 year olds, but I've learned that slow and steady wins the race. I can't expect them to complete this project in one day unless I want to see tears from them and shed a few myself! :)
In the past, I've done this project in Photo Story (as per district requirements) and embedded each project onto our class website as something to share at November conferences. This year, it would be really neat to add the aspect of social media via Voice Thread so that students could interact with one another's projects. I think expanding their audience gives more relevancy to the project (which is a huge push in our district right now). I also think that it would give students another technology tool for their tool belt. Even at the age of 7, they know how to do some great technology projects! The final reason this project would be beneficial to complete whole class would be because I could then assign Voice Threads as a center for some of my students to work on during Language Arts (on iPads and PCs). They would LOVE this, and it would give more "beef" to my sometimes "meh" centers!
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