Lesson 5 Online Writing

I'm still on the fence about the value of online writing. Perhaps I just haven't found the right tool. I have looked at the Historic Tale Construction Kit and Myths and Legends and they both seem limited.

I like Mix Book! Getting started was easy after a 30-second video.

Our fourth graders could collaborate on one. One great way to introduce the first of the six traits (ideas) is to read David Wisniewski’s The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups, a picture book. Each child could take a "rule" and make one page in the book. Here is a second grade example from writingfix.com. Imagine what our fourth graders could do!

Grown-Up Rule # 113:
Don’t smell the glue.

“OFFICIAL” REASON:
It can make you sick.

THE TRUTH, as reported by Lauren, a
second grader:
When you sniff glue up your nose, it
will drip down. It will come out of your
skin, making your body stick.

Spell with Flickr

Map Feature in Flickr

I was playing around in Flickr and there is a great new feature. Once logged in, click on "organize" and in the upper right there is a Maps tab. Click on it and you can zero in on a specific place and drag and drop pictures on a map. To try it out I dragged and dropped pictures of my brother and his daughters onto a map of Belleair where I live.
Maniac Magee takes place outside of Philadelphia. Kids could create a story, dress up, use the Flip camera to make a video and drop it onto a map of Philadelphia.
As an icebreaker at the beginning of the year, kids who have digital pictures of their vacations could take turns and upload them onto my computer and then place them on their vacation spot on the map. The class map would be fun to explore!

I posted a short tutorial on this tool under Great Ideas to the left.

It's easy! Yeah!

Lesson 4

Phew! I have been looking at all the tools that came with this lesson and thanks to Jaclyn, I found one that has great potential...Bubblr. The children could make comic strips about their reading, math problems, history. The sky is the limit. I also agree with Jaclyn that finding the pictures was the toughest. Choosing the key words to find pictures that went with the text was challenging but in a good way and I used lots of higher level thinking skills trying to organize this strip.

I would have the kids work in groups of 2 or 3 and create a storyboard first. Afterwards they could hunt for the pictures.

I had two problems. I could not figure out how to delete a picture. I could replace a picture with another one but could not delete the frame. Also it would be really valuable if the children could import their own pictures and reenact history or the water cycle.

My comic strip can be found here. With time and collaboration, our students could create some masterpieces.

Bubblr and Skinnybones

A Voicethread

Voicethread

I've just spent an hour looking at different voice threads. I have the headphones on with the microphone attached. Gussie has fled the room.

I've been getting comfortable with this tool. Right off the bat I know Jaclyn, Leslie, and I are going to love it because it combines so many different ways to communicate. It is intrinsically motivational ...the children will be very excited about commenting on peer voicethreads and creating their own. I can't wait to explore a bit more and respond to Sandy's voicethread and finally think more specifically about how our fourth grade team can use it. Can you tell I'm not sure if voice threads is one word or two?

I am going to use this tool right away. I can see this as a great way to assess summer reading and introduce the six traits. I will create a few. I created an experimental one about Gussie and embedded it. Remember, be kind. I am just playing.