ccall

While reading Black Cowboy, Wild Horses students notice the authors used of figurative language. I used the following PowerPoints to teach and practice Figurative Language:
Students then reread Black Cowboy, Wild Horses with a partner, looking for examples of each of the types of figurative language we had studied. Their assignment was to use Reel Director and record their examples they found and to record what they inferred from each example. If they did not find as example, they were to write one that would be fitting to the story. I loaded photos of the illustrations from the story onto the iPod which the students then added to their Reel Director.
Students were frustrated with the adjusting of the timing of the photos to the audio. Other than that they enjoyed the project and I have seen evidence of this when they have included figurative language into their own writing.

Students were reading the novels The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. After reading the first chapter students were asked to write 3 questions. We identified which of those were "thick" or "thin" questions. We focused on the "thick" questions that required: How.? Why...? What if...? In your own life...? Students chose a "thick" question and put it in a speech bubble on Comic Life. When they were able to answer the question, they recorded their response on Mobile Studio. They repeated this process at the middle and end of the book. We intended to match the pictures and audio recordings into a podcast. Only a few students were able to make the podcast due to time and lab issues. Nevertheless, the process allowed them to practice questioning and me to have a formative assessment.

Students will do a Literature Response in Keynote to the first story in the HM text, Earthquake Terror. They will use the template for writing the response. They will prepare 4 graphics with either digitized handmade drawings or photos. These images will be put in a folder on the 5th grade page. Students will record the audio on their iPods using iTalk. Go to this link to find directions, teacher created sample, and template.http://podcast.eusd4kids.org/groups/teacher_resources/search/5th+grade?sort=modifiedDate&howMany=10&sortDirection=reverse&tag=5th+grade

Inspired by the art work of Carl Homstad at (<carlart.com>) students wrote sensory poems about their favorite season. Mary Golder, our FAVE art volunteer, directed them in a pastel drawing of their season. These both were loaded into a GarageBand podcast.

http://web.me.com/chercall/Calls_Castle/Podcasts/Podcasts.html

Students recorded their literature circle discussions on their iPods using iTalk. This motivated them to choose their words and questions more carefully and increased time-on-task. Subsequent lit circles we are in the process of making a podcast of our books. After the lit circle discussion is finished, as a group, students wrote and recorded summaries of the book section and recorded on garageband. We took pictures of the Illustrator’s drawing on the Elmo and put those in the podcast. Some students are making and collecting artifacts for a Revolutionary War time capsule related to their book. These items will be photographed and added to podcast.

Students used Keynote to make 2 slides. The first slide has two sentences each using a blank for the same word, but with different meanings. The viewer is asked to think of a word that will fit in both sentences. The second slide has that word with graphics.
We exported the Keynote as a video and put it on our iPods. The only problem was that they Keynote was rather long, because the students had so much fun adding pages.

Summarization/Retelling of "James Forten"

• Eight students struggling with fluency and comprehension read the story from HM "James Forten".
• Working in partners students summarized the story.
• Using the desk microphone they recorded their summarization into Garageband. 

• Scanned photos from text.

• Made a podcast in Garageband.

Things we learned.

• We first tried to do this in Keynote. But since all slides must be the same duration, we switched to Garageband and made a podcast.

See podcast at: