Catrina Lieber -6th-8th Grade ELD Social Studies- Mission Middle School

This project is being done with 6th grade students in ELD Social Studies and ELD Science (Ms. Miller). We will combine classes for part of the lessons.

The reading comprehension part of this project happens on day three when students take their notes and retell the information by putting it into a script that they then record with pictures using SonicPicsLite. They are synthesizing the information and evaluating it based on their needs to fulfill the requirements of the project. Please remember that I am talking about 6th grade ELD 1s and 2s who are below a 2nd grade reading level.

Day 1~ Teach SonicPicsLite application by having students choose three pictures from the Renaissance Faire and record three things they liked about the faire.

REFLECTION~ Day 1 went better than expected! Tom taught them how to use the application and they were able to jump right in and get it done. I am glad we used the lite version of the app because I think it made it very simple for them to use and understand. These lil movies will be put on a cd as a thank you to a reenactment group who donated their time to our Ren. Faire last month. This was also a great way for our ELD 1 and 2's practice their English.

Sample project- Three ELD girls:

Day 2~ Students will receive a lesson in class about two famous artists from the Renaissance (in SS class) and two famous scientists (in Science class). They will complete a handout for each artists and scientists. See forms below-

Students took notes for both classes from this keynote.

Day 3~ Students will get into prearranged pairs and given either a science or social studies script. We are pairing them up to ensure we have at least one English speaker in each group that can help the other sound out words. See script below-

They will also receive a project check off list to self monitor their progress. See check off list below-

In this project students will be retelling information from their notes and practice pulling the important information out to record.

As students are learning about the American Revolution they will take timeout to think about the feelings, concerns and thoughts of the colonists during this difficult time. I have a few ideas for this...

1. Students will record in mobilestudio then send it to laptop and put in keynote with pictures.

2.They will record these in reel director and add pictures that they will choose from a selection I will upload to each.

3.They will record in mobilestudio and then I will put it together as a podcast for each class (6 classes total).

After 4 months of struggling to teach ELD SS I decided to try something new. Step out of my box, so to speak. My students are struggling to learn the vocabulary, dates and concepts I continue to throw at them unit after unit, but they are not retaining much of anything. So, here is my idea. I took a unit from the Access American History textbook and I went through sentence by sentence and 'taught' it on paper. I made handouts for each page with questions that I would ask while teaching and put them into a packet. There is a check off list on the front of the packet so students can keep track of their progress.

Then, I recorded myself teaching the unit using the textbook and packet. Students will be in small groups sharing an iPod (I only have 7). They will listen to the recording as it guides them through the unit; reading aloud from the text, instructing them to read or reread a section and asking RC questions. They will interact with each other, the text, and the recording; playing and replaying parts as needed.

Groups will meet with me every 2-3 days to asses their progress and discuss any issues that may arise.

Students will also sign a contract outlining the requirements/rules and consequences of breaking them.

Students will be touring Queen Califia's Magical Circle at Kit Carson Park on October 21st. Students will pair up and research the artists' work before the trip. Then teachers and chaperones will take pictures of the trip (with student guidance) and students will create a summary keynote including the following:

- Facts about the artist (from research)

- Pictures (students will choose from a secure site)

- Written script of summary of artist information and trip

- Recording (keynote voice over) of summary

*Please remember that this project is being done with students who speak no-little English (CELT 1 and 2).

Website

Forms

Template

I'm really struggling with this project.  This seems so much like project two that they really could be intermixed.  I have hundreds of ideas for activities/lessons using the ipods and microphones, but do they qualify as "reading comprehension"?!  I'm just not sure.

Here are some ways that we have used them:

-SDAIE (structured reading) students read a paragraph or short selection a few times, then record themselves reading the same paragraph as many times as needed.  Then they listen to the story, in their voice, and read along with it.  I believe this is reading  fluency, but it REALLY does help them better understand the selection.  To mix it up we have done this with technical directions (provided or student written) and then had other students try to follow those directions.  This was so much fun!

-Advanced (GATE) students have been enjoying the interview process.  A select few interviewed strangers at the WAP about animals they had studied and created keynotes (in groups with the rest of the class) about those animals with the interviews mixed in.  Is this reading comprehension? 

-PH (grade level) students have been working on recording their writing and going back and listening to it to check for clarity, supporting evidence etc.

So many great things are being done with these ipods it is difficult to limit the samples to just RC.

Even though my students knew the basics, and appeared to be pros, this project took forever. I had planned on 45-90 minutes total. Four days later, whew, we are done. They could have dragged it on for much longer, but I just had to put my foot down and stick to it.

Students are going to read a short Mercer Mayer picture book in small groups. Each story teaches a moral or life lesson. After reading the book they will complete a handout (see attached) that helps them organize their information in the following order: Introduce group, story name and author, retell the story in their words, identify the moral and reflection.

Students will then record in garageband using an interview process. One student will interview the others using comprehension questioning strategies to infer, connect, summarize and evaluate the story. Other students in the group will take turns answering the questions.

Materials:

Documents:

Links:

Goal:

My goal is to use this as a way to introduce garageband and the RC flip books so that future RC Questioning projects will be easy since students will have an understanding of how to use them to ask under the surface questions.

1st: Download the file below for the Fable that you read.

2nd: Save the keynote as:  FLname_nameoffable_date     EXP: CatrinaLieber_TheLionandtheMouse_01/11/09

3rd:  Before you edit your keynote press play and watch the transitions of the slides.

4th: Use your copy of the fable to fill in the dialogue between characters.  Press play afterwards and make sure it runs smoothly.

5th: Practice reading the slides aloud as you click through the story.

6th:  When ready, hook up the microphone to the laptop.  Go to the Keynote task bar (along the top of the screen), click file, then record slide show.

Students often find it difficult to find a moral in a story, add being an English learner and the task is sure to bring frustration.  Our Structured Reading classes spend a lot of time on reading groups and trying to get students to become more fluent, to use comprehension skills and to gain the confidence to move forward.  This project ties in with reading groups.

In small groups we are reading "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis.  The main character, Bud, is orphaned at age 6.  Prior to his mother's death she would read fables to him and he picked up the skill of learning rules to live by.  Throughout the book he refers to his own rules to live by.

For this project students will independently choose from 3 of Aesop's Fables.  After reading the fable they will decide what the moral or rule to live by is.  Then, they will download and open the keynote template for the fable they selected.  They will fill in the dialogue from the fable along with their interpretation of the moral.  Then they will do a voice over.

We did it!  One of my classes completed the Vocab Slide project in groups.  

Please see "Vocab Slide Templates" for the project's process and templates.

Students were broken into 9 groups of 3.

The process took longer than expected.  I had planned on giving my students about 50 minutes to complete their slide with voice over.  About an hour and a half later the bell rang and we had to call it quits.  All except one group sent their slides to my drop box.

Most students were engaged and on task during this project.  I do have one student however who may need to do alternate assignments.  He could not stay with his group.  He was too busy being a ladies man all over the room.  He is a smart kid who cares nothing about grades and school.  Any suggestions on how I can insure his participation?  I don't have time (who does) to chase him around returning him to his seat all day.

Here is one group's slide: 

I usually create vocabulary keynotes that, as a class, we go through and fill in vocabulary cards.  For the PH selection "Amigo Brothers" I am going to have the students work in small groups to create a slide for one vocabulary word.  Then we will put the slides together and present them to fill in vocabulary cards.

Please see the attached requirements.

Objective:

Students will work in small groups to research a vocabulary word and put the information into a keynote slide with voice over.