F2009+8Y34+Lab+6+Activity+Type+Reviews

Joanna Pompilii Wednesday 12-30-2:30

The activity that I found interesting is digital storytelling. There are different forms of storytelling such as slideshows, eBooks, tutorials and presentations. Digital storytelling can be incorporated in any grade level as well as subject area. For instance math stories help students to problem solve, language arts stories provide students with imaginative adventures and science stories teach students about the world around them. I can see myself incorporating digital storytelling with my students. I feel that it will bring the story to life. For younger children digital storytelling would be another method of learning how to read a book. For older children they can actually learn to create their own stories in a very creative way. I could also use digital story telling to assess students reading and comprehension skills. In addition, I could also assess their wrting skills for those who can create their own stories.

Lisa Williamson; Wednesday 12:30-2:30 The activity I have chosen is a 'treasure hunt'. The treasure hunt is Center-based cooperative group work. It involves giving students a set of questions. The questions incorporate URLS's to websites, or web pages that will supply the student with informations and will give them answers to their questions. The students learning outcome is based on their collection of information. I would use this activity is a grade 5 class, where they have been exposed to doing research and will be able to find the information they need using the questions given. I would be assessing how well my student could read on the wed (webread) and assess their ability to find the correct answer. This activity would be a good intro into a new unit where student would need the basic skills of researching information on the web. =- Jennifer Grandits; Wednesday 12:30-2:30

I selected MADlibs which is an activity where the reader is asked to provide certain words (adjectives, nouns, verbs) and place them into the blanks of a story or paragraph. I could see myself using this in a writing lesson during Language to help with creativty and word development. I could also have the kids read their stories to the class which would be in the Oral Communication strand in Language. I would be assessing their reading comprehension and speaking skills. The children will be so excited and involved in their story they created, that they may not feel as nervous to read aloud.

Michelle Brasil, Wednesday 12:30-2:30 The activity type I have chosen is a virtual field trip. A virtual field trip is an activity where students can visit and explore a specific website on their own, as if they were on an actual field trip with a tour guide. These virtual field trips are usually focused on a place that would be too large for students to physically visit as a class. I could see myself using this lesson in the classroom with grade 6 students. While studying astronomy, students would be able to take a virtual field trip around the NASA website and complete fun activities while learning interesting and useful facts. Throughout the activity I would be assessing the students by observing them during their exploration of the website.

 ​ 8Y34 Lab 6: Type in your Activity Types Reviews below. Then place a line under your entry.=

Izabela Korona; Wednesday 12:30-2:30

The activity type I thought was most beneficial for students was vocabulary bingo game. This activity helps children with their vocabulary, spelling and reading. The bingo game can be used in various ways depending on the teacher’s choice. One way is the teacher can give definitions and the students need to find the words which match the definition. Another way is the teacher can spell the word and the student needs to connect it to the word on their bingo sheet. Thus, I can use this activity for word or letter recognition. Students need to be able to recognize the words on their bingo sheet when the teacher calls out the words. There are numerous of things I can assess children on by using this vocabulary bingo. I can assess the students’ comprehension and recognition of words by examining if they recognized the words on their bingo sheet when the teacher calls the words out or gives the definitions for the words.

Ylenia Cervini // Edublog is an educational blog that is considered a online journal or personal record either text or graphical that describes events, thoughts, ideas, reflections from the founder of that blog. Each journal can be used online, where people can access your page. // // One can use these blogs or journals for creating writing pieces from current issues, personal ideas, and educational resources. Within the journals and blogs you can incorporate pictures or graphics which are called photo journals. Students and parents can access your blog or journals. // //You can use the Edublog within the classroom, by sharing with your students that they can access this page and they can gain some different resources via internet. You can communicate with your students on a different level, since majority is online this can be an easier way to either ask for help or find some helpful resources. For example, in a history lesson you can tell the students that are different project ideas, websites, online activities, that they can use for projects or homework assignments. Instead of printing and wasting paper you can direct the students to your edublog. You can assess this by making it mandatory for students to access your edublog, asking them to use on resource you posted on your blog within their project or assignments.//
 * //__ Week Four Module –Edublog and/or Journal __//**

Kim Graham; Wednesday 12:30-2:30 Using ScKATE (Chapter 3) is a great way to provide students with internet sources they can use to search for materials or gain knowledge on various subjects. ScKATE is a fantastic acronym to ensure we are looking at internet sources for reliable information. Sc=Standards or Curriculum documents, K=Kid safe sites, A=Align to curriculum standards, T=ensuring that there is quality deigns e.g. games, E=Edublog it to show parents & students sites they can visit. This is a great tool to ensure the children are getting quality information.

Katie Turnbull-Wednesday 12:30-2:30 Using a Character Map or Web (Chapter 4) is an excellent method to help organize information. This is a visual map that shows a variety of different categories and how they all relate to each other. In the middle of the Web is the main theme/character. The outside bubbles of the web show the sub-themes. Using this map allows for both the reader and writer to see an organized layout of information and see how the character develops in the story. A great example of using this within a lesson is during a book review. Using a computer program such as Inspiration, I can have the students come up with the main character from a book studied, and organize their thoughts and ideas this way! The students will then be able to print a copy of their own Character Map and take it to their journals and have a map to look at to help with their writing structure and organization.

Amanda Grande Class Sec.6 Wednesday 12:30pm-2:30pm

The activity type that I found to be most interesting, and useful is the Ebook activity. An ebook is an electronic book that can be created in MS word, webpages, and Powerpoint, and is a great tool for both teachers and students. Teachers can use it as a way to introduce stories. Students can be actively engaged in the reading process, since it allows students to highlight passages, look up words to increase comprehension, and bookmark. An example of of me using this activity in a lesson, I would probably get students to create their very own ebooks. There are many things I could assess if they made an ebook, however I would be very interested in assessing their creative writing style. This activity can allow students to let their minds wonder and be masters of their own creation.

Vanessa Hurley- Wednesday 12:30-2:30

Picture Prompt Writing is an interesting activity found in chapter 4 of the text. This activity provides students with a picture that represents or depicts the topic they are to write about. The picture prompt helps the students to organize their thoughts and ideas about the topic. The prompt also aids brainstorming and storytelling. The teacher will ask the students to use some form of writing to create a story based on the picture. I would use this activity in the grade 1 class I am currently in to create a short story about a school bus. I would show the students a picture of a school bus and ask them to write the story using 3 sentences. For example, the story could be about how they take the bus to school, who drives the bus or any school trip where they took a bus to get there. In assessing this activity, the evaluation would be based on the presence of the 3 sentences. As well, the stories must pertain to a school bus in someway. Each sentence must begin with a capital and end with a period. The use of pictorial prompts greatly benefit students in describing various objects and developing an active imagination.

Shannon Corcione- Wednesday 12:30-2:30

An activity that I think will be extremely useful in teaching is a Character Map or Web, which is discussed in chapter 4 of the textbook. A web in general, is a visual map that illustrates how different categories of information can relate to one another. A character web specifically illustrates and identifies the prominent traits of the main character in a story. This activity will help students understand the main character in greater depth and help explain the character's actions and motivation for behaving in certain ways. I would use this activity during a novel study and would have the students make character maps for all the central characters in the story. This way they can fully understand the characters' traits and compare the characters in an organized manner. Along with listing appropriate traits, I would also have the students provide examples from the story that demonstrate those traits. When assessing this activity, I would evaluate the accuracy and appropriateness of the traits and evaluate the strength and appropriateness of examples provided as evidence for those traits. As well, I would assess the organization of the web to ensure their web stayed in a clear, organized presentation. I look forward to using character webs in the future!

Charlene Ellison - Wednesday 12:30-14:30

"WebQuest" is an interesting activity discussed in Chapter 5 of the textbook. A WebQuest is "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the [I]nternet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing". Divided into sections, this activity allow students to do more than just gather information as they can participate in a complete research process through analyzing, summarizing, evaluating and sharing. I would use this activity to stimulate the students' higher order thinking skills by allowing them to (in a hands on fashion) to learn about European exploration and the prevailing attitudes of the explorers in a Social Studies lesson. This activity would provide the students' to construct their own understanding of the material and would be beneficial to their overall educational experience. During this activity, I would be assessing their comprehension of the material presented as well as their ability to utilize the WebQuest including the additional links it offers to independently synthesize and analyze the information presented to them.

Jaime Sharples Wednesday 12:30

The activity that I found to be the most interesting was the "Trading Cards' activity found in Chapter 5 (Problem Based Learning and Research). A trading card is essentially a small card intended for trading and collecting. Traditionally, Trading cards can feature sports (i.e. athlete profiles), cartoons, and comic book characters. In an educational setting, these cards can be used in a variety subjects such as history, geography, science, literacy, French etc. For example, for a history lesson, students can research, collect data/information and analyze important events and historical figures in Canadian history and profile them on their trading cards. A picture and description could be featured on one side while important information could be on the flip side. These cards could be easily created on MS Word or PowerPoint and shared with the rest of the class. This activity would be a great creative research and learner based activity. Students would be assessed based on their ability to succinctly include the most pertinent information as well as accuracy and personal insight/reflection.

Nadine Reinhart Wednesday 1230-230

The activity that I liked the best was MADLibs. MADLibs is a fun literacy game where students can make up silly stories by providing a certain amount and type of words (Examples 1 adjective, 3 nouns, a name of a boy, and a place in the world). The computer then places those words into spaces that have been taken out in a generic story to make a unique story. This activity helps with identitfying parts of speech and reading comprehension. I would use this activity in a language class, and with any ages. MADLibs is an activity that can be modified for any age group by changing the story, the words that need to be filled in, and if you complete it as a group or individuals. I would use this as a fun creative writing assingment. For assessment I would just make sure all the words chosen fit the specified criteria (nouns, verbs, etc.). The stories would be posted in the hall for other classes to read our silly stories!

Andrea Steen Wednesday 12:30-2:30

The activity that I really liked in chapter 4 was a 3D book report. A book report is generally defined as a written account describing a book that one has read, and there are many different ways to have students create reports. 3D book reports require students to to make decisions about prioritizing information and 'chunking information in graphical ways. Students can create a book report using MS Powerpoint. I would use a 3D book report in the classroom as a way for students to analyize thier book report into relevant sub-sections, which is an easier way to group thier thoughts, and analyze the literary elements of thier reflections. I would also have my students present their powerpoint book report to their classmates. I would assess this assignment through the use of a rubric.

Anthony Delle Monache Wednesday 12:30- 2:30

The activity that I have decided to summarize is the virtual field trip. The virtual field trip activity allows students to visit a website or websites to complete tasks. The teacher guides the students by giving them information on how to complete the virtual field trip and the students simply acquire knowledge from all the exercises they complete. The virtual field trip is very extensive and teachers spend a great deal of time putting it together. A virtual field trip can be used for a lesson plan by having students surf through websites that ask them to find out information on the human body. For example, have the students explore different parts and answering questions about them. I would assess the virtual field trip by walking around the room and observing and also making anecdotal notes.

The activity that I really enjoyed was the edublog from chapter 3. A blog is a webpage that utilizes posts or messages that can be created or edited by an individual and share using an online tool. When submitting a post or message on the webpage, it shares an opinion or information with the world in chronological order. Additionally, it allows people to add messages or allow for further discussion and new opinions to multiply and flourish on a subject. Blogging is often called an online journal because people log what has occurred most recently in their lives and share their experiences. An "edublog" is deemed as such because it involves an educational purpose for knowledge to be shared and disseminated. I could definitely see myself using this activity type to share links to educational sites with my class for specific assignment types to facilitate independant learning for group projects, but also keeping the amount of resources restrictive and controlled for assessment purposes. As far as assessment goes, I would give the children written questions (For example. What are the three main reasons explorer x,y, or z led his expedition to whereever he went?) and then varify that they gave the most prominant answers from the select webpages provided.

Katie Pryde Wednesday 12:30pm-2:30pm

The activity that I really liked in Chapter 4 is the Podcast. Podcasts are recordings of audio or video data which are recorded to your computer or MP3 player. These podcasts are downloaded to the internet where anyone can access them. Some software that allows the downloading of podcasts are iTunes and Audacity. I have viewed podcasts being created in my placement and I think they are great tools in the classroom. The students are very interested in them and enjoy being apart of the creating process. In the future, I can create podcasts throughout the day in my classroom. If my class is having a debate, pretending to be doing a news report or presenting assignments (i.e. oral presentations) to the class, then I can record these and post them as a podcasts. I look forward to using and creating podcasts in my classroom.

Janina Whiting -Wednesday 12:30-2:30pm The activity I want to reflect on is the linklist centres in chapter 3. A linklist is a list, of links, that a teacher sets up to guide students to certain websites. These websites also match the teaching goals of the lesson so the teacher knows the students will not be off topic or having trouble finding websites for the topic. I would use this in a lesson when I wanted students to know information about a specific topic but allow them to research it with guided questions rather than just providing them with a lecture or handout on it. I would assess what the students found out about the topic and whether or not it was the information I wanted them to know with the questions I gave them.

Alicia McTaggart [Wednesday @ 12:30 p.m.] After reading Chapter 5, I really enjoyed learning about all of the Problem-Based activity types, specifically KWL charts. A KWL chart is a chart that examines what an individual/class Knows, Wants to know, Learned. In some cases, individuals add a fourth letter (S) that stands for what the individual/class Still wants to know. I would use a KWL chart when we I am beginning a new concept/major lesson.As well, I would give this chart to my students if they were completing an independent research assignment. This chart would model how to organize their thoughts and it would facilitate dividing work amongst group members. In terms of assessment, I would see, if after research, the "Learn" column coincides with their "Want to know" column.

Jaclyne Klemenic- Wednesday 12:30-2:30 pm The activity type I selected to summarize and reflect on is Vocabulary Bingo or GeoBingo in chapter 4. In order to do this activity a bingo card is constructed with either vocabulary or graphics to represent landmarks using the table feature of Microsoft word. The bingo master calls out words or concepts that are listed on the card. Bingo provides recognition practice, can be used in small groups and meets the learning needs of the students by being designed specifically for them. Bingo games can be used to evaluate students knowledge in a particular set of vocabulary words or as a unit review of many broad concepts. The students can also create their own Bingo cards and ones for their friends to try out! I could see my self-using this activity in a language lesson. In order to review nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives etc I would have definitions and examples of each. Students would then have to match the terms with the appropriate examples as well as know their definitions of terms. From doing this activity, I would be assessing my student’s ability to visually identify examples and match them with the appropriate terminology. I have chosen this activity specifically since we used it in our previous class and allowed me to become familiar with it. By participating in this activity, I was able to identify the concepts attached to the pictures on the Bingo card. It was an excellent review and allowed me to understand which concepts I struggled with and which ones I knew. I enjoyed the activity and heard a lot of positive feedback from my peers, which is always a good sign.

Brian Gillow Wednesday 12:30 I am interest in the Video Viewing Station activity. In this activity the students will view a video and take notes. They are then required to write a short paragraph that outlines what they learned from the video. These summaries are then posted to the class wiki where comments from classmates can be made. I can see myself using this activity in a class situation where there is a video that has many elements to it. I would break the class into groups and give each group certain aspects or topics in the video to look for and take notes about. This would make them "experts" in this area. I would then get them to summarize what they learned from the video concerning the given topic. I would then have them place it in the class wiki. The students will now have all the summaries of the video topics at there disposal creating a complete picture for them. Students can add comments and make suggestions concerning the information posted. As a teacher, I can assess the students based on the posted information per rubric descriptions identified beforehand.

Michelle Parkin Wednesday 12:30-2:30

In chapter 3 I read about treasure hunts, which fell under sequencing activities to teach internet searching skills. I felt that this was a great activity to help students become efficient and effective internet researchers. A treasure hunt is a set of questions that incorporate URLs or graphic links that lead to a webpage where the answer can be found. Often students are asked to copy and paste the answer or graphic from the webpage into another document. I especially like how this helps students learn to use "web reading" or scanning the page for the correct answer, this is a useful skill when webpages have alot of information and you don't have time to read through every bit of information. I would use this tool at the beginning of a unit or for the beginning stages of reasearching for a project. The treasure hunt could be theme based and get students thinking and learning some interesting facts about the topic. I would be assessing that the students could complete the treasure hunt in a timely manner to ensure they demonstrate "web reading" and that they provide the correct answers to the questions to see how well they can search for information.