F2009+8Y34+Lab+5+Activity+Type+Reviews

Vanessa Caradonna The activity type I found useful and interesting was a Virtual Field Trip. A Virtual Field trip is a guided exploration of related websites for the purpose of collect information. This is a great way for the teacher to keep the students on track while allowing them to surf the net. I could see this type of activity used in the classroom for projects that require specific research to be found. For example; If a greade 6 class is doing a project on the Five Kingdoms, and the teacher requires them to find specific details on the each kingdom, the teacher will design the field trip around websites tailored to the specific information to be found. One part of this lesson that could be assessed is how well the students can stay on track and follow the instrustions in order to access the information they require. I feel that this is a great activity because it is safe, engaging for the students, and delivers the material in a creative way.

Elyse Kinsella The activity type that I found the most useful and interesting was the Picture Prompt Writing. This tool provides students with a picture to help instigate the writing process for all different types of writing. While this tool may take away some of the students creativity in coming up with a concept or idea on their own I believe it is very useful to ensure that students get on task right away to complete the specific writing type. This tool may also be useful to use with students who have difficulty in coming up with ideas on their own to get work started. I would use this tool in my classroom specifically with students who had troubles with coming up with ideas, while writing poems or short stories. In trems of assessment I would be using this tool to encourage getting on task right away, so I would determine how much of the written task has been completed and how well it adheres to the picture prompt given.

Ashleigh McMullen The activity that I founf useful was the Puzzlemaker which is from Discovery School's Puzzlemaker. This tool is part of the project-based learning which allows students to create a product or project to assess their learning. The Puzzlemaker allows you to generate different kinds of puzzles which are fun for students to do and allow you to tests knowledge and conepts learned. They are good because you can tailor them to the currciulum and class and can make them personal. This is an excellent assessment tool and an excellent way to see how students fair in a timed sequence or overall. This activity seems like a fun way to learn and a way for both formative and summative assessment.

Katie Moulden The activity type that I found to be very interesting is KeyPals. KeyPals are 'pen pals' through email. Your class would pair off with students from another class in a completely different location, even Country! KeyPals are a great form of letter writing skills and the students would learn a lot about the internet through email activity. I think this is a great tool for the classroom. Not only would the students become more familiar with technology, it is also an activity that is integrated in many subjects. Language would be a large portion as they would be practicing their letter writing but also Social Studies because they could be learning a lot about their KeyPal's culture. In the text, it mentions a weblink where KeyPal projects can be found online. This is an activity that I would be very interested in using in my future classroom. A great way to get students motivated to write!!

Joanna Pompilii (Techtacular) 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.

Angela Boundy The activity that I chose is Descriptive Stories. Description is used to create impressions of people, places, objects, events or ideas. Specifically, Digital Records are images that represent one event. A user adds a picture from the web, scanner or from a digital camera and inserts it into a document, slide or blog and then attaches a one paragraph description of the image including what is in the picture and how the picture relates to the author. As a class, Grade 1’s could bring photos of their families to class to be compiled as a Big Book of Families. Each child could record the names (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, etc.) and any other details talked about in class with the picture.

Mallory Purser, Lab 5 8Y34 The acitivity type that I chose to look at was MADLibs, which is a part of problem based learning. A MADLib is an activity where you are given a story, and every five words or so of the story are blanked out. Once the words have been blanked out you have to fill them in using a noun, verb, adjective, etc (It will indicate in the story where it wants a noun, or an adjective). The person is asked what they would put in each blank. Once the list of words is collected the person can put those words into the story and see the end result which is usually funny or surprising. This could be used with grade twos and threes who are starting to learn more about language, and how to use nouns, verbs, and adjectives in their daily language routines. This activity can be assessed by the teacher by just looking at the childs finished story, and deciding if they used the write types like nouns, verbs, etc, You can also have the child read the story with you and then see how they comprehended it and how well they new the difference between a noun, verb, adj, etc.

Brian Arruda The activity that I found interesting and the one I felt would get a lot of use in a class would be Vocabulary Bingo. Using the table features of Microsoft Word, you can simply construct a bingo card. This is normally a short activity and can be a great way to review content, and do so in a fun and creative way. Vocabulary Bingo is not just limited to Language; you can easily incorporate Social Studies, Math and even French. Students with special needs can have the card tailored for their benefit, instead of words maybe pictures. I think this would be a great way to review multiplication. Have the students enter all the answers for 2 and 3 times tables and call out what is 3 X 3. Teachers can collect the cards to assess the student’s accuracy or just walk around and observe them.

Jennifer Pearson, Lab 5 The activity type that I found interesting was MADlibs on page 130 in chapter 4. Madlibs are a word game in which the reader must come up with certain words that match specific criteria (ie. A noun, verb, adjective, etc.). Once this list is created the readers words are put into the writer’s story to fill in the blanks. This is a short and fun activity, giving children practice using language concepts without the pressure of a formal activity. This could be used in a grade 3 or 4 language lesson where students are first learning the characteristic of nouns, verbs and adjectives, if the story asks for a verb the students must know to use an action word or this sentence in the story will not make sense. The teacher could assess this activity simply by reading the child’s completed madlib to see if the correct part of speech was used, if the child used a describing word instead of an action word it is clear that the concepts are not fully understood.

= 8Y34 Lab 5: Type in your Activity Types Reviews below. Then place a line under your entry.

Gordana Tomic This is a Project-Based Learning activity. It is meant to have students create a product that demonstrates their understanding. The activity is located on the MadLibs site; it is a game that asks the reader to provide specific words, such as adjectives or nouns. There words are put into an already written paragraph and the results are often surprising and funny, as well. When a student is asked to provide words, they are filled into the already written paragraph. I would use this activity for reviewing whether my students know what nouns and adjectives are. To assess it I would read the students MadLibs and see if they provided the correct words in the right fill-in-the-blanks.

Danielle Purdy, Lab 5 I chose the 3D Book Report. Students use PowerPoint to create an object then cut it out and assemble it as a cube. The 3D Book Report can be used for story lines and timelines. I can use this activity with primary grades in language class. For example, in grade three, there are curriculum expectations focused on students understanding before, during, and after reading a story. The 3D cube could be focused on these inquiries about literature. I would use this as a game with smaller groups or even as a whole class.

Mallory Williams, Lab 5 I chose the activity: Wiki Collaboration. This activity is usually completed as a group and allows multiple users to post and edit information. It is used to present a large amount of information on a topic or project assigned. I could see myself using this activity in a grade 4 social studies class where I would assign regions and have the students group together to present the information on the regions. One aspect of the activity I would assess would be language, ensuring that correct punctuation and grammar were used in the postings.

Amanda Moores, Lab 5 Alphabet books are a useful multimedia tool to use in the early elementary grades. This activity can be used in a Grade 1 class to introduce students to the idea of using technology to demonstrate their learning, and is a simple task for students to begin to develop their technological skills. Students can create their own alphabet books by taking their own pictures or finding clipart and placing them in a PowerPoint slideshow, with a word to represent each letter. I would use this in an introductory lesson to using PowerPoint, in which students can create an alphabet book that could be used to introduce themselves to their classmates. One aspect of the activity I would assess would be the student’s knowledge of the alphabet. It’s never too early to teach students how to use multimedia tools! _ Jessica Nicholl, Lab 5 Treasure Hunt great activity type that was described in chapter three for individual or Center-Based cooperative group work lessons. The Treasure Hunt activity type consists of a list of questions that can be answered by exploring the URL or a graphic link that is next to the each question. It is a great way for students to practice gathering information on internet web sites and they will also have fun taking on the task of being an investigator. I would use this activity type for a grade 4 science lesson where they would have to complete “Wonders of Science” at the Adventures of Cyberbee web site. I would have the students write down the answers they find or document them in Microsoft Word as proof of their research. After giving the class enough time to work on the treasure hunt, I would ask the questions collectively to the class as a way to assess student learning of the science information. If the student could not find the correct answer, they would not get penalized if they wrote down additional information that they found on the same web site. I wish I had the treasure hunt activity types when I was in the primary/junior grades! Adventures of Cyberbee web site: [] _

Rachel McDonald, Lab 5

I thought Photo Essays were a great activity type to write about. They consist of students having to chose a couple of photos to use their short essay that describe what is going on. Through this activity, students are able to express their thoughts and feelings regarding a specific picture. This activity combines visual arts, language arts and technology to allow students to express their ideas in a different medium. Photo essays seem like a great way for students to tell a short story about their favourite places, what they did on their summer vacation or places they have visited. You can easily work it into a language arts class to accompany an essay the students have written by pulling out the most important facts, finding pictures that pertain to these sentences, and combine them on slides to give a brief, visual representation of the written essay. Using integration is a great way for students to see the benefits of technology in their daily life.  I would be able to assess the students by using a rubric to see if they were able to effectively connect the visual pictures with their written descriptions. I could also have the students present this information and assess them on their oral communication skills and their presentation organization. _

Amanda Hutt, Lab 5

The activity type that I chose was MADLibs (chapter 4, page 130). In a MADLib, the author of the MADLib gets the reader to come up with certain words to satisfy a specific criterion. After this, the words that the reader came up with are put into the story that the writer created. Some people may see MADLibs as being random, silly stories that are strictly for entertainment purposes, however teachers see them as offering opportunities for learning. For example, a junior teacher could use a MADLib to help her students develop their language skills by asking them to come up with various nouns, pronouns, verbs, questions, adjectives, and adverbs. Learning would be taking place, but students would also be having fun because they would be actively helping to create a story. The teacher could easily see which students were having difficulties with the language concepts as the word would not match the criteria (e.g. if the story called for an adverb, but the student gave an adjective). From here the teacher could decide who she needed to reteach a lesson to or offer more practice. There are some examples of MADLibs at: [].

Jennifer Griffith, Lab 5

Activity: Conceptual Dictionary (Chapter 6, p. 209)

The conceptual dictionary is a great way for many different types of learners. The idea is for the author to sect an image to represent a concept or vocab word, then write a description or "definition" of the image. This would allow for vocabulary development as well help those who are lower-level where images would give the students a visual understanding of the word. A teacher could use this as an instructional method to help written, and visual learners. A teacher could use this as part of their spelling tests. The teacher could provide a list with the images and have the children identify the image, and spell the word. The teacher could then use this as a way to assess the students learning or matching the word with the image. If the child has difficulties, the teacher could set aside some time to go over the lesson again, or individually with the child. The teacher would be able to assess the students by using a rubric to see if they were able to effectively connect the visual pictures with their written descriptions.

Katie Ryan, Lab 1 Character Maps are an activity that interests me. Character maps help to demonstrate student understanding. A character map is created by a student. It is a visual map that shows how “different categories of information relate to each other.” It identifies the traits of a main character, and helps the reader to understand that character’s actions and motivation. Character maps are great as they help students to organize and prioritize information. These maps help students see how a character develops as the story unfolds. I could definitely see myself using this activity in a language arts lesson. When students are reading a novel, I would have them do a character map of one of the main characters in the story. It would allow me to see how much information the students had internalized about the character. The more information the students could pull from the novel about the main character, the better understanding they would have of the book. When marking students’ character maps, I would be looking for detail. I would be expecting the students’ maps to include various categories of information about the character including: physical description, characters thoughts, characters actions and plans, and how other characters see the character. The rubric that I would use to mark the students’ work would include all of these things.
 * Problem Based Learning- Character Maps **

Nick Continelli, Lab 5 Wiki Collaborative Web Pages

Wiki collaborative sites refer to Web 2.0 pages that allow users to contribute or edit web content directly online and allow these contributions to be instantly published. In terms of utilizing this activity in the class, I could see the wiki acting as an introductory activity to a social studies unit. Students would be asked to post their thoughts, queries and expectations on an upcoming topic (early settlers, for example) prior to discussing this pre-instructional brainstorm in class. The wiki would provide students an opportunity to individually consider their prior knowledge and curiosities toward the new topic while also publicly displaying these anecdotes with the class (albeit in an indirect fashion). Such an activity would be especially useful for introverted students who may not feel comfortable in open-room discussions while also giving all students an equal chance to contribute. Subsequent activities would likely be drawn from the questions and reflections brought forth from the wiki as the unit continued on. Regarding assessment, the teacher would consider the quality of the pre-instructional questions being posed (i.e. appropriate for grade level) as well as over-all creativity. Since students can readily read their classmates posts the teacher would consider variations in the ideas presented as well as connections between students' posts; i.e. commenting on another person's post within one's own work.

Jessica Laite - Lab 5 An activity that really interests me is blogging. A blog is a type of web page that can be created and edited by writing and posting messages on an online tool. The message you post is shared with others on the same blog page. It can be used for online journaling when personal opinions and reflections are posted on the blog too. A blog is a great educational tool as teachers can create Edublogs for their students for educational purposes and post homework, resources and activities related to learning. Parents can also access Edublogs to keep up to date with their child's progress as well as what is going on in the classroom. Teachers can post resources for parents too. Edublogs can be used at the beginning, middle or end of a lesson or for homework purposes where students can complete an interactive activity related to the lesson, or even post a message reflecting on what they have learned. Many aspects of blogging can be assessed, depending on what type of activity you choose to give them. For example, you can assess students' posts and comments as well as completion of activities or online quizes.
 * Blogging**

Barb Tannenbaum - Lab 5 The blogging/journal activity has really intrigued me because I have learned something new and exciting to do on the computer. A blog might be considered an online journal or personal record, either text or graphical that describes events, thoughts, ideas, and reflections from the author's perspective. Journals are kept for the purposes of creating writing pieces from the thoughts and ideas collected within what are called a writer's diary. Journals are a great idea since it will help students learn more about themselves, and they can see how they have improved and changed in their writing skills. In addition, students will be able to use a blog/journal so that they will know what things are going on in the classroom as well as with their classmates. There are many different parts of blogging that can be assessed. Students can do an interactive activity that goes with the teachers lesson of the day or they can write something on their blog that they have learned so that they can share it with others. This bloggingj/journal web page can be assessed with the teacher by checking to see what the students have typed on their blogs/journals. The teacher can then evaluate their writing skills by looking at their blog/journal. The students can also practice their reading skills with their parents at home by reading to their parents what they have explained in class and what the teacher has put on a blog/journal for all of the class to see in what is going on in their class such as fieldtrips.
 * Blogging or Journal**

8Y34 - Lab 5 Colby Winspear Epals is an online pen-pal service, where students from your classroom write through emails or blogs to other students around the world. The main subject area lessons would originate from is language. Students can practice their writing, social, and reading skills. To assess this activity, the teacher can set up particular topics for discussion and then have the students print off a copy of all their letters. Also, students can create a blog, where the teacher can read the letters online instead of a printed version. Another subject area that could be covered is geography. Student can learn about different countries around the world. To assess this activity, students could create a travel brochure of his or her epal's country, or a powerpoint presentation about what he or she has learned about his or her epal's country. **
 * EPals

8Y34 -- Lab 5 Mike Sydor Vocabulary Bingo/GeoBingo A suggested game in chapter 4 is Vocabulary Bingo/GeoBingo. The object of the game is to create a bingo based on concepts that are placed on a computer bingo board (bingo board created in Word). The players get to cross spaces off on their bingo boards based on either the concept term or definition that matches a concept term located on the bingo boards which are called out by the bingo master (teacher). I could see myself using this game as a way of assessing students on concepts because I would read out a definition and they would have to find the concept term on their board in order to cross it off. The students would also only qualify for a bingo if all the terms crossed out on their board are based on the definitions that I had called out.

8434 - Lab 5 Jennifer Beirnes

A suggested activity in Chapter 4 is Key Pals. I found this activity very interesting because it puts a new technological spin on a classic writing activity for your students. The idea behind Key Pals is to have students pair up with another student in another class, school or community. The students will communicate through email just as an old fashioned pen pal would have worked. This is good for the students because they will learn letter writing skills, netiquette and as well they will realize a real world application for writing and communicating in letter format.

Danielle Perri – Lab 5 8Y34 Literature Logs This activity is a collection of information from the author. It contains information such as useful materials, resources, comments and critiques. This activity would be very useful in the class, especially for students who have created their own books. In a grade 3 class, I would have students create small picture books to share with the class and then have them create their own literature log. It would contain information about themselves and why they chose to write that book and any other ideas they have. I would assess how they set up and created their own personal literature log.

8434- Lab 5 Amy Johnson Name: Vocabulary Bingo or GeoBingo In short, Vocabulary Bingo is a fairly short activity that enables students to locate words and/or terms on the Bingo card that have been called out by a designated Bingo Master. I could see myself using this in my Language class by having my students identify relevant words and/or terms discussed in a particular unit through a Vocabulary Bingo activity such as this. I could have students complete the activity in a Miscrosoft Word document with the template pre-made, and have each students save and submit the activity once we finished (as was demonstrated in last weeks Technology class). From there I could assess each students knowledge of the topic at hand through the questions they were and weren’t able to answer.

8434 -Lab 5 Apryl Sararas Activity: Picture Prompt Writing In chapter four the authors discuss for communication and project-based learning the idea of students producing picture prompt writing. This is when students are provided with a picture and they write a story that goes with the picture. Sometimes students can be prompted with the style of writing to be done. I really like that this activity allows for creative writing for students with only some teacher direction. So although a specific expectation can be used, students have the opportunity to build off previous knowledge and truly be engaged in what they are learning. I think that student could use microsoft word and use their skills in importing pictures and imputting text to tie this together with technology. I think that this is a practical idea. I also think that I couldhave students search for their own images online and have them write a story that would go along with this image. I think that giving them a visual connection would really allow for them to have a base for starting their writing. Sometimes I have students get stuck on what to write. So by pointing them in a direction really gets the ball in motion. I also think that a picture is not so specific and is open to interpretation allowing students to compare their stories with others in the class. I can relate this to music class this week. We had to listen to a piece of music and imagine ourselves somewhere doing something. Even though the whole class listened to the same piece of music not one of us was in the same place. However our stories had similar concepts such as running, or fast movement. So I really think that I would use this activity in my classroom and it would be highly effective!

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__** Sarah Schrader – 8Y34 Lab 5 - Project-Based Learning – Activity Type: Book Reports (or 3D Book Report) ** Project-Based learning activities can create a product to represent their knowledge learned. In this case, a Book Report (or 3D one) is created in MS PowerPoint. The purpose is to assist students in analyzing stories or novels by giving them slide titles to guide and organize their thoughts (i.e., Main Ideas, This Book is Important Because... etc.). This one adds a bit more description than the 3D one. The 3D Book Report is a written and hands-on activity which depicts major events in a story line. I would then use this to aid in an oral presentation (each part giving them cues on what to talk about next). At the end of a Book Report, I would allow time for a reflection (to have students use meta-cognitive skills to personalize their learning experience). I want them to be able to reflect, analyze, evaluate and develop critical thinking skills. This is a great way of utilizing a student’s thinking and creativity (hands-on), expanding their experience with technology, building on their oral presentation/communication (by having that prompt available in their hands or through slides etc.), while minimizing the simple or to some the frustrating part of “writing a paper”. __