EDUC+8Y24+–+Sec3+Reviews

=8Y24 Lab 3: Place your cursor BELOW the three lines. Type in your Activity Types Reviews below. Then place a line under your entry.= __Activity type: Virtual Simulations. These simulations are very convincing and realistic portrayals of events or situations. The purpose of these simulations is to give students knowledge through experience. However, since there are no real risks involved in the situations, students are safe to make mistake and explore, thus learning by virtual experience. I could see myself using simulations to help students develop multiple perspectives on events and situations. Students could gain insight on events that might usually pose safety problems, or conflicts. For example, students could learn how to do a take-off and landing of a space shuttle, experience a shipwreck, or even experience living in an impoverished, or war-striken area. Through the virtual simulations, students would gain the ‘experience’ of the events, without actually experiencing them. Starting from the knowledge, behaviours, and attitudes that I might want students to adapt from experiencing their simulation, I would work in a design-down order. To assess students, I could prepare a list of questions for students to answer, or have them complete a written reflection on their simulation experience. The student responses would indicate whether or not they grasped the intended messages conveyed in the simulation. -Danny Rudniski__

The activity type I briefly chose to discuss is the "Drag & Drop." Drags and drops can be used in a variety of ways; to introduce the topic of the day, to introduce new vocabulary, or to practice and/or review before an assessment task. I especially like the idea of using as a way of learning states/provinces and/or major cities. Why not have background maps where students must drag and drop the name of the state/province, capital cities or major cities? A very visual and hands-on way of learning! I can see myself using this for diagnostic assessment in my own classroom. In other words, I would be assessing student progress and knowledge; assessing where they are at in their learning and what must be reinforced or focussed on before providing them with the final assessment. - Michael Loscavo

“Slice of Life” stories describe events or experiences that happen within a certain time frame using photos. For example, “My trip to...” would be told by placing the pictures into a //PowerPoint// presentation (or something similar) and then organizing them and adding text/captions and/or narration. This activity could be used after students go on a field trip to encourage them to reflect upon the experience and what they learned. I would assess how well the students used descriptive language and writing/speaking conventions to describe the event, and whether or not the pictures match the narrative or text. - Lisa Dykstra

'I Spy Books' contain a picture with a riddle that hints at the objects to be found in the picture. The riddles are created using four-line poems, where the first two lines rhyme, and then the last two lines rhyme (an //aabb// pattern or dactylic tetrameter). I Spy books would be a great resource to use in a primary/junior music class to teach rhythmic patterns. The books could also be used to improve student's vocabulary skills and poetry writing. In this type of activity, teachers would be assessing how well students use and understand the rhythmic pattern and what strategies they use to create their riddle. - Charlene Browett

__Digital Collections are collections of pictures taken of similar things in nature represented in digital format. Each picture can then be compared to others, analyzed, and commented on. I would use this in a lesson by allowing the students to go outside and create a collaborative class digital collection of images to see what interesting things exist in their own community. I would assess their analysis and comparisons of the pictures as well as their collaborative efforts to put the pieces together. - Brandy Dobbin__

KeyPals are the same the same PenPals, the communication is simply done over email. Students learn not only letter-writing skills and netiquette, they often usually choose the topic so they may find a range of other information. In the classroom, I would use this real-world example as a basis for teaching the students about letter-writing and netiquette before the project even began. I would assess these skills by proofing their emails to their KeyPals before they sent them. - Laura Harrison

__Alphabet books are books for young children that introduce each letter of the alphabet and corresponding images of words that start with that letter. For letter ‘B’ a picture of a banana, or a ball, could go along with the letter. To get children more involved in an alphabet book you could have the class find objects in the classroom that start with each letter and then take pictures with a digital camera, upload them and make them into a class alphabet book. This would allow the students to have ownership in their own learning, as well, give them an exploratory opportunity to find the right objects around the class. - Randi Crowder__

MADlib is a specialized type of word game that is often humorous, and thus is motivating and fun for students to complete. It involves creating a list of words that meet criteria such as an adjective or a verb. Then, these words are input into a premade paragraph or story in spots where other words with the same criteria have been removed. I would use this activity as a hook in language arts to teach the different aspects of reading such as fluency, comprehension, and parts of speech. I would assess their ability to read the new paragraph with fluency as well as determine if they used the appropriate parts of speech in the MADlib. -Kimberley Waddell

A Digital Collection is a grouping of digital photos that are in some way in relation to one other. The class could be given a theme or topic of focus, - say animals - and the students would then take a number of photos and include information about each picture. The collections can then be shared among the class, analyzing them to find similarities, differences, common trends, etc. I would use this activity to complement a major theme in the classroom, relating it across the curriculum. I would assess the student on their photos based on variety as well as how they are able to make connections to other digital collections in the class. -- Jessica Bickell

A Time Lapse Story is one which is written in order to break down and explain a sequence of events. A camera is set to take snapshots of a particular scene at set, discrete intervals, such that the long term changes can be seen in faster motion. It could make for an interesting project in a Natural Science - students could take time-lapsed footage of the development of a bacteria culture in a petri dish, and describe the stages of growth as they occur in a voiceover. I would assess them based on both the timing and accuracy of information in their voiceover. -Matt Goldhawk

Character Map/Web: A type of graphic organizer that helps students to organize information and ideas. It identifies traits that make up the character, which in turn helps the student understand the character more thoroughly. As a teacher I would use a character map/web when conducting a novel study with my class. I would model how to use a map/web for the main characters in the novel. Instead of relying on the chalkboard I would encourage students to use __Inspiration__

__to create their maps. I would assess their maps by use of a checklist to see if the student understood they key traits of the character.- Jennifer de Almeida__

A Digital Collection __is a way of organizing digital photos into categories, common themes or ideas. As a teacher I feel as though you could implement this into a variety of curriculum strands (language, art, science, social studies ect.). Simply have students chose a theme relative to the subject area and collect photos that represent that subject and why those photos were included. This is a fun and easy way for students to use technology to learn about grouping, similarities, connections, and commonalities among specific aspects of a subject area. You could assess students on their ability to effectively create a digital collection that accurately reflects the theme they have chosen. The pictures and their description will help you assess whether or not they are able to make those overall connections. You could print the photos and illustrate them in the classroom or do it online and have digital folders that are accessible to the class. – Kate Marriott__

Alphabet Books __ are a wonderful resource for getting children ready to read, as they provide them with the tools necessary to become familiar with the sounds letters make. This is done by having illustrations of words that begin with a particular letter, accompanying that letter, and allowing students to link the beginning sounds of certain illustrations with a particular letter symbol. To make an alphabet book more meaningful, I would encourage the students within my classroom to bring in objects representing a specific letter, and then I would take photos of these objects so that the book would be more meaningful to them. I would assess this activity using a checkbric, which would evaluate the completeness and correctness of the students' assignment - i.e., whether or not they brought in objects whose names began with the same letter as their assigned corresponding letter. – Christina Zenchuk__

KeyPals- Email pen pals that allow students to send and receive messages from students in another country. This exercise helps students with netiquette, letter writing and enhanced vocabulary. I could see myself using this in a lesson by allowing my students to explore and ask questions about a different culture by having a cultural native as their //keypal// and vice versa. The aspect of the activity I would be assessing would be the composition form and vocabulary of a letter on a selected topic. I would assess the student’s comprehension of letter composition, as well as vocabulary and sentence structure depending on the type of letter they are sending. -Maggie George

Picture Prompt Writing __ exercises provide student(s) with a picture that they then use as a prompt or cue for their writing. The picture prompt is usually accompanied by verbal or written instructions as to the type of writing that they should develop based on the picture prompt. One of the main advantages of this activity type is that it can be used in a number of different units, as it can be utilized for nearly any type of writing. I could see myself using this in a poetry lesson by providing each student with a picture prompt, thereby giving them a starting point for their poem, as many children have a hard time knowing how to choose a topic when it comes to writing basic poetry. I would assess the ability of the student to creatively and fluidly incorporate the picture prompt into his/her poem. -- Steph Fralick __

“Digital Story Starters” essentially serve the same purpose as regular story starters. The single image, icon or graphic is utilized in order to assist students in a creative writing piece by prompting ideas. Students are than expected to create a brief paragraph that is reflective of the particular image, whether it is placed at the beginning of the story or at the end. As a future teacher, I would use these for a creative writing exercise within Language Arts. An example of this could be using the digital story starters in order to help write poetry. Within this activity I would assess the students based on their adherence to the guidelines of the poetry (ex. Haiku) by utilizing anecdotal notes or a checklist. - Pat Poulin

The activity type I chose to do is called MadLibs. MadLibs is a word game in which the reader has to provide a variety of worts that meet certain criteria (such as a noun, verb, adjective, etc). You then take those words and insert them into blank spaces in a pre-prepared story. The results are usually quite funny. This activity type can be used in the classroom specifically in language arts when reviewing certain types of words like the ones mentioned above (noun, verb, etc). I would be assessing that they inputted the right type of word into the right blank (and not the flow of the story since MadLibs generally lack a proper flow). Travis Hawkins

In my placement school classroom the students have been working on writing effective recounts. I think the “Slice of Life” stories would be an excellent supplement or an alternative way to have students write recounts in language. “Slice of Life” stories describe events that took place during a certain timeframe. This is also done in a recount, focusing on a specific happening from the past and recalling the events, ‘bringing the reader into the telling of events’. Students can be given the opportunity to tell their recounts in the form of a “Slice of Life” story after completing their polished pieces to ensure the photographs do not take away from the initial effectiveness but add vividness to the story. The recount/“Slice of Life” can then be shown in the form of a presentation using the Smart board (which is available in our class). - Melanie Hedley

KeyPals __– “penpals via email”, students usually pair with a student in another class, location or country, and communicate via email. Students learn letter-writing skills, netiquette, and about other cultures in the world. Hopefully they will make a new friend too! I would use this in my class to teach them about other cultures around the world, maybe they could share pictures or videos (that are approved and do not reveal personal information of course) and at the end of the lesson the two classes could Skype with each other as an end of the year activity - Theresa Conroy__

BioPoems:__ a biopoem is essentially an 11 line poem in which students write about themselves using various descriptors that have been provided for them. For example, the first line of a Biopoem is "I wish I was a _" and the student is required to fill it in. Many websites online provide templates for these poems, and only require students to fill in the blanks. I would use this exercise at the beginning of the year as a diagnostic. That way, students could present their ideas and I could learn about their interests, dreams, and aspirations. This is not necessarily an activity that a teacher would assess, but simply a good way to engage students and get to know them better - Chris Rimnyak

=== iAdventure is an interactive storytelling activity that allows the reader to interact with the story itself. Readers are faced with dilemmas and make their own decisions on the next steps that the character will take. I would use this in the classroom by linking to real world data and have students put into real life stories that they are familiar with. Through iAdventure students are collecting data, reading and viewing videos and images. I would assess the students written explanations for their reasoning in making certain decisions. Students understanding of computer components and researched content would be assessed. - Courtney Brunet 

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