Techmasters

=** Techmasters/8Y24 Lab 2: Place your cursor BELOW the three lines. Type in your Activity Types Reviews below. Then place a line under your entry. **= =To Post Click EDIT............................................................................................It is over here ^\=

A 3d book report consists of an object drawn using the PowerPoint tools. The product is then printed, cut out and assembled as a cube. The purpose of this report is to display graphical information; it can be used to depict major events in a story line, or time line. I could definitely see myself using this activity in the classroom as it can be used for many different purposes. I would integrate other areas of the curriculum such as math for constructing 3 D figures, and visual arts as they could creatively decorate their cube. By: Lisa D’Aguanno

An electronic photo album is an series of pictures that are arranged electronically and can be used to tell about a certain person or event. Music can also be added to this tool to enhance it. This took would be useful to use during a narrative, autobiography, or oral presentations unit in Language Arts. It could also be used to introduce a famous person or event to students. To assess this activity, teachers may want to consider the visual appeal of the photo album, and/or the sequencing, order or relevance of the photos included. Moreover, this activity could be assessed based on the oral or written work that accompanies it. I would use this as an opportunity for peer or self assessment. By: Samantha Zara

The activity type I chose was from Chapter 6, Digital Storytelling on Oral Histories. The oral histories activity consists of a student preparing questions, recording and conducting an interview with an individual that has personally lived through a historical event. The student then uses this person’s oral account as a primary source by formulating a multimedia production using PowerPoint or a movie depicting this person’s experience. This activity can be used as a culminating activity after a social studies unit, where students become historians and conduct primary research based on the oral accounts of an individual in correlation to the events that occurred in the unit covered in class. The student’s ability to conduct effective research and comprise what they’ve learned in a multimedia presentation that correlates sufficiently with the oral accounts of the person interviewed will be assessed. Christina Circosta

I see myself using the “Slice of Life” stories which are stories that outline specific events occurring within a particular time frame. I see myself using it in a lesson to show contrasting habitats by focusing on one day in the lives of different animals (e.g. polar bear, elephant, whale, etc.). While watching the stories students would fill in a worksheet to brainstorm descriptive words for each habitat. Student’s would peer assess the worksheets by writing a check mark next to the words that fit each habitat’s description. The words that do not fit would be left alone. Carolyn Foster

Timeline- a timeline requires students to arrange events in chronological order. These events can be personal or even historical with the complexity low to high depending on the students. This allows students to practice research skills as well as creating visual representations of important information. Resources to create timelines are available online and information right in the classroom such as newspapers can be useful information to arrange. Overall a useful tool which can be utilized in different subject areas to meet a variety of learners needs. -Claire D.

“Slice of Life” – Slice of life is a type of photo essay consisting of stories constructed by using digital photographs from a specific time period. This can be created in PowerPoint, which will allow the creator to add captions to the pictures thereby helping to tell the story. I could envision using this activity on a field trip, where I would provide the digital camera and take pictures throughout the trip and then have students select the pictures they liked best and their view/story of the trip; students could also use their own camera’s but by supplying the camera myself does not disadvantage students who may not have one. I would assess their narration skills related literacy, such as well the story flows, word choice, perspective, etc. Matt G.

"Slice of life": This is a type of photo essay in which the student uses photos to tell the story within a designated time frame. For example; //My trip to..., My first..., A day in the life..., etc.// The photos can be arranged into a powerpoint/video editor so that text can be added to tell the story. I think this would be a great "//get to know your classmates"// activity in which students could have the opportunity to share a little bit about themselves (perhaps what they did over the summer break). This would serve as a diagnostic to see what level students are at in their writing and re-telling capabilities. Maddy T.


 * Digital records** are single images that record a specific event in which the author can use to illustrate an aspect in their life. A paragraph is composed as well to accompany the image in which the author describes how the image relates to him or herself. This activity would be a terrific way for students to introduce themselves at the beginning of the year, in which they can illustrate and describe something or someone of value to them. It can also be used by students to make connections between themselves, and an event documented by another (with permission of course). //- Mengyi Z.//

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 * Experimental Stories** display a series of continuous actions. Examples of these can be seen in many step-by-step direction videos, whether it be a 'How To' video or a cooking video, etc. As the Handy4Class site suggests, these types of stories are excellent for collaborative team work, student's centre activities, students can create their own experimental story, etc. Typically **Experimental Stories** would be particularly beneficial in a Science class. When participating in a class experiment, students can follow along with the step-by-step, sequential instructions of the experiment. Francesca Virgulti

Chapter 4 of the e-textbook talks about character webs. I find character webs to be a useful writing tool for any type of narrative writing, and it can also allow students to practice organizing their ideas using graphic organizers, which is a skill that can be transfered to many different subject areas. I believe that Inspiration would be an excellent technological tool to help students create a quick and efficient character web using the computer. This would allow students to easily organize ideas and make quick adjustments as their ideas progress. Before using this tool, I would outline the expectations to students. For example, I would want them to include ideas about the characteristics (appearance, personality), background (personal history), actions, and so on. I would then use a checkbrick to assess the character webs to determine the students' ability to provide reasonable and detailed information for each category. In addition, before using Inspiration, I would give a mini-lesson and demonstrate how to use it, and I would create a checklist to ensure each student's character web meet the requirements (heading,subheading, proper spacing, demonstrates connections, etc). Jennifer O'Neil

The experimental stories I found to be interesting. Experimental stories allow students to put a process into sequential order and learn how things change and develop from the beginning to the end. I can definately see the value of experimental stories in the classroom. Science and social studies especially are often investigated in a specific order and therefore would be a great fit for these stories. I also liked the advantage of having students scramble to order and ask other students to put in the proper order. The can be very hands on and will make the students think about the order and content. Katy O'Neil

**Iconic Writing:** I enjoy using word clouds with my students as they are a fun way for students to represent their writing in a graphic form. They can also see what words that they use often in their writing and also can use it to learn their word wall words. Students can use a site like **Wordle** to enter a passage and it will create a word cloud with the most commonly used words being represented with larger text. A similar site, **Tagxedo,** is a personal favourite as it expands on what Wordle does and allows students to turn their writing into specifically shaped word clouds, such as animals, sports logos and famous people’s portraits. This is a very engaging activity for students, as they can make shapes of their own choice with their writing and have a graphic representation of it. These tools are very helpful during concrete poetry units as shape poems are easily created on such sites. **Rob Irwin**

**“Slice of life”** stories are a type of photo essay where events are described based on the photos. There does not need to be a plot or a conflict, simply a description of events. When I take students to the zoo I would have them take photos of animals and then write a description about the photo, compile them together and create a slice of life at the zoo story. To assess the story I would be looking for a clear connection between the photo and the words and the use of vivid vocabulary. **Kathleen P**


 * Web Inquiry** – pg. 217-8


 * Summary:** A form of open ended, problem based learning that uses student centred, scaffolded, web-based projects. These projects are broken down into 6 steps: 1. Hook, 2. Questions, 3. Procedures, 4. Data Investigation, 5. Analysis, and 6. Findings.


 * Possible Activity:** Since this type of activity is so broad it could work for basically any project. I suggest that the students work collaboratively in groups to complete this however with multiple roles and responsibilities.


 * My Assessment:** This type of activity would work well in a gifted classroom that has a lot of access to technological resources. It requires a lot of work and student led learning but I believe it would be a rewarding activity for a class to complete.

By: John G.


 * Interactive Stories **- This type of story allows students to interact with the story itself by making readers chose different outcomes. One example of this that many of you might relate to is the Goosebumps series. Different types of interactive stories would be iAdventure, Simulations and Stop Motion or Claymation stories. Specifically, iAdventure could be used in a primary classroom when looking at cause and effect. Furthermore, in the intermediate grades, the teacher could give the students the task of creating their own story that has different choices throughout their story. In a primary classroom I would get the students to reflect on how the stories showed cause and effect and the connections they could make elsewhere. For the older students, I would assess how well they were able to organize their story so the different choices made sense with their ending. **Marley T.**


 * Electronic Photo Albums** are stories which depict the story of the student’s life through the use of old digital images, yearbook photos, and clips from family movies. Background music can also be added in addition to narration to relate memories and other information about the student. Within a lesson, this activity could be used for introducing an important person in history and who has made a difference in the world. Also, this could be an individual project for the student and an alternative to the traditional written autobiography. In this activity, the student could be assessed based on the organization which their story presents. Aqeela B.

**“Slice of Life”** is an excellent example of a Review Activity. In order to set up this activity, I would take my class on a field trip, depending on the grade level. Students in intermediate grades would benefit from this activity more; because I would have the students bring a camera with them and take photographs. When we return from the field-trip, I would have the students narrate stories to coincide with their photographs. As the educator, I would assess the connections students have made through their written component of the assignment, and the photographs taken. I would also assess the transition they have made (in terms of writing) between each photograph. -Lynsey Bayer

Timeline- a timeline is a great way to introduce a new topic to a class. It requires the students (or even the teacher) to place events in a chronological order to get a better understanding of the bigger picture. One great online resources is [|www.timetoast.com] where educators can search for a particular topic or create their own for their class to view. Timelines are a great way of putting things into perspective! - Lisa Warren