Techteam

=** Techteam Group/8Y34 Lab 8: 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 ^\=

Marika Mendola

The activity type that I have chosen to focus on is Digital Story Starters. These can be used in a variety of lessons, and for (almost) any subject. They provide students with an image in order to provoke their thoughts and encourage creativity. I would use them to help students develop their creativity, to initiate discussions, to stimulate ideas for writing, etc. I believe that they are appealing to students as many students are visual learners. It is also beneficial that we have done them in class because now we are able to see this type of activity from the learner’s point of view, rather than just from a teaching point of view. This type of activity allows the students to expand on their thinking and it gives them the freedom to come up with whatever they want, so they are not limited like some other activities. It would be interesting to see the variety of responses that were brought out of the students using only one picture, but as they say ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’.

Kaylyn McGilloway There are many great activities listed in the text, but I especially like the idea of the 3D Book Report. This activity requires students to familiarize themselves with the MS Power Point program. Students create slides for each component of the book report (title & author, plot summary, characters, favourite quotes, and significance). Students then print their Power Point slides, cut them out, and construct a 3D shape such as a cube using the templates of the sides. I would use this activity in a language arts class to make the traditional Book Report activity more exciting for students and to implement technology into the language arts curriculum. I would assess this activity for language arts, and evaluate students based on the different components of the book report. This activity makes the concept of a book report become much more engaging and fun to do. It is also a great way to study the important components of a book. By rolling the cube you can read a different element of a book as well as reread others so you become more familiar with all of them.

Jessica M The activity that I reviewed was called ephoto album stories. Ephoto album stories are digital stories of a student’s life experience told through images and photos which music and/or narrative text or audio as an accompaniment. I could see myself using this type of activity in lessons such as for journal writing or for a post field trip assignment. A teacher could this type of project as an assessment for art, language arts, social studies (field trips), drama, music and I’m sure it could be connected to other subject areas as well.

Mary-Elizabeth G. When reading chapter 6 I found “Slice of Life” Stories to be useful for students in the classroom. I believe this is a useful tool because it is an excellent topic for beginners. Some advantages for use in the classroom are digital videographers and students can make them personal by using different photos of events in their lives. Unfortunately, there may be some disadvantages when using “Slice of Life” stories in the classroom. Some of the disadvantages are that students can become overwhelmed because they have many different pictures. Instead of this being the beginning of this activity with the photos, the students need to begin with the narrative for the day or “slice of life” being depicted.

Melissa B. An activity that I found to be extremely useful, and something that I would implement in my own classroom, are the //digital story starters//. Digital story starters usually consist of an image, a graphic or an icon which the students view and then use this image as a jump off point for their writing. This provides the student with a general topic that they can then use to create a paragraph, a story or a scenario. I could use this strategy in a creative writing lesson allowing the students to develop their initial reaction to the image and then create a mini essay. I would assess this activity as a language arts short essay writing piece assessing their creativity and writing skills, with the exact criteria determined by the grade and ability level of my students.

Lisa S.

A storyboard is a form of graphic organizer which visually retells the events of a story. I could see myself using this in a lesson with Kindergartens. They are easily visually stimulated and this presents a new way to teach students the concepts of the beginning, middle and end of story. This would be fantastic to work through as an entire class, as it will make the learning more meaningful! I would assess the students ability to properly identify and order the elements of the story using observation and anecdotal notes. _

Renata B. Picture Prompt Writing activities provide the student with a picture that is used as a prompt for writing a story. It helps with imagination of ideas about the written work that they would have to do. They could write about what do they see on a picture directly, or they can think of a story about that picture (picture being as a single slide from the story). I think it is a great idea to use in the classroom. It doesn't have to be used in the Language subject only. It could be used for other subjects as well.Depending on the expectations, I could assess the creative writing, or find what do they know about the particular topic.

Stephanie B. Cumulative Story - It is a story created by more then one person. This could be used in any subject, but I would use it in a social studies unit. I would have students each write a paragraph incorporating some prior knowledge of the topic. This allows the teacher to see the levels of understanding. You could assess the writing or the accuracy of the points integrated.

Descriptive stories coupled with digital story telling is a perfect method for teachers to use to enhance the learning of today's students. Descriptive stories are a combination of detailed/vivid digital photographs with clear and concise writing. Together, they potentially teach a student imagery and foundational writing skills. I could see myself using descriptive stories for all subjects but especially for social studies and language arts. Students would be able to take digital pictures of items and write definitions to enhance thier vocabulary as well as writing skills. This exercise would definitely assist students for studying purposes as well. Assessment would evaluate the organization of the dictionary and the representative digital image.

AMANDA R.

Maya Z. Digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based multimedia tools to tell stories. It gives students an opportunity to explore the many uses of digital media relative to the ancient tradition of print, adding voice, creativity, and a personal touch. This could be used in practically all subject areas such as Language Arts (e.g., persuasive writing, book report), History (e.g., immigration), Geography (e.g., places), Science (e.g., environmental issues), Music (e.g., historical and culture contexts), and so forth. Students research their topic, organize their findings into a simple narrative, and add audio and visuals to represent their stories. Digital storytelling can be used as a form of authentic assessment whereby students are evaluated mainly on content as well as creativity/originality.

Laura Neill
===  The storyboard is an activity type that is beneficial for all grade levels and various purposes. Specifically, the storyboard allows students to physically place content of a story in order to show comprehension and then visually see how th story plays out. I could see myself using this in my grade 1 class as they are learning about how to retell events in a story; the characters, the setting, the beginning, middle, and end of a story. This storyboard could be presented orally or through written. The aspect of the activity that I would be assessing would be that they are able to correctly order events in a story showing comprehension of what they have read which can be done through using a checklist and anecdotal notes. ===

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**Keri Verge** I looked under problem solving to find the "interactive Venn Diagrams". This web page lets the teacher create a venn diagram, rules and lets the students move the objects into the diagram. If they put the object in the wrong spot, it will not stay. This is a self-correcting model. The example it started with was Shapes. I created the rules "big" and "circles" to sort the shapes into. This would be a great follow up lesson on attributes as well as on Venn diagrams (I believe students start learning Venn Diagrams in grade 3?)

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Felisha Joseph
==  After reading chapter 6, I found place stories to be an activity type I would love to try. Place stories are a detailed description of a place where the writer felt comfortable, safe and happy. The writer finds one image that best represents his/her place and answers questions such as: what are your feelings here? what is your earliest memory? what do you see in your place no one else sees? I could see myself using this lesson as a reflective piece to introduce a unit and for students to become comfortable with themselves. One aspect of this activity that I would assess because of the subjectivity would be whether the student answered all of the questions provided.==

Sarah McLaughlin After reading about Digital Story Starters, I started brainstorming about ideas for social studies lessons. Similar to the lesson Zoe had us complete in class during the Egyptian revolution, I think this is neat way to spark ideas for children to write about, blog about, or create a podcast about. As my peers have mentioned, it's nice to start students off with journal writing, then on to paragraph writing, and then story-writing. I am a very visual learner, so I appreciate the element of good-quality images software and sites like these provide. I will definitely implement these types of activities into my classroom.

Emily Hamilton The activity type that I have chosen to review is Digital Story Starters. I think these are a fabulous idea for several ideas. The basic idea around Digital Story Starters is to provide students with an image to stimulate their writing. I like this activity type a lot because it is a great way to help students generate ideas and writing when they are having a mental block. I saw this activity type used by my associate in a grade 1/2 class. She provided groups of students with different images and instructed them to write words, then sentences, and then create a story about the image. The students were constantly reminded to read between the lines of the image and make inferences. Assessment opportunities were endless. Students were assessed on their contribution to the group, their ability to make inferences, and sentence structure (using a capital and a period). Overall, this is a great tool to use for language lessons about inference or any writing task for any grade.


 * Courtenay Fleet**


 * The activity I chose to focus on is the storyboard. Storyboards are beneficial to students of all ages and grades as they help students break down the parts of a story. Like laura had mentioned I also used them in grade 1 with my students to retell stories. Students learned to repeat stories using the words "first, next, then, later, after that, and last". I would assess students on their ability to retell stories and place the important aspects of the story in the proper order, using the retelling words. Students would be reminded to use a great amount of detail when retelling their story. They would be marked using a rubric.**
 * I also wanted to mention that for older grades, these can be used to help students breakdown their thoughts when story writing and help guide them in the writing process. I specifically remember using these in my high school technology class before we made videos. It really helped us to plan out what shots we wanted to get and made sure we properly told our story.**

Ryan Van Eysinga

The activity I examined was RePhotograph. RePhotograph is a great flash tool to show students the subtle or not so subtle changes that occur in a picture over a period of time. This can be used in Grade 6 Social Studies, Early Explorers unit to demonstrate the various voyages of Cartier, Champlain, Columbus and others who ventured to and from North America. Comparing the various voyages and the changes in time occurring in the photographs can allow me to assess students who will identify the differences between First Nations and European Explorers and their cultural and religious differences. The tool can also allow me to assess students by giving them an opportunity to explain some of the reasons why early exploration started to occur when it did. Pictures of the new ship building methods and various advances in technology will allow students to see the changes occurring over the period of 300 years in a relatively quick time frame.

Rebecca Kowal The activity type that I have reviewed is called Digital Story Starters. These activities provide students with sentence starters in the form of graphics or icons that students will use to help them to develop a paragraph, sentence, or a brief scenario. I would use this activity, to help students to brainstorm and generate ideas for stories based on the graphics or icons provided. If I were to use this strategy in the classroom, I would use this activity in a classroom situation in the form of centers. Students can choose a photo for others to use to help them develop ideas for writing a journal or story. For instance, pictures from a field trip to the museum could be posted to help students generate ideas for journal responses about the field trip.

Amanda Pembleton The activity type I have chosen to focus on is Digital Storytelling. Digital storytelling is a new and creative way for students to tell a story or a sequence of activities that is interactive and engaging. Through digital storytelling, it teaches the writing process as well as digital video construction skills. This activity is great because it can be used with all of the subjects, while integrating the use of technology.