EDUC+8Y24+–+Sec2+Reviews

= 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 ^\=

Story starters are a very practical way to provide students with lots to write about. A class brainstorm can provide students with a variety of options for writing creative works. The teacher could also provide several images that could prompt the student with ideas. One of the ebook projects done in class was focused on story starters and gave the students several images that they could use to start their brainstorming of ideas. I thought this was a great tool that the teacher could have available on the class computer. As the students learn different subjects, the teacher could update the ebook with more images and either play it for the class.

The images could be simple or complex. Story starters are versatile and can be used in writing at any level. They can also be used for fiction or non-fiction pieces.

A great solution to the problem we've all had: " I have NOTHING to write about!"

~ Cindy Whitfield (Watson)


 * MADLibs** is a fun, interactive game that can be used to help students practice identifying parts of speech and with their reading comprehension. It is an activity that can be done fairly quickly, and so can be used individually or in pairs when students have completed all other work in class. It can also be used as a quick language arts starter or finisher. The reader is asked to fill in the blanks of the given story with the part of speech it asks for (noun, adjective, verb, past tense verb, adverb, etc.). Once all the blanks have been filled in, a hilariuos final story is usually the product! Here is an example of one I just completed! (the bolded words are blanks that I filled in! (I didn't know the story beforehand).

Last night, as I sat in the **bedroom** eating **grapes** and watching **Glee**, the telephone rang. When I picked it up, I heard a(n) **laughing** sound. It was my **sticky** friend **Brandon**. He told me that he couldn't solve the **seven** problems that **Ms. Wappel** had assigned for homework. I'm pretty **slimy** in math, so it took me only **twenty-six** minutes to figure out the answers. “These problems are easy!” I told him. “Use your **window** .” “It's broken!” he said. “I think my **lemur ran** over it.” “Then you'll just have to use your fingers!” I suggested **quickly**. “ **Don't touch that!** ! You're a big help! The next time I need advice, I'll call **Josh Groban** ,” he shouted. I don't know why **Brandon** was so mad. Did he want me to give him the answers?

This is a fun way to encourage students to practice identifying their parts of speech!



Vanessa Wappel

A **story starter** is a great interactive tool to use in the classroom, and can be used for a variety of all ages. This is a great tool to encourage students to think creatively and they can take the story in whatever way they want. Also, it not only helps the teacher see where the students are at in terms of their writing skills, but personal aspects of the student ’ s might also be brought in. This will help the teacher make more connections with the individual student ’ s themselves, which will help develop relationships with them. Also, any types of pictures or collages can be put up to encourage students to write and think creatively. I have personally completed this type of activity, and I know that everybody enjoyed it and it was a great learning experience. -Ashley Van Koeveringe (Weststrate)


 * Cumulative story**: is a story that has multiple authors. One student starts the story, and passes it to the next person to add to the story. Each student in the class has the opportunity to make a small contribution to the story. The last person concludes the story. I will use this activity in a language class, perhaps when the students are learning how to write a story. I think will be very helpful to have the students write a story as a group, and then move them on to write an individual story. I will probably be assessing flow, grammar, and vocabulary.

Edlira Christina Zahaj


 * MADLibs ** is a word game where one person prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story. Using MADLibs teachers can prompt students determine the correct part of speech to use and they are also great for reviewing grammar usage. These can be done in the form of a Drag & Drop Activity if teacher wishes to incorporate technology. Assessment will look at whether students know the difference between a noun, verb, adjective, adverbs, etc. Only the correct part of speech should be in the appropriate box.

Daphni Dremetsikas

I selected the “Slice of Life” activity type from Category 2- Photo Essays (p.275). Slice of Life activities are a type of story that depicts visually what happens within a certain time span. Slice of Life stories digitally tell stories through the use of photos that may describe “a day in the life of a firefighter” or “My walk to school every day” as two examples. Once photos have been gathered to tell the story, images can be placed in a program that allows for text insertion that will act as the narration to the story. I could see myself using this in a lesson by asking students to provide a slice of life story based upon their Saturday mornings. Every student will have a different weekend routine that involves different commitments and activities. I would ask students to take 4-8 photos of themselves that depicts how they spend their Saturdays. This activity could be called: “A Saturday in the life of…” Assessment of this activity could take place by evaluating the amount of photos that were taken, along with the text that is associated with each photo. The teacher could ask themselves, “Is there a story taking place? Do the words match the picture?” This is a very fun and personal activity for students to create! Sarah Batey

A story starter is a visual image or graphic that is used to prompt creative writing. I would use this in my classroom to direct creative writing exercises. A picture or collage of pictures can be placed on screen and students can be insprired by what they see. Students often struggle with coming up with ideas of what to write and can spend a majority of their creative writing time just coming up with a concept. A story starter allows students to fully embrace their creativity and give a teacher insight into the personality of a student. As a teacher I would be assessing the creative writing both in draft and publish ready form. Sheena Swierenga

The activity I think was best was the Interactive story. This was because as you are reading a book to your students (or students are reading it on their own) you can stop the story at any time to get the students to think. For example this can be accomplished by asking questions of prediction to get the students to think about what might happen in the story. Or a teacher can start making up a story while they are telling it to their students and stop at various times to let the students decide where the story will go. For instance “Harry went into the mall with forty dollars to buy his mom a birthday gift, on the way to the clothing store he past by the video game shop and seen this game he really wanted for 30 dollars…” at this point the teacher can stop the story and have students decided where it is going to go. -Emanuele Barbaro

The activity that I chose to write about is under the Interactive storytelling section and the program is called IAdventure. I found IAdventure particularily interesting because it uses problem based learning to provide connections to real world expectations. The students work their way through the story, come across a dilemma and have to use the links that the teacher provides to solve the problem, in turn using these resources to guide their character's development. This program could not only be used to assess research skills, but also look at the student's problem solving skills and their ability to apply logic to real-world situations. Gabriella﻿ Lancia

A "//cumulative story"// is formulated through more than one author getting the students to create a story based on individual input. One student starts the story with a “beginning” paragraph and then the next student continues the story with their own ideas that have some relation to the previous paragraph. It continues in this pattern until the last student who writes the “end” paragraph to the story. I would use this activity in my classroom when discussing varying aspects of language arts, and more specifically when introducing expressive writing to my students. A teacher could assess this piece of work for the quality and overall "flow" of writing represented through an expressive writing assignment.

~Kelly Van Roon~

"Place" Stories "Place" stories are stories that describre a place, known well by the author, and the associated emotions attached to that place. It can be positive or negative, i.e., a favourite place or a scary place. The story also includes memories attached to that place (or type of place). One image is selected to represent the story as an anchor and can be used by those listening as a prompt for further questions. This activity could be used at any grade level - depending on the age, the depth of the story will change. You could assess for writing quality or as a presentation. (Karina Eising)

Keypals: Keypals are penpals that communicate via e-mail. Students can be paired up with students in other classes, schools, or countries to discuss a predetermined topic. This type of activity promotes netiquette. This type of activity could be used in Grade 6 when students are studying Canada's Links to the World by having students communicate with students from another country. The student's ability to write a letter could be assessed through this activity. - Jessica Belaire

The digital storytelling activity I chose to summarize is the ISpy Story. In this activity, students must create a digital story, and each page should include a picture and a written riddle hint guiding those who will be reading their stories to objects hidden in their pictures. I could see myself using this on a lesson about poetry and/or rhyming, because the typical ISpy books feature hints given in the forms of rhymes, so this activity would allow me to see my students’ capacity to rhyme. Although there are several aspects of the ISpy story which could be assessed, I would focus primarily on students’ ability to correctly rhyme words either in the form A-B-A-B, or A-A,B-B. -Keaton Morrison

The best activity I found was the interactive story (see P. 280 of our text). As students make their way through the story, the characters of the story encounter dilemmas and the students are asked to help them make corresponding decisions. At these points, the teacher provides links to various Internet learning resources, and the students follow these links to gain the knowledge needed to make appropriate decisions for their characters. The story progresses according to the decisions the students prescribe. Since most students like a good video game, I think this lesson will hold the attention of even the most rowdy of students. Also, assessment isn’t very difficult because the teachers need only to consider the poor fate of the characters for whom the students have made decisions. -David Gonzalez



I chose to look at the "Point of View" stories from page 226 of our textbook. This section of the textbook discusses how important point of view is in a story. More importantly, it comments on how the point of view of those in a story can effect the reader's point of view and perception. Point of view stories are created in the classroom by having the class observe an event, and then collecting each person's retelling or observations of the event and presenting them. This would be a useful tool in the classroom because it is directly related to Critical Literacy. You could tie this activity into different points of view of media literacy, and directly link it to this section of the curriculum. You could assess this by having students each indivually summarize different points of view in a story, or any type of media.

-Kathleen Moore

 * __ Conceptual Dictionary __**// (pg. 274) //

A Conceptual Dictionary is dictionary that allows students to choose an image to represent the concept, and then the student will write a definition to go with the image. This is a great tool for teachers to use, especially in the primary/junior grades because it gives students choice, and it also requires them to subtly synthesis what they are learning. They must have some level of understanding of the concept being taught, and then in turn they must produce something that represents the concept. This tool is also an excellent assessment tool in that it shows the teacher the student's understanding of a concept. As a J/I teacher, I think I could also use this as a final activity with students. In the form of a review, students could choose the major ideas of a unit and represent them with an image. As the teacher, I can determine their grasp of the concept by the quality of connection of the image to the concept and the depth of understanding given in the definition.

--ErikaLyn Rempel

An activity type I found interesting was Story Starter. It is a visual image or group of images that can be used as a prompt to 'get the creative juices flowing". The students will look at the image and write a creative story based on what the image(s) make them feel. Specifically, this technique would work well for a social studies class. The teacher, for example, could show images of a scene in the Medieval times or Ancient Egypt and the students could write what they believe is happening, based on their prior knowledge. This should be done closer to the end of a unit so they do not struggle with details and can put their focus toward creativity or even character development (I.e., language expectations). Story starter is a great tool for cross curricular connections. Jackie MacKenzie