World Habitats: A Web Quest for 3rd Graders

Hey, Everyone!  Check out my Web Quest designed for 3rd graders to learn about world habitats!

Going Places with Technology

“I feel without technology the kids wouldn’t be nearly as engaged.”  -Mrs. D., P. Charter School

P. Charter School is not your typical public elementary school.  Serving children in grades 1-6, they integrate students into multi-age classrooms with class sizes of about 15.  Their students are “intellectually curious” - gifted learners who are working above grade level.  I spent some time roaming around their website, and I was struck by part of their mission statement:

“Through an engaging, inquiry-based curriculum, our students will develop the ability to communicate effectively, work collaboratively, think critically, and excel academically.  Our program fosters creativity and the development of social and emotional skills, instilling a positive attitude about future studies and ensuring students are well-prepared for the challenges of an ever-changing world.”

It strikes me that to accomplish these lofty goals in today’s world, that students must use technology in their daily lives as students.  AND AT P. CHARTER SCHOOL, THEY DO!

On February 11th, I got to spend time watching Mrs. D’s primary class (grades 1-3) during their Language Arts morning instruction.  Her 15 students were great!  They were so open to having me in the classroom, and they were all willing to share their experiences and answer my questions.  

Because she is teaching a mixed age group with varying academic abilities, Mrs. D spends a lot of her instructional time using the learning center approach.  While I was in the classroom, I observed students rotating through the centers, one of which was a computer program called Compass Learning Odyssey (CLO, as the students affectionately called it).  The material and learning tools that the students accessed through CLO were tailored individually for each child.  According to Mrs. D, each learner is given an assessment to determine his or her ability level, and then Mrs. D loads the content based on their results.  If the student shows mastery of material, the program responds by increasing the difficulty level.  If the student struggles, CLO scales back the level of challenge.  Students in Mrs. D’s classroom seemed to love CLO and they were all very engaged with their work and eager to share with me what they were doing.  One student was creating sentences with a virtual form of magnetic poetry.  A few others were writing their own stories.  I also saw children doing reading comprehension exercises and timelines, among other activities.  Each child had his or her own set of headphones to experience the audio, and the graphics and capabilities of the software certainly seemed to be engaging students more than they would be using a book and paper to answer reading comprehension questions.  I asked one student to describe CLO to me and she told me:

“CLO is to help you learn in a fun way.  There are different games for different people.  It helps you learn your own way.”  

Check out this video I found.  It helps explain what CLO is all about.  

Although CLO is the most consistent technology tool students are using in Mrs. D’s class, she uses technology frequently and in a variety of other ways in her teaching.  Mrs. D told me that her kids love using tagxedo, prezi, and iPad apps, and that she also uses google docs and relevant YouTube videos in the classroom.  Mrs. D feels that technology is an integral part of her students’ lives and it helps engage them in their learning.  She also says:

“The benefit to using technology is a child can be given roughly the same assignment but with technology can take it to a number of places.”

I love this quote because it confirms everything we have been learning in EDU 533!  With the tools we have used in this class, we can do so many great things in the classroom.  We can give our students the opportunity to go new places with their assignments.  How great is that?!  

• A descriptive paragraph can become a fun tagxedo.  
• A poster presentation can transform into an engaging prezi.  
• A math worksheet is now an interactive iPad app that captures students’ minds and attention.

Technology truly does create a whole new world for our students.  

I had a great experience at P Charter School!  Mrs. D was welcoming and willing to explain all of her classroom procedures with me.  The students were so fun and so happy to see a “classroom visitor."  They all wanted to share with me what they were learning and they were engaged and excited, especially while using CLO.  This experience gave me a true example of how to successfully integrate technology into the curriculum, and I will most certainly make an effort to adopt some of the ideas in my own classroom in the future!  

Lesson Plan: Only One You

Kristen Nivison: Grade 3 Language Arts

“Big Idea” this lesson plan supports 
Students will use technology to apply the lessons of a text and create an original work as a means of personal expression.

Title

Only One You: Using Technology for Personal Expression

GSE’s/GLE’s/Frameworks/Common Core/NETS- Standards

Common Core: Language Arts > Speaking and Listening > Grade 3 > Comprehension and Collaboration

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.2

Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

(http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/SL/3)

ISTE NETS Standard > 1. Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

1. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
2. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression

(http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf)

Lesson Objectives

Learning Target: Students will describe unique qualities about themselves, each producing a piece of digital art that represents him or herself, and students will recognize everyone’s contributions to this class as unique and valuable, explaining what they learn about their classmates.

Students will identify main ideas from the text Only One You while engaging in a class discussion about the text

Students will hypothesize how the illustrations in the book Only One You convey and support the message of the text; they will share ideas during class discussion

Students will evaluate how the lessons from the book apply to our class

Students will individually design and create their own word clouds with the Web 2.0 tool Tagxedo that helps describe them and their talents or interests (http://www.tagxedo.com)

In groups of two, students will summarize to a classmate how their piece of art represents them

Students will explain to the class their partner’s word cloud and how it represents him/her

Students will display their creations on a class bulletin board, where the class can use them as a reminder of of each student’s uniqueness and talents

Materials

• Copy of Only One You by Linda Kranz

• “Model” word cloud made by teacher

• Computer for each student with internet access

• Color printer with paper and ink cartridge

• Several pairs of scissors

• Lined paper for each student

• Empty bulletin board with blue backing paper and title where students will hang completed work

• Stapler

Anticipatory Set

Use the book Only One You by Linda Kranz as the “hook.”  Read out loud with expression.   

Procedures

• Before class:
• Create a bulletin board with blue backing paper, border, title Only One You, quotes from text, and summary of Learning Target, leave empty space to display word clouds
• Write Learning Target on the board
• Prepare materials

• During class:
• Welcome students to class
• Invite them to sit on a rug or in a “class meeting” area
• Read Only One You out loud, showing pictures between pages
• Be sure that each child can see and hear during reading
• Invite one student to read the day’s Learning Target from the board
• Ask students to look around at their classmates and teacher.  Ask for students to raise their hands if there is someone in the room whom they feel they do not know very well.
• Discuss the lessons of the book by asking students the following questions:
• What pieces of advice were given to Adri (the main character) in this story?
• Why do you think this is important advice? (HOT QUESTION)
• How could this apply to us as a class? (HOT QUESTION)
• After hearing this book, why do you think it is important to know your teachers and classmates well? (HOT QUESTION)
• Explain to students why it is important for us to recognize each others’ gifts and know about each others’ interests.  Give an example of working together on a group project to create a story.  You might have a classmate in the group who is a great artist, but is hesitant to speak up about her talents.  If the rest of you learned from this activity that your classmate loves to draw, you could comment that she is a great artist and invite her to help with the illustrations for the story.  This would serve to boost her confidence and sense of belonging, as well as to improve the quality of your story.  
• Ask students to return to their computers.  Give the following instructions while demonstrating for them on the screen at the front of the classroom:  Please open your internet browser.  Go to www.tagxedo.com.  You are each responsible for designing a fish-shaped word cloud that represents you.  Click on “create.”  Click on “load.”  In the box next to “enter text,” please enter your name.  Leave a space and enter at least ten more words which describe you - your relationships, your interests, qualities that you possess, etc.  When we are finished, we will describe our fish to our classmates and display our fish on the bulletin board.
• Show students on screen a model word cloud made in advance by the teacher.
• Show them a printed version of the same model.
• Circulate around the room while students work on their word clouds.
• Once students have entered their text, show them how to make it into the shape of a fish by clicking “shape” and choosing the fish shape.  Discuss that we will all be using the fish shape for this project because of its correlation with the text Only One You.
• Show students how to change the font of their word cloud by choosing “font,” and allow them each to choose their own.  Show them how to change the colors by clicking “theme,” and allow them to choose their own.
• Instruct students to print their fish.
• Hand out scissors and ask students to cut their fish out.
• Once students complete their fish, ask students to turn and look at the person next to them.  This person is their partner.  Partners should take turns describing their fish and how it represents them.  On their lined paper, each partner should write at least three things they know about their partner that they did not know before this lesson.  After a few minutes, come back to class discussion.  Ask each student to introduce their partner and share with the class one thing they learned about him/her.  Collect the papers and read later as assessment tool.
• After class:
• Review assignments handed in, comment, assess for learning, hand back
• Review completed word clouds, assess for effort and quality, provide feedback
• Make notes on lesson plan to improve assignment in the future, assessing for student learning

Closure

• Ask for volunteers to remind the class why it is important to know our classmates.  
• Summarize for students why it is important for teacher and classmates to know each other.  Refer to lessons in Only One You text.

Assessment

• Evaluate class discussion to determine whether students were able to understand the text and have a meaningful conversation about it.
• Collect students’ papers discussed above on which they describe their partners.  Read later and comment on their answers, handing them back the next day.  
• Assess the word clouds that the students created, for effort and to determine whether it appropriately describes them as individuals.  

Modifications/Accommodations

• Provide after school help if needed
• Provide breaks for stretching during the lesson if needed
• Provide copies of “model” fish made by teacher as an example for students who struggle with the assignment
• Provide para-professional to work with individual students if they need extra guidance or help focusing.  Group these students next to each other in the classroom.
• If students cannot write what they learned about their partner, they will be allowed to type it or verbalize it to the teacher and the teacher will evaluate it in terms of their verbal answer rather than a written statement.
• Follow all IEPs and 504s.  
  
  
  
  

Teacher's model word cloud

My Digital Footprint

Getting Connected in the Elementary Classroom

Week 3: Literature Review  

     I remember creating a terrarium in my fourth grade class with my teacher, Mrs. Coughlin, and my classmates.  I even remember my amazement as I watched the plants inside grow, and watch droplets of water form on the plants, evaporate into the air, collect at the top, and rain down again onto the plants.  Our own little class ecosystem taught me about plant life, evaporation, and precipitation.  The fact that I remember this elementary science project in such detail is testament to the fact that creative, project-based teaching works.  Obviously the many lessons I learned in elementary school were the foundation of my education and have served me well.  However, when I try to access the distant memories of specific projects and lessons during my K-5 years, the reality is that I can only remember a few.  Although Mrs. Coughlin was not using internet resources to plan her lessons in her 1989 classroom, this memory immediately came to mind when I read the article “Using Freely Available Internet Resources to Promote the Study of Science and Technology in the Elementary Classroom” by Edward J. Lazaros (2012).  He encourages elementary teachers to use the internet to access a wide array of free resources to elicit student engagement in science and technology projects, many similar in nature to Mrs. Coughlin’s terrarium.  
In “Using Freely Available Internet Resources to Promote the Study of Science and Technology in the Elementary Classroom,” Lazaros (2012) reviews the website Science Kids, recommending that elementary teachers in the United States utilize this site in order to better engage their students in science and technology.  Lazaros cites Education Digest (2010) with the claim that STEM subjects are of vital importance in American schools, as they “‘will determine whether the U.S. will remain a leader among nations and whether we will be able to solve immense challenges in such areas as energy, health, environmental protection, and national security’” (p. 14).  He goes on to argue that American students often lag behind their international counterparts in STEM subjects and that educators tend to shy away from covering certain science topics in elementary schools based on a rationale that young children are not prepared to explore advanced science topics.  There is research that suggests otherwise, argues Lazaros, and he posits that engaging elementary students in STEM subjects at a younger age will better prepare them for more advanced studies later in their schooling (p. 15).  

     The article then reviews the website Science Kids, recommending it as a free and accessible tool for elementary teachers to find resources to make science more fun and engaging for elementary students.  Lazaros describes the website as containing “experiments, games, facts, quizzes, projects, lessons, images, videos, and topics” related to science (p. 15).  He includes several screen shots from Science Kids, including the following, to support his argument that it contains useful tools for teachers. 

In addition to these project suggestions, the website also includes quizzes, videos, and games that Lazaros suggests as supplemental materials to class lessons (p. 16).  He concludes by reiterating the idea that using technology in the elementary science classroom can help to make science fun and familiar to young students, which he hopes will lead to a greater interest in STEM subjects among middle and high school students and a greater interest in science and technology careers. (p. 17).  

Lazaros’ article brings to light several of our course learning outcomes.  His argument in writing is that utilizing technology in the elementary classroom can better engage students, as it is makes their course material more interesting and relevant to their lives, thus promoting learning.  Additionally, if teachers are consistently utilizing such internet resources as the Science Kids website and allowing students to engage the resources with the teacher’s guidance, the students’ technological literacy will no doubt improve.  In a classroom where each student or small groups of students have access to a computer, the teacher could personalize the lesson for students based on their individual learning needs and their levels of expertise with technology and science.  

Although I am not currently teaching, I can see how Lazaros’ article could encourage teachers to better utilize internet resources.  Science Kids is merely one website of its kind available to supplement elementary teaching.  There is also the Trucker Buddy Program for learning geography, Math is Fun, and ABCYa for Language Arts resources, among many others.  The article merely touches on how impactful such resources can be for children, especially those students who may struggle with a more traditional approach to learning.  In the article “Technology Education in Belle Vernon Elementary Schools,” author Ian Finn (2009) discusses how one school district has hired a technology education teacher at the elementary level.  According to his article, “there are always going to be those few who are hard to win over, but in this case most people who stop by my class find it amazing how kids who have trouble with behavior and academics in other classes are the ones who do very well in technology education” (p. 17).  Technology in the classroom may allow us to reach students who were unreachable through other methods.  This is an invaluable benefit.  
When I teach I plan to use resources such as Science Kids and others like it on a regular basis.  In my experience with my own children, they love using computers and they love even more when they are given choices (“do you want the shark socks or the penguin socks today?!”).  Wouldn’t it be effective to use both of these methods with young students on a regular basis?  “Let’s take a quiz on Science Kids to find out how much we know about the human body.  Then we can choose whether we want to play a fun game that teaches about our teeth and eating or do an experiment to determine if we can taste foods without smelling them!”  These are all resources available on the Science Kids website.  If technology in the classroom can make learning more exciting or more accessible to even a handful of students, it is a success.

Works Cited

Lazaros, E. J. (2012). Using freely available internet resources to promote the study of science and technology in the elementary classroom. Children's Technology and Engineering, 17(2), 14-17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1239269244?accountid=3783

Finn, I. (2009). Technology education in belle vernon elementary schools. Technology and Children, 13(3), 16-17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/212871453?accountid=3783