In addition to joining the Slice of Life Challenge at the Two Writing Teachers blog, I have committed to hosting a DigiLit Sunday round up each week. If this is your first time here, consider joining us on Sundays. I love reading about all the new tools available for students and how teachers are using them. Use the button below on your site.
This week was the last of our third nine weeks. How this year is flying! My students do a book talk presentation each quarter, so this was the week to get them done. I love how the room buzzes with computer activity and how talk revolves around books. I added a new requirement this quarter: found poems. These were their instructions:
1. Find a section of 50-100 words. This may be your favorite part or the climax or a part with a good description.
2. Copy words or phrases from the section.
3. Rewrite or type as a poem. Notice line breaks. You may change the order or add words only if necessary to add meaning.
4. Check your poem for tone. Does it reflect the tone of the book?
My students choose the technology they wanted to use for their presentations. Some used Emaze, Powtoon, Animoto, or PowerPoint. Some used the technology to guide their talks. Other used it as a hook or to enhance the presentation.
I want to share some of the found poems, a Powtoon, and an Animoto trailer.
Matthew’s Animoto book trailer for Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.
Mission Impossible is a favorite background. Tobie used it to create this Powtoon presentation about Wonder.
Digital Learning Day is on March 13th. My plan is a Crazy Comment Challenge in which my students will try to write as many comments as possible on other SOL posts. Please consider joining us. More about Digital Learning Day can be found here. Use the hashtag #DLDay, #sol15, and #crazycomments in your Tweets.
If you have written a Digital Literacy post, please add your link in the comments. I will add them to this post. I am having some trouble with link up apps lately, so I’m just using the old fashioned way.
Cathy Mere struggles with teaching students about copyright when using photos. Tough lesson for us all. http://reflectandrefine.blogspot.com/2015/03/digilit-sunday-helping-students-with.html
Julie Johnson writes about using apps with her after school digital writing group. http://www.raisingreadersandwriters.com/
Tara Smith writes about teaching resources for Selma. https://ateachinglifedotcom.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/sol15-march-8-2015-living-history-commemorating-the-march-on-selma/ “Teaching the events of Selma empowers our students with what the President called, “the imperative of citizenship”, which brave people like John Lewis have been willing to die for ever since we first became our nation.” Tara Smith
Holly wonders about the use of technology versus the way we grew up with limited TV channels and certainly no Internet. Join the conversation here: http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/2015/03/slice-of-life-story-challenge-what-i_8.html
Hi Margaret! You know I love found poems! I’m also in awe at how you are using different strategies in your classroom. I’ll be sharing a couple of these ideas with some of our teachers. Thank you.
Found poems are amazing I love how they come together. Your kids and their work are pretty amazing too. I hope you are about to burst your buttons with pride – job well done
This is great!! I’m reading Wonder right now and I just loved these. Such great ideas. I’ll definitely be sharing this.
Margaret,
Thank you for sharing the work your students created. I find it fascinating how they each have found tools that work for them when creating. Considering tone in these found poems is a step I often leave out. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for hosting again this week,
Cathy
Thanks for sharing your students’ work. Giving kids choice is an important part of the process, isn’t it? You’ve helped me think more about my digital writing club (and an idea for today’s post). 🙂
As always, I get instructional ideas from your work. I love the found poem idea. Just pure literacy. Beautiful. I love Animoto as a tool for book talks but have not been able to produce them at school. Still not sure why. Bandwidth perhaps??
Thank you for the DigLit commitment. I don’t always come through with a post, but love reading the ones who do.
Thank you for sharing these digi tools!
This was my first time visiting (via SOL) your blog. How many devices do you have in your classroom and what grade do you teach?
My third grade class has two computers (one for myself and one for my TA) as well as a classroom ipad. Then my school has two ipad carts to share amongst the 1st-5th grade classes. I find that planning to actually incorporate digi tools into my class without constant device access is a challenge. Any recommendations for dealing with this?
I teach 1st-6th gifted. I have multiple small groups which makes computer use easier. I also use a timer and a rotation system. That way everyone has a turn. Sometimes I take them all to the library or computer lab so that everyone has a computer. I read about 1-1 computer access and feel so jealous. Have you ever thought about doing a Donors Choose or some other type of grant? Thanks for dropping by my blog today.
Thanks for sharing these, Margaret! I’m looking for the digilit roundup, if there is one today.
Old fashioned link in the comments today. I’m having trouble with Mr. Linky in wordpress. I may have to pay to get better links.
I love the idea of a found poem from a passage in a book and putting it in digital format. It’s a bit like blackout poetry, yes. The biggest problem I have w/ using tech in class is time constraints. We’re on trimesters. This tri I only have seniors eleven weeks as they finish the year a week earlier than the rest of the students.
I’ve done book trailers using Animoto and will do so again after PARCC testing, but I’ve never done Found Poems using books. I love these! Here is my DigiLit Sunday post: http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/2015/03/slice-of-life-story-challenge-what-i_8.html It doubles up as my SOLSC post.
I had my seniors create found poems from our current novel a few weeks ago–I love this adaptation with different texts too–thanks for the inspiration!
Great pieces by your engaged learners, Margaret.