Literacy Project

My Literacy Project was done with Maryann Castrilli and Jen Nagel. We created a Wiki called Fun 5th Grade Reads! We decided to have the students write book reviews! These book reviews would eventually be posted to the wiki for all of the students to use. Students from Portland, Southington, and Rocky Hill can communicate through this wiki. We allowed chapter books, picture books, and magazine/newspaper articles to be reviewed. This enabled every student to participate in the project. I wrote this lesson as a persuasive writing lesson. I taught the students the steps that are involved in writing a persuasive paragraph. We discussed beginning, middles, and ends. We talked about certain vocabulary terms to use in a persuasive paragraph.  We discussed the importance of details! We talked about making the book sound as good as possible. We discussed ways in which to give the reader enough information without giving away the ending. We discussed how asking questions in the book review was a great way to involve the reader and interest him/her more! Please feel free to visit the Wiki today!

http://5thgradefunreads.wikispaces.com/

Course Reflection

I just used my Web 2.0 tool to create my project. I used the tool Bitstrip and it was a blast!!! It may be a bit short, but the whole point of the comic is that I didn't know a thing about computers when I came into this class, and now I do!!! Thanks to Judy Arzt for teaching me about how to implement all of these tools in the classroom and for having the patience to deal with me. I once was technology illiterate and now I'm not!!!!!

Group Blogging Members

I borrowed this idea from the genius Maryann! Here are the links to my fellow comrades' blogs!!!!

Maryann's Blog  http://fabulous5thgrd.blogspot.com/2013/09/group-blogger-addresses.html

Jen's Blog  http://teachernagel.blogspot.com/

Tara's Blog http://taralinfo.blogspot.com/

Final Digital Story

My final digital story - it's a bit long, but everything is included - I hope you like it!

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Second attempt at the American Revolution

This is my second attempt at my digital story. It now has music and narration - check it out!

Digital Story of American Revolution

I am currently working on my digital story. I had never used Photo Story before. so it took some time to get used to. However, once I figured it out, it was actually quite easy! My digital story ties into my social studies curriculum at my school. It focuses on the American Revolution - the causes, all of the battles, and finishes with the Patriot victory at Yorktown and the surrender of the British troops. I think I will show this prior to starting the chapter on the Revolutionary War in our textbook in order to entice the students into wanting to learn more about how and what happened during that time in American history. Showing the video will not only excite the students, but being told through the use of my voice might make it seem more important and "real." The images I chose depict what was happening at that time, and the music that's playing in the background makes it even more vibrant and alive! This is only a rough draft, so keep in mind I will makes changes if necessary, but let me know what you think!!!!!!!

Faith and the Electric Dog

Faith and the Electric Dogs: My students are currently reading Faith and the El...: My students are currently reading Faith and the Electric Dogs by Patrick Jennings. It's a story about a young girl named Faith who recen...