Day 93: Mentoring Through Digital Media

If you want to learn some specific skills, why not call in an expert? 

Many schools across the county are preparing to participate in the upcoming SCDSBLive Radio Expo. In order to support the teachers and students to build some background knowledge for the project, we decided to call on a newly trained expert! Brad MacDonald, is a former student of Elmvale District High School. Before that, he attended Huronia Centennial Elementary School...and that's where he went today. 

Brad generously spent part of this morning sharing his knowledge about making effective audio recordings. In order to capture his advice and share it further, we decided to make a video recording using the school's iOgrapher kit and enlisted the help of some grade six and eight students. It was exciting to hear Brad talk about his experience as a news reader on CBC Radio One in Windsor after graduating from Humber with a degree in Journalism.  He taught us lots of "lingo" from the industry, explaining that reporters refer to their tripod as their "sticks" and the light on their camera as the "sun gun". Brad went on to give many practical suggestions for making effective audio recordings. 

Here's an example of an actual script that Brad used on one of his CBC Radio One newscasts.  

Be sure to check out the #SCDSBLive website where the full version of the video will be posted soon. You'll also find the complete list of categories for the "contest" including news reports, music spots, creative stories and many more. Share your learning in a new, creative way.  Be inspired and inspire others...just like Brad did.

Day 29: Blue Jays Fever is Alive and Well in Grade 5

We have all been swept up in the excitement of our Jays' success!!  Game 5 of the series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers sent many of us to the edge of our seats.  As fans, we were rewarded with a victory and we are now onto the next round! 

Today, I had the privilege of visiting a grade 5 classroom where the student inquiry of the day focused on baseball success.  The over-arching inquiry question presented to the students was "How does a team make it to the World Series?"

Student groups were lead through a series of questions, group inquiries, and research opportunities to find evidence as to how a MLB team could win the World Series.  They learned how the rules varied between American and National leagues, the various divisions within a league, the post-season match-ups, strategies, etc.  

What Dave Billark (grade 5 teacher at Orchard Park PS) discovered is that the more the students inquired, the more questions they had!  Students were motivated to engage in a current, real-life approach to learning.  He recognized that when the students were invested in the learning and genuinely cared about the questions they asked, they would persevere in finding the answers to their questions.  

The real teaching moments came from the student research. Guiding students in how to critically determine and analyze what they were reading and interpreting was the big challenge!  The reward?  Student-led inquiry that was meaningful for them! The grade 5's gained insight, research skills and relevant information about a current event.

I suspect even "Joey Bats" would be impressed!!

Thank you, Dave Billark at Orchard Park PS for the invitation into your class to see your students' amazing work!

               

Day 23: Using the Writing Process...Digitally

The iOS app called Book Creator (available in the Airwatch catalogue on the board iPads) is an extremely versatile tool that is suitable for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12!  It connects seamlessly with the Writing Process that teachers use with their students.  Here’s a sample lesson with a Grade 3 class as they explored procedural writing.

In keeping with the gradual release approach to balanced literacy, the teacher had already done some modelled and shared procedural writing with her class on chart paper.  The students had a fairly solid understanding of the format that would be used for their own writing.  

We reviewed the anchor charts and brainstormed a list of possible topics they could use for procedural writing.  Next, we did a quick overview of only the most basic features of Book Creator (see this video).  This gave the students some scaffolding without bogging them down with too many details.  

Off they went in pairs to create and discuss a plan for their collaborative procedural writing.  Once they had agreed upon a topic, they were given an iPad and set out to write their “draft”.  The students were engaged in the writing and needed only minimal support to expand their ideas digitally.  Once the ideas were flowing, students were challenged to change the size or colour of the font.  Some explored the ability to add video or audio to their writing.  

It was exciting to discover during the mini-lesson with the whole group, that the students understood the clear distinction between revising and editing.  They were reminded that in order to revise, they needed to re-read their work carefully. During this particular session, most had enough time to use the Speak Selection feature to be able to listen to their text a second time and ask themselves if it “made sense” and “sounded right”.  

During their next lesson, the students will be given more time to finish their writing and move on to the editing stage.  While thinking about whether their text “looks right” they will check for capitals, punctuation and spelling.  

Students will be directed back to their anchor chart to have an opportunity to make any further additions or modifications.  At this stage, self and peer feedback can be used to inspire the co-creation of success criteria to support further exploration of procedural writing. Another exciting feature that teachers can use in an innovative way is to give student feedback using an audio recording.  In this way, teachers add a temporary layer of feedback that is easily understood by the students and placed directly where it’s needed.

It was exciting to see how far some of the students were able to go during just one lesson. Imagine the growth that is sure to follow with more experience, additional feedback and evolving success criteria!  

Here’s one example of a first attempt at procedural writing in Book Creator:

Thanks to Mundy’s Bay Public School teacher Kim Rettinger and her Grade 3 students for learning and sharing with me.