I am a fifth grade teacher. To improve my instruction, I am currently taking a class that addresses digital writing in education. I hope to use this blog to discuss digital writing.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Blog Status
I am currently not updating this blog. Plese see the blog I am currently maintaining: Mr. Markey Reads 4 Kids.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Mad Libs
Wacky Web Tales
I found a goofy activity for digital writing. It doesn't teach students a new style of writing, it just allows them to do a very traditional type of writing online. It's a version of Mad Libs called "Wacky Web Tales."
My students love it. They choose from about 50 possible stories, provide the required words, read what the computer comes up, and then share with friends. Students have called others over to their computers and cut and pasted onto their blogs to share.
Some students are even redoing ones they've done once with more appropriate or funnier word choices.
I found a goofy activity for digital writing. It doesn't teach students a new style of writing, it just allows them to do a very traditional type of writing online. It's a version of Mad Libs called "Wacky Web Tales."
My students love it. They choose from about 50 possible stories, provide the required words, read what the computer comes up, and then share with friends. Students have called others over to their computers and cut and pasted onto their blogs to share.
Some students are even redoing ones they've done once with more appropriate or funnier word choices.
PowerPoint Writing
Winter PowerPoint
This lesson isn't real fancy. It just involves PowerPoint. I asked my students to create an informational PowerPoint about Winter using their own schema. They needed 8 total slides, a title page and 7 informational slides.
They could only use Clip Art for their images. They could not go on
line and search for images. I did this for two reasons.
Number 1, I wanted to save time. When they go online to look for pictures they can spend 30 minutes looking for the perfect image. Using Clip Art limits how many images they can look at before finding the perfect image saving a whole lot of time.
Number 2, I did not want to worry about copyright. Only allowing Clip Art guaranteed that the students had permission to use the pictures and I didn't need to ask where they came from because I already knew.
And for a bonus reason, the students had to come up with all their information on their own. Without access to the internet students couldn't just cut and paste their information. I've also noticed that students will copy images from the web that have a picture with text. They then try to count the image's text as their text for the slide.
Finally, I don't like transition and sound effects so I don't require them. If students want to include them they can. I do like adding "Table of Contents" that use hyperlinks so I teach though but don't require them because they are not necessary for an effective PowerPoint.
All students completed their "Winter" PowerPoint presentations after a 1 hour lab and a 35 minute lab. That's the power of Clip Art.
The week after the "Winter" PowerPoint, I had my students create a "School" PowerPoint using the exact same guidelines.
The Directions I passed out to my students are below.
______________________________________________________
Winter PowerPoint
Directions:
Create a PowerPoint that discusses what people traditionally do during the winter.
· Include a Title Page
o Title
o Your name
o 1 picture
· 7 Information Slides
o 1 picture and at least one sentence explaining what the picture shows
o All pictures must come from Clip Art. You will not be using the internet for this project.
o When you have finished, e-mail your PowerPoint to me