CES: Using the GROUPS feature for Discussion Boards

Joe Pullia, 5th grade teacher at CES, conducted a unit of study with his students on the Newbery Award. He chose to use the Discussion Board tool in Blackboard as a way to motivate students to have "conversations" about five books that received the Newbery Medal. Utilizing the Manage Groups feature in Blackboard [Control Panel/User management/Manage Groups], student groups were created.
The 5 groups were set up to include their own discussion board with specific students enrolled in each group. When a new button was set up for the groups a Tool Link was added, with the tool type being Groups.
Mr. Pullia noted that the discussion boards have motivated students to write more, share more, and go deeper into various issues and characters in the book. He said that that one huge advantage of the groups feature is the ability to differentiate instruction, since a group can be created for even a single student. Janna Bell, assistant principal, has been included as part of the discussion groups and often responds to posts and asks questions to promote dialog.

Here is a sample section of one books discussion with student names erased (click on image for larger view):
One student said that she really enjoys using discussion boards and especially the Newbery discussion board because she can "talk" with her classmates even when she is home. She said that she gets some ideas about the book that she didn't even think about, and she gives other kids new ideas about the book too!

The GROUPS tool adds another way to manage discussion boards and provides a system for supporting differentiated instruction.

Blackboard Clinics

Today was my second Blackboard Clinic. I am spending a full day at each school to provide Blackboard assistance for interested teachers -- from setting up the basic menu (Teacher Info, Class Overview, Announcements and Assignments), to a wide variety of additional features, including (but not limited to) adding videos, images and html code. There are many new video tutorials on specific Blackboard features made by Natalie Carrignan, Director of Instructional Technology. These tutorials can be found under the BB tab after logging in.

The Blackboard Clinic Schedule:

• BMS - April 8th
• SHS - April 20th
• CES - April 29th
• GFS - May 6th
• KHS - May 7th
• CMS - May 13th
• SES - May 14th
• LLS - May 19th

To Schedule time: Click on this link
(E-mails are sent out approximately two weeks before the Clinic dates!)

SHS: Spanish -- Podcasting and Blackboard

Victoria Mazzarelli, World Language Department Chair and Spanish teacher, recently combined podcasting with Blackboard's Discussion Boards. Two of her 12th grade Spanish Honors classes participated in this activity. A Blackboard class was set up combining all students from Periods 2 and 3. Both classes were given the assignment to read and create an alternate ending to the story "Nosotros, no" ("Not us") .

Working in pairs students used the language lab to record their endings in Spanish. With the help of lab assistant, Laura Schwartz, the audio files were then attached to each group's Blackboard Discussion Group.

Next students from Period 2 were asked to listen to the podcasts in the Discussion Board of Period 3 and comment in Spanish on all of them. Students were given time to start this in class, but some of the work was done at home.

The project involved reading, writing, listening and speaking in Spanish as well as collaborating with students in another class.

This image shows the Blackboard Discussion Board groups with the uploaded .mp3 file. Click on image to see a larger view. To hear one of the Spanish podcasts, click here.

Promote Peer Review of Writing Through Discussion Boards in Blackboard

Amy DeCeault, 3rd grade teacher, and Sally Wanamaker, technology teacher, worked together at GFS to set up a discussion board on Blackboard. Through this interactive writing process, students are able to share their writing and gain constructive feedback from their peers.

A topic was created for the discussion board on the classroom page, making sure to leave "allow attachments" unchecked. Students posted a request on the discussion board asking their peers to give feedback on a certain aspect of their story (ie "I would like feedback on my main character" or "I would like to hear what you think about the problem in my story" or "What did you think of my setting?" or, as in the example below, "I want feedback on dialogue and my characters."). They then attached their writing pieces created in Word to the discussion board message.

Once the students each posted their own story, they opened one of their classmates' posts, read the request, opened the attachment and read the story. They then replied to the author's initial posting and responded to the request for feedback. (If they had time they went to other posts and responded.) The authors also had a chance to read the feedback, comment on it and/or ask questions. This created very effective dialogue between the students.

The student's also learned quite a few new ITL skills including adding threads to the discussion board, browsing to upload attachments, downloading the attachments
of others (and understanding why if they make a change to their peers' story it doesn't change the original in their peers' Y drive!), and replying to discussion board messages.

As with all of the postings in this BLOG, please feel free to contact the teachers for more information.

BMS: Marketing Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries!

Debra LaBella's 6th grade Social Studies class at BMS recently completed a study of the 13 British Colonies. The details of the unit with a check list and rubric (as well as many other resource materials) were provided for the students through Blackboard. Each student was given one of the 13 colonies to research, then joined with one or more student(s) to create a persuasive digital story about that colony.

Here is one example:

LLS: VoiceThread

Currently in the Long Lots 1st grade technology class, Michael Brownstein, technology teacher, is using VoiceThread to record and share students' verbal responses to fiction and nonfiction literature. (When you visit VoiceThread, BROWSE the many samples of work K through adult.) He is using Scholastic's BookFlix, a new subscription service in the elementary schools that pairs fiction and nonfiction books around specific themes or topics -- in this case Ezra Keat's The Snowy Day is paired with Katie Marsico's Snowy Weather Days.

Students go to their Blackboard page (and click on the Bookflix Book Rev button on the left hand side of the screen) and enter the listed password and logon (with some help by the classroom teacher and Mr. Brownstein). Students upload an image they have created to represent themselves and record their response to the book. In the "work in progress" below you will notice the faces on either side of the center image. These faces, called identities in VoiceThread, have a voice attached to them. You can either click on each face OR press play on the bottom center of the main viewing area, and the VoiceThread presentation will play automatically. (To get a larger view of the VoiceThread presentation, click on the VoiceThread and you will be taken to the original presentation.)