GFS: Time, Continuity and Change

Recently at GFS the 1st grade teachers, Mary Ellen Barry, Ellen Mason, Shannon Utecht, MarySue Welch and library media specialist, Kelley Auringer and technology teacher, Sally Wanamaker with guest presenter, Michael Urban, owner of Urban Antique Radio & Vintage Hi-Fi created a TRIP THROUGH TIME for all the 1st grade students!

Michael Urban shows 1st graders antigue radios.

Students had a passport that needed to be stamped as they made their way to different "artifact stations" where various tools and equipment were displayed and presented to students.

Mary Ellen Barry shows 1st graders a washboard.

Kelley Auringer, LMS, shows 1st graders a typewriter.

Students later researched the artifacts and created a digital photostory in the computer lab. Through these activities students were engaged in thinking about this essential question:

How would your life be different if you were a member of a family living in an earlier time period?

GFS: TV10 visits McMahon Communications Center at Quinnipiac University

On Tuesday, April 21, 2009 the 5th grade members of the GFS TV10 club visited the Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. Kelley Auringer, LMS, arranged and managed the visit.

Quinnipiac students in the School of Communication led the TV10 crew through a tour of Quinnipiac's state of the art television studio and broadcasting program. The TV10 crew was allowed to use Quinnipiac's professional level technology and equipment to produce their own news show. The students' favorite part was working with the green chromakey wall and producing the weather. There was a lot of laughter, excitement and fun as the learning took place. By all accounts the field trip was wonderful and will be considered by many to be a highlight of the TV10 year.

GFS: My Life as a Writer

GFS 4th grade teachers, Mrs. Dimock, Ms. Krzyzek, Mrs. Theiss, and Mrs. Walsh, with technology teacher, Sally Wanamaker worked with each student to create a PhotoStory entitled, "My Life as a Writer." Recently, Sherry Black, technology teacher, posted all of the student projects to Blackboard. The following information was sent home to parents to explain the project:

In January and February the students planned the content of their digital story using a storyboard with their classroom teacher, and brought their plans to computer class. In computer class, the students created their illustrations for each slide using several different methods. They used drawing tools in PowerPoint/Max Show and saved the illustrations as jpegs so they could be used in their digital story. They also searched for their favorite author’s picture using Teachingbooks.net, and added clipart where appropriate.

Students then created slides using Microsoft’s Photo Story 3 software, inserted all of the illustrations they created, and typed in their captions, paying attention to slide layout and appropriate font style, size and color. The next step was to record their voices reading the script that they had created in their storyboard plan with their classroom teachers. When they were sure that their recording was clear and understandable, they added music that complemented their recording but didn’t compete with it. Lastly, they added custom transitions and animation to enhance their show.

The students had the opportunity to complete a rubric to assess their performance. Their performance on this project was also assessed by their computer teacher.
We wanted to give you a chance to see these projects, so we have posted them on their secure Blackboard site so that they may share their project with you, as well as share the attached rubric with you.

This is one sample of a student's final digital story, "Bryan's Life as a Writer." (The student's image and full name have been removed from this version of the final product.)

GFS: Audacity to Monitor!

Caitlin Walsh, 4th grade teacher at GFS, uses Audacity software to monitor her students progress in oral reading fluency.

Students first recorded their reading using a microphone and Audacity software. They saved their files in the R-Drive so that they could be easily accessed.

Students used the following three checklists to assess their growth over three repeated readings. The checklists were designed based upon the focus of the lesson (click on them to open up the checklists):

• Fluency Center Goals and Progress Reflection for Heeding Punctuation
• Fluency Center Goals and Progress Reflection for Reading with Expression (Poetry)
• Fluency Center Goals and Progress Reflection for Reading with Expression
  

Listen to an example of one of the student's audio files: SAMPLE

GFS: Music

Suzanne Propp, Music teacher at GFS, has been using an iPod and a microphone to record kids' singing and playing various pieces of music on the instruments in the music room. The students then listen to the performance to do an assessment of their skills. Here is how she describes the activity:

"Laughing All The Way" is an activity I use with 5th graders to teach them to read a musical score. After several lessons where students read through the music, we rotate through the instruments so that everybody gets a chance to try all of the different parts. Then we work on finalizing the performance. Recording the performance on the iPod and playing it back immediately helps the students assess their performance; they listen to see if they are (a) keeping a steady beat and (b) playing the correct notes. Later we work together to add expressive elements (dynamics)."

This activity meets many curricular objectives from the ITL and music curricula, including:

• Create, perform and respond using: half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, dotted quarter notes, dotted half notes, whole notes, dotted eighth notes, sixteenth notes, syncopated rhythms, triplets, eighth rest, quarter rest, half rest, whole rest, fermati and ties.
• Perform and respond with understanding to metered signatures of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 through singing, movement or accompaniments.
• Identify and understand the function of music symbols, such as repeat sign, single bar line, double bar line, first and second endings, and D.C. al fine, multi-measure rests and coda.
• Review treble clef and recorder notes C- D'.
• Demonstrate an understanding of rhythm patterns by performing orchestrated accompaniments on Orff instruments and in other ways.
• Perform pieces that use a variety of layered ostinati (speech, body percussion, instruments).
• Identify and perform pieces in AB, ABA, AABA, Rondo and other forms.
• Self-assess performance and final product using rubric established by self, class and/or teacher.
• Use a variety of production technologies for sharing information, e.g., word processing, photographing, audio recording, drawing materials, maps, models, multimedia presentations, scanning, videotaping, multimedia presentations and video editing
  

Listen to One Piece of Student Music

GFS: Research and Writing a Feature Article

GFS Library Media Specialist, Kelley Auringer, has been working with the four fifth grade classes and their teachers: Calla Constantine, Stacy Fowle, Kristen Lukovits, and Sarah E. White for the last month on the process of creating and writing a feature article. The students did research for their own articles using i-Conn and the information site Kids InfoBits to find inspiration and information. A template was created that guided the students in finding a topic, an angle and four main ideas upon which to build their articles. The 5^th graders also learned how to conduct surveys and interviews and to use this data as part of their research. The students reviewed NoodleBib and used it to cite all of their sources. The articles were designed, formatted and printed as an activity in the computer lab with technology teacher, Sally Wanamaker. This is the third year GFS has done this collaborative project.

[Since this year's projects have not been completed, here are two sample projects from last year: Sydney's Cell Phones Article (Page 1 shown below) and Kari's School Time Article]

(Click on image above to view in original format.)

GFS: Schedule YOUR Mystery Reader on a WIKI!

Mary Ellen Barry, 1st grade teacher at GFS, schedules her Mystery Readers through a wiki. Actually, the parents schedule themselves through the wiki! During parent conferences she introduced it to the parents on the Smartboard at Back to School Night and they quickly understood how to use it. The parents have the password to edit the wiki.

Marry Ellen said, " The best thing about it is that once it's set up, then it's done. I avoid having to contact parents by phone or send out repeated letters to parents saying that I need volunteers. Also, if a parent needs to cancel, they don't even have to call me. They can just go on to the wiki and delete their name. I make sure to check it the day of a scheduled reader just to make sure that one is signed up. It has saved me so much time! Also, I heard that some teacher over at KHS has used a wiki to have her parents sign up for conferences. I love that idea too. I might just do that next year."

(Click on image for better viewing)

Lisa Lewis, 2nd grade teacher at GFS, heard about the Mystery Reader wiki, and this year she is using one as well! It has also saved her time and streamlined the process of scheduling her Mystery Readers.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Wikis have a great relative advantage -- they can be adapted to meet a wide range of curriculum objectives at all grade levels. I will try to spotlight wikis which demonstrate various uses. If you are using a wiki in a way not featured on this blog, please e-mail me so I can put the spotlight on YOU!)

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.