ClassNotes09

What skills or strategies can we use to help students determine the accuracy of information? How can we be 'healthy skeptics' online?
> is attached to the organization's site?
 * 1) Fact check. Compare information on one site with information on another.
 * 2) Check search engine results if information has already been dismissed as false by other web sites.
 * 3) Check site's author. Click links for "About Us", "Who Are We", "Mission Statement," et al.
 * 4) Check the URL. Is it a .com, .edu, .org site?
 * 5) Look for indication that the web site author has received accreditation from known authorities
 * 6) Does the URL of a known organization have a ~ symbol along with a personal name to indicate a personal web page

What are the elements of good storytelling using pictures?

 * 1) Have a context for the story
 * 2) Use props
 * 3) Color and contrast
 * 4) Clear focus of the action or subject
 * 5) Captures expression, emotion, body language
 * 6) Use the Rule of Thirds. Mentally divide an image, vertically and horizontally, into thirds. The points of interest in the photo will rest on the intersecting points.

What constitutes "useful feedback" in the classroom? (Voice Thread activity)

 * 1) Practice with feedback offline and online (ex.post-it notes, discussions on positive feedback, )
 * 2) Model constructive feedback (descriptive words, more than just "cool" or "awesome"

How do we begin researching a topic we know little or nothing about?

 * 1) Check resources (web sites i.e. Google and other search engines, online video
 * identify key words: Drew Levinson, CBS News correspondent, etc
 * know that your key words may change as will your search
 * Ask ourselves what we know about the subject

2. Ask people who have knowledge of the subject 3. Research can be a social event. Wikis, Blogs, Google Docs can provide a sharing of information from multiple researchers. Often students find research information pertinent to a classmate's topic in the course of their own research.

Where do these social media and digital tools fit in our curriculum?
High School English
 * Voicethread for response to text or images
 * record video of students 'role playing' literary characters
 * use Audacity for news report on final scene of a book
 * telling story of a vocabulary word. Find images and video to represent words. Students can also create original videos instead of locating video online.
 * Students create wikispace and upload original work and exchange comments on their work

6th Grade
 * interview expert on building narrative with pictures
 * use YouTube reporter center to prep for expert interviews
 * videoconference with parents for Stock Market unit
 * students use Voicethread to offer strategies for problem solving
 * use Google Maps for cross country unit in which videos are imported to show various destinations across country.

5th Grade
 * Voicethread to analyze pictures in prep for Social Studies test; drawing inference, comment on pictures, etc
 * View YouTube Reporters Center to improve interviewing and reporting skills
 * Using Skype to learn more about immigration via interviews with family members
 * aforementioned to prep for Capstone inquiry research project

4th Grade
 * build communities through interviews using Voicethread or handheld camcorders.
 * Take interview notes with aid of video recorders
 * make videos for an explorers or colonial america unit. Demonstrate use of period tools.
 * audio stories

3rd Grade
 * book talks via videoconference with students in different schools
 * analyze photos using Voicethread
 * interview family members for Family history unit -- video and audio recordings
 * use Voicethread for poetry unit. Students read original poems
 * videoconference with author
 * use YouTube for research

2nd Grade
 * using Skype to contact authors or community workers
 * Voicethread to respond to pictures in science unit (mammals, etc )
 * Take video clips of "happenings" around the building, 'a day at Fox Meadow" or related to class read alouds...
 * use blog to respond to a read aloud

1st Grade
 * refer to science videos on YouTube
 * life as a reader or writer... how to make "how to" books
 * watch a video to kick off author study
 * interactive writing using blogs
 * deep noticings with Voice thread. Identify descriptive words to enhance writing
 * use isight camera for student profiles