8th Rotation - Ho Ho Ho!

Kindergarten to Grade 4 - I read the new books I got to them. It was really fun and worked well with all the cancellations from Christmas parties and assemblies.  

Grade 5 - Finished the iMovie and discovered some improvements needed for next year. Don't let students choose books with no pictures - doesn't work. Some students hadn't read the book even though the instructions were everyone in group needs to read book. Maybe I should do what I did with grade 4 students and choose excellent picture books having the group familiarize themselves with the program. Then in the spring have them do one on their own with a more difficult book. This might scaffold better considering I lost a few kiddos on the way. Some students don't come to library because of ESL so they didn't do the lesson. I can't control that. The lesson took 3 rotations. One longer than I had planned which is another reason I like my idea of picture books.

Here's an example with a picture book:

Here's a nonfiction book example. What is funny about it is the boy picked the romantic theme and chose a book on a car he adores:

6th Rotation - reflecting

Kindergarten - I read through my stack of new books. Students really liked The Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner. The illustrations are fascinating. She outlines the bear and fills it in with different shapes. It might be a good book for teaching patterns and shapes. On a funny note I read a book about Gertrude Stein by Jonah Winter and it was imitating her play on words. It was supposed to be funny and a boy kept saying, "This isn't funny" which of course made me laugh all the more. I know that Jonah Winter's books don't target the wee ones but it was the last book in my pile of newbies and I really wanted to read it.  

Grade 1 - They are doing character studies so I picked books with distinct characters such as Henry and Mudge, Cam Jansen, Mercer Mayer, Ling & Ting, and Fox. The language arts curriculum describes the goals of the character unit as students studying what characters say, do, and how they change; plus, "they will retell to help them hold onto meaning and will make predictions based on the characteristics of the characters in their books." I could enhance this lesson by having students retell the story using the video on the iPad. The only problem is the books above are too long except for some of the Mercer Mayer. I would have to find shorter books like Biscuit, Pup & Hound, etc.

Grade 2 - I read the book, Okay by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, where the narrator says all the things they are okay at doing. Students love that the character is actually made out of the "O" and "K." They asked me to tip the book this way and that so they could spy the character in the illustrations. I wanted students to write things they were okay at but rather than be burdened with pencil and paper I wanted them to use the Dragon Dictation app. It didn't work. The app doesn't type the correct words and they got so distracted by it that they forgot about the task at hand. Some thought it so funny that they started saying all sorts of goofy things. I don't think the lesson was a complete failure. I think next time I'll just use a recorder. They can record on Sound Cloud their thoughts and I can then post it to the library blog... I need to incorporate my blog into more of my lessons as a way for students to post their work done on the iPad and then check out on their own.

Grade 3 - Teachers asked me to show the students Fountas & Pinnell. Do you know I've done this lesson 22 times?! Nuff said. I did email Follett Company and asked for them to add the advanced feature on their mobile app. Students can't search for leveled books on the app at the moment.

Grade 4 - I read Mrs. Harkness and the Panda by Alicia Potter. We had some awesome discussions about it in every class. The first class wanted to know how long panda's live. We looked it up online. The next class wanted to find out how Mr. Harkness died. We looked that up on Wikipedia and the information was incorrect! That sparked a whole discussion on information that is accurate and not accurate and how we can learn the difference. It was a teachable moment and the students were so engaged! I was also happy with myself because I made a conscious effort to ask open-ended questions and praise students for their thinking on the text. I am also trying to think more about letting students turn and talk with a partner about the text. I don't do this enough and it is quite powerful.

Grade 5 - We started our book trailers. I showed students a book trailer I did and one done on a picture book by some 4th graders. Next, I showed the app and gave a short demo on how it works. I gave students a graphic organizer to write a book trailer and told them to get in pairs. There are some threesomes and I'm not sure how this will work. They had to choose a book and write a trailer that focuses on the problem in the story. They can't give away the ending. Those who finished quickly I gave an iPad to and let them begin. This allowed for differentiation and seemed to work well. The students were so excited to use iMovie on the iPad. What an amazing motivator. I had one boy come at recess to ask if he could work on it because he didn't want to wait for the next rotation.

Grade 3 book trailer modifications

I made some improvements on my grade 3 book trailer lesson. Students kept losing their Photostory by saving it wrong. Oftentimes they would have to do the project over. Also, the bootup time of the computers was slow. We setup the laptops before classes came and logged on with a generic name and saved projects to USB disks. Students were not allowed to save but only an adult saved the projects. By grade 4 students know how to save but grade 3 just can't get the hang of it. I made six folders on the USB with grade 3 teachers classes and numbered each USB assigning students a disk. This worked well with no  hiccups.

Rather than have students fill out the teamwork form, I changed the assessment to the oreo cookie reflection that I learned from my husband. It goes like this... after watching everyone's video students get in a circle. They will get an oreo cookie and the 2 outsides symbolize the two things you thought you did well or your classmates did well. The inside symbolizes the one thing you would do differently. Don't ask the students to name two things they liked and didn't like. I made this mistake and didn't get thoughtful answers.  Below is an example of a student reflecting on the project:

Book Trailers Final Project

I have a book trailer project that I do with grade 3 students using Photostory. Students need to talk about the problem in the story and get viewers excited to read books. This project is hard for students and has been time-consuming. I decided to introduce book trailers in grade 2 so that I can reinforce what is happening in the classroom, as well as, build on the language arts curriculum from year-to-year. The unit they had just finished is Reading: Serious About Series (Week 23, 6 Weeks), and can be located on Rubicon Atlas.

Grade 2 students made a book trailer using the iTouch and iRig microphone. The students just finished a unit on identifying character traits in stories. I had students get into their current character groups and pick a book to read that they really liked. First I showed them an example that I had done. Next they were told to make sure they had the Title, Author, Character, Problem (don't give away the solution), and give the author's message.

I was surprised by how many students said they were "nervous." I don’t get this reaction in grade 3 and I think it is because they are only doing audio through photostory. One student was so scared he actually hid. He had to do it next library visit and I videotaped him in my office. He was fine then. Perhaps I should give them the option next year of doing audio or video.The first class I had students do the video themselves but this didn't work because they were putting the microphone too close to their mouths and moving all over the library. It was too chaotic so the next group I tried to videotape them myself. This too was chaotic and took too long. The following group I had a library assistant help me and that was just right. Yes, I do feel like Goldilocks in my lessons. I usually don't get the kinks out until the third time.  With the assistants help I was able to tell students where to go and conference with them.

This was a difficult lesson to do in 30 minutes. I was literally sweating by the end of class. The first class I had the students choose their own books. This took them too long – from 10-15 minutes. The second class that came in I emailed the teacher and asked if she would have the students come down with a book from their classroom. From then on students came with their own books.

I uploaded the videos to YouTube and the IT person had some students (page 3 or this example) put them on their blogs.  Not everyone was able to do this because of time and difficulty. I created a book trailer blog with student videos. I plan to use this from year-to-year and build a database of book trailers made by students.

I am collaborating with another grade 2 class in Bangkok where students created book trailers. We are going to read and comment on each's other books, but they just finished so I will have to update this post when we finish.

Here's the powerpoint I did for the class presentation. There's video's in it