Student Display Work...See It, Scan It, Hear it

With the year kicking into high gear, I've decided to redesign a classic display that I have used in the hallway. Most years I have the students complete an "I Am" poem as an introductory assignment and nice display to have in the hallway. This year, I plan on taking that project and implementing two new features. One facilitates integration of the Common Core Standards (by encouraging and demonstrating fluency) and the second facilitates the integration of some excellent technology--QR Codes.

My plan is to post the decorated and typed poems in the hallway.  But as an added feature, I am also going to have my students record themselves reading their poems.  These recordings will be stored in a QR code that links to those recordings.  With the QR code displayed on the wall near each student's poster, anyone with a smart device can scan the QR code and hear each student's recitation.

How to do it:

#1. Here is the organizer for the "I Am" Poem:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/19459636/I-Am-Poem

#2. For the recording, I have downloaded a free app called Audioboo.  Students are NOT required to create an account to use this app, they simply press record and read their poem.

#3. Once they have finished recording, they give their "boo" a title, save + upload.  Audioboo will give an option to copy the link to this uploaded recording when you press the share symbol.  I am having my students save this to a 'note' on the ipads so they can use it later.

#4.  In my building, we do NOT have the ability to print from our ipads. So for this next step, it's off to the desktops!!   The students will then use the site kaywa.com.  By typing the link to their audioboo into Kaywa, they can generate a QR code, print the code and adhere it to their "I Am" poems.


Viola....a multi-media student display.  Anyone with a smartphone and 'scan' app can hear the students reading their poems as well as see them.    See it....scan it...hear it!

Want to hear mine?? 

 

Now that's using your Smarticles!!

 

 

Podcasting - An Exercise in Fluency and Voice

My ELA class just finished recording a podcast of their writing using Audacity software. This blog is devoted to sharing that experience, the materials and the results of that project.

Materials

#1. Audacity. A free audio editing software, downloadable from this site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
#2. A script My students wrote 'commercials' for a machine that they had invented, inspired by: thewritingfix.com.

Introduction to the project: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32494300/Explanatory-Writing-Assignment
Flow Chart: http://www.writingfix.com/PDFs/Chapter_Book_Worksheets/Homer_Price_Machine_GO.pdf
Transition Word List: http://www.writingfix.com/PDFs/Writing_Tools/List_of_transitions.pdf

#3. Headset/microphone
#4. Some audio background music (.mp3 files). I obtained several files at: http://freeplaymusic.com


The Project

Using mentor text "Homer Price" I read to my students about a donut making machine and how it churned out more than enough donuts. Using the text as inspiration, I asked students to brainstorm about creating a machine that takes something, and turns it into something else through several steps in a process.

Students then completed a flow chart of the steps that the machine goes through to create the item.

I then provided students with a chart of transition words and encouraged them to replace words like then, next and finally with transition words like additionally, subsequently and meanwhile.

To give their stories 'voice' I asked them to consider an infommercial such as the one for the sham wow. They were encouraged to introduce their product by asking a question and then continuing to tell what their product is, the product's name and to describe the steps through which their product accomplishes the task.

After rough drafts were written, I had the students peer edit through primarypad.com. See previous blog post on this process: http://yoursmarticles.blogspot.com/2009/05/collaborative-editing-through-etherpad.html

Once their paragraphs were written and edited, students were introduced to Audacity. They selected a music track (.mp3) file that they liked and uploaded it to Audacity. Next they read and recorded their stories about their machines.

Reflection

The voice that came alive in my student's writing was well worth the effort. Technology can be cumbersome, but for the first time I heard voice in some of my students that have struggled with stilted, choppy writing. Voice was not the only outcome, new levels of fluency (and attempts at fluency) appeared as students listened to their recorded voices, knowing what they wanted to sound like versus what they actually sounded like.

Results

All of the student podcasts and writing samples are uploaded here at this wikispace:

http://118machines.wikispaces.com http://106machines.wikispaces.com

Podcast - Year in Review Project

Podcasting – Year in Review Project One annual project that has become very dear to me is the Year in Review Podcasting project. This project began based on an idea generated at our high school to create a review podcast to help students prepare for their global studies regents exam. In an effort to simulate that activity and to provide the students with a review experience, we conceived of a podcast project that would summarize one unit of study (from Social Studies) that we had covered throughout the year. The objective was to create a product that could be used to present to the students next year that would summarize and provide highlights to an upcoming unit. This project is a multi-step project culminating in a sharing activity where finalized student podcasts are shared with the rest of class—what a TERRIFIC way to end the year.

Here, step by step, is how we did it.

What is a Podcast?

(iPOD broadCAST) An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer. The "pod" in podcast was taken from "iPod," a portable, digital music player, and although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music, dialogue and even pictures.

The Process

Step #1:

-Choose a topic that you wish to Podcast about and brainstorm suitable vocabulary.

Step #2: Obtain lyrics. Begin to write out your narrative, Music, lyrics, Poem or Dialogue. Some good lyric websites include: www.lyrics.com, www.azlyrics.com -I provided students with the following list of songs and lyrics to chose from to streamline the process a bit.

Step #3: Plan slides/images that match your narrative (be sure to record your sources in Noodlebib!)

Step #4: Get your music!! I like to use http://www.freemidi.org to download and save midi files of my choice, then I use http://www.Media-Convert.com to change the.midi file format to an .mp3 format. The files I used are here: http://www.k12.ginet.org/webpages/mhoward/podcast.cfm

Step #5: Open Audacity and open your new .mp3 file. You can play this music or click on the red dot to record with your music. YOU WILL NEED A MICROPHONE! Use this link to download YOUR OWN version of the free Audacity software: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ also obtain lameencoder file at http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Lame_Installation

How to Use Audacity:

Free online screencasting tool

Step #6: Export your finalized Audacity file as an .mp3 file.

Step #7: Select/Upload images and Audio (.mp3) file into Moviemaker.

Step #8: Modify the timing of the images to match the timing in the sound file.

Step #9: Finish your movie by saving onto your computer as a .wmv file. Use this link to convert your file to a .MOV or .MP4 for use on an i-pod or apple computer: http://www.Media-Convert.com