As our elementary students explore the world around them, they have a lot to say with distinct, refreshingly honest, and four-foot-high points of view. When our students become documentarians, they tell stories, create art to express non-fiction content, and make persuasive call-to-action films that set their powerful voices loose into the world. Happily, student documentaries also address a range of CCSS ELA Speaking/Listening and Writing standards while immersing students in the art of filmmaking.
In this session, I will share how my students go on powerful investigations behind the camera lens. In one student documentary, my students explore the range of reactions to a public art installation by sculptor Tom Otterness. In other, PSA-style documentaries, they craft powerful arguments to improve their community. I’ll share how I introduce documentary making to my students and the supports I provide (and often don’t provide). It just takes one smartphone, tablet, or camera and video-editing software to empower your students to create amazing documentaries YOU will be itching to show to the world.
As our elementary students explore the world around them, they have a lot to say with distinct, refreshingly honest, and four-foot-high points of view. When our students become documentarians, they tell stories, create art to express non-fiction content, and make persuasive call-to-action films that set their powerful voices loose into the world. Happily, student documentaries also address a range of CCSS ELA Speaking/Listening and Writing standards while immersing students in the art of filmmaking.
In this session, I will share how my students go on powerful investigations behind the camera lens. In one student documentary, my students explore the range of reactions to a public art installation by sculptor Tom Otterness. In other, PSA-style documentaries, they craft powerful arguments to improve their community. I’ll share how I introduce documentary making to my students and the supports I provide (and often don’t provide). It just takes one smartphone, tablet, or camera and video-editing software to empower your students to create amazing documentaries YOU will be itching to show to the world.
The Peace Corps offers educators a variety of ways to bring their teaching skills and experience overseas by working as an educator in one of 64 developing countries around the world, ranging from primary education to university English teaching. Educators return from their Peace Corps service with new cross-cultural skills, and more resourceful ways of teaching underserved populations. Peace Corps also allows U.S. based classrooms an opportunity to connect with students in Peace Corps countries through WorldWise Schools, using letter writing and the internet as communication tools.
The Peace Corps offers educators a variety of ways to bring their teaching skills and experience overseas by working as an educator in one of 64 developing countries around the world, ranging from primary education to university English teaching. Educators return from their Peace Corps service with new cross-cultural skills, and more resourceful ways of teaching underserved populations. Peace Corps also allows U.S. based classrooms an opportunity to connect with students in Peace Corps countries through WorldWise Schools, using letter writing and the internet as communication tools.
Everyone who teaches children to read faces the conundrum that although the act of reading is often a solitary mental activity, students learn to comprehend deeply when they engage in constructivist, social learning. In this session, I’ll share a wide range of tools, apps, and strategies I’ve used with my third graders to infuse our reading workshop with the power of social communication and to assess my students’ reading development.
From close eReading using Subtext to online book recommendations using Biblionasium, I’ll share actual examples of student work and videos of how we use these tools in my classroom. I’ll even share the anecdotal results of this May’s classroom experiment when we pack away all of the books and print materials in my classroom and try a solid month with only eReading and digital texts available to the students. Come listen in on the social reading buzz in my classroom!