Literacy Project - Rough Draft

Click Here to Watch the Rough Draft of my Literacy Project!

For my literacy project I chose to work with a group of Kindergarteners. The purpose was to present the project as an author study, but also as an introduction to digital stories. The children listened to a story by Eric Carle, and then illustrated pages from the book using crayons and watercolor paints.

The students have become very familiar with Eric Carle books, so we discussed books they remembered reading by him. We talked about the type of art Eric Carle uses in his books, and how he creates his pictures. I then read to the class "10 Little Rubber Ducks." We carefully reviewed each part of the story using terms such as 'beginning,' 'middle,' 'end,' 'then,' 'next,' and, 'lastly.'

Ahead of the lesson, I decided how I was going to divvy up the book pages among 22 children. I photocopied pages from the book, and numbered them in the order they would appear in the digital story. When the time came for the children to draw, I handed each child a 'page' from the book. The children were not expected to copy the picture, but to use it as a reminder for what their picture was supposed to be about.

My digital story is almost complete, but still needs narration to be done over this coming weekend. Other than that, the image sequence is correct!

Conceptual Framework

The Saint Joseph College Conceptual Framework outlines what the college expects it's students to master at the completion of their individual programs. Our course has specifically focused on the technology portion of this framework by integrating multiple types of technology into our literacy based projects. In this class I have become aware of new social networking tools that I did even know existed before beginning this class several months ago. It would be one thing if we were simply learning about technology, but we are actively using the new sites to enhance our professional development. We have also had the opportunity to use Skype to meet with teachers around the country, and learn how they use technology in their classrooms.

What a unique class this is!

Weebly Website

Image Credit

I am very excited to begin learning about Weebly, a free website creation tool. While there are limitations with this site (such as what is available for uploading for free vs. a paid subscription) there are many cute and creative options for creating a website. In my case, I am running a Vacation Bible School summer camp at my church this summer. I am going to create a Weebly to provide families with information about program dates and times. In addition, I hope that parents will be able to download and pring the registration form.

The following YouTube video gives a tutorial of Weebly:

Digital Storytelling Final Draft

CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY DIGITAL STORY!

This ‘A Day in the Life of Bailey’ digital story would fit into my future second grade math curriculum. Second graders are expected to have an understanding of elapsed time, and this video could supplement a lesson on the topic. Students will use this story by watching the video about my dog Bailey’s day, and then answering ‘Stop and Think’ critical thinking questions. The critical thinking questions require students to analyze what they have learned and take the knowledge a step further. I would use this video as a teaching tool to supplement my district curriculum. I might show the digital story to initiate a lesson, and then as the children to create their own elapsed time questions at the end of the video.

Digital Storytelling Rough Draft

After a failed attempt at uploading this video (and it tried to upload for many hours!!!) I finally am able to post this video. This digital story still needs some work. I already have some new video clips and ideas of changes to make...but here it is right now!