Podcasting for Self-Assessment

As part of the second grade curriculum in our school, students choose a short poem to memorize and recite to the class on a monthly basis. The second grade teachers encourage their students to speak loudly, clearly, and with expression in their voice.

As I helped my daughter practice her poem this week (she happens to be a second grader at the school where I teach), it occurred to me that creating a podcast of the students reciting their poems would not only be fun, but it would also be educational. What if the podcast could be used by the students as a self-assessment tool? They can listen to their recording and decide for themselves whether they met the teachers’ criteria for speaking loudly, clearly, and with expression.

I decided to put this to the test by having my daughter recite her poem as I recorded her. I then played back the recording after she was finished. Even before I had a chance to comment on it, she was already telling me what she had done well and what she needed to improve. Without prompting her to do so, she had successfully used the podcast as a self-assessment tool.

Click on the link below to hear my daughter as she recites her November poem.
http://littbytes.mypodcast.com (Student Recites Poem)

Storybook PowerPoint

Two weeks ago, my middle school students began working on a PowerPoint project that has quickly become a favorite of mine. For this particular project, students are asked to write a children’s story. After they have finished the writing and peer editing process, students separate their stories into “pages” and copy them into PowerPoint (each “page” is the equivalent of a PowerPoint slide). Once this is done, the real fun begins. Students then create illustrations for their “pages” in one of two ways. They either draw the pictures from scratch on Paint, or they use clip art from the Internet. After the illustrations are laid out, the students then apply animation effects to the illustrations in the form of custom motion paths.

Click on the link below to see complete, written instructions for the Storybook PowerPoint.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbwvk79_0hsmsr8

Click on the link below to see a rough draft (no animations yet) of a Storybook PowerPoint created by R.K., a student in my Computer Studies 1 class.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbwvk79_3gj55tw

After the Storybook PowerPoints are completed, the students will have the opportunity to share their stories with children in the second grade. I have arranged for one of the second grade classes in our school to join us next week so that the middle school students can read the stories to them. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Teachers, Did You Know?

I just wanted to share a video that was shown recently at our school during a faculty meeting. I thought some of the figures were pretty impressive. This video, entitled “Did You Know III,” was shown prior to a presentation about the role technology is playing in the lives of our students today. The presentation was then followed by a discussion about how we, the teachers, should respond to these changes by beginning to incorporate the use of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, podcasts, and wikis in our classrooms.

Let's Try a Different Approach

As I mentioned in my last post on keyboarding, I have found the following to be true for a number of my students in grades 2 and 3:

1. They revert back to two-finger typing when using a word processor, despite having weekly lessons on Type to Learn 3.
2. They have a difficult time grasping the benefits of typing using the home key position and, therefore, lose momentum as the lessons become harder.

Because of this, I decided to take a different approach with my second graders this year. Although they may be too young to fully understand the benefits of touch typing, I can still have them work towards that goal if they are motivated to do so. Instead of asking them to go on Type to Learn 3 every time we meet, I now vary the activities they do by having typing games and contests as well. I’ve also implemented a reward system. If a student demonstrates proper form and effort during their keyboarding practice in class, they receive a ticket (sometimes two, depending on the day’s typing activity).

Reward:
10 Tickets – Item of choice from the class treasure box
15 Tickets – Free game day on any of the sites listed below

http://www.disneychannel.com/
http://www.primarygames.com/
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.thekidzpage.com/
http://funschool.kaboose.com/

So far, it seems to be working. Varying the typing activities and using a reward system have kept their motivation steady. Who knows…if this continues through the end of the year, I just might have some little typing pros by third grade.

Too Young to Keyboard?

As students begin working with computers at an earlier age (kindergarten at my school), I have to wonder when, exactly, is a good time for them to learn proper keyboarding. If students will be using a word processing program in third grade, it stands to reason that they should at least be familiar with the keyboard and the home key position prior to that. However, I am finding that my third graders, despite having once-a-week lessons on Type to Learn 3 in second grade, revert back to two-finger typing (“hunting and pecking”) when working on a word processor. Is it unrealistic for me to assume that a second or even a third grader would be able to type proficiently?

I spoke to several middle school students who I consider to be good typists about their keyboarding background. Interestingly, I found two commonalities in what they said. First, most of the students I spoke to learned how to type between fifth and sixth grade. Second, all of them were motivated in some way to learn how to type properly. So again I ask, “At what age should students begin learning the techniques to proper keyboarding?” Although I’m still not sure what the right answer is, I do believe that students who are going to be using computers need to, at least, be familiar with the keyboard.

As a computer teacher, I find myself in somewhat of a bind. Once my students reach the third grade, they work on a variety of curriculum-related projects in the lab. That leaves me with two issues to address – a relatively small amount of time to continue to practice keyboarding and pending due dates for class projects. Should I continue to emphasize proper keyboarding when, clearly, the student is still a slow and developing typist, or should I allow them to type as they want as long as they meet the deadlines set by their classroom teacher? There are obvious drawbacks to both. If I emphasize proper keyboarding, students may not be able to complete their work by the day it is due, but if I allow them to type however they want, the bad typing habits they develop will become engrained and difficult to break when they are older. What are your thoughts???