This is an education-related blog written by Mrs. Leah Obach @LeahO77. Leah is currently working as the Literacy with ICT Teacher Leader for Park West School Division, working with K-12 students and teachers to help them use technology for teaching and learning. She has taught at the early years, middle years and high school levels.
Student work, teacher reflection, resources and samples from classrooms around PWSD are included in this blog.
A great way to showcase student work is to create a digital book. We've
been using Book Creator in Park West School Division and our students have
created some wonderful pieces of work to showcase their writing! Here
are a few examples of digital books students have created this year:
I Wonder...
Mrs. Smart's Grade 4 class created I Wonder books. They developed 4 I
wonder questions about an animal they were curious about, then researched the
animal to answer their questions and published a question and answer book with
the details they learned.
A to Zed
Mrs. Gorrell's Grade 2 class was inpsired by a Canadian A-Z book that listed different Canadian items for each letter of the alphabet. They decided to create their own version with an Canadian word for each letter of the alphabet.
Personal Interest
Mrs. Smart's Grade 4s also wrote about one of their personal interests: whether they loved animals or Minecraft, vehicles or sports, students shared about what they love in these books.
Student Work Showcase
With permission, the following students have shared their work. Check out this Book Creator library for examples of the wonderful work our students have done!
Congratulations to the Decker Colony School students in Mr. Elias Wipf's ELA class for winning the Next Vista for Learning Service via Video contest! Their wining video, Cookies for Tanzania, tells the story of how their school has been supporting projects in Tanzania through their fundraising efforts over the past few years. This contest was created to encourage young people to "tell stories of people serving their communities" through video creation.
The Cookies for Tanzania fundraiser sales were put on hold this year due to COVID, but this group of students found a way to continue contributing to the cause by raising awareness with their video. Four students collaboratively planned and created the video, including sourcing images, writing a script and narrating the video to tell their story. They also worked with students, parents and community members to obtain the permissions required for people appearing in the video. The resulting video is a great showcase for this service learning project -- be sure to watch it below!
One of the awesome parts of my job as LwICT Teacher Leader is that I get to be involved with a wide variety of learning activities. In May, I was invited to help Mrs. Bowley's grade 7 class with a really awesome book trailer project. Students viewed a variety of book trailers before selecting a favourite text and planning their own book trailer. The grade 7s used iMovie to create their trailers and then uploaded them to YouTube. Next, they made posters with QR codes linked to their videos so they could share their book recommendations by displaying the posters at their school.
What I Like...
I think the final videos are really well done and I've got a long list of books I want to read after watching them! There was a lot to like about this project, but some aspects that stood out to me included:
Creativity and Communication
Bringing together images, text and music to create a compelling book trailer video required creativity and this group of students certainly let their creativity shine! The project also required effective communication. Students demonstrated their understanding of a text and conveyed the essence of the book by selecting appropriate elements to include in their video.
ICT Infusion
This project is a great example of how ICT can support and enhance learning. Students were able to use technology tools to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of a text. I also really like how technology enabled sharing in this example; the QR code posters and video links are great ways for students to share their work with a wider audience. I think other students and teachers will enjoy watching these!
Digital Citizenship
When I first visited the grade 7 class to help get their book trailers started, we discussed copyright and the need to respect others' work. We talked about sources for public domain images and royalty-free music. I know that these thoughtful conversations continued because I heard more about digital citizenship when I returned for my next visit. I learned that the students did some research on acceptable use and discussed how copyright was applicable to this project. Students also discussed sharing their work and considered which platform to use, how much personal information to include and how the videos would be shared. I was happy to see and hear students thinking about digital citizenship as they worked on this project.
Watch These!
Okay, you've got my perspective on this cool project - now it is time to watch some samples! Thanks to Mrs. Bowley's class for sharing the book trailers below! They are definitely worth watching. You might even want to compile a list of books to enjoy this summer.
