ETC Final Project

  

I apologize for my voice in this video. Unfornately, I am still hoarse.  This experience was wonderful for both me the teacher and my students.  My students thoroughly enjoyed learning storyjumper and they are looking forward to getting back on it.  I wish there was more time because I implemented this to grade 1 students and everything takes a little extra time.  Even though the final project was not completed they enjoyed beginning to create their own book. When I told them that they can publish it if they wish, they were excited.  I enjoyed sharing the experience with them.  It made me feel great as well because they did a great job getting started and the enthusiasm was outstanding.

RILS Plan for Dena Richardson

Target Audience: My target audience will be grade 1 students.

Objective:  The students will explore and begin to create their own stories.

Web 2.0 tool- Storyjumper  - Storyjumper is a place to create and discover stories for kids.  Storyjumper is a safe and educational place for kids.  It is a great tool for the classroom.  It gives the students exposure to technology and it also allows them another option of writing their stories. They can also publish their books if they desire.  Storyjumper also gives you the option to read books online.

Materials needed: Computer

Procedure:    The teacher will demonstrate how to use the tools in storyjumper to create or personalize their own stories.

1.     The teacher will assist the students with setting up their personal accounts.

2.     The teacher will have the students use her email account so that the account could be activated immediately.

3.     The teacher will have the students log onto their computers and sign onto the internet. 

4.     The teacher will log onto storyjumper and show the tutorial on how to use it.  The teacher will show the tutorial on the smart board.

5.     The students will log onto storyjumper.

6.     The students will explore storyjumper and create their own stories.

7.     The students will be encouraged to use as many of the tools provided to help them with writing their stories.

As this will be the first time for the students to use storyjumper, the teacher will walk around to assist when needed.

Social Participation/Social Learning - The students will work together with their neighbor to help them through the exploration of the tools in storyjumper.

Making Connections – The students will be encouraged to make connections in their writing process.  The will be able to write about anything that they choose.

Create/Produce- as time is limited the students may not complete their project in this lesson but they will have time to work on it in future lessons.

Reflection- the students will express their feelings about using the tool storyjumper and share what they have produced thus far.   The teacher will review their product to check out the success that they have made thus far.  The teacher will share comments with each student on their creation. 

PE5-Storyjumper

I explored the explore key in storyjumper and I realized that I could use the books that are there to personalize them as I wish. I thought that was exciting. I think that my students will enjoy it as well. I will be introducing that feature to my students and allow them to create a product of their own.

This is my version of the Pinky and Jones story book. Listed below is a sample of the original book. You have the option to read the book or personalize it when you use the explore button.

I also plan to take my students through the 7 steps in telling your story.
The steps are:
1. Character - Who is the story about?
2. Challenges - Every great story involves a problem or challenge to be solved by the characters.
3. Motivation - " What is the outcome your character hopes for?
4. Setting - Where and when the story takes place?
5. Obstacles - The things that get in the characters way.
6. Climax - The climax is the time to reveal an unexpected twist in the story.
7. Closing - to sum everything up.

Another point not mentioned in the seven points is to have a theme. You can have a theme for your story.

These elements will be taught in detail to help the students with their ideas. After going through this process and making notes on each step the story will just about be finish. You will just have to tie up the lose ends. The plan is to walk the students through the process.

Then they will be ready to press the create button to create there own story as I started in this screen shot.

PE4- Web2.0 Tool-Storyjumper

It took me a while to decide what tool I was going to explore a bit more, as there are so many great tools. I tried to find out more about tikatok but I wasn't allowed to go any further as I did not receive the email to activate the account. So I decided to go with storyjumper. I looked at this before but I did not take note that I could have taken a tutorial tour or watched a 6 minute video. So guess what I started with. Yup, the tutorial tour. Here are some screen shots of my journey.

These screens worked me thorough the tutorial and how to use storyjumper. Whilst exploring I came across another feature that I did not try before. Keep watching for PE5 to see the great things that storyjumper can do.

BP7- iMovie- Commercial

BP6- Comments on Fary's blog

Follow my link to Fary's blog http://fary72001.blogspot.com

BP5- Comment on Marks blog

Follow this link to my comments on Mark's blog: http://mlillquist.blogspot.com

BP4-Web 2.0 Tools

Big Universe is a great tool that can be used in classrooms from PK-8 grades.  Parents can also purchase it for their own personal use at home .  You can sign up for the 14 day trail to see if you would like to purchase it.  It gives you the option to try out the product before you agree to purchase.  I think that is a great marketing ploy because sometimes you may purchase something because it looks good and then you realize it did not meet your expectations.  I have signed up for the 14 day trail because I want more practice and I want to explore further before I divulge into it.  As soon as I saw this tool I said yes this can be useful for me and my students.  Now I am going to explore the various ways that I can personalize this tool for me.

I love that you can use this tool in other subjects not just language arts.  This tool offers various fiction and non- fiction books that you can use as a teaching tool or just have the students go on line and read themselves.  This tool also allows you to integrate across the curriculum.  Wonderful!  That is what makes it so cool.  Time is so precious and we need to make the most out of our learning opportunities.  This tool will help in this way.

These are a few books that are available in Big Universe.  This will allow you the opportunity to explore more books if you do not have them in your personal or class libraries.  When planning your lessons you can look to see if they have the resource that you require for your lesson and you can share the book on your smart board etc.  This will also give the students an opportunity to reread the book if they like.  This will be beneficial because most times we only have one copy and everyone can not read it at the same time.  This tool will allow teachers and students to read it as a group or when they just have the desire to read it. They  will  not have to worry about whether someone else will be using it.

I love this part of the tool because the students can publish some of their own stories.  They can also use the tools provided to create their own story.  They have illustrations, backgrounds and various elements to assist you with creating your own book.  You do not have to create your own graphics if you do not wish to but it does give you the option to import your graphics if you wish.  The students will feel proud of their accomplishments once they have created their own books.  At the end of the exercise you can have an authors party to celebrate your students successes.  I think that this tool will also be an inspiration to those students who do not really like to write.  This will give them the tools they need and they will arrange them in the manner that they will like to use them.

This screen shot is just explaining the benefits and advantages for investing in the Big Universe Website.  I think that eventually I will purchase the membership because through my exploration of the tool, I can see various ways it would be useful for me and my students.  I did not create a writing piece because I wanted to use a specific piece of work that I did not have available at this time.  My class did a shared writing piece on our school science fair and I would have love to share the book on this website unfortunately, I do not have it at home.  I am going to use this tool to publish the book and I plan to send it to our local newspaper because they came to take pictures and they have asked us to share a writing assignment on it.  That is how I plan to use it at this time.  I am also planning to use some of the books provided for my science, social studies, math and language classes.  I will use the books as teaching tools and also for the students to research information and pleasure reading.  We are currently working on non fiction so this would allow the students to read up on some information about the topic of their interest. Most of the children in my grade level like to find out information about our sea animals/mammals  such as sharks, whales etc.  These books are available in this tool.  I am so excited that I was able to find out about this tool and I can't wait to implement it with my students.