What is Media Literacy?

Subject: Information Literacy
Grade: 5
Technology tools: Computer
Tools used: Interactive website
Activity type: Lesson

Learning objective:  What is Media Literacy and why is it important to me?

This week fifth graders at Jenkins Elementary are exploring the website: http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/?campaign=list_dontbuyit to discover and reflect on the many ways that they are influenced by media everyday.

They are journaling by writing the main idea of each topic in the areas of Advertising Tricks, Buying Smart, Your Entertainment, and Pop-up ads and reflecting on what they are learning. They are designing their own ads and explaining their choices.

This website “engages students in media literacy — the ability to access, evaluate, analyze and produce both electronic and print media — by dissecting pop culture and advertisements.” Our goal for this learning experience is that students will “build critical thinking and analytic skills, become more discriminating in the use of mass media, distinguish between reality and fantasy, and consider whether media values are their values.” 

Robin Rash, Media Specialist, Jenkins Elementary

Making Learning Engaging for ALL!

Subject(s):  Information Literacy

Grade(s):  K, 1, 2

Technology tools:  LCD Projector, Document Camera

Activity type:  Lesson

In working with the children in the self-contained K-2 class, my objective is always to have them be as physically involved as possible. This keeps them engaged.  I try to use music or something visual to hold attention and invite participation. This lesson involved comparison and contrast using the terms same and different.

Because all children love to touch things and see material projected, I decided that, since I don't have an interactive white board and these children are on the floor, I'd project the book I was using and lower the projector to a small, floor level white board.  It worked well.  The children were eager to answer questions and point to the illustrations that supported their responses.

 

Beth Shoffner,  Oakwood

Jenkins Elementary Highlighted on SmartBrief

 
Jenkins Elementary was highlighted in the April 24th edition of EdTech SmartBrief , a free newsletter designed to bring relevant news to subscribers.  The Hickory Daily Record article about technology integration at Jenkins was part of the SmartBrief on EdTech.  Read the HDR article here or visit the SmartBrief article here.

Rainforest Project with ESL Students

Subjects: Language Arts, Science, Information Literacy
Grade: 2
Technology tools: Computer(s), Laptop(s), LCD Projector, Document Camera
Tools used: Interactive website
Activity type: Lesson, Project, Research

Objectives:
ELA Gr 2 Writing Standard: Text Types and Purposes: 2. Write Informational Texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts ad definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.Research to Build and Present Knowledge: 7. Participate in Shared research and writing projects

WIDA ELP Standard 2: Language of LArts: Reading Informational Text ; Standard 4: Language of Science: Reading and Writing Living Organisms

Grade 2 Science Standards: Life Cycles

In connecting with their classroom study of the rainforest, Second Grade ESL Students are using internet resources to collect data about Frogs/Amphibians. Each student is uses a netbook to log onto educational websites such as National Geographic Kids to correctly label poison dart frogs, complete life cycle diagrams, and collect dash facts about the species. They have also been able to watch short video clips about the habitats and life cycles of tree frogs and poison dart frogs. Student are creating their own frog research book. This project builds ESL students' background knowledge and vocabulary in the areas of life science, nonfiction reading, and information technology.

Christine Smith, Viewmont

Using Technology in a Kindergarten Classroom

Subjects:  Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Information Literacy

Grade:  K

Technology tools:  Computer(s), LCD Projector, Student Response Devices, Cd/tape player

Tools used:  Interactive website, Video, Audio

Activity type:  Lesson, Unit

Topics/Objectives:

• Social Studies: we were studying symbols.

• Math: No matter what we are studying, the LCD projector is always used. The students' attention is kept because they are more involved. I will use counters, and overhead pieces for the lessons. For Kindergarten, this is very interesting to them.
   
• Literacy: We have a listening and computer center that we use in our classroom every day. Both of these are tied into literacy and what we are studying that week. 

In Social studies we were learning about symbols. We watched a video on United Streaming about different symbols. The students loved it.

In literacy centers every week we have a listening center. Students listen to a story on tape and follow along in their books.

In math and in literacy we use the overhead projector. We use this for many things in math including counting numbers 1-20, addition, shapes, etc...

In literacy centers we also use the computer every week. It depends on what we are currently studying that week as to what the game/activity may be. We have done short vowel games/long vowel game, consonant digraph practice, abcya.com and starfall.com.

All of these activities have been very successful. The students love when technology is involved.

Family Heritage Project

Subjects:  Language Arts, Social Studies, Information Literacy

Grade:  4

Technology tools:  Laptop(s)

Tools used:  Digital text / ebook, Word processing

Activity type:  Lesson, Unit, Project, Assessment, Research, State Writing Assessment

Students interviewed their oldest living relative as part of the Family Heritage Project. The asked the person a series of 18 questions that compared and contrasted their own life to that of the interviewee.   The word processing skills gained have impacted the many, many other projects and technology integration we do on a daily basis in our classroom.

Students then composed specific information into a paragraph outline to create a 6 paragraph paper.  Students were able to edit, use word-processing skills, connect Language Arts skills and edit documents like you would in a real News Reporting room.

This part of the project was also the State Writing prompt for our school. Students used the finished documents to create a lovely family treasure for year's to come.

Students met with teacher to look at text features, content, and go through the writing process.

Cynthia Thompson-Schmidt, Jenkins Elementary

Learning about Amphibians

Subjects:  Science, Social Studies, Information Literacy

Grade:  1

Technology tools:  Computer(s), LCD Projector

Tools used:  Interactive website, Video, Digital text / ebook

Activity type:  Lesson, Unit, Research

 

We are learning about amphibians this week.  We have integrated both our Weekly Readers (and the online digital edition) and National Geographic for Kids websites to allow the children to explore and find out where these animals live, how they defend themselves, what they sound like, and what they eat.  The Weekly Reader online edition allows children to see and hear what they are learning about through the incorporation of video clips.  National Geographic for Kids online has allowed the children to not only learn of the animal habitats, but how they survive, defend themselves, and even what these animals sound like.

We began this lesson in our classroom while the children had the paper edition of Weekly Reader at their desks.  I used my projector to display the digital edition on my board.  We took turns reading information regarding amphibians.  Video clips were shown of frogs/toads catching their prey, and how camouflage benefits them.  Students were also asked to use higher level thinking skills to answer questions about why frogs benefit from being camouflaged.  After we finished reading, I showed the students where they would be "going" once we got to the computer lab.  I modeled where students would log on, what they would be searching for, and explained that they would need to tell me something new they learned about amphibians from the National Geographic forKids web site.

Assessment:  Children needed to verbally tell me something they learned today about amphibians.

Laura Streamer,  Longview

Talking Books

Subjects:  Language Arts, Information Literacy, ESL

Grade:  1

Technology tools:  Computer(s), Laptop(s), LCD Projector, Document Camera

Tools used:  Digital text / ebook, Word processing, Communication tool

Activity type:  Lesson, Project, Teacher presentation

Objectives:

·         ELA Standard #2 Reading: understanding positional words

·         Science Common Core Standard: KP.1 Physical Sciences: Relative positions and motions of objects: Position Words

I am using Microsoft PowerPoint to create a “Talking Books” small group project for my ESL students who are learning positional words.



First,  I  presented  the Berenstein Bears book “Bears in the Night” to teach several positional words (over, under, in, out, etc) to kindergarten and first grade students. After the read aloud presentation, the students echo read and used hand motions to act out the story. They enjoyed it so much that we are now in the process of creating our own “Viewmont Bears in the School” Talking Book using Powerpoint, our own digital photographs, and student-generated story using the same position words. This will then be a shared reading using the computer and the projector.

Christine Smith,  Viewmont