It’s summertime (woohoo!)
and I finally have time to look through the notes I’ve been
keeping throughout the year. One thing that I’ve wanted to write about is writing
and how I can help my students become the best writers they can be.
I know the answer isn’t grabbing more Lucy Calkins
lessons or stalking my favorite educators on Pinterest for great anchor chart
ideas. No. I’ve come to the conclusion that helping my students become fantastic
writers has nothing to do with the curriculum. You might be thinking, “WHAT?!” but
it’s true.
I started by asking myself a few questions hoping it
would lead me to a solution to this on going challenge. First I asked myself,
“What makes me a good writer?” and then I thought about what makes the students
from surrounding schools good writers? The answer, I feel, was quite obvious. I
had well-developed oral language skills before I even
entered kindergarten. And guess what! So do most of the students from the more
proficient schools around us.
So how can I utilize technology to help my students
improve their oral language skills? How can I get them to speak in complete
sentences that are grammatically correct?
Yes, I know there are many ways to improve oral
language skills in the classroom without using technology like having
conversations, think alouds, think-pair-share, and think-talk-write, just to
name a few. But how can I
incorporate technology so that speaking properly is relevant and meaningful to
them?
I have a few ideas that I think might do the trick.
Some of these I’ve done and some I’d like to try for the upcoming year.
Tellagami
Tellagami is an app that
allows the students to create a quick animated video. They choose an avatar to
represent themselves and a background that goes with their topic. This app is
so fun and quick. I’ve experimented with it throughout the year, but this year
I want to get serious with the projects.
At the beginning of every year I teach my students to write a
book review so they can share their reading adventures with the class and hype
up books they’ve read. They are a little rough to read in the beginning and I
feel if they practiced more orally, their book reviews would improve greatly!
Tellagami is a fun way to
accomplish this! Eventually, I would like to set QR codes to their book reviews
so other kids can watch and listen to what the book is all about. I also want
to have a rubric the students can use to self-assess.
Vocabulary iMovies
It’s hard to write when you don’t have the
words in your vocabulary to explain your thinking. Developing oral vocabulary
is so important to writing. My best writers had a very vast vocabulary they
easily incorporated in their writing because they use it in their daily
language.
Our Apple representative (LOVE HER) gave me the
idea of creating iMovies with vocabulary words. It’s quick and easy! It’s such
a great way for the kids to use the vocabulary words in context and then listen
and watch their videos for reinforcement. The students pick three words for their imovie and then
choose a picture to go with each word. Once they’ve put their pictures into
their movie, they do a voice over either explaining the word or using it in a
sentence. Their goal is to use complete sentences that make sense.
I always ask them to make one revision after
they are done. To do this, they listen to each other’s and give each other
feedback. We practice talking “professionally” to each other. There are no
“That was really good!” comments. They have to be specific in their compliment
and give one suggestions that could improve their work. Many of them will use sentence starters
I provide them the first few times they do this, but eventually talking
“professionally” becomes a lovely habit.
Interviewing experts
This activity I haven’t done, but I want to
soooo bad! During our research units, I think it would be so fun and very
relevant for my students to come up with questions to ask an expert on their
chosen topic. It would be really cool if they could FaceTime or Skype their
experts and have real conversations with them. Not only are we working on oral
language here, but they are also improving their listening skills! I’m also hoping to involve community
members and parents in this activity. They would be really wonderful experts!
Incorporating oral responses on tests and projects
Let’s be real. Tests need to change because
they way our students learn has changed. Why do all test have to be the same?
Why can’t they have verbal responses? Well, guess what! They can! At least in
my world they can. I have already experimented with this when I’ve sent a Keynote
presentation home with verbal responses embedded. I loved it. The kids loved
it. It was a win-win.
Not only can I use verbal responses in testing
situations, but I am also hoping to use it during our cross curriculum
projects. I’ve created a great Numbers worksheet for our students to use during
their cross-curricular project this year. I’ve included a place for them to
talk about their project and to reflect on their progress (I will be posting
more about this cross-curricular activity later, so don’t fret).
This is real life, folks. We don’t go to work
and get a multiple-choice test at the end of the quarter to show how much we’ve
accomplished and learned. No, my friends, we give presentations, create things
and make positive changes in our work place and community. Why does school need
to be any different?
To Sum Up
I’m sure more ideas will pop in my head as the
year progresses, but these are just a few that I most definitely will use for
the upcoming year.
If you were to walk into my classroom,
especially during this upcoming year, you might see kids doing more talking and
less sitting quietly in their seats writing, writing, writing. But if you take
a closer look and listen in on their “talking”, you will hear grand
conversations! They will be discussing things that truly matter to them, taking
turns speaking and listening, and ultimately improving their vocabulary and
oral language skills. Which, in
turn, will improve their writing skills profoundly. #goalreached in my mind
