In my last blog post I questioned more ways primary teachers can incorporate technology into their lessons, I found one!
For Halloween I was a pigoen. Not your average street pigeon, but a particular pigeon from Mo Willem’s amazing children’s book, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.” http://www.pigeonpresents.com/
The book features a very feisty pigeon attempting to convince the reader to allow him or her to drive an unattended bus. A fantastic model of crafting a persuasive argument in your writing, and a great opportunity to experiment with Comic Life!
I drafted a comic template for students to create their own “Don’t Let the Piegon…” cartoons. The Grade 3’s were so creative with ideas such as, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Eat Candy, “Don’t Give the Piegon Money” and “Don’t Give the Pigeon Diet Coke.”
First, they wrote their comics out by hand, outlining three key arguments, or persuasive comments. Also, they experimented with punctuation, adding either periods, exclamation or question marks at the end of their sentences. Completing sentences with proper punctuation is a huge goal in Grade 3 and looking for the question mark key on the keyboard truly draws your attention to how unnatural it is!
Once we edited our hand written rough drafts the children went onto laptops and entered the Comic Life Mac program. The template was waiting for them in a shared folder, and they began to type away! This was exciting because our weekly Mavis Beacon Typing Lessons were finally put into practice! We printed out our comics, and they added some “low tech” colouring to the background!
I’ve attached some photos for your viewing pleasure!
On another note – we are starting a juicy study on flight! Yesterday we collected a total of 66 student questions that we have about flight, and I’m sure if we had time there would be more. What are programs teachers are using to document and grow student knowledge? I have used Knowledge Forum in the past and I am wondering if this is still the most up to date technology out there? Guidance, help, comments are appreciated!
Hi Jillian,
We have used Edistorm.com at my school to simulate the Knowledge Forum software because we didn’t have the funds/access to that software. It is a Canadian (whoo!) developer out of Edmonton.
It is similar to Wallwisher but it allows you to keep track of what students post certain comments and make comments on each others ideas. There are various backgrounds that you can use that are graphic organizers to assist in the process. If you don’t have stocks in Post-it than it is a great way to keep track of ideas in a digital environment.
I can show you at the next face-to-face if you are interested.
Marcie
Hi Marcie!
Thank you so much, this sounds fantastic! Would love it if you can show me more during the face to face! Thanks for posting! – Jillian
I too would like to see how Wallwisher can be used. I’ve never had a chance to use it.
Thanks for sharing your “don’t let the pigeon” projects. 🙂 I am also interested in Knowledge forum. Off to google I go.
Hi Jillian,
This is a great post, and one that will certainly get others thinking about…well, pigeons, flight and education! There’s a haiku in there somewhere, I am sure of it!
Your comic book assignment seems to be a rich and engaging one as well. I would love to be a part of it! Perhaps you could put them around your school or see what other teachers are doing and create some sort of a publication at the end of year for parents?
In terms of documenting student growth, I may be a little off on this suggestion because I don’t teach in the elementary grades, but I would suggest a straightforward googledoc. I have google docs privately shared between each student and myself. On it they keep their daily class notes, and I am able to see when it was last updated/modified. I am also able to quickly and effectively add comments and suggestions, links and images to help their learning.
Thanks for this,
garth.
Comic Life is a fantastic tool for empowering students to make their own, professional looking, comic strips. Have you tried out Bitstrips for school http://www.bitstripsforschools.com ? A little different, but another fantastic tool to keep in your back pocket (and you can get a free 30 day trial too).