Group items tagged

In mid-April, we went live with a half dozen articles which we call "stubs." The idea here is to plant a flag in a story right away with a short post--a "stub"--and then build the article as the story develops over time, rather than just cranking out short, discrete posts every time something new breaks. One of our writers refers to this aptly as a "slow live blog."

"Mark talked about the idea of using Evidence-Based Arguments as a starting point. Every historical investigation needs to begin with a great question. Then they asked kids to do research and create videos. But what they got was disappointing. What they got was basically text with pictures, a script with a background. It wasn't a story, it wasn't engaging, and it often didn't really answer the question.  They begin to realize that they needed to learn more about how to create high-quality documentaries, how to use images and video to actually tell a story. And eventually they came up with a Four Step Process that students work through to create high-quality documentaries:" 4 Step Process for creating HST videos. I don't necessarily agree with the author's thought that tech should not be introduced until step #4, as tech can enhance 1-3 just as well. The teacher just needs to model good behavior and help students develop structures for the work in these phases for it to be successful.

"And yet no one I'm aware of has pointed out one of the more glaring (literally) problems with Jackson's Tolkien films, a problem that has become more evident to me with each installment. It's the choice of his own native land, New Zealand, as the backdrop for these British stories. The island nation of swooping hills and glistening peaks isn't merely an unfortunate choice-it's one of the worst options I can imagine." You could do some really interesting textual analysis stuff like this with comparing book characters and settings with their on screen counterparts. What holds up to the original? What has changed? How does that affect the reader/viewer or change the message of the story? There's plenty of options that students would get into - The Hunger Game Series, The Hobbit, you could even do comic book characters and their on screen counterparts.

--- you'd be liquified at the atomic level I wonder what other stories you might tell like this.

The Washington Post uses Timeline JS for a story on the Civil War. 

"So, what's a leader and the school to do? How do we create "checks" to serve as guideposts toward success?  One potential way may be a novel idea in education.  Use teachers and educators that have experienced success in building instructional capacity to be "scouts" for other teachers and schools that are building capacity in a meaningful way.  What I mean by 'scouts' is that these individuals would be charged with working next to teachers and school leaders to develop and refine instructional capacity, but when "it" shows itself in the form of meaningful and intentional classroom instruction or PLCs that really improve student performance, the 'scouts' chronicle this story.  The 'scouts' dual responsibility is to not only share in the building of the capacity, but to also spread the good news when it's been accomplished. In doing so, the profession of teaching and learning, can begin to articulate and share in these guideposts toward meaningful capacity.  What's missing in this dynamic are the 'scouts' that are embedded in several classrooms, schools and districts simultaneously and use this experience to improve the work simultaneously.  What's crucial about this approach is that it isn't 'helicoptered in' and is never something done 'to' teachers.  The work of the 'scout' is to find, develop, and refine great teaching and learning and use this as a way to scale up the work so that more and more students can have access to highly effective teaching and learning. " This article, specifically this annotated section, really spoke to me and made me think about what the two main initiatives of our department - Henrico 21 and Reflective Friends, should look like. It shouldn't be something that is "helicoptered in" or "done to teachers," but instead should be about developing, refining, promoting, and sharing good teaching.

"A good lecture is not merely a piece of writing read aloud. It is a performance art in which the sound of the lecturer's voice, his body-language, and the visual materials used are part of the performance." Interesting take on lecture. Could be a good read for teachers who consider themselves to be story-tellers and not necessarily lecturers. I agree that there is a time and a place for lecture in most subjects, but most of the "lectures" that I see (and plenty that I gave when I was in the classroom) don't follow these particular pieces of advice.

"There's a contest called Math-O-Vision, which your students should enter. Here's the premise: The Neukom Institute for Computational Science, at Dartmouth College, is offering prizes for high school students who create 4-minute movies that show the world of equations we live in. In 240 seconds, using animation, story-telling, humor, or anything you can think of, show us what you see: the patterns, the abstractions, the patterns within the abstractions." Two interesting things going on in this short blog post: 1. It introduces a contest which might be interesting for some of your students. I looked at the winning video from last year (linked in the post) and know that our students are capable of making something of similar quality. 2. The articles provides an interesting insight on math as a "product." This is quite an interesting discussion when thinking about how/why to assign this type of activity to your students.

"Tables charting the chemical elements have been around since the 19th century - but this modern version has a short video about each one. We've done all 118 - but our job's not finished. Now we're updating all the videos with new stories, better samples and bigger experiments. Plus we're making films about other areas of chemistry, latest news and occasional adventures away from the lab." Interesting video resources for each element on the periodic table. This type of thing might be cool for students to produce/create. They could design an experiment around an element, videotape it, and put up the videos as a class/school.

"Set up your own private area for creating and playing interactive stories and text-based games. Find out more"

"Solving a math problem means unfolding a mystery, enjoying the pleasure of discovery. But in every geometry lesson that year, I blundered along and blurted out the secret. With a few sentences, I'd manage to ruin the puzzle, ending the feast before it began, as definitively as if I'd spat in my students' soup. Math is a story, and I was giving my kids spoilers." This post speaks directly to math, but can be applied to any content. When we provide students with the answers rather than developing lessons that let the students ask (and answer questions), we take the fun out of learning.

"This could be an interesting tool for creative writing prompts and/or vocabulary work. Here are a couple thoughts on how you could use Endless Interestingness in the classroom: Challenge the students to find a "string" of 5-10 photos in a row and connect those images by writing a creative story that incorporates the subjects, themes, moods, etc. of those photos. Provide the students with a vocabulary word. Have the students go to the website and choose one photo that best represents that word. Students could explain and justify their choice to the rest of the class. A Padlet wall would be a great tool for this assignment, so that all students could quickly share their work and view their classmates' ideas."

Amazing how a remix can completely change your perception of a story. There's an English lesson here somewhere.

I wonder what kind of interactive images we might make as ITRTs as part of history content.

This article makes me rethink my current profession entirely. I wonder how much I can charge people to help them reset their passwords... In all seriousness, I think this is the wrong article? :)

Weird. That pulled from another tab. Should have been Lincoln post. The pencil thing would make for an interesting math problem.

"We're following the Civil War, chapter by chapter. Click on the boxes below for installments in our series, view videos and photo galleries, find a Civil War battlefield, and much more. " Washington Post series that focuses on the Civil War. Contains a variety of primary documents, videos, and interactives.

For Will Berry

Hah. Awesome. Here are a few more specifically for middle school literature: 1. Divide the number of pages in your novel by the number of chapters it contains. The average should be equal to or less than your intended audience's age. 2. Determine the ratio of action verbs to any other verbs. If the ratio is less than 5:1, include more crazy twists and scenarios to keep the attention of your reader. And most importantly... 3. The number of characters in your novel that are either vampires, werewolves, or zombies should exceed that of all humanoid characters. If not, revamp your story to comply with current fad.