Blog Assessment

Image Blog: I really enjoyed the image blog. This blog really helped to provide new resources and new readings to help better understand the importance of digital literacy. It took me to new blogs that teachers write. I like to feel connected with other teachers and realize that others are going through what I am in the classroom. The problem with blogs that I have found is sometimes files won't download or open, or people have a lot of things set to private while they are telling you about something fabulous they have done in the classroom (pictures, links, etc.). It's frustrating when you are trying to connect with other educators and can't see what they are doing or can't seem to get a response from the comment log. Other than that, I love being able to look at people's blogs.

Graphic Novel Blog: The graphic novel blog was fun! I have used storyboardthat.com in the past for understanding the plot of a story. The students love creating these scenes. I found it was kind of difficult to figure out how I wanted to be portrayed in the comic (I think having purple hair would be so cool!) and what kinds of things I wanted to ask and how that fit with the background and colors, etc. It's interesting to see even a little piece of all that goes into creating a comic or graphic novel (3 pictures of a comic strip does not equal to a graphic novel, I definitely know that!). I also liked asking questions on Facebook and having other educators respond their thoughts. It's great when we can connect and come together. My view of graphic novels has changed a lot with this course but also just over the course of my first years teaching. I didn't see them as valuable texts. Then I started justifying it to myself to read magazines at night, and realized that they aren't too different. Why not let the student read what they enjoy? Having to create a blog for this and portray what I wanted to say really made me look deeper into the greatness that is graphic novels.

Video blog: The lesson that I added in this was really fun. I didn't really like filming myself, but overall it wasn't so bad. When I read the article about reading texts vs watching them, I know I wanted to write about The Raven. I did this my first year and thought it was GREAT! Then, I pulled out my lesson plan for it and realized it really need revamping. So, I took what I had and searched other blogs and websites until I found a couple of lessons that interested me and that I knew I could tweak and combine to make a fun and effective lesson. It's amazing to see the students watch videos of a text or videos that really pinpoint certain literary elements and totally nail the analysis. The text adds the students imagination, then the video helps pull it together.


Overall:
I have always thought it would be neat to have a blog, probably because I read them all the time via Pinterest. Then I think, "what am I going to write about? Who cares that I know how to arm knit?" (by the way, that was a couple years ago, I've probably lost my touch. It's a tangled mess.) I liked being able to choose the kinds of blogs and being given a prompt. I feel that it was neat to see how other people thinking in our class.

Video Blog

Video on Youtube

I could not get the video to upload to the blog without linking it. I didn't mind filming myself talking about this lesson, but I don't know that it actually added anything to the understanding of the context. That being said, doing this for students would be helpful if there is a day that I am absent and want to explain directions for a certain assignment (providing the sub can access the computer).

For the video blog, I decided to focus on stories/poems that have been read aloud and put into movie form.

In this lesson, students are introduced to The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.  There is an adaptation of the poem that includes a clip from the Simpsons, 

The lesson will start off by watching the video (it's less than 5 minutes). The images below are pulled from two different lesson plans of the poem using the video.  I would merge the two lessons by:

• Discussing books vs. movies (i.e. Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc.) and how they are different and what happens to the movies that are adapted from books (change, scenes left out, etc.)
• How does the process change when you read something versus watching and hearing something?
• Give some background about Poe and introduce the poem with the Simpsons video
• Recall and take notes of what you watched and observed during the video (this can connect to the background knowledge of Poe)
• Give students a copy of the poem and "tear it apart" line for line (Shmoop gives a guide, link below)
• There are lines missing in the video- play it again for students and have them work in groups to find the missing lines (the missing verses are numbers 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16.)
• Why are the lines missing? Also talk about things that students may have missed in the first viewing (what is in the background, actions of the characters, etc.)
• Complete C-E in image below

Links needed for this lesson:
The Raven- poem
The Simpsons- The Raven
The Raven Stanza Analysis
Lesson Plan 1
Lesson Plan 2


I believe that the viewing of the Simpsons movie will help to lighten The Raven for students to understand the meaning behind the poem. It's also neat that James Earl Jones' voice meshed with the Simpsons' characters makes a nice comparison analysis for the students- what is different about his voice? Then you can analyze the actions of Homer which also aids in understanding of what is going on. Also analyzing why the video decided to cut certain lines is important to show "author's purpose"- did the video still get the message of the poem across to you? How?

It's also fun to pair a creepy text with comical characters, especially well known ones. How neat is it to say, "yeah, we analyzed Homer Simpson's actions of the Raven today in class..." :)

Question Blog- Graphic Novels

I developed questions from both the teacher and the student point of view and posted them in a "comic" above. (Click on the photo for a larger view.)

I also took to Facebook and got a couple of replies about the use of graphic novels (Thanks Megan!).

Facebook Comment Link

(Update for more comments!)

Diigo: Digital Footprints

I love to read. Magazines, books, articles, blogs are all sources that I enjoy reading from. I think that becoming a teacher has changed me as a reader. I am constantly using strategies that I teach my children: re-read, discover new vocabulary, make connections, make predictions, make inferences. When reading to reach a "final project", I use the same strategies listed above. Educational articles are always read with my students in mind, and the more that I get to know my kids, I think of particular students that would love this new resource or tool that I have learned about. I enjoyed being able to read the article about Digital Footprints and learn about new tools to use in my classroom. Stopping and taking notes was really helpful to be sure that I understood what I was reading, as well as taking in what the women in the interview were saying.

Diigo would be such a wonderful tool for my classroom. We are currently subscribed to Scholastic Scope, and the articles can be saved as PDF. Students can use the mouse on the laptop or the stylus to highlight and take notes. The articles from Scholastic are quality and challenging texts that students really have to think deeply about. Working through an article using this tool is a great way for students to show their view of the text and to let me know what they are thinking. My only concern is that the free plan only allows for one article to be saved at a time.

Diigo: Digital Footprints