Connected Classroom Hangout: Danny the Champion the World with Lucy Dahl

I'm posting a little bit earlier this week to share a very cool activity that just took place at Roosevelt School.  Today, Mrs. Filipiak's 3rd grade classroom had a very unique opportunity.   Before Thanksgiving, they were sent copies of the book, Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl.  Over Thanksgiving Break the third grade students read the book and when they returned, submitted questions in preparation for today's Connected Classroom Hangout with Lucy Dahl, Roald Dahl's daughter, and with Elizabeth Findley who works with Matilda, the Musical, on Broadway.  It was a BEYOND amazing experience for the students who personally got to interact with both Lucy in Los Angeles and Elizabeth in New York.   Lucy had some amazing information to share about her father and the kids and adults involved learned a lot!    Some students even were able to make some very unique and interesting connections with Roald Dahl.   As a big "Oprah type" surprise at the end, the students received the book, Matilda, as a thanks for participating gift.  They were beyond thrilled. Check out the video of the entire experience in the YouTube Video below.  Thank you to +Matilda The Musical Broadway and +Connor Swenson for such an amazing opportunity!   

RAZ-KIDS iPad App

Our Kindergarteners through 3rd graders are very lucky to have a great resource available to them both at home and at school called Raz-Kids. Your children in K-3 can read and listen to books on Raz-Kids and even record themselves reading. Afterwards they can take a quiz to check for comprehension.

You can also monitor your child's progress using Raz-Kids.  You can see which books your student has been reading, send them messages, and review all their activity with our Parent Access area. Simply log in as your student, click the "Parents" link in the top right, and register.   

Our Roosevelt teachers are currently in the process of sending home the letters with log-in information for each student.   If you have any questions about your students log in information, please contact your child's teacher and they can help.  To access Raz-Kids, click on the picture above or scroll down to the helpful links section on the right hand side of the blog. 

Since we have subscriptions for our K-3 Students to Raz-Kids, we also have access to the Raz-Kids app for the iPad. This app lets you access eBooks and eQuizzes for the 300+ titles on Raz-Kids, all on your tablet!  In addition to engaging kids at their reading level and in their area of interest, this award-winning resouces gives kids 24/7 Web access to the practice they need to become better, more confident readers.  Please click here to download this FREE app to your iPad so that your students can have access to their eBooks and quizzes.   If you have any questions or problems, please let me know and I'd be happy to help you troubleshoot.   

Teacher Technology Testimonial - Mrs. Marcell

Today's guest post comes from Mrs. Barclay Marcell.  She is a literacy teacher that services students in 1-5 here at Roosevelt School.   Mrs. Marcell received a SMART Board this year as a part of Roosevelt's 21 new SMART Boards that were installed this summer.  Below she shares how technology, specifically SMART Boards, have changed her practice - in two short months.   

There is literacy intervention before SMART Boards and literacy intervention after SMART Boards.

The advent of the SMART Board has taken prescribed, program-driven reading lessons and brought them to the big screen. Literally.  And along with it, a soaring level of student motivation and one excited teacher.

I think it was Einstein who said, "If I can see it, I can understand it."

So, take a 3rd grade Read Naturally fluency text about wolves – no color, stilted language, with a quiz to boot. Interject a podcast narration and a National Geographic video clip of wolves hunting and howling. Follow that up with Garage Band timed readings and iMovie kid reporting. The result? Reluctant readers are fighting over which text to tackle next. And their teacher is tempted to do a cartwheel.

Take a Phonics for Reading decodable text excerpt such as Jack got a cod fish. Not exactly edge-of-your-seat material. Well, put the sentence on the SMART Board and suddenly 1st graders are clamoring to highlight vowels, to scoop phrases, and of course to draw a picture of fisherman Jack. 

Take a sight word recitation exercise; add a SMART Board game from ABCya. Suddenly, you’ve got kids whose bank of known sight words was formerly in need of a bailout snapping and singing their the’s, what’s, and why’s.

Take the Storytown robust vocabulary words; add a ready made PowerPoint on the SMART Board and now 4th graders are predicting, connecting, and acting out words.

Take the Storytown lesson of the week for 2nd grade; add the Think Central site on the SMART Board, and kids are now relating literacy lesson content to their classroom focus. Skills and strategies are reinforced and grades improve. Success breeds success.

Take a teacher who wants to spark a love of reading; add the creativity and visual appeal of the SMART Board, plus the invaluable assistance of an awesome technology coach, and what do to get? Comprehension and Cartwheels.

We see it; we understand it.

Roosevelt Recording Studio

Last year, a group of Roosevelt Teachers wrote a PTO grant for the Roosevelt Recording Studio.  The Roosevelt Recording Studio is similar to an authentic production studio.  Roosevelt’s Recording Studio would is complete with dedicated equipment including a tripod, a digital camera, a green screen wall, a microphone, and a computer for editing and publishing.  The studio provides educational opportunities that embellish curricular content while increasing student motivation and engagement.

The ELA Common Core State Standards are inherently targeted within the learning objectives of the Roosevelt Recording Studio – specifically as they relate to anchor standards cited in Reading-Informational Text, Language, Writing, Speaking and Listening .

Students, or Roosevelt Reporters, will participate in activities including, but not limited to, the following –

• Paraphrasing main ideas from grade-level articles on current events.
• Developing a Kid-News script based on a close reading of online source materials   – articles from Time for Kids, Scholastic News, etc.
• Practicing oral reading fluency skills by rereading for the purpose of incorporating expression and performing.
• Learning and practicing production skills related to imovie software (uploading, editing, using a green screen and layering backdrops related to content).

The studio is already up and running for the school year!  We've had various classrooms already recording in the recording studio, and many teacher including in their upcoming plans.   We also just recently received a grant from Donor's Choose to add two new cameras to our recording studio!   Hopefully we'll be able to start posting some examples on this page.   

Thank you so much to the Roosevelt PTO for making the Roosevelt Recording Studio a possibility for our students!

A class in action using the Roosevelt Recording Studio.

Podcasting for Fluency

This year, more teachers across grade levels are implementing The Daily Five in their Reading blocks.   The Daily Five is a structure that helps students develop the daily habits of reading, writing, and working independently that will lead to a lifetime of literacy independence.   When implementing the Daily Five structure students can choose between the following literacy activities:

• Read to Self
• Work on Writing 
• Word Work
• Listening to Reading
• Read to Someone

Currently, many teachers are working on building up these routines in their classrooms and getting in the groove of these activities while the teacher works with small groups or conferences with individual students. I've been lucky enough to plan some lessons with teachers to help infuse technology in the Daily Five.   I've been training classrooms and working with individual students on Podcasting as a part of the "Listening to Reading" component.   How this activity works is a student goes to the "Listening to Reading" Center where there are headphones with a microphone and a laptop that has the program Garage Band.  Students then record themselves reading a passage or poem selected by their teacher.  Once they record themselves reading, they then can listen to their recording and make notes on the page of what they've read.   Students then save their Podcast, then fill out a self evaluation about their reading.   By making this a regular part of the reading block, students will be able to go back and listen to themselves read and track improvement over time.  Teachers can also go and listen to what the student records and have the ability to conference with their students with their Oral Reading Fluency progress.   Students can then set their own goals for improvement.   Technology is changing how students learn in this activity as it is giving them the opportunity to go back and hear themselves read.   We used to accomplish this task with whisper phones or PVC pipes where they could read to themselves but offered little opportunity for reflection.  Everyone benefits from this use of technology!

A student records herself reading a poem. 

Here a student listens to their recording of himself reading a poem.