Archive | June 2019

Story Elements & Storytelling

Jun27

One way to teach story elements is by reading a simple picture book aloud and then using a graphic organizer to review the story elements.

 

A blank SWBS can then be used to plan an original story created in a variety of platforms such as Book Creator or Little Bird Tales.

 

 

 

 

Eric Curts suggests using story cubes to help start a story, and provides templates  to Create Your Own Story Cubes with Google Drawings.


He provides templates for pictures, words, and emojis.

A special education class at MLK School #9 created story cubes with pictures using their Chromebooks and the Google drawings templates provided at the link above. The students then broke into 2 groups (the guys and girls) and wrote a story using the Somebody-Wanted-But-So template along with the story cubes. The teacher and I acted as scribes.

 

Expanded Learning Time

Jun27

At Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., School #9, our instructional priorities focus on relationships, rigor and relevance. Expanded Learning Time facilitates teachers and students working together in smaller groups across multiple grades, provides real-world experiences, and encourages the students to take on new challenges.

In Piano Keyboard ELT, the students make tremendous progress in learning how to read music and play the keyboard. This is a great opportunity for them to “dip their toe in the water” and see how they like playing an instrument.

Breakout EDU

Jun27

Our principal, Miss Sharon Jackson, purchased 12 Breakout EDU kits for our school. We have been having so much fun using them in library class to deepen reading comprehension, support the curriculum, and teach collaboration skills!

For example, we read George Crum and the Saratoga Chip, a biography which takes place in New York State. While reading the biography aloud, we display the map below and  discuss many facts related to maps and New York state before beginning to read:

 

  • Is this a map of a city, state, or country? How many states are there in the United States?
  • Why do some of the places shown on the map have a black circle while others have a blue square? (cities versus major attractions)
  • We read through the words on the map and ask students to listen for locations marked on the map that are mentioned  in the book (Saratoga Springs and Adirondack Mountains) during the read-aloud.

 

After reading the book, students must read clues and answer 3 reading comprehension questions from the story to open 3 locks or “breakout” of the Breakout EDU kit:

  1. George worked at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs.
  2. George was a blend of these 2 heritages (African American and Native American).
  3. George invented potato chips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The students love working in teams and using UV flashlights, red lens viewers, encypted messages, etc. to solve the clues.

 

Before we begin we  discuss this question, “One of the purposes of using Breakout EDU is to build good teamwork skills. How do you think good teamwork will look and sound?