I used the Shape Hunt activbook in my class with just a couple of students. I've discovered that the mice that came with our computers does not fit little hands well and they all think they should click on the scroller! Anywho...I thought it was a great activity for some of my higher level students and one was able to complete it independently. At this point, I'd say that it didn't impact my students' learning, rather provided them some much needed practice. I think I will definitely use it again in the future. One potential change would be to change the shapes (to just colored shapes) for some of my lower functioning kiddos.
I did the "Mad Libs" Activbook with my third graders. I think the activity is a really good one - pushing students to do more in an engaging way. However, this was a really rocky lesson because my kids were so unused to the Activbook format. I spent time walking students through how the program worked, but... lots of me running around the room troubleshooting!
If I did it again, I would not assign students to complete the whole book for this first experience. Instead, I would either walk students through the whole book in the computer lab to give them a feel for the program, or only have them do the first page or so of the book on their own.
I used the Activbook titled "The Goat" but I modified it by adding dolphin pictures and words instead. I used this at the beginning of the year just after our class chose the dolphin as our class mascot. It impacted student learning by making the students who voted on another mascot more excited about being the dolphins this year. It also impacted student learning in allowing students to create sentences and discuss the characteristics of sentences (beginning with a capital, ending with a period) without the hassle of having to physically write out the words. They could manipulate the sentences with ease to incorporate better word choice based on ideas from their peers. The students enjoyed working as a whole class to create sentences about our class mascot. If I do this activity again, I will allow time for the students to complete the activity individually in the computer lab after it was introduced as a whole class. I might even take it a step further, I would have students create their own picture to match the words in their sentence.
I completed a mathematics Geometry Shape Design activebook. I thought it was great, and the student engagement was high. They enjoyed using the different geometric shapes we have been studing to design a picture. We also had good conversations following naming the shapes they chose in their pictures. I was also able to print their pictures off in color, to use for a writing project. Not sure what I would change next time; it worked great!!
I used a mental math scaffold for my third graders. I was surprised at how much I liked it and how engaged the kids were in the activity. I will definitely use this activbook again. When I do, I will be sure to give a clear explanation of the activity (now that I've had experience with it). There were a few pages that were confusing, but with an explanation, the students would have been self-sufficient.
I chose the book "Visit the Country and the City" to go with our 'Communitie' study. I haven't done it with my class yet, because we haven't had an in depth discussion about communites. I will use this in the computer lab when we are ready. Thanks for today! I am really excited to start Kidspiration with my class this week!
My class used the Latitude and Longitude workbook where students practice and then make their own map. I've used this before and the kids were engaged and able to correctly identify the exact locations on the practice well and then enjoyed making the map. We started well on this activity, but then Activebook Reader mysteriously started going off-line due to server issues and the lesson spiraled downhill quickly from there as we kept making larger groups with the working computers.
I used the trading card activity with my 2nd grade classes(which is the grade level the activity was designed for) using the question, "What do you want to learn about health and fitness this year in PE?" I used the activity to make sure that I hit on the questions that are important to my students at some point during the year. I learned that having students type on computers is very, very, time consuming! I also used the activity with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade but I changed the Powerpoint slide into a flipchart page and then had students write directly on the ActivBoard which was much more successful and not nearly as time consuming.
I used the ACTIVbook Reader called “Read and Make a Grid Map” with my students in the computer lab last week. My fourth graders are learning about maps as part of their study of Washington geography and regions. This activity also fit well with our recent field trip to the WA State Corn Maze where the students had to read a map to help them navigate through a corn maze in the shape of Washington.
I felt the activity went well, however, in retrospect, I wish I would have waited until our second or third session in the lab as students did not have enough time to complete the activity (we had to spend time reviewing appropriate use and computer lab behavior so we did not have the full hour to dedicate to the Imaginary Island activity).
In addition, the students were not yet convinced that the answers to their questions were all in the ACTIVbook and reading directions was a challenge for many of them. Both the students and I enjoyed the guided practice activities though and I felt they were good preparation for the individual task. I think next time we try an ACTIVbook, the students will better understand that each step of the process is outlined for them and that they really don’t need me to help them each step of the way.
I did a writing activity on opposite words/sentences. It was mostly easy for the kids to use although those who didn't listen or read well missed out on the need to enable macros. Before we started I stressed the need to carefully read and follow directions, but they still didn't all do that. The activity had some really cool features, but the last step didn't work. The kids took time to write a story using pairs of opposite words and then the ability to toggle between both words didn't work.
The impact on student learning was mostly to get familiar with how to use ACtivbook and some good practice thinking of opposite work pairs while writing a narrative piece.
Next time I would check every step in the process carefully before we start to make sure it works.
I used a reading comprehension activity with my students. It was very simple and geared towards 1st and 2nd grade. Although most of the students were able to read and understand the story and follow-up questions, they struggled with manipulating the mouse.
Clicking appears to be difficult for manykids especially if they do not use a computer often at home. The lesson was a bust simply becasue I was running around (as was a parent volunteer) fixing screens that had become victim to "click-happy" kids. Yikes! I think we will practice clicking once and dragging some more before we do this again.
Like Sara Jo I did the Latitude and Longitude activity. It's going well, we aren't actually finished...Our school has the lab set in 20 minute increments right now instead of 1 hour as everyone does keyboarding 3x a week until Turkey break. It makes it really interesting trying to fit things into the time, but the managment tips I got from ITP have my kids on the comps and going with little to no "Mrs. A, I don't know what to do next".
The activity fits right in with Ch 1 of History Alive and it was really nice to have another quick to implement reinforcement for the concept beyond paper and pencil worksheets.
I used the Goat activbook activity. It was easier than other activities for my none writers, but it was too simplistic for my advanced students. I've got to say that I'm still disappointed in the small amount of lessons for K-2 elementary students. For reading, there were only about 10 lessons to choose from, and many did not pertain to what we teach. I'm not sure that it impacted my higher student's learning, because they needed to use the simple words provided. It was a nice scaffold for my lower none writing students because they could just choose, words, and drag and drop them where they go. Next time I would differentiate the lesson and have my higher students write more sentences on their own instead of just using the drag and drop.
Today we did the "What's the Weather" activBook reader, which ties in with our water cycle (science) unit. The activBook worked nicely whole-class, with direct instruction first, then taking turns at the activBoard with the large wand. I much prefer using the activBook whole class, in this way, rather than in the computer lab. In the past, I would ALWAYS have technical difficulties with activBook and gave up. First graders can't solve their tech glitches on their own and it wasn't worth the time. I love how the activBoard draws the whole class into the learning!
At the beginning of the school year I used the Biopoem activbook. I loved the results and was able to address a number of things I wanted to teach at the same time - write at least one kind of poem a month, work on getting to know the student better and other students getting to know one another better, and expanding technology skills in Word. My students were very actively engaged. They spoke to one another trying to focus on better word choice and synonyms to make their writing more interesting. Most did not know how to include a watermark in their writing once they got to the "final copy" stage of their work. I just had to teach a few and those students in turn helped others in class. I don't think I would change a thing in this lesson. The poems were some of the best bio-type poems I've read for the beginning of the year in all my years of teaching.
I also did the jet propulsion activbook to enhance my science unit on air. It was a great way to teach my students the difference between writing a summary vs. paraphrasing. This is a skills we'll be using all school year. This one was terrific too! I'll be modifying this lesson throughout the year to give my students additional practice to strengthen these skill areas.
I did the section of Thinking Skills lessons. I believe they will have the greatest value for teaching adults. I won't use them directly with my classes, but I have been reminded of things that I haven't used in awhile. So, these have been good reminders for me.
I used the "Crazy Sentence" ActivBook to review parts of speech with my 4th and 5th graders. Students really enjoyed the "silliness" of the sentences. And they were "wowed" by the magic of creating a table, clicking on Make a Sentence, and having a new sentence appear. Kids are so easy to please :) I really liked that students tapped into their own creativity to add words to the lists, and it was easy to see whether or not they know those basic parts of speech. I would use it again without changes.
I'm sorry it took me so long to post--I did the activbook on time, but I forgot to post. I did the Play with Tangrams book. The kids had fun with it and were able to do it on their own. They had a little trouble turning the shapes, but otherwise they did fine. I think I would prefer to have the students physically play with tangrams, but it was a good book
20 comments:
I used the Shape Hunt activbook in my class with just a couple of students. I've discovered that the mice that came with our computers does not fit little hands well and they all think they should click on the scroller! Anywho...I thought it was a great activity for some of my higher level students and one was able to complete it independently. At this point, I'd say that it didn't impact my students' learning, rather provided them some much needed practice. I think I will definitely use it again in the future. One potential change would be to change the shapes (to just colored shapes) for some of my lower functioning kiddos.
I did the "Mad Libs" Activbook with my third graders. I think the activity is a really good one - pushing students to do more in an engaging way. However, this was a really rocky lesson because my kids were so unused to the Activbook format. I spent time walking students through how the program worked, but... lots of me running around the room troubleshooting!
If I did it again, I would not assign students to complete the whole book for this first experience. Instead, I would either walk students through the whole book in the computer lab to give them a feel for the program, or only have them do the first page or so of the book on their own.
I used the Activbook titled "The Goat" but I modified it by adding dolphin pictures and words instead. I used this at the beginning of the year just after our class chose the dolphin as our class mascot. It impacted student learning by making the students who voted on another mascot more excited about being the dolphins this year. It also impacted student learning in allowing students to create sentences and discuss the characteristics of sentences (beginning with a capital, ending with a period) without the hassle of having to physically write out the words. They could manipulate the sentences with ease to incorporate better word choice based on ideas from their peers. The students enjoyed working as a whole class to create sentences about our class mascot. If I do this activity again, I will allow time for the students to complete the activity individually in the computer lab after it was introduced as a whole class. I might even take it a step further, I would have students create their own picture to match the words in their sentence.
I completed a mathematics Geometry Shape Design activebook. I thought it was great, and the student engagement was high. They enjoyed using the different geometric shapes we have been studing to design a picture. We also had good conversations following naming the shapes they chose in their pictures. I was also able to print their pictures off in color, to use for a writing project. Not sure what I would change next time; it worked great!!
I used a mental math scaffold for my third graders. I was surprised at how much I liked it and how engaged the kids were in the activity. I will definitely use this activbook again. When I do, I will be sure to give a clear explanation of the activity (now that I've had experience with it). There were a few pages that were confusing, but with an explanation, the students would have been self-sufficient.
I chose the book "Visit the Country and the City" to go with our 'Communitie' study. I haven't done it with my class yet, because we haven't had an in depth discussion about communites. I will use this in the computer lab when we are ready. Thanks for today! I am really excited to start Kidspiration with my class this week!
My class used the Latitude and Longitude workbook where students practice and then make their own map. I've used this before and the kids were engaged and able to correctly identify the exact locations on the practice well and then enjoyed making the map. We started well on this activity, but then Activebook Reader mysteriously started going off-line due to server issues and the lesson spiraled downhill quickly from there as we kept making larger groups with the working computers.
I am trying to cooperate with you, but you are so difficult. I promise I will try and remember to do an avtivbook sometime before I die in January.
Michael
I used the trading card activity with my 2nd grade classes(which is the grade level the activity was designed for) using the question, "What do you want to learn about health and fitness this year in PE?" I used the activity to make sure that I hit on the questions that are important to my students at some point during the year. I learned that having students type on computers is very, very, time consuming! I also used the activity with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade but I changed the Powerpoint slide into a flipchart page and then had students write directly on the ActivBoard which was much more successful and not nearly as time consuming.
I used the ACTIVbook Reader called “Read and Make a Grid Map” with my students in the computer lab last week. My fourth graders are learning about maps as part of their study of Washington geography and regions. This activity also fit well with our recent field trip to the WA State Corn Maze where the students had to read a map to help them navigate through a corn maze in the shape of Washington.
I felt the activity went well, however, in retrospect, I wish I would have waited until our second or third session in the lab as students did not have enough time to complete the activity (we had to spend time reviewing appropriate use and computer lab behavior so we did not have the full hour to dedicate to the Imaginary Island activity).
In addition, the students were not yet convinced that the answers to their questions were all in the ACTIVbook and reading directions was a challenge for many of them. Both the students and I enjoyed the guided practice activities though and I felt they were good preparation for the individual task. I think next time we try an ACTIVbook, the students will better understand that each step of the process is outlined for them and that they really don’t need me to help them each step of the way.
I did a writing activity on opposite words/sentences. It was mostly easy for the kids to use although those who didn't listen or read well missed out on the need to enable macros. Before we started I stressed the need to carefully read and follow directions, but they still didn't all do that. The activity had some really cool features, but the last step didn't work. The kids took time to write a story using pairs of opposite words and then the ability to toggle between both words didn't work.
The impact on student learning was mostly to get familiar with how to use ACtivbook and some good practice thinking of opposite work pairs while writing a narrative piece.
Next time I would check every step in the process carefully before we start to make sure it works.
I used a reading comprehension activity with my students. It was very simple and geared towards 1st and 2nd grade. Although most of the students were able to read and understand the story and follow-up questions, they struggled with manipulating the mouse.
Clicking appears to be difficult for manykids especially if they do not use a computer often at home. The lesson was a bust simply becasue I was running around (as was a parent volunteer) fixing screens that had become victim to "click-happy" kids. Yikes! I think we will practice clicking once and dragging some more before we do this again.
Like Sara Jo I did the Latitude and Longitude activity. It's going well, we aren't actually finished...Our school has the lab set in 20 minute increments right now instead of 1 hour as everyone does keyboarding 3x a week until Turkey break. It makes it really interesting trying to fit things into the time, but the managment tips I got from ITP have my kids on the comps and going with little to no "Mrs. A, I don't know what to do next".
The activity fits right in with Ch 1 of History Alive and it was really nice to have another quick to implement reinforcement for the concept beyond paper and pencil worksheets.
I used the Goat activbook activity. It was easier than other activities for my none writers, but it was too simplistic for my advanced students. I've got to say that I'm still disappointed in the small amount of lessons for K-2 elementary students. For reading, there were only about 10 lessons to choose from, and many did not pertain to what we teach. I'm not sure that it impacted my higher student's learning, because they needed to use the simple words provided. It was a nice scaffold for my lower none writing students because they could just choose, words, and drag and drop them where they go. Next time I would differentiate the lesson and have my higher students write more sentences on their own instead of just using the drag and drop.
Today we did the "What's the Weather" activBook reader, which ties in with our water cycle (science) unit. The activBook worked nicely whole-class, with direct instruction first, then taking turns at the activBoard with the large wand. I much prefer using the activBook whole class, in this way, rather than in the computer lab. In the past, I would ALWAYS have technical difficulties with activBook and gave up. First graders can't solve their tech glitches on their own and it wasn't worth the time. I love how the activBoard draws the whole class into the learning!
At the beginning of the school year I used the Biopoem activbook. I loved the results and was able to address a number of things I wanted to teach at the same time - write at least one kind of poem a month, work on getting to know the student better and other students getting to know one another better, and expanding technology skills in Word. My students were very actively engaged. They spoke to one another trying to focus on better word choice and synonyms to make their writing more interesting. Most did not know how to include a watermark in their writing once they got to the "final copy" stage of their work. I just had to teach a few and those students in turn helped others in class. I don't think I would change a thing in this lesson. The poems were some of the best bio-type poems I've read for the beginning of the year in all my years of teaching.
I also did the jet propulsion activbook to enhance my science unit on air. It was a great way to teach my students the difference between writing a summary vs. paraphrasing. This is a skills we'll be using all school year. This one was terrific too! I'll be modifying this lesson throughout the year to give my students additional practice to strengthen these skill areas.
Lorre Mark
Endeavour Ele.
I am going to use the family job activity in social studies with my class this first quarter. I will let you know as soon as I get it accomplished.
I did the section of Thinking Skills lessons. I believe they will have the greatest value for teaching adults. I won't use them directly with my classes, but I have been reminded of things that I haven't used in awhile. So, these have been good reminders for me.
I used the "Crazy Sentence" ActivBook to review parts of speech with my 4th and 5th graders. Students really enjoyed the "silliness" of the sentences. And they were "wowed" by the magic of creating a table, clicking on Make a Sentence, and having a new sentence appear. Kids are so easy to please :) I really liked that students tapped into their own creativity to add words to the lists, and it was easy to see whether or not they know those basic parts of speech. I would use it again without changes.
I'm sorry it took me so long to post--I did the activbook on time, but I forgot to post. I did the Play with Tangrams book. The kids had fun with it and were able to do it on their own. They had a little trouble turning the shapes, but otherwise they did fine. I think I would prefer to have the students physically play with tangrams, but it was a good book
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