This Fall, I applied for a Dover SEED Grant (Seacoast Educational Endowment for Dover) with another first grade teacher, Maria Frangione, for both of our classrooms to be equipped with a microphone, quality speakers, and a webcam. Our plan is to utilize Skyping as a tool to build students' digital literacy and communication skills in connection with our traditional spring social studies and letter writing unit. You can see our project and other projects that were funded on the Dover Seed website at https://doverseed.org/projects-funded/fall-2016/
Each spring, first graders learn about and practice mapping skills through a literacy study of the short chapter book Flat Stanley written by Jeff Brown. In the story, Stanley becomes accidentally flattened when a bulletin board falls on him while he is sleeping. He is unhurt, but completely flat! Being flat allows him to go on lots of adventures and even helps to solve the crime of the art museum thieves! Flat Stanley is even mailed to visit his cousin in California! Each student will write a letter and mail their own paper Flat Stanleys across the United States and even the World to friends and family members. We ask that they take Flat Stanley on an adventure and take pictures to be sent back with Flat Stanley to WPS. Towards the end of March, we will be asking for an address of a family member or friend who you think would be interested in participated in the Flat Stanley project! So, how does the webcam, microphone, and speakers come into play? We are excited to take this unit to the next level of digital literacy! With the help of the webcam and microphone, our classroom will be able to communicate via Skype with a 7th grade English class in Madrid, Spain. Students will learn about the culture, school, and environment of Madrid, Spain by interviewing the students via Skype. We have been practicing our Skype etiquette by playing Mystery Skype with Ms. Frangione's first graders. Given a topic of the week (animal, Dr. Seuss book, number, character, etc.), students ask questions to try to figure out what the Mystery of the week is. We practiced taking turns, speaking clearly, and looking into the camera. We are so excited to use our digital literacy skills to get to know our new digital pen pals!
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Our Class BlogCheck out our blog for weekly updates on our learning and important information! Archives
April 2017
Categories |