I Am Poems {A fun end of the year activity}

I don't know where you stand, but for me, I only have 9 more teaching days left! This happens to be a bittersweet moment for me. I LOVE teaching, since I was 5 I have dreamed to be a teacher. However, I am taking a break from teaching for awhile to raise my family. While I can't wait for summer, my heart is breaking as I pack up my class :( Change can be so hard! The final days before summer break are always the hardest for me to plan. The end of the year testing is over (thank heavens!), but the kids are ready to be done, and frankly, so am I :). But it is important to keep the kids engaged and working or the last few days can feel like an eternity. One of my favorite lessons to do near the end of the school year is I Am poems. The general outline for these poems is the same, in fact, here is a freebie template I created for students to fill in for their poem:

First I take my class outside and let them choose a location around the school for a picture. This picture will be the background of their poem. Next I have students fill in the template. Depending on time, I will correct for spelling errors, or I will just let the computer do that when they type it :). When we get to the computer lab, I actually have students type in PowerPoint. Make sure they change the orientation of the slide to "portrait" and the dimensions to 8.5 x 11 so it matches the size of paper they will print their poem on. To do this, click on the design tab. In the lower left corner, the icons "slide orientation" and "page setup" will allow you to do this. Next, I have my students insert their picture as a background so they can change transparency, and so the picture fills the entire slide. Underneath the design tab in PowerPoint, on the right-hand side, there is a button called "background styles". Students click there and then click "format background". Once in the formatting, they choose "picture or texture fill," and choose a picture from "file". I like to make a folder that all my students can access through our school drop-box so they can easily retrieve and insert their picture. Once their picture is formatted as the background of their PowerPoint, they can change the transparency. I like to make it at least 50% so the writing will show up over their picture. Last, students type their poem. They can choose a fun and readable font, as well as change the color of the writing as desired. A finished poem will look like this:

Have fun and good luck with your last few days of teaching! This project is included in my {Autobiographies and Biographies, Writing by the Month} product. Available for 4th, 5th and 6th grades!

Sick of Grading? There's an App for That!

The first thing I thought when I came across this app was, "Why in the world have I not heard of this before?" and chances are, if I haven't seen it, there has got to be other people who haven't as well. For years I have been using {spellingcity.com} to make my life easier in terms of grading spelling tests (fabulous site and totally worth the money!), but what if all my multiple choice quizzes could be graded just as easily?
I stumbled upon an app called {InstaGrade} and it is "InstaAwesome"! No more grading. At least, multiple choice quizzes and tests that is.
What you will need:

• An iPhone or iPod
• The app {instagrade}
• Special InstaGrade Answer Sheets (sent from your phone, to your email to download and print)
• A multiple choice quiz. The up to 24 question answer sheets and app provided by InstaGrade are free. If you need more questions, you just pay a one time fee of $1.99 for answer sheets with up to 56 questions.
• Students :)

Once the app is downloaded, you will see a screen like this and you will be able to create you own quizzes or tests.

Select "New quiz" in the top right corner. You will then be brought to a screen that looks like this:

You can then change the name of the quiz by selecting the date and quiz in the top right corner. The next step is to pick the correct answers for the quiz. Each number has a dash and the corresponding A, B, C, D and E. A dash means that there is no multiple choice answer for that question. So if you only want 10 questions or 15 or 20, just leave the remaining unused questions at the dash. Next, pass out your quiz to the students. They can read the paper quiz and then answer their questions on the answer sheet  that looks like this:

Back on the home screen where you create a new quiz, you will see an icon at the bottom of the screen that says "Print Answer Sheets". You will have an option to email this sheet to yourself to then download and print. Copy as many as you would like! It is important that the students use this sheet as their answer sheet.

Once the students finish the quiz, it will be time to grade them. This used to be my least favorite thing to do ever...I dreaded it. Now, it is fun to take the picture of each quiz and see immediate results.

Place each quiz under your iPhone or iPod camera. Once in the desired quiz, click on the orange camera on the bottom of the app that says "grade". 

Clicking the "grade" orange camera does not grade the quiz, it just gets you to this picture. Next, make sure the entire quiz, including the black frame for the answers, is inside the orange bars. You will then tap the screen and the app instantly grades your quiz! The student's name will immediately show up beneath the quiz picture box with their percentage. You can click on the students name and get their answer sheet with questions missed and questions correct.

The reports don't stop there! You can have reports emailed to you with information on each individual question and how many students missed it or got it correct. Quiz reports will tell you the average class score, as well as individual scores. The individual reports tell you the students score, which answered they got correct, which questions they missed, and what the correct answer should have been on the missed questions.

It is not necessary to use pen, but if a pen is used, make sure it's a dark color. I tell my students to color in each box answer neatly and fully. However, I tested several sloppy and half-filled in boxes, and the app still graded the quizzes accurately. 

This app is so simple and easy to figure out. I can't wait to use it again. Plus it is free. Free grading, plus saves me time, equals InstaAwesome!

Visit my TPTstore here

Improving Reading Fluency with Audacity

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday, so in honor of that, I want to share with you a reading activity I recently did with my class of 6th graders. They went from boring robot readers, to students filled with excitement and emotion as they read. Their fluency scores should soon be flying off the charts (If only it were that simple!). I have noticed that each year, my class is different (I know what you are thinking, "how profound"). What I mean by this is that some years my students LOVE to read. They do it alone, with partners, and chorally as a class; you name it, they read it. Other years, the students feel like reading is a chore, no matter what we read or do with reading.

We've tried reader's theater, book clubs, and reading novels as a whole class. Nothing was working. It happened to be the simple, short activity that got my students excited to read. We just called it "PowerPoint Poem Recordings". Yes, that's kind of a mouthful, so I'll take new name suggestions for this activity in the comments below ;).

Reading in front of the whole class whether alone or chorally can get some kids nervous, but when I gave my students microphones it all changed! Suddenly reading was fun. It was fun to speak into the microphone. It was entertaining to make different voices. It was cool to hear yourself recorded. Actually, my favorite part of all this was that they heard themselves read, and they practiced until they got it right. They wanted their project perfect.

 I started out using a free program you can download from the internet called {Audacity}. Next, I passed out poems written by Shel Silverstein and Kenn Nesbitt I had typed up on card stock. Any poem or story would work for this activity.

(A typed poem and microphone.)

                                           (The program Audacity opened up on the computer.)

Students also need a microphone and headphones. Depending on your technology, this could be done during reading centers, in the computer lab, or during a scheduled time on the computer as assigned by the teacher. There are 16 desktop computers in my classroom so we did this activity as a whole class, with students making recordings with a partner.

First students practiced reading their poems several times. They loved to make voices, read at different paces, and take turns reading with a partner. Somehow listening to themselves read was a lot more fun than just "plain old reading". Next, when they were done recording, students exported their audacity wave file as an MP3 and saved it in an easy to find location.

Then, students opened PowerPoint and designed slides with clipart and pictures to go along with the poem they recorded. Last, students imported their MP3 file of their poem into PowerPoint.While in PowerPoint, students clicked on the Insert tab. Then they clicked on Audio, which is in the top right hand side of the screen. The kids then chose an audio from file which happened to be their recording. Once the audio file was in the PowerPoint, clicking on the playback audio and then choosing the play across slideshow option allowed for their poem clip to play when they began their PowerPoint. I found this was best, because then as the slideshow played, students were able to click from one slide to the next as the poem progressed, and the right pictures appeared to match the audio.

My students enjoyed this so much we now have a reading center during reading rotations called PowerPoint Poem Recordings. What type of activities and rotations do your students do during reading in the upper elementary grades? I am always looking for new and creative ideas for my classroom as well!

Below is a sample PowerPoint Poem Recording done by me, because of student privacy, I did not want to share any of the children's work.

(clipart by Krista Wallden)

Public Service Announcements

Hello, my name is Teresa Kwant and I am thrilled to be a part of this new blog! I teach 6th grade in an elementary school in Utah. Recently, I finished my technology endorsement through a program called eMINTS. The goal of eMINTS is to encourage inquiry-based learning, build cooperative learning, and create technology-rich learning environments. Here's a peek at what my classroom looks like:

We have all kinds of fun using technology on a daily basis!

Recently I decided to have my students create Public Service Announcements to spread some positive messages around our classroom and school community. It turned out to be a fun writing project as well. To engage the students and get them excited for the project, I first showed them commercials from [this] website. Some of my favorites are titled Imagine, Concert, The Greatest, Top Shelf, and Bus. Then we discussed as a class why these commercials impact people and in what ways they leave impressions. 

Next, with a partner, students brainstormed as many positive values as they could and created a [wordle].

Depending on the technology available to you, this may be done on your classroom computers, as a whole class creating a wordle on the teacher computer, during centers, or in the computer lab.

Once the wordle was completed it was time to get started on the writing. A Public Service Announcement (PSA) is an excellent example of persuasive writing (which fits right into the common core). This writing prompt was a great introduction for their paper:

After students had read the prompt, I passed out a graphic organizer and told the students that they had to choose one value they wanted to persuade our class and school community to follow. Why is it an important value? Why should anyone incorporate this value into their lives? They could refer back to ideas brainstormed in their wordle as needed. 

The next day we started writing a persuasive essay about the value of their choice. Once the rough draft was finished, students did a self and peer edit of their writing. Last, I had them publish their writing on this template page:

For the final project students were put into small groups of 4 or 5. They chose one of the values a team member had written on, and started creating a PSA. They were given a storyboard for thoughts and details to map out their ideas. Once a storyboard was finished, students practiced their PSA. When they finished practicing (which was a day or so later) students then recorded their PSA's (filming with iPODS) and uploaded them to the computers. I set up time slots for my students to film during recess so I could guide and monitor each group and so there wasn't any unnecessary background noise. My class used a program called Windows Live Movie Maker to create their work.When all the videos were completed we watched them together as a class. Unfortunately I can't post student samples, but they did PSA's on topics like "Caring," "sportsmanship," and "being a friend."

 If you do not have access to technology or computer labs often, try having students make skits and performing them in front of the class or designing a poster about their values to hang around the school.

This activity definitely added a closer community feel to our classroom and they enjoyed working together to make the videos. PSA's are a great way to get your students involved, no matter how big or small, in their community. Here is a link to my store with the PSA pages [here].

If you are interested in other CCSS writing units, check out my Writing by the Month Units in my TPT store [here].

(Graphic Provided by Krista Wallden)