IDEA Lab blog |
I was impressed with how engaged the students were with the program. They checked the bracket each week when they came to the Resource Center and there was some hardcore lobbying going on for favorites each week. We used Google Forms to expedite the entire process. QR Codes enabled students to quickly and easily access the forms. There was a little voter fraud by some of the older students who realized that they could submit multiple responses, but overall the students were honest and policed one another. Were I to do this tournament again, I would want to find a way to have students interact with the books more intimately prior to the beginning of the tournament. I could envision having students 'present' each book to the whole group via Flipgrid or another tool where they could highlight the book. Another approach might be to have a few of the books at several tables and have the students rotate through the stations taking turns reading through the books and making notes. Overall, the experience was beneficial and an awful lot of fun! I look forward to learning about how others are using these books to inspire interest and a love for reading in their libraries!
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Happy April!
As you may know, April is National Poetry Month. Students will be exploring, writing and reading a wide variety of poetry in the Resource Center. Thursday, April 18th is Poem in Your Pocket Day. I will put a class set of poems in your mailbox on the 17th and you can help, by encouraging your students to share their poems with one another and their buddies throughout the day. If you are interested in bringing poetry into your classroom this month, there are a ton of great ideas over at the poets.org website. There you can find poems to read everyday of the month, lesson plans and much more. We have a very healthy poetry collection in our library for you to explore as well. I’m attaching a copy of one of my favorite ‘poems,’ the lyrics to Stephen Sondheim’s “Children Will Listen.” On the heels of our staff meeting yesterday, it reminded me of just how much influence we have on our students. Happy Poetry Month! Children Will Listen Careful the things you say, Children will listen. Careful the things you do, Children will see. And learn. Children may not obey, But children will listen. Children will look to you For which way to turn, To learn what to be. Careful before you say, “Listen to me.” Children will listen. Careful the wish you make, Wishes are children. Careful the path they take- Wishes come true, Not free. Careful the spell you cast, Not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you… Careful the tale you tell, That is the spell. Children will listen. -Stephen Sondheim Even though the calendar says April, we still have some March Madness going on in the HWRC. Our March BOOK Madness tournament has heated up to the final four. This week we'll be voting to see which two books make it to the championship.
Week One Results are in and we are moving on to the Elite Eight! Here are the results: There were some blowouts and some very close contests. I'm excited to share these results with the students and eager to see who moves on to the final four!
Character + Setting + Plot. Three pieces all stories need. Also, three pieces that must be included in all digital Breakout EDU games. Crafting a brief but articulate storyline to accompany a digital Breakout EDU game may not sound too difficult, but the 4th graders I’m working with have some different variables in play… First, they are creating games in collaborative groups, some as large as five students. Each student is responsible for creating their own lock based on their “expert reports” which is a ELA+writing instructional unit. Here are the big ideas or themes that each group is working under… This has been a unique variable to navigate as students are engaged in both a collaborative and independent manner. Although each group has an overall theme or idea, they are each responsible for their own lock creation. Further, they have to collaborate as a group to create a storyline for each game. So, the “science” group with Ms. Bulan has three topics: water, DNA and the heart. Brainstorming possible story ideas to include all three topics, including a character, setting, and plot has proven to be a different type of challenge! Students are leaning into this element of our game design unit with some even sharing the observation that the story may present itself during the course of creating the individual locks. To help foster active and meaningful conversation around the idea in weaving a story throughout the game, we spent a good amount of time on the following reflection questions:
As we discussed and explored these questions both as a whole group and in our game-creation groups, students worked on the brainstorm sheet for this course. It helped students realize that the stories they need to create do not need to be excessive in length, but clear and concise. Almost as “attention grabbers” in a original piece of fiction. Students also came to the realization that some clues may also need to extend the storyline a bit to set-up their individual puzzle. Next week will see students dive into the lock of their choosing as they spend more time learning about the lock and finalizing their own idea for a puzzle. 2019MBM PB from Scott Jones on Vimeo.
Sounds awesome right?
How can you participate, support and encourage your students to participate? We've made it super easy peasy. Here is the playlist of the books being read aloud. Feel free to share some or all of them with your students. (Kids WILL have time to explore these during their library time in the RC Too). Then, each week we'll vote on a google form. Just like the basketball tournament, we'll emerge with one victor!
This year in the Hubbard Woods Resource Center, we have enjoyed sharing the forty titles highlighted by the two annual children's book award programs for K-4 students. One aspect of both the Bluestem and the Monarch contests is that the books are not necessarily from the calendar year, they are books that teacher librarians have recommended for their high interest and quality. The award is designed for students in grades 3-5 who are ready for longer titles than found on the Monarch list, but not quite ready for the sophistication of some of the Rebecca Caudill titles. Named in honor of Big Bluestem which is the state prairie grass, the award may include both timeless classics and current titles, as well as books that have appeared on Monarch and Rebecca Caudill lists. -From the Association of Illinois School Library Educators Website We purchased five copies of each of the twenty books on this year's list and display them prominently in the library. Each week throughout the first half of the year, we share a chapter or book talk the various titles. Then in early March, our students have the opportunity to submit their individual votes for the state-wide contest. Third graders are lucky! They are able to vote for both the Bluestem and the Monarch contests! Here is a LINK to the master list for 2019. The name Monarch was chosen because of its familiarity to K-3 children and to symbolize the growth, change and freedom that becoming a reader brings. The Monarch is designed to encourage children to read critically and become familiar with children's books, authors and illustrators. The program is open to all K-3 age children in Illinois. -From the Association of Illinois School Library Educators Site Throughout the first half of the year, we've sprinkled in the Monarch Award books into our library times for K-3 students. Over the last few weeks, these students have been analyzing the titles and ranking their favorites. In early March, the students will have the chance to submit their vote for the state-wide contest as well. Here is a link to the master list for 2019.
Third Grade Takes It Up a Notch!
Voting!We used a Google Form to vote for the awards. What I love about Google Forms is that it allows you to insert a photo (which I used the cover of the books) to make the whole process simple for even the youngest students! Here are the results from our students! And OUR Winner Is...What is PebbleGo?PebbleGo is the award winning PreK-3 database for reading and research. ... Databases are simple to navigate and offer key reading supports such as read-along audio and word-by-word highlighting. This is a new resource for Winnetka, but I've heard from several of you who have used it in other schools. For those of you who it is new, I hope this quick overview will be useful and I am eager to explore this tool with you and your students! When you log in (with the password document I shared with you earlier) you will see a list of the general subject areas in the PebbleGo database. Let's learn about animals!When you've gotten to your main subject, a variety of tabs appear. These are common throughout all of the animal topics. When the speaker icon is clicked, the audio of the passage is read and each word is highlighted as it is read. Additionally, the red words, when clicked, give you a definition. The fifth is an audio file.
Session I entitled “What Is Digital Game Design?” has wrapped up in the IDEA Lab! All three classes have now gained valuable experience in the parts of a digital game, including a sample digital game and reflection questions.Before learning about the different types of locks and exploring a game in partnerships, students had to first sign-up for their own account on the Breakout EDU Platform. Setting up individual student accounts is an important piece so that students can start to brainstorm and design their own locks and puzzles. Iti also gives me some insight into how they are spending their creation time and makes for easy sharing and game submission once designers have finalized their lock. More applications for leveraging students accounts can be explored here.In order to immerse the players into the five different types of locks, I decided it would be meaningful and fun to have them actually try out some of the puzzles as we worked our way through each lock. To accomplish this, I used a tool called Nearpod. Each student entered the Nearpod lesson code on their individual iPad which then allowed me to curate their own thinking and potential solutions for the locks we were exploring. Better yet, using Nearpod allowed me to quickly share out student responses and thinking to all devices which led to some great conversation around the variety of ways one can interpret a lock. You can check out the Nearpod lesson I created below.
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How Else Can We Help? | Over the next few months, I'll be sharing some resources and ideas that will help support your hard work in the classroom! |
Todd & Billy
Resource Center Director
Technology Integration Specialist
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