Planning

Teacher Planning Page
This page is to help teachers plan and coordinate this project. Please feel free to add any ideas that you have on this page!

Please use the [|discussion tab] to ask and answer questions. Let's try to keep the questions, suggestions, ideas in one central place (here) so that we can all find what we're looking for.


 * Keeping up with the discussion**: Use the [|notify me tab] to select either the RSS feed for this page (or the whole wiki) or get e-mails automatically sent every time a page is changed or discussion added.


 * Getting Started**: Lesson Plan Ideas:


 * Lesson 1: Introduce VoiceThread** (30 min). Show a sample VoiceThread to the class (I used [|this one] from Alexander Fryer, age 9) and explore the different parts of a VoiceThread (creator avatar, record, type, play, moving from picture to picture). Have students discuss what they see and brainstorm about how they can make their own. Send home a permission slip to ensure that all students may participate. [[file:VTPermission.pdf]]


 * Lesson 2: Taking care of the technology** (1 hour). In small groups, while the rest of the class is reading or working on another activity, help each student sign up for a VoiceThread account. We also made sure that every student had their own e-mail address so that we can be prepared for other project ideas that may come up throughout the year (for example, we are using a Ning to create a "flat classroom" with other grade 4 classes around the world, which requires a personal e-mail address for each student). I also kept a record of each student's e-mail address just in case we need it later.


 * Lesson 3: Explore & Brainstorm** (1 hour). Provide some time (about 10 minutes) for all students to individually explore VoiceThread. As they are exploring, make sure they discover how to add pictures and record their own voice. They may want to watch some of the tutorials posted on the resources page to get ideas. Next, have students individually brainstorm their own VoiceThread idea (I usually use Inspiration). They need to define their main ideas, how they will break down their review for each picture, and what type of pictures they would like to include.


 * Lesson 4: Plan** (1 hour). Have students specifically plan out what they will say in their VoiceThread and select the appropriate pictures to represent their book. Make sure that students take the time to write a quality book review (at ISB they will be graded on their book review, not on how they use the technology tools). If their book review is complete, they can use the time to search for (or take their own) appropriate images. Be sure to include the full URL of each image used.


 * Developing the project further**: some initial ideas (please feel free to add more!):
 * 1) Have students create individual book reviews on a book of their choice. Post reviews here on the wikispace and encourage others to watch and then comment and collaborate on individual threads.
 * 2) Have students create individual book reviews on a book of their choice in multiple languages. Encourage others to add to the book review in other languages. See how many translations we can bring together on one book.
 * 3) Have students create small group book reviews (up to 4 students) based on their leveled reading ability. These could be created within the classroom or cross-school.
 * 4) Have classes create a book review about one book that they read together. All students in the class can contribute to the one review in order to delve deeper into the book. Other classes can watch and then comment and collaborate.
 * 5) Have several classes collaborate together to create one book review on a commonly read book in order to reflect more deeply about the content.

Scheduling (not sure how to set this up - feel free to improve):

Interested in Idea 1:


 * Teacher || Grade Level || School || Start Date ||