Using Video for Vocabulary Development

To assist with vocabulary development with kindergarten ELL students, I created this video.  It supports an IB unit that O'Connell school is currently working on (Unit 5-An inquiry into characteristics of living things. After giving a pre-assessment, I determined which animal names were unknown to students.  The unit only has four weeks left so I plan to cover 10 animals a week.  Students are having some difficulty remembering the names so I am hoping that seeing the animals in action in combination with my narration will help them to remember.

*These video clips were all taken from Youtube posts for educational purposes, I do not claim any ownership.

Digital Storytelling Project

Ibrahim's Story

This project has turned out to be much more time consuming than I had anticipated...

However, the pride that Ibrahim exudes makes it well worth the effort!  My Wiki page for East Hartford Public Schools will also have this video embedded so that he will have the opportunity to share our creation with family and friends.  Additionally, through this process, I feel that I have built a much stronger relationship with Ibrahim and his sister (who is also an ELL student at the EHHS).  ELL students need an opportunity such as this to show how much they do know because too often, other students don't realize the wealth of information and the new perspectives that could be shared with students from other parts of the world.  Although the project tried my patience at times, I am grateful for the opportunity.

This is a very rough draft of the concept that I had originally thought I would pursue but it was difficult with all the time off we have had compounded with not seeing my students every day.  However, I corresponded with Ibrahim and his sister outside of school often to try to make up for lost time and fill the seemingly endless gaps.  His sister, Shabana answered many questions and provided me with their personal photographs.  She was exceedingly helpful and then thanked me for my time and helping her practice her English!

The second draft has some of the questions I had, answered but I had some difficulty uploading the pictures that Shabana gave me.  Thankfully, the photos uploaded onto Moviemaker with no problem.  The video seems lengthy at this point because Ibrahim has had some difficulty reading his script and we haven't even covered all the areas I wanted to at this point.  Additionally, he didn't keep the microphone near his mouth so  some of the narration fades out.  I think I will edit some of the script and re-record some of the narration to shorten the video; I may have to delete somethings as well.  I am afraid to upload the video at this point because I am unsure if I will be able to edit it again once I have saved it and I REALLY don't want to do it all again!

The third draft has been edited.

Time Zones...Who Knew?

TED Ed Talks

Why do we have standardized time in the United States?

In my RSS feed, Richard Byrne posted this and other related videos.  Maybe all of you already knew this so please forgive my ignorance as I did not.  I thought it was interesting and thought it could be used for units on Industrial Revolution.  ELL students benefit greatly from multimedia in lessons so I thought maybe I would try to utilize more of these types of videos in my instruction especially for reader (well viewer) response questions.  If I had a class with a blog, I might embed a video with questions for students to blog about.

Want a New Way to Apply PhotoPeach?

PhotoPeach seems almost identical to Animoto in terms of creation and sharing.  They additionally offer educator packages for entire classes and schools that allow all the students work to be in one central location for the community to view.

We all know how to use this type of tool for creating a video but I just read a new idea for using this tool for instructional purposes.  PhotoPeach has an option to select quiz in the educator's package.  The captions you add are questions and multiple choice answers complete with a timer!  For a step by step instructions with screen shots, please visit a Dropbox link on Lori's Latest Links.

To see an example of the quiz format, please click on the following link:  Life Feast: Creating QUIZZES with Photopeach.  This example is of particular interest to me because it was created to practice English grammar by Ana Maria Menezes, an EFL teacher in Brazil.  

Application?

I was thinking of using it as an "All About Me" type of project.  Many of my students have very interesting heritages that would be fun to share.  For those of you that have classrooms, you could send a fun and interactive "All About..." to introduce yourselves to your new students and their families on your blog.

In addition to the grammar example, I could use the video as a type of pre- and post assessment for determining background knowledge in the content areas or for vocabulary development.  I'm not sure of the logistics yet.  I wonder if there is a way to have students respond with clickers to collect data.  I have no idea if that can even be done with iPads but after this week, I am thinking probably not!

If you have any other ideas, I would love you to share them!

   

Are You Looking for a Cool Way to Create a Word Web? Try Popplet!

One of the easiest instructional strategies for ELLs is to incorporate semantic maps.  This strategy has become rather common place so the Popplet app adds a refreshing novelty.  Popplet is usually a paid app on Apple devices but I have heard it is offered for free sometimes or you can access it on the website for free.  The free version is limited to 5 creations but you are able to share or export your popplets and save them as pdf or jpeg files.  The following video describes how to use the features of the app.  



I created a popplet on nonfiction text features to try it out.  Since the site would not let me embed the popplet I created, I decided to take a screen shot.  My awesome sister-n-law taught me how.  Thank you, Elena!!!!  

I exported the popplet as a pdf file but I don't know how to upload it in that format.  I was hoping to enlarge it so that it could be more easily seen but this seems to be the best I can do.  If anyone knows a better way, please feel free to share!

It is really easy so I plan to have my students create their own.  Some ideas for application are:

1. Building vocabulary
2. Synonyms
3. Story mapping
4. Main idea and supporting details

Can you think of anymore?

VOKI

This is NOT my Voki, I was all set to embed the Voki I had previously created.  However, now that type of avatar is for Voki Education use which is only free for a short amount of time...aggravating. So, I decided to try to take a screen shot of it at least.  The following are directions I found online to do so:




<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EoTpIYLBtKs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

but all I get is this code, it didn't work...grrr...

Anyhow, the tool still has some other avatars that are still free but in the process of looking for one, I lost my original pretty avatar...double grrr...

I am disenchanted with this tool at the moment but I will share some cool ideas for using it since that was my original intent.  

ELL Ideas for Application

1. To model fluency by creating a good and bad example and then having students discuss which example was easier to understand and why.
2. Students can record themselves reading for a similar activity or for self reflection
3. For giving rules for using capital letters and examples
4. To tell homophone jokes
5. To practice writing sentences from dictation
6. Students to make their own Vokis to demonstrate their knowledge of helping verbs
7. To present their findings on culture studies
8. To create Vokis that illustrate different heteronyms
9. To create a Voki that summarizes their news articles

Resources

Life Feast Blog

Voki Lesson plans

Character Traits Animoto

I plan to use this Animoto for instructing my students in grades 3-6.  The purpose of this Animoto is to supplement the study of vocabulary used to describe character's traits in literature.  ELL students are often asked to make connections to demonstrate or strengthen comprehension.  Such students often come to this country with very different cultures and backgrounds; thus, making connections to literature from the U.S. often difficult.  By focusing on character traits and character development, students can personally connect themselves to the characters using similar traits.  It helps them identify with the character in the text by reminding them of something they have done or manners in which they have acted, which hopefully in turn further stimulates their interest and provokes deeper engagement.  

Depending on student interest, I was hoping students could choose one of the apps to enhance a blog post.  By choosing the appropriate app for their favorite medium:  storybird, animoto, voice thread, etc. students will use at least two domains of language (if not more) to communicate their text to self connections in some way, through drawing, writing, speaking, or use of digital tools.  All will demonstrate how the character trait they have chosen connects to them.  Younger students may possibly use their iPads to photograph the character they connect with and write about it while older students may choose another medium cited above.

Developing vocabulary is one of my biggest challenges because of the repetitions needed to acquire terms.  I hope using digital tools will not only address ELL standards and expectations but fulfill ISTE's digital teaching standards one, two, and maybe three as well.  

Digital Storytelling

I was so excited when I stumbled upon Larry Ferlazzo's blog because not only does he have great ideas for digital storytelling but he is an excellent resource for ideas for teaching my ELLs!!  I can't think of a better way to motivate them, to inspire creativity, to integrate technological tools, and to simply get them to write with a project based approach all while giving them an opportunity for self expression.  



Sadly, as I talked to my students, I discovered that most of them don't know their "stories."  They couldn't answer my questions about immigration or what their parent or grandparents lives were like in their native countries.  Some of them could describe some details of their native countries but not as much as I had hoped.  I will try to reach out to the families but that is difficult with the language barriers.  

Admittedly, I wanted to include many of the tools but I haven't explored enough to feel that I can choose my favorite at this point.  I promise I will update as soon as I figure out more....but I do know that it will be another way I can better integrate my iPads.  The iPads are so versatile that students can use them for photos, videos, and text.  They just need a teacher that can get herself savvy with all the tools.