Looking for Some Book Read Alouds for Young Children

A professional colleague in the language arts area recommended the StoryTimeMomShy channel on YouTube.

My colleague noted her kindergarten child has been glued to the read-alouds. What a wonderful way to develop a love of literature in young children.

I am embedding some of the stories for you to preview, but recommend going to the StoryTimeMomShy YouTube site to see all the stories available, and expect more will be added. 

You can also check out StoryTimeMom's website for more information:

Do these read-alouds look like something you would use in the classroom or recommend to parents? I am new to  StoryTimeMomShy channel, but subscribed, so I am ready to recommend it to parents and teachers when they seek a source of read-aloud sites.

Let me know what you think. Have you heard of StoryTimeMomShy? Do you know of children who watch the read-alouds on the channel? Where do you go to find online read-alouds for young children?

Social Media Enhances Professional Development

Attending the annual National Council of Teachers of English Convention (NCTE) in Boston, I was thrilled to see the increased use of social media. During the Convention. Twitter was in full force, keeping those in attendance in person or virtually up to date minute-by-minute.

Principal Eric Sheninghan, New Milford High School, NJ, keynoted for the Council on English Education Opening Session. His focus was on how he uses social media extensively to connect globally and to communicate with the local community about school-related matters. Not surprisingly, Eric has over a half million Twitter followers.

Numerous sessions focused on blogging as a professional development tool and a means for students to reach beyond the classroom walls. One of my own presentations addressed training teachers to use blogging. Its accompanying slide presentation is embedded below.

Critical Inquiry and Collaboration: Training Teachers to Join the Blogosphere from Judy Arzt

I was entranced with Calgary, Canada high school teacher Pamela Hunnisett presentation on her use of blogging in the classroom. Check her blog for links to her presentation: NCTE13. Here, I recap what she had to say in her post "Why Blogging":

WHY BLOGGING:

Over the past three years I have been piloting blog writing with my English classes to improve student writing and to introduce students to a 21st century collaborative web tool for learning. The blog offers a forum where students are motivated to write because their writing has an authentic audience, and it offers students opportunities to learn, research, and discuss their learning in a student-engaging forum. Students are taught how to communicate appropriately and respectfully in this forum.

Blogging has definitely surpassed all my expectations! First of all, students are crafting their “personal best” writing since it will be available to their peers for feedback. Secondly, students develop stronger academic habits of self-discipline, integrity, and responsibility. Finally, the most surprising benefit is that the blog has developed a trusting, compassionate, and respectful community virtually that has transferred into the classroom itself. Blogging has allowed our walls to literally and figuratively disappear as the students work together to inspire, encourage, and validate each other.

First grade Chicago teacher Kristen Ziemeke delivered another excellent presentation, focusing on how she uses social media and digital tools with her students. Her presentation was delivered in a slide presentation in which she featured how her students use iPads. Find out more about Kristen by visiting her website. 

Image: http://www.kristinziemke.com/

Do You Know About BiblioNasium?

I heard about this site, but when one of my former students, a middle school special education teacher, ready to go off to Argentina, to teach there, recommended it, I decided to look into it. After I did, I was convinced it was an excellent site to engage students in reading and sharing what they are reading.

I even set up a site myself to explore how the tool works. Here is a glimpse into what I have so far, but I invite you to check out BiblioNasium for yourself, and set up a site for your class regardless of the age of the students you teach.

If you work with young students who are not yet reading, you can post on your site picture books you recommend for parents to read aloud at home or share with parents the ones you are already reading aloud in the classroom. If you work with older students, set up a class account, where students can post what they are reading, write reviews, make recommendations, and add books to a wish list. This truly is an interactive site that engages students in the reading, writing, and information literacy processes.

I love this site, and it makes me wish I were teaching students grades PreK through 8th grade, although I did start to set up a site for EDUC 584 just to experiment with the tools. I found the site user-friendly and liked its search box feature and links to "Resources," which includes a full list of Newberry Award winners.

I have also seen rave reviews about the site from teachers. Here are just a few Twitter tweets to give you an idea of teacher reactions.

Add caption

And here is a video I found in the School Library Journal's review of the site, which you can also read: "BibliorNassium, Social Reading for Kids."




Have you heard of the site? Would you consider checking it out and using it with students?

Learning to Use Storybird in EDUC 584

Storybird is an easy tool to use once you start playing around with it. As with other tools, the first time around will be trial and error, but once you get the knack of it, it will be easier to use the next time around. First, get the knack of it before you use it with students.

Once you open your account, go to setting, and note how you can set the age bracket to filter the kinds of illustrations that students will be able to use. This is an important feature to use when implementing the program in the school setting. I created the below using an age setting for elementary students.

Here is a quick example. Note when using Storybird, once a theme and illustration set are chosen, you begin by creating your cover for the book. You  use the + sign in the program to advance to the next page, but each time, you need to hit the Save button to save a page before advancing to your next page. You simply drag and drop the illustration you want on the page, and then use the space for writing text to compose your story line for that page. Once done with the page, remember to hit Save and then hit the + sign to advance to the next page. When your story is completed, go to the Menu to save it, and you will be prompted with specific options. Once your story is successfully processed, you can go back in and get the embed code to copy so you can embed your story in a blog post. You can also grab the URL for the story if you prefer to use that to direct viewers to your story on the Storybird site.

To view this story, use the full-screen option, which is in the lower right-hand corner.



Here are some links to find examples created by former EDUC 584 students. They created these stories to read to their students. In other cases, students worked with the teachers to create the stories, doing this as a collaborative project, with students selecting the illustrations and dictating or typing the text for each page in the story.

Anna created several posts about her use of Storybird with her kindergarteners:

• My Little Darlings Make Me Smile (student examples)
• Done and Presented (her example, final draft)
• Created to Teach (her example, first draft)

Mari Beth created this one to use with her preschoolers

• Bingo, I Think I Got It

Bryan created this one to use with his second graders.

• Digital Story

Now that you've seen some examples, how do you envision using a tool like Storybird with students? 

Cranes for Peace: A Global Project

Once we introduce technology in our classrooms and schools, we open up opportunities for students to collaborate in ways unfathomable before. One excellent example is a quad blogging. The Cranes 4 Peace Blog, a collaborative project, follows this format, with students from countries around the world contributing to a common blog. Here is an image from just one of the posts on the blog,

http://cranes4peace.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/st-thomas-more-cps-peace-cranes/

Check the About page for the project, and then go to the blog itself, The Cranes 4 Peace, to see what the children in this collaborative blog are posting.

http://cranes4peace.wordpress.com/about/

Take some time to look. Don't rush. Leave your comments on this post after you've looked around. Have you gotten any inspiration from The Cranes 4 Peace blog? Would you consider implementing a similar project in your school?

See this website to learn more about the Peace Crane Project. The site will offer ideas for ways you can celebrate in your own schools and bring awareness to world peace.

Here is a video about the project:





For more information about the International Day of Peace, celebrated, Sept. 21, 2013, also  check this website: International Day of Peace, Education for Peace.

So What Can Kindergarteners Do with Digital Tools

Matt Gomez, a kindergarten teacher in Texas, does amazing things with his students. Check his blog, and check this recent post about how he uses blogging with students. The post includes links to a variety of projects his students are doing.

Click on the image below to access the specific post:

If kindergarten kids can do all of these things with digital tools, think about what kids in general can do when teachers expose them to digital tools for learning and creating.

Here are  some screen captures from the post to give you an idea of what students are doing.

So what's your reaction to how the kindergarteners are learning with digital tools? After exploring Matt's blog and some of his posts, what have you been motivated to do with your students using digital tools?

Digital Writing Workshop Companion Site

If you haven't looked around the companion website to Troy Hicks's The Digital Writing Workshop, here's a link to access the site:

Digital Writing Workshop Wiki

On the site, you'll find a host of links to access information. There are chapter-by-chapter links as well as links to videos and audio resources. Here is snapshot of part of the homepage of the wiki.

Take a few minutes now to explore the site, and let us know what you recommend to others.

Here's a VoiceThread from the site. Bill Gaskin opens each slide, and his colleagues continue the discussion.  Each slide corresponds to another chapter in the book.


 


Suggestion: bookmark the wiki site, and return to it for specific resources. There is plenty to explore.

Audioboo: At the Zoo

My professional colleague, Wes Fryer, sent along this Audioboo by Rachel, "Flamingos at the Zoo." Rachel's voice reminds me of those talented kids you hear on television commercials. More to the point, Audioboo is a wonderful tool to use with students of all ages.

Here is Rachel's Audioboo. Let me know what you think. How can you see this tool, Audioboo, being used with learners of any age? How might it be used in different disciplines in the school at any grade level? What about teachers creating Audioboos? Have you used this tool?

listen to ‘Flamingos at the zoo’ on Audioboo

Note several other Audioboos on other animals at the zoo are also available, for instance:

listen to ‘Galapagos Tortoises at the zoo’ on Audioboo

Although this strikes me as excellent project for young children to demonstrate what they are learning about animals, the use of Audioboo also gives them practice with recording their voice and developing their oral communication skills.

Since writing this post in draft from, I have also learned that Rachel has her own websites where she has archived her other creations: 22 videos, several e-books, and  28 Audioboos. Here is the link to her website: Rachel Fryer. Click on the individual tabs at the top to get to her ebooks, audios, vidoes, and writing samples. Did I mention that Rachel is 10 years old? 

Watch These First Graders on the iPads

Speaking about literacy skills, watch how these first graders engage in a poetry workshop and how the teacher organizes it. What's your take on this kind of workshop? How are you feeling about iPad integration into the lower grades? Do you see them as valuable tools for promoting students' literacy skills?

Click on the image to view the video in Vimeo.

Bio Poems

Bio Poems enable students to introduce themselves in a creative way. Check this website posting for some samples: "Bio Poems, Created and Composed by Div. 2." Use the Play button to scroll and see each sample.

Mr. Kaliar is the teacher, and on his website, Our Learning Journeys, look for the tab, Student Showcase" to find examples of other student projects.

Here are two examples of the students' Bio Poems.

After looking through more examples of the Bio Poems, what do you think of this class project? Have you tried similar projects? If you looked through samples of other students' projects on the class site, what do you think of theses? How do you feel about teachers publishing student work on websites or blogs?