The latest and greatest tech news from the classroom at CAIS. Read on to learn about what our teachers and students have been doing with technology in April!
Interactive Books Enliven Kindergarten Reading Centers
In McKenzie Morgan and Kimberly Reid's kindergarten classes, students are experiencing a new level of interactivity in their reading centers thanks to fun interactive reading apps! Students work in reading centers and rotate through an iPad station approximately once per week. There students may read an interactive eBook, such as "All By Myself" by Mercer Mayer. Students who are learning to read can build their literacy skills by listening to the story narration. In addition, students can learn new vocabulary through tappable words and pictures. After reading the book, students work on making text-to-self connections. Another reading app used by some kindergarteners at their iPad stations is Lexia Reading, which allows pre-readers to develop phonemic awareness. Finally, some students who need work on reading and spelling sight words use a Sight Words app. Our kindergarten teachers are finding that the iPads are proving to be useful tools to differentiate reading instruction in their classrooms!
First Graders as Chinese Music Video Producers
Budding rock stars in our midst! This month first graders in Sue Geng's class choreographed, directed, and performed their very own music videos. Using a Chinese version of the classic children's tune "If You're Happy and You Know It" (如果感到幸福你就拍拍手), students worked in groups and assumed different roles in their music video production. One student served as director/videographer while two children choreographed and another assumed the role of lead singer. They may have missed the lyrics once or twice or even been a bit off-key, but they were having a great time learning Chinese and making music videos! Check out the adorable results of their efforts below!
Digital Storytelling Meets Writing Workshop
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in!"
"Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!"
These words from the classic fairy tale "The Three Little Pigs" became the inspiration for our second graders to compose their very own fairy tales this spring. In Ryan Hughes and Diana Gross/Lisa Ma's second grade English classes, students completed a Writing Workshop unit on fairy tales. First, students hand-wrote and illustrated their stories. Then they brought their stories to life through digital storytelling. Students used Drawing Pad to create their illustrations and SonicPics to record their voices as they read their stories aloud. Check out an example of a student's fairy tale project below!
Students Get Imaginative with Chinese Digital Books
Learning transition words has never been so easy...or so much fun! Second grade students in ChiChi Su and Teresa Shyu's classes practiced writing with transition words in a fun digital book project. First students brainstormed an idea for something they would like to have. Next students wrote about what they would want to do with that item if they were to get it! In their writing, students were required to use transition words such as "first", "next", "then", and "last". Students illustrated their writing using Drawing Pad iPad app, then imported their pictures to Book Creator and recorded themselves reading their stories aloud. Check out the sample student video below, in which one student proclaims: "If I have a dragon, first I will take him to barbecue marshmallows in the sun!"
Using Graphic Organizers to Enhance Chinese Writing
Third graders in Teresa Shyu and Weiwen Yang's classes used Kidspiration and Popplet to create graphic organizers to help prepare for in-class debates. First, teachers showed students different examples of mapping diagrams that could be used for opinion and narrative writing. Then students worked individually or in groups to create their own mind maps. Students created thought bubbles to capture their ideas and connected related bubbles to organize their thoughts. One significant benefit of using these graphic organizers was that the maps made it easy for teachers and students to identify where more detail was needed to expand students' ideas.
Writing Workshop Goes Digital: Take 2!
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| Google Drawing of Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana |
Once again, our Lower School English teachers have put a new spin on informational writing with the help of technology. This year Anne Valentino and Sean Mosconi used their Social Studies unit on California Missions as the basis for their Writing Workshop study of informational writing. Fourth graders researched the missions using books and websites, then crafted informational writing projects that included many of the important features of an informational text. After composing their writing in Google Docs, students transferred their writing and images to Book Creator to create attractive digital books. In addition, some students opted to use Google Drawings to create an image of the layout of their mission! To see an example of a fourth grader's informational eBook, click here.
Learning About Immigration through Filmmaking
Are you familiar with your family history? How much do you know about the challenges your ancestors faced as immigrants? To answer these questions and learn more about immigration, fourth graders in Annie Liu and Cheryl Teng's classes interviewed family members or family friends about their immigration experiences. After the interview, students compiled their subject's responses into stories. Using iMovie, students then transformed the stories into movies by combining video footage of the interview, historical photos, subtitles and music. See an example of a student project below!
Let's Go to Africa!
Our sixth grade students have been busy honing their presentation skills this spring! In Jake Sproull's sixth grade English Humanities class, students researched an African country of their choosing. Concurrently, in technology class with Jeri Countryman, students learned to use two different
presentation apps: Keynote and Haiku Deck. For the Africa
project, students chose one of these presentation tools to share their discoveries about Africa with the rest of the class. Some of the required components of the presentation included a "fast facts" section of statistics, a timeline of the country's history, important sites, and culture. And, of course, students used plenty of images and graphics to make their presentations more visually appealing! Click here to see an example of a student project.
Upcoming Technology Professional Development Opportunities
iCore - Crystal Springs Uplands School, June 9-10
Creativity, Learning, Innovation, Collaboration, K-12 - Castilleja School, June 10-11
CUE Rock Star Camps - Various locations in CA, June/July
Design, Do, Discover - Palo Alto, CA, June 19-20
Teach 21 West - San Francisco, CA, June 23-26
Institute for 21st Century Educators - Oakland, June 24-26
Google Apps for Education CA Summit - Palo Alto, July 19-20
