HCPS Middle School

AudioPal.com is a great site for students to make audio recordings that can be easily embedded into a website, blog, or social network.  This site has many advantages and allows for students to record audio clips via cell phone, computer keyboard, computer microphone, or they can upload already existing audio clips from their hard drive.  The sample below was recorded by a student pretending to be Thomas Jefferson.  The assignment was to make believe you are an important person in American History.   Your objective was to leave a voicemail to one of your contemporaries stating relevant facts and posing questions that relate to the Virginia Standards of Learning.   This created an enthusiastic, and modern take on the Revolutionary Era.  To listen to the sample below, just click on the play button.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Students in Ms. Hall’s Earth Science classes are given a country to research using www.water.org. They then use this research to make an imovie “documentary” or infomercial about the Global Water Crisis in their country.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Mr. Rankin’s 7th grade French I.B students  put their oral language skills to the test when they gave tours of a house to demonstrate their understanding of the French language.  (SOL FI.5)  This assignment was done individually and could be done live in front of the class, or pre-recorded.

This example is an enhanced podcast that was completed using GarageBand.  The student matched pictures to her voice recording to create an amazing tour of a beautiful home. (creativity & innovation)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ms. Vernon’s 8th Grade students utilized podcasting in order to increase comprehension and writing skills using the novel Copper Sun by Sharon Draper.  There is a particularly dramatic scene in the story about slavery, where the outsiders come to the African village and kidnap the members of the tribe.  After reading the chapter and an introductory lesson on screenwriting, the students dramatized the scene by writing scripts in small groups.  They used dialogue and description, through the use of a narrator.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Through our Library Information Center, students in grades 6-8 create book reviews to share with their peers. The format of the website not only allows students to post their review, but rate other books listed on the site.

More to come

http://byrdmiddle.org/books/

Popularity: 6% [?]