Ms. Myers 6th grade Reading class worked collaboratively using the ActivStudio software to summarize and illustrate the journal, Trapped By the Ice, written by Michael McCurdy. Their small group projects where then collected to form a short story video about the real-life story if Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance. Click on the links below to find out what happened to these brave men in 1914!
Ms. Landis works with her 8th grade creative writing class to create an online newspaper. Students decided the layout of the paper as well as the content that was included. The students conducted interviews, created original editorials, along with other staples that you would see in your local newspaper. The class in continuing to improve the online paper and wants to include blogging so that students can respond to editorials and create a discussion on important topics relevant to our students.
8th grade English students, in Ms. Saunders and Ms. Duckenfield’s classes, created websites using iWeb to illustrate, summarize and critique Historical Ficeion Novels Each site includes a short summary, character analysis, research into the historical time period, and a personal critique of the novel they chose.
Ms. Landis 8th grade Creative Writing Class created their own magazine publications, which included a variety articles along with other basic magazine fillers such as horoscopes, book reviews, star interviews, and games. This lesson reinforced English Standard’s of Learning that student’s cover in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade as well as giving students a real world experience of creating their own magazine. Allowing the students to be creative and design the theme of the magazine and relate all of its contents to that theme develop creativity skills and give students a personal connection to the assignment.
The articles were created by the magazine’s authors and then edited by other students in the class, which also enhances student’s collaboration and grammar skills. Research was done through a variety of sites and personal information. Graphics were also located and downloaded from the Internet for student’s to organize into a power point presentation that was later printed and bound just as a magazine would look.
Students in Mrs. Clements’ 6th grade Gifted and Talented class worked together to create ad campaigns centered around a product of their choice. Students were organized into groups (“agencies”) that were responsible for creating an ad designed to sell their product. Students had to work together and effectively communicate key components of their product with a larger audience. In their groups, students created TV commercials, radio commercials, and billboards that highlighted their product. Once the products were created they had to share them in a professional and informative presentation.
This lesson allowed a wonderful opportunity for students to engage in a lesson that they could easily transfer into a “real world” context. Before creating their own campaigns, students used the internet to research PR firms, listen to adds, and generate ideas based on their findings. Technology enabled students to create multimedia products that were very professional. Students were engaged and excited about the unit.
Because students starred in their television commercials we will not be able to post them here, but can share some of their radio ad’s. We hope you enjoy!
“The Ultima Show” (Radio Ad)
[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/ultima.mp3]
“Groovy Gum” Bubblegum (Radio Ad)
[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/groovygum.mp3]
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.
In conjunction with their unit on The Diary of Anne Frank, Mrs. Hunnicutt’s advanced 8th grade English students researched and studied The Holocaust and other instances of genocide as a way to bring to life the idea of promoting dignity and respect among all people. For this unit, students completed a learning contract that offered a wide variety of topics of study topics and a wide variety of ways to demonstrate learning. Students were asked to utilize critical thinking and reading skills as well as a myriad of tools to create traditional as well as multimedia artifacts that demonstrated their knowledge and creativity.
Mrs. Hunicutt was consistently amazed and impressed by the depth of knowledge and feeling that students demonstrated in their projects from vodcasts about The Trail of Tears to original songs composed and recorded on Garageband, to scripted chapters of Elie Wiesel’s Night, to interviews with Holocaust survivors, to community service projects, to paintings and collages that profoundly communicate the pain and suffering caused by intolerance.
The SOLs covered by this project are as follows: 8.1, 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 8.5 8.7
My Own Memory – Original Music Score
[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/myownmemory.mp3]
Why? – Original Music Score
[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/why.mp3]
Students in Mrs. Deyo’s 6th grade English classes spent some time writing poetry based on paintings currently featured at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Their poems were based on the point of view of a “character” in the painting or on the point of view of the artist. After writing their poem, students recorded it into GarageBand and added music that matched the tone of their poem and painting. Here is an example based on the painting by Eastman Johnson called “A Ride to Liberty- The Fugitive Slaves, March 2, 1862″
[flv]http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/staffdev/maddux_j/6_PaintingsPodcastKOC.flv[/flv]
The students in Mrs. Sommer’s 8th grade English classes were asked to write a memoir of an experience in their life. This experience needed to have a lasting impact on their lives. After writing this, the students proceeded to create digital stories based on their memoir. During their story, they needed to find a creative way to tell the “lesson” they learned through the experience. Students used iMovie and iPhoto to create their movies. Here is an example from an 8th grade girl that learned that “No one is perfect”
[flv]http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/staffdev/maddux_j/memoirspms.flv[/flv]