Digital Story

I did my digital story on my Uncle Jim ... and the fact that he is one of my biggest heroes! =) Admittedly I was very ... weary ... at the idea of a digital story. BUT it was *way easier* than I had thought it would be! Now I am excited at the possibility of having my kids create their own digital stories.

Plagiarism and Cititations

Citations, plagiarism, and paraphrasing are key words in 4th grade. As we begin expecting the kids to write more and more and start expanding on their research abilities and non fiction writing skills, we have to talk to our kids about plagiarism and citations. Our librarian has been fantastic about helping us kick off discussions about plagiarism by showing the kids how bad it feels if someone copies your work or claims your work for their own. (She does a very simple lesson where she has the kids each write a shape poem and then takes one kids work and puts her own name on it ... simple, but effective). From there we talk to the kids about how to avoid "stealing" someone's work, or plagiarizing. We model citing sources for the kids and give them lots of support as they learn how to cite. We also help them figure out how to paraphrase ... which is really difficult for most kids!

We bring up these conversations any time we get the chance. We do a lot of modeled writing, and every time I write I think aloud with my kids ... "Is this my own words?" "How can I make sure it is my own words?" "What do I need to do to be sure I am not stealing this persons work?" "How can I give the original author credit?" etc.

Thinking aloud with my students does a couple of things ... first it models the correct way to cite sources and avoid plagiarism. However, it also shows my students that I have to think through these questions, too (which is oh so true!).

Plagiarism is tricky for kids to understand. Paraphrasing is really hard. And Citations are tricky (even for me!). There are some great videos on Brainpop that we like to use on plagiarism, citations, and paraphrasing. You can find them here.

What helpful hints do you have for helping kids understand plagiarism?

Weebly Website

I created my class website using Weebly.com during my first year teaching. Weebly was super easy to use and (so far) has had any tool I could imagine needing.

My website has already changed a lot over the last two years, and I'm sure will continue to do so as I learn better and better ways to incoporate technology into my room. Check it out at moreland4.weebly.com.

I primarily use my website as a way to make websites I want my students to use easily accessible for them. When we are working on a unit I am able to put links on my site that we will be referencing throughout the unit for easy finding. I also have a page of "fun" links my students can go to during any down time they have. At the end of each unit I also use the website for our performance events so that the students can easily navigate to the website they need. Though one is not up right now (as it is summer), I often use the blogging feature for my students to have book talks. Recently, I added a discussion board forum to my website making it more of a Ning. I am excited to use this with my students in the coming year!

On my website I do post some information for parents and I have a form that parents can use to contact me. I used to keep a personal blog on the site for our classroom that I used as an easily up-datable newsletter. However, I did not find that parents were reading the blog and I have never had anyone use the site to contact me (they all have my e-mail and school phone number and usually use those instead). So, using my website for contact with parents is definitely a "gap" I'd like to fill in with my website.

One thing on my website that does appeal to parents and other teachers is a book list. I have a list of books that we read (or that supplement) each unit that we do. I also have a link to my other website units4.weebly.com that serves as more of a "teacher page". On that site I have links to worksheets, activities, websites, tools, and books, we use for our units. This allows me and the teachers I work with (as well as potentially other teachers) to have easy access to some ideas we have found for our units.

I know there are a lot more ways ... and possibly more effective ways ... I could be using my website. What are some ideas you have?

Incorporating Literacy

Because I am an ELA teacher, incorporating literacy into everything is something I do on a daily basis. In fourth grade we teach using units ... and our units are awesome! Through the units we are able to integrate reading, writing, social studies, and science. Our units tend to alternate between science based like "Weather or Not" in which students learn about different types of weather while also learning how authors use weather to benefit books, and "Tales of the Heart" during which students learn about the human heart as well as the heart of stories and characters and Social Studies units like "Earth, Wind, and Sky" which focuses on Native Americans and Native American literature and "Literary Heroes" which focuses on heroes of the Revolutionary War as well as what it takes to be a hero.

Through our units we try to balance non fiction reading and research, fiction reading, personal writing, and content-specific writing.

One of the things we do at the end of our units that the kids really enjoy is our Performance Events. For our 3rd Unit "Animals are Characters Too!", we read lots of books about animals. We focus on things like personification and how authors portray animals in stories, and we also read and research all about animals. At the end of the unit we have students research two animals, choose the one they think would be best included into a (made up) wildlife refuge, and then write a persuasive letter to the wildlife refuge. This event is graded based on a rubric which has sections for their researcher (use of a graphic organizer), their writing, and their effort/use of time. You can check out our entire performance event here. The kids and I both love this assignment because it gets them using technology, researching (which they love!), learning all about science, reading, and writing. It integrates a lot of things and because they enjoy it they are focused and working hard!

Integration is a wonderful thing ... can't wait to see what it looks like in your classroom!