Literacy

Media Studies Strand

This weeks blog will be focused on media studies.

Cramer, M. Oct. 3, 2009. "Kids Watching" Retrieved from 

It seems that students today are watching more television then they use to however the shows are starting to change their dynamics. As parents are asking for more and more educational show, many kids/family shows are having to change into something that has an educational feel to it, in order for them to feel as if they are giving meaning to the shows their kids are watching. With this in mind, when our class was exploring educational blogs I had come across one in particular that I could see myself using with a variation on it. The resource was called Using Emmy Awards to Teach Media Literacy by Frank Baker. It explained how we could take a show and throw different literacy aspects into it. There was a couple different lessons that could be brought out of it. More for the older grades such as 7-12, students could compare a certain books plot line, genre, or style to the shows that they are watching. Especially if it is a harder to read story set in a different time frame it may be easier to compare something of the 21st century that is easy for them to recognize and understand to something that is harder to follow. This can give them a deeper understanding into what is expected of their reading capacity and knowledge. Also depending on the classroom if us as educators can find a show that the majority of the students watch we can explore different themes that can relate to the themes we want the students to learn in the classroom. By giving them a set of questions to answer we can find out how they watch a show and give them a different way of watching a show to look at it more in the educational sense (if applicable) rather than just entertainment.

Larremore, M. Sept. 19th, 2012

"Chalk Talk Logo". Retrieved

from

There are many ways in introduce media studies to students. You could have them watch television, listen to music, read books, etc. in order to understand what themes, meaning, plot, genre, etc. you could get from them. Many times students don't know how to read the media that is right in from of them. They just see it as entertainment. This example that I had found through Pinterest was really a neat activity to do in the classroom in order to understand how you can take a literary text and bring out the different lessons within it and apply it to media around you. The article can be found here. The article talked about using the book Arthur's TV Trouble by Marc Brown to figure out different media literacy tools such as spin, how to create a certain message, tools of persuasion, and how to evaluate messages based on your own experiences. She then had an anchor chart that had specific words about different forms of media such as TV, radio, music, commercials, etc. She had cut out pictures of each form and told the students to match them to the appropriate form of media. As they matched the picture to the words they talked about the media form and how it worked. As an extension project depending on the grade I could see where I could add in more depth to the analysis. By having student take 2-3 forms and finding their own examples from these forms and then analyzing them further. They could look for themes that were brought out in the book and try to see if they understand how those themes work in any example they pull from the media.

BrainPop. 1999. "BrainPop Educators Logo."

Retrieved from 

Everyday students are exposed to different forms of advertising media. We as educators need to help our students guard themselves from various forms of advertising that they might not understand fully. Through media literacy we teach our students how to figure out these tactics and save themselves from finding themselves in trouble. Looking through different media lessons I can across this one from BrainPop educators that deals with common advertising strategies. It highlights what to look for and what we can do with the information. It goes through a step by step process of what to look for and using activities gives students a hands on/ visual way of learning about advertising. They first read through an FYI (for your information) section on the website that talks about different advertising techniques so students can see how advertisers get the perfect pictures or use celebrities in their advertisements to associate with being famous by using the product or using myths to share different ads or stories on the students social media. After this they watch a short 5 min video about 8 common strategies used in advertising. Then they will chose a partner and talk about real like examples they may have seen that emphasize these 8 common strategies. We then pass out copies of an activity which gives them a chart of how to define these strategies. We then play the movie again and each student will fill out the chart. To split the work each 3 separate strategies they see in the movie and put them together after. The activity asks for the strategy, the definition and an example. After the movie and the chart is filled out the pairs will come together and using the make a map tool will create a web map that includes the 6 strategies they looked at together. There can also be an option that if they want to add the other 2 strategies they can get bonus points. For a follow up lesson they will do the primary source activity through the website which includes looking at an old photograph and answering questions about how they had used some of the strategies to create it. There is also an talk about an extension project in which students can make a class Pinterest board and collect and share different print, online, or video advertisements that they see in their everyday life that emphasis's these 8 strategies.

That is all for now come back next time as we talk about different sources we can use that deal with teaching reading strategies.

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Reading Strand

Henry, L. May 17, 2006. "Pile of kids reading." Retrieved from

Many students today struggle with reading. As an educator we are always trying to figure out where students are in their reading capabilities and how you can proceed in lessons without either make some students fall behind or other students fall asleep. But as a teacher how do you incorporate all these students into one lesson? How do we make sure to help every students we can? This lesson I found here can help teachers aid students who may be struggling with reading. In this article there is a teacher trying to work through the ideas of how to get her class engaged with reading. The activity that was included was doing a chart stating I read, I think, Therefore as titles to figure out how to get students engaged with the reading. The teacher makes temporary groups with only a few students in each. They are given handouts with this chart that includes many different prompts along with it to help them figure out how to answer these questions. Any students not in these groups because they do not need the extra help are told to use these prompts to create a different independent project that researches more into the lesson that is being taught in the book. This encourages further reading for these students. The students in the small independent groups will get more attention to what needs to be done in order for them to be successful in their reading skills. These small activities will also help students to figure out how to read texts and become more independent readers. The goal of this is to get students more comfortable with reading on their own and getting them to become more confident in their reading capabilities.

Epic. Sept 20, 2017. "Epic Logo"
Retrieved from 

Another resources I found useful for reading was an app called epic. You can learn more about and sign up with it here. This app gives kids a chance to find a book they are interested in through the app and are able to read it or listen to it. With classroom spaces become much more limited it may be hard to put a physical library in the classroom and sometimes kids don't like physical books. This online library gives kids thousands of books to choose from that they can read. This app categorizes books into interest, age level, or whether its a chapter, picture, early reader, comic, fact or abc book. When teachers give students quiet time to read many students liek to go to this because they can choose a book to read or listen to that interests them. It also can give quizzes for certain books and can let you watch videos about certain subjects. As the student progresses through the book it will give students the opportunity to level up. When they read a book they get experience points (xp) that they can use to unlock different themes or get access to harder books. It will show how many books they read, what they read, how many pages they flipped through and how many videos they watched. It is a really neat app to try in the classroom or at home. This can be used in the classroom if the school will allow the app to be used (as it would cost the school money).

Primary Punchbowl. Dec. 23rd, 2016. "How to Host
A Tournament of Books." Retrieved from

When searching through Pinterest I came across this really neat idea to get students to engage more in reading. This was linked to a blog post that can be found here. The idea take from this is that between the grade ones they picked 16 books to start off with head to head. After a week they would select which books moved on in each level. They read some aloud in class and some they had to read on their own. The teacher created a google forum and used a qr scanner that they used their iPads for to choose their favourites. As each week progressed they finally had a winner of which book was the favourite. This one was specifically for the grade ones in the school but the whole school enjoyed seeing which book actually came to be number one of the 16 choices. However this could be done for any class and any grade. You just need to have votes on which books to choose and then make sure that book is accessible to each child in any capacity whether it is online or a print copy. This will make it fun for students to find new books they may not have heard about or give a child a sense of enjoying to read. Some kids will not go out of a book interest level because they aren't sure what else they might like and this will give students the opportunity to explore.

That's all for now about reading. I hope you return as we explore different writing tools.

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Writing Strand

Worksheets who needs them!

Tomorrows Youth Organization. Mar. 8th 2016. "Grammar
Worksheet." Retrieved from

I mean we really do need worksheets still. However the way in which lessons are developed and implemented with activities can be much more engaging for the student. As a student myself we did more traditional activities such worksheet after worksheet after worksheet to make sure that each lesson was drilled in our head and we could do it. But now students need something more interesting. This is where the world of Pinterest comes in. Here I have found a a great resources that depicts 10 alternatives to a traditional worksheet. It suggests things such as using videos taken from this youtube video that depicts prepositions in a fun song. You can either have students find their own videos they can use to remember different grammar rules or you can find a library for them that they can go back and use when they need it. As well as having colour sheets for students. This includes using different colours to depict different grammar rules such as blue for nouns, purple for pronouns, green for verbs, etc. You can have students start off with a simple paragraph and get them to see if they can pick out the different grammar rules in the paragraph using their colour codes. With this in mind they can then move into one of the other suggestions of using nonfiction that can stimulate their senses of not looking at nonsense sentences that don't make sense. You can also use stations to get the students move around the room to complete different tastes about grammar. This can make things be more hands on and get them moving for some good old DPA.

There's an app for that!

Whittington, J. Mar. 6, 2014. "Nearpod lesson." Retrieved from 

With the prevalence of technology in the classroom, there of course will be this overwhelming use of apps in the classroom. One in particular I have seen live is one called Nearpod. Information on this app and how to be apart of it can be found here. This app allows teachers to create live lessons in which students can then become interactive with the teacher and their fellow students. This gives kids instant feedback when it comes to their lessons, for the sake of this blog it would be their writing skills. A school must subscribe to this app in order for teachers to be able to use it but once subscribed teachers can share their lessons amongst each other or sell it between different schools or online. While in a lesson teachers can add in interactive pieces in which the students can input answers to questions that are being asked. For example in the classroom I was an assistant in they used this to teach a lesson on sentence structure using nouns and verbs. The students in the middle were asked to make up a sentence using a noun and a verb that made sense. Each students answer was looked through to figure out if they had a noun and a verb to make a proper sentence. This gave the students instance feedback in order for them to figure out if their writing abilities were of adequate measure. This can help to improve students writing abilities as they learn different lessons on these as the instant feedback from the teacher can help them see if they make mistakes or if they are doing well. When looking for structure of sentences or paragraphs this would be a great interactive app to use in the classroom. 

Can we bring back the creativity in creative writing?

Herb, M. Apr. 21, 2009. "Mmm Glass". Retrieved from 

So many students now a days just keep saying, I am just not that creative or I can't write anything imaginative. Well I say sure you can, literally write down what comes to your head. Well as kids get older it seems they need the little bit more of a motivation. As one teacher points out on pinterest why not write about a funny picture (found here). She found sometimes it was hard to find time for creative writing but with only five minutes anyone can write about a funny picture. She gives a link to her pinterest board with hundreds of pictures on it (found here) or of course use google, your own photos or anywhere else to create your own photo library. There were some suggestions on how to write using the funny prompts depending on timing/students/ lessons, etc. such as :

• Write three captions for this photo. (You can change this to 1-5 captions.)
• Write a five sentence story about this picture. (You could say anything from 3-10 sentences.)
• Write a descriptive paragraph about this picture. (Length can be at your discretion or the students!)
• Give students a specific question to answer in regard to the picture. (Some pictures lend themselves to this more easily than others.)
• Or ANY other options you can think of.

 This can set a really awesome tone for getting students engaged in writing. not only can they enjoy it with you but they really can work that imagination of theirs. We can get these students to develop their writing skills by just giving them something fun to do. 

Well that's all for now, come back next time as we delve into some resources that correlate with the oral communication strand of the curriculum. Hope you enjoyed!

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Let's Get Talking

Bartczak, S. Nov. 26th 2016. "Zdj1(50)." Retrieved from 

Who Talks? TEDTALKS!

Nine times out of ten you've probably seen a ted talk in your classroom. Many teachers are using ted talks on any particular topic. This is because there are so many out there for different topics. It gives a professional talk that many universities would strive to have face to face in a digital form. It still gives an informative lecture on topics that you would be exploring in your classrooms. Ted Talks are great for demonstrating really amazing oral communication skills in the classroom. Students can watch these and figure out how to effectively communicate their own ideas just as these professionals do. A list of podcast style ted talks can be found here.

As an extension tool student's can make their own ted talk in the classroom. They can take these standards of effective speaking and bring in their own topics. They can present their topic in a ted talk style of recording themselves. Then they can share the video with the class. After watching each students can talk about how effective their topic was portrayed to see if they were speaking just as the professionals did. For some student's this is easier to do than public speaking because they pre-record, edit and submit instead of stand in front of the class and just talk. This also gives students time to effectively articulate their thoughts and words in order to communicate what exactly they wanted to say about their topic. 

Pinterest is saying let's play some games!

Jen. Jan. 6th, 2016. "Headbanz with the
EET." Retrieved from

What better way to learn how to communicate then to play some games. This is a great way to get kids talking. Nine times out of ten every student will get involved and want to embark on this fun adventure. By integrating games in which students need to communicate with each other effective, we are setting them up for those oral communication skills they need to have. 

A teacher describes how she used the game on the left called Headbanz to get her students to describe objects out loud. The link to the blog is found here. For this exercise student's were using the EET (expanding expression tool) to help describe the objects on the students head. This tool has many questions associated to specific beads that help to bring in describing words that could be related to the object on the student's head. The EET is pictured below with the corresponding questions. A blog about the tool can also be found here if needing further instructions.

Cartagena, E. Apr. 23rd, 2014. "EET question guideline."
Retrieved from

This is a great way for student to communicate their ideas and can be used in any way you see fit in your classroom. Teachers can incorporate different reading components such as questioning to figure out what the object is. Games like this can be easily adapted into the classroom to any type of subject and so with this idea in mind we know that we can get our students to communicate better by becoming active in their classroom. They become much more active when they can have fun in what they are learning.

Let's have a ball communicating!

Katrina. Jan 12th, 2013. "Talk and Toss
Ball." Retrieved from 

Many students and even teachers come into a classroom each year and have no idea where to start. They feel they need that icebreaker to get them into a comfort zone that is safe and engaging. This is where the toss and talk ball comes in (questions found here). Students will use the ball provided with preloaded questions and go around the room answering the questions. If the ball lands at you, the student or even teacher is to answer the question closest to their right thumb. This sets the standards of what you expect from the classroom. By starting off the year communicating with each other you can set the standard that we will be using language to articulate different topics through our oral communication skills the students will develop.

Other ideas that can stem off of this one is to use this ball for review or in a debate. For review you can add terms they need to know or different concepts they need to understand. Each student can pass it around to another in order to get everyone to answer the question. If a question is answered,  you pick another one to answer with another figure closer to another word. Or you could put terms that involve more than one answer. For debate style you can put different topics that students must debate and when the ball lands on them they must tell where they stand in the debate and what points they have to prove their case. 

Oral communication is something that students will be using all the time. They will need to know how to develop their vocabulary in order to articulate themselves effectively. Games such as these give students the freedom to practice these skills in a much more fun and diverse way as many students are shy or get nervous talking in front of a crowd. It builds confidence skills by getting students to answer questions and makes them stay on top of things if asked to answer questions on the spot. 

Well that is it for now. We've now come to end of our chapter on the four strands of literacy in the Ontario curriculum. But lets see where our literacy knowledge and understand can take us now.