I would bet that many of you have student jobs in your classroom. I do too. And I recently added a new one to the class: Digital Artist
This job grew out of a need to create more visual support for the stories we create and read, as well as more visual interest. This job is also possible because our students have excellent access to technology. My district is 1:1, which makes this job very easy for the Digital Artist; however, this job could also be done if the Digital Artist has access to any type of device that allows for an online connection. On days we create stories, it is the Digital Artist’s job to listen carefully and find digital images of characters, main ideas, or details found in the story. At the beginning of the story creation process, the Digital Artist opens a new document (we use Google) and a search engine (such as Google). As the Digital Artist listens to the story, she searches the Internet to find school appropriate images that relate to the story in some way. For example, if a young red-headed boy becomes a character in our story, the Digital Artist can find an image to fit that description. If our characters are going to the beach, the Digital Artist can find an image of a beach that will add interest to the story. When the Digital Artist finds an image she likes, she adds it to the document. As the story is being told, the decision about what images to include and leave out are up to the Digital Artist. I do not set a minimum amount of images to include or limit the Digital Artist to search for images related to specific story elements. The images chosen are strictly at the discretion of the Digital Artist. The only requirement is that the images be appropriate for school. The Digital Artist also works closely with the Story Writer to verify any details as the story is being told so as to find correct images. After the story is completed, the Digital Artist shares the document with me; the only thing on this document are images relating to the story. From here, I use the Story Writer's notes and type our class story on the document the Digital Artist shared with me. Often times, I do need to resize images and wrap them so the text will fit, however, this is a pretty easy job when done on a Google or Word document. I now have a typed class story, with images, that we are ready to read the next day. The students love seeing the chosen images the following day! Additionally, I print these stories - in color - to add to our classroom FVR library collection. I also have a Google drive shared folder that contains all of our class stories. If a student was absent the day we created a story, I simply can direct him to the shared folder to read what we created in class when he was gone. Examples: No Quiero Ir Miedo del Paquete **If you are new to the concept of student jobs, please read more from Bryce Hedstrom or Ben Slavic.
0 Comments
In Spanish III we are getting ready to start reading Fiesta Fatal. In the novel, the main character, Vanesa, and her mother must flee from the cartel. In order to understand the urgency and fear they feel, I am front loading some information about Mexican cartels. Using CI and CALP methods, the plan is to take four days to teach the topic. Day 1: Gallery Walk After posting these pictures around the room, pairs of students walked together, discussed the images and wrote their observations. Once pairs had a few observations written, we discussed them as a class (following the method explained here by Tina Hargaden, around the 6 minute mark). As a class, we wrote down the observations, questions that arose via discussion and any predictions students had. Day 2: Information Flood Students again worked in partner groups. Each pair was given an article to read relating to cartels. (There were five different articles.) Students read their assigned article together with the purpose of pulling 5 pieces of information from the article. It is important to stress to students to focus on what they KNOW and not what they don’t. Some of these article were far above their proficiency level, but all still managed to get a main idea with a few details because I stressed that they did not need to understand every word and focus instead on what they could figure out. After each pair recorded five pieces of information, students formed jigsaw groups and shared what they had written down. (Jigsaw Groups: Student A in each pair became #1, Student B became #2; all #1 formed a group and all #2 formed a group.) Once each member shared their 5 pieces of information, they collectively chose the 5 most important facts about cartels. It is important that they choose the 5 facts, as this helps to reinforce small group discussion skills as well as critical thinking skills. In other words, I did not direct them to choose 1 fact from each article, students had to think critically and work together to find 5 facts that they determined were the most important. The "new" top five pieces of information were then shared out with the large group and discussed as to why each group chose accordingly. Day 3: Input Chart I presented an input chart based on information primarily from a BBC article. Using comprehensible input, I told students about the various cartels in Mexico and the territory they currently control. I talked specifically about the two largest cartels - Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación. I also talked about the deaths/killings related to cartels (stats only, I did not go into detail about specific murders). I wrapped everything up with what the cartels traffic into the U.S. and why the market is so large - U.S. demand. Day 4: Cooperative Paragraph Finally, to tie everything together, we created a cooperative paragraph (or two) based on what we learned about Mexican cartels. The information came from observations from the Gallery Walk, the collected information from the articles and the Input Chart. As an assessment, students read this article. I adapted it slightly to make it a bit more comprehensible. They also completed an an interpretive reading assessment based on the article. If you are looking to expand your unit on Mexican cartels, or are looking for some different options, Kara Jacobs has a large unit built around music, narcocorridos to be exact. Carrie Toth has students watch a National Geographic video and follow up by creating infographs. |
Jessie Oelke
#deptofone providing compelling and comprehensible input Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Categories
All
Archives
April 2020
Providing guidance
Aventuras Nuevas
by Bethanie Drew The Language Coach by Amy Lenord Bryan Kandel TPRS by Bryan Kandel Bryce Hedstrom's Blog by Bryce Hedstrom CI Peek by Carol Gaab Creative Language Class by Kara Parker & Megan Smith La Clase de Sra. Dentlinger by Elizabeth Dentlinger The Comprehensible Classroom by Martina Bex Grant Boulanger's Blog by Grant Boulanger Kristy Placido's Blog by Kristy Placido Maris Hawkins' Blog by Maris Hawkins El Mundo de Birch by Sharon Birch Musicuentos by Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell Mis Clases Locas by Allison Wienhold Making Good Mistakes by Courtney Johnson MJ's Comprehensible Input by Michele Whaley My Generation of Polyglots by Mike Peto PBL in the TL by Laura Sexton Somewhere to Share by Carrie Toth Spanish Nobility by Jason Noble Teaching Spanish by Kara Jacobs Todally Comprehensible Latin by Keith Toda Tripp's Scripts by Jim Tripp |