Day 3 – Jumping Ahead

Our goal for today was to make sure that each class had something specific to add to the whole project. While everyone is working on reviews, and the different books provide variety, each class also needs to look at how their contribution will help the site as a whole. Second grade is focusing on author studies. Third grade is taking responsibility for public relations. Fourth grade is focusing on data management (such as the book database). And fifth grade is taking responsibility for web development.

Here is a brief summary of each grades progress:

• First – Students have partners and have finished reading their books. They used the book form to find all the data about their book, including author, title, publisher, publication date, etc.
• Second – Students were introduced to Pages for the first time. We learned how to add images, text, and shapes, and to use the inspector to modify those page elements.
• Third – Each group selected one or two books from their assigned “category” to read and review. It was important to find books on a level that all members of the group could read independently. Students began to discuss the type of review they wanted to create and how they could make their video stand out and be interesting.  
• Fourth – We had new computers, which required set up (TAG log in) and moving documents from old computers to new computers. We also reviewed how the new computers were different and looked at new operating system functions.
• Fifth – Fifth grade finished their first book reviews. We discussed importing them into QuickTime format and students began to make web pages for their reviews using Pages.

Book List

We need to start adding books to the official book list, to ensure there are no duplicates. Books added to the list are time-stamped.

Form: Use this link for students to add books to the list. Students can prepare for using this form by completing a print version (PDF or Pages)

Spreadsheet: Teachers can periodically check the list, update or modify student entries, or delete books by going directly to the spreadsheet.

Note: The last field asks for an ISBN 13 # -  This is usually found near the bar code. Older books may only have an ISBN 10#. You can use this converter  to convert it to an ISBN 13#.

Day 2 - Full Speed Ahead

Using the knowledge teachers and students have brought with them from past years, each class has swiftly moved ahead to create the first round of book reviews for the site. This will help us launch the site quickly and allow for additional features, as discussed at the planning session:

1. Hamlin - First grade students are using Keynote to create a sample book review. All students are working on a shared book, Miss Nelson is Missing, to learn the elements of a book review and practice using the various features of the application. This week students learned to use PhotoBooth to record short videos discussing features of the book. These videos will be added to the presentations. By next week, each student will have an individual book to begin working on.
2. Newman - Second grade students are working in small groups. Each group is creating a movie review using iMovie. Scripts are completed, images added, and students are working on recording voice and adding sound and music. This week we discussed copyright issues and learned how to cite sources for our movies.
3. Schembri/Kubinyi - The two third grade classes were combined for the first time. Students in the TAG class showed their partner class the elements of movie making and short samples of movies they made. Students then brainstormed lists of fiction and nonfiction topics and were divided into groups. By next visit, each group will select a specific book to review and the movie-making process will begin.
4. Amft - Fourth grade students have written book reviews, but are revising the text to make them more compelling to their prospective audience. In addition, students agreed that reading book reviews is less interesting than listening to them. Students were introduced to Garage Band and learned how to record their voices. Their book reviews will now become "scripts" for podcasts. 
5. Heinz/Maria - Fifth grade students have been working on finishing Keynote e-books that review favorite books. The TAG students have been teaching their skills to the new partner class, with great success. Most were almost done, but there were issues with voice recording not matching the visuals and final edits needed to be ironed out. 

Next week teachers are working on their own, as JDL will not be present.

304 collaboration with Ms. Kubinyi

Our session was very successful. We organized topics we would like to read about and assigned groups by interest.

5-504 and 5-502

Mrs. Maria and I have also been working together to create e-book reviews. Class 5-504 is mentoring Class 5-502 on how to create e-books using keynote. We 1st explained how to mentor to 5-504 and then we started. It is going very well. They are loving it. This week each group will be done with their 1st e-book. Yay!!!!

2nd Grade Book Reviews

Class 204 wrote book reviews about a book they read as a group. The students wrote and story-boarded their review movies. Then they found pictures from the internet or took pictures of book pages to add to the movies. The students also recorded each scene of their movies. Today we are working on adding Ken Burns effects, music, transitions and titles. Our next step is to choose new books and write interviews with a character to connect to our November character unit.

5-504 Book Talk

In the last 2 weeks we have written, filmed, and edited (on imovie) book talks. The students are finished with their first project. They are excited to start the second one. They did forget how to do many of the imovie functions but they are remembering quickly once it is modeled. I cant wait for you all to see them.

Getting Organized - Third Grade

We have been working hard on book reviews. The students have created power point presentations to review books as well as video tape book reviews while they are dressed in character. The students are very excited to become mentors for Class 302. We welcome them to the project and are very anxious to teach them all we know. Today we are going to brainstorm interest levels in the genres of fiction and nonfiction. We are going to setup groups within the interest level to review the books and make them very interesting. Thanks to Ms. Moran for bringing new ideas to the table.

Class 1-104

Our class this year is a mixture of students who have been using the Mac and others who have not used the Mac before. Our "proficient" students are helping our new students learn the applications we will be using. We started with Keynote, and, as a class, are creating book reviews for the story, Miss Nelson is Missing. We have also practiced pulling images from the internet, using Safari and askkids.com. Everyone is really excited about working on this project! Our next step will be to create book reviews of our own personal favorite stories. We're off and running!