I especially enjoyed the implementation experience. My experience was based around a need I found while preparing my students for the ELA exam. I realized after a couple of practice exams that my students did not cite any sources when responding to informational text.
My thought was that if I could have my students make some form of cartoon on the computer, then they could have the character say something and then have another character quote the first. After consulting with Mr. Hill, I decided to use the Tynker coding program that my students had started to use in the STEM lab.
I started the experience by giving my students two articles on bald eagles. I asked them to write an essay after reading the two articles. I stated that they should use the information from the articles. I gave them roughly one and a half hours to complete the assignment on Google Classroom.
We then spent three 40 minute periods in the STEM lab with Mr. Hill and Mr. Riordon making a 4 quote Tynker cartoon. Students chose 4 people from the articles and then made cartoon actors for them. They typed in a quote from each and then using code, programmed responses. Each student also made a cartoon for themselves. What they wound up making was a cartoon where one actor would represent someone quoted in the article (eg. Bill Clinton). That actor/cartoon would say a direct quote. Then the student's cartoon would either directly quote it by saying, "Bill Clinton said, ...." or they would paraphrase what Clinton said.
I then gave the same activity and told the students to use information from both articles problem I think that they would do better if I had more concretely stated that they needed to quote . Overall I was pleased because they did a better job of pulling facts from the reading. They still failed to quote the source of their information with the exception of stating who wrote the first article. On reflecting on the activity I think they learned the necessary skills to be successful, but they will need more frequent reminding of the expectation to quote resources within their work.
The last thing we did was we shared our Tynker cartoons with Mr. Brooks class through Seesaw. My students enjoyed seeing his classes work with videos and responses to "Bud, Not Buddy." They especially enjoyed reading comments about their own project from his students.
Although the lesson took 5 sessions, I feel it was well worth doing and will duplicate it next fall. I will look to make some revisions as I analyze the work a bit more.
In conclusion, this CLC was very helpful to me. I enjoyed the comradery with the other members of the CLC. Everybody in the group shared their knowledge (mentors and newbies alike). My students had experiences with technology that they would not have had otherwise. I would happily participate again!
Link to student work:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oZqrWjj0tKWPPabgPPS8k-KTiGsxAu44Q2HH1gO9CgY/edit
