Operation:   Activating Schema

As we have talked in class, activating schema enhances your ability to comprehend the text.  The purpose of this next challenge is to help you build a broader base of understanding as we dive into our next book.

Uprising by Haddix is a historical fiction novel that takes us back to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911.  The story is told through the eyes of three young women and that day of the fateful fire.

CHALLENGE CHECKLIST

1. Choice a topic from the list.  Pick one that interests you, one that you’d truly like to learn more about.

• The History of the American Labor Movement in America
• The Industrial Revolution
• Women’s Suffrage in the United States
• Ellis Island
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
• Max Blanck (Boss of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory)

2. Write a post on your Blog

Remember to:

• Determine Importance.  (Keep the treasure, lose the trash)
• Proofread.  Mistakes cause you to lose credibility.
• Don’t plagiarize.  It’s cheating.  I’ll give you an F.

3.  Comment

• See Critical Thinking Rubric.

1. Find 3 classmates who don’t have many comments.  Leave a quality comment.
2. Respond to any comments left on your blog.

Hunger Games Advertisement

Your favorite tribute needs more sponsors! Your job is to create a commercial to promote your tribute, which will air during the Super Bowl.  Create a Glog promoting your tribute.   I would encourage you to write a script and upload your video to your glog.

Think about…
1. What is your slogan for that tribute?
2. How would you promote him/her?
3. Would you use a celebrity endorsement or an endorsement from one
of the other characters? Or footage from the Games?

4. Who are you appealing to: Capitol citizens or District citizens?

May The Odds Ever Be In Your Favor!

Thanks to my many bloggers who have stuck with me on this great adventure.  We’ve learned so much this semester.  I continue to be amazed by what all of my students are capable of!  CONGRATULATIONS on a great first half of the school year.  I can’t wait to get back and enjoy the second half with you.

For those of you who are up for the challenge… I’m providing you will a little Christmas challenge.

1.  Create a post entitled  “100 Things I Know About Me as a Reader”.  What do you know about yourself as a reader?  What authors do you connect with?  Which genres do you prefer?  Is there a list of books you’ve read that you will never forget?  When do you like to read?  What are your reading habits?  Is there a special place you go to when you read?

I don’t expect you to sit down and write out the list in one day.  Read for at least 20 minutes a day.  Then write down 10-25 things a day and before you know, you’ll be at 100!  Check out what Mrs. McGriff’s class wrote for list ideas.

2.  Become a member Library Thing.  It’s free.  You can catalog what you are reading and what you want to read in the future.  You can join book discussions and talk to people who are reading the same books as you.  You may really enjoy the discussions taking place about the Hunger Games.

Have a Merry Christmas!

This challenge is ONLY for those students who have completed all of their assignments and received an A+ on their blogging checklist! 

How are you going getting comments from people other than your classmates?

Have you received comments from overseas visitors?

Has anyone in your family left a comment? Remember you might need to teach them how to leave a comment.

Activity 1: Write a post about your family – include their interests, where you might have been together as a family. Remember to include grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

Activity 2: Encourage family members to leave comments on your posts over the next few weeks. Check out Mrs Yollis and her class who celebrate family blogging month in November.

Activity 3: How can you increase the number of comments on your blog? Write a post about ways to get more comments on your blog. Be creative and think outside the square – can you find at least ten ways to get more visitors and comments? You might want to make a poster for this activity - glogster or notaland remember to get permission from parents or teacher to join.   (Everyone has a Glogster account.  Just ask me for your user name and password.) 

NOW…choose ONE of the following.  Of course, if you’re really good you could do them all!

Activity 4: Have a family member write a post for you to add to your blog. They could write it and email or post it to you. Does this post attract more visitors or family members leaving comments? One family member regularly blogs on Mrs Yollis’ blog – Where is nonno?

Activity 5: Interview a family member and write a post about them – include the interview recording. You could use audioboo online or from your phone then upload the file to your blog.

Activity 6: Write a post about the overseas blogs you have commented on – why did you choose that blog and particular post?

Finally, this is the week for our game. This is another way to connect globally.

Those who have taken part in a challenge before know the game of  ‘Count Out Three’. Here are the instructions:

• click on a blog on the student list – count one
• now click on a blog from their blogroll – count two
• finally click on a blog from that blogroll – count three

Leave a comment on an interesting post at this blog.

Do this activity at least three times and finally, write your own post saying which blogs you visited and which posts you left a comment on. Why did you choose that post? Remember to include a link back to the post you left a comment on so that student gets a pingback or trackback.

Improving Posts

I have been visiting lots of student and class blogs over the last few weeks. One thing I noticed was that many students either had just writing or, if they used an image, they did not give attribution for the photographer.

So this week is all about images as a way to improve your posts. Images certainly make posts more interesting to read especially when the image relates to the information in the post.

Can you use any images that are on the internet? The answer is definitely NO!!

But can’t I just go to Google search and use images from there? The answer is definitely NO!! You need to go to advanced search and under usage rights choose use images that can be re-used.

Not all images on the internet are free for everyone to use. Some newspapers have paid a lot of money for a photographer to take images for their newspaper articles and if you want to use these images, you might have to pay money to either the newspaper or photographer. These photos are usually called COPYRIGHT.

But there are some photographers who take photos that are free for others to re-use or mix or use for public display. These images have a CREATIVE COMMONS license.

Notice, whatever license you use, you HAVE to attribute the original author. This means you have to acknowledge the person who created the original image. At the end your blog post, or linked within the post,  you must attribute the image and you must link the photo back to it’s original photo page.

When using flickrcc,  you right click on the photo and copy the image location or image URL. Paste this in first when you upload. Then choose where photo will be on post: left or right are good choices. Now go back to the image on flickrcc and copy the http:// part above the photo. Put this in the section: link image to. Remember finally to add the attribution at the end of the post.  

Attribution for images used in part of this post.

“Perole Perdute” by Valeria A

Activity 1 – Visit these blogs

• Kathleen Morris who expects her Grade 2 students to know about and use creative commons and giving attribution when using images in their blogs. She uses FlickrCC which is not blocked at her school and gives instructions for using with Edublogs blogs. Check out her slideshow in the box.
• Ronnie Burt from the Edublogs team who gives ideas for using images other than FlickrCC.

Activity #2-  Find images and add them to your post.

• What should you write about?  What are reading right now?  Remember what we discussed about how to write a book recommendation.

NEXT….. CHOOSE one of the following to do.  If you’re really good, pick more than one!

Activity 4 – Create your own images and add to a post of your choice

Other options for creating your own images include:

1. Image Generators such as ImageGenerator.org
2. Comic Generators like MakeBeliefsComix.com,  kerpoof, ToonDoo
3. Photo Editors like Befunky, fd’s Flickr Tools
4. Tag Cloud Creators such as Wordle
5. Graph Creators including GraphJam and Crappy Graphs

Mixing up your images using these types of tools can really spice up your posts! Leave a comment on this post, if you or your class can recommend some other image sites to add to this list.

Activity 5 – Zoom out from an image

We tried this activity in the challenge in September 2010. Choose a picture, and have your readers zoom out, so to speak, by leaving comments. So maybe something simple, like a pillow, and the first commenter describes something bigger around the pillow (like a couch) and the next commenter would write about the room it was in, and the next could zoom out the window and do the house, etc.  If doing this activity, include the word ‘zoom’ in your title so I can find it easily. Remember to give attribution. Most important here is to read previous comments, so you can add to the story.

Check out these zoom pictures: Becky, Jacqueline, Abbey, Teegan,

Huzzah finished their story.

Activity 6 – Pictures tell the story – no words

Here is a post on how to create a gallery in your blog.  Create a visual post using no more than eight images – where the images tell a story. Remember to give attribution for the images you used. No writing in this post other than the title and attribution.

Activity 7 – Tell the story of the picture

From Bill Ferreirae – I sometime find a picture and tell students to use that picture to come up with a story. It can be about the picture, what happened before, what will happen next, etc. So, at the top of this post is the image I have chosen for you to start with. Copy the image to your post, then write the story. Remember to give attribution. If you don’t have your own blog, tell your story in a comment here.

Activity 8 – Create an animated photo show

Think of a theme, try adding images to animoto, slide or other online image animators. Add music, transitions, text etc. Grab the resultant code and add to your blog post.

Activity 9 – Write a sentence using images – no writing

Write a sentence about yourself using just images. For example – I love to read comic books. Remember to give attribution for each image and in the title use the word ‘sentence’ to make it easier for me to find.

Activity 10 – Go back to previous posts

If you have used images in any previous posts you have written, then you are ethically obliged to go back to the post and give the correct attribution or take the image out of the post if it does not have the right creative commons license.

So far we have learned how to make a post and create a new page.  We’ve learned how the help forum works and what a wiki is.  We’re off to a great start.  This week we are going to be adding links to our blog and engaging in discussions about the things we’re reading.

ACTIVITY #1

Become familiar with how to add links to your blog.  You can link things like other blogs that you’ve become a fan of, educational websites, websites that inspire you, etc.  At least ONE link needs to be under the realm of READING.   For example, you can create a link to the Veedersburg Public Library.

ACTIVITY #2

This week you need to post a reflection on the thoughts you’ve had while reading your book report book.  (Remember the post-its we’ve been using.  Use those to guide your answer.)  Make sure you include the title and author in your post. Then go to at least three other classmates’ blogs and respond to their post.

ACTIVITY #3

In the Help Forum you will find a topic under Book Report.  Post any questions or ideas you have in this forum.  Also, I’ve started a new wiki under the title Hannibal.  Post your thoughts about the book Hannibal.

Last week we learned all about you – your interests, your favorite foods, music and lots of other things when you wrote your ‘About’ page. This week we are going to learn all about your thoughts on The Lightning Thief, and how to use forums and wikis.

But first a few administrative pointers…..

1.  Please go to your settings and change your email to sefeblog@gmail.com.  I want all emails to go to our classroom email account and not my personal email account.

2.  Change your blog title to your first name.  For example, if your blog title still says  CarrieL+sefeblog@gmail.com you need to change it.

3.  Make sure that whenever someone leaves a comment on your blog that YOU moderate ( approve, or disapprove) it.  It can be annoying to your teacher when she checks your blog to see that you have not approved any comments in weeks.

4.  If  your nickname is something really bizarre, consider changing it.  For example, Jasmine’s nickname might be JAZ.  OK, I can figure that out.  But if her nickname was CHEETAH, I would have a hard time figuring out who that was.

5.  Want to know how to get more traffic to your blog?  Post something regularly.  People begin to expect it and will start looking for it.  For example, my friend posts a “Friday Gratitude” every Friday.  I visit her blog every Friday to read what she is grateful for.

6.  When you write your posts or comments, remember to be internet safe and not give away any personal information.  Use complete sentences and correct punctuation.

_____________________________________________________________

NOW Lets get to the activities..

Activity #1  Write a review

1.  Online companies, such as Amazon.com, rely on readers like you to review books and advise customers on whether they would recommend the book.  Read a couple full reviews from customers to get an idea of how to write a review.  Then….

Create a new post on the homepage of your blog.  Write a review of The Lightning Thief.  This will be for a grade!

2.  Comment on at least two other classmates posts.  Remember our blogging guidelines!

Want to go the extra mile?  Post your review to Amazon.com as well!

_____________________________________________________________

Activity #2  Forums

1.  Become familiar with Forums.  I have created a help forum.  Locate the help forum.  Post a question if you’re having difficulty figuring out how to use your blog.  If you see a question posted and know the answer, please help a fellow classmate out and answer their question.

_____________________________________________________________

Activity #3  Wiki

1.  Familiarize yourself with wikis.  Find the wiki on the right side of the blog.  The first one posted is entitled “The Lightning Thief”.  I have posted a topic to discuss.  Click on discussion and write your thoughts to the question I have posed. 

Have fun and happy blogging!

Welcome to the student blogging challenge.

Some activities will be about setting up your blog while other activities will be writing posts or improving your commenting skills. Each week you can choose to do as many of the activities as you like or your teacher might choose the one they want for that week.

Whatever happens – Enjoy your blogging!

When you meet someone for the first time or join a new class, you usually have to introduce yourself. Most blogs have a page called ‘About’ or ‘Sample Page’ or ‘Profile’.

Activity 1. Write or update your ‘About’ page. Tell your readers bit about your interests but remember to be internet savvy and not give out any personal details.  Please include a list of some of your FAVORITE BOOKS that you’ve read.  Check out Alayna, Brooke, and Hattie for some ideas.

In Edublogs, log in to your dashboard. On left go to all pages, hover under sample page and click edit. Make sure you change the title and delete what is already written there. Once you have finished, hit the update button. Now remember to go to appearance> widgets and drag your ‘Pages’ widget to your sidebar.

……………….

Because I want to know about student commenting skills, I would like everyone to do the next activity.

Activity 2. Leave a comment on this post to answer the following questions.

How can we use blogging to enhance our classroom?
What do you hope some of the activities include?
Finally, what do you hope to get out of the challenge by the end of the ten weeks?

……………….

Because we can’t all meet face to face (f2f), we have to have an online identity to represent us. Whenever I leave a comment on your blog, you will see a grey haired lady. I love wearing thongs on my feet and drinking iced tea. So that could be a picture representing me – these pictures are avatars.

Activity 3 – make an avatar

If you need help with this, see one of your technology savvy friends, or me.