FACT-LINK
REVIEW SPECIALISTS
While completing a web search on Charlotte's Web I
discovered that you can often find famous book
reviews from the New York Times and other well-known
sources for the books your class is reading. While
reading the review to the class we were surprised that the
author of the review mentioned that she felt Charlotte's
Web would be an enduring classic because it described
every important feeling and value known to man. We
immediately had to discuss whether that could possibly be a
true statement. Click on the picture above to link to
a project where two students tried to find out if they could
find samples of each of our class values in the book.
They presented their project in quiz format on a PowerPoint.
Back
to School Perfect Paragraphs
To
teach your students to use PowerPoint while assessing
their writing skills and preparing for Back To School night
all at the same time, you might want to try this
project. Students are asked to write three perfect
paragraphs. The first paragraph introduces the child's
family and concludes with the child describing an award the
family deserves. The second paragraph is where the child
describes everything he or she likes to do. Then, the
concluding paragraph describes all the things the student
would like to do someday. You can have students record
their writings and play the PowerPoint at your Back To
School night. For a sample project, click on the
computer above.
Online
Chats with Famous Newsmakers
All
the language arts benefits described in Online chats with
authors (project 6) also apply to online chats with famous
newsmakers. The added benefits may be that some of
your students
will identify even more with specific "heroes of
history." The preparation will require students
to read comprehensively about the life and times of the
person they will be interviewing. Samples of chats
we've had include the following people: Rosa Parks,
Jackie Robinson's wife, Melba Patillo Beals (one of the
Little Rock Nine who helped integrate a high school in
Little Rock), Hanneli Pick-Goslar (dear friend of Anne
Frank), Research Scientists in Antarctica, and various
famous astronauts. Click on the photo of
the astronaut on the moon for a schedule of online chats
available with Scholastic.com. Click on the
photo of Jackie Robinson to link to sample projects
and interviews with famous heroes of the 20th Century.
Diary Projects (Preschool to Third Grade) There
are some outstanding software programs available to motivate
your students to polish the art of writing personal
narratives while creating multimedia diaries. For
PreK-3 students, My First Amazing Diary is a captivating
program. It allows students to begin keeping a diary
using pictures. Then they progress to using
words. Finally they learn to write about their lives
using clear, descriptive sentences and paragraphs.
The graphics are cute and the program is easy to use.
Students will love writing with this unique tool.
Click on the diary for a link to the manufacturer. It
is also available in many online stores for a discounted
price.
Diary Projects (Third to Eighth Grade) Most
students enjoy writing about their own lives and sharing
their personal thoughts, dreams, and adventures with their
peers. The software program entitled, Scholastic's
Diary
Maker
is
one of the best programs available to help your students
create amazing multimedia diaries. The Diary Maker
includes three sample multimedia diaries, complete with
video clips, slide shows, audio features, timelines, and
excellent descriptive writing. Students can first view
diaries by Anne Frank, Latoya Hunter, a Jamaican immigrant
to the Bronx, and Zlata Filipovic, a teen from Sarajevo,
Bosnia, whose hometown was destroyed in the war. Then,
they can work with the software provided to create their own
personal multimedia diaries. The software even
includes writing prompts to motivate students as they
work. Teaching personal narrative and autobiographical
writing will be an exciting and successful adventure using
this excellent tool. It is available from Scholastic and
many other vendors of educational software.
(Scholastic...1-800-724-2424) Click on the Diary Maker
graphic above for an excellent review.
1-5