POST #3: Share a resource

http://bkflix.grolier.com/pb/wwbkcat03b 

The link that I cut and pasted is from the Scholastic/BookFix site. I can't believe what a great resource I was missing out on for my early ELLs! The same is of course true with the TrueFlix option. I am really looking forward to using these, starting this week.

First things first. On Tuesday when kids resume classes I will introduce them to the AEA learning sites and then focus specifically on Bookflix with my 1 and 2 (low) proficiency ELLs. I will incorporate the use of this site and its activities by first getting target vocabulary lists to the kids, which they are to add to their vocabulary (electronic) notebooks and discussing the meanings of the words with examples. The students will then be given class time to watch, listen and read along with the learning story/activity. It will be great for students to be able to see and hear the words in context. Hearing the correct pronunciation of the word in the given context is so important. Having a second a second and related book at their disposal is great reinforcement for the vocabulary that is also presented in the "puzzlers" tab. Learning to use the trueflix option with my more advanced and older ELLs is equally exciting. I'm really looking forward to beginning the second semester with these resources!

One way in which I have already begun to use the AEA online resources is for a research project my eighth grade American history class. The students are preparing a visual presentation (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.) on the technology and reform advancements in the early 1800s (pre-civil war). Students selected diverse topics including the Erie Canal, railroads, interchangeable parts, education, and abolition, among many others. I directed students to http://school.eb.com/levels/middle (which is the Britannica School website). Students began their searches on their topics from here. I gave a brief tutorial on how to use the site including how to shift between the depth levels in their research, where to find photos for their project, and how to cite their research. Our ultimate objective was to find key information answering the five Ws as well as how their particular topics impacted the United States as a whole. Our goals involved research skills, detailing pertinent information, and presentation/communication skills. I had many students tell me how easy it was to find good information and cite their work. It became a great resource for their projects and definitely a resource they will be using for my classes as well as other class research based assignments. I am so glad to have found this in such a timely way.

As I have indicated, I am a substitute teacher and do not have a username or password to login.  If I did, the Culture Gram greatly interests me.  Giving kids the opportunity to see how kids their own age live.  Hopefully, this would humanize cultures that they may not understand. So far I have not been given the opportunity to use AEA online learning in the classroom.  

I have chosen to share SNAP from Great Prairie AEA Media Library.  The website is snap.gpaea.org. First, you go to Great Prairie AEA and then to the media library. Next, you enter your school's AEA password and sign-in.  Go to the bottom of the page and click on Power Knowledge Life Science.  In the search box enter the keyword.  I use this to supplement my first grade Science Curriculum.  For example, the last three weeks, we have been studying amphibians and reptiles.  I have used this resource in my classroom to provide supplemental information to my students.
In the Power Knowledge Life Science Section of SNAP, it offers up to 10 different topics in the Table of Contents for each animal you enter into the search.  It also has the options to read-aloud the text.  There are actual photographs of each animal and usually includes their habitiat, mating, off-spring, predators, life-cycle etc. I normally display this on my promethium board, to the class as a whole.  A goal of mine for the next semester is to teach my students how to access this site and resource on their chrome books.  I plan to show them step by step from the promethium board, while they're on their chrome books, how to access this site. Once they become competent, this will give them the ability to research different animals on their own.  

     After I used password information to access the database at AEA online I selected BookFlix from the list of resources on the left side of the screen by clicking on it. On the BookFlix screen I selected the type of books I was interested, ABC's and 123's. After clicking on that tab, pairs of books appeared. The books were identified by their cover pages. One of the books is fiction, while it's companion is non fiction.
     I chose Goldilocks and the Three Bears (fiction)  and A Garden Full of Sizes (non fiction). My target   student audience is 3 and 4 year olds in my preschool classroom. The objective for this activity will be providing opportunities for the development of literacy skills such as listening to a story and recalling basic information about the story.
     During our morning learning center time, the desk top computer will be available for 3 or 4 children to watch the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears A classroom teacher will start the computer and log on to the website in advance. he children will watch the story with the print being displayed at the bottom of the page as it is read.  When the story is finished children will interact with a teacher by retelling the story using flannel board characters or by using puppets and stuffed animals.
     After naptime, the children will have the opportunity to listen to the non fiction story A Garden Full of Sizes. The children will see the difference in the types of books. This book has photos of real objects instead of animated fictional characters. Providing both types of books provides opportunities for different interests.

Since most of my background is in early childhood I looked through Bookflix quite a bit. I loved that they had a wide variety of books that can be read out loud. I also liked that there was information on the authors of each book. I like doing author studies and displaying information about authors in my classroom. I clicked on the "ABCs & 123s" category and then found "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". You can have the book read to you, watch the story, learn about the author, play games, and there is even a lesson plan already provided for you if you wanted to use it. My target audience would be Prek-K. This book is always a class favorite and a great way to introduce letters. I would have already read the book aloud to the class the day before and sung the alphabet song. The next day I would do the book again and use the "watch the story" feature.  Adding music to the classroom tends to keep the class more engaged, so I like this feature better than the "read the story' feature. Both are useful at different times though. After we watched the story we would do small groups and use magnetic boards to have the students have the letters falling off the tree like in the book. We would reread the book at small group and have the students try to find the letters that the book is mentioning. This is also a great book that can easily used for a wide variety of knowledge levels. You can have the students group from upper case/lower case, work on writing their letters, and so on. My main objectives would be to gauge my students understanding of the alphabet.  

I plan to use the BookFlix AEA resource.  I would like to create a unit on friendship since making friends is somewhat new at the K-2 age group. I particularly like the resources found here: http://bkflix.grolier.com/lp/node-33985/bk0100pr
I found this under the, “Family and Community” category. This resource gives step-by-step instructions on creating a friendship unit.

This friendship unit shows how to be a good friend and classmate.  To implement this unit I would first have a class discussion about a friend they have, how they became friends and why they like their friend. Discuss what makes a good friend and classmate.

Next, it’s time to view the story. Before watching it discuss some of the key vocabulary words. Share an embarrassing moment you experienced in the past. Ask if they’ve ever had an embarrassing moment and have some of the students share them. Watch the video and discuss the story.

Have the students read the second book, “Let’s Be Friends”.  Discuss the different ways we can be good friends. Break the students into small groups and give them an activity they will do together as a group (blocks, card game, hop scotch, etc.). After, discuss as a class what they did that demonstrated being a good friend.

By the end of the unit students will be able to connect the stories to each other and their own lives, identify qualities of a good friend and participate in a team building activity.

I am very excited to use the Culture Grams resource in both my sixth grade world history class and my sophomore world history class.  To access culture grams, I go to Iowa AEA Online from my bookmarks bar.  From there, I choose culturegrams from the left hand side menu.

For my sixth graders, I will use culturegrams for information about the countries we study, as well as maps and flags.  I often have the kids do reports on different aspects of culture, and they can do a lot of their research from right here.  We have a classroom set of chromebooks, so they can access the site in class and I can help with research during classtime, lessening what they have to do at home.  I love that they can listen to the national anthems and look at pictures.  I think I might start having them put together googleslides presentations where they can use a lot of this information to share with their classmates.  

With my high schoolers, I think it would be great to do research on the home countries of our exchange students, and the countries our students are studying in. Culturegrams will also be a great resource for current event discussions.  We can look up information on countries that are in the news that the students might not know much about.  

Finally, I am very excited about the recipe options!  In both world history classes we have food at the end of every unit.  Sometimes it is hard for me to find authentic recipes.  I cannot wait to use these recipes, and encourage my students to prepare some foods, as well.  At the end of the year my sophomores have an international food festival where they all bring something from a country we've studied.  This will be a great resource for them!

The greatest challenge in my position is educating my peers on best understanding and working with their language-minority students. Because of this, I was thrilled to learn about Culture Gram. I accessed this resource by visiting my AEA's website (aea10.k12.ia.us), clicking on "online resources", and then "Culture Gram."  Since first exploring this resource, I've dedicated hours to viewing images, reading cultural information, and compiling lists to be shared with my staff. All 22 countries from which my students hail are featured on Culture Gram, and detailed information on language, region, government, common practices, and education are included.  This has been a terrific resource in helping me share relevant student information with classroom teachers.

#3….
I found an audio clip from the author Allen Say when I was planning a lesson that used his book Grandfather’s Journey as a mentor text. You go to http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/  then select teachingbooks.net  from the menu at the left  You can use the search at the top of the page to enter a title, author, subject or list/awards/series. Once it finds what you are looking for, the page that it brings up has many links and options on how to use that info that is related to your search. Most helpful is that you can share the search/info through a variety of options. I sent an email to myself so that I had it ready when I wanted to show it to my reading group of 3rd graders during our book orientation.  You can easily click on the “Get resource now” red tab or it tells you how to access the page you wanted with login directions that it provides you. (I copied what the email looked like.  I xxxxx’d out my personal login info that it sent me.)
Email looked like:
cheri bolar thought the following resources from our state-provided Teaching​Books.​net database would be helpful.

 (Graphic of book not shown, which you can also click on)

TeachingBooks.net Book Reading | Grandfather's Journey
Allen Say introduces and shares some of the backstory for creating Grandfather's Journey.
cheri bolar wrote:
Maybe uses for video during prep phase.

Get resource now  ("red tab")

As a reminder, Franklin Elementary School has a license to TeachingBooks.net.


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In the 1970's I taught general high school math similar to "Khan Academy" which was referred to in the Iowa AEA Resource class.  Each student was required to master a concept covered in a packet.  They could test out of the packet by showing proficiency on a pretest.  If they failed the pretest, they would complete the instruction with the teacher's help, if necessary, then take a post test.  If the concept was not understood, the process would repeated until mastered.   Salman Khan has developed an online math course, elementary through calculus, that allows the student to progress as fast they can master the concepts presented.  These free videos are great to use in the classroom as well as with homeschool students.  They can be accessed on youtube, or at khanacademy.org.  The course is free to all.  All you need is a computer and internet connection.  I've examined his chemistry and physics courses and they seem very good also.  

Beware, if you use the history course covering prehistory, before recorded history, the theory of evolution is taught as unquestionable fact in direct conflict with the literal, Biblical account of God creating the world in six days.  

To access this valuable resource tool, search for "Khan Academy".  On the official site, you can either "Learn More" or "Signup".  Under "Learn More", you can evaluate the program and see if it of use to you and your students.  If you signup, there is a system of awards to track the student's progress.

Although I am a paraprofessional at the current time,  I would suggest a lesson on Presidents for the fourth grade student I am currently work with at school. He is on the Autism Spectrum, and he has a passion for memorizing names of U.S. Presidents.  He memorizes names easily but he struggles to connect ideas or key concepts to names.  

I would use the TrueFlix resource.  An e-book on presidents is located at the following site:
http://tfx.grolier.com/p/node-33060/01001873

I would choose this book, The Presidency as it would be highly motivating to him. Since his reading skills are at the second grade level, the text reader could be activated, and the words could be highlighted as it is read to him.  I think this would assist him in understanding the main ideas of the text.

Jean, I know you wrote this several years ago, but your comments are right on with my students, as well.  I completely agree with how useful Culturegrams will be to my students as they complete projects.

Without a doubt, my favorite is TrueFlix. http://tfx.grolier.com/

     I can't imagine what the AEAs are paying for it.  It cost us a pretty penny just to buy a few sets of books like that for our program.  I am amazed and so happy at the variety of titles/subject areas that are available. I work with ELLs, and it is not easy to find quality readings that are at a lower lexile but still cover the secondary subject matter in a grown-up looking fashion.  To introduce the resource, I would start by saying it is non-fiction books aimed at the upper elementary and beyond reader.  TrueFlix provides a Scholastic reader that the students can either read to themselves or have TrueFlix read to them.  The students can click on certain vocabulary words that are highlighted. This makes a definition pop up.  
     Along with the reader is a video that expands on the subject matter. (For my purposes, it would be nice if the video narrator spoke more slowly.) Students can obviously watch the video as often as needed for understanding to occur.
     There are many ancillary options: lesson plans, curriculum correlations, project ideas, links to more information on the subject area, and many more.  This is a great resource for all teachers, but I have great ideas of what this resource can do for me,  a K-12 ELL teacher.  I could slowly build accommodation assignments for as many teachers as I have time for!  I can also use it for enrichment for my kids, even if they already understand the concepts discussed.  
    The overall outcome is to get kids reading and expanding on the knowledge from the reading.  The visuals and hands-on, self-paced aspects would make this a fun place to learn for teachers and kids alike!

The resource that I really enjoyed learning about is CultureGrams.  Here is the link to get to it: http://online.culturegrams.com/
As a music teacher, I did find that CultureGrams would be a great resource for students to use!  When introducing them to a new piece of music, I like to give some background information about the song.  Who wrote it?  Why did they write it?  What time period were they alive in when they wrote it?  What country are/were they from?  I think the students will find it really interesting to learn about different countries all around the world and see how diverse music is.  I think that it will really open their eyes to how complex music is and how it is such a big part of our everyday lives.  
I particularly would enjoy doing a project with students using CultureGrams to research a country and talk about their music.  My target audience would be Middle School aged students.  I would incorporate CultureGrams into my "future" class by assigning each student a country to research and then helping them with the project by showing them CultureGrams.  The main part of the project would be researching music in their country.  What are some popular instruments?  Genres?  Styles, etc.?  I will show them the section titled "the Arts" (found on the left hand side of the screen underneath "Lifestyle").  This talks about music in that particular country.  I think CultureGrams is a great place to get some wonderful information and my hope is that the students will come out of the project with a greater appreciation for and love for music.  I want students to know how great and diverse music is.

The resource I chose is Pebble Go (https://www.pebblego.com/choose).  I used my districts log-in information to get into the site. From there it takes you into the different categories, which range from: animals, science, biographies, and social studies.  My third graders are required to do research on an animal of their choice, so the targeted audience is 3rd grade general education students.  I think it is important to note that I have many ESL students in my classroom...some of which speak little to no English.  Which is why I picked this resource to share.  Not only is there an option for the text to be read to students, they offer many pictures to support what the text says!  

I would have my students log-in to the site and explore the different animal options that are offered.  I would then have them a choose an animal from this resource to write their research paper on.  It is hard to find low level books on animals in our school library that would give enough information about specific animals to write their research so this database is a life saver when it comes to students independently producing their published piece of writing.  

Students must include certain criteria in their research, including Body, Habitat, Food, Life Cycle, and Fun Facts.  On Pebble Go there is a tab for each of the criteria that students can find information quickly and easily.  It also includes videos of animals as well as audio of animals in wild.  It is through this resource that students are able to successfully deliver and complete this standard.

My resource can be found at:

http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/

After bringing up the homepage, follow the links on the left hand side of the page and go to:  CultureGrams, and click on that.  
The next step is to choose: States Edition and hit the button “Explore”
You will next see a colorful map of the United States.  On this page scroll down and choose “Iowa” and this will take you to a lot of information about the State of Iowa.  On the left hand side of this page, scroll down and choose:  The People -- Famous People.  If you get lost, this is the link:

http://online.culturegrams.com/states/state_famouspeople.php?sid=15&sn=Iowa&StateSubCatID=7

The target audience for this is the students in our Special Education Social Studies class.  I would incorporate this into our class for a Unit on “Interesting People from Iowa”.  Students would be able to choose from quite a few interesting people, and as a teacher, using just this website would help in limiting my students to the choices that are provided.  In this manner, I would have quality choices that would allow my students to pick from, and then research these people.  This beginning of idea creation, will help my students to become successful in making choices; choices in choosing their interesting person, and choices in their style of writing.  

This site will generate a citation for my students to use, and has the capability of APA and MLA format.  This would help me to give a mini lesson on these two types of writing formats and to help my students to understand how APA and MLA formats are the same, and how they are different.  This site also has the capability of this page being audio, which is a big bonus for our students!

For precalculus, I did a search in "Learn360" using the keyword, "precalculus", and found several videos on topics that would be relevant to precalculus students.  One of them is "The Trigonometry & Precalculus Tutor Series", produced by TMW Media Group, and found at:  http://learn360.infobase.com/p_Collection.aspx?seriesID=84031

Once there, the student can pick a video that gives a lesson on a trigonometry/precalculus topic.  One such video is on "Angles".  Here is the link:  http://learn360.infobase.com/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=82958
http://learn360.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=274030&xtid=82958

I would not use this entire video in my precalculus class, because the video lasts longer than my class period.  However, if a student wants to know more about angles than what I covered in class or more than the student can read in our precalculus textbook, then the student can go to Iowa AEA Online and use the student login to view the video at home or in study hall.  Therefore, this video would be a supplementary resource and not a primary teaching tool.

As part of my reading curriculum, we use WONDERS in our district.  But last week I took a small break and did a novel unit with my 4th grade class instead.  We are just about finished reading, "Ramona the Pest" by Beverly Cleary.  As I was taking this course on how to use the Iowa AEA Online Resources, I was very impressed with TeachingBooks.net and decided to tap into that resource.  Here is the link that I used -
www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=5646  Before we started the novel together, I projected the website on my whiteboard and had the kids check out 'About the Author' where we watched an interview with Beverly Cleary.  My students really enjoyed it, especially when they learned that Miss Cleary is 100 years old and will be having a birthday in April.  My students already have plans to mail her a letter :)  I was also able to download a PDF of the teacher's guide from the AEA Online website.  (http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/TeachingGuides/0688217214.pdf)  

Not only did your resources save me a lot of time, but they also got my students excited about this great book which we have thoroughly enjoyed reading together and learning from.  I will definitely be using TeachingBooks.net again and I am so thankful that you have made all of these resources available (and free) for teachers to use!

The resource I have found is at the link: http://learn360.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=193117&xtid=88129 .  I found it by logging into learn 360 directly.  At the top of the page are some non-video resources.  One section was labeled lab experiments.  I browsed through them and found one titled "A Simple Spectroscope to Identify Gases".  This sounded interesting so I checked it out.  I was really excited to find this resource.  It explained how to build a spectroscope out of things that I already have.  My spectroscope quit working several years ago and could never get approval to buy a new one.  Luckily, I saved the gas sample tubes.  The should work with this.  

The target audience for this resource is 9-12 students.  I will use it in my chemistry class when we are learning about atomic structure and atomic spectra.  We are well past that this year, but I hope to find time to build the spectroscope and go back to show my students what an atomic spectrum actually looks like.  I will definitely incorporate it into my curriculum next year.