POST #3: Share a resource

https://school.eb.com/levels/elementary/browse/index/biography#/
 
A resource I plan to use in my 5th grade classroom is Brittanica Online.  Each year my students do research on a famous person of their choice and complete a research essay on that person.  This is a part of my writing curriculum that teaches students not only the writing process, but also teaches them to evaluate the sources from which they gather their information.  Last year I struggled with resources that were valid and reliable for elementary students.  This resource will be very beneficial in the research department.  In order to get to the website, students will first go to the AEA Online page.  Then they will click on the Brittanica Online link on the left side of the page.  Then they will click on the Elementary link.  At the bottom of the page are picture links.  Students will click on the Biography cloud.  Then students will be able to search for their person by letter of their last name.  Last year as my students tried to research online, they were inundated with websites that weren’t legit sites.  This resource will allow me the opportunity to make sure at least one of their sources is backed by solid research.

In my current teaching assignment as a special education teacher, I co-teach a 6th grade reading class with a general education teacher. The class is going to be reading the novel "Holes" by Louis Sachar. Therefore, I decided to see if the Iowa AEA Online resource TeachingBooks.net would support teaching this novel. First, I went to www.iowaaeaonline.org. Next, on the left hand menu, I clicked on TeachingBooks.net. I then had to type in my school's username and password to access the resource. In the "Search for a book..." box, I typed in Holes and 8 of 8 matches popped up and "Holes" by Louis Sachar was the first match. I then clicked on that link and it took me to an extensive menu of Book Resources (lesson plans, book readings, vocabulary lists, etc.) and Author Resources (author interviews, author personal website, etc.). The purpose of using TeachingBooks.net will be to introduce the author by listening to his actual voice tell about how he came up with the idea to write this novel and to use questions from the lesson plans to guide questions and discussion. This resource will also provide myself valuable background knowledge about the novel as I have never read it. As the class continues through the novel, I will further explore the many available resources on TeachingBooks.net.

A lesson plan link-
https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-plans/migrated-files-in-body/holes-bookfiles.pdf

When exploring learn 360 I decided that I would Like to try and tie our social studies curriculum to a video. In my opinion, social studies can be one of the more slower topics in third grade and sometimes an interesting video or video clip will help you and the students learn more about a different culture. Culture is our Focus for the current unit. We are talking about culture through stories, specifically tall tales. Using the search bar on learn360 I looked up tall tales. I quickly found a video about Pecos Bill. https://learn360.infobase.com/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=82593&tScript=0
This Tall Tale and Legend was also in our book. However, it was one of the Tall Tales that not many of the children knew. After reading our book, the video fit perfectly and was very entertaining. It featured Robin Williams as the narrator of the story. After showing the video the differences in the children's comprehension was amazing. We compared and contrasted what we've learned from the video and also what we had read in our book. I also took a brief survey of the children and of course they said they liked the video better. Using educational decision-making it was easy for me to decide that the combination of video and text increased my students learning.

For my resource to share, I chose to use Culture Grams. In the music series that we use, there are tons of songs from other cultures.  I chose a second grade level song called “En la feria de San Juan” (In the Market of San Juan).  I went to Culture Grams and searched Puerto Rico, and then found the link to Music and Dance under Culture Facts and Contents.  This brought up a paragraph to read and also a short message about the music of Puerto Rico.  Here is the link:  http://online.culturegrams.com/kids/kids_country_sub_categories.php?contid=9&wmn=North_America&cid=39&KidsUniqueID=201&type=Kids
I really appreciate that the information shared in Culture Grams ties the music of Puerto Rico to artist that the students may be familiar with; in this case, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, and Jennifer Lopez.  
I know that Culture Grams will be a valuable asset to my classes as we work through songs and musical selections from many different countries and cultures.  Supplemental items connected to the arts and music specifically are often times difficult to find.  This data base will be used frequently as I plan my lessons.  Any connection that I can make from a song to its country of origin will help to grab the interest of students in my classes.

For my geography class we do a Southwest Asia (Middle East) research assignment that involves building a chart on various statistics of four different countries, exploring a historical event from these countries, and writing an opinion on a current topic.  The CultureGrams will be an excellent resource to direct students to for this project for two reasons.  First, because they can find most of the needed information in one location and save time and inaccuracies.  Secondly, because I will know where their information came from rather wondering where they discovered the answers they did.

I have included two links to CultureGrams for Iran and Israel because they are countries that are commonly included in this assignment.  The amount of information included for these is excellent.  The majority of the information need for the assignment is included.  Minimal outside research would be required, most likely for the historical questions.  I think the CultureGrams would also encourage students to do some free clicking around on their own for some discovery learning as well.

http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?cid=77&cn=Iran
http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?cid=79&cn=Israel

Excellent source and one I need to include in my geography course.

I plan to use BookFLIX for my fire safety lesson next fall.  I found this link under the Animals and Nature category.  https://bookflix.digital.scholastic.com/pair/detail/bk0021pr/start?authCtx=U.600157969 

The fiction story is all about a dog that lives at the fire house.  Of course the kids will love reading all about the dog.  The non-fiction story is what will be really helpful with the lesson.  There is tons of information and pictures about how a firehouse works and pictures of how the firehouse really looks inside.  I think this will be a great preview book before the fire fighters come in for their fire safety presentation.  It will prepare the students for they types of clothing the fireman wear to fight a fire.

My target audience will be first graders.  

While looking through the various AEA databases and trying to think of which one(s) would work the best in my class, I had to stop and think about my specific science curriculum, and what materials would be appropriate to support it and best fit my students. I found the resource from TrueFlix and ScienceFlix to be the most logical and practical options. While there are a variety of topics that I can choose from, I selected the "Elements" resources from TrueFlix (https://tinyurl.com/TFelementsWMS) as it is the topic that we are currently discussing in class. I used the AEA's Online Database (https://www.iowaaea.org/about/iowa-aea-online/) and scrolled to the bottom to find TrueFlix. Then, I entered my username and password to get access to the resource. Once on the TrueFlix page, I scrolled down, and selected "Physical Science" from the right column, and finally selected "Elements".

This resource provides supplemental material to my science curriculum, and can be used in a variety of ways. One of the aspects that I really enjoy about this resource is that students can work at their own pace through the activities. I would use this resource with my 6th-grade science class. Our school is 1:1 with Chromebook access, and students use the "Watch It" video clip as an introduction to the activities, then continue on to the "Read It". The reading resource offers differentiation as students can have a recording read the passage to them if it is too difficult. This also supports auditory learners. After students have completed that, they can complete the "Word Match" portion to reinforce key vocabulary covered in the reading, and finally they will do the "Show What You Know" quiz at the end. They will then report their scores to me as a means of formative assessment. The overall objective of using this resource is to reinforce concepts that have been discussed in class and explored through our labs.

   The resource I will use the most is ( https://learn360.infobase.com/p_Home.aspx ) Learn -360. I will use it for the start of the basic Foods 1 course, they are generally 10th grade. I typed in Nutrition and Portion size to find resources. For potion size is-https://learn360.infobase.com/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=60238. It will help students visualize portion sizes for the food groups. I will imbed the site into the unit presentation for that topic. Students have a difficult time understanding what the food group serving size looks like. I also will use -Choose my Plate: a Kids guide to healthy Eating. After we cover the food groups we will view this resource to reinforce the various groups. The students will comprise a Menu- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snack for themselves that uses all the food groups and correct portion sizes for an entire day according to their gender, size and activity level. Then compare it to a regular day of eating with out thought to what they are eating all day. This resource helps because the students realize the amounts they eat really do matter in their overall diet and health.

I went to the Iowa AEA Online Resource site and entered my school’s username and password, then selected student edition under the high school tab. I put watercolor artists in the subject tab and found several articles on watercolor artists. I looked for titles about artist’s perspectives and techniques around using watercolors.
 
Example:
Jamie Wyeth: combining Water-Soluble paints: like many artists accustomed to working with opaque paints, Jamie Wyeth prefers to use combinations of water-soluble materials rather than just transparent watercolor. He finds that layers of gouache, ink, graphite, acrylic, and watercolor allow him to develop images in much the same way he does with oil on canvas.
M. Stephen Doherty
Watercolor. 12.48 (Fall 2006): p94+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2006 Nielsen Business Media, Inc.
http://www.nielsen.com/
 
 
My target audience could be either my painting class or my AP Drawing Studio student’s. I would select a few articles for the students (or have them select an article) to read that discussed watercolor techniques as well as the artist’s creative perspective. Artist’s spend a lot of time testing techniques, practicing to refine their skills and planning artwork. They also have a lot of “failures” along the way. Better understanding an artist’s thinking would be very insightful for the students especially as we discuss the process of creating.
 

I used one of the newer databases presented on the Iowa AEA online Resources.  I hope this is approved as it was not one of the databases listed on the self paced course conclusion.  The database I chose to use is MackinVia.   I gave students the Iowa AEA Online URL.... https://www.iowaaea.org/about/iowa-aea-online/

I directed them to choose the MackinVia icon. They then arrived at this url    https://www.mackinvia.com/ After supplying them with the schools sign in and login password, they were directed to type our school name which then directed them to a pull down menu of which school (MS, ELEM, or HS).  After they selected a school, their student account appeared and they then selected it.  After following the above steps they arrived at the home page for MackinVia.

So far, we have introduced all 4-8 students and are working on 9-12 and 3rd grade.  Our goal in using this database is to introduce all students to the use of MackinVia and the use of ebooks.  Since all our students have the use of a computer one-to-one, they will all have the ability to access a book even though they may not be able to visit the library at any given moment.  MackinVia's capabilities are numerous......innumerable book titles, audio books, grouping titles such as Iowa Teen Award, Iowa Children's Choice, etc., DoGo -news articles, teacher book groupings for research, being able to increase text size and audio speed, checkout in a backpack format, share notes about books, and many more we have yet to learn about and make use of.

  I used BookFLIX as the resource I wanted to share with my library classes. I went to the AEA Online Learning Resources site and picked Book FLIX. I used the school's username and password to access login. https://www.iowaaea.org/about/iowa-aea-online/ 
https://bookflix.digital.scholastic.com/home?authCtx=U.600055105https://bookflix.digital.scholastic.com/pair/detail/bk0092pr/start?authCtx=U.600055105 
 
 I explored some of the different titles available. Book FLIX pairs a storybook with a non-fiction book. I chose a duo I could use as a character lesson for my elementary students. I shared the video of "Do Unto Otters"  with my students. The non-fiction book "We Are Citizens" is the choice I will read aloud to the students. After reading the stories there were several activities to try. I chose to facilitate an activity called Fact or Fiction with the students by asking them questions based on the video and reading.  Both books are available in our school library for students to check out and enjoy on their own or at home. I enjoyed the Book FLIX resource and the easiness of navigating BookFLIX. I will use this resource a lot for my library classes!

This week in ELA we are using the Me….Jane book and I found it on Bookflix on the AEA website.  Here is the link for the Me…..Jane book and resources:  https://bookflix.digital.scholastic.com/pair/detail/bk0121pr/start?authCtx=U.600054648

I love that there is a video component of the Me…Jane book and a book component with more facts and real photographs to hold my students’ interested.  They enjoyed seeing the beautiful illustrations in Me…Jane and they loved the photographs in the nonfiction version.  We are working on text features so I was able to pull in:  photographs, bolded words, maps, and subheadings all with using Bookflix as my main resource..  I also liked using the “Puzzlers!" feature with the kids.  They LOVED the word match!  Students had to read the clue and click on the word that it matched.  This was a very exciting literacy center for them and they begged for more!  There was also a great sequencing activity in the “Which came first in Me…Jane??  Sequencing is a standard that they must know and this digital version held their interests.   My students are 7 and 8 years old and Bookflix is great for them to use independently and it’s also great for me to use in my lessons!

 To get to the resource I needed I went to the iowaaea.org website. Here is where all of the resources are available. I clicked on the Bookflix button which took me to the login in page. I entered my school username and password to open the database.
  After it opened, I clicked on the Nature and Animals category as I am doing a lesson on seeds. There were about six different resources, about seeds, that I could choose from.  I choose the Planting a Seed video and the It Could Still be a Flower book.
  I will use these resources as a large group activity during story time.  We will discuss new vocabulary words that are presented with these resources. At the end of the theme (approximately 2 weeks) I will assess the kiddos on the new vocabulary words by doing the Word Match puzzler that accompanied this resource:)

I selected Learn360 to share in this post. The target audience for this resource is really anyone. It can be used with K-12 and beyond. This particular resource will provide many age appropriate and school appropriate videos that can be used in class. Many times in music classes students miss out on world music experiences because we can’t travel the world. The videos that can be found in these searches make viewing world music experiences possible. The videos are the main bulk of how I would use this resource. However, there are also a few interactives, audio recordings, some printables, as well as images. All of these can be incorporated if you can find the specific things you are looking for. One of the nice things about Learn 360 is that you can search by video name or subject, collections, or producer. This quickly narrows down the search to find what you are looking for. There is really so much in there that you need to allow some time to really dig in to locate the perfect enhancement to your lessons. Recently, I started a Jazz unit with my 7th grade students. I want them to explore a particular subgenre of jazz and choose a musician who was a master in his/her craft, then identify a couple of signature pieces to discuss with the class. My 7th graders are vaguely familiar with jazz, but probably have never thought of its origins or evolution through time. I located a video on Learn 360 that provided a 15 minute history of jazz, introducing the greats, the evolution, as well as some enduring characteristics that are indicative of the jazz style. I could choose to show only a short segment of each subgenre discussed, but the whole video was short enough that it gave the overview I was looking for to introduce my students to jazz and whet their appetites to dig into a deeper study.

After studying about Native Americans, the students always do a project using a tribe. On Trueflix, there is a section called American Indians with 6 different books they can use as research. I love the idea that if they are not strong readers they can listen to them. I’m thinking about changing up the project a little, and doing it at the beginning of the unit so that they can learn a little on their own before we study them by regions. This would allow them to use the information they have learned on their own to decide what region their Native American group was from based on the resources they used. I would love to teach them how to use the Learn 360 and/or the digital library so that they could find other resources to help them with their project. They could use both videos and order books from the AEA library on their own. They can be the judges of what information they would like to use. I also am excited that they can use the teachingbooks.net. I always thought it was just a teaching resource, but it would be awesome if with each Social Studies unit we did, they could find a realistic fiction or a nonfiction book to read and report about. It would help tie in our Reading skills with our Social Studies Skills, and get the kids into different genres of books.

The two online resources that I used for the AEA are Culture Grams and Freedom Flix.
These were two outstanding resources that my students enjoyed using. We do a states project when studying the original 13 colonies.  The students are required to use Culture Grams for looking up information about the state they are studying.  They look for the basic state facts, bird, tree, ect... One of the most interesting is the food of the state, the find a recipe for a food from that state.  The best part of Culture Grams is the early people and Native American section.   Freedom Flix was a great supplement to what we had studied. My students select a subject from the books listed, read and write a report on what they have read.  Then define 12 words from the reading.  When finished take the "What you Know Quiz" located at the home page.  My students really enjoyed getting to choose a subject to read outside of the text book.  This also helps my slower reading students and the book can be read to them.  These are two online resources that I recommend using in the classroom.

I accessed the AEA online resources through our school Symbaloo page.  This page has all of the AEA resources discussed in this course, directly linked which makes it very handy for student use.  I chose to use the Britannica School elementary resource with targeted audience of 2nd graders. I entered our school username and password then selected "elementary" from the leveled choices.

I wanted to use the articles posted on this site to enhance learning in the area of seeds and how they travel.  I was able to narrow down my search by using the educators tab.  By using this tab, I was able to search by content, subject, and standard.  The 2nd grade standard states that students will develop a model that mimics the function of seed dispersal.  Students will explore this concept of seed dispersal through creating different shapes of seeds and dropping them from a "tree" (high place).

Student can use the article about seeds to gain more knowledge about how seeds travel and germinate.  A visual is given using the "media" portion to the left of the article.  I appreciate how these Britannica articles allow access to all learners by having multiple reading levels as well as the "read aloud" option.  Students can then gain further knowledge in this subject area by clicking on the "related" link on the left side.  This site would be very useful if students were then assigned to research a specific plant and report out/create model of how their plant's seeds travel.

There are so many options for learning and exploring on the Britannica site!

As I went through all the resources during the self-paced learning course, I thinking of how I could use it in my classroom.  As my students are in preschool, I was able to cross some of the higher content level materials.  Even after crossing those off my usable list, I was excited at the resources I could still use! The one that really made sense to use in my classroom was Bookflix.  I easily found the resource through google searching Iowa AEA online and clicking on the link.  It took me right to the web page with all the online learning options available to me as a public educator in Iowa.  Then I just clicked on link for BookFLIX which was the word BookFLIX underlined and in red.  It is such a valuable resource because it provides a child friendly interface where the can click on a subject they are interested in and then several options come up on the next page.  One aspect that I really enjoy is that it gives the students two options for a specific topic within their selected subject in the form of a nonfiction or fiction book.  Another aspect that I love is that for most of the fiction books, the book is read to the students and is more like movie which really holds the students attention in a rich literacy learning activity.  It provides my preschools with a literacy experience that helps them connect speech with the written word since often the text is highlighted as its read.  It could be used as a large group read aloud activity or as a center with one or two children involved in the learning.  The age of students who could utilize BookFLIX is very wide, but I would guess elementary aged or ability leveled students.        

I teach a unit in science entitled Environments to my fourth graders.  One of their required activities is to learn to draw and read food chains and food webs.   I would use the following video clip (1:58) as an introduction to this skill.  Go to AEA Online resources.  In the Video section select AEA Digital Library (PreK-12).  In the search bar type food chain.  Click search.   Choose Ecology Fundamentals - Food Chains and Food Webs.

https://learn360.infobase.com/p_Search.aspx?bc=0&rd=a&q=plants&cTypePost=1&tabChange=1

https://learn360.infobase.com/p_Search.aspx?bc=0&rd=a&q=plants&cTypePost=1&tabChange=1&cType=6

The resources that I chose to use would be directed to my 2nd grade class that would tie into our plants unit that we do towards the end of the year.  The first link would be used as an introduction for all students and the second link would be an enrichment activity for the more advanced students.

The above links will take you to a "Plants" search in Learn360.  The students will watch the second video down which is a an introduction into Plants.  In the video they cover - Living and Non living things, What is a plant/Where do plants live/Kinds of plants.  I would have my student watch - pausing at appropriate times to discuss and take notes.  

The second link is a under the Interactives tab.  The 4th Interactive Biology down is on Respiration of Plants.  This would be used as an enrichment activity.  The students would go through the Interactive in groups or with me during small group time and dig deeper into Plants.  These are cool because throughout the readings and videos you are able to take quizzes on the material covered for each section.