classroom activities | Learner Log

Be a Part of “THE GREAT THANKSGIVING LISTEN”

Posted on September 27, 2016 Written by Annenberg Learner 2 Comments

Annenberg Learner is pleased to partner with StoryCorps and to announce The Great Thanksgiving Listen.

PRESENTED BY STORYCORPS

On Thanksgiving weekend 2016, the acclaimed oral history project StoryCorps will work with U.S. history teachers across America to ask their students to record an interview with a grandparent or another elder using the free StoryCorps app. With permission from the participants, each of these interviews will be uploaded to the StoryCorps archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Also, download the free The Great Thanksgiving Listen Teacher Toolkit to find program details, including guidelines and recommendations that can easily be made into lessons that address state standards for social studies or history curricula.

The Great Thanksgiving Listen will use near-universally accessible smartphone technology to foster meaningful connections within families, communities, and the classroom while also creating a singular and priceless archive of American history and wisdom. This 2016 event is expected to result in the single largest collection of human voices ever gathered.

The Great Thanksgiving Listen 2016 follows StoryCorps’ highly successful inaugural effort in 2015. More than 100,000 participants took part in the drive to preserve the stories and voices of an entire generation over the Thanksgiving weekend. In a 2016 TED Talk, StoryCorps founder and president Dave Isay addressed a global audience to talk about the 2015 pilot, sharing some of the stories it generated and the lessons it taught.

Watch David Isay, the founder and president of StoryCorps, talk about The Great Thanksgiving Listen!

CONDUCT GREAT INTERVIEWS

Watch Steve Inskeep, host of NPR’s Morning Edition, provide useful tips for students who are conducting interviews.

ABOUT STORYCORPS

Founded in 2003, the nonprofit organization StoryCorps has given more than 100,000 Americans the chance to record interviews about their lives, pass wisdom from one generation to the next, and leave a legacy for the future. StoryCorps shares edited excerpts of these recordings with millions each week through popular weekly NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. StoryCorps helps us recognize that every life and every story matters.

Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps, is the recipient of the 2015 TED Prize, awarded to an individual with a creative, bold vision to spark global change. With the proceeds of the TED Prize, StoryCorps released an app that walks users seamlessly through the StoryCorps interview experience, from recording to archiving to sharing their story with the world. The StoryCorps app, and its companion social media platform at StoryCorps.me, make a large-scale and historic undertaking like the Great Thanksgiving Listen possible for the first time ever.

STORYCORPS ON TED BLOG

Read about the impact that storytelling has on students and teachers in “How telling stories can transform a classroom” by Amy S. Choi on TED Blog.

Differentiated Instruction By Subject

Posted on August 4, 2016 Written by Annenberg Learner Leave a Comment

RWDs_BlendTechMathsq — A blended learning approach to instruction allows students to collaborate using technology. See *Reading & Writing in the Disciplines*.

As you plan for the new school year, think about how you structure your classroom and lessons to engage all students and meet each learner’s needs. While differentiating instruction can be daunting, it can also be a lot of fun. Differentiation involves recognizing individual student’s talents, interests, and challenges. It also involves varying ways you present content and use the classroom space. Below are examples of teachers differentiating their classrooms. Jump to the subject you teach or read them all. For a deeper look into what differentiation is and how to recognize the potential in all students, listen to the “Differentiated Instruction Works: How and Why To Do DI” podcast on the ASCD website.

Arts and World Languages

Tap into students’ love for the arts. In The Arts in Every Classroom, program 2, “Expanding the Role of the Arts Specialist,” watch how dance, visual art, and theatre teachers coordinate with teachers of other subject areas.

Use the arts to teach students how to express their ideas in multiple ways. In Connecting With the Arts, program 12, “Finding Your Voice,” middle school students use music, art, and dance to explore the concepts of conflict and protesting.

Students are most engaged when they are talking about what they know. In Teaching Foreign Languages, K-12, “Comparing Communities,” students compare community life at home and abroad while practicing language skills. The video is captioned in English for all language teachers.

English and Language Arts

In Teaching Reading, K-2, workshop 6, “Differentiating Instruction,” learn what flexible grouping looks like and apply examples to your own classes.

Think outside of the essay and use your students’ kinesthetic and creative skills. Watch middle school students explore characters in literature by creating ceramic place settings in Connecting With the Arts, “Revealing Character.”

Vary methods of communicating with students using technology to give feedback. Jen Roberts uses Google Tools to collaborate with her students on their work. Watch “Blended Learning: Acquiring Digital Literacy Skills” from Reading & Writing in the Disciplines. Under the video, see the Differentiated Instruction paragraph to learn more about how Ms. Roberts scaffolds the lesson to meet different students’ needs.

History and Social Studies

In Social Studies in Action, program 4, “China Through Mapping,” Ms. Norton offers multiple entry points into a lesson on Chinese culture and history. Elementary students create salt-dough maps, sing songs, and complete a group mystery puzzle using printed maps of China. At 20:24 in the video, Ms. Norton explains how she assigned the roles for group work.

Try lesson plans that use photographs to hook visual learners and students interested in photography. The Essential Lens video, “A Closer Look,” explains the Focus In strategy for examining the meaning and point of view of photographs. Browse several photo collections connected to activities and big ideas that can be used in the social studies classroom. Themes include “Economies and Empires” and “Change and Resistance.”

Ms. Ambrose’s students discuss racial profiling as they develop an understanding of constitutional law and criminal law in Making Civics Real, workshop 7, “Controversial Public Policy Issues.” One of her students reflects “… if she sees that something is boring us, if something’s not working, she’ll get at the problem. She’ll change it to make sure that we’re always interested, so that we’re always learning something. As soon as you lose interest, you stop caring, you stop learning.”

Mathematics

In Teaching Math K-4, video 17, “Choose a Method,” the teacher provides multiple learning experiences for exploring problem-solving methods with her fourth graders. Two groups work independently, one on computers and another on puzzles and games. The teacher and students in a third group investigate different computational methods, including base-10 blocks, calculators, mental math, or paper and pencil.

A blended learning approach to instruction allows students to collaborate using technology. Math students evaluate arithmetic sequences and share work on a Smart Board. While some students also practice speaking and teaching skills, other students focus on concepts. Watch “Blended Learning: Using Technology to Learn Math Concepts” in Reading & Writing in the Disciplines.

In “Creating Opportunities for Mathematical Discourse” from Reading & Writing in the Disciplines, Ms. Langer lets students choose from different types of classroom materials to explore content, provides scaffolding to students as needed, and allows students to work in groups or independently as they study graph theory.

Science

Young kids love animals. Bring the outdoors inside to young citizen scientists with Journey North. Students answer the essential question, “How do animals in different parts of the world respond to seasonal change?” while completing activities in the viewing guide and watching animal cams by Explore.org of bears, birds, and more.

Use photographs to hook visual learners and students interested in photography. The Essential Lens video, “A Closer Look,” explains the Focus In strategy for examining the meaning and point of view of photographs. Browse several photo collections connected to activities and big ideas that can be used in the science classroom. Themes include “Processes of Science,” “Energy,” and “Genetics and Bioengineering.”

In Reading & Writing in the Disciplines, “Creating a Culture of Collaboration,” learn how Mr. Berryman develops students’ understanding of scientific terms in multiple ways, from using an interactive web app, a word wall, drawing activities, and more.

Class Assignment: Using Google Tools to Explore the First Amendment

Posted on December 9, 2015 Written by Annenberg Learner Leave a Comment

Post written by Leslie Hellerman, high school Journalism teacher and participant in the 2015 Newseum Summer Teacher Institute: “Primarily Digital: Teaching Media Literacy to Plugged-in Students,” sponsored by Annenberg Learner. Look for the #ANEW15 hashtag on Twitter.

Deciding to focus on the Google Suite of products was definitely a defining moment for me. While I do use Twitter regularly in my journalism class, I decided that Pinterest and Instagram would have to wait for another opportunity later on. Google Classroom has revolutionized the way I teach and how my students receive and submit work.

I use Google Classroom almost every day in my journalism class. My students LOVE the format, ease of keeping track of their assignments and due dates, and collaborative/individual assignments are easy for them to do. Now that I’ve been using Google Classroom regularly, I also LOVE the platform. It is so much easier for me to keep track of assignments and student submitted work. I can also help remind students when they haven’t submitted an assignment, which is really nice. Recently my students have been posting their own questions and getting the class to post answers and discussion about issues we’re discussing in class. I have featured a specific assignment below.

I have struggled to find online resources (forums, etc.) that help me learn how to do/create certain things. Additionally, our school division has had some hurdles that have made going digital really tough: students did not receive their school email addresses until several weeks into the school year, so they couldn’t access Google Classroom; our internet frequently does not work or support the number of students using the internet, so frequently the computers do not work or are so slow that it is really difficult for students to continue to work online.

My students just completed an assignment called “So what’s the First Amendment all about?” where I asked them to explore the First Amendment and how it applies to journalism. First, I asked my students to watch a short video on the First Amendment.

Then I asked my students a Google Question:

As you watch this video, think about what this MEANS to citizens of the US, businesses, our government. Also, consider what this means to people around the world who DO NOT have these same guaranteed freedoms. Students responded using Google Question, so all the students could see their classmates responses and continue to reply to the posts. Next, I created an assignment called Exploring the First Amendment where I asked students to apply what they know about the First Amendment to our journalism class and their own experiences in Google Drawing. Here was their assignment:

Read the First Amendment (posted on the drawing).
Define each First Amendment freedom, use words, images, definitions, examples, etc.
Then, using RELIABLE news sources, find 3 examples of these freedoms (only the ones related to journalism, please) to attach to your drawing; label and briefly explain how your example demonstrates which freedom it represents. Be sure to cite your sources.
Finally, find a specific example (from around the world, perhaps) that illustrates a clear violation of a First Amendment freedom. Identify where (city/country) the violation took place and if this place supports a free press.

Be creative, take a risk, think and ponder what FREEDOM really means. You’ll be sharing your creation with the class, so make it decorative, engaging, and interesting.

Finally, as a culminating activity, I had students print out a copy of their Google Drawing to create a First Amendment Freedom Folder. As we continue our exploration of journalism this year, students will fill their folder with examples of First Amendment Freedoms and violations of those freedoms from the U.S. and around the world that they see and experience. They can continue to decorate their folder with elements from our daily newspapers, lessons, and class discussions throughout the semester/year. The idea was to provide them with a tangible reminder of the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States.

To see another example of how a teacher effectively uses Google tools with students, check out Jen Roberts’ (an #ANEW15 guest speaker) in “Blended Learning: Acquiring Digital Literacy Skills,” from Reading & Writing in the Disciplines).

Image Copyright: enterline / 123RF Stock Photo

#ANEW15 Aha Moment(s)!

Posted on August 11, 2015 Written by Annenberg Learner Leave a Comment

Post written by Lisa Mayo, high school English teacher and participant in the 2015 Newseum Summer Teacher Institute,“Primarily Digital: Teaching Media Literacy to Plugged-in Students,” sponsored by Annenberg Learner. Look for the #ANEW15 hashtag on Twitter.

Lisa Mayo at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

I cannot begin to count all the aha moments I felt as a participant in the #ANEW15 advanced institute this summer. As I review the Google Slide presentations multiple times, I find myself revisiting those moments. There will be differences in my classroom this year because of my experience at the Newseum with so many brilliant teachers and librarians from all over the country.

Taking Classroom Polls

The first thing I’m adding to my classroom is, oddly enough, not technological. Well, it can be, but I’m going old school for this. I was thrilled with all the uses of Poll Everywhere in the Institute, and I will incorporate it in my classes; but the polling system I’m going to employ is from the Vietnam Exhibit we visited. There was a polling question and responses were registered by placing a peg in a grid. It was instantaneously visual to see the results.

Well, when collaborating with colleagues, we figured out a quick, inexpensive way to do this. So, this year my students will find 5 ribbons for different responses and a basket of clip-on clothespins on my bulletin board. I’m thinking each day there will be a quick question and each ribbon will represent an answer. Each student will post a clothespin on their selected ribbon/answer. It will be fast and it will be visual.

I’m considering the questions to be anything from silly/pop-culture to questions that reflect what we are studying. I can even see it as a ticket out the door. On deeper thinking topics, I imagine using it as a conversation starter and then allowing students to move their clothespins if they change their mind. On days where it is most enlightening, I will post pictures on our class Twitter account and compare classses. This is simple and I think my sophomores and juniors will play along.

Evaluating Sources With Consumer Questions

Another aha moment that stands out is the Consumer Questions to evaluate the value of a source. Applying the common journalist questions (how, what, when, why, where, and who) to sources, especially on the internet, is going to be one my opening lessons when starting my research paper process with my juniors. Since the Institute has ended, I have found myself applying the questions as I’m reading and preparing for my classes.

Integrating Social Media

I am already a proponent of Twitter usage in the high school classroom, but now I can see uses for Instagram and Pinterest. I use Twitter on a daily basis to keep students up to date and to have them post assignments. I see Instagram as a great source for mentor text/writing prompts in my classroom and creative writing club. Pinterest is a constant resource for teachers, but I would like to find a way to incorporate it with students. I feel very strongly that I want students to see the value of social media as a tool for communication and change.

Collaborating With Google Classroom

As last school year was ending, I began exploring Google Classroom as a test run with one of my sections. I found it helpful for organizing assignments and sharing with students. After #ANEW15’s guest speakers (such as Jen Roberts from Reading & Writing in the Disciplines) and that valuable collaboration time, I am onboard and will be using it in all my classes this fall.

I hardly think there is any part of my teaching experience that will not be impacted by my three glorious days at the Newseum this summer. The presenters and organizers kept things moving and filled our days with information that will take weeks to process. To have been a part of this institute is not only professionally life altering, but also personally. I connected with people that I will stay in touch with – especially as our school years kick off. I look forward to seeing what we are all doing on Twitter and our Google Community.

How to Analyze Crafted and Captured Moments in Photographs

Posted on March 17, 2015 Written by Lori Stokes Leave a Comment

Photos are immediate—they are unstaged, unplanned, caught in the moment to stand as witnesses to history. …well, some of the time. Some photos really are all that, and they really do capture a moment that speaks to millions of people.

For example, John Filo’s famous photo of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University in 1970:

Filo did not stage this photo. It went out to the American public via LIFE and other magazines and communicated the shock of the incident, in which National Guard soldiers shot and killed unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War. But between Filo taking the photo and LIFE publishing it, one little edit was made: the pole behind Ms. Vecchio, that looks like it was coming out of her head, was airbrushed out.

Someone in Editing somewhere thought that pole coming out of the young woman’s head was too distracting and took it out. That someone wasn’t the photographer, in this case, but would it have mattered if it was? Does perfecting a photo after the fact take away from its integrity? If a photo is staged, can it be as powerful as a lucky shot taken on the fly? Is crafting a moment less authentic than capturing one?

We put this question to students in a continuing effort to give them more authority and control over their reading of photographs. (See Selfie: Bringing Personal Meaning to Photos). Photos seem to be unquestionable to most students: they have one clear, set meaning to give the student that the student must passively receive. We want to show students that this is not always, or not completely, true. As Makeda Best puts it, instead of stopping at asking ourselves and our students what we see in a photo, we have to “look more closely and ask questions of why we see what we see.”

In Selfie, we showed strategies to bring meaning to Dorothea Lange’s famous 1936 photo Migrant Mother:

This image is so famous, and so ingrained in our minds and eyes that it’s hard to believe that it was only one of five photos Lange took of this woman and her family. Lange saw them when she visited a pea-pickers’ camp in California while documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Lange made no secret of the fact that she took several photos before she felt she got just the right one to tell the family’s story. Here’s how Lange described it:

8014_BOWL_H_lowres — From Essential Lens: #8014 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9058-C)

“I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. [She] seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. …I did not approach the tents and shelters of other stranded pea-pickers. It was not necessary; I knew I had recorded the essence of my assignment.”

Show your students the five related photos in Essential Lens, “Disaster and Government Response.” Start like Lange did, from a distance with #8015, then to #8016 – #8018. Then go to the final shot, and the one Lange knew was best: #8014. Ask students:

What do you see as you “approach” the family? What was missing from the first four photos that Lange felt she finally got in the fifth?
The first photos are taken at a distance. The first shows all of the children, while the next three show just two of them. What do you notice about the final photo? (It is a close-up.) Do you think Lange made this choice to get closer deliberately? If so, what was she trying to capture?
Why do you think the two older children are in the final photo? Do you think Lange asked them to step in?
The mother has the same worried expression in all five photos; what does she do in the fifth that makes it even more powerful? Do you think she did this consciously, to give a better photo? Why do you think the children hide their faces?

Discussing student responses helps them understand that crafting a moment for a photo can be just as powerful as capturing one by surprise, and that sometimes photos are a mix of lucky accident (such as Lange finding this family), and careful artistry (taking multiple shots and possibly asking people to pose a little). Also, they can consider how editing photos, even to remove objects that someone judges as distracting (like with Filo’s photo), can undermine authenticity.

Try this exercise with other photos in the Essential Lens: Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum collection. Students can choose a photo that speaks to them and research the photographer to find other photos on the same topics. They may assess the artistry that went into that photographer’s work, and what makes one or two of their photos famous while others on the same topic are not.

Differentiated Instruction By Subject

How to Analyze Crafted and Captured Moments in Photographs

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