Internet Activities for Language Arts

Transcription

1 Internet Activities for Language Arts Grades 4-8 Written by Marie-Helen Goyetche Marie-Helen Goyetche is an elementary school principal and a freelance writer. Marie-Helen received her Bachelors in Education from Concordia University and her Masters in Educational Leadership from Bishops University. She has over 100 articles and over 40 curriculum books published. Copyright On The Mark Press 2014 This publication may be reproduced under licence from Access Copyright, or with the express written permission of On The Mark Press, or as permitted by law. All rights are otherwise reserved, and no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, except as specifically authorized. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for this project. All Rights Reserved Printed in Canada Published in Canada by: On The Mark Press 15 Dairy Avenue, Napanee, Ontario K7R 1M4 OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

2 At A Glance SITE Reading Talking Listening Writing Word Play Teacher Resource Creativity Collaboration Audacity Cramberry Edublogs Flowers2mail Glogster Go Animate Google Docs Kidblog Letterpop Many Books Moshi Monster Switch Zoo One More Story Plotbot Puzzlemaker Readthewords Skype Tikatok Toondoo Voicethread Wisemapping Wikispaces Wordle Wordnik Zoho Writer OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS At a Glance...2 How to use this book... 4 Glossary...5 SITE Audacity...6 Cramberry...9 Edublogs...12 Flowers2mail Glogster...18 Go Animate...21 Google Docs Kidblog...27 Letterpop Many Books Moshi Monster Switch Zoo One More Story Plotbot...45 Puzzlemaker Read The Words Skype...54 Tikatok...57 Toondoo Voicethread Wisemapping Wikispaces Wordle...72 Wordnik...75 Zoho Writer...78 OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

4 Teacher Notes HOW TO USE THIS BOOK In this book, you will find 25 Internet sites that can be used with students in grades 4-8 in various Language Arts contexts. There are three pages devoted to each site. First, there is a brief overview of what the specific site is all about. On the second page, you will find out what type of site it is, how to log on, and special tips or advice for teachers. You will also find a third page with various activities your students can do while on the site. Feel free to add paper projects that you are familiar with and convert them onto the sites. Most sites are Web 2.0 sites. What are Web 2.0 sites? That s a very good question. First, let s look at the Internet as we are familiar with it. The Internet is printbased information. You can read a site, or print the information. It is mostly silent, one-way and used as an individual activity. In education, teachers ask students to look up information, read it, and rewrite the information with specific educative goals in mind. Web 2.0 has changed that. The information is not only print-based, but also allows the student to become an active participant in the creation of the information. The student becomes part of a collaborative network. Now teachers can ask the students not only to read the information, but they can comment, create information, and work collaboratively with others. When using Web 2.0 sites, many teaching problems have been solved. 1. You don t need to worry about saving projects on an extra hard-drive, a memory key, or on a computer. Web 2.0 happens on a system called cloud storage, which means when you are working on any document in Web 2.0, it is saved on to the site rather than on your own computer. That solves storage and accessibility problems when the students go back to their work, as they can easily find it. Therefore, as long as you have Internet, you can save the work on that site. 2. Many of the sites can be accessed from home, meaning group projects are then easier and students are motivated and on task outside of school. 3. Each student works at his or her own pace, therefore all students are successful when working on these projects. All these sites have been tested. Some may have strict educational content control, some do not. The best advice is to try the site before you show your students. For some sites, exploring isn t recommended, but these sites still have lots to offer. You do not need to know every aspect of each site. The students will quickly learn and know how to function within the site. Have them help you and other students get the most out of this project. OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

5 Here are some helpful Internet terms. GLOSSARY Teacher Notes Blog: Is a site where one can add regular entries, like an online journal. Chat: Instant messaging with other people in a chat room. Click and Drag: In some applications, you can simply click down on a picture or text, and drag it to the location you want to have it in. Docs: Short for documents; documents, spreadsheets, and presentations created or put online, and accessible from any computer with an Internet connection. Download: To receive a file or program from the Internet and store it on your computer. Ecards: Greeting cards made directly on the Internet and sent to different recipients via . Short for electronic mail; messages sent, received, and stored on an server or website. Embed: To incorporate a file, video, or picture into another application. Glog: A site where one can create a graphical blog or an online media poster; scrapbooking online. Podcast: An audio or video media file that can be heard or seen at any time over the Internet; typically a series. RSS Feed: A feature that sends messages to subscribers when the content has been updated. Surf: Going from one site to another on the Internet. Upload: To send a file or picture onto a site. Wiki: A site that uses wiki software, allowing one (or many) to create, edit, or take notes from interlinked Web pages. Here are some of the different files (documents, or images) that come from different programs: Microsoft Word (doc) Microsoft Exel (xls) Office Open XML (docx) OpenDocument text (odt) OpenOffice.org text (sxw) HTML, RTF, JPG, GIF, & PNG files OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

6 NAME OF SITE What is Flowers2mail? This site allows your students to create a virtual flower bouquet and an ecard. The flowers and ecards can be sent to family and friends. Once on the site, the students choose which vase they want (there are 9) and its color (there are 12). They then fill up the vase with flowers or shapes (there are 12) of their choice. They write a greeting (up to 2 lines) and a message (up to 8 lines). They can choose to decorate their card as well. All the students need are the address(es) of the recipient(s) and the students are ready to send flowers and ecards. OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

7 NAME OF SITE What type of site is it? This site is a Web2.0 site. All the ecards and flower creations are done right from the site, so there is nothing to download. Creations cannot be saved on this site, so once a card has been sent, students are ready to start a new one. The site is independent and accessible from any computer that is connected to the Internet. How do we log on? You don t need to log on. All you need to do is get on the Website. Everything is there, and ready to use. Tips for Teachers: It is a fairly easy site to use for both younger and older students. There s no spell check on this site. It might be a good idea to have your students write rough drafts of their text beforehand. This will avoid sending ecards filled with spelling mistakes and typos. Brainstorm different occasions or reasons to send ecards and flowers to someone. Have students create a schedule of what ecards they would like to send. Having an authentic audience will motivate students to write more and write the best that they can write. OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press

8 NAME OF SITE Activities your students can do on this site: Have students send birthday ecards and flowers to other students in the class. Have students write poems (could be about flowers) and have them match the poem with a vase filled with flowers. Have students send cards on the following days and/or holidays: Welcome back to school, Rosh Hashanah Remembrance/Memorial Day Hanukkah New Year s Day Family Day Easter or any other day you want your students to acknowledge. Labor Day Thanksgiving Yom Kipper Christmas Kwanza Valentine s Day Beautiful Day Prepare students names (including yours). You and students will pick one name of a fellow classmate but not share it with others. On day one of the project, you send an ecard and flowers to the student whose name you picked. In the message, write something you appreciate about that student. The message must be positive. On day two, the student who received your flowers and message, creates an ecard and sends flowers to the person they ve picked. Continue the process until the whole class has received a positive message and flowers. You will be the last person to receive a message. OTM-700 ISBN: On The Mark Press