February++Session

Visit [|The New York Times] website for teachers. Take a few minute to check out all of the options and links listed down the right hand side of the screen. On your graphic organizer for this center, list some ideas for how this site could be used to differentiate for students. (A couple of key suggested links to click: 6 Qs About the News, Poetry Pairings, Mathematics)



Voicethread is an engaging and user friendly way for your students to begin working with digital storytelling. Click [|here] to view a short tutorial video about the program. You can also see a poetry project completed by former students following the "Where I'm From" poetry format. [|"Where I'm From" student example] You might also want to check out this great [|example] of using voicethread in an elementary math class or this [|cool way for kids to share] their work and comment on the work of their classmates. Feel free to explore any of the other examples on the voice thread page, too. If you are looking for a beautiful but very basic storytelling program, check out [|story bird] for some lovely art backgrounds to which children can add their own words.

For more great ideas on how to incorporate voicethread into the differentiated lessons in your classroom, take a look at this exceptional wiki: Voice Thread Wiki

When you are done,add ideas for using any of these digital story telling tools with your students to your graphic organizer.

Would you like to investigate digital storytelling even further? [|digital-storytelling-guide-by-silvia-rosenthal-tolisano]



Choose any site from [|Internet Resources for Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom] and briefly investigate. Add notes to your graphic organizer to indicate which site you visited and how you would use the site in your class.

**What is a webquest? It's as great way to provide scaffolded independent learning activities for our students. It can also be a terrific answer in the elementary classroom to our concerns about fitting in time for enough science and social studies while also making sure our students have all the english and math skills needed. Webquests not only provide a relatively easy way to differentiate, but are also built around cross curricular connections.**

//Definitions//
//A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. There are at least two levels of WebQuests that should be distinguished from one another.//

//Short Term WebQuests//
//The instructional goal of a short term WebQuest is knowledge acquisition and integration, described as Dimension 2 in Marzano's (1992) Dimensions of Thinking model. At the end of a short term WebQuest, a learner will have grappled with a significant amount of new information and made sense of it. A short-term WebQuest is designed to be completed in one to three class periods.//

//Longer Term WebQuest//
//The instructional goal of a longer term WebQuest is what Marzano calls Dimension 3: extending and refining knowledge. After completing a longer term WebQuest, a learner would have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to, on-line or off-. A longer term WebQuest will typically take between one week and a month in a classroom setting.//

//Critical Attributes//
//WebQuests of either short or long duration are deliberately designed to make the best use of a learner's time. There is questionable educational benefit in having learners surfing the net without a clear task in mind, and most schools must ration student connect time severely. To achieve that efficiency and clarity of purpose, WebQuests should contain at least the following parts://
 * 1) //An **introduction** that sets the stage and provides some background information.//
 * 2) //A **task** that is doable and interesting.//
 * 3) //A set of **information sources** needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are embedded in the WebQuest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information sources might include web documents, experts available via e-mail or realtime conferencing, searchable databases on the net, and books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift.//
 * 4) //A description of the **process** the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The process should be broken out into clearly described steps.//
 * 5) //Some **guidance** on how to organize the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions, or directions to complete organizational frameworks such as timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams as described by Marzano (1988, 1992) and Clarke (1990).//
 * 6) //A **conclusion** that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.//

-from []

= Online resources for ready made webquests: =

[|School system in Owen, KY - great list of ready made elementary quests]

[|Grades 3 & 4 quests]

[|Quests for K - 6]

[|Example: "Our Class Pet" 2nd Grade Quest]

[|K - 5 Quests]

[|Ideas from school in Austin, Texas]

[|Example: The President's Scrapbook]

[|Database of Webquests]