October Entry
What A Character!

When I first planned to use "What a Character!" I originally planned to use items that related to the character.  My first attempt with this lesson plan was with Native Americans.  It was obvious that collecting enough "things"  relating to each Native American group was going to be too time consuming and too taxing on my brain?.  Instead of tangible items, I decided to use Key Words relating to the five groups that we had studied.  Each student was given one word.  They had to decide which Native American group their word related to.  After a few minutes of pondering their "word" they were told to go sit beside the poster that had the name of the Native American group they believed their word belonged to.  There were 4 to 5 students in each group.  I then went to each group and told the students if they were in the correct group.  If they were not, they then had to rethink their clue word and try another group.

After everyone was in the correct group, the groups were then told to brainstorm about what activities a person belonging to their particular Native American group would do during a day.  They had to come to a consensus about the following things:  Was the person  male or female?
        Was the person an adult or a child?
         What did that person do within his/her culture?
After making a list of activities, this was the end of the first days work.

The second day I went through the process of teaching appropriate paragraph writing.  I demonstrated how to divide the story into paragraphs.  The groups got back together to begin their discussion on how to write their story, and who was going to write which paragraph.  After their decisions were made, they returned to their seats to begin writing their paragraphs.  When the paragraphs  were  completed, they returned to their groups to edit writing, read their paragraphs aloud and check for continuity, and put their paragraphs in correct sequence.  Then they submitted these to me for final checking.

After final editing, the students began typing their paragraphs, using Word,  into the computer.

Teacher Note: This became a little more involved than originally planned. 

November Entry

Internet Project:
I contacted my Pet Exchange partner who had been assigned to me and she communicated back that she had already been assigned to another classroom exchange project.  Mrs. Campbell will reassign me to another Pet Exchange classroom.  We are looking forward to participating.
 

Newspaper
In preparation for beginning out first classroom newspaper, we brainstormed on possible names for the paper.  After several suggestions, the class voted on calling it "Information Station".  Next we discussed the different topics that we would include.  After narrowing our topics down to six, the class then had to sign up for the article that they would like to work on.  They listed their first three preferences on a sheet of paper and turned it in to me.  I then just assigned four students, according to their preferences.  These were then posted on the board.  The next day we had a discussion on the procedure for writing their article, and the use of resources.  The students then got into their groups of four and began discussing and writing.  They then had to proofread and rewrite their articles before they turned them in for publication.  I then published their articles and printed the newsletter.  I also copied one for each student so they could have their own copy.  Those that chose Current Events did research on the Internet from cnn.com and  really enjoyed doing this.  Also, the Science News team investigated  the storm approaching  the west coast.  We found a great picture of a weather map, but their teacher could not import it as she had been taught.  I was distressed, as were the students, but we will learn and try again next time. 
I believe that the use of the Internet will be very enjoyable and educational, especially when writing our newspaper.  This was exciting to them and I especially enjoyed showing them all of the areas of information.  We plan to do this every Friday.

Cyber Ambassadors
I have yet to use the Cyber Ambassadors, but when we get to the point where the students are publishing  the newspaper themselves, I will need them a bit more.

December Entry

Teaching "Successful Paragraphs" was a great experience for me as well as the students.  The lesson plan is laid out in a simple, easy to understand, step-by-step format, and the students enjoyed creating their "wish lists"  and writing about them.  I plan to use this lesson plan at least twice a week, if not more, until the students gain  a grasp of what a complete paragraph is.  My goals are to have them write a five paragraph  story or report by the end of the year. 
This lesson plan can be found at:  http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/lang/ceclang/ceclang001.html
 
 

We have not written another newspaper since November.  My plan is to begin after Christmas break and do a weekly Information Station.  I also plan to learn how to import pictures from the Internet or ELSE!!

I  am not very clear on how I am to use the Cyber Ambassadors.  I would like some further explanation about this.  I do not have one in my classroom and do not know when it would be appropriate to get one from another class.

February Entry
After Donna installed ICQ on my computer she taught me how to use it.  She and I have exchanged  "Chats" by using ICQ , but I have had very little experience with it otherwise.  I am looking forward to using it more in the weeks to come, perhaps from home.

My class has been excited about our two Internet projects, the Post Card Geography and the Pet Exchange.  We have received several postcards already, and the class get very excited when we receive mail.  Our PTO gave each classroom some money and  we purchased postcards and stamps so we could send out our post cards.  The writing of our information was a great lesson in organizing a paragraph and the data that we wanted to include.  We began by brainstorming about what we wanted to include, then we outlined the information, and last we wrote the paragraph in a logical order with correct grammar, etc. 

The Pet Exchange has gone well for us in that we have our class pet and the journal, but our exchange class became impatient with us and told us to forget it.  We are taking our frog home each night and writing about what he does.  The class is loving this.  We hope that we can exchange with a class nearby, or in our own school after our journaling in complete. 

I had an interesting experience with a child who had broken his finger and was having trouble writing.  I allowed him to take his spelling test on the computer, and whereas before he frequently reversed letters or omitted letters, on the computer he did none of these.  I was wondering if there is something wrong that technology could help him with.
We have been working on writing paragraphs in my classroom.  In our newspaper, I have switched  to coordinating it with our Social Studies .  We are now writing as if we are characters during that period of our history.  On our last newsletter, they had to write in first person, present tense about the six areas that we had studied.  Groups of four worked together writing, proofreading, and rewriting their paragraphs.  We are still working on sequencing problems.  I find that the newsletter is helping a lot with their writing skills.  Proofreading works wonders in helping them find their own mistakes. I have found that writing the newsletter goes quicker each time, and their writing skills come more quickly to them.  I think if they know they will be published, they try a lot harder.

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