Modeling Writing with a Message Board and Audio File
I was working with a fifth grade teacher today who wanted his kids to write reflections of their recent trip to Washington D.C. His students had typed a draft in Word already (yeehaw - someone gets it). As he conferenced with his kids, he did not feel that the kids were “getting it.” He did recognize that one student did and he wanted to use that student as a model.
He was going to have this student read her reflection to the class so that they could hear what he was talking about - in regards to: opening paragraph, thoughtful reflections and closing paragraph.
So, I butted in… because I thought that we could actually engage the students in a better way using technology. So, we used technology to share the document in text AND audio formats. I felt that if students could see the words and hear the words, than they would have a model to refer to when they edited their own work.
The smile on the face of the little girl who presented her work was priceless.
Here is how we did it:
- I recorded the young lady with my MacBookPro with built in microphone using Audacity
- I saved the file as an .mp3 file
- I uploaded the file to my teacher web site
- I had the young lady copy/paste her reflection on my message board
- I had the kids visit my home page so they could access the audio and text file
- I had the kids download the file to listen to and visit my message board to read the text
Here is the link to my message board - to get the files.
I am anxious to see how the other reflections turn out. If I had more time, I would have each student post their DRAFT reflections and have each other peer edit via comments.
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I am an Educational Computing Strategist (ECS). I figure out ways to IMPROVE education with technology. 
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May 25th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Julianna M.
What I remember
Think what you saw. That is the saying on the outside of the Holocaust Museum. I will always remember what I saw. I will remember the concentration camps that they had to stay in. I will remember all the kids and adults that died just because they were Jewish. I will remember all the kids that are still alive that had to watch this happen.
This museum was so sad. I went through an exhibit called Daniel’s Story. It put me through what actually happened and what life was like before the Holocaust. It took me through the camps and what Hitler did to the people in the camps. When I was researching it, it didn’t seem that bad but when I went through it, it was awful.
It was terrible what Hitler did. I feel so bad for all those people. I would never want to be one of those people. We went to the wall of kids. Our group or at least me and my mom, were in tears. We couldn’t believe how many people died. One block even said that my parents and family were killed because I was born Jewish.
The exhibit we went into told a story of a kid’s life and how he went through the Holocaust. This was called Daniel’s story. His life was excellent, it was actually just his birthday and he got a bike, a suitcase and a journal. Every night he would write in the journal and the whole story was told by his journal. His life started out great. He wrote every night that he would sit down and eat with his family. His mom, dad, and sister. Then sometimes on weekends they would bake cookies and the sister would print her name on hers. Then it took us through the Holocaust and what happened to his family and his life.
After the Holocaust we went to the Natural History Museum, that was so cool. In this museum there was so many animals every time you turn the corner. I love animals but I didn’t know very much about them. So going to this museum really taught me about animals. It taught me who founded birds and it taught me what used to roam the earth. Like this is something I would always remember. There was a bug that was one foot long and a dinosaur like ten feet tall. I would not like to be alive in that time.
Then we went to the air and space museum. I wasn’t to fond of it but there was an exhibit in there where they put a little piece of history. It was from the American History museum. I will always remember how cool it was. There was Lincoln’s hat, the first light bulb, the first Kermit the frog, the scare crow, the script and Dorothy’s shoes, and so so much more.
This Washington Trip Taught Me A lot And Was So Much Fun