Pass the Story Please!

My fourth graders are working on writing fiction. We added two twists using Google docs. Each student created a document in which they started writing a story with two characters. They are creating rebus stories, in which some words are omitted and are replaced by images.

Using Google documents makes this task seamless. Using the research tools, students can conduct searches in the same window in which they are writing. Research is opened under "Tools."

Students select "images" (signified by the camera icon) in the pull down menu of the search window. I help them narrow the type of images they find by asking them to use "clip art ______." When they find an image they wish to use in their story, they simply drag it into the sentence and resize it. If they want to use the same image later in their story, it is easy to copy and paste it.








Students wrote the beginning of their story only. They then shared their document with a classmate designated by me. Each student went to their "Shared with me" folder to find their classmate's story beginning. After reading the story beginning and selecting a different font, they continued the story. My instructions gave them freedom to change anything about the story except the characters. After writing the middle of the story, they share it with a third student who changes the font again and writes the story ending.

Students enjoyed writing these collaborative rebus stories.

Expand Horizons with Photography

I started a new routine in my computer lab this year.  As classes come in, I display a photograph on the interactive whiteboard.   When students are seated, I give them a minute to look and think.  I then welcome them to comment or ask questions about the photograph.

We spend less than 3 minutes discussing and looking for clues that may tell us where the photo was taken.  Each image has elicited interesting ideas and concepts, ranging from climate to vegetation, to natural phenomena.  I have been able to introduce vocabulary, such as "rural" and "polar" in context. This routine has given me glimpses of my students' knowledge and knowledge gaps in geography. I can also quickly shift to a world map when explaining locations.

Students are excited when they guess the location.  It has been rewarding to watch them enter with an look of excitement about the image they are seeing.

I use some of my own photographs from travelling.  I also find great photos from these sources:
National Geographic, Lonely Planet and BBC Travel.

My younger classes simply discuss an image, naming what they see and asking questions. It provides oral language practice and sparks curiosity about our world.  National Geographic Photos of the day usually have accompanying information giving context to the photograph. I sometimes use it to tell the story of how the photo was taken.