Annette+Perry

Annette's page

Write a reflection on the following quotation: "If you don't have a good story to tell, you might as well save yourself the expensive digital bells and whistles and go back to your writing table" (Storytellers of the New Millenium). Click on your page and label it with today's date. 4/28/12 - Long ago books were filled with meaningful stories/writings and did not share all the bells and whistles. You had to actually read fluenty and understand things such a voice, proper word choice and punctuations in order to set the tone or meaning of a story. I believe that it is important to have the writing complete before adding anything else. After the story is written, then you can add all the bells and whistles. When creating my digital story, I found it to be difficult for me to even start selecting pictures and sound before actually writing my story. The pictures and sound are useless without the words. Once the story is written it will be much easier to add pictures and sound. Without the story, I will not have any reason for the bells and whistles.
 * Saturday afternoon:**

Thoughts on the growing dominance of the image in reading and writing? I do feel that it is important that all students should be able to read and write in standard English in order to be successful in this society. We also have to realize that students want the easy way out. Now students are texting and they bring that interest into the schools. They do not correctly or phonetically write in standard English when conversating with their peers. If they can get by with it at home, why not at school. I try to tell my students that there is a time and place for everything. They may use slang at home, but I expect to hear standard English at school.

I also notice that when students read books with images, their comprehension is better because the picture is like a landmark for them. Most pictures are displayed to share a main point or idea about the reading. Remember long ago picture books were a way for children to get pre-reading skills. Later came the words, "See Jane run".

How will it shape what we know and how will we know it? For example, if everyone is able to read and write a uniform script, then we will probably have the same understanding and there might be less confusion.

What are the implications for us in a 21st century curriculum? What do you want to learn about it this week? Students have longer reading blocks which includes the use of reading, vocabulary, writing, techonology, and listening stations. All schools must teach the same reading curriculum. In the past teachers could teach from different textbooks which meant that if a child transferred to a different school he/she could be overwhelmed just by learning a new curriculum. Now students will have some knowledge about what is expected in the reading block. I want to learn what other schools or districts are doing to improve their reading and writing curriculum.

Activity 2:


 * 1) Click Reading Across a Dozen Literacies, read the introduction and focus particularly on the sections devoted to artistic and visual literacy. Be sure to follow the links exploring the nature and power of these two literacies today.
 * 2) Then click on your and reflect on insights you have gained.
 * 3) Make a list of criteria you would use in selecting an image to include in a digital story.

After reading the articles, I must agree that visual images stick in my mind more so than works. If a picture is not available, then that portion of the text may be missed. Body language is an important visual too. You can tell if something is acceptable or not by the look on people faces. Ex. when Richard G. kissed the actress in a different country, he was frowned upon by the citizens of that culture. Also the three monkeys, monkey see no evil, monkey hear no evil,and monkey speak no evil. If you didn't see, hear, or speak evil than you may not know about evil.

Criteria to using an image: 1. Must have background knowledge about the subject 2. Specific colors must be used 3. Lighting (bright/dim) 4. Environment 5. Body/visual languaged espressed 6. Words or music can compliment the picture

Activity 4 Lesson around an image


 * __Title__: Stop the Violence** - (Click [[file:Preventing violence.doc]] to look at the picture)

__**Objective**__: Students will be able to learn positive ways to prevent violence. Students will also be able to express themselves through writing and creating an individual poster resulting in way(s) to stop violence. Posters will be judged and the winning poster will be displayed throughout our school.

Students must complete the following:
 * Participate in Presentations (D.A.R.E., Police Officer, etc...)
 * Complete Research (identify programs that will help victims)
 * Identity (love yourself - Self-esteem)
 * Write an essay about preventing violence
 * Submit pictures of positivie activities (to make a classroom collage)
 * Students must write/verbally speak about collaborating with the above picture
 * Create a poster that displays ways of preventing violence

I love how the pictures were clear and non-threatening. I love your classroom activities. How will you show the initial picture to the students? Will you print the picture or show it on a screen? Will students have the opportunity to have a talk-back about what each initial image represents? Develope essential questions that will guide the instruction and feed into assessment. Maybe your students would love to create a non-violence (skit, rap, poem, story, cheer, song or chant). Maybe you can create a code-of-conduct list that promotes peace in the classroom. Students can teach younger students about working peacefully with others.
 * Wanda is sharing**

Candace: I loved the photo you chose. It is simple yet powerful. It drew me into it. How will you know students have received the benefits of this lesson? Perhaps you could even do a follow up or club meeting periodically to encourage those students to continue to be non-violent. They can win prizes or earn incentives as well. Digital Stories I like: