Yesterday was the day that teachers dream of all year long: the last day of school before summer vacation. Okay, scratch that. Today is the day teachers dream of all year long: the first day of summer vacation, hooray! This week consisted of wrapping things up at school, dealing with a flood in my apartment, and a collaborative critical inquiry unit centered around technology and digital literacy. I also read The Plain Janes, a graphic novel by Cecil Castellucci. It has been a whirlwind, so it's good to sit down, to dump out the puzzle pieces of this week in my mind and see how they all fit together. My reading assignment this week was to choose a sequential art book. I loved The Plain Janes. I enjoyed reading a story told through both pictures and text. The idea of creating neighborhood art (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods gives the book it's title) and rebelling against "the man" was really cool and will appeal to teens. The Plain Janes is probably only my fifth or sixth graphic novel, and I'm excited to read more of them. (I bought Boxers and Saints today!) Many of my students read graphic novels and I see a lot of value in using them in the classroom to teach visual literacy, increase interest in reading, and to integrate other subject areas with nonfiction sequential art. I'm excited to read Sadie's Middle School Confidential book and see if I can use it somehow the first few weeks of school. I enjoyed our discussion on technology and heard about some great apps that I can't wait to try, specifically Storify, Story Kit, and Remind 101. Here's a Storyify that Dr. Crissman created to show our pre-class inquiry this unit. It was neat to think back on the technology that I used with my students this year. I used Google Drive for writing partners, Animoto for book trailers and vocabulary videos, Pinterest to compile resources and word walls. The students created online posters with Glogster, plotted the setting location of their folk stories on a Google map, and students blogged from the perspective of a character using Weebly. Thursday's discussion was a good reminder that technology should be used to enhance the literacies being taught in my classroom. It should be used to increase efficiency, creativity, and the research process. Something that I'm still processing is a BYOD policy. I see so many positive outcomes of a BYOD policy, but I was a little turned off the idea this week in school, when many teachers were lax on the rules and students were using their cellphones to snapchat selfies, text their friends, and who knows what else. It was challenging to enforce the rules when not everyone was. That's why it's so important that schools develop consistent BYOD policies. The truth is, kids are bring cell phones to school and they're using them. Why not have them use them to enhance their education? Smartphones make the internet and a web of resources available at a student's fingertips, so we should definitely utilize that resource.
1 Comment
6/17/2014 03:52:04 am
So glad you enjoyed PLAIN Janes and that you're excited about integrating more sequential art in your teaching. I remember you had mentioned Yang's American Born Chinese and that could make a great addition to a Belonging inquiry. The American Library Association updates its list of great graphic novels each year and could be a valuable resource -- see the link and other resources here ---http://bookhenge.wikispaces.com/Graphica+Resources
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