Common Sense Curriculum

After reading through some of the lesson plan ideas for digital citizenship, I was able to find three lessons that I feel would fit nicely into my 5th grade curriculum. These lessons are great to use in the classroom to help students be more aware of what is "proper online etiquette" or appropriateness. 

The first one that I feel would be a great starting point was the Rings of Responsibility, which helps students understand what it means to be a digital citizen and the responsibilities they need to take seriously. I liked the downloadable worksheets that went along with the lesson, allowing students to think about their responsibilities to themselves, their friends and family, as well as their community. This lesson also has great resources to help students understand protecting themselves when using private/personal information, as well as what to do in a cyberbullying situation.

The second one I liked was The Key to Keywords, which will help students when they are using search engines to look up research for various projects--in 5th grade, I can see my students using it for science fair research, as well as the research they complete for their 4th quarter writing assignment. This lesson is great to discuss with students the reliability of various sites and it even has a video called "Solomon's story" that shows what a student might go through when searching something on the internet.

The last lesson I thought would be beneficial in my classroom is Whose Is It, Anyway?, which is a lesson that goes over plagiarism with students, as well as the importance of paraphrasing when conducting research and taking notes. Just as I mentioned above, I can see myself using this for science fair research as well as the research students do for writing.

Preparing Students for the 21st Century

I enjoyed reading this article and learned a lot about how to incorporate new literacies involving technology into the classroom.  I'm excited to explore the various methods the article talked about (Internet Workshop, Internet Project, WebQuest, Internet Inquiry). I believe all of the methods would be great to try to incorporate into our curriculum, but realize timing and available computers will also need to be considered.  When reading through the various methods, I can also see that some can be implemented pretty easily, while others will need a little more instruction on how to go about them--including lessons on locating information, evaluating it, and communicating it with others.

An idea that I have for my own classroom is the start out with the Internet workshop. In fifth grade, we have our NESA science testing, which is cumulative and covers all of the content students have learned in previous grades.  As teachers, we are always coming up with ideas of how to review this information with students.  Given the internet workshop, I was thinking about looking up various web sites that have to do with the science topics we are reviewing, such as life cycles, food chains, solar system, rock and minerals, etc.  I could then make jump codes for these sites and have students visit them. I can either have a worksheet made up prior that has questions they need to find as they visit these websites, or I could have it be more open ended and have students write down what they think are the important ideas to take away from the websites.  Since the NESA test has a lot of vocabulary, having students look up definitions on these websites and/or drawing a picture to go along with it will aid their understanding.  This is not something I have tried yet, but I will be looking into it!

Free Tech For Teachers

     After looking through some of the great apps that Richard Byrne recommends, I found one called News-O-Matic, The Daily Newspaper Just For Kids. Here is a link to the page that explains it if you would want more detailed info:
http://ipadapps4school.com/2014/10/29/news-o-matic-daily-news-for-kids-in-english-and-spanish/

When exploring the app myself, I have learned that it is a daily news app that presents students with informational articles that are happening in the world.  If you swipe downward, it has multiple editions for students to choose from previous days. Although the app is free, it does limit you to how many articles you can read, but you can "upgrade" to unlock all of the app's features! :)

When clicking on a certain article, students are presented with a few detailed paragraphs about the topic, as well as a tool bar on the right hand side with a few more options.  Students can have the article read to them, can watch a video regarding the topic, as well as watch a slideshow of pictures about the topic.

One thing I LOVE about this app is how kid friendly it is and easy to navigate. I would say it is geared more for the upper grades 3-5.  It has a lot of fun icons to click on, including a globe that shows students a location (if the topic they are reading about has one), as well as a games icon on the homepage where they can play around with the topics.

I can see classrooms being able to use this app in multiple ways.  First of all, I think it is a great way to incorporate current events into your classroom.  An app like this could be used at the beginning/end of the day to keep students up to date on what's happening in the world around them.  It could also be used as a brain break during the day, enabling students to take a break and learn some fun, interesting facts.  I could also see this as being used for informational text, allowing kids to read articles, summarizing what they have learned, and giving them opportunities to learn new vocabulary (which is highlighted and defined when you click on it).

Not only is this an app, but is also online at press4kids.com
Go check it out for yourself!