Allowing 21st Century Skills in Classrooms
This is the first time in history where teachers are teaching students whose future jobs are unknown. We do not know what their jobs or job expectations will be. We don't know what skills that students will need to have when they enter into the working world. Technology is changing at such a speed that educators cannot predict what skills our students need to know. What can we do to help? We are in the 21st century and need to be teaching our students 21st century skills.
VoiceThread in the Second Grade Classroom
One ELA standard for second grade is RL2.9 which is; compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g. Cinderella Stories) by different authors or from different cultures. During my Daily 5 time, my class and I spent several weeks studying different versions of the same fairy tale. We read many from different cultures and then compared them to the original. Students also wrote their own version of a fractured fairy tale to motivate and engage their interest in the stories we were studying during Daily 5.
Another standard that I was teaching along with this standard was RL2.3 which is; describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. I put both of those standards together for a writing assignment in order to fulfill standard W2.3 which is; write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
Students were highly engaged when using their favorite fairy tale characters and favorite fairy tale plots to come up with their own stories. Through observations, I noticed that my students were producing more elaborate stories and were adding many details. I decided to publish our stories using VoiceThread and then sharing the link on our google classroom page. Students were able to access their peer's stories to listen to their writing and to make positive comments to one another. Publishing on VoiceThread fulfilled standard SL2.2 which is; recount or describe key ideas or details for a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
Overall, the project was a huge success and now all my students want to add to our VoiceThread library. They enjoy going to our VoiceThread stories during listen-to-read time of Daily 5. Incorporating technology into the classroom motivates students and increases their student achievement.
Another standard that I was teaching along with this standard was RL2.3 which is; describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. I put both of those standards together for a writing assignment in order to fulfill standard W2.3 which is; write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
Students were highly engaged when using their favorite fairy tale characters and favorite fairy tale plots to come up with their own stories. Through observations, I noticed that my students were producing more elaborate stories and were adding many details. I decided to publish our stories using VoiceThread and then sharing the link on our google classroom page. Students were able to access their peer's stories to listen to their writing and to make positive comments to one another. Publishing on VoiceThread fulfilled standard SL2.2 which is; recount or describe key ideas or details for a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
Overall, the project was a huge success and now all my students want to add to our VoiceThread library. They enjoy going to our VoiceThread stories during listen-to-read time of Daily 5. Incorporating technology into the classroom motivates students and increases their student achievement.