Reading, writing, technology

Students listen to the book “Winter is the Warmest Season” by Lauren Stringer and write a class book titled “Summer is the Coldest Season”

Classroom teacher

2.5 hours

5

• Stringer Lauren. Winter is the Warmest Season. Florida: Harcourt, 2006.
• Drawing paper and crayons
• Digital camera or scanner
• PhotoStory 3 installed onto student computers, or most recent version of software (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx)
• Headsets with microphones
• Rubric for final product (SM1)

Direct Instruction:

 

• TL opens the lesson by asking what students think of when they hear the word “winter.” When students say “cold” or “cool,” TL introduces the story, “Winter is the Warmest Season.”
• TL reads the story aloud.

 

Modeling and Guided Practice:

 

• Upon finishing, TL asks students to brainstorm ways that summer is cold and writes suggestions on piece of paper. (Brainstorm until there is at least one item for each student.)
• Between meetings, type phrases from brainstorming session and cut apart.

 

Independent Practice:

 

• At 2^nd meeting, students each select one of the phrases and illustrate it on a piece of drawing paper. Once illustrations are complete, TL uses a digital camera to take pictures of the students’ drawings (or uses a digital scanner) and imports them into a PhotoStory 3 project.
• At 3^rd meeting, students turn their phrases into complete sentences. (If possible, some of the phrases can be combined to create more complex sentences.) As students complete their sentences, they can record them into the appropriate slide in PhotoStory 3.  When all recordings are complete, TL exports project file as .wmv file.

 

Sharing and Reflecting:

 

• Once class book is put together, show to class.
• Final project can be posted to library website for teacher and family to view.

Examples can be viewed at: http://teacher.ocps.net/ellen.mask/page14.html