Text Connections with the iPads!

Today, we had a full day of learning to use the iPads to make movies. I purchased Tunstall's iPad Basics bundle and it inspired me to bring movie making into my reading lesson today! The kids are still working on their video & probably won't be finished until Friday... But, I just couldn't wait to share this with you all!

All last week and into this week we have been learning about how to make meaningful connections to the books we are reading. We've written responses about it, discussed it, modeled it to each other and learned about it some more. So, to end our unit - we are making movies to teach other students! (I may or may not have students show this to another class-depending on how these turn out) ;)

If you want to do a lesson such as this: I highly recommend that you spend a full week on connections - make sure students are writing down lots and lots of connections!

When, I began this lesson I first told students that they were going to be making a movie to show all that they have learned this past week and a half about text connections!
(UPROAR of excitement right here!!)

The students watched a video that I *quickly* created to see what they were going to do:
It isn't super in-depth - I just wanted them to get the idea of what they were doing today.

Here are the steps students followed to brainstorm, organize and create their videos:

1. Pick a book that you made a connection to.

2. Find your response that you wrote about that book.

3. Fill out your brainstorming form:

Students had to answer 4 questions to organize their thoughts: 1. What kind of connection did you make? 2. Explain the connection. 3. What part of the book made you make the connection? 4. Explain the connection you had to the book.

4. Write your script: Not all students did this because they felt that they could just use their brainstorming form. Some students wrote scripts and it helped them organize their thoughts - others did not and they did just fine!

After they did all that jazzy stuff, they followed these simple steps:

As I introduced these steps and explained the activity, I had students actually video tape me & I'm so mad right now that I forgot to e-mail it to myself (I'll add me teaching-in tomorrow)... So, come check back for that!

This is where the classroom got BUSY! If you would have walked in - you would have thought I was a crazy lady.. but, oh my goodness - these kids learned WAY MORE than just reading!

They were collaborating, problem-solving and using technology! 

All of this on top of their reading skill that they were practicing?! Um... just pure amazing!

Can you really ask for a better picture than the one above?!

Or this one? You can literally see them collaborating in this picture! We have serious faces, hand motions and listening ears!

 This is the beautiful part of this all: If the students forgot how to do something, they went to the computer and watched either the video I made or Reagan made to answer their questions on how to do something. I could literally facilitate today!  I believe this is what's called 'blended learning!'

I hope you can use a lesson such as this in your own classroom! I'll be sure to do many more of these lessons!

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the video of me teaching the lesson to the kids! That'll make everything much clearer!