Book Reviews for early readers

This just happened over the weekend...

The assignment for my 5-year-old:
    - Pick out a book, read it, and do a short book review.
    - Put a production together in a video using Apple Clips.

    Here is what she created on her own:

Just as she was finishing up, her little kindergarten buddy from down the street rang the doorbell.
She convinced him very quickly to make his own book review.

She mentored him on how to use the program and they worked together on reading his book.

Here is his final product.

Both kids practiced their sentences on each page and were challenged with sounding out new words. They took a picture of each page first with the Camera App and did a voice-over afterwards of the text on each page.   They deleted and re-recorded the video clips that they did not like.

He rang our front doorbell only a couple minutes before they started this.  You can see that his jacket is still on.  He had never used the Clips App before.

Students can quickly save their production and upload it to their SeeSaw journal to document their progress in reading. 

Creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills...  Have we reached these targets?

How do you use Apple Clips in your classroom?

Media Resources

There are several great media resources that our teachers and students can access that Central Rivers AEA subscribes to.  The login information may be found from your building media specialist.

This may be a challenge if you don't happen to remember the login details or if you would like students to be able to access these resources from home.  We really can't publicly share the username/passwords.

I have a solution with ClassLink:

I added a folder called Media Resources to your ClassLink dashboard.  It may look a little different depending on whether you are using the iPad App or the website.  I added 14 of these media resources to this folder.  A single click with automatically log any student or teacher to the given resource. For students, I only included those resources that are age appropriate.  For example, Bookflix will only show up on younger students' dashboards and SIRS Researcher will only show up on high school devices.

NEW as of 10/29/18:  Britannica online has several new features.  Read about them at this link.



BONUS nugget of information #1:

ClassLink may be customized.    Click on the edit icon in the upper right of your screen.  You can organize your icons, add and customize folders, and even add your own websites.  This feature is available for all teachers and students.  I can quickly add other web resources to all of your students' dashboards, as requested. ClassLink can be a useful way to 'remember' website passwords.  Click here to read my post on August 8th, which has more introductory details about the service.  In your Settings, you will find a 'Password Locker' where passwords may be updated as needed.

BONUS nugget of information #2:  New login features

There are new ways to log into a ClassLink account.

Many students have been using the QuickCards this school year, but had only been able to use the front (selfie) camera on the iPad.  The back camera may now be used.  This will be very handy for cards that are fastened to a table, pencil box, etc.
Facial recognition may also be used to log in.  Let me know if you want to try this.  I don't know if it works any better than the QuickCards. Here are the directions to setting it up -> ->

ClassLink can provide reports on how much it is used and how it is used. In the first third of the school year, Samantha Hoven, GMS math teacher, has the most teacher logins.  Check out the swag she received for this honor.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Two Quick Wins: ClassLink and Books

I have 2 quick wins for you today.....

Signing in to ClassLink just got easier.  

The back camera on the iPad now works when signing in with the Quickcard (QR Code). Before today, only the front camera worked for the quick sign-in.
Just tap on this icon to switch from the front (selfie) camera to the back camera.

_________________________________________

Having students create their own books just got easier.  

Student-created work that is shared with an authentic audience is an important part of learning. The free version of the Book Creator app worked all right, but is limited to only one book and had a very limited audience.  Check out what you can do with Pages...

The Pages app will do the same thing, but with many more features.  You can quickly have students create their own books for an authentic audience.  We can even publish them on the iTunes Store.  Ask me how and I can get you started. There are Book templates now available which are meant for creating interactive books.  Students can quickly make it interactive, too, with their own pictures, audio or video. Invite me and I will come in and support you or your team to get rolling.

Bonus quick win....   Apple recently rolled out their #EveryoneCanCreate series of project books.  These are free on the iTunes store and are geared specifically towards iPads. It is a wonderful book study of how to leverage creativity in your classroom in lesson design.

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