Media Presentation

Word Glossary

Word Glossary

Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (eds) (2007). A New Literacies Sampler. New York: Peter Lang.

1.        Affinities- a similarity of characteristics suggesting a relationship, especially a resemblance in structure between animals, plants, or languages. (p.117)

2.        Affective dimensions- The way blogging affects our emotions

3.        Affinity spaces = people interact and relate to each other around a common passion, proclivity, or endeavor. (p. 117)

4.        Anomalous juxtaposition- incongruous couplings of images used as the "hooks" for a meme.

5.        Blogging-  Updating personal opinions or perspectives on a personal webpage on a regular basis

6.   Discourses-socially recognized ways of using language so that we can be identified and recognized as being a member of a socially meaningful group. (p.3) 

7.    Emote-Expression of emotion, action, or gesture (p.127)

8.   Ethos stuff- participation, collaboration, distribution and dispersion of expertise, and relatedness as core features of the ethos dimension of new literacies.

9.   Fan Fiction-  fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc.

10. fecundity – refers to the rate at which an idea or pattern is   copied and spread.  The more quickly a meme spreads the more likely it is to capture attention and be replicated and distributed.  (p.202)

11. Geek Kitsch- The syntactic and semantic hiccups within the English subtitles.

12. Intertextuality- Texts made form other texts (p.153)

13.  Manga Producing- Manga is a Japanese word referring both to     comics and cartooning.  “Manga” as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan.

14.   Meme-an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.  A humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users

15. multi-modality- is the mixture of textual, audio, and visual modes in combination with media and materiality to create meaning.

16.  New Literacy-literacy that includes “technical stuff”.

17.  Podcasting-a digital audio or video file or recording, usually part of a themed series, that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer.

Monoz, R. (2011, December 1). eBooks for Kids: Hurtful or Helpful for Young Readers?. Education.com. Retrieved June 29, 2014, from http://www.education.com/magazine/article/ebooks-for-kids/

18.  Ebooks-an electronic version of a printed book that can be read on a computer or handheld device designed specifically for this purpose.

Bauerlein, M. & Howe, N. (2008). The Millennials: The Dumbest Generation or the Next Great Generation?

19.  New Technical stuff-  the knowledge of the technological resources that afford generating, communicating, and negotiating encoded meanings.

20.  Millennial-  a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000.

The Last Days of School

The end of the school year is such an exciting time for teachers and students.  With all that excitement it is difficult to hold your students attention.  I hope this text set will give you some ideas and will help to get you through that last week of school next year!

  Who doesn't like Dr. Seuss?

This is a great end of the school year tradition!

By:  Louise Boden    Illustrated By:  Adam Gustavson

The last Day of School will resonate with all children who know the excitement, energy, and bittersweet emotions that the final days of a school year bring.

                                                      

      By:  Julie Dannburg

It's the last week of school, and Mrs. Hartwell's class is excited to leave for summer vacation. The only problem is that the kids don't want their teacher to miss them while they're gone. Once again Julie Danneberg and Judy Love bring to life the crazy antics of Mrs. Hartwell and her class and show that teachers and students are more alike than different.

                                                      

  By:  Joseph Slate   Illustrated By:  Ashley Wolff

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten is the perfect way for teachers and students to commemorate their own end-of-the-year festivities.

By:  Natasha Wind  Illustrated By:  Julie Durrell

A little girl and her family are getting ready to go on vacation . . . or at least they are trying to. In the effort to pack everything that will be needed, there's bound to be something overlooked, and what that is provides a funny ending to this meter-perfect "twist" on Clement Moore's classic.

End of Year Activities!

End of Year Turtle Compliments - Have students each tape a "shell" on their back. Then they walk around and write down a compliment to each of their classmates. This is a silent activity because turtles don't talk. Finally, they can take them off and read them.

Countdown to last day of school. Pop one balloon each day. Inside is a special surprise for the day. Ex. No homework, read outside, work with no shoes on, chew gum in the morning, etc."

 Bucket List

Have students create a list of things that they want to do over summer break.   Then create a bucket to attach the list to.

End of the year foldable, completed using figurative language, synonyms and antonyms, with a glyph used for the center of the cover.

Candy Awards
These are such fun awards to give and receive!

Make Homemade Ice Cream with your Class!

IN CAN ICE CREAM DIRECTIONS:

(Ice cream without an ice-cream maker!) 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup milk 

• 1 cup whipping cream 

• 1/2 cup sugar 

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (pure vanilla extract works best!) 

Other materials needed: 

• 1 small coffee can 

• Strapping tape (It's the only tape I've found that will hold the lid tightly in place.) 

• 1 large coffee can 

• 1-1/2 cups rock salt 

• Crushed ice (2 bags) 

• Rubber spatula 

• Spoons, cups, and bowls

Mix the ingredients in the small coffee can and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Tape the lid on the can securely with strapping tape. Place the "filled" small coffee can inside the large coffee can. Pack the large can with crushed ice around the smaller can. Pour at least 3/4 cup of rock salt evenly over the ice. Place the lid on the large coffee can and tape securely with strapping tape. Roll the can back and forth for ten minutes. Then open the outer can. Remove the inner can. Remove the lid and stir the mixture with a rubber spatula. Scrape the insides of the can. Do not allow mixture to become liquid. Replace the lid on the small can. Tape securely again. Drain the ice water from the larger can. Insert the small filled can. Pack it with more ice and salt. Roll it back and forth for five more minutes. Enjoy!

This recipe makes about 3 cups of ice cream. Teachers/caregivers might adapt the recipe, depending on the size of the group or whether they want small groups of students to make their own batches.

________________

Ch. 9 Online Memes, Affinities, and Cultural Production

Prior to reading this chapter, I had no idea what memes were.  I learned that memes are contagious patterns of "cultural information" that gets passed from mind to mind and directly generate and shape mindsets and significant forms of behavior and actions of a social group.  Memes include such things as tunes, catch phrases, clothing fashion, architectural styles, ways of doing things, icons, jingles and etc.  Memes are recognizable, bounded phenomena that have material effects in the world and that can be scrutinized.

As I was reading I kept asking myself, what does this have to do with "new" literacy.  The study that was presented found that if educators study online memes that aim at promoting social critique.  These new literacies can help educators to equip students with important strategies for identifying the memes that infect their minds, and for evaluating the effects these memes have on their (ethical) decision-making, social actions and their relations with others.

As I reflect back on this chapter, I find these things to be true.  The things and people that we surround ourselves with define us.  Whether it be what we watch, what we read, or who we spend time with. These things and people get in to our minds and before we know it we look and act alike.  They influence our decisions without us even realizing that they have control over us.

eBooks

eBooks for Kids: Hurtful or Helpful for Young Readers?http://www.education.com/magazine/article/ebooks-for-kids/

This article is a very family friendly article that aims to educate parents who live in this digital world today.  For parents of very young children, the "total experience" of reading includes lap-time, closeness and parental involvement. Some people are afraid that this experience will be lost with eBooks. The other big fear is that their child won't learn to read properly if exposed to eBooks.

The article includes some tips for parents when choosing ebooks for their children such as:

• Educate Yourself: Know the difference between an eBook and an app. 
• Reading Reinforcement: Choose reading apps wisely. 
• Keep it in the Family: : Keep reading activities family-centered. Don't sacrifice "lap time" 

 The article emphasizes to choose what ebooks and apps are best for your child.  No one knows your child better than you.   The article ends with this advice and I love it:  "The single biggest factor in raising a successful reader is to lead by example, so soak in as much of the written word as you can each day. Not only may you discover new page-turning material, you'll be showing your kids that reading, either on a screen or on a page, can be as enjoyable as it is educational."

Make time to sit down and read together! This is possibly the most important advice that we can give to parents of young children.  

Blogging

I chose this image, because it is a very familiar image around my house!  My seven year old daughter has been introduced to blogging from this Disney show Dog With A Blog.  She doesn't know the ins and outs of blogging, but from this show and iCarly she gets the gist of blogging.

In the chapter blogs are defined as "essentially online journals which are regularly updated, often with fairly brief postings.  Blogs are created for a purpose whether it be professional, educational, or for a hobby.  Bloggers present their blogs in hopes that it will be accepted by their blogging community.  Many bloggers feel more at ease blogging.  Guy and Mortensen say that blogging is appealing because they can write ‘outside of the boundaries’ and not worry about all the editorial changes, spelling, and grammar.

I have never been one to keep a journal or really share my thoughts outside of my inner circle, but now that I have been required to create a blog and do some blogging I can see how it is beneficial in the education world.  I have learned a lot from my classmates.  They have said a lot of things that had not crossed my mind until reading their blogs.  I feel that blogging would be beneficial to students in middle school and up.  I could see blogging being a great avenue for literature teachers to take while teaching novels.  Not only would they be learning from each other, but they would enjoy the social networking aspect of it as well.  I could have defiantly benefited from it in my high school days while reading Hamlet and Shakespeare!

Text Set #3

Grammar

Books:

I like to introduce new topics with picture books.  I think picture books help introduce intimidating objectives in non-threatening ways.  The following are some grammar books that I think children would enjoy.

The Following are some book written by Ruth Heller that would be great introductory books:

Nouns

Adjectives

Verbs

Prepositions

Interjections and Conjunctions

Websites:

The Grammar Gorillas needs help identifying parts of speech.
http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/


This website has game links for everything that you could possibly teach in grammar.  This would be a great website to use in the computer lab for extra practice and review!  Definitely worth checking out!
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-grammar.html

This website has grammar games that are categorized by grade level.
http://www.funenglishgames.com/grammargames.html

Teacher Resources:

Pintrest is the place to go for all you anchor chart idea needs.

www.pintrest.com

Help kids really learn the parts of speech with more than 25 irresistible, hands-on manipulatives, such as Noun Detective Wheel, Amazing Adjectives Pull-Through, and Verb Vacation Flip-Up! Kids simply turn, pull, or lift the flaps to read and learn about nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, action and linking verbs, and more. Each easy-to-make manipulative features lively illustrations and focuses on one part of speech. Includes extension activities.

Technology Review #4

www.Clubpenguin.com is a brought to you by Disney and is not a site that I would use at school or at home with my own children.  This site requires a monthly membership of $7.79 per month, or $6.95 per month for six months, or $5.00 per month for twelve months.  This seems to be a site that children can experience a version of social networking.  They build a home for their penguin, earn coins to buy things for their penguins which reminds me of Farmville on Facebook.  Children can chat with each other while playing the game, but from what I could see, being a non-paid member, there wasn't enough to spend the money on it.  I didn't see any educational type games or activities. My seven year old clicked around on the free trial for about three minutes before she handed the computer to go find something else to do.

What I do like about the site is that it is available in six different languages, so all children can use the site.  The chat tool has phrases that have been approved for chatting, so you don't have to worry about what your child is saying or what someone else is saying to your child while they are playing. There was also a section with kid friendly recipes, outdoor games, and some other activities that parents and children might enjoy doing together.

All in all I am not impressed with this website.  If someone has seen something fantastic that I missed, please let me know.

Ch.7 Fan Fiction

Fan Fiction seems like a great avenue to take with middle and high school age writers.  Like Jenkins pointed out  Fan Fiction offers young writers great, existing; and a wealth of background to pull from in their writing.  This past year in Writer's Workshop we used mentor texts to get ideas from, but I encouraged my students to develop their own characters.  It is amazing how young first and second grade students got a writer's block just trying to do this simple task.  I am wondering now, if I should have just allowed them to go with the mentor text?

I enjoyed reading how Tiana and Jandalf worked collaboratively to create a piece of fan fiction, so that is why I chose the picture.  These girls seemed to really be in tune with each other.  They worked together using each other's strengths to create their fan fiction story.  This would be a great example to use in class when trying to teach students how to work collaboratively, because all to often when students are paired one does all the work, there isn't a whole lot of collaborating goes on.  

I don't think students writing fan fiction poses a problem.  Writing is something that a lot of people are hesitant about doing, so if we can encourage this type of writing or any kind it will be beneficial.  

Technology Review #3

For technology review #3 I took a loot a www.funbrain.com.  I had a lot of fun exploring this site.  There is something for all age learners on this site.  For non-readers, they will need some assistance choosing an appropriate level.  I really like the fact that you can choose a difficulty level, so everyone stays challenged.  I chose to do the math baseball, explored the most difficult level, and had to get out my pencil and piece of paper to work the problems out on that level!

The reading section really rocked!  It has books, comics, grammar games, and madlibs!  I loved madlibs when I was a kid.  Not only is it learning about nouns and adjectives, but it is reading too.  Reading what you have created is so much fun!  The only part that I didn't like about madlibs was the words that they give you to choose from to go in your story are moving.  It is hard to catch those words sometimes, because they are so fast. It has spot where you can type a word if you don't want to use one of the words provided, or if you are like me and can't catch it!

When I clicked on the Fun Arcade, it had several learning games that popped up first.  I had to go looking on down on the page to find games that were not what I would call learning games.  Although the one non-educational game  that I played took some hand-eye coordination.

All in all this is a great site to utilize in the classroom or to make students aware of to use outside the classroom!

Reflection #6

This has been the hardest chapter for me to read thus far in this class.  I had to stop and reread several paragraphs and I am still not certain that I totally understand what it was trying to teach me except that as educators we should use everything that is out there to reach all of our learners.  Our students are interested in media and pop culture, so we should utilize what researchers are researching into our literacy instruction.


I was interested in the website fanfiction.net, so I went and checked it out for myself.  It is a pretty cool site!  I think that students would love to get on here and read these stories.  The stories are categorized into several categories like books, movies, cartoons, and etc, but you can search for specific stories characters and such.   There are so many twists to familiar stories, that everyone is certain to find one that will catch their eye!  This would be a great asset to use in the classroom and it is free!

So, what I am taking from this chapter is this:  Keep an open mind.  What interests my students may not interest me, but if they are engaged in reading and liking it then I have done my job as a reading teacher.  I need to be creative, think outside the box to instill a love for reading in my students.

Text Set #2

Life Cycles

Books

From Tadpole to Frog 

Author:  Wendy Keller Pfeffer   Illustrator:  Holly Keller

Wendy Pfeffer describes the amazing metamorphosis from tiny, jellylike egg, to little fishy tadpole, to great big bullfrog. Holly Keller has created the archetypal frog pond and we see it through the seasons as the tadpoles grow legs and lungs and eventually hop onto land: bullfrogs at last.

Grade Level:  Preschool-third grade

From Caterpillar to ButterflyAuthor:  Deborah Heiligman   Illustrator:  Bari Weissman

Named as a NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children, this book explains the life cycle from caterpillar to butterfly with easy-to-follow steps and colorful illustrations.

Grade Level:  Preschool-third grade

 From Seed to Plant

Author:  Gail Gibbons

This book explores the relationship between seeds and plants.

Grade Level:  Kindergarten and Up

Explore Life Cycles!

Author:  Kathleen M Reilly   Illustrator:  Bryan Stone

This book has activities that range from creating edible life cycles of insects to making a mealworm nursery. Using an eye-catching combination of cartoons, fun facts, and exciting projects, Explore Life Cycles! will bring the mysteries of life right into kids’ hands. 

Grade Level: First-Third

Technology

BrainPop Jr.

http://www.brainpopjr.com/search/?keyword=Life+cycle

Life Cycles Games and Activities

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/science/living/lifecycle.html

Metamorphosis

http://www.neok12.com/Metamorphosis.htm

Other

K-2 Lesson Plan for teaching Life Cycles of Frogs, Dragonflies, and Butterflies

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.cyc.lp_lifecycle/life-cycles-of-frogs-dragonflies-and-butterflies/

Nature Watch

Reedeem a  coupon from this site for live Butterfly Larve

http://www.nature-watch.com/butterfly-coupon-to-redeem-5-caterpillars-p-282.html?cPath=142_146&utm_term=Butterfly+Coupon+(to+redeem+5+caterpillars)&utm_source=Google+Base&utm_medium=Shopping+Portal&utm_campaign=Nature-Watch&gclid=CjkKEQjwqsCcBRDt7_Gts5a91YYBEiQAm-wYEU_2hQTQGUmRKrUfrHD97DL2kkqjIi1E54-_xdC1oZHw_wcB

10 Ready to Go Life Cycle Activites

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2014/04/10-ready-go-resources-teaching-life-cycles

Reflection #5

Pleasure, Learning, Video Games, and Life:  The Projective Stance

Chapter five argues that good video games create what the author calls a "projective stance"-a double-sided stance towards the world in terms of which we humans see the world simultaneously as a project imposed on us and as a site unto which we can actively project our desires, values and goals.  The author goes on to argue that a special category of video games allows players to enact the projective stance of what he calls the "authentic professional".  Players who are "authentic professionals experience a deep expertise much like that of learners in school.

As I was reading this chapter, I was thinking of some gamers that I know.  When talking about the projective stance, I could not help but think of a student I had last year in my writing class.  He was so wrapped up in his video games that he could not write a personal narrative in which he was not the character in the video game "The Avengers"! He had no life outside of those video games and it was so sad. The other child that immediately came to mind was my son.  He too is a gamer, but he can function outside of the gaming world.  While I was reading the section on the "authentic professional", I thought back to when my son was five and started playing T-ball for the first time.  He used his birthday money and bought a MLB(Major League Baseball) game and started playing.  By the end of the season, he was giving his coach pointers that he had learned from the games and he used his knowledge of the game to become a great MLB baseball player (on the game).

Video games are so captivating, therefore I can see how they could be useful in education.  Some students come to mind that could possibly benefit from the use of video games in education.  Would video games help students with ADD and ADHD?  Could video games help students focus and learn more?  Could video games be a way to teach students how to be conscience of their actions to make better decisions?  This was a very thought provoking chapter.

Online learning

Managing Distance Learning-New Challenges for Faculty

Lisa Kimball

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Managing+Distance+Learning-New+Challenges+for+Faculty+++Lisa+Kimball&safe=active

            This article caught my eye because it discusses some aspects of online learning that I have often questioned myself like how to get from the traditional mindset of teacher to teaching a non-traditional class online. It talked about how usually it is the technology that gets the most attention when talking about online learning, but what is important is the teaching style and quality that impacts the quantity of learning that takes place in a virtual classroom .  It states that effective faculty start with a completely new mind set about where technology fits into the equation.  Many institutes introducing distance learning spend a large amount of their resources on training faculty to manage the new technical and administrative aspect of the distance learning.  When the faculty really needs to be learning how to expand the new available tools to create new learning dynamics aligned with the best thinking. 

http://www.webkinzfoundation.org/

I chose to review the webkinz website, because it is one that my children have interacted with over the years as they received Webkins Pets as gifts.  It was founded in 1950, by Sam Ganz and his two sons. This third generation family business has grown into an internationally recognized giftware and plush company, still owned and operated by the family.

In April 2005, Ganz launched the Webkinz World® site. Every Webkinz® pet comes with a secret code that is used to log into Webkinz World. Once there, children can feed and care for their virtual Webkinz™ pets, decorate and furnish rooms for their pets, enter challenges, play games and do odd jobs to earn KinzCash—the virtual currency which pays for food, clothing and treats.

The ongoing success of Webkinz pets and related merchandise has allowed the Ganz family to launch Webkinz Foundation, a charitable organization focused on supporting programs for children worldwide.

As I explored the site, it seems to be a safe site with the exception of the online chatting.  I may be a little over protective, but I don't want my children chatting with people online that I don't know.  It has some really neat parental controls that allows parents to control how long the children are online playing, but I didn't see a block for the chatting.   It claims to have educational games, but not a large variety of educational games.  The only educational games that I saw was spelling.

Young children would enjoy playing on this site, but I don't know much children would benefit from this site.  

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying

© 1995- 2014 . The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth®. Reprinted with permission.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/cyberbullying.

I chose this article because it is an informative article, written in layman's terms, and suitable to share with parents. The article gives the definition of cyberbullying as "the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person."

Parents who believe that their child is being bullied should watch for the following:

• signs of emotional distress during or after using the Internet or the phone
• being very protective or secretive of their digital life
• withdrawal from friends and activities
• avoidance of school or group gatherings
• slipping grades and "acting out" in anger at home
• changes in mood, behavior, sleep, or appetite

If a parent notices that their child is being bullied the article suggests:

• Talk to the child.
• Block the Bully.
• Limit Access to technology.
• Know your child's online world.

If there are children being bullied, then that means that there is a bully lurking out there.  I like that this article address the bully too.  Parents should not overlook their child bullying another.  This article suggests that parents talk to their children about the feelings of others as well as the consequences of bullying.

Cyberbullying is real and children who are bullied often feel that there is no end to the bullying and will go to unthinkable measures to get away from it.  It happens everywhere, but we must be equipped as educators to educate not only the students, but parents as well if we are going to put a stop to this before another innocent family is affected. 

Text Set #1

Civil Rights Movement

Books:

Child of the Civil Rights Movement 

 By:  Paula Young Shelton             Illustrated by: Raul Colon 

In this Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year, Paula Young Shelton, daughter of Civil Rights activist Andrew Young, brings a child’s unique perspective to an important chapter in America’s history. Paula grew up in the deep south, in a world where whites had and blacks did not. With an activist father and a community of leaders surrounding her, including Uncle Martin (Martin Luther King), Paula watched and listened to the struggles, eventually joining with her family—and thousands of others—in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery.

Freedom Summer

By: Deborah Wiles Illustrated by: Jerome Lagarrigue 

Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn't allowed to do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there...only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people's hearts.

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

By:  Doreen Rappaport Illustrated by: Bryan Collier 

This picture-book biography is an excellent and accessible introduction for young readers to learn about one of the world's most influential leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Doreen Rappaport weaves the immortal words of Dr. King into a captivating narrative to tell the story of his life. With stunning art by acclaimed illustrator Bryan Collier, Martin's Big Words is an unforgettable portrait of a man whose dream changed America-and the world-forever.

A Picture Book of Rosa Parks (Picture Book Biographies) (Picture Book Biography) 

By:   David A. Adler  Illustrated by:  Robert Casilla 

  Her refusal to give up her seat on a bus helped establish the civil rights movement.

March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World 

By:  Christine King Farris Illustrated by: London Ladd 

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, sister remembers the March on Washington.

From Dr. Martin Luther King's sister, the definitive tribute to the man, the march, and the speech that changed a nation.

Technology:

This site has videos, activities, games, and information about the Civil Rights Movements for students.

http://www.neok12.com/Civil-Rights-Movement.htm

Video Series documenting the Civil Rights Movement

Finishing the Dream:  Learning from the Civil Right Era

http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn/finishing-the-dream

BrainPop Jr. has several videos, quizes, and activities that relate to the Civil Rights Movement
http://www.brainpopjr.com/search/?keyword=Civil+rights

Other Resources:

Civil Rights Movement:  Photos, Activities and Commentary

http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/teaching-race-and-racism-education-today/civil-rights-movement-photos-activities-commentaries

Thematic Unit including book recommendations, recommended websites, and PBS Websites.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/thismonth/civilrights/index3.html#books

The Best of History websites

http://www.besthistorysites.net/index.php/american-history/1900/civil-rights