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>>teacher: Okay, today we are going to write a narrative, or a story, about our own
lives. So what I'd like you to do is follow along with me while we read our Secret
Agent Morel directions. It says now that you and Secret Agent Morel has learned about
stories, it's your turn to write your own story. Put your trench coat on and grab your
magnifying glass to reveal the secrets in your own story. So here's your writing prompt
Your writing prompt is write about a special time you spent with your family or friends.
This week the students were working on writing narratives. In second grade the standards
says that they have to write a story about an experience that they have had in their
life. Use details, temporal words, um and just recount the events in the order that
they happened. So what you're going to do is pick up your graphic organizer from the
middle of your table. Um when I have my students write a narrative, uh another
important aspect of the narrative is for them to be able to use temporal words: first
next, then, and last. So I created a graphic organizer that has a spot for them to
write their introduction, a spot for them to write a few sentences for first, a few
sentences for next, a few sentences for then, and a few sentences for last. And then
create a conclusion. So the students are able to put their thoughts down on a piece of
paper um that sort of has it log-in a logical sequence for them to see.
So what I'd like you to do is start with your first. But are you just going to say,
like, like Steven is talking about camping. Is he going to say, first we slept in our
tent. No, because first you have to do what?
Yeah? >>student: First we went-we got in the car and drove to...
>>teacher: Yeah! You have to tell me how you got there. You have to tell me how you
set the place up. You have to tell me like, we drove to Big Bear and we put our tent
together. Okay? Then we unrolled our sleeping bags inside of it.
When they go to write their narrative, I have them write it in their journal
and then they trade journals with their partner and they edit each other's work
so that um capitals are there, periods are there, words are spelled correctly, um
there's properly spacing, nice neat printing, everything makes sense.
>>student: My sentence ends with punctuation.
Punctuation. Punctuation...
>>student: ...give their.
You said their. Give their. >>student 2: Where?
>>student 1: Right here. You said give their a big hug.
Are you supposed to put him?
>>teacher: Cool. You guys are ready, you guys are ready. Okay, we're going to go
through some of this, we're going do it together. Okay? I'm going to give you an
example and then I'm going to let you guys do it. Before we start using Adobe Voice or
Book Creator, we're going to take pictures of our pictures and download one picture
from Google Pics of the special place that we picked. So close your journals because
right now you don't need them open. I planned in my lesson this week for my students
to use the iPad apps to do their narrative presentations for three reasons. There's two
speaking and listening standards that that is aligned with. The first one is that
students need to um do recordings of their stories-of their voice and be able to listen
to that, and the second is that they need to be able to present a narrative to the
class. There's also a writing standard that says students need to use a variety of
digital tools to write with. I chose two apps for the students to do their narrative
presentations with. The first app is called Book Creator and that app allows the kids
to upload pictures, write their story, and record their voices reading their own
story. The second app that we chose was called Adobe Voice. And that app is-is similar
to Book Creator, however they are able to choose themes and music for their stories. So
they do the same thing, they upload their pictures, write their story, speak into it,
but then they can choose background music to go with it too.
>>student: Last we ate some food. My dad bought us ice cream. We went to the car and
drove home. It took us three minutes to get home. That's why it was the best time with
my family.
[iPad playing recorded voice with classical music] Last we ate some food. My dad bought
us ice cream. We went to...
>>teacher: When they were recording their voices and reading their stories on the iPad
app, then they were able to see when they had a word spelled wrong or when they forgot
to type a word or where they made their mistakes because they heard themselves
read it out loud. When they take the Smarter Balanced next year, they'll be familiar
with how to find details to support their projects and their ideas and where to type
and how to do it correctly. And so I'm excited that when they get to third grade and
take that test, that they're going to have some background knowledge on how to do
those things appropriately.
Alright, here we go.
[Presentation playing on speakers with music]: A special day by Steven Ramos.
We went camping on my birthday. First we got all of our stuff out of the car and made
the tent. Then we made a fire with the sun, glasses, and sticks. Next we turned off the
fire with water and went to bed. Last we made another fire and made eggs.
The end. [applause] >>teacher: Good job Stevo
On the last day, I played the narratives for the class. So the students didn't actually
have to get up and present to the class this time since they recorded their voices onto
the app, we got to play it like a movie. So every student got to do their narrative as
a fluid, um, story with their pictures and their voice and their music.
Some students don't feel like writing is the most positive part of their day, and so
when the kids are offered the chance to be able to upload whatever work they do into an
app on the iPad, they seem to be a little more eager to get their work done so that
they can experience the new tool and-and use the technology. So it's a definite engagement
strategy for some of the students. Even my lowest writers produced a graphic organizer,
a-a narrative that was handwritten, pictures for their narratives. And-and they completed
all of it just so that they could upload their story into the presentation app.
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