Literacy Project

For the literacy project, I was trying to think about something that we were already doing in the classroom that the students would really enjoy working on.  Since we have been reading Out of My Mind, I wanted to incorporate some activity for my students in relation to the book.  My students and I have had lengthy conversations about the difficulties Melody faces because she does not have the ability to talk and how difficult that must be.  I had my students sit for one minute demonstrating how long that seems to last when you are not able to talk or move around freely.  Some of them looked as though they were about to burst!  Then I asked my students how difficult it must be to have all those thoughts in your head and not be able to truly express yourself for 10 years.  So many of us take for granted the words that we use daily that I wanted my students to think about what would be the most important thing they would want to convey to someone if they did not have the capability.  Then I got the idea that for my project, I would have my students make a video of what Melody would say if she were able to talk.  The program I originally wanted to use was not the best for me to use in the classroom unfortunately, so I had the students create comic strips and then we made a class Animoto.  Below is our class video, I hope you enjoy!

Bridge to Terabithia

One book that I love to read to my class is Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.  I have found that many students are able to relate to being a new student, like Leslie, and finding that one friend who can appreciate the person they are.  I have used this book as a "think aloud" when we complete our Following Characters into Meaning unit.  We practice growing theories about characters and analyzing how the characters change throughout the book.  In addition, we discuss topics such as bullying and loss.  I love to see how interested students become in the book and their reactions to what the characters think and how they act.  I showed this Animoto to my students and they are extremely excited to start reading Bridge to Terabithia as a class.

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