VAASL Presentation Notes

Slide One: Two minutes

Hello! My name is Nancy Johnson. I have begun my first year as a librarian at Central Elementary School in Amherst, Virginia. I am also a graduate student at Old Dominion University working towards my Masters in Education and a Certification in Library Science. I have completed twenty-five years in education including teaching in both California and Virginia.

I am so happy to share my presentation on some of the new technology tools available and how you can integrate this technology into your everyday literature lessons. With this, you will engage and interest a tech-savvy generation of students while leading the teachers in your school to become creative users of technology and information.

Slide Two: Two minutes

For this presentation, I will be basing my lessons on the book, Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator, because this is a book I have used in my own technology-integrated lessons in the classroom. However, these example lessons could be adapted to any number of children’s literature titles. I want you to see these lessons as examples of the many ways new technology forms can be seamlessly incorporated into literature lesson plans for elementary and middle school students.

Slide Three: 2-3 minutes for everyone to read

This is a brief synopsis of the book, Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator by Shelley Tanaka.

Slide Four: 4 minutes- I will open the link to the actual Thinglink and explore during the presentation

For my first lesson, I will be using Thinglink. This tool allows users to upload an image of choice, and then add links to external media forms. You can link video from Vimeo or Youtube, items from Amazon.com or Etsy, or other online material. In this Thinglink, I added an informational video about a 1936 Lockheed Electra, biographical videos about Amelia, a poster about Early American Planes from the turn of the century to WWII, and a link to an artistic representation of a quote by Amelia. This website creates interactive presentations and links a lot of information to one place.

Curriculum Connections:

(1) Have students reconstruct Amelia’s last flight by mapping the locations of each leg of her journey. Beginning in Oakland, California and ending at Howland Island in the South Pacific, students will utilize mapping and geography skills. Then, students will interpret a variety of opinions on Amelia’s disappearance. Students will interpret these ideas and perspectives and then write their own conclusion about Amelia Earhart’s last flight and disappearance.

History SOL: USII.1. TSW (d) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives; (e) evaluate and debate issues orally and in writing; (f) analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. Writing SOL 6.9. TSW find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources for a research project.

(2) Have students listen to Amelia Earhart’s famous speech, “The Future of Women in Flying,” and view the archival photo slideshow on YouTube. Working in pairs, students will choose from a list of men and women who had once been marginalized in their field and persevered to further its advancement. They will research that person and using ThingLink will create a multimedia presentation that allows the students to link images, videos, and audio.

(3) After reading the book, have students create a timeline of Amelia’s life including at least ten dates with facts and pictures. Students will decide if their timeline will be presented vertically or horizontally.

History SOL USII.1 TSW demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to (a) analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1865 to the present; (b) make connections between the past and the present; (c) sequence events in United States history from 1865 to the present.

Slide Five: 5 minutes

Another great tool for students is Wordle, which is a website that creates word clouds. Students of all ages can use this tool successfully. Students will upload a list of their own words pertaining to a topic into Wordle, and then students can play with shapes, orientation, colors, and fonts. This tool helps students grasp the larger ideas of a story, and students can show this

by deciding which words are more prominent in their Wordle in comparison to others.

Curricular Connections:

(1) Students could create bio-poems about a heroic character in history who overcame adversity from a list of choices provided to students. After creating the bio-poem, students would enter the words of the poem into Wordle and select the presentation format they choose.

(2) Have students create a Wordle using the vocabulary words they are mastering from the biography they have chosen to report on.

(3) Focus on Amelia: Have students create a Wordle using a list of all the geographical places she traveled to.

History SOL: USII.1. TSW (d) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives; (e) evaluate and debate issues orally and in writing; (f) analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. Writing SOL 6.9. TSW find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources for a research project.

Slide Six: 2 minutes

If you and your students like Wordle, you will LOVE Tagxedo. This website makes word clouds as well, but it allows you to make word shapes too. You can decide if you want your world cloud to look like a heart, elephant, or even Abraham Lincoln! The possibilities are endless. Using the same procedure as Wordle, you will upload a list of words and then manipulate the shape, color, font, word placement, and word prominence. This tool has a larger menu of fonts and colors along with its shape feature.

Slide Seven: 4 minutes

I’ll admit, I just got a smart phone this year, but ever since I did get it, I have been in LOVE with QR codes. Now I am scanning produce labels at the supermarket, phone book covers, and labels on new products. I think they are so fun! I have also learned that QR codes are a great tool in the classroom with older students.

QR Code Monkey is a free tool that allows you to link text or URLs to your code. It also lets you embed images into the center of the code.

Visual Lead is another free tool and it actually allows you to create a QR code over an image. The only downside, to this program, is that unless you pay a subscription fee, once you scan your code, you will be taken to a 5 second ad before going to your link.

Curriculum Connections:

(1) You can use a series of QR codes to create a scavenger hunt related to your topic.

(2) Use QR codes as an entrance tickets to your lessons to get things going.

(3) Students could embed a QR code to their Prezi Presentation on a notable character or historical figure.

Slide Eight: 4 minutes

Tuxpi is an image editor, and I used it to create this motivational poster using a direct quote from Amelia Earhart.

Curriculum Connection:

(1) Students could use this same image editor to create their own motivational poster based on a character from a novel or from a biography similar to The Legend of the Lost Aviator.

(2) Image Chef is another image editor and is probably more of a kid-friendly tool. On Image Chef, students can create animated messages and timeline covers for a book. Have students create a wanted poster about Amelia or a message in a bottle from her on Image Chef. This website’s possibilities can be tailored to your lesson.

(3) Have students use Big Huge Lab to create a presentation image that is similar to a baseball trading card. Students can upload an image and then important statistics or facts about the person, place, or thing that they are reporting on. This picture could have just as easily been her Lockheed Electra, and I could have given statistics on that plane.