On Friday, we officially finished our book review project. I am giddy with excitement about it and can't wait to share!! This unit has been strung out over the last 8 weeks and the book review was the final hoorah. It may seem like a lot of steps, but it is actually a very simple process. I highly recommend you try it in your classroom, especially since it hits so many Common Core standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g.,because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.6
With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.4
Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.
Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.3
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
They began by brainstorming to help them come up with ideas and reasons why they liked their books. Next, they transformed their brainstorming into their 1st draft. I stressed that I needed their best 2nd grade writing: capital letters, complete sentences, and periods. After completing that, they exchanged with a peer. We discussed the difference between editing and revising. Check out this anchor chart I created for the students to reference. They edited by making notes on their peer's paper and wrote revising notes on a separate sheet. At first, many of the students said, "There's nothing wrong with their writing!" This opened up a great discussion about revising. We talked about how adult authors even revise their writing over and over again, our writing can always improve!
Using the feedback from their peers, they worked on their 2nd draft. Once the 2nd draft was completed, I took them home and gave teacher feedback - mainly fixing spelling and giving them a few things they needed to work on.
After getting their drafts back, they looked over my notes and posted their final draft on the blog. The blog has turned into an instant writing portfolio. Even with the few writing assignments they've had, I can already see the progress they've made. I have been using a rubric to evaluate their writing and I've seen huge improvements from the first time I assessed to this project. I give 0 points for "not yet", 1 point for "starting to", and 2 points for "yes". This also reinforces the fact that even if their writing is "acceptable", they can always improve.
The next step: recording the students reading their book reviews. This took the longest, but if this would've been my own classroom, I could've stretched this out over weeks, it would become a year long project. However, since I am only here for 8 weeks, I had to squeeze everything in a few days. My teacher and I tag teamed this effort - I pulled kids into the computer lab to record while she supervised work time in the classroom. In my own classroom next year, I plan to record a few students during recess each day to make it work.
One by one, the students came into the computer lab with their books and read their blog post - which I had pulled up on the computer lab computers. I recorded them with my teacher's iPad. My original plan was to use You Tube to publish the videos - setting the privacy settings to let only those who have the link able to view. However, it was not allowed. I tried Google Drive - same issue. The QR codes seem to not work as a valid way to access the link. Finally, I tried Drop Box and was successful. With technology comes patience and willingness to try a million different things :)
From the iPad, I uploaded the videos to Drop Box. Check out this helpful article about how to manually select what to upload. It was very useful during this process so it wouldn't sync the entire camera roll. After the videos were successfully uploaded to Drop Box, I logged into Drop Box on my computer to rename the videos to each student's name - this made it easier as I was creating the QR codes (right click or 2 finger click to rename).
Next, hover your mouse over a video, the "share" button should appear. Click on it and you can copy the shareable link for the video. Once you have the link copied, visit the QR code generator website to paste the link. Download the QR code, print, and label - labeling is key so you don't mix up the QR codes!!
Finally, I used clear packaging tape to attach the QR codes to the front of the books. We had a "viewing" day on Friday, so all the students could watch each other's book review videos. They are very excited to start using these to find out more about a book as they book shop in their classroom library. I wish I could share the videos because they all turned out wonderful, but to respect the privacy of my students, I cannot. Try it out in your classroom and you'll see how great it is!
These books will be added back to our library and the students will be able to use their QR Reader app to listen to their peer's book talk as they choose books to read. What a powerful way for the students to share their opinion with others!
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