Stand-alone Presentations - 5th grade

One option for Capstone is to do a "stand-alone" presentation. By "stand-alone" we mean using a tool such as Google Slides to convey your information, without presenting it in person. "Stand-alone" means the presentation has to teach the viewer about your topic, convey your learning, without you there to verbalize the experience.

Whereas an in-person presentation will have a few, minimal, clean slides a "stand-alone" presentation will be much more detailed and will include far more slides than an Ignite or TED presentation. The presentation has to tell your story without you being there.

As 5th graders you have done similar things in the past with the rocketry unit.

Here are a few examples of "stand-alone" presentations that convey the experience without the need for someone to personally present it:

Video story telling styles - 5th grade

5th graders,

As you think about how you are going to tell your Capstone story, one tool you might use is video.

The most common use of video is iMovie. But iMovie is just a tool to tell a story. It's not that you use iMove, but how you use iMovie that matters.

One of the best things to do when thinking about how to tell your story with video is to watch others, to see examples. Some of the best examples of video story telling are 60 Minutes and Real Sports with Bryant Gumble. These are two "news magazine" shows that combine research, interviews, and sites visits into short stories that tell compelling stories.

If you are planning on using video in your Capstone project it is highly recommended you use your own device. iMovie files are not able to be shared and when making a movie you need to use the exact same computer every time. The school computer you have access too might not always be available to you when you need it. iMovie can be used on iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.
You can also use WeVideo to make a movie through Chrome

Your Capstone project is a compelling story, here are some examples to get you started:

Presentations (Igntite/TED) Styles - 5th grade

This year we will do Capstone a bit differently. The tri-fold boards are no more. We are presenting our projects in more engaging ways...

Two modern presentation styles are TED Talks and Ignite Presentations. TEDs are usually 18 minutes and have very little visuals or slides. Ignites are 5 minute presentations with slides auto-advancing every 20 seconds. TEDs are more conversational, Ignites are more fast paced. Use the links below to read more about each style as well as watch various examples...

New App = New Learning

by Ms. Boyer

I introduced Padlet to my 5th graders this week. I really didn’t know much about Padlet but thought it had the “cool factor” and would prove to be a very interesting way for my students to share their new investigations of non-fiction. I set up our collaborative group in Padlet, made a WELCOME page with a few notes for students to read with links to follow, and sent each student a note (in their google drive) introducing our new adventure.  I knew I didn’t know everything there was to know about this new app, but I do know 5th graders and I draw comfort from the fact that whatever I don’t know, they will figure out in a fraction of the time it would take me to resolve any issue.  Ten year olds are not intimidated, they are intuitive.

It’s been two days since Padlet became a new buzz word in our classroom and I’ve experienced a few F.A.I.L.s (First Attempts In Learning) but each hiccup was quickly resolved because my students possess two qualities that big businesses look for in their prospective employees; they are skilled problem solvers and they are digitally literate. Digital literacy is a fairly new term that marries the two words, digital and literacy.  Yet it is so much more than just the words; it’s a way of life, a way of interacting with the world, a way of solving problems and communicating.  In my 5th grade classroom, it’s me being comfortable with the fact that I will never know as much as my students; I teach them, they teach me. We raise the bar everyday.  

Padlet has proven to be an effective collaborative learning tool thus far. My students have now created shared Padlets as reading partners and are busy linking additional media to inform their learning. In a brief check-in ‘round the room the consensus was that we should continue to use Padlet, that it was easy to take notes on and it was a good way to organize thinking to share with a group. And so we shall...

Internet Research - a 5th Grade homework assignment

5th graders,

When using the internet to research information I think it is important to keep Abraham Lincoln in mind....

iMovies on paper with Aurasma

One of my pet peeves is the traditional bulletin board. As a technology teacher I feel the traditional paper stapled to cork board is counter intuitive to what students do in the lab.

Paper bulletin board are fine for certain things, but if students are creating animations or layered presentations or movies how do you do their work justice by printing a still image and putting it on a board. How do you honor and celebrate their work beyond simply unloading to YouTube or blogging about it? How do you showcase their work in the hallway without losing any of their awesome?

Augmented reality.

5th Grade - December 2014 - The possibilities of technology

Technology provides a wide range of possibility and opportunity.

There is possibility to create in ways previously unavailable. Opportunity to see & experience things previously out of reach. Possibility and opportunity to discover and question all the things in your world.

The greatest power of technology is that possibility and opportunity to question what you see & find answers for yourself.

Your assignment...

5th grade Rocketry Books

This post is a work in progress as students finish & tweak their animated books

The following items are animated books created using Google Slides with Ms. Boyer's class.

From start to finish our Rocketry unit spanned eight weeks.  The children read, researched, watched, learned, documented, designed, created, evaluated and analyzed throughout the entire project.  These books represent their learning, not only of rocketry, but of non-fiction narrative writing, the writing process, design thinking and Google presentations.  The rubric that accompanies their projects is one that the students created to help them revise, edit and evaluate their own work.  Enjoy! - @5Boyer