Maria+Marlowe

For the projects this year, I used both second and third grade AIS students.
 * __Participating Class/Students__

__Blog Project Outline__** I set-up a third grade blog for the AIS students. During AIS time, we read several chapter books during our book clubs this year. After students completed a chapter, I posted comprehension questions for them to respond to. This gave me an indication as to whether or not they understood what they were reading. Sometimes I would ask them to tell about a connection they had while reading, other times I would ask them to make a prediction, tell about their favorite part, post a book-club questions for others to respond to, or even write a summary paragraph about the chapter highlighting the most important parts. The students really enjoyed this form of "written" response and it also served as a form of assessment for me. I will definitely continue to blog.

In addition to my third grade AIS students, I also set up a blog page for one individual student. (This was thought of at an IST meeting as a way to help her get some computer time and assess her understanding because she really enjoys blogging). It started out as me posting comprehension questions, and then I even started posted things like "tell me about your favorite book or movie" or "something you did over the weekend." The blog served as a great way to give this student some extra time to boost reading skills as well as her special thing she looked forward to doing.

Blogging is great! Students love to be on the computers. They enjoy responding to books and knew that I would be reading and responding to their responses. Blogging also served as a form of assessment for me. I will definitely continue to blog. I would like to integrate blogging with my second grade students for next year.
 * __Blog Outcome and Self-Reflection__**

__Participating Class/Students__ ** Second grade AIS students.

__Podcast Project Outline__ I did both a podcast and two vodcasts this year with my second grade AIS students. For the podcast, I had my second grade students write a "silly Christmas story." They were each given a writing prompt with different characters, events, setting and outcome. They wrote a draft and final copy. I then had them practice reading their stories aloud for fluency. I then recorded the students reading their Christmas stories and then uploaded it to my teacher webpage.

I also did two different vodcast projects with my second graders. After practicing a reader's theatre script and teaching them what "fluent" and "choppy" reading sounds like, they performed their reading to a few classrooms. I used the flip-video and then uploaded their reading to my webpage. I also had them write a "movie review" of their favorite movie. I modeled my own favorite movie using a Step-Up T-chart and then modeled my "movie review" in a written paragraph. Students followed the same process for their favorite movies. They practiced for fluency and then I used the flip-video to record them reading their movie reviews. I then uploaded their video to my webpage.

__Podcast Outcome and Self-Reflection__ ** The students love to be recorded and they love to see themselves reading. This is a great tool to use to have students hear and see what they look like and sound like when they are reading. They then self-assessed themselves and shared if their reading was "choppy" or "fluent" and how they can improve their oral reading. We brainstormed strategies they can do on their own to become fluent readers.