Week 7 Review: Turning Memories into Story: Writing Biographical Narratives
This week I chose from the large list of books from the apple series One Best Thing. These (free) iBooks are written by Apple Distinguished Educators. There are over 90 books in the collection so far so chances are that you can find something that relates to you. The book that I chose from the list was Turning Memories into Story: Writing Biographical Narratives by Petra Willemse. Petra is from North Vancouver, Canada and team teaches through a one-to-one iPad program called FLIGHT. Through this program her and her colleagues teach English Language Arts, Social Studies, and inquiry through problem-based learning. Petra has taught grades 8-12 and currently works with 9-11 in this program. The program really encourages and capitalizes on the use of technology in the classroom and mixing it in with projects.
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This project involved a lot of steps that all built on each other to help reach a final, well-constructed product. To start out, students were asked this question: “What is the line between fact and fiction, and how does a non-fiction writer strike that balance?”. The students then spent the next few weeks reading various nonfiction novels and discussing this question as they went. They also started thinking about what types of interview questions the author of a nonfiction novel would have to ask. Petra set up times for the students to go meet with residents from the local retirement center. Students started out at their initial meeting introducing themselves, chatting a little, and then asking their interview questions as they got more comfortable talking. They recorded all of their meetings and typed notes using their iPads. Then it was time for them to really get started on their project. They discussed the interview and stories with their partner and then split up to write the initial draft of their narrative. At the same time, students were also working on building their own shadow boxes. They
used pre-cut wood and built them all themselves, nailing and glueing them together. They also spent time painting them black like in the picture to the right. Petra said that she thinks the students really enjoyed this because it was a nice change to the normal pace of things. How often do you get to go build something in English Language Arts class? Later on, as they developed their projects, the students all chose items that went with their story that they were told. They then filled their boxes with these items or built dioramas. They were pretty free to do as they wanted with them as long as it contained items that related to the story they were trying to tell. The students also had to come up with a general timeline of when they were going to have each item ready in their box. The students also did peer edits and made suggestions
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as to what other questions they might want to ask to better advance and fill in wholes in their story. After they had collected ideas and peer reviews they went back to the retirement home for another interview session. After getting answers to their new questions they returned to the classroom and finished up their shadow boxes and made voice recordings using VoiceThread. Here is a link to an example that one of the students made. As they got ready to present they wrote more drafts, did more peer edits, and made corrections. Once they had finished all of this, they packed up everything and headed to the retirement home to present their projects. The students were nervous as they thought back to that original question and how hard it is to make sure you tell someone else's story correctly. Everything went great though and everyone, the retirement home residents and the student's parents, all loved it! I think this project is proof that you can teach a great lesson using unconventional methods that will really help students learn in a more real environment that they will enjoy more. Doing all of this together opposed to simply writing a paper and editing it a couple times was way more influential to their education and how much they learned throughout the process.
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