iPad Weekly Schedule (Beta)

Monday - Become an Expert

• Students use teacher directed websites to research and discuss a topic of study

Example:

Tsunami

Asteroid

Volcano

Earthquake

Cant get enough information?

Search your topic here at KidRex!

Directions: Take notes from the links.  Use those notes to convince your group the disaster you choose is the deadliest of all!  Include: 1. How/why does it start? 2. What would it look/feel like? 3. What long-term damage would occur? 4. How could we be prepared?

Tuesday - Newsela

• Students read the same news articles, but at their lexile level.  
• Students take a quiz on the reading, and may re-read the story at a higher level

Example:

Lexile 1140: Bullfighting on the ropes in Colombia

Lexile 1010: Columbia's bullfighters face extinction as arenas go empty

Lexile 690: Bullfighting tradition fading away in Colombia

• When finished, students must comment on at least 2 others kidblog posts from monday.

Wednesday - IXL Math

Thursday - Close Reading

• Students close read with an article on Prism
• They use three colored highlighters to answer three Common Core questions

Example:

Use the yellow highlighter to highlight any confusing or outstanding words.

Use the pink highlighter to show where the author is comparing a _____ to a ________.

Use the green highlighter to show the main idea.

• When finished, continue the academic conversation from Tuesday.

Friday - Open Inquiry

• Students who have completed weekly work will research, take notes, and prepare to present their findings to the class on a question or topic of their discovery.
• Students with incomplete work will finish their assignments and then continue to their open inquiry.

Natural Disasters - Highly Engaging

Students, especially boys, love to see something destroyed.  Not knowing the consequences behind such destructions make the experience more enjoyable.  So, when they get a chance to learn about tsunamis, asteroids, volcanoes, and earthquakes they are jumping out of their seats with excitement.

Taking the students down to the computer lab to research is not always a fun, quiet, and calming experience.  Yet, when we researched natural disasters, not a distraction graced the classroom in over an hour.  Every student was engaged in the videos, interactive games, and kidrex safe search engines.

To make this empowering, I wanted the students to become the experts. In groups of 4, students studied their own natural disaster and had to prove to their group it was the deadliest of all.  The notes, and evidence they found were amazing.  They enjoyed discussing these and soon realized the scary effects these "cool" destruction's could have on the world.

The mood grew more somber as they became aware of the consequences of each disaster.  In one hour, students took something the saw and loved and saw it in a different light.  It was a very empowering experience I wish all teachers to do with their own classrooms.

5th grade blogger example - 3/19/14

A tsunami is the worst thing that can ever happen. It is caused by a earthquake off shore. The bigger the earthquake the bigger the tsunami. A tsunami is a giant wave that can flood a lot of areas and life. The waves can bring cars, houses, and other items down with it. More than 150,000 people can die from a tsunami. It could take years to repair a very deadly tsunami. People are trying to prevent or prepare for tsunami. They prepare for one by building stations to see if a tsunami is coming with a detector. But they don’t give enough time to let people evacuate.