Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A WONDERful technology project...

What a WONDERful Wednesday!
Can you guess what you are about to read about?
I have no doubt you guessed it right away.
I have been waitin' for the perfect time to share this and today is THE day!
I have posted before about how we used the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio 
in our class...here.
I had a plan to end our read aloud with a project to persuade 
our Superintendent to read the book.
Writin' was not enough. 
We needed some technology to really get our point across.
I began by havin' my students pick out which technology pieces they would 
like to incorporate into their project.
They brainstormed and chose which group they would like to be in.
1) Powerpoint
2) QR Codes
3) Stop Motion Animation
4) Writing of Play and Acting
5)Videotaping of Play

The students worked hard in their groups(with little to no direction from me)
 and had lots of discussions
on what needed to be changed.
I'm serious...this was all from their genius brains...not mine.
Once everyone had completed their task
(this took a few weeks because we continued with our normal routines
and fit this in when we had some extra moments)
I took all of their work and dropped it into a Prezi.
I had never used Prezi before, so it took some gettin' used to, but
I'M SO GLAD I USED IT!
Prezi is visually appealin' and once you get the hang of it,
you really can do so much.
We integrated things such as YouTube, iMovie, MyCreate, and QR Codes. 

We sent the Prezi to the Superintendent and guess what?!
He loved it!
He came out to our school to let us know we did indeed persuade
him to read Wonder.
He let us know it might take him a little bit, but we assured him
it was worth however long it takes him.
How very sweet and kind of him to take time out of his busy
schedule to thank my kids!
Awesomeness for sure!

Check out our Prezi:  


We hope you enjoyed our WONDERful project. 


11 comments :

  1. That is WONDERful! Loved it. My students are creating book trailers, I might have to place them all in a Prezi to post/present to the school.
    Mrs. Brown Loves Bookworms

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    1. Thank you! I really want to try book trailers next!

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  2. That is awesome. I love that book, we are almost done. I cried today while reading, second time, and wow was the room silent, a few teared up with me. Congratsto your kids and you for the amazing presentation and surprise visit, you should be so proud. You have inspired me to think up a project for my crew.

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    Replies
    1. I want to read it again! I need a new book to read now. Any suggestions?

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  3. So I've heard a lot about this book, but haven't read it yet! I seriously need to! I also loved your prezi! The kids did a great job with both their summaries and their videos. Great job using technology!

    Rissa
    Keep Calm and Hoot On

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  4. I finally read Wonder over the summer and loved it. I was hoping to do it with a small group this year, but all my students did it in 5th grade... darn it! lol

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  5. This is such a cool project! I am very impressed! I am inspired to try something like this with my students now!

    Bethany

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  6. Thanks much, Bethany! It really was a great project for my kids!

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  7. Wow! That was a very impressive project! Your kids did a great job! Wonder is one of my favorite books too. I just finished reading it to my class today. They applauded!

    Stephanie
    Forever in Fifth Grade

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Stephanie! I really can't wait to read it year after year. So powerful!

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  8. This is a fabulous idea!! Wonder is on my list of read alouds for the 2nd half of our year in 6th grade. :) AND-my classroom just became 1:1!!!!!!!!

    I'm your newest follower!

    Merry Christmas!

    Shannon
    http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com

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