Maker and Technology Enhanced Writers Workshop
Artifact #9
My gifted students, grades 3-6, used the writing resources from NaNoWriMo Young Writers Workbook, to create the characters, plots, settings for their stories. Websites such as Storyboard That helped them conceptualize and storyboard their stories. Their stories were then enhanced through maker education activities: Makey-Makey enhanced characters and their settings created with Cospace Virtual Reality. This innovative learning environment employed a combination of learning activities - online learning, hands-on learning, virtual immersive learning, and computational thinking activities. This lesson and related learning environment required that I, as their teacher, act as a facilitator, tutor, coach, and feedback giver; and that they, as students, use design processes and computational thinking to successfully navigate through their learning tasks.
Not only did this lesson address Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, it addressed ISTE Standards for Students, Next Generation Science Standards, and National Core Arts Standards. Below are the details of this lesson.
This artifact supports the following ISTE Standards for Educators:
- 5b - Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.
- 5c - Explore and apply instructional design principles to create innovative digital learning environments that engage and support learning.
- 6b - Manage the use of technology and student learning strategies in digital platforms, virtual environments, hands-on makerspaces or in the field.
- 6c - Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.
Content Area Standards Address
Common Core State Standards - English Language Arts
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.
Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grades 9-10 here.)
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
(Note: New Mexico uses the Common Core State Standards.)
21st Century Skills
- Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
- Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts).
- Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
- Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively.
- Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts.
(Source: http://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21/frameworks-resources)
Next Generation Science Standards
- Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
(Source: https://www.nextgenscience.org/)
National Core Arts Standards
- Students will generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
(Source: https://www.nationalartsstandards.org/)
ISTE Standards for Students
- Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
Learning Activities
Workbook and Journaling
To write their fictional stories, students, working alone or with a partner, used NaNoWriMo Workbook for Middle School https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5XLWiHqq_J-SUtoUXkzN3RrbFE/view
Journaling Activity
Students wrote notes and ideas about their novels using the following outline and pages:
- Character Development: Review the NaNoWriMo Workbook section on Creating Well-Developed Characters.
- Plot Development: Review the NaNoWriMo Workbook section on Creating Conflict and Outlining Your Plot.
- Setting - Review the NaNoWriMo Workbook section on the Setting.
Character Development Maker Activity
After students worked through their workbook sections on character development, they made their characters come alive by doing the following activities:
- Drawing pictures of their characters.
- Creating more artistic versions of their character using additional art materials.
- Posting a description and image of their character onto a Google doc or blog (see below).
- Using Scratch and Makey Makey to describe the main characteristics of their characters.
Blogpost about Their Characters
In a blogpost, the students wrote about their characters and include an image of them which they had drawn.
Programming Character Details Using Scratch and Makey Makey
The idea for this part of the lesson came from the Makey Makey Biography Bottles https://www.instructables.com/id/Biography-Bottles/.
They first created the physical element - the character was glued onto a piece of cardstock (file folders work well for this). Holes were punched along the bottom – five for five facts and one for the Makey Makey ground wire. Large brass fasteners were inserted so that one of the fastener legs is bent to hold it in place and the other hangs over the edge. This permitted the connection between the object and the Makey-Makey.
Students then programmed Scratch so that when different fasteners were touched, a different fact about that character is verbalized. Scratch 3.0 now has extensions for Makey-Makey and Text to Speech – both which were used for this project.
They uploaded a picture of their character and selected five facts about their character – one fact for each of the Makey Makey keys – space, up arrow, down arrow, left arrow, and right arrow. These facts were made via Text to Speech blocks.
Now you are ready to connect the Makey Makey! Connect alligator clips to the legs of the brass fasteners that protrude from the conductive plate. It is a good idea to mark which button you want to trigger each key press. Connect the other end of each alligator clip to the matching input on the Makey Makey. Make sure you have a clip attached to the ground. Connect the Makey Makey to the computer. Run your Scratch program. Hold the ground clip (making sure you are touching the metal part) and lightly touch each button (https://www.instructables.com/id/Biography-Bottles/).
To see how it all works, watch the video below:
Storyboarding the Plots
After students work through their workbook sections on developing a plot, they will make use Storyboard That to storyboard their plots. Information on how to do so along with templates can be found at Plot of a Story | Plot Diagram Template https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/plot-diagram
The Setting
Setting Maps
Students will make a map of their setting for their story using the handouts from http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2011/05/examples-of-map-legends.html
3D Setting
After students work through their workbook sections on creating a setting, they will create a 3D version of their setting using CoSpaces. The blank canvas in CoSpaces Edu is the perfect place for kids to let their imagination unfold and create anything using the many various 3D creation tools and elements available. Students can go even further and add code to make their space lively ( https://cospaces.io/edu/3d-creation.html).
(Below are their Cospace setting examples - login required. Although static, I also included screenshots.)
