Helen Kittredge (In collaboration with Ellen Von Flatern)

Sunderland Elementary

August 19, 2005

Abstract of Plan for Implementation of Imaging Technology into Classroom

Problem Statement:

I teach 5 th grade students at Sunderland Elementary. During the year, I cover parts of speech as part of language instruction. This correlates with the Massachusetts State Language and Literacy standards.

Parts of Speech Applicable Frameworks:

Grade Five: English Language Arts Standards:

Standard 5: Structure and Origins of Modern English

Students will analyze standard English grammar and usage and recognize how its vocabulary has developed and been influenced by other languages.

•  Identify seven basic parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, conjunction, preposition.

Past methods have included a huge focus on printed matter, primarily worksheets. It has been difficult to keep the students on task in learning these abstract concepts. Digital imagery will help to make the content concrete.

Motivation: My goal is to ask students to participate in identifying and capturing visual images of nouns, verbs and adjectives using digital photography. I am hopeful that they will be excited about this task and engage fully in the learning process, resulting in deeper comprehension and longer recall of the material.

Approach:

STEP 1: The teacher will create a PowerPoint presentation framework with sections for nouns, verbs and adjectives. It will be shown to the students to review concepts and introduce the task.

STEP 2: The students will be divided into four groups. Each group will have access to a camera. Each student in the group will have a turn to capture one image of a noun, a verb and an adjective.

STEP 3: Each student will import their pictures to a photo program. Next they must create and save their photos to a file. Then they must resize (web large) and readjust resolution (72) for each photo. Each student will copy and paste each photo to a PowerPoint slide in the appropriate section. In the title space they will write the word that labels each image (cat/ eating/ messy).

STEP 4: Students will be asked to use an interactive template on the Internet to help them create diamante poems.

STEP 5: They will use their new knowledge about digital imagery to take pictures of each other to match their poetry.

STEP 6: Their projects will be published in some way, as a class brochure or bulletin board.

Results: The class will have worked to create a PowerPoint presentation and have viewed their product to deepen their understanding of nouns, verbs and adjectives. They will have used their new knowledge about parts of speech to create poetry. Students will have learned how to work with digital photos to enhance their learning. The students' diamante poems will be used as an evaluative measure of what they have learned about nouns, verbs and adjectives.