It ain't over til It's over - Activating Prior Knowledge - Part 3 After Reading

photo © 2008 Chris connelly | more info (via: Wylio) 


“It ain’t over til it’s over” was the phrase coined by Yogi Berra.  Spoken like a true sportsman or classroom teacher!  

We all know that even when the kids have finished reading a story they’re “not really done”.  We read. We discuss. We assess.  There are all kinds of other activities that we can initiate to make sure the students have made connections to their reading.  This is Part 3 in the "Activating Prior Knowledge" series. 

In the Before reading post, it was suggested to use an Anticipation Guide.  If used, it would be a great (quick) assessment to see if the kids can answer those questions correctly now.  (They love getting them all right too!!).  Also, in the Before post as an alternative to the KWL chart - a Word Cloud was suggested.  How about make a new word cloud to share what was learned.  (The kids love comparing them!) 

The During reading post suggested to use a Wallwisher.  Students could add new thoughts to the Wallwisher.  (The kids will have fun revisiting the Wall!).


Other activities  to institute when the students have finished reading could include creating a retelling of the story.  Why not try have the students create a comic at ToonDoo.  It is free, fun and quite simple to use.  See my sample below.

By Ncarroll | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Another activity along the lines of a summary, is to create a talking picture at Blabberize.  Blabberize is a free site where you can upload a picture and record a narration.  In the sample below, a picture was created at Sketchfu then uploaded to make a Blabber. 






For something a little more open-ended, have students create a poem.  With the help of ReadWriteThink students are guided through the writing process.  See the sample below of an Acrostic poem. 

Guiding our students and having them complete activities AFTER reading will help them make connections and therefore, have a deeper understanding of the concepts.  

Hopefully, students will come to the realization themselves that "It ain't over till it's over!"

Media Frenzy!

The newest assignment in the 30 Day Teacher Blog Challenge is adding different media to your blog. Although I am new to the blogging scene, I have often inserted different media types into my classroom website. Items ranging from student created VoiceThreads and Xtranormal Videos, homemade Youtube Videos and Animoto and PhotoPeach Slide Shows have become regular visitors to our classroom website. (By clicking on the links you will see how these sites have been used in a fourth grade class.)

I'm sure that many people have embedded the media mentioned above. So I decided I would try to find something different to embed. Recently I discovered Blabberize . I also decided that I would try it in combination with my Avatar assignment. The 'Welcome Message' at the beginning of my blog was created using Blabberize and Build Your Wild Self. (Sometimes it takes a while for Blabberize to load - I was having trouble replaying my creation - hope it works for you.)

Also, via the Techie Lab Teacher Blog Post I was introduced to this site and have decided I'd like to try this with my class as a way to get feedback on certain topics. So I thought before I use it with my students perhaps you could answer this question for me with Answer Garden : What is your favorite media type to embed in your blog?



What is your favorite media type to embed?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Since posting this last night - I decided to try and find some different media...thinking about easy Web2.0 tools my students could use. I found this: Dvolver Moviemaker....its very simple and not real looking, but it's easy to use. I made this in about 3 minutes with some prompting.  (I have removed my Dvolver. I found that it would play as soon as the page was opened up.  There was no pause button or no way to stop it from playing.  I felt this conflicted with the embedded Blabber at the top).