Category Archives: Grade 6

Is it true? Gr. 6 Media Literacy in Action

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Media Literacy from BrainPOP

The Media Literacy BrainPOP movie states that “most kids spend more than half their waking hours consuming media.”   Hmmm?   That would mean about 7 or 8 hours per day!

This statement led Grade 6 students to ask themselves several questions . . . Where did BrainPOP get their information about this topic?   How did they get this information?  Does BrainPOP want us to believe something specific about time spent engaged with media based on this statement?   Is this a positive message or a negative one?  

Students did a Google Search and found many websites with both corroborating and differing information than that found in BrainPOP.  Many sites contained articles that were based on the same source:  the census conducted by Common Sense Media Media Use by Tweens and Teens 2019  

The infographic based on the census showed that teens spend 7 or 8 hours per day or more with media on their phones, but among TWEENS like them, the number of hours was on average, 4 hours and 44 minutes per day.

What is a census?  How was this information gathered? were some of the new questions that students wondered about.  We decided that Common Sense Media used surveys to get their information, and that we needed to do our own survey to see if this amount of time on media was true for our school’s Gr. 6 students.

First, we had to decide exactly what we meant by the term “media”?  We made a list and created a spreadsheet with the types of media students are engaged with during their week.   Not all students have phones of their own and not all of the media that students are engaged with (video games) are found on phones.   So, how to proceed?   Students agreed to include all media types that they are likely to use in their days, whether they were on phones or not, in their self-surveys:  reading, TV, YouTube, video games, music, social media apps and the internet.

Students then learned how to use the Google sheets app to create a pie chart representing their data.

Students also wondered about the days when they were not engaged with media due to sports commitments, parental controls, homework or other reasons.   Which days should they choose to report?  They ultimately decided to add up the hours per week that they were engaged in media and then divide that number by 7 to find the average time per day.

Lastly, students found the average time spent with media per day for their homeroom class and then they found the Gr. 6 average, which was 3.5 hours per day.

Next up in Media classes, we will be doing a deeper dive into YouTube.

ISTE Standard #3.   Students as knowledge constructors.  Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources; they create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions and they build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues. 

 

 

 

Extended Studies in Library Media 2018 – 2019

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Gr. 6

Fall Term – Shark Tank. Over 30 students worked in teams or alone to develop a product that could solve a real world problem.

They then “pitched” their product ideas to staff member investor “Sharks.” In order to successfully pitch their ideas, students needed to have a basic understanding of the economics of venture capital investing.  In addition to creative problem-solving, this experience was also an opportunity for students to gain confidence in their oral presentation skills.   A few students opted to be the “production crew”, introducing the inventors to the potential investors, and running and filming “the show”.

“Have a pet at home that could use a pet door to independently go in and out during the day, but don’t want to encourage the local raccoons in to dine out of your kitchen trash?  Solution: A pet door with Nose Print recognition capability, the DNA Pet Door!” 

Gr. 5.  Term 2 – Passion Projects in Science and Social Studies

Did Mrs. O’Leary’s cow start the Great Chicago Fire? It’s possible!   Topics like this that sparked curiosity were explored in depth by students through guided “passion research projects”.  Students decided on a topic in either United States history or one involving space science.  They also chose how they wanted to present their knowledge to their peers, either by creating a digital presentation, constructing a physical model, giving a talk or a combination of  these.  We learned about NASA’s Robonaut program, the theory of black holes, the D-Day Invasion, the Great Chicago Fire and the Mars Rover.

 

Gr. 6.  Term 3 – The Amazing Race 

38 students participated in the second annual Amazing Race, Spofford Edition.   Two races were held at the end of May and many staff volunteers eagerly volunteered to be “cluemasters” at the race locations throughout the school.   Based in part on the popular television show, the SPS Amazing Race requires that students think creatively “outside the box” and work harmoniously in collaboration with teammates to first create a challenging race for their peers and then to successfully compete in their own race.   While racing, students have to work together and develop critical thinking skills under pressure in order to decipher the clues that lead them to the race locations. They then have to perform a task at each location found, such as dancing, singing, writing, solving math problems, scoring baskets, speaking in a different language or building foil boats.  Creating the challenging races themselves took a lot of time and effort from the students and competing in the races was often a struggle, but in the end, all students involved reported having a great experience and were glad they stuck to it.

MCBA participation by Spofford Pond Students made possible by B.E.S.T.

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Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Program (MCBA)

at Spofford Pond School  

In 1975, after finding that many children lose interest in reading books after reaching the intermediate grades, Dr. Helen Constant founded the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Program.  The program is designed for Massachusetts school children in grades 4-6 and is sponsored by Salem State University.

We are very pleased and excited to announce that thanks to a B.E.S.T. organization grant award, this year Gr. 6 students will have the opportunity to be involved in a popular and successful statewide program in which students from Topsfield Public Schools and Middleton Public Schools, their future student peers at Masco Middle School, have been participating in for several years.  B.E.S.T. granted $900 from the Harriet Ernst fund.  Ms. Ernst was known for her love of children’s literacy and this fund was established in her name accordingly.

The money will be used to purchase multiple copies of the (25) book titles on the MCBA Master List of titles 2019.   Each year, a list is compiled from nominations of participating teachers, librarians, and interested publishers.  A selection committee works with the nominations and chooses 25 titles to appear on the master list.  Criteria for the master list include literary quality, genres variety, representation of diverse cultural groups, and reader appeal.  All the books have been published within five years of the award and are available in paperback.

After reading five of the books, students may vote for their favorite in March.

Stayed tuned for the announcement of both the statewide winning book and the books that were voted “best of the list” by our participating Gr. 6 students.

We are excited about the possibilities to expand this program to include students in Grades 4 and 5 in 2020!

Ms. Boulay and Mrs. Kasmarcik

“According to published research, kids and teens who read fiction, as opposed to non-fiction or nothing at all, are better able to understand their own emotions and the emotions of others – a trait known as empathy.

As studies out of Emory University in Atlanta show, fiction helps to trick our brain into thinking we’re a part of the story – meaning kids are able to feel sympathy for the characters, which can extend to how they interact with real people in their own lives. They begin to develop better “feeling words” words, and are better able to relate to their friends and peers.

In other words, books can teach children valuable lessons about considering other people’s feelings, seeing things from a different perspective and being kind and understanding to those who look different than they do.”  https://www.choa.org

 

Digital Citizenship Week October 15-19 2018

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Digital Citizenship Copyright © 2016 Marie Bou k12 inc.

What is digital citizenship?  

According to TeachThought, digital citizenship is “the self-monitored habits that sustain and improve the digital communities you enjoy or depend on.”

“Digital Citizenship prepares young people and adults alike to use digital media safely, confidently, and wisely”, according to Cyberwise.
 Common Sense Media  defines digital citizenship as way of being, thinking and acting online.

This fall in Library Media classes , students in Gr. 4 -6 participated in various learning activities that emphasized the importance of responsible digital citizenship.  Read on to see examples of digital citizenship in action in Library Media classes . . .

Gr. 4  – Our focus was on the digital citizenship concepts of  “digital footprints” and “media balance”.  Using videos from Common Sense Media as a stepping off point to class discussions, students reflected on their learning and understanding of these concepts with response activities assigned to them in Google Classroom.

The video, Follow the Digital Trail , reminds students to think before they post, to be aware that everything they post online is traceable and permanent, and to consider the effects of their posts on others.

Pixabay.com

The video, My Media Balance  explores the effect that our media choices can have on how we feel each day.  Media balance is “making healthy choices about what media you choose, when you choose it, and  how much you use it”.

Next, we are creating student online user accounts to WebRangers , a the National Park Service’s online site “for kids of all ages” as part of our larger research unit about U.S.  National Parks.  Students are learning how to create safe usernames, passwords and secret questions and answers, as they sign up to be WebRangers.

NPS.gov
ISTE Standard 2a
Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in a digital world.

 

Gr. 5 –  Students learned how to create a Google Drawing that demonstrated the main purposes of Google Drive (access, storage, creativity and sharing) while also demonstrating the importance of giving credit to to the author/owner of creative works, (in this instance, digital images) by linking any image that students use in their work to its public domain file address.

Google Drive for Education apps (G Suite) give students access to image files that have been labeled “fair for reuse”.  Students learned how to find the URL of each image they chose to add to their Google Drawing using the Google Drive image search tool, and then used the Google link tool to link the image to its online address.

If students could not find an image they wanted within Google Drive, they learned how to use the general Google Image search modifier tool, “labeled for reuse.”

Google Drawing by Suhaila Merhi

We also accessed My BrainPOP’s lesson resources, Copyright in a Digital World, to explore what fair use means (allows people to use copyrighted works without permission) and to learn when it’s necessary to give credit to the rights extended to the author of a creative work like a book, song, or piece of art.   Students used our schools’ subscription to BrainPOP to watch a video, take a review quiz and play an interactive game together (The Meaning of Beep).  Google Suites connection to engaging BrainPOP’s instructional and assessment tools (quizzes and games) provides educators with formative assessments and insight into their students understanding of the concepts they need to know.

Flicker.com

Gr. 6 –  In concurrence with their grade level Social Studies curriculum units for the fall, students learned how to create a Works Cited document in Library Media classes.  A works cited document is a list of citations in MLA format, from reputable information sources, that give credit to the information sources used in doing a research project.  Students accessed our school subscriptions to World Book Online, Research in Context, and Country Reports in order to find relevant articles, facts and media about countries of the world and hunter-gatherer peoples.  These resources provide the actual citation so that students simply need to find the citation and copy and paste it into their works cited documents.

Giving proper credit to information sources is an essential digital citizenship skill.

isu.libguides.com
ISTE Standard 2c
Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

Media Kahoots!

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“Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!”

Educators around the world have discovered the power of Kahoot in the classroom.  Kahoot engages students in a challenging, often highly competitive experience with their academic content.  All Gr. 5 students played an original Kahoot in their Media classes as an end-of-unit assessment.  Many students responded postively to this alternative way to “show what they know” about using Wikipedia as a source of information.   Click on the link below to view, and play! this Kahoot.

Gr. 5 Wikipedia Kahoot

In Gr. 6 Media, students first created their own class Kahoot questions about the various forms of media, both traditional and modern, based on their Forms of Media research projects.  Click on the link below to view and play Mrs. Sierpina’s class Media Kahoot.

Gr. 6 Mrs. Sierpina’s class Media Kahoot

 

Making Media

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Media is all around us 24/7.  Every day the creators of media vie for our attention with advertisements,  commercials, videos, billboards, tweets, etc., using techniques that they think will appeal to us.

Grade 6 students researched the history of media, from the first published book to the latest social media platforms, Snapchat and Twitter. Then, they each produced an animated slide to demonstrate and share their learning.

Abiding by the “less is more” theory, students were limited to one image and five or six text boxes in which to present their information, so they learned to choose their images and words carefully for the greatest effect.

They also learned how to use the Google Presentation tools, Animations and Publish, effectively, so that the viewers of their shared media slides would know what to read and when to read it.  Too often, students (and adults!) create and present slides that are well-intentioned but ineffective because the slides are loaded with static text that does not appeal to viewers who are accustomed to more dynamic media.

ISTE Standards for Students 3.  Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

 

 

 

 

Citing Sources

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Image from BrainPop

October 15-22 is Digital Citizenship week.  Gr. 6 students are learning how to cite their information sources in Media classes this month.  Students accessed information from three web sources, the CIA World FactBook, Country Reports and Wikipedia, and learned how to create citations in MLA style for these sites in a Works Cited page.

Students used our school’s subscription to BrainPop in order to learn more about the reason for citations and how using them is a demonstration of good digital citizenship.

ISTE Standard 2c

Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

Survey Says . . .

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“Survey research is often used to assess thoughts, opinions, and feelings. Surveys can be specific and limited, or they can have more global, widespread goals. … A good sample selection is key as it allows one to generalize the findings from the sample to the population, which is the whole purpose of survey research.” (Wikipedia)

Grade 6 students have been creating and taking surveys with their classmates using Google Forms and Google Classroom.

Star Wars Survey by Madeleine Payne, Ms. Stewart’s class

Once the surveys were taken, and students received the results, each student analyzed the results of his/her survey using Google Sheets.

Students asked the following questions in their analysis.

“Did my survey give the results I had expected when I created the survey?”

“What would I do differently with my survey now that I have seen the results?”

“How could I “tweak” the survey to get different results?”

Students then revised their surveys for their classmates to retake and noted both the difference in the results and their explanation for the difference.

Massachusetts School Library Standards 

5.7

Use appropriate medium to produce an original product to communicate research results.

7.9 Review and evaluate the process of transforming information into knowledge.

Grade 6 Happenings

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Google Sites

By the end of Semester 2, all Gr. 6 students have worked with the following Google for Education apps in their Media classes:  Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms, Google Slides and Google Drawings.

As an extension of our last unit, Evaluating Web Sites, students were encouraged to explore Google Sites, once they had completed their Google Classroom assignment.

To see an example of student work evaluating their favorite websites, click on the link above.

Tri-Town School Union Technology Learning Standards for Grades K-6 Standard 3. Demonstrate the ability to use technology for research, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
This standard:

  • focuses on applying a wide range of technology tools to student learning and everyday life;
  • aims to ensure that students will be able to use technology to process and analyze information;
  • is to help students develop skills for effective technology-based communication;
  • includes the use of technology to explore and create new ideas, identify trends, and forecast possibilities; and
  • aims to provide students with an awareness of how technology is used in the real world.