Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Tried-it Tuesday


Let me just say that I am SO glad I bought Erin's Ultimate Christmas Bundle during the big Cyber Monday sale because it's really come in handy for these last few weeks before Christmas break when the kids are driving me nuts and I don't want to think much about plans. Not only are the plans already done and spelled out for you, but my fifth grade students are LOVING it! 

The Ultimate Christmas Bundle for Common Core Reading Grad

I haven't used The Gift of the Magi or Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer yet since I only do pull-out and don't have them for quite as long. But we are working our way through a Common Core Christmas. Yesterday we tried something different from the pack and did a video lesson. Video? Lesson? Erin included the link to this GREAT educational video about different December celebrations around the world. Hysterical AND educational.


But the way I really tied this into my instruction is through the active listening sheets that Erin provided. It was very interesting to see how well my students could listen and find information as they watched videos. They aren't very good at multi-tasking at this stage, and I noticed that even previewing the questions so they knew what to listen for was very hard for them. However, some of them did learn to work as a group and help each other gather the information.

Today, we watched the SAME video and talked about how it's hard to notice everything when we read or watch something the first time. So we REREAD or re-watch things to gather more information. I gave them the second active listening sheet, and we found things we didn't notice the first time.

I think I want to use more videos here and there for students to gather information, maybe for research projects, etc. I was honestly surprised that they struggled because I figured a video would be easier for them. I guess anything that requires deeper thinking and processing will be a challenge, though.

6 comments:

  1. I love the idea of active listening sheets for video watching! Thanks for the idea!

    Rissa
    Keep Calm and Hoot On

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  2. I love the idea of using videos to help teach this skill. I know a lot of my kiddos struggle with this when we do it with books...fabulous idea that I am going to try ASAP!

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  3. Such a fun lesson! Love how you tied it into reading and rereading. I am definitely going to have to use this in the upcoming week! Thanks for sharing!

    Amanda
    Learning to the Core

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  4. I am really excited about using this video. We will be watching three Bill Nye science videos a week when we return from break to help prepare us for our state Science test in April. We post the questions before the video and have students look for the answers and take notes during the video. I'm hoping what you have shared will help prepare them for this! Thanks for sharing, Melissa!
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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  5. I used a video during each unit when I taught 6th grade social studies. I made a worksheet to record answers to questions for each video. You're right. They really do struggle with it! I need to try and incorporate this more into 4th grade. Thanks so much for the inspiration and for linking up. :)
    ~Holly
    Fourth Grade Flipper

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  6. It is so true that they need to hear/read/see things more than once to really get it! Thanks for sharing this! :)
    Jivey

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