The recording ended up being just over 4 minutes which I find is a perfect length for a project to feel satisfying without being overwhelming. I published it to YouTube and enjoyed re-watching it a few times with my son and again when a friend stopped by for a visit.
At first I was pleased to have spent some quality time with my son working on a creative project. When he came to me the next day wanting to do another story using Puppet Pals I started to wonder about deeper learning processes that were occurring through this seemingly simple project.
I returned to an article I had read this week on TeachThought: 10 Strategies to Reach the 21st Century Reader. I wondered how this little Puppet Pals project might connect 21st century learners to reading.
I went through the strategies one at a time to see how my project matched the author's suggestions.
1. Use combinations of media–classic and modern together, leveraging one against the other
- My Puppet Pals project does this because it uses a classic media form to inspire the modern media project. It also encourages learners to make a personal connection to classic media and then use that connection to engage in the project.
- There is analysis involved in this project when the learner is required to analyse the story to decide how (and if) it is to be retold
3. Have students turn essays into videos into podcasts into letters into simply-coded games into poems into apps
- The Puppet Pals project contains elements of transformation. This could be done more deeply and creatively: learners could turn the story into a poem into a game into a blog post from the perspective of one of the characters
4. Allow students to pick media while you pick themes and standards
- Instead of Puppet Pals, learners could chose from a variety of storytelling apps and tools. They could also choose to retell a graphic novel, a poem, an Angry Birds scene, a Minecraft scenario. Standards and themes could be developed together
5. When designing units, choose the media first, then the standards (yes, this likely goes against what you were taught–but give it a try)
- See #4. I think it would be powerful to design the project standards with students
6. Insist all writing “leaves the classroom” and is published–then design units accordingly
- This project is publishable using a variety of platforms including YouTube and Vimeo then embedded into personal blogs and/or eportfolios
7. Have students use RAFT-Role, Audience, Format, and Topic/Tone/Theme. Then have them revise media in response to new roles, audiences, formats, or topics, tones, or themes. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech” in a new format (a video?), or to a new audience (modern hip-hop artists?), or with a new tone (angry?). Students experimenting here are experimenting with media design!
- Experimenting with media design is the driver of this project. It would be interesting for students to retell the same story then compare how roles, audiences, formats, topics, tones and themes change and how this influences the story itself
8. Have them consistently reflect on the need, logistics, opportunities, and challenges of moving back and forth between physical and digital text
- This could be done as an assessment piece by blogging about the experience or staging interviews between students
9. Use tools like text annotation on pdfs and Kindle for text-marking, note-sharing, and more
- I'm wondering how this could be done...perhaps on a blog or accompanying Google Doc?
10. Create social media-based reading clubs
- After reading a book in a social media-based reading club, students could recreate a scene or chapter from a book and share it on the social media site. It would be fun to retell an entire story where each student or small group of students work on one piece
This close analysis of our Puppet Pals project using these 10 strategies as criteria really helped to bring coherence to the project as well as to my understanding of 21st century learning processes. My K-2 students each have access to iPads for the next week and I will definitely be doing this project with them and our big buddies.
Reference:
Heick, Terry (2014). 10 Strategies to Reach the 21st Century Learner, TeachThought Retrieved February 8, 2014 http://www.teachthought.com/technology/10-strategies-reach-21st-century-reader/
Siemens, George (2014). The Challenge of Coherence. Retrieved February 8, 2014 http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2014/01/27/the-challenge-of-coherence-2/