Digital Writing: Presentations

Presentations are nothing new to teachers.  We see them all the time.  As a matter of fact, we probably have the one on “Universal Precautions” memorized by now.  Honestly, during some of those Teacher Institute presentations, I only use the power point as a guide to see how much longer it will last.  That’s terrible, I know!   But let’s face facts.  How many of us have sat through a professional development “training” by simply being read a power point presentation?  We would all have to raise our hands as an answer. 

I personally am not very comfortable with creating and giving presentations.  I have had to create presentations throughout my education, but they have basically been used as a way to remind me as to what I wanted to say, or to keep me from talking too fast during a speech that had to last for an allotted amount of time.  I use a Smart Board everyday during instruction.  I do have presentations prepared for some lessons, but basically I think of things to add as I teach and never have the time to go back and add them.  Just think how much more engaged my students would be if I were to put forth a little more time and effort into those presentations!

The text, Crafting Digital Writing (Hicks, 2013) suggests you begin with storytelling.  Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I love a good story!  And I just can’t tell it—I have to act it out.  My husband has coined stories “skits”, and now my whole family uses the term.  We typically announce, “I have a skit!”  That means we are about to tell a story and we EXPECT your undivided attention.     

I decided that for the purposes of this assignment, I wanted to widen my experience with presentation software and use a “new to me” presentation tool.  I used emaze Presentations.  It was easy to use because its functions were similar to Power Point.  I also followed the suggestion of actually sketching my presentation on paper prior to typing (Hicks, pg. 71).  It seemed as though I had the presentation outlined in a matter of seconds.  Another suggestion is to allow students freedom within their presentations.  Give them the freedom to create their own templates, colors, and graphics (Hicks, pg. 63).  I do believe that there should be some guidelines to presentation assignments.  I do not think it would be professional for us to give our students “full freedom” within an assignment.  They would need a rubric to follow as to our expectations for an assignment.   I did use the ready-made background and color scheme, but I used a blank slide rather than a template.    

The Common Core Standards for Second Grade English Language Arts states that my students should “Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.” (CCRS, SL.2.5)  I can imagine my students would much prefer to create a presentation rather than write a narrative using a pencil and paper.  So, below you will find a link to my presentation designed to aid us in teaching our students how to create a presentation.

Crafting Digital Writing: Presentations 

by Bethany Sloan

References: 

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Councilof Chief State School

Officers.  (2010).  Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history;social studies, science, and technical subjects.  Washington, DC: Authors.

Digital Writing in the Classroom

It is no secret that we live in a digital world.  There are so many differences in our classrooms now, than when we were in school.  I remember being excited about going to the computer lab when I was in elementary school.  There was only one game, and the graphics were green and black dot-matrix, but we didn’t care!  We were on a computer!  It’s a far cry to these days where a three-year old can operate their parents’ iPhone, and most every child has some sort of hand-held digital device.  Where we were “Generation X”, we refer to them as “Digital Natives”.  Traditional pencil/paper assignments are no longer sufficient for students being raised in a digital society.  They know how to use the technology for recreation, and it’s time for us to shift that knowledge into the classroom. One way to begin this technology integration is with digital writing.

 As pointed out in the text, Crafting Digital Writing (Hicks, 2013), we use different writing for different purposes.  Grocery lists, email, Facebook or Twitter updates, these are all examples of daily writing.  Let’s look at the grocery list.  Some of us will simply scratch notes on a piece of paper torn from a piece of junk mail—that’s me—and I still forget some of the things I specifically went to the store to buy, but forgot to add to my list.  My mother, on the other hand, has embraced the digital society and she uses the “Shop Shop” app on her iPhone to make all of her lists.   

Our writing should be purposeful.  Students should be able to use and write digital text, while “becoming active, informed citizens who craft messages in smart, productive ways” (Hicks, pg. 20).  It’s not enough to just be able to use the digital media; they need to be able to apply it appropriately.  According to digitalwritingmonth.com, digital writing is written communication connected through a web of hyperlinks and in constant communication with other writing. Since I currently teach second grade, and I am not very comfortable with teaching digital writing, I am starting off slow.  My lesson plans incorporate the usage of word processing programs in writing lessons.  Although, most of the students are not familiar with the location of the keys, the English Language Arts Common Core Standards for Second Grade includes a technology standard.  “With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.” (CCRS W.2.6)  That means I need to increase my tool-kit of digital tools to publish writing.  This is a prime example of how we are constantly learning.

Our students often have the misconception that once we finish school, we are “finished with learning”.  As we know, this is not so.  Our society is constantly changing; therefore, we are constantly learning new, innovative ideas and techniques.  We, as teachers, are constantly learning—not just to better ourselves, but to better our instruction and our delivery.  When we better our instruction, learning seems to be more enjoyable for all stakeholders—students, teachers, parents, and community.  

Check out the video below to see an example of blogging in an elementary classroom.

Refrences

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School

Officers.  (2010).  Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history; social studies, science, and technical subjects.  Washington, DC: Authors.

What is Digital Writing? (2012, November).  Retrieved September 8, 2014, from

www.digitalwritingmonth.com.