DPMS Kicks Off GRA!

Today we kicked off our celebration of the Global Read Aloud by meeting one of our partner schools via a Mystery Skype. Eighth graders in Mrs. Meyer's and Mrs. O'Hearn's classes used their geography skills to correctly identify our partner school's location. It was certainly fun learning more about the differences between the "big" city of De Pere and the "small" city of Campbellsburg, Indiana (population 573)! We look forward to connecting with them during GRA to discuss Orbiting Jupiter.

One Amazing #GRA15 Comes to an End

It has been an incredible six weeks at DPMS while participating in this year's Global Read Aloud Project. Together with Literacy Coach, Peggy Rohan, I was fortunate to work weekly with a group of 7th grade students who elected to read Fish by L.S. Matthews in addition to their regular ELA class work.  During our six weeks together, we partnered with 7th graders from Tosorontio Central Public School in Everett, Ontario, Canada.  In addition to meeting via Facetime to discuss Fish, we also exchanged hand-written letters, emails, and iMovie videos.  It is always fascinating to learn more about how other kids live in different parts of the world.  More often than not (as was the case here), we find out that we have more in common with them than we even realized.

In addition to our partnership with Tosorontio students, we were also able to connect with schools from Arizona and Merton, WI through a group chat via Voxer. Voxer is a free messaging service that connects users through voice, photo, and text messaging.  Students in our group asked and responded to various questions about Fish throughout our six weeks.  As a culmination to our connection, we were able to Google Hangout with Mrs. Jones' fifth grade students from Merton, WI. During our session, we shared a bit about our respective cities and asked and answered questions about Fish.  We especially enjoyed discussing some of the more intriguing aspects of Fish as a whole such as What gender do you think Tiger is? (The author never states this) and Why do you think that the guide left so suddenly without saying goodbye?  There were so many questions that L.S. Matthews left for reader interpretation, and great discussion happened as a result.

5th grade students from Mrs. Jones' class in Merton, WI

Our last Fish Global Read Aloud connection occurred with the author herself.  Through Twitter, we were able to reach the author @LauraDron (her real name) directly in an attempt to find answers to our remaining burning questions.  She responded to us almost immediately! See our conversations with her in the screenshots below.

Overall we had an absolutely outstanding GRA experience.  A special shout out and thank you goes to Pernille Ripp for her tireless coordination and organization of this project.  As a result of her vision and dedication, we are so lucky to have this opportunity to connect with other students from across the globe to celebrate literacy and learning.  

 

DPMS Students are Getting Connected Through The Global Read Aloud

DPMS students are getting connected.  For six weeks beginning October 5, a group of 7th grade students will meet with me and Literacy Coach, Mrs. Rohan to discuss the book Fish by L.S. Matthews.  Using a variety of digital tools such as Facetime, Twitter, Voxer, Google Apps for Education, and Write About, this group will regularly connect with students from our partner school, Tosorontio Central Public School, in Everett, Ontario, Canada as well as with students from other parts of the United States and the world during the course of this project.  Our connections are part of our participation in The Global Read Aloud Project, an initiative created by Oregon, WI teacher Pernille Ripp. For six weeks beginning October 5, participating teachers from around the world will choose one of the GRA selected books, read it aloud with their students, and then form worldwide connections through various virtual outlets.  Currently, there are over 500,000 students from over 60 countries participating in this project.

Today, our Fish group met for the first time to discuss the book.  After reading chapters one and two, students made some interesting observations:

• They identified that the author does not reveal the gender of the main character, but the entire group thought that he was a boy.
• The main character appears to be between 9 and 11 years of age, but again the author does not reveal the exact age.
• The family is fleeing a country and moving to another.
• This situation is similar to what is happening now in Syria as large numbers of refugees continue to flee the war-torn country.

Each Thursday our group will meet to continue our Fish discussion with our partner school and other virtual connections I will find posted on Twitter, Voxer, or Edmodo.  Next week we will have our first Facetime chat with our friends in Ontario. We will have the opportunity to do a question and answer session about chapters 1-4 and determine if our Canadian friends are making similar discoveries and connections during the course of their reading.

We are thrilled to participate in this year's Global Read Aloud, and I look forward to sharing more about our connections as we progress through the next five weeks.

The Global Read Aloud Begins!

From October 6-November 14, students in Mrs. Pritchard's 5th grade class will be talking a lot about goldfish.  No, they are not doing any crazy science experiments or bringing in a class pet.  These students are just a few of the over 300,000 students worldwide taking part in The Global Read Aloud.  Mrs. Pritchard has chosen to read aloud The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm.  Today she officially began the read aloud.  Before starting, the class checked out the posts that have been added to Twitter using the hashtag #GRAGoldfish.  Students were able to view the predictions made by other classrooms and see some photos of how others are beginning the project.  We added our own predictions using Mrs. Young's Twitter handle @donnalynnyoung.  This activity created a lot of anticipation, and the students were anxious for the read aloud to start.

Next, it was time to jump right in and begin reading.  Students gathered around Mrs. Pritchard as she started. 

While Mrs. Pritchard read, students grabbed sticky notes and added what they wondered, felt, and thought about during the reading.

At the end of chapter two, when Mrs. Pritchard announced that she would stop there for the day, students BEGGED for just ONE MORE CHAPTER!  I think that this is definitely a sign that they are very excited about participating in this year's Global Read Aloud and can't wait for tomorrow to hear more!  We also cannot wait to hear the reactions from students at our partner school in Duxbury, MA, when we Skype with them soon.

You can follow @donnalynnyoung on Twitter to read our thoughts and watch our progress during this six-week project. 

Leaping into the Global Read Aloud

Next week marks the beginning of a world-wide read aloud initiative known as the Global Read Aloud.  Between October 6 and November 14, participating teachers from all over the world will choose from one of four books to read aloud to their students.  During the six designated weeks, classrooms from all over the world will collaborate with one another through various electronic means to discuss their chosen books and share their excitement for reading.

This year Mrs. Pritchard's 5th grade students will be participating in the project.  Each week we will Skype with a partner school to talk about our chosen book, The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm.  

 

Today, Mrs. Pritchard's students had a chance to meet students from our partner school through a Mystery Skype.  During the Mystery Skype, students took turns asking yes/no questions to narrow down the location of the partner school with the goal of figuring out exactly where in the world they are located.  To make the questioning and guessing easier, students used Google Maps to zoom in on and pinpoint specific locations.

While it was a challenge guessing the specific city where our partners live, with a little hint from them, we were able to figure out that our partners are from Duxbury, MA!  

We were so excited to meet them, but we are even more excited to begin collaborating with them beginning next week to discuss our reactions to The Fourteenth Goldfish.  We look forward to our next Skype with Mrs. Burns' class of 5th graders.