Select a language:

A Pixie Biography Report

Grade Focus
Grade 4
Age Level
9
Subject
Literature
Technology Integration Activity
Discovering the Internet, Imaging, Video Productions
Estimated Time of Completion
4 to 5 hours using technology. Reading and completing story boards requires 2 to 3 weeks of reading daily for 20 to 30 minutes in class.
Author: Cheryl Valeriano Last modified: 05/01/2010

Introduction

Students will be able to:

-Retell a story of a person’s life after reading a biography on selected individual (student choice), orally and in writing (4.5)-Describe the sequence of events in an individual’s life that are important, and tell the way in which the events are important. -Discuss birth place and the setting of individual person. (4.4)-Explain the importance of this individual and how they made a difference in today’s world.-Evaluate personal presentation for quality of content, (important events in individual’s life), the effects on their life, and how has this person affected the lives of others. - Identify and compare feelings, traits, and motives of characters  with your personal feelings about the person/self, and support with text references.  How did the person feel while growing up, and how did they feel after their accomplishments (if applicable).-Explain the author’s purpose and support with text references.-Use time line for sequence of events that are important in person’s life.-Use the steps of the writing process: revise (for word choice, precise language, tone, voice, sentence variety, sentence length)-Use the steps of the writing process: edit (grammar, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation)

Technology use:

Students will be able to:

-Demonstrate the use of digital tools for communication – word processing-Write, revise, and share digital products, -Plan, create, and present digital products that contribute to the learning of others-Use digital tools to plan, organize, manage, and visually represent information and ideas-Demonstrate the cooperative and collaborative use of technology -Use technology to write, when appropriate (SOL 4.7)

Prerequisite Experience

The prerequisite for completing this activity is knowledge of how to use:

ComputersStory boardsPixie Program/Pixie Movie MakerVoicethreadAlphaSmarts

Teacher Prep Time

The teacher preparation time for this lesson will take approximately four to five hours which includes internet search for pictures, introduction of typing on AlphaSmarts, a lesson and modeling the use of VoiceThread, demonstration on how to upload pictures of biographical individual selected. Demonstrate and model a lesson on how to upload music from preapproved Virginia Beach City Public School site.

Project

At the end of the project, the students will have created a retelling of biographical individual of student's choice.  Student will have created an accurate retelling of the story by combining sequence of events through person's life using dates and storyboards.  They will be able to use this information to create a video retelling the story using pictures, stamps, internet search for pictures, and VoiceThread to record story so kindergarten students can follow along with reading, and .   Students will also be able to use AlphaSmarts for typing and spell check of typed work.  They will also be able to upload typed work from AlphaSmarts to Pixie Report slides.  Students will engage interactively with kindergarten students are listen to response from kindergarteners.

Assessment/Grading

Rubric evaluating student work

Time Management Tips

After selection of biography books based on student's reading level, allow them time to complete reading in class during independent reading time.   I would also allow them to complete their story boards in class during independent time to make sure they are completed.Another great tip would be to allow students to type the information from their story board into the AlphaSmarts and then upload the writing onto the story boards in Pixie.  Allow them to type information on AlphaSmarts in the room as well. I found many grammar errors since Pixie doesn’t have spell check because it is a drawing program.  *I turned the writing into mini lessons on editing for grammar. Even though using the AlphaSmarts, there were grammar errors that were easily turned into mini grammar lessons for editing purposes.

Lesson Plan Details

Engage

-Activate Prior Knowledge of the importance of individual biography is about and the importance of their life to society/world.  Introduce and demonstrate to students how an individual can create life situations in “Their Real World” and make them relevant and meaningful in today's world.-Students will discuss “Their Real World” experience using Kagan structure Rally Robin and reflect  on their life so far, and how they can make a difference in the world.  -Students will be able to reflect why their life is important and why a biography should be written about them by the end of the school year.-Allow students to select book on his/her interests and add extra research component if they would like to know more about the biographical character.

Explore

-Allow students five minutes to explore Pixie tools to assist them in a time line of person’s life through sequence of events using Pixie tools, and also explore the web for pictures and music. 

Explain

Students will be able to explain and elaborate on the task assigned on selected individual for biography.  The students will be able to retell the story of a person’s life based on their biography of his/her life.  They will be able to elaborate using sequence of events with a step –by –step process by completing the use of story boards. Pixie tools will enhance their storyboards by having them detail the story through drawings, and retelling of person’s life through process writing in step by step sequence of events.  Students will also be able to explain why and what made this person famous.  They will be able to access selected picture of person through pre – selected folder, or search for picture on the internet to upload into project.  Students will be able to discuss the importance of why someone would want to write a book about this individual.  Why are/were they famous?  What did this person do to help change the world?

Elaborate

-Prior going to computer lab, the students needed to complete story boards by writing information on story boards in time order and then sketching a picture related to information.-Students were given time to recreate story boards using Pixie tools. -Students were able to upload picture from an established file, or search the web for another photo of person from biography to insert for the first slide of Pixie report.-Students will add music to the background of biography story from Virginia Beach City Public School approved website for music if desired. -Students will record their voice by using voicethread to read final product and then send it to kindergarten students to listen to report and follow along.  Kindergarten student will be asked a question at the end of the show, and asked to respond using voicethread to the person reading the story.  The kindergarten student will also be asked to make a positive comment about the report.   The kindergarten teacher will upload reports and responses so students can listen to comments being made. -Final projects will also be uploaded to webpage for parents to read and respond to in a positive manner.-Invitation to have parents come in and participate in an afternoon activity to view presentations.

Evaluate

-Evaluate student work by using finished product as a comprehension grade.-Students are able to reflect on his/her own work by assigning an individual grade to themselves upon completion of project using specific rubric.   Students will discuss through self evaluation and evaluation of teacher personal grade.   

Extend

At the completion of the entire biography activity:  -Students will use Voicethread to record their voice by reading their biography while kindergarten students follow along.  Then kindergarten students will respond to question posed at the end of the biography story, and share thoughts on the biography using Voicethread.-How will this person’s life help you be successful throughout the rest of the school year by giving at least one example on what you want to accomplish this year, or what would you want others in the school to remember about you by the end of the school year. -Students will learn how to stand up and fight for their dream or what they believe in, and never give up on their dream/belief, or on themselves.   Students will be able to realize that perseverance can overcome any obstacle, and help build individual character. -Students will be able to realize that they need to follow their dream and allow themselves to see the “big” picture in the world, and visualize how they can become part of it.   Set your sites high, and accomplish what you set out to do, or be.  Never give up on him/her self.  You never know who you can impact based on your accomplishments, and how you might change the world.