After each group composed their Pages document to capture the three elements (habitat, physical characteristics, and survival of snakes) we blended each group's work together in an eBook format. We had some quirks with importing ePub into iBooks so we decided to upload a PDF format into iBooks instead. You can download the complete book here. It will not provide you a preview or a virus scan because of the file size but continue to download as you normally would do. To view this in iBooks follow the following directions:
- Open your iTunes account.
- Click and drag your downloaded file from above (it will be called "Snake Investigations.pdf") into your iTunes Library on the left side of your screen.
- Synch with any of your devices. Make sure to open the "books" tab from your device summary page and check the "Snake Investigations" box.
- Open iBooks on your device. Make sure you select "collections" at the top of your library and choose "PDF"
- Snake Investigations should be sitting on your shelf.
Day Four - Finishing the Research
Tons of progress to end our week! The kids seemed to think that by assessing their progress after day three, they were better equipped to work more efficiently today. One shift we're considering for our next wave of projects is to incorporate a checklist for each group to help them remain on-track. But besides clarifying their focus, a checklist will help the students develop a sense of pacing when working on long-term projects which is the type of skill that can only be taught through experience. We'll add this to the list for next time...maybe even tie it to the rubric.
iPad Tip of the Day
Although the cameras on the iPad 2 aren't the greatest, you can make the most of the experience by zooming in and out when capturing images. To do this - place two fingers together in the middle of the screen, push out or pinch in to zoom accordingly.
Day Three - Determining Needs
Nothing out of the ordinary on day three. The partners seem to have hit their stride and did a much better job sharing the workload. At the end of the day we took 10 minutes to assess the progress and set tomorrow's agenda. All in all, most of the groups should finish the graphic organizers on day four and be ready to start the new week with the product portion of the project: an informational document created in Pages for the class book.
iPad Tip of the Day
Ever scroll way down a web page or scour 10s of documents in your iCloud? Well, the road to get back to the top just got much quicker...single tap the top of your screen and your back at the beginning just like that.
Day Two - Sharing the Responsibility
After the excitement of day one settled in, we decided to set the focus of day two on teaching the 1st graders how to copy/paste from resources into the graphic organizers. In fact, an unintended consequence of this approach was the reinforcement of the importance of the multitask bar. In addition, we introduced the "speak" function given the fact that it appears in the selection menu and since it's a natural for younger readers.
As the teachers walked around today, our primary look-for was to determine the effectiveness of the peer teaching and consequently, the sharing of responsibility. We noticed dramatic shifts in ownership on two fronts: the 1st graders engaging on another level and how the 3rd graders recognized how their efforts to "let go of the bike" paid off. A definite win-win!
Now that things are off and running, we're thinking two more days of information gathering and on to production on Monday. Stay tuned...
iPad Tip of the Day
Ever wondered how cool it would be to have YOUR writing read back to you...now you can! Tap and hold the text, adjust your selected section using the dots, and select "speak" from the menu. Now you can listen to hear if your writing actually "sounds right."
But usefulness doesn't stop there - you can employ the speak function on many websites and applications, too.
Day One - Gathering Information
Something new that we've tried with this project is to have the kids create the graphic organizers using the parameters provided by the teachers. The organizers were created using Pages on the iPad which were sent to iTunes. Since we've had issues with iCloud, we simply copied each document from iTunes onto the devices to minimize the headaches. In addition to the organizers, we're also going pencil and paperless.After fielding questions throughout the session, the only hiccups were the place holders (lines, boxes, etc) preventing the pasting or typing of text. We suspected this might happen but as usual, the kids adapted well and in some case figured it out on their own. All they needed to do was delete the place holder and insert content like they typically do. Which leads into our tip of the day....
iPad Tip of the Day
Using the multitask bar is an efficient way to toggle between the resources and the organizers. This allows seamless copying and pasting of relevant information between the resources and the Pages document. There are two huge advantages to this so far:
- To be able to move between applications all on one device affords us the luxury of the one thing you can't buy...time. Just reflect for a second how much longer it takes to look up information in a book, copy it down on your paper organizer, and go back into your resource for the next information. Now spring forward for the product portion of our project...another time saver.
- Copying and pasting ensures correct spelling of complex vocabulary terms often discovered throughout any research process.
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