Jim Coe over at Bionic Teaching has uploaded really cool quicktime files that assist with teaching the comma rules. Every year Jim reminds his student what the comma rules are prior to the state assessment. This year he decided to try to create a more visually appealing and effective presentation method. I think you will find the final files very well done and useful for your own class.
This lesson does two things very effectively for students: (1) demonstrates that technology can enhance teaching and learning and (2) that good design makes all the difference. While the students may not make real-world connections immediately to the value of the comma rules, they are more likely to learn the rules. In addition, these students have observed their teacher using technology in a novel and engaging way. Contrast these videos (they were PowerPoint presentations first) with other methods for teaching the rules. Which way do you think works better for student learning? Did you learn anything new by watching the videos?
4 comments:
Dave, the old guy dressed as GW, learned much about comma rules. Separating appositives was one I had forgotten. I must also learn how to create the clickable QT movies that Jim,the innovative teacher, used in his presentation to his students.
Gentlemen, Thank you for such a generous post on my presentations. I do appreciate the feedback. I want to clarify one point in my post: I used Apple's Keynote to create these presentations. Keynote gives you the option to export to Quicktime. It was a happy coincidence that the movies ended up "clickable."
Jim,
I noticed that last night when I was using your posts to acquire "things I should have learned in school had I been paying attention". I was afraid that was a feature of Keynote. We PC users really are second class citizens.
Are doing many more of these type of lessons? Love to share with our colleagues here in Colorado.
It's in the back of my mind. I won't be teaching any new major grammar units this year, but I have a poetry unit I'm trying to transform. I might create a few more on the nuts and bolts poetic elements. It would be against my "help a brother/sister out" mentality not to share any of my creations, so keep and eye on the blog...
As for the Mac/PC comment, I grew up on PCs. Loved them until I couldn't get under the Window's platform to play with DOS (I'm dating myself--must--stop). My last PC was a HP mini tower that managed to live a pitiful two years before it was only useful to me as a doorstop.
I bought an iBook for personal use four years ago. Before the Intel switch, before you could RUN Windows on a Mac. I will never go back. Your schools might not have Macs, but I highly recommend a Mac for your next personal computer. If you buy a laptop, you could create on it and simply hook it up to the school projector.
Ok, that was a much longer comment about Mac/PCs than I expected. Sorry about getting preachy...
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