Progress Report

I have about 10 students that are helping me out with this assignment. I have announced the project to two IDT 285 courses. I decided to wait until after Thanksgiving break to have people start posting so that they can take a break and not be overwhelmed with other assignments that they have to do.  They should have their videos and lessons posted by the end of the week. I will post their blog addresses later on so that you can see what they have done!

Blogger Book Talk

Blogger Book talk

The learners will collaborate and discuss different books that are read in a K-12 Level and mini lessons that can go along with them on Blogger.

The learner will be able to Follow other users, upload their video, write a lesson plan, and comment on other users posts.  


My learners are students in Western's teaching program. They are also are in the IDT 285 course where they learn some basic knowledge about Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.
The materials the students will need are:

1. A computer with internet access 
2. A video camera or a web cam
3. A Blogger account

 The learners are going to do a virtual Book Talk over a book of their choosing. They will record themselves giving a summary of the book, and along with a mini lesson plan for the book, post it to their Blogger account. They will then comment on other students blogs reflecting on the lessons and discussing the different ways they lessons could go.

Step-By-Step Procedures

1.  Pick out a book that you want to do a book talk on
2. Read the book
3. Record yourself with the camera or web cam giving a summary of the book
4. Load the video on the computer 
1. Make sure that it is in a .mov format
5. Log in to your Blogger Account
6. Create a new post on your blog
7. Upload the video to your blog and write out a mini lesson plan that goes along with the book
8. Post your video and lesson plan
9. When the other students have made their posts, comment on the book and how well the lesson fit. Offer suggestions or mention parts you really liked.

Assessment: The learners will have properly posted their videos and lesson plans, as well as written a proper lesson that correlates with their book of choice. They will also have written good and useful feedback to the other students doing the activity.

This is very helpful for new teachers because a lot of their resources are found online and they can collaborate with other teachers on lesson plans and assignments. They can also use this activity in their classroom, but instead of writing a lesson plan the students can talk about the major themes in the story as well as lessons that can be learned.

Project Proposal

For my project I plan on getting a group of Elementary Education teachers and having them do a "Book Talk" on their Blogger accounts. They will find a book that they can do a lesson on and video tape themselves giving a brief summary of the book and post it on their blogger account along with a description of a 30 minute lesson that goes along with the book. Then the other members in the group will comment on the post giving their input on what they thought about the book and how it connected with the lesson. Teachers could use this same method for students. Depending on the grade level they may need to help with the recording. The students wouldn't write a lesson but what they thought the message of the book was and discuss the different interpretations of it.