As happens in the run up to Winter Break, time takes on some very strange and elastic properties. While days once dragged on endlessly, they are now short. Or time is endless, but your students’ attention span is not. What I find happening with classes in my school is that as time winds down to the break, the ability for classes to complete research reports planned in the hope and optimism of October/November disappears. What options do you have beyond having students cram in a low-quality writing assignment in the time remaining and handing out coloring sheets? How about gathering together what the kids have learned and putting it on a VoiceThread. Since this scenario happened with the fifth graders I see, I’m going to share how I think this could work in a regular classroom with only a few computers (let’s say 2-6).

Requirements:

Knowledge of how to create a VoiceThread. This is not a very high barrier. If you haven’t done it yet, get out some of those holiday pics you’ve taken in digital form and go to this page for how-tos, then create a VoiceThread on your own. Once you’ve done one, you’re ready to do it with your class. I’ll try to hit on some of the management aspects in my instructions. You’ll need at least one computer with an Internet hookup. A digital projector to share the results with the class would also be nice.

1. Research and writing: Likely you will have already done some of this, just not enough for each student to come up with a one, two, or five page report.  The idea at this point is to gather what knowledge they have gained.
Lab version: I had them in the lab, so they read on the Internet. The topic was Astronomy. I had them go to sites with information about the topic. NASA Kids has a whole encyclopedia of information on astronomy topics they can search. I’m more concerned with the lexile level at Wikipedia, than the quality of information (since science sections are pretty well-maintained, they can be more up-to-date than encyclopedias). WikiJunior has an astronomy section as well at a more accessible reading level for elementary students. I had the students write short blog posts summarizing a paragraph they read. I could have had the kids correct each other online by replying to each others comments with editing suggestions.
Class Version: If the class is doing a thematic unit they should be reading on paper as well as the Internet. Have take turns in pairs on computer looking up the online topics, and then have them look through books in the classroom as well. Have them do quick writes (a couple sentences) paraphrasing what they learned. You could have them pass the quick writes around for a “buddy” edit.

2. Getting photos: Visuals will make this more engaging for the kids and give them something to speak to.
The NASA site has a number of excellent pictures if astronomy is your topic. Flickr Commons is also good for other topics. VoiceThread will let you use creative commons photos on Flickr by using the Media Sources button when you are adding photos/video to your VoiceThread. You may want to “pick out” photos by searching Flickr in advance, as the VoiceThread tool is really great, but the search facility is not as strong as Flickr’s. A tip for looking for astronomy pics, add NASA as a search term (all government photos are public domain and can be used) to get the best photos of planets, etc. Pull one or two of the kids back at a time to pick out photos to use.

3. Add students’ voices: This is where the small parts they have learned will be gathered together and hopefully make something of more depth.
Have the students come with their quickwrites (or if you’re in the lab, pull up their comments on the blog), and have them read what they wrote as a comment on an appropriate picture. Ask them a follow-up question to see if they have picked up knowledge beyond the recall level. You can also have them come up in pairs or trios. Since you’re recording, you’ll want it quiet (although I never get it “silent” and you shouldn’t worry about that). Make sure the other students know to give you silent signals, etc. at this time. You might want to consider a small coloring/drawing project to keep the other students engaged, then you can scan or take a picture of the best ones to put up on the VoiceThread.

4. Listen and learn: Play the VoiceThread for the class via projector, or have them go up in small groups and listen. Ask them to share something they learned from others. If time permits, you can have them leave comments.

Is this as good as a research report? Is this going to have a lot of higher order thinking? Maybe, maybe not, but it will make the work they’ve done more useful and long-lived than just stopping abruptly, and not completing the reports. It will also give you and the students some closure on the thematic unit.

Here are the results I got: