Welcoming Spanish 7 and 8

The first two months of 2020 proved to be a busy time in the Iroquois Middle School Library.  Book checkouts, either from the physical library or from our digital OverDrive collection, remain steady.  There have also been a variety of visits across classrooms and grade levels. 

January 2020 Monthly Report

February 2020 Monthly Report

While it is natural to think that library and ELA/reading would be a natural pairing, other subjects frequent the library as well!  It was exciting to welcome both seventh and eighth grade Spanish classes into the library to kick off 2020.

Seventh Grade Spanish Book Creator Project
Ms. Marcinkowski brought her classes into the library for the second straight year for a project utilizing the Book Creator resource.  Book Creator is an online platform allowing students to create their own polished digital books.  I first learned of Book Creator through the American Association of School Librarians as it was chosen as a 2018 Best Website for Teaching and Learning.

The three day project was set up in a similar fashion to last year's visit led by library student teacher Ms. Allison Ryan.  One major difference between the projects was the subject matter.  This year, Ms. Marcinkowski's students focused on making books related to classroom objects, school supplies, and their likes/dislikes of different school subject areas.

Day one of the project was devoted to organizing project ideas into a storyboard outline.  Students partnered up to work together on figuring out what they would put on the cover and ten pages.  Each page would consist of an illustration, a sentence in Spanish, and a student audio recording of the Spanish sentence.  This storyboard helped ensure that students would have a solid plan before utilizing the Book Creator service.

Storyboard student example.

Students were responsible for ten page digital books.

Each page would include an audio narration in Spanish.

During day two, the classes received a brief overview about how to log in and use Book Creator.  How to add pages, backgrounds, illustrations, text, and audio were discussed in depth.  After the overview, students then got to work creating their digital books.  On day three of the project, students put the finishing touches on their project, including audio narration.

It was great to see a high level of enthusiasm and engagement during this project!  Teams worked efficiently and effectively in order to get their project completed.

Eighth Grade Spanish Green Screen Project

New for this year was a visit from Mrs. Germann and her eighth grade Spanish students.  Mrs. Germann was up for trying something different, so we decided to make use of the recently purchased green screen!  This screen and the accompanying lighting are housed in the library's back room, a perfect place for a student recording studio.

Prior to visiting the library, Mrs. Germann challenged groups of four students to develop a Spanish script pertaining to our school's dress code.  Each student would have at least four lines of dialogue.  Although it wasn't required, many students chose to memorize their scripts.  Other groups relied on note cards or cue cards during recording.

When groups came to the library to record, they were given a short amount of time to rehearse their lines and prepare their props.  Each group also had to decide on a background that would be used in place of their green screen.  We used the image search capabilities in Bing in order to find appropriate backgrounds.  Bing has a filter feature which allows users to search for only the images that are free to share, use, and modify.

Groups then took turns using the backroom of the library to record.  The green screen and the lighting really transformed the library into a professional recording studio!

The bright lights helped to remove shadows from the background.

Each group member had four lines of dialogue.

Some groups asked classmates to hold their cue cards.

Once each group recorded, the green screen background was swapped out with the image found via a Bing search.  On day two in the library, students learned how to use the Microsoft video editor app in order to add a title slide and credits (in Spanish, of course) to their finished project.  Some groups even went the extra mile and added background music to their videos!

On the Friday after the project concluded, Mrs. Germann showed the completed videos for each group that felt comfortable sharing their projects.  Special awards were also given out in a variety of fun categories for groups showing extra degrees of preparation or creativity.

Mrs. Germann was kind enough to bring in an award for me!

Student feedback on this project was varied.  Some students did not like recording themselves, which is totally understandable.  Seeing or hearing yourself on film can be unnerving!  Other students really enjoyed the opportunity to use technology to display their Spanish language knowledge in a creative way.

It's always wonderful to have our Spanish classes visit the library!  We look forward to seeing these classes in again soon.

Foreign Language Authors

Hello! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ms. Ryan and I am the student teacher from UB currently working with Ms. Muhlbauer in the Iroquois Middle School Library. I will only be here for a short time, but I have already had so many wonderful experiences in this library! It has been a joy to come into a learning community where students are eager to engage with books and teachers are utilizing the space and resources in innovative ways.

One of the first projects I was lucky enough to be a part of was a foreign language lesson in the library. Ms. Marcinkowski and Ms. Gaske brought their 7th grade Spanish and French classes in to work on a project that would allow them to become foreign language authors using a website called Book Creator. The purpose of this lesson was to give students the opportunity to apply their new French and Spanish vocabulary in a creative and meaningful way by writing a children’s picture book in a foreign language.

This was my first time working with Book Creator and I was excited to share with students the tools that were available to them and explore the possibilities of this website together!

During students' first visit to the library they were able to choose the topic for their book from a list generated by their Spanish or French teachers. Possible topics included “numbers”, “colors”, “weather”, “emotions”, and “personal I.D.”.

Before students began working on their digital book, they created a rough draft using a storyboard. This let them visualize what each page of their book would look like including text and pictures. Just looking at their storyboards we could already tell these books were going to be great!

"Emotions" storyboard

Plans for a book about "Colors"

The students are such talented artists!

Another great storyboard

On Day Two in the library, students were able to log on to Book Creator and begin designing their digital books. Each page of their book was required to have one sentence or phrase in French or Spanish and a picture to match the text. Students were shown how to import images from a Google image search and import hand-drawn illustrations using their laptop cameras. There was lots of excited chatter in the library as students worked on this part of the project.

Learning all about Book Creator.

Students were so focused on this project! 

Ms. Marcinkowski instructing the Spanish students.

On our final day together, students had an opportunity to display their speaking skills by recording themselves reading their books in Spanish and French. A few students even volunteered to share their finished books with the rest of their class.

Making sure the Spanish is just right!

Sharing the finished books.

The completed books will be shared with the 6th grade students later this spring when they visit French and Spanish classes before choosing a language to study in 7th grade. We were so impressed with the books the students were able to make for this project. This was a fun way for students to showcase their foreign language skills. Thank you Ms. Marcinkowski and Ms. Gaske for bringing this project to the library! It was a pleasure to work with you and your students!

Spanish Pen Pals with Flipgrid

It's always wonderful to bring new teachers and subject areas into the library!  Ms. Marcinkowski, Iroquois Middle School's new seventh grade Spanish teacher, was eager to bring her students into the library for a special project.

The purpose of this project was to allow students to use their Spanish speaking and listening skills in an authentic context while appropriately using technology.  The objective of this project was met by crafting a pen pal project through the use of Flipgrid.  Flipgrid is a safe, educational platform which hosts audio and video.  Educators are able to post a prompt and then students are able to record video and audio responses. 

For this project, Spanish 7 students at Pioneer Middle School in Yorkshire, NY would be viewing the Iroquois students' videos.  Iroquois students would also have the opportunity to view videos created by the Pioneer students.  The Flipgrid resource provided a great way to facilitate a digital pen pal project!

The Flipgrid prompt was created by Ms. Marcinkowski.  The requirements of the prompt allowed students to showcase their knowledge of vocabulary from previous units.  Students used their vocabulary packets in order to prepare a written script as a response to the prompt.

Students prepared a script to use for the Flipgrid prompt.

Once students had their scripts approved by Ms. Marcinkowski, it was nearly time to begin the recording on Flipgrid.  However, before students began recording, this was a perfect time to review some internet safety and overall privacy tips.  Although Flipgrid is a safe platform due to its use of passwords and unique URL links, there are many instances where students may be in an unsafe environment online.  Through utilizing digital safety flyers I had created, we held class discussions on internet safety concerns.  It is important that students understand how to protect their personal information while online.

One of the tech tip flyers used to facilitate a digital safety conversation.

It was now time to begin recording.  At this point in the project, there was some level of differentiation.  A handful of students did not receive permission to use Flipgrid, so they instead created postcards using their script.  Other students were allowed to record audio, but not a video of their face.  These students either covered their laptop's camera or pointed it to another object.  It took students a few tries to get the hang of using Flipgrid.  Seeing and hearing yourself on video can be a little unnerving, but they powered through the awkwardness and recorded some outstanding videos.

Students found a quiet space in the library to record their Flipgrid videos.

Listening to yourself on video led to some giggles!

Ms. Marcinkowski helps a student troubleshoot some recording issues.

After students were satisfied with their recordings and saved them to Flipgrid, they moved on to Part 2 of the project.  For Part 2, students visited the Pioneer Middle School Flipgrid page to view the recordings from the Pioneer students.  As a test of their listening skills, the Iroquois students wrote down (in English) what they believed the Pioneer students said in their videos.

Students recorded their interpretation of what the Pioneer students expressed in their videos.

There were many positive outcomes from this project.  Students gained a familiarity with the Flipgrid platform, which will allow them a safe space on the internet to record their thoughts.  They also had a chance to practice their vocabulary in a way that was interactive and fun.  The Iroquois students loved viewing the videos posted by the Pioneer students.

Ms. Marcinkowski and I would like to thank Ms. McKenzie and Mrs. Racitano, the Spanish teacher and librarian at Pioneer Middle School, for their willingness to partner with us for this project.  We're looking forward to creating more opportunities for the Iroquois and Pioneer students to communicate as pen pals!