Learning Commons Lowdown

February 2018

Bookbytes: LC-Style Green Screen Book Reviews

Bookbytes are the LC's homegrown version of nutshell-style video book reviews using a green screen background.

During February, 6th graders recorded their Bookbytes using the Touchcast Studio app, pasted their scripts from Google Docs into the app's Teleprompter, and used images from the LC's awesome image search app Britannica Image Quest (for background images) and Google Image Search (for book cover images).

This ongoing media feature will continue as 7th graders record their bookbytes during March. Finalized and approved bookbytes will be hosted on the LC's Tiger Book Bytes guide.

READ-ALOUD-A-THON 2018

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On February 27 & 28, the LC sponsored its 4th annual Read-Aloud-a-Thon in honor of Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day.

This year’s Read-Aloud-a-Thon tied into themes of African American History Month by featuring various poetry and picture books by and about notable African Americans, from Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou.

Students signed up to read aloud individually, in pairs or triads in 5-minute increments throughout the day. See the photo gallery below for highlights of our fabulous student readers this year.

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Collaborative Instruction Highlights

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Arts Integration Collaboration: Biographies as Portraits

English Department Chair & Teacher Ms. Williams shared her training on Arts Integration by leading a flipped instruction activity on reading Biographies as Portraits with 8th grade Pre-AP reading classes. Prior to the class session held in the LC, students watched a flipped instruction video starring Ms. Williams modeling the techniques students would implement in class the next day. The video utilized the LC's green screen and was filmed, edited and produced by LC Librarian Ms. Diaz. After observing the model class, teachers Mrs. Mainord and Mrs. Caro then led the activity with their remaining classes.

This Arts Integration lesson is part of a yearlong series of workshops offered to NEISD teachers through a partnership with the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts and the Kennedy Center.

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Breakout EDU: The Outsiders

8th grade reading classes visited the LC for a Breakout EDU experience centered on the novel The Outsiders.

Breakout EDU is an educational version of the Escape Room concept, where teams work together to solve theme-based puzzles, codes and clues to "break out" by unlocking a series of locks on breakout boxes.

DIGITAL RESOURCE (SEARCH APP) SPOTLIGHT:

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CultureGrams

Did you know that inside CultureGrams...

you can search the world - just click on what map you want to search - World, Kids, States, or Provinces
you can browse for Photos & Slideshows, Videos, Interviews, even Recipes by country
each country includes graphs & tables, flags, and of course, maps!
it's easy to connect to Google Drive and Google Classroom

To access this search app, students can log into Launchpad from the NEISD homepage using their NEISD login credentials. These and other fabulous "search apps" live inside the Library Resources cluster inside Launchpad (see picture above). Explore more about Culturegrams here.