Henrico County 400th Anniversary VoiceThread Project

Submitted by: Melissa Rama
Collaborators: Julie Franklin, ITRT
School: Crestview Elementary School

Summary

After completing Henrico County standards (HC.1 – HC2.2c), students were given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of learned content through various artistic activities. Students identified new information gained from reading and comprehending the nonfiction text of Henrico County. The new information learned was displayed in various creative forms such as hand drawn illustrations, Pixie, Keynote, GarageBand, Arc GIS maps, and Children’s Engineering projects. These activities were uploaded into VoiceThread and each student was given the opportunity to record his/her voice explaining the significance of Henrico County in their project. All student projects were compiled together to form one collaborative project for all 5th grade students demonstrating our knowledge of Henrico County’s history.

TIPC Ratings

Ideal/Target – This lesson falls in the target range because students used a variety of digital tools to create their Henrico County Project. Students chose from a variety of resources such as Pixie, GarageBand, and Keynote. Students also had the option to create a children’s engineering project or to illustrate their project by hand with paper and pencil. Regardless of the presentation choice, all options required interactive thinking skills.

Ideal/Target – The Henrico County project is in the target range because the students worked individually (with the exception of a few groups) to create projects about the history of Henrico County. In the end, all projects were displayed on VoiceThread as a collaborative fifth grade project. The students acted as a team with each person fulfilling their role in completing our group project. Students used appropriate resources to create their project and recorded their voices as a way to commuicate the new knowledge gained from reading.

Ideal/Target – Students have spent many years of their elementary education exploring Henrico County history. During our lesson of Henrico County history, students were able to reflect on how Henrico County has changed over the past 400 years. We could have easily spent more time exploring the Arc GIS website and conversing about the modifications in the school system. The Henrico Explorers program gives students the opportunity to explore Henrico County more in depth with their families to produce new understandings and reflect on knowledge learned in the classroom. This project would be in the target range for critical thinking and problem solving because it provides a dialogue among the students on how our county has changed. Students can see how the economy and school system have evolved over the past 400 years and pose new thoughts and ideas for what can be improved in the future.

Ideal/Target – The Henrico County VoiceThread is in the target category for many reasons. The fifth grade students worked hard over a period of time to create original pieces of work that required imagination. No matter how the individual project was created, all students had to have a vision of what they wanted to present to the class. Graphics had to be chosen carefully to portray an image of the new information gained from reading. Everyone worked hard to record their voices to make sure they sounded just right when explaining their project. All students used their imaginative and artisitic skills to create a picture of themselves in Pixie to use as their identity picture on VoiceThread.