ELA Lesson with Technology

This semester I have been fortunate to complete my field hours at New Albany Middle School. As a part of methods placement, I am required to teach multiple lessons. One of the lessons I developed was having the students create an Ipod playlist. The sixth graders had just completed Crash a young adult novel by Jerry Spinelli. The students were asked to choose a character from the book and then create a playlist of either 5 songs, movies, podcasts, etc. Their selections had to describe their character and then they had to defend their choices on paper. Additionally, the students were asked to design there character's Ipod. Using an outline of an Ipod on a sheet of paper students could draw their character's wallpaper, apps, home screen, etc. Probably 60% of all of the students in my cooperating teacher's classes have ipods or mp3 players. This language was very familiar to them. The students enjoyed the choice and creativity this project provided. Several students were relieved that they were not asked to write a paper. Students were able to use songs, movies, apps on their devices in a way that incorporated literature. Students were also permitted to share what they had on their devices with other students that did not have a device. The familiarity and comfort the New Albany students had with this technology made for less scaffolding to be done However, this lesson could accomplished at any school because the end project is in paper form. Students do not need to have ipods to do this project, they need a background knowledge of songs or movies to draw off of. This project received positive feedback from the students. Students enjoyed the choice this project offered and the chance to be creative. I will undoubtedly use this lesson in my future teaching.