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| I Notice and I Wonder |
Research shows that children need multiple opportunities to apply and practice what they have learned, particularly those important skills that they carry across the disciplines. At EMS, giving students opportunities and time to think creatively and critically is embedded into the curriculum design.
The third grade Lenape Research Unit provides an excellent example of how technology enhances the research process. Third graders took photographs of a recreated Lenape village on a field trip. Utilizing iPhoto, airdrop, and ComicLife, children learned to communicate and collaborate more effectively. Students uploaded photos to iPhoto, enhanced and edited, and then imported the images into ComicLife. It is through ComicLife that students began to see more clearly how to answer questions about the photos. As they looked at their images, “What do I wonder?” and “What do I notice?” were the questions students asked themselves. Noticing questions required students to look for clues in the pictures. Wondering questions led students to new sub-questions. Children collaborated by sharing their photos through AirDrop.
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| Whole to Part Relationships, Digging Deeper |
Visual literacy is a key aspect to reading and writing. These digital tools help support picture analysis by helping to evaluate, organize, and categorize images. While looking at the “whole” image, students practiced thinking skills such as collecting evidence, identifying the main idea, and inferring. ComicLife supports children in their ability to arrange ideas in a visual format. The design of the comic allows children to “zoom in” and “zoom out” of a picture to notice different details. The integration of knowledge and ideas gleaned from pictures is a literacy skill that supports the development of how children demonstrate their understanding of information.
