Mrs.+Denaxas

=** Welcome to ** Mrs **. Denaxas's iPad page!! **=

Let's get one thing straight--I'm NOT the cool guy with sunglasses and a British accent at Apple's Genius Bar. I feel relatively positive that I will never be nearly as hip or as tech savvy as him either. However, what I can offer the students in the our new iPad program is my own love of literature and a willingness to try new things. My goals this year are to create an atmosphere that embraces learning (with the understanding that that inevitably means experiencing a few glitches along the way) and provide assignments that will be engaging, enlightening, collaborative, and meaningful. I have a feeling that the cool geniuses in the room will be the people without driver's licenses (Work on your accents, guys.), and I'll probably be learning as much from them as they learn from me.

= September =
 * With a focus on mood and tone, the students created soundtracks for their AR novels. They were required to choose five songs that they felt fit with five scenes in their book. Then, they used textual support from the song and novel to justify their song selection. A few examples and the rubric are below.



"Under Pressure" by Queen __Event__: "Just one more thing. Where are the keys to the box my father left me?" "Jeremy! How can you believe anything she says now?" I don't reply. The woman closes her eyes. In that second, Lizzy grabs a stick of incense from the pile and shoves it in her pocket. It doesn't even bother me. Madame Zaléski's eyes pop open. In a trancelike voice she says, "You have been very near to zhe keys vich you seek. You vil find zhem, but it vil take much vork." She shakes her head like she's clearing it. Holding out her hand she says, "Five dollars please." "You have got to be kidding me!!!" Lizzy shouts. "You're lucky we don't sue you! Come on Jeremy." I started to feel under a lot of pressure. __Explanation__: I picked "Under Pressure" as a song because I think it goes well with the paragraph above. I think they go well together because in the song the person is feeling under pressure. In the book Jeremy feels under pressure while trying to find the keys to unlock his dads box. He feels that he needs to find the keys and he feels responsible for them. He can't think of any other places to look. So he feels under pressure because not only is he counting on himself to find them but Lizzy and his mom are counting on him. That is why I picked "Under Pressure"as the song for the paragraphs above.

= October =
 * Students were assigned reading groups, and the groups were given the task of deciding on a book to read. Students then individually read the books while also creating edmodo (a secure social networking site similar to Facebook) pages. The ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍focus of this ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍project was on connecting with text, analyzing character, and citing text. Below are a few screen shots and the rubric I used.



= November =
 * Using the PhotoCard app, students created postcards through the perspective of one of the characters in the story they read. The assignment required them to describe an important setting from the story and the lesson the character learned.

Example Postcards:




= December =
 * Students were assigned to take summary notes while reading a short story. Then, working in groups, they used their summaries to create and verbally explain a story map in ScreenChomp.

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/7R1eYZJ9a

= January =
 * Students used the Sequence Events chart in the Tools4Students app to work on the skills of identifying important events and sequencing.

= February =
 * Students worked with a partner to brainstorm possible topics for a how-to essay. Then, partners used Idea Sketch to create an outline for their essay.
 * After reading a few examples of biographies and autobiographies as a class, kids worked in groups to create a biographical scrapbook. In order to determine groups, students were given a list of subjects (math, reading/writing, science, music, history, photography, etc.) and asked to number them in order of preference. Once the groups were decided, they identified a person in their chosen field that they felt was worthy of researching. I provided students with the rubric below, and gave them about one week to create a biographical scrapbook about their subject.

Example Student Work:

[] [|http://ianflemingbio.zapd.info]

= Upcoming in March =
 * Students will be applying their skills of persuasion to sell a product.
 * We'll be meeting in book groups once again. The project this time will be to create a book trailer and present it to the class.