Reflections

=Reflections on our Inanimate Alice Journey=

//**Teacher Reflection **//

I had a huge amount of fun exploring and learning about multi-modal literacy with Inanimate Alice. I would never have attempted it without the detailed unit plan and student examples by Margo Edgar and Kate Story of Alice and Friends. They helped scaffold the lessons for me by showing samples of classroom work while using the same unit plan. It allowed me a chance to explore different aspects of the story and characters through different curriculum areas.

The Inanimate Alice literacy unit took a term (10 weeks) to complete. We usually had one 40 minute lesson twice a week, although I still took guided reading and writing every week.

It was really exciting to see my students really enjoying this story. What was amazing was the critical thinking and thoughtful conversations I overheard.

Next time I would spend more time teaching PowerPoint, sound and image skills. I would also spend more time at mid production point evaluating with the students whether their digital stories match their planning. We needed to have more accountable writing conversations and group writing conferences.

//**Student Reflection **// What did you enjoy about writing and creating your own Inanimate Alice? - Pearl said, “I had fun putting the sound effects on to the slides.” - Viola said, “I think we did well because we looked back at the other episodes. I have enjoyed getting all of our ideas and putting it in one interesting story.”

What do you think is good about digital stories like Inanimate Alice? - Catherine said, “how the sounds reflect the mood.” - Viola said, “It makes it interesting because of the sounds and pictures.” - Shradha said, “you get to interact with them.”

You have written your own Inanimate Alice story and created a digital version with your team. What would you do differently next time? - Catherine said, “I would have music on every slide.” - Shradha said, “Not get distracted by the big bit (navigation) and concentrate a little bit more on the small bits like pictures.”

//**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Class Blog Posts **// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">http://baileyrdteam17.blogspot.com/2010/07/inanimate-alice.html <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">http://baileyrdteam17.blogspot.com/2010/09/inanimate-alice.html <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">http://baileyrdteam17.blogspot.com/2010/09/inanimate-alice_23.html