This document provides context about an instructional activity with 21 third grade students in a gifted program. The goal was for students to create a class timeline of their community's history by analyzing visual and auditory information from online sources. Students contributed individually but to a shared collaborative product using software like xTimeline and VoiceThread. The teacher provided guidance and accommodated different learning styles. Student skills like analyzing digital texts, gathering online information, and presenting ideas improved, but relying on authoritative sources remains a work in progress.

1. 1. Instructional Context
This entry features twenty-one third graders in a social studies class. There are eight girls
and thirteen boys, all of whom are eight or nine years old. At this age, students are most
motivated by their families. Many of the students were born outside of our local community and
all have relationships with family members abroad. All but one student come from families with
at least one college graduate, and all place high values on their children’s education and future
careers. Students each have a computer with internet access at home, and are technologically
savvy. This entry occurred over several days in our school computer lab, when it was available.
However, because the lab accommodates the entire school, some of the work occurred in our
trailer/classroom, where the two computers and interactive white board work inconsistently.
Students in this self-contained class are in the highly academically gifted (HAG)
program, which pools the students with the highest aptitudes in our district. Students receive an
accelerated and enriched curriculum to meet their unique needs. Some students show their
giftedness through the speed of their thinking, others show it through the depth of their ideas.
There is a wide range of academic motivation and achievement in the class. Several students
have been identified with attention-deficit disorder, but all students are enthusiastic to use
technology because it quickly responds to them. Students in the class have mixed learning styles
– some are auditory and others are visual-spatial. The class is very active and curious, though
sometimes competitive because this is the students’ first year in the HAG program. Students
struggle to emotionally adjust to a more challenging environment in which they are not the top
performing student in all areas, leading to social disruptions such as interruptions and poor
listening skills. Students join us from across the county and are becoming more independent, so
they are increasingly aware of our community.
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2. 2. Planning and Instruction
In this portfolio, students learned strategies to analyze visual and auditory information
obtained using the internet in order to create a class timeline of our community’s history. In
order to bond the class community, students contributed to a collaborative product. Having a
sense of belonging leads to school success, especially for these students who will be in classes
together until they graduate from high school. Working toward a joint goal encourages students
to have high expectations for themselves and others, as they hold each other accountable and are
increasingly social throughout the third grade.
Students need to read auditory and visual texts with fluency and purpose. While schools
have historically focused on reading, writing, and math, people experience the world through
their senses. At ages eight and nine, my students are still growing in their ability to assess print
materials and express themselves in writing. This project encourages success in students who
have different learning styles and gives all students strategies to explore various media.
Students need to skillfully browse and gather information from digital texts such as web
pages, Podcasts, television clips, and online collections of art. This enables them to become
reflective consumers of resources in an increasingly digital age. Students’ ability to analyze
digital texts and use this information to create products will help them become successful in
school and the workplace. When students are familiar with credible digital resources and
practice time management, they have unparalleled resources to achieve their goals.
Presentation skills are essential for students to clearly articulate their ideas, to be
understood, and to be appreciated. I am fortunate to work with students who have high academic
aptitudes. However, I realize that their brain power is only useful if it is shared with the world.
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3. When students share their ideas, they are proud and validated, and they can teach others their
knowledge, experiences, and unique perspective.
Students need to notice patterns in order to predict future changes. Because I teach gifted
students, my class is adept at noticing patterns – not only in math, but trends and themes in the
greater world. The theme of change over time has been examined in a number of cases
throughout the year – watching the moon wax and wane over the period of a month, observing
changes in a tree over the course of a year, and learning how our community has evolved over
centuries. Understanding this big picture concept will serve as a reference point for students to
cope cognitively and emotionally with the inevitable transformations they will go through as
they grow up so that they can be resilient.
Students need to become aware of their surrounding community. By participating in
interesting and meaningful activities that relate to our school and the surrounding community,
students recognize the relevance of our studies in their lives. As they learn about our community
and their power to influence it, students will become more involved citizens.
A number of assessments and observations indicated my students’ readiness to achieve
the above goals. Students have successfully completed a number of virtual products, and their
enthusiasm is apparent when technology activities are offered. Conversations with families
during conferences and engagement during field trips reveal curiosity about activities and sites in
our area. Also, when students share current events, they increasingly reference local events.
Students report reading challenging visual and auditory texts independently. Students encounter
challenging texts frequently during school – listening to interviews, examining photos and
diagrams in textbooks, etc., and have noticed themes, such as change over time, in a number of
subjects. For example, when we read historical fiction, students were quick to compare lifestyles
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4. of the past and present. As students present their work, they become increasingly aware of and
critical of their performance. They are more motivated when they can share their knowledge
with an audience outside of our classroom. They are most engaged when working on
challenging and long-term projects, but several students are still attaining organizational skills to
manage time and materials. Checklists and frequent conferences help them stay on track.
The skills and concepts learned while creating our community timeline are
interdisciplinary and can be applied to a number of areas. The ability to read visual and auditory
texts is a life skill, for images and sounds surround us that communicate meaning. Whether at an
art museum, listening to the radio, or following directions to a local restaurant, students must
determine significant information and use it. The theme of change over time can be applied to
almost any study or experience, as change is inevitable. Styles of music change, our
understanding of physics changes, friendships change… the list is endless. Skills used in the
creation of a timeline, such as sequencing, determining significance, and presentation apply to
many subjects – math and social studies, in particular. This project integrates all of the language
arts (reading, writing, listening, viewing, and speaking) so that students with differing learning
styles learn skills to develop each component of communication. The technology used in this
lesson can be used to study and to present information from a number of different subjects.
When students recognize the connection between school activities and our community, they will
become more engaged in other areas of study. The reflective process “Two Stars and a Wish”
that students learned can be applied to any endeavor in order to improve performance.
Technology is valuable because it absorbs students and encourages all students to be
engaged in their work. Students become active, each busily working at his own pace, rather than
passive, as during traditional lectures. They feel confident because technology responds as
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5. quickly as they do – this means that fast students get an immediate response to their questions
and commands and are not frustrated waiting on others. It also means that students, like those
who are more reflective or have attention deficit disorder, have time to process their thoughts
without encountering the impatience of others. Technology responds to the various speeds and
depths of responses from students and gives them choices regarding how to obtain and to display
information, while also broadening the audience for student work. Since my students are at an
age when they are heavily motivated by their families, and all of my students have contact with
family members abroad, the ability to share student work and get feedback from outside our class
has been tremendous.
I used a number of hardware and software products making our time line. Our classroom
received an ActivBoard interactive white board in the middle of the school year, and student
response to lessons using it has been drastic because it engages visual learners, when traditional
lectures were biased toward auditory learners. It also allows me to walk students through the
process and products they will use. xTimeline is the software students utilized to create our
timeline because it sequences and formats the images and information students submit. It also
allowed all students to log on to one account at the same time so that we could contribute to the
same product. VoiceThread is an application that utilized a web cam in order to record students
as they respond to an unloaded image. Students used this program earlier this year and
expressed the desire to use it again because students at this age are more comfortable responding
in speaking than in writing.
I used a number of digital data resources making our time line. We watched an archived
news clip from a station in another part of our state and visited our state website to gather
information about historical mile markers. We listened to two radio Podcasts about minor league
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6. baseball mascots and stadiums, then went to the website of our new minor league team and
submitted suggested names for our new mascot because we’ll visit the new field this spring. We
went to two museums’ digital art collections. We also searched in a collection (Digital Forsyth)
of local historical photos.
Our classroom is becoming more comfortable speaking and respectfully listening
throughout the year. This unit allowed the school technology coordinator and me to practice and
to model collaboration. Time in the computer lab allows my students to see me as a facilitator,
rather than as a source of information. I am more able to offer suggestions and support while
moving among the students to confer about their progress, so they are able to practice speaking
and listening with me. Student roles shift when using technology because they become peer
coaches and tutors, assisting each other and sharing their discoveries throughout the process.
Students are empowered and confident as they use tools that professionals use, because they are
trusted with expensive equipment and complicated software and their work is valued. The
interaction and attitude of students with less initiative or facility for traditional activities in class
improves with technology use. Students actively apply our school’s motto, The 3 R’s, to their
work. They are respectful of themselves and others by assisting and encouraging classmates.
They are responsible to use their time and do offer their best effort. They are reflective when
they review their work and behavior and consider how to improve it. These attitudes are key
social skills that will continue to develop over time, and will be useful throughout school and
into students’ careers. Establishing a learning environment in which students feel comfortable
speaking and are respectful learners is a year-long endeavor. Because this group is prone to
interruptions and teasing, I make a point of planning collaborative activities in which children
are encouraged to talk.
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7. 3. Video Analysis
This lesson focuses on analyzing visual art and social studies as we learn about our
community. It was the second of several lessons in which I taught students techniques for
analyzing audio and video texts using the interactive white board. Students had previously been
assigned a piece of art to locate and to analyze during a field trip. Upon returning, students in
this lesson reviewed the process of analyzing images, and selected another piece they had seen at
the museum to analyze because the first analyses were inconsistent in quality. Between the
video clips, students explored a variety of resources to help them gather information about our
community. Students analyzed a number of images, audio clips, and video clips. Throughout
the project, I gave students increasing amounts of choice in the images they selected and
encouraged personal connections to these selections. The analyses from all sources were
incorporated into a class timeline using xTimeline. During the second clip, students revisited
VoiceThread to create a self-reflection about their contribution to the community timeline. After
the video recording, students participated in a “Think Pair Share”, in which students reflected on
the benefits and drawbacks of creating a community timeline using xTimeline, discussed their
findings with a partner, and shared their thoughts with the group to pass on to future classes.
Students clarified their listening skills as I led a discussion reviewing what students
recalled when visiting a museum exhibit. This effectively activated prior knowledge, as
students’ comments reflected increasing depth, from the boy in black’s comment “some places in
New York” to Emily’s (off screen), “We heard about he loved city life and he wanted to make
sure other people knew what it was like, so that was why he painted all of those paintings”.
Students used visual cues and context while I gave directions to clarify vocabulary terms, such as
quadrant, vertical, horizontal, foreground, and background, like when the boy in camouflage
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8. pointed out the mountains in the background. While I explained, then modeled the analysis of an
image, students went through the quantitative process of labeling key facts in a heading and
listing objects in each quadrant fairly easily. Inferring significance of the objects, connecting the
community in the image to our community, listing questions, and considering where to find the
answer to those questions are more challenging qualitative skills for students. This activity is
significant because my students are surrounded by visual texts, yet often disregard them as
sources of valuable information in textbooks, on field trips, and in class.
I utilized “Two Stars and a Wish” as a method for students to react to their completed
community timeline. Students were asked to reflect on two things they were proud of
contributing to the community timeline and one thing they would like to improve. This
documentation will be reviewed when students create individual timelines as part of a later
biography unit. I gave the instructions using VoiceThread so that students would have a
subconscious reminder of how to navigate in the program and to visualize their audience.
Following filming, students performed a “Think Pair Share” in which the class discussed benefits
and drawbacks of the tools we used to create our timeline, and shared these results so that future
classes could work efficiently. By setting the purpose to reflect and to plan for future instruction,
discussions were effectively guided.
My interactions with students guided, then gradually released student responsibilities. I
first explained, then modeled the steps in the analysis of visual products. The process of analysis
can be applied to any visual text in any context. Opening the discussion with a review or
previous experiences at the museum activated prior knowledge. I explained then showed
expectations, and allowed questions so that students would clearly know what to do. I asked
leading questions to guide students in the desired direction in the conversation, “I’m not just
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9. standing in front of it in any way. Justin, what else do you notice?” This prompts students to
look closer at the image. I connected the photograph I analyzed to our scientific study of plant
adaptations so that students would recognize their ability to apply this skill in all content areas. I
taught a similar process for analyzing auditory texts, and students had repeated practice
opportunities using a variety of digital media between the two clips filmed. We had some
problems as students edited others’ work on the timeline, and respect had to be reinforced.
Students are encouraged by comments of visitors to our timeline. xTimeline also allows students
to add events to our timeline, so it will be a work in progress as we learn throughout the year.
A variety of accommodations were made to meet the needs of diverse learners when
creating our community timeline. Throughout this lesson, I provided opportunities for responses
in writing and speaking, as when students write analyses of visual texts and speak to the camera
to reflect on their work. Using the ActivBoard, students were able to read or to listen to the
example, depending on their preferred learning style. Student choice in selecting a piece of art to
analyze encourages them to pick a piece that reflects their personal background or interests. In
class conversations, I model wait time, so that students who need more processing time are not
disrupted when they are sharing their ideas, as when Sophie slowly pauses when saying
“You’re… obviously… in a place where it’s very hot”. I periodically called on Sam to ensure
he comprehend the conversation, because he is an at-risk learner. I adapted the number of
required timeline entries for students who were particularly successful or struggling so that they
could complete their work in the allotted time in the computer lab. The quality of analyses I
expected varied depending on the students’ needs. For example, I have a student who is learning
disabled in writing, so I was less critical of conventions in his writing. One boy who has
attention deficit disorder worked with a partner to whom he dictated his responses.
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10. 4. Reflection
Varying levels of progress were made toward achieving the goals of this lesson. Students
are noticeably more skilled at reading visual texts. When we visited a local museum for a field
trip, the docent commented on the students’ thoughtful analysis of paintings. Students are also
more apt to examine and refer to photographs in textbooks and the newspaper during class
activities. Students are gaining skills as they practice gathering information from digital sources.
They are more willing to try several keywords in a search, and our school media coordinator has
documented increasing diversity in the use of community and internet sources among students.
Students are familiar with a broader variety of digital sources with authority, but unfortunately
still often rely on more convenient resources, such as Google and Wikipedia, rather than
reviewed resources. Parents have commented on students’ increased awareness of our
community’s geography, as students have pointed out highway markers, the upcoming baseball
stadium, and other landmarks during local drives. Qualitatively, students have been more helpful
and attentive to others since this project. Students are confident using new technology and are
more willing to present to their peers because of the positive feedback from family members. I
feel that I met the needs of visual and auditory learners because I presented information using
both visual and auditory means, and students were encouraged to express their ideas using both
writing and speaking.
In the future, there are some adaptations I would like to make to this project. Next year, I
would like to introduce a community timeline at the beginning of the school year so that the
respect, responsibility, reflection, and collaboration could be reinforced sooner. I enjoyed
collaborating with our technology facilitator, and would like to plan computer lab time more in
advance so that parents might be able to come in and assist students as they learn new software.
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11. I would also like to encourage more parents to comment on digital student work in my weekly
newsletter. I was proud of how students have become more independent problem solvers and
have coped with the inevitable technical difficulties we encountered. I would continue to give
students as much free choice about the items they want to add to the timeline, as that seemed to
engage them. Rather than e-mailing or using my class website to communicate information to
families, I would like to establish a class wiki where parents, students, and I could all contribute.
I feel that students made the most growth as viewers and reflective speakers. Their
newfound strategies for analyzing images can be applied across subjects and locations. We live
in a society rich with visual texts – billboards, advertisements, photographs in textbooks, internet
sites, the list is endless. My students now have strategies to analyze these.
In the future, I would like to have more time in the computer lab to allow students to
explore. Students used VoiceThread in a previous unit, and have shown that they are more
independent with its use, both in terms of being able to maneuver through the software as well as
speaking to an audience and being more comfortable in front of the web camera. Now that
students are comfortable with xTimeline software and with collaborating as a group, I would like
for them to use it in future studies individually, such as when we write biographies.
I would like for students to contribute to our Community Timeline throughout the year,
such as when we go on field trips. I plan on extending this project so that students will each add
an organization that contributes to our community and needs support. I think that hosting a
fundraiser or service project would have a better response and would benefit from our
advertisement. The activity pertaining to the baseball team is especially significant because we
will be participating in a reading challenge this spring, and will be having a night at the ballgame
to celebrate the end of our school year.
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