Comprehending WILD Literature

Back to school in the FALL at Justin Elementary is all about policies, procedures, routines, and setting expectations with students.  One of the goals for 5th-grade teachers Ms. Haley Donaldson and Mrs. Becky Carlson is for students to take risks and try new things to enhance their reading comprehension. With that goal, both teachers are committed to incorporating relevant technology into her lessons to help students reach their goals across multiple literary elements.  After finishing the read-aloud Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, students were given the choice to produce a technology-infused product that represented: Theme, Character, Comparing, Setting, and Plot.

Emma N. from Mrs. Donaldson’s class really enjoyed making the WILD Wordcloud project.  She stated, “ I liked doing this project digitally because I got to be creative to choose my own words, design my own colors, and I chose a plane as the background. I found my idea to make the flipbook on Youtube.”

Students were challenged to capture the essence of the novel and give the reader a good idea of what the book was about.  In this novel, thirteen-year-old Brian is flying on a bush plane when the pilot suddenly has a heart attack and dies. Brian manages to keep the plane level until it crashes into a lake in the Canadian wilderness. Brian survives the crash, but that was just the beginning. Characters in many novels go on adventures and through their journeys teach the reader much about life and themselves. Below are more projects that follow Brian’s WILD  journey into the wilderness. Students used their Chromebooks and were given the choice of four types of tools to elaborate on their literary elements: Google Draw, Canva, Adobe Spark, and Wordcloud.  

In this video, Seth L. from Mrs. Carlson's class wanted to publish a video about what the WILD Canadian setting looked like to him after reading the book. Click here to view

Cameron L. said, “My favorite part was typing my paper in Google Docs since I have bad handwriting. I am really proud when I get my papers typed up, they look professional.”

Emory H. from Ms. Donaldson’s class chose to show the reader about the WILD setting of the book by using Google Draw.

Brady T. from Mrs. Carlson’s class showed voice and choice by producing a WILD monthly newscast in WeVideo about the book. To show his creative side he even interviewed his teacher as if she had the main character Brian in her class.  To watch the video - click here

Haley B. from Ms. Donaldson’s class used Canva to entice readers to come to visit WILD Hatchet by creating a magazine about the book. Click here to view the project.

These projects are showcased on the board outside the classroom in the hallway for all visitors to see. Also, they will be submitted to our district's learning showcase event EXPO in February.  More information can be found at http://expo.nisdtx.org  In closing, students demonstrated content-specific skills. This project utilized technology in a way that enabled students to demonstrate how they have empowered learners and creative communicators, crucial skills for being future-ready. (ISTE Student Standards)