Collaborative Project - Second Grade Research Reports

Second grade general Ed, ELL and Special Education students collaborated to share research projects. We used a keynote presentation introduce the project to students. Then had students work in teams to find pictures for their report and make their recordings. It was very helpful to have other teachers to share ideas and pointers as we learned to use the app.

 Keynote Presentation - Shadow Puppet Introduction

Lessons Learned

This was the first time we used Shadow Puppet – students caught on quickly and had no problems finding photos to go with each part of the research project. It was very time-consuming though. When we got to the recording part, we learned two important things:  First, make an indication on the report to show where you will switch to the next picture.  Second – you need a quiet place to record to avoid background noises.

Opportunities to Collaborate

It was helpful to be able to learn about this with other teachers and bounce ideas off each other as we went through the process.  I also loved seeing the work of the other second graders.

Two of my ELL Level 1 students were able to go to the general education classroom to help students in that larger group use Shadow Puppet…a great opportunity for them to practice using English language in an authentic environment.

I moved the finished products into the students’ Seesaw learning journals. Students can go back and listen to them and share them at any time. I also emailed finished products to their classroom teachers and parents.

Students were very excited about the process and the end product.  Their published work was excellent.

Taking it to the next level

We all debriefed after the project and thought that one way we could take students to a higher level of thinking /collaboration is to make the recordings a literacy center.  Students could listen to a peer’s recording and give them feedback.  The Seesaw journal allows you to make comments, so we could have students do a two stars and a wish type of feedback.