Caption for Photo: He brought in his adopted WWF animal (endangered sea turtle) and this started an inquiry about WWF animals.
Just in case you weren’t already aware from reading the “About Me” link on my blog (see above and left), I do not have a classroom at the moment to apply my Coetail ideas. So, I feel the need to “fess up” as I upload my project lesson plans that these are for a classroom in my imagination for the time-being. 
I get inspired by own elementary-aged children and their interests so I will try to make my lesson plans as authentic as possible from observing what they are involved in at school. My two younger boys LOVE animals. They have been adopting WWF animals to save for the last two years. O.K.–that’s their excuse to buy another “stuffie” toy but the toys are amazing reproductions of the real-life animals. You can’t purchase similar in a store and the money goes towards a good cause.
My youngest son inspired his classroom last year to adopt a WWF animal as part of their Ecosystems UOI. I’ve carried on the idea for an older set of students and I’ve made a lesson-plan for persuasive-writing skills. The integration of technology comes in as students understand that media can enhance presentation and therefore persuade.
Students will try to persuade each other what animal to adopt by creating a “pamphlet” with at least 3 multi-media links. They will peer-assess on effectiveness of persuasion and use of media. At the end, they will vote for the team that was the most persuasive. The final celebration of the activity is to actually adopt the most-voted-for-animal from WWF.
Before I bore you with my lesson plan, I thought I would share with you a video I made of my son’s UOI unit last year. I was an accompanying parent on their “pond-dipping” field-trip and being the “oh-so-techy-Mom” that I am—decided to make a funky music video to celebrate their learning in their Ecosystems UOI! (I was supposed to make sure the students weren’t falling into the pond and drowning themselves but instead I was busy shooting video. “Uh, now kids–don’t fall in the pond and if you do, give me a shout as I have to get a picture of that duck over there…LOL”)
Your task: Watch the video and peer-assess whether I’ve been able to persuade you to adopt a WWF animal based on my video-creation. Leave comments at the end of the blog. (Skip-over reading my boring lesson plan—that’s just for my grades for Coetail ;p~~~ We know where the real learning is evident!)
~Vivian
Vivian, we will be undertaking a similar task in a few weeks time. Having studied climate change, our students look at animals which are endangered because of it. They’ll write a persuasive piece from the animal’s point of view, in the animal’s voice. Last year they put the stories on their blogs along with a recording of themselves reading the story. This year we have large video screens at each entrance to our campus and we will use those to share the persuasive pieces with our school community. I like the links you have added in your teacher resources. I’ll share these with my team. Thanks!
Hi Lindy
That’s great that you are doing something similar. That means I’m not completely
“off-track” with my classroom in my imagination. I like the way you wrote your piece from the animal’s point of view. That’s even better!
~Vivian
Hi Vivian,
Just by viewing your creative blog page , reading your blog post and watching the video, speaks more than a thousand words that you are a ‘veteran’ teacher even though you’re working in your ‘imaginative’ classroom. Way to go! Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your expertise,
Theingi
Hello Theingi
Thank you for that compliment. It means a lot to me.
Vivian