Movie version of Thursday 8/19/10 slide show

Thursday night students presented their movie version of Where the Wild Things Are to teachers, staff, families and friends of MECDHH's 2010 literacy camp.  In addition student work was displayed in the school lobby.  Students proudly walked families through the gallery of posters, models and writing pieces.  Each piece of writing began with a pre-writing venn diagram, first draft and final draft.  In four short days, students worked towards making a movie, reading the text and creating their own narratives.  Likewise students socialized with Deaf and hard of hearing peers from all over Maine, learned  from Deaf adults and strengthened their communication skills in an environment accessible to them. Congratulations on a great camp experience and see you all next year!

Life Lessons from Max

Life Lessons from Max

Life Lesson number one--  Happiness is coming home to a hot supper.   Click on the link above to read more life lessons. 

search for words

Every afternoon this week, after lunch, the students had a scavenger hunt. The weather was beautiful this week, so it has been great to get out and enjoy the island in all its summer splendor. We are lucky to have this campus for our camp. The trees and flowers are in full bloom, and a gentle sea breeze keeps us cool.
The scavenger hunts involved looking for words and pictures from Where the Wild Things Are.
One group of campers had to walk around the school buildings and find their words using some (sightly) cryptic clues.
Another time the campers had to find letters hidden close to objects near the building. The 'clues' were close-up pictures of these objects - like the one in the picture above. Finding the letter from this picture was not too draining for most campers.
When the students found their words or letters, it was back to the library or lobby, to put them together to make words and sentences. It was a great way to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings with a fun literacy activity.

Sneak Preview

A teaser from a scene shot tonight!

ASL and Film make a merger

The campers have been hard at work composing skits, dances, and special creature features for the performance tomorrow night! The campers are excited about having an interactive live performance with the film scenes.
We had a special surprise event arranged by one of our Dorm Staff- Sarah Hill, after snack this afternoon. The sisters from Hardcore Hooping came to teach all of us how to hula hoop! The kids (and the staff, too:) got really creative after learning some of the basics. What a workout, too.
Due to technical problems, 17 minutes worth of footage did not get onto the tape so its unfortunate that we cannot share the part where our campers did some hardcore hooping! Wheres Wayne when we need him? :)
Everyone is now getting ready for S'mores and campfire story time! I will be back tonight to post a new sneak preview.

Rough Drafts and Peer Editing!

This morning was a busy one focusing on bringing everything together from the week in each camper's written piece.  For the last couple of days they have been working on organizing their thoughts in visual ways using a variety of graphic organizers.  Today students began working on their rough drafts writing a comparing and contrasting piece either about themselves and Max, the main character in Where the Wild Things Are or comparing and contrasting themselves and their "creature" they have created this week. When they finished their rough draft they then began to peer edit, as well as conference with an adult to some level of degree.  Here is a video clip of Stacey and Josh peer editing.  Stacey is sharing her written piece with Josh, and Josh is giving her suggestions of how to improve her piece, as well as letting her know what he enjoyed about it! Tomorrow......final drafts!!

Day 3 and the Writing Process

Students worked on organizing their thoughts using  Venn diagrams to describe themselves and their monsters.   This pre-writing step allows students to organize their thoughts, write down ideas and then sentences.  Once their sentences were written, the students could write a short narrative about themselves and their monsters.  Campers did some amazing work today!