Project 365 …er…6
by Pam Harris
I’m delighted that Sam asked me to share one of our AAC projects. Josh and I showed a powerpoint presentation about Project 365 at the 2007 Closing the Gap.
Project365 is something I heard about from my daughter last year. The premise is simple – take a picture every single day of the year. The idea came from Taylor McKnight at PhotoJoJo.com. I started to think about it, and how my son Josh and I could try it. We wanted Josh to practice writing, and he needs structure to do so. What if he wrote daily about the picture he took?
First, he needed to learn the vocabulary of photography.
From there, we created a light tech board.
And then we were ready to go! He would take his picture, upload it to his blog and then use his talker to write a few descriptive sentences about what he saw or how the picture made him feel.
Example:
This is Josh dad red Shelley Grandma and mom
This has been a wonderful experience for many reasons. Josh isn’t only getting the writing practice we hoped for, but is able to make connections to people through his blog. He is paying closer attention to the people and things around him. His responsibility for this daily task is increasing. He is learning and mastering technology popular and important to other people his own age (19 now).
In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we’re doing it again. We’ve begun Project 366, but now we’re using Flickr to upload, write about and host our pictures. Want to join us? It’s a great investment of your time and Josh would love to see what you have to share. You can google Project365 for tips and variations or make your own – who says you can’t do it weekly? With themes? All of one location? The possibilities and outcomes are as infinite as your imagination.
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Pam and Josh
This is a great idea. I look forward to seeing your postings.
Jeanne Beckman
Great project! We have a camp every year where we turn the kids loose with adapted cameras and do similar activities. Last summer they took 2100 photos during the week. They then used the photos to make QT movies, post to a blog, etc… We also had one classroom make an ABC book with photos the kids took throughout our city. Love the visual supports you developed. I had not done the step by step using the visual supports. It is a great idea!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Mark
Pam,
I love this idea and I am going to suggest it to teachers and families I work with as a strategy to get their students more involved in a variety of activities. I also really love the communication boards you made–I am definitely going to steal your ideas!
Beth
Wow, thanks Pam for this idea. We started a blog for my son, Nevin, to “write” stories with pictures. For our first story, I took pictures during our Nerf Gun shoot-out. And then together we picked out which pictures and together we came up with a sentence for each picture. My goal is that he can become more independent in his “writing” and start coming up with his own sentences. Nevin does not consider himself a “writer” and will often shut down and actually break a cold sweat when asked to write a story. I’m hoping to change his self-perception in this area. He is also enjoying people reading and commenting on his blog about his stories.
We started on the 26th and two weeks later, I am seeing progress. Nevin is excited to upload a story to his blog.
Thanks again for sharing!!
Laurie Smith
Check out my blog. I have lot’s of “stories”. (like mom said in the above comment!)
http://www.photoblog.com/IamNevin