Web Page Design

Project Name

Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement


Description of Learning Goals and Standards

This lesson could be used in a Fifth grade history course using Standard 24. It could easily follow a discussion of the Civil Rights Movement. It could also be incorporated into the Eighth Grade as part of a civics topic to make students aware of how they as U.S. citizens can help shape policy.

Fifth Grade Standards
24
Topic: Post World War II
Standard: Categorizes the economic, social and political changes in the United States and Georgia since World War II including- segregation, desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement- patterns of immigration- role of women- advancement of technology, and- impact of drugs and gangs.

Eighth Grade Standards
67
Topic: Civic Participation
Standard: Identifies and demonstrates alternative methods of managing conflict.
68
Topic: Civic Participation
Standard: Formulates and defends positions on an issue.
69
Topic: Civic Participation
Standard: Recognizes the right of others to present different viewpoints
70
Topic: Civic Participation
Standard: Participates in planning for effective civic actions; demonstrates effective civic actions. 71
Topic: Civic Participation
Standard: Organizes and participates in activities for effective civic action within the community.


Rationale for Technology

Creating a website provides access to more students. There is less material available about some of these people amd what does exist would be quickly checked out. With a web page, everyone can read about a certain topic at the same time.


Description of Lesson Implementation

This lesson would be coordinated with Black History Month. After teaching a unit on the Civil Rights movement and its prominent leaders, time would be spent on lesser known people who also made a difference. Students would first be asked to think of something they did that made a direct impact on other people. Have them think about whether they meant for this to have an impact or not. From there, talk about how there have been people throughout history that also did this, knowingly or unknowingly. Have the students visit the websites to learn about the lives of some of these people.

Assessment

Students would be assessed using a short quiz to test their understanding of the material and to make certain that they had visited the website. A short essay could also be written . I think this topic could generate a good bit of classroom discussion so I would use this time to ascertain that all students were using this site.

Other Places to Use this Solution

While history is the logical place for this lesson, it could be implemented in a lesson on citizenship focused on developing an understanding on how one person's life, no matter how obscure, has an effect on everyone. Across the curriculum, it could be tied into an English lesson, perhaps composition or literature.

What I learned and What I Would Improve On Next Time

Building a website the first time is very time-consuming. I needed help inserting graphics so that they would not split the table and needed assistance in publishing this . That would be much easier next time. I would add more questions next time(since I wouldn't spend as much time on layout.) I would like to add an interactive website to the next one--perhaps a crossword puzzle or treasure hunt as I became more proficient with websites.

References/Resources Used

I used the technology personnel in the IT lab as well as the tutorial for Netscape. I saved graphics from various sites dedicated to Black History month. Several websites were downloaded from the Dekalb Library website. It had several ideas for Black History Month. The following addresses were used:

• www.dekalblibrary.org
• www.biography.com/blackhistory
• www.kn.pacbell.com/wired

Lesson Plan1-Revised

Sunday, February 20, 2005


Revision of Lesson Plan I-Complete Lesson Plan 1

Lesson Plan 1

Project Name:

Creating a Newspaper

This lesson plan from ReadWriteThink can be accessed from:

www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=249

and is an excellent format for turning students into lifelong news readers. While creating a class newspaper, students hone their reading and writing skills as well as begin a lifelong appreciation for effective news reporting. They incorporate critical thinking skills, reading, and writing skills as well as computer technology skills.

Description of Learning Goals and Standards

The following standards were met for grades 3-5:

• 4--Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g. conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5—Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6—Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8-Students use a variety of technological and information resources (libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 11—Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Rationale for Technology

Allowing a student to take what he has learned and implement it physically allows the student to make that knowledge a part of him. Learning all aspects of the newspaper and then using the READWRITETHINK Printing Press lets the students format their stories into their own classroom newspaper. As they are transformed into reporters and editors, they will become effective users of technology to publish their own classroom newspaper. This is a very creative and exciting way to integrate technology into the reading and writing areas of school. Taking ownership of their product—checking for correct language, punctuation, flow of sentences—before they publish their newspaper for the class should instill pride in an excellent finished product.

Description of Lesson Implementation

This lesson plan has been well laid out-providing step by step implementation that ends with the class development of its own newspaper. Beginning with students examining a typical newspaper layout and format and discussing what makes this layout different from the layout of other texts helps a student begin to understand why a newspaper is read differently from other forms of literature. Introduction of the five W’s –who, what, where, when, why of reporting- help children understand how to report a story. Overheads provide extra support for students to effectively write their articles.As the children became savvier concerning the format of the articles, they begin to write their own. Dividing them into groups based on their interest is a good way to keep them interested in the project. Using computers for their writing helps improve their punctuation/editing skills and gives them experience working with Word or equivalent processing program. Internet access provides them with a link to other newspapers around the world to see different patterns of layouts.As the children progress, they should see a pattern for layout with top priority news articles at the top of pages. A lot of discussion can go into how to decide which story gets what priority.As students finish their stories, they will use the publishing program to layout and format them. Some schools may have digital equipment to scan pictures which the students will really enjoy. The finished product is printed and submitted to the class.

Assessment

The lesson plan is very comprehensive. It incorporates lessons for children to be fluent readers as well as writers. It has student assessments already printed for teacher feedback concerning the success of the project. It also has available for download a lot of supporting materials for students:

oInverted Pyramid Format for teaching children how to write an article for a paper

o Newspaper Story Format for students to follow

o Newspaper Feedback for students

o Reporting Guide for students

o Newspaper Writing Assessment for students

This plan uses a “process approach” to writing which I like: prewriting, composing, revising, editing, and publishing. Adding the newspaper approach via the computer gives the students a creative goal and reason to have a really good finished product to display.

Other Places to Use this Plan

The use of this lesson plan is almost endless. This can be used by students in older grades using a more complex publishing program. It could be incorporated across the curriculum using it for a Science Publication on a certain topic; for History studying a certain time period and what was news at that time. Studying about other countries would lend itself well to a study of news in those areas. In Literature, writing samples could be formatted into a newspaper showcasing students’ creative writing abilities. It is a great lesson plan.

What I Learned and What I Would Improve on Next Time

I learned that a really effective lesson plan should be able to be applied across the curriculum and also encompass a lot of extra support materials for the students to use to support their projects and their understanding. Students love using technology and this is a great way to incorporate technology into an area that a lot of students find boring—writing. I’m sure the first time I tried this project would take longer than the suggested two weeks but as I ironed out the kinks, I think it would run very smoothly.

References/Resources Used

Inverted Pyramid Format overhead

Newspaper Story Format sheet

Story Feedback Form

Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet

Reporting Tips overhead

Reporter's Guide

• Read-aloud resources Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons (HarperCollins, 1987)The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy (Holiday House, 1993)Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks (Puffin, 2002)

• Technology resourcesComputer lab with Internet accessMultimedia software Access to a library of images/graphicsScanner (optional)Digital camera (optional)Printing Press

• Web resourcesClass 4D's Newspaper Burn's Bunch News The Fourth Grade Times Mrs. Davies' Class Newspaper Internet Public Library (Access to newspapers worldwide)Ask ERIC lesson plan
posted by Jane at 2:25 PM 0 comments

Lesson Plan 2--Revised

Project Name

Imagine That! Playing with Genre through Newspapers and Short Stories

Summary
This lesson plan can be accessed through:

www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=311

It uses narrative structures to introduce students in Grades 6-8 to one form of expository writing--news briefs and articles. By condensing a short story into a newspaper article and expanding an article into a short story, students will explore the ways that exposition differs from narrative. Students will sketch a short story from a news article and write a news article from a short story.

Description of Learning Goals and Standards

This lesson plan meets the following standards requirements for 6th-8th grade:

• (1)Student read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• (2) Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical and aesthetic) of human experienc.e
• (3) Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interaction with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and or other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features
• (4) Students adjust their use of spoken, written,and visual language to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• (5) Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences fora variety of purposes.
• (6) Students apply knowledge of language structure, language convention, media techniques, figuartive language,and genre to create, critique and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• (11) Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
  

Rationale for Technology

Both the use of graphic organizers (available online ) and the online Venn Diagram provide a creative way for students to diffentiate between expository and narrative writing. The Read Write Printing Press can be used to format their news articles and gives a more professional look to their product. This technoogy helps the student understand the difference in the writing. Access to the internet allows students to read newspaper articles with a more international tilt to them which will provide more variety for their narratives.

Description of Lesson Implementation

After first reviewing newspaper writing with the students as well as the elements of narrative writing, students are divided into small groups. Choosing news articles, they work with their Venn Diagrams to compare the short stories (handed out earlier) with news articles. Students are asked to share their opinion of the difference between journalistic and fiction writing. The 5 W's of journalistic writing are reviewed as well a comparison between tone, style and the use of facts. After reading a short story, have the groups work to compose a news article based on this story. Share the stories. For homework, the class takes copies of a news article and writes a short story based onit. Subsequent lectures can ask which type of story the students find easier to write After the stories are complete, the groups can format them using the publishing software.

Assessment

While this is a good lesson, I think it may require a lot of modeling by the teacher to be successful. This plan probably works well with students who enjoy writing but may be very frustrating for less motivated students. The rubric that accompanies the plan may need to be modified for less capable students. I do think that since students will spend most of their adult lives using expository writing and there is a direct link between reading and writing, it is important that they have a clear understanding of the two.




Other Places to Use This Project

This lesson plan easily formats to History lessons--Comparing newsrticles written about a certain historical event---i.e. D-Day--and a narrative about it---The Longest Day---could be explored to show the difference in the writing. Political events, natural disasters,humanitarian efforts are all examples of teaching across the curriculum which lend themselves easily to this lesson plan. Students will see a lot of expository writing throughout their lives and they need to be very comfortable with it and understand the difference between narrative and expository.



What I Learned and What I Would Improve on Next Time

I think I would monitor the group selection closely and make sure they are evenly balanced. Close supervision of news articles that can easily be converted to short stories will be necessary to avoid frustration.

References Resources Used

Article Questionnaire Handout
Story Mapping for Short Story Handout
Short Story Rubric
Venn Diagram Interactive
Story Map Interactive (optional alternative)
ReadWriteThink Printing Press (optional, to publish students’ newspaper articles)
Newspaper articles. Ideally, choose articles from your local newspaper focusing on city-level articles. You can use the Associated Press Web site if you prefer using online articles.
Copies of 3-5 short stories. If you choose to use textbook stories, make sure there are enough textbooks for each student. Choose something short enough to read in 20 minutes or less. Suggested short stories include the following:
“All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury(Set on Venus where the sun comes out for two hours, once every seven years. Conflict between the student who recently came from earth and the others who have never experienced the sun).
“War Games” by Nancy Werlin(Neighborhood kids in New York create an elaborate water gun war game over the summer. Themes of peer pressure and friendship. This is also an excellent story to use as a basis for persuasive writing by having students express their opinions about Jo and whether she is “the best friend” Elijah ever had.)
“The Scribe” by Kristin Hunter(Boy attempts to help his neighbors who are being swindled because of their illiteracy.)
“Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes(A young boy tries to snatch a lady’s purse, but he ends up falling on his face. The lady takes him home and teaches him through kindness.)
“The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner(A group of people eating dinner and reacting to a poisonous snake under the table.)
Anthologies might provide additional options. The two I like best are Baseball in April and Other Stories by Gary Soto (Harcourt, 2000), a collection of stories about growing up; and Twelve Shots edited by Harry Mazer (Delacorte, 1997), a collection of stories about guns by contemporary young adult authors including Chris Lynch and Walter Dean Myers. The short story “War Games” comes from this anthology.

Chapter 6 Scenario 1

S1.1 I don't believe Mia needs to add any steps. I think she is correct in assuming that she needs to make her students more accountable for deadlines. Her problem was more of a timing issue. As she becomes more efficient with the project, there will be more time for comparison of cultures.

S1.2 Perhaps having a list of suggested internet sites would help in collecting data. Going through a lot of search engines is time consuming. More time could be spent on the final product and e-mailing their partners.

S1.3 Interviewing all groups and particularly the lower achieving groups to determine what was slowing them down.

S1.4 No, I do not. Having students follow a task from beginning to end and be held responsible for the entire process is an important part of education. Having an adult take over part of the process removes responsibility from the student.


One thing that seems to be a recurring theme in these scenarios is the time spent on the multimedia portions of the project at the expense of other areas. I have noticed this problem with my own children. I think teachers may have to get stricter on timelines with regard to the multimedia portions. Adolescents get so caught up in the technology and making sure their presentations are "cool" enough but
do so at the expense of more traditional lessons that go with the theme. Even if it means a lower score, teachers have to make their students more aware of the time element amd deadlines necessary in a project.

Lesson Plan 1

KIDS KHRONICLE
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AUTHOR INFORMATION:
Author:
FundingFactory Participant - FundingFactory.com
LESSON PLAN INFORMATION:
Subject:
Language Arts
Sub-category:
Literature
Description:
Read an exciting news article and then ask the students if they know how an article gets printed in the newspaper.
Grade Level:
Fifth - Sixth
Goals:
How to write a newspaper article?
Objectives:
The students will be able to explain how to complete an interview and a roundtable discussion.
Educational Resources:
paper, pen, newspaper article, and children's magazine.
Reference Materials:
Children's News magazine
Activity Plan:
Discussion Procedure:1) What is the childrens news magazine?2) What was the motivation to start the magazine?3)Discuss the types of columns that are written in the childrens magazine.4) What is a roundtable discussion?5) Who participates in the discussion?6) Why is the editor usually older than the reporter?Mid-Summary7) What is a transcript?8)What is an interview?9)Who selects the person to be interviewed?10) What is a briefing?11) What is a debriefing?12) Whay are all of the interviews and roundtable discussions tape recorded?
Method of Learning:
Discussion, group discussion, lecture.
Assessment:
Students submit a summary anwering the following:a) If you were a reporter for the magazine, whom would you want to interview?b) What topics would you wnat to discuss in a roundtable discussion? List 3

I liked this lesson plan because it was very concrete in terms of the objectives for the children. 5th-6th graders should be able to listen to a news article read to them and incorporate this knowledge into their own articles. As they write their articles, they will become more aware of the complexities in writing an article that is newsworthy and captures the reader's attention.

The QCC's covered include:

• Recognition of relevant data
• Distinguishes between fact and fiction

Lesson Plan 2

.
#1809. Reading the newspaperReading/Writing, level: Middle Posted Fri Jun 23 07:29:51 PDT 2000 by Kris Olson (olsonk@cedar-falls.k12.ia.us). Holmes Junior High, Cedar Falls, IA, USAMaterials Required: Newspapers Activity Time: Varies with student academic level Concepts Taught: Contextual Reading Skills
Title: Reading the Newspaper
Subject Matter Emphasis and Level: Critical-reading skills in reading the newspaper for 7th-9th graders identified with learning disabilities.
Brief Description of the lesson: The students will critically read articles related to local, state, national, and world events using word maps.
Why Do This? Critical reading skills at grade level is an expected skill for regular education students. Cedar Falls School district goals assert the need for students to develop life-long learning skills. Using the newspaper as a vehicle to teach critical reading skills in timely news articles will make the content more relevant to the students.
Content: Critical reading skills including skimming, reading for main idea and details, using contextual-clues, vocabulary skills, comprehension skills, and summarizing skills will be mastered.
Objectives: -Students will become proficient in the use of the Internet and using the Inspiration program.-Students will be able to identify articles by the geographic descriptors of local, state, national, and world. -Students will be able to locate articles of interest and readability.-Students will apply skimming skills, contextual reading skills, vocabulary development, and comprehension skills in answering who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. -Students will apply higher level thinking skills making connections to their own lives, to other subject areas, and other topics that could be researched for added information on the topic. -Students will experience self-study skills in reading the Bangkok post, a mythical newspaper in learning to use context clues and clues to determine word meanings.
Students will take an active role of choosing the newspaper article from online or available newspapers at school or at home. The activity will relate to the English, social studies, and science content areas. The students will need to be able to read the level of reading that is included in the newspaper in order to master the skills in this unit. Instilling an interest in the world around them and relating news to their own lives will be important in ensuring that the work done is deemed important to the students. Basic contextual reading skills of reading for meaning, reading for main idea and details will be prerequisites for this unit. These skills may also be taught through the use of the news articles. The students may find the vocabulary in some articles to be difficult. But as they work through the basic questions, hopefully, using contextual clues will become more automatic and fluent.
Assessment
Students will use the word map template to organize their reading and list the answers they find in order to organize their thoughts. As an initial activity, all students will complete a word map on the same news article and discuss how they found their information and compare their work. The word map will serve as an assessment of the student's progress. As they progress, the connections they make will exemplify their higher thinking skills. As the students keep a notebook containing their reviews, they will assess their own progress, the ease at which they are able to find information, read for meaning, comprehend, and make connections. As the students become proficient in using the word map for reading the newspaper, they will be able to apply the word map format to other classes. Each student will be required to use a word map for use in another class, whether to help in reading a novel, for reading a content area assignment, or setting up a word map for studying for a test. Each of these will be samples of mastery of this process.
Teaching Strategies
The students will learn by doing in this unit. As the use of the newspaper becomes more fluent, their world of understanding will expand. The students will be allowed to choose their own newspaper articles, with certain requirements and stipulations. The articles will need to be at least six paragraphs in length, not be a caption to a picture or illustration, and be from the news section of the newspaper. The skill of underlining basic answers to the questions as they use articles cut out from the newspaper, highlighting or underlining in the text, or copying an article from the computer onto the clipboard, will be a skill practiced to mastery. Becoming proficient in reading articles in the newspaper is a lifelong learning skill that can carry over into the work world and everyday life. Making connections to each student's experiences, to content area reading, to units in science, math, social studies will become a positive outcome. There are some students for whom reading the newspaper is too difficult and tedious at this time. Reading the article to the student would allow the student to determine answers to who, what, when, where, why, how questions on the word map. Then from the word map the student could make connections, as well. Selecting articles for these students would also be a way to tailor their instruction to more manageable articles.Materials and Resources
Newspapers available in the school library include, The Waterloo Courier, Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune; the Waterloo Courier supports teachers in providing an in-service with units that can be applied to the regular classroom instruction. The use of the internet lab at school, computers that are networked in each classroom that are available to students, and the use of individual computers that students may have at home are all technology resources that will be put to use. Using the Inspiration program will also be a useful organizational tool for each student. The following Internet sites will be accessible for each student to read off the Internet and save specific articles to the clipboard, from which the Inspiration program can be used to develop a word map.
http://www.bkkpost.samart.co.th/news/Bparchive/education/tchvoc.htm http://www.wcfcourier.com http://www.desmoinesregister.com http://www.chicago.tribune.com http://www.newyorktimes.com
Management
Small group discussion will be an integral part of cooperatively helping each other master the art of skimming, finding meaning using context, and summarizing. When the unit is introduced and all students are using the same article, after completing their word map, small groups will gather to discuss how they read for meaning, how they determined their answers to the questions. Helping each other with strategies will be an ongoing part of this unit. The pairing of students will be assigned by the teacher with mixing students heterogeneously according to general skill levels. Using the computer lab will be done as a class project at least monthly. The students will be using computers in study hall, at home, before or after school, as available and as is needed. Those students needing more help to master these skills will receive help in study hall, from other peer helpers, and from the special class teachers.
Support Services
Learning to use the Inspiration computer program will be necessary for the instructor, as well as time for the students to become proficient in using it. Using the Internet to read articles and find articles will also be a skill to master. Copying and printing articles, locating and siting articles, and the use of the Internet in all of its capacity will be an integral part of this project. Ongoing evaluation, updating, revamping of methods will be applied throughout this project. Using specific topics, geographic areas, sharing weekly in newspaper talks given individually and in small groups to the class will involve time weekly. The intent is that the students will learn from each other as well as learn skills individually that they can apply across the curriculum and throughout their lives.
In using the Inspiration program, a word map template is developed that can be used on the computer or hard copy form, which ever works better depending on the learning style of the student. The title of the article and newspaper is the top bubble in the word map. Then a skimming strand is set up with the questions, where, when, who and boxes or bubbles in which to note this information. After skimming is done, the geographical topic of local, state, national, world is determined. The next strand is content, with what, how, why questions and boxes provided for information gleaned from the newspaper article. Then the next strand is connections where the student is asked to note how the information relates to him, other subjects of interest, and areas that could be researched further.
Area Education Agency 7 o Educational Services 1Patty AcheyCutts, June 2000Adapted from Nancy Lockett's Unit/Lesson Planning Guide [http://edservices.aea7.k12.ia.us/framework/]
© Copyright 2005 FundingFactory. All Rights Reserved.

This lesson plan is fantastic. It incorporates technology, social studies, reading skills, geography,science. It can be adjusted for all reading lessons and promotes cooperation in groups.

Some of the many QCC's covered include:

• Developing vocabulary
• Reads variety of material for information
• Adjusts reading speed and readjusts for comprehension
• Examines explicit and implicit main ideas,details, and sequence of events
• Promotes proficiency in technology

While I am unfamiliar with Inspiration, it must be widely used in the school systems and would be helpful for the teachers to become proficient with it. This is a lesson plan that could be used not just for a short time period but throughout the year as different units are introduced. The newspaper should become a very familiar and comfortable source of information for students and incorporating it into their school year would reinforce what they (the students) should do with the paper throughout their adult lives--read it daily and carefully;think about the articles and make decisions concerning the facts found within its pages.

Chapter 10

"Next month, we're taking a virtual field trip to major art exhibits around the world. ...we can't get to Chicago, of course, and the exhibit will be there only a short time anyway, but the web site will be up for the rest ofthe year of longer."

This quote was taken from Scenario 1 in Chapter 10 of Educational Technology in Action. This scenario exhibits a creative way to include all children in field trips that may otherwise be financially or logistically unrealistic. Trips to the Vatican, while not a replacement for visiting the actual museum , can be taken successfully via the internet.

I think this is a great way to close the culture gap existing in our country today. While travel is still expensive and time consuming and outside the budget of most schools, exposing children via websites to the many cultural sites existing in the world broadens their horizon.

Internet Activity

Today, we are studying about search engines to tie into our ILE>A good academic subject directory ishttp://bubl.ac.uk/link/,.http://www.vlib.org/,http://lii.org/,http://infomine.ucr.edu/
The Big 6 ideas can be found athttp://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=16http://vista.gsu.edu:8000/webct/startFrameSet.dowebct?noToolFrameUpdate=true&forward=studentCourseView.dowebct&lcid=92737882d=16.
This is good for Webquests:http://edweb.sdsu.edu/links/index.html
All of this lesson is here:http://vista.gsu.edu:8000/webct/startFrameSet.dowebct?noToolFrameUpdate=true&forward=studentCourseView.dowebct&lcid=92737882

Internet Activity