Social Studies

Making a History Podcast

Content Area Standards

Summarize how leadership and citizen actions (e.g. the founding fathers, the Regulators, the Greensboro Four, and participants of the Wilmington Race Riots, 1898) influenced the outcome of key conflicts in North Carolina and the United States

(see  here for full Common Core Standard Course of Study; note in particular 8th grade standards)

ISTE Standards:

(See here for full teacher-oriented standards)

• 1c. Promote student reflection through collaborative tools.
• 2a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools.
• 4c. Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interaction.

Objectives:

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

• Identify primary sources relevant to a research project.
• Construct a secondary historical narrative from primary sources.
• Relate new information from primary research to established secondary narratives.
• Present a historical narrative through a student-made podcast. 

Technologies Employed

The Library of Congress Collections

(© 2015 LoC)

Description: The Library of Congress database (https://www.loc.gov/collections/) is an online collection of documents useful for historical research.

Rationale: This website provides students with access to a variety of materials through which they can engage in primary research. This will allow for students to learn simultaneously modern research techniques as well as how to engage with primary sources. 

Timeline

(© ILA/NCTE 2016. All rights reserved.)

Description: Timeline is a program designed to allow students to easily construct digital timelines with embedded text, images, and other media. 

Rationale: My lesson will use a timeline as a formative assessment as students construct a historical narrative from the secondary literature. Digital media will allow students to perform this task in a cheaper and more share-able way.

Audacity

Description: Audacity is a free downloadable audio editing program. 

Rationale: As podcasts and video increasingly become important forms of media, it becomes important for students to understand how audio is produced. Because of this, my lesson requires students to produce a podcast. Audacity is a free and accessible editing program students might use for this purpose. If students or the school use Macs, Garage Band is a workable alternative.

Materials and skills the teacher/classroom will need to complete this lesson:

• Laptops equipped with Audacity or some comparable audio editing software.
• Some method of capturing audio, such as a microphone, smart pad/smart phone, or a built-in microphone on most computers/laptops. Alternative, students may capture video and then rip the audio from the mp4 using free online websites.
• Access to a reliable and secure network.

Description of Lesson

1. Secondary Narrative

In the first portion of this major project, students will develop expertise around one major topic in the Civil Rights Movement. The topic will either be chosen from a teacher-provided list, although students may choose their own original topic if they can acquire teacher permission. 

Once students have chosen their topic, they will then conduct research through secondary sources in order to construct a timeline of events. They will learn how to use digital technology described above to create this timeline. As part of this project, they should develop a list of key events or facts about the event.

2. Primary Narrative

In the second portion of this project, students will find and read primary documents related to their secondary narrative. From this point of view, students will try to find a "personal story" that discusses the events of one person's life as they connect to the topic selected in the secondary phase of this project. Students will then produce a podcast in which they tell that story in a compelling way. Students will include annotations for their podcast in which they explain how their story relates to their topic, as well as a bibliography citing all their sources.

P.E.

Learning About Communicable Disease Online

Content Area Standards

6.PCH.1.2 Differentiate between communicable diseases.

6.PCH.1.3 Recall symptoms associated with common communicable and chronic diseases.

6.PCH.1.4 Select methods of prevention based on the modes of transmission of communicable diseases

(see  here for full Standard Course of Study)

ISTE Standards:

(See here for full teacher-oriented standards)

• 1c. Promote student reflection through collaborative tools.
• 2a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools.

Objectives:

Same as standards.

Technologies Employed

Center for Disease Control Website: Disease Database

(© Centers for Disease Control 2015: https://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp)

Description: The Center for Disease Control maintains an online tool for exploring communicable diseases. This site styles the CDC a group of investigative super heroes combating disease villains. In general, this site tends to be too corny and verbose to use seriously with students. However, its database of common diseases provides a concise explanation for diseases, their histories, and their vectors. 

Rationale: This website provides students with access to the content needed in this lesson that is not readily available offline. Using this technology in the classroom will familiarize students with important sources of information on public health. 

Wikispaces

(© Wikispaces 2016. https://www.wikispaces.com/content/classroom)

Description: A wiki is an online publishing platform that presents users with a simple to use but powerful interface. Users can process and format text, embed images, embed sound, embed video, and present a wide variety of other media, with a minimum of coding experience. Multiple users can access and edit wikipages, but the wiki maintains an archive of all versions of the document, as well as a record of all changes. These tools make wikis ideal for group project work.

Rationale: My main technological objectives for this lesson focus around encouraging students to develop web etiquette and to learn how to collaborate in a digital space. Because wikis are designed for collaborative work, they will allow me to teach these objectives through digital activities. 

Venngage

Description: Venngage is a free online website that provides users with tools for creating infographics. 

Rationale: One important skill for students to learn is how to engage with an audience once they have learned useful material. The use of infographics is one way to leverage such a skill.

Materials and skills the teacher/classroom will need to complete this lesson:

• Devices with access to an internet browser and a word processing program (probably a laptop).
• Access to a reliable and secure network.
• Handouts describing the relevant diseases.
• Structured notes handout.

Description of Lesson

In this lesson, students will learn about common diseases and how they are communicated. They will then work together as a class to develop a wiki that will reflect the information they learn. Finally, each student will then create an infographic designed to spread awareness about health habits and how they relate to the epidemiological triangle (i.e. how contagions travel by vector to hosts, agents, and environments).

1. Identifying Diseases

For this project, the teacher will divide students into groups of 2-3 students and present each group with a handout detailing the symptoms of the diseases listed at the CDC website. Each group will be given 1-2 minutes to select a disease they would like to research.

At this point, the teacher will instruct students that they may take out their smartphones and use them to travel to the CDC website. At the same time, the teacher will hand out structured notes that provide a space for students to note the name, causes, symptoms, and vectors for each disease. Students will be given around 5-8 minutes to complete this work.

Once the groups have finished with this preliminary research, the teacher will introduce students to the class wiki. The teacher will explain that each group is going to create a wiki page that will present the information they just learned. The teacher will demonstrate how to create a hyper-linked wikipage on the wiki and verify that each group can do this. The teacher will then demonstrate how to embed an image and ask each group to embed the main image for their disease from the CDC. Again, the teacher will verify that each group can do this. This should take an additional 5-8 minutes.

The teacher will then instruct each group to write a short informative couple of paragraphs that will explain each section of the notes, and to post these on the wiki. As an additional requirement, each group should identify at least one difficult concept in each section and hyper-link words naming that concept to an explanatory external resource either at the CDC or at another site of their choosing. This should take around 20 minutes.

The teacher will use the last 10 minutes or so of the class presenting a short minilecture on how to use Venngage. Students will then create an infographic as a project to be completed over the next 2-3 days.

World Languages Through Digital Collaboration

Content Area Standards

(see here for full Common Core Standard Course of Study; note in particular 8th grade standards)

• IL.CLL.1.1 Carry out unrehearsed conversations on familiar topics with some details. 
• IL.CLL.1.2 Use questions to exchange information in familiar situations
• IL.CLL.2.1 Summarize main ideas and a few details in short conversations and some forms of media. 
• IL.CLL.2.2 Summarize main ideas and a few details in texts that contain familiar vocabulary.

ISTE Standards

(See here for full teacher-oriented standards)

• 3b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools.
• 4d. Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools. 

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Read, interpret, and then explain the basic information presented in a commercial Facebook page presented in the target language. 
• Identify challenging vocabulary in a commercial text presented in the target language.
• Develop strategies for reviewing difficult vocabulary using digital tools. 
• Using the target language, summarize information from a commercial Facebook page.

Technologies Employed

Facebook

Description: Facebook is an international social networking site. In this lesson, students will use Facebook to identify a company, band, or other commercial identity from the target culture. They will then find that group's page, in the target language, and interpret the information on that page.

Rationale: From a pedagogical standpoint, this website has two advantages. First, it has relevance in the sense that many students already engage with Facebook for personal purposes and understand its uses and importance; communicating in a foreign language over this platform has the potential to seem "authentic." Second, Facebook is a legitimate commercial platform many companies use to legitimately sell their products. Because of this, entities using Facebook are liable to use language in a way that is authentically commercial and not necessarily manufactured for pedagogical purposes.

Quizlet

Description: Quizlet is a digital flashcards program students can use to create, share, and download review materials. In this lesson, students will identify difficult vocabulary on their Facebook page of choice. They will put the word on the front of the flashcard, and they will put the word in the context of a sentence on the back. In this way, they will review vocabulary by learning to associate the word with its real-world use.

Rationale: Quizlet provides students with an efficient digital alternative to traditional note cards that also provide an option for easy sharing and collaboration.

Skype

Description: Skype is an applications that supports instant messaging, voice chat, and video chat. Students will use this service to collaborate with other students in the target culture who will have completed an assignment similar to this one.

Rationale: Telecommunications technology allows for students to engage with native speakers in a somewhat authentic setting. This allows students to practice their conversational fluency, which is essential to mastering the language.

Materials and Skills Needed

• A computer with a working internet connection for each student. This may require the use of a computer lab.
• Collaborators from the target culture who also have a working computer with Skype and high-speed internet.
• Projector Technology

Description of the Lesson

Day 1

• Begin by priming students with questions about how they use social media (Finish @ 3 minutes).
• Use the projector technology to explore an example Facebook page from the target culture. During this time, demonstrate that students do not need to have an account or be logged in to explore Facebook. Model basic navigational skills online. (@6 minutes).
• Explain that students will now identify similar pages on their own and that they will attempt to translate those pages. While they proceed through this stage, they should take note of any sentences that include difficult vocabulary (@9 minutes).
• Provide students with around 5-10 minutes to identify an appropriate Facebook page. Observe students and provide support where needed (@20 minutes).
• Repeat instructions for interpreting the pages students find. Then, give students around 15 minutes to finish translating their page, providing support where needed (@35 minutes)
• Once students have finished translating, briefly demonstrate how to access and use Quizlet. Instruct students to create a set of flashcards reviewing the difficult vocabulary they had previously identified. Encourage them to put the word in a sentence on the back rather than an English translation. Allow students to use the remaining time to review this vocabulary (@50 minutes)

Day 2

• Explain to students that their world language collaborators have completed a project similar to them but using an English Facebook page as their material. Explain that at the end of the period, students will be paired with partners and will discuss the page they observed, using the target language (@2 minutes).
• Provide students with time to write out notes for their conversation using the Quizlet notes from before. Have students also prepare questions for their partners about the collaborator's Facebook page (@ 20 minutes).
• Facilitate collaborative Skype calls in which students present their summaries and listen to their collaborator's summary in English. Once these presentations are past, encourage students to continue having conversations about what they have learned (@50 minutes).

Exploring Literature Through a Book Trailer

Content Area Standards

(see  here for full Common Core Standard Course of Study; note in particular 8th grade standards)

• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts
• Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors
• Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

ISTE Standards:

(See here for full teacher-oriented standards)

• 1c. Promote student reflection through collaborative tools.
• 2a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools.
• 4c. Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interaction.

Objectives:

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

• Explain what the terms "tone" and "mood" mean in relation to film and literature.
• Analyze a text for techniques such as word choice, foreshadowing, and description in terms of how they evoke tone and mood.
• Analyze a film sequence for techniques such as lighting, camera angle, color, and movement in terms of how they evoke tone and mood.
• Evaluate a film sequence or text for its consistency in terms of tone.
• Analyze a film sequence or text in terms of the likely intended effect on an audience the student can reflectively describe.
• Create a film sequence that is consistent in terms of tone and targeted at an audience the student can reflectively describe.

Technologies Employed

Google Docs

(© 2015 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google Logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.)

Description: Google Docs is a cloud-based word processor with tools that allow multiple authors to view and edit a single document. 

Rationale: Google Docs creates a collaborative space where students can compose and share writing. In this unit, I will use this technology to give students a group-work "work space" where they can plan their book trailer together. This will allow students to collaborate over a digital medium, promoting opportunities to learn ISTE standard 1c.

Blogger

(© 2015 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Blogger and the Blogger Logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.)

Description: Blogger is an online publication platform that allows authors to publish a digital text and that allows readers to comment on the content.

Rationale: Blogger gives students the opportunity to publish their writing in a semi-formal manner while simultaneously providing other students the opportunity to read and comment on that work. In my unit, I will use Blogger to give students the chance to publish both their written analysis and two drafts of their video work. I will also allow students to use comments in order to contribute to each other's work.

Windows Movie Maker and YouTube

Description: Movie Maker is a free video-editing program from Microsoft. Although it is not currently available for Windows 10, I expect that a version will be released within the next year. If not, a comparable editor will have to be used. YouTube is an online video-hosting service and database students can use to upload, host, and share/embed video.

Rationale: Movie Maker provides students with elementary experience in editing software that will transfer to any future video editing they may have to do for personal or professional reasons. In this way, experience with this program will expand students' knowledge of film making as a process and their ability to use film-making tools. In addition, working with film as a medium to describe a text-based medium such as a novel will force students to reflect on how film and text are similar and different, as well as how authors use different techniques to achieve similar effects. Finally, publishing a book trailer will allow students to publish something they can then share in the wider world, since book trailers are a popular practice for people interested in books outside the classroom.

Materials and skills the teacher/classroom will need to complete this lesson:

• Laptops equipped with Windows Moviemaker or some comparable video editing software.
• Some method of capturing film, such as a camcorder, smart pad/smart phone, or a webcam.
• Some means of projecting text while the teacher annotates.
• Basic expertise with film editing software and video production.
• Access to a reliable and secure network.

Description of Lesson

• Begin with a mini-lesson about tone and mood. This should begin with a class-reading of a mood-rich text, such as Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," followed by discussion and annotation for specific words, techniques, and so on that realize the mood. 
• After this discussion, the teacher should then present a movie trailer or short film sequence that also demonstrates a rich atmosphere. Students should then be prompted to write on their own reflections of how books and movies are similar and different in regards to tone and mood.
• Students should then be divided into groups of 2-3 students, who will select a short novel to read together. 
• The teacher should at this point explain the concept of a book trailer, using examples from the internet to demonstrate the concept.
• As students read their novels, they should keep a blog on the mood the author evokes and the tone the author takes in regards to their subject. They should also provide thoughts on how elements of this story might be adapted to a book-trailer. Students in the same group should read each other's blogs and leave a requisite number of comments. The teacher should use these as formative assessment and also in order to make sure that all members of each group are fully participating.
• At some point between when students begin reading their novels and when they are preparing to start work on their book trailers, the teacher should offer a mini-lesson on book to film adaptations and some of the challenges they face. 
• Once students have finished their novels, the teacher should carve out a few days of instruction dedicated to teaching students to use video editing software in a way specifically directed at developing a book trailer.
• The teacher should also demonstrate to students how to use Google Docs to collaborate in their planning. S/he should also explain that s/he will be able to see who writes what into the Doc, and that students will receive credit according to their level of participation.
• Finally, each group will create and share a rough draft of their movie trailers. Students will then be required to provide meaningful feedback to other group's. This, along with teacher feedback, will prepare students to produce their final product.

Hello, World

(Attribution: Clip art image by Cliparts.com)