3-Instructional+Strategies

**Goals and Objectives:** To answer the guiding question -- What makes our community a great place to live? -- our students will engage in a comparative study of their favorite community, city, and state attractions. Lesson content will also pull from prior knowledge (obtained from student traveling experiences and classroom field trips) and from collaborative group study. As a culminating, authentic assessment activity, each individual class will create a printable travel brochure and collaborate on creating a VoiceThread to present their information. The National Social Studies Standards for Geography K-12 targeted by this project are: Standards 1-6 (The World in Spatial Terms, Places and Regions, Physical Systems, and Human Systems).

**Note:** Each individual lesson plan also contains grade level specific goals and objectives.

**Essential Question:** //What makes our community a great place to live? // Essential questions have certain qualities that make them open-ended. The qualities of essential questions include: 1. Answers are constructed not found. 2. Cast old knowledge, text and ideas in a new light. 3. They generate more questions. 4. They lead to discovery and uncovering. 5. They are engagingly framed. 6. They take us to analogy, synthesis and evaluation. 7. Students must go beyond the information given to develop there answer. The question proposed for this project has all of the qualities of an essential question. Students will construct an answer to the project by creating a brochure and a VoiceThread, and by communicating with other schools. It will allow students to use their prior knowledge of their community to accentuate the positive aspects. There will be questions generated, discovery and uncovering, either for technology use or curiosity about other communities. The question is engaging because the topic is real-world and is relevant to the students' lives. The question contains "Trigger Words" that will facilitate analogy, synthesis and evaluation according to Bloom's Taxonomy. Words like 'a great place to live' prompt students to compare and contrast their community attributes, stimulate analysis, and, encourage understanding of how their part relates to the whole project. Words like 'makes' and 'great' prompt students to synthesis information, to reform individual parts to make a whole, and to judge the value of a particular artifact for the project (Differentiated Instruction). Differentiated Instruction - Differentiation - Homepage; retrieved from, [] **Three Classrooms' Collaboration Activity:** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The three classes short-term project will be to answer the essential question: Why is my community a great place to live? The class will pull from previous experiences, field trips, research, advertisements on visitors/residents communities (i.e., <span style="background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] ), photos, videos and other artifacts. Lesson plans allow the learners to accentuate the positives of the community in which they live and access tools that are essential for success in the 21st Century educational environmental and employment workplace. Students will learn to research the topic, perform internet searches for pictures and maps using Google Images and Google Maps ®, create and post to a Wiki, create online identities either personally or as a class [depends on parental release], create and contribute to VoiceThread, contribute and share information digitally with children in another school not in their state, create a hard copy and online brochure for their town, city or region of the state, and participate in many other incidental, technology-enhanced teaching opportunities that arise during the course of the project. More specifically, the classes will take separate field trips in their respective states to collect artifacts to showcase their community as “a great place to live.” Brochures will then be created to exhibit the artifacts collected from class field trips and knowledge gained during classroom learning activities. After that, as an authentic assessment activity, each class will produce a VoiceThread based on the information they collect and embed it on their classroom wiki. The three collaborating classes will access each other's classroom wikis and post comments to each VoiceThread. After implementation and completion of this multi-classroom project, the students will not only help each other gain skills which are helpful to their learning processes but, they will also learn to teach others – their peers who are not in the same age range. Part of the incidental teaching involved is that students can learn from their peers in the same age range and older, as well as from students who are much younger than themselves. Those peers can provide a viewpoint which is less experienced, yet is a different lens or perspective which may provide insight the student or group did not expect.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Each Classroom’s Collaboration:** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//**Leasa's Classroom Collaboration**// <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Kindergartners in Leasa's classroom will work together in groups of four to create "travel brochures" that would attract their collaborative project partners in Tennessee and Connecticut to their neighborhood or community. The children will create the brochures by drawing their own illustrations and/or cutting and pasting images from Florida travel magazines and other vacation materials. A second collaborative activity in which the Kindergartners will engage involves the creation of a class VoiceThread. The children will produce a VoiceThread to demonstrate the work they've done on their brochures. They will also add narration to the VoiceThread to tell about the favorite Florida attractions found in the brochures. Finally, the Kindergartners will help post their completed VoiceThread to our classroom project wiki. That is where our collaborative partners in Tennessee and Connecticut can view it, listen to the thoughts expressed through the narration, and leave audio comments or discussion points. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**//Henry's Classroom Collaboration//** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Henry's students will work in groups of three to four to collect artifacts for the brochure. Groups will work within individual sub-topics to approach the essential question from an area of their interest. Students may like the artistic aspects of their community or education, history, economics and any sub-topic to explore and retrieve artifacts. The groups will collect and determine the best artifact to post in a brochure and VoiceThread. Students will collaborate to write an appropriate narrative for the intended VoiceThread audience. Students will create a VoiceThread and post their artifact into the VoiceThread. A wiki will be created to embed the VoiceThread and access the VoiceThread of our collaborative partners. Students will comment on the other class wikis. The artifacts will also be posted within a brochure template for printing. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Alison's students will collaborate as a whole group and in groups of three. As a whole group, the students will brainstorm and discuss the interesting places that are found in Old Hickory, Nashville, and Tennessee. As groups of three, students will determine if they are going to create a travel brochure about Old Hickory, Nashville, or Tennessee. Once a decision has been made, the students will research the chosen website for interesting places and decide what three places to include in their travel brochure. Each member will have a specific job to help facilitate progress and collaboration. One member is the scribe, the second is the project manager/time keeper, and the third is the designer. Once the travel brochure is complete, the group will choose the format and narrative for the VoiceThread presentation. The same jobs will be maintained and the group will work together to complete and post the final VoiceThread presentation on the class wiki. After group work is completed, the group member can explore and post comments or questions about the presentations of the other schools' wikis.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Alison's Classroom Collaboration //**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Materials and Equipment:** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Computers with Internet access <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Graphic organizers and handouts <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">VoiceThread <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Classroom wiki <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Google Maps <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Microphone <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Brochure template <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Pencil and Pen <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Writing and printer paper <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">CD/DVD to keep paper as back-up in case of computer issues or shared system <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Hard cover or internet dictionary <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Printer to print final project <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Digital camera, web-cam, cell phone with camera, video camera, web-sites and any digital device to interface with VoiceThread <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Rubrics <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Access to a Wiki site <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">GIS/GPS software if available <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Step-by-Step Instructional Strategies:** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. I﻿ntroduction to lesson <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">a. Why is your community a great place to live? Braindstorming-15 minutes b. VoiceThread - [] c. Assign groups of three to four students 2. Handouts a. web release for field trip - underaged students b. rubrics c. lesson plan 3. Create a class wiki 4. Select tools for project 5. Field trip to began collecting artifacts 6. Organize artifacts a. Brainstorming- How does this relate to the essential question? 7. Write narrative for VoiceThread a.Use appropriate language to describe artifact b.Image of artifact is appropriate. c. Grammer is correct 8. Post artifact to VoiceThread and brochure template a. Access Capstone project wiki site. b. Post to VoiceThread of the three classes on the wiki <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Kindergarten 5-Day VoiceThread Lesson Plans  <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Third Grade 5-Day VoiceThread Lesson Plans  <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Ninth- Twelfth Grades 5-Day VoiceThread Lesson Plans <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Formative Assessment Strategies:** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//**Leasa's Formative Assessments (Kindergarten)**// <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Observe the students as they participate in discussions and interactive activities. Use focused questioning and probing to check for a general understanding of lesson concepts. Document systematic observation of the children's progress with anecdotal records, observation checklists, audio and video recordings, and photographs. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**//Alison's Formative Assessments (Third Grade)//** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Students will label a blank state map of Tennessee with the major cities and draw pictures of two interesting places. After Days 2, 3, and 4, each group member will write a paragraph describing the group's progress toward completion of their project. Continuous teacher observation and questioning of student collaboration and group work will also be used. Written documentation by the teacher will be anecdotal records. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//**Henry's Formative Assessments (9-12 Grade)**// <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Observation of students co-operating and how they are contributing to the project. Are they focused on task and following directions to completing task? Artifacts are collected and appropriate narrative composed with contribution from every group member. Ask questions as the project is being developed to keep them engaged. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Summative Assessment Strategies:** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Brochures that are created and printed will be assessed using the ReadWriteThink Travel Brochure rubric. VoiceThreads completed with a post from each group within the class will be assessed with the VoiceThread (student) and VoiceThread (multimedia project) rubrics. Also, determine how well the class has posted to our collaborative partners' VoiceThreads. Finally, allow discussion of and reflection on the whole collaborative project to determine what has resonated with the students.