Maureen Cuesta: cuestama@dist102.k12.il.us Description of Lesson Plan Objectives Our fifth grade consists of eighty-five heterogeneous students. The fifth grade social studies curriculum focuses on the world's first cultures from the eastern hemisphere: ancient Egypt, ancient India, ancient China, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the Middle Ages of Europe. While studying ancient Greece, we ran across the interesting problem of what to do with some ancient sculptures (the Elgin Marbles) that were once on the Parthenon and are now housed in the British Museum. We learned about this conflict over the ownership of these treasures, decided to come up with solutions to this conflict and create web pages for our solutions' presentations. Having coached children in teams for Future Problem Solving Bowls before and our district recently providing training in the Problem Based Learning approach, a letter (see attached sample #1) was created to introduce, excite, and invoke reality into the learning environment. Second, we introduced and integrated technology by researching our problem via search engines on the internet, recent CD ROM encyclopedias, e-mail interviews of British and Greek people, periodical database CD, books, etc. in cooperative groups. Third, the groups discussed and decided on a solution as to where the Elgin Marbles should be housed. A graphic organizer was given to each student to help visualize their finished web page (see attached sample #2). The students needed at least three supporting reasons for their decision. Integration of language arts and writing skills proved valuable here! Claris works 2.0 and/or 3.0 word processing program was used for this writing step. (Microsoft or any other available word processing program could also have been used). Actual word processing could have been done on the web page program but, as we discovered, editing by checking spelling, for example, could not be performed using the 1.0 Adobe Page Mill program. The students then copied their edited work from ClarisWorks onto a web page from Adobe Page Mill. Fourth, students were taught how to insert scanned images, pictures, and panoramas of the Elgin Marbles taken at the World Heritage Museum on their web pages. Some of the images were pictures from the CD ROMs that they copied and pasted. Others wanted to draw their own background and insert their drawings. For example, one group scanned their picture of dueling flags from England and Greece. Still others took pictures of moldings of the Elgin Marbles from museums with a QuickTake camera and inserted them using Apple Photoflash. Finally, the Board of Directors and parents were invited and children presented their solutions to them (see attached sample #3). Our Board of Directors was to include a School Board member, our district technology coordinator, our superintendent, our principal, a P.T.C. member, and a curator at a museum. Integration of speaking and listening skills were vital here. Integration, also, of technology included the use of a T.V monitor with an L-TV Pro Focus Box to enhance the screen display. After the Board of Directors and parents listened to the presentations, they were asked to fill out a ballot on what solution convinced them the most (see attached#4).
Description of Outcomes An evaluation of the web pages was created with ClarisWorks and presented to the students before their presentation so they knew on what they were being evaluated (see attached sample #5). The students practiced their word processing and information gathering skills, learned how to create a web pages, exercised proper speaking and presentation skills, discovered how to take a picture with a QuickTake camera and insert the picture, gathered information through many electronic resources, and worked cooperatively to come to a consensus with supporting reasons. We would like to see, however, a web page maker that has editing skill capability like checking spelling. We also needed to solve another problem in that, for safety and security reasons, we did not want the students' names on the web pages. Each group of four students came up with a name (example: Mighty Aphrodite) related to Greece to put on their web page. We also named each of their discs that they saved their work on with this name to aid in easy retrieval and organization. All disks were kept in the class and all work was completed in school to avoid lost or damaged disks and to create equity among those children with no computers at home (see attached sample #6). As one student stated, "It feels like ancient history has come alive and that we have a say in making history!" |